NEW YORK CITY: New York’s bid to ban giant, sugary sodas on public health grounds suffered a new setback yesterday when an appeals court upheld a ruling striking down the proposed legislation.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has championed the measure as part of the fight against an obesity epidemic and rampant diabetes, immediately announced that he would take the fight to a higher court. New York’s Board of Health agreed in September 2012 to restrict soda servings to a maximum of 16 ounces (470 millilitres) in restaurants and other venues in the city, including sports stadiums and music venues.
But the initiative, which attracted global attention and would have been a first for a US city, was blocked as “arbitrary and capricious” by a lower court ruling in March, just hours before it was due to come into force.
That ruling was upheld yesterday by the New York State Supreme Court’s Apellate Division. Bloomberg has made health issues a key plank of his 12-year reign at City Hall, which comes to an end in November.
He has banned smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places, and supported successful campaigns to get food producers to phase out the use of trans fats and cut salt content.
He described yesterday’s court decision as only a temporary setback but representatives of the fizzy drinks industry are confident a last and final appeal to the state’s Court of Appeals will also fail. A spokesman for the American Beverage Association (ABA) said the court had “unanimously declared the soda ban an overreach of executive power. AFP
