SOLON CAN’T STOMACH OBESITY SUITS:

A state legislator wants to add Pennsylvania to the list of states that protect the food industry from lawsuits in which people blame restaurants and other food vendors for making them fat. Rep. Douglas Reichley, R-Lehigh, said he introduced his bill to protect the state’s agriculture and food industries because he doesn’t think they should be sued for “making food that tastes good.”

In the last two years, 16 states have enacted laws prohibiting such obesity lawsuits; in New Mexico, lawmakers approved a “right-to-eat-enchiladas act.” The U.S. House has also approved such legislation. Twenty-six other state legislatures, including those in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, are considering similar measures.

The flurry of legislation across the country — dubbed by some as “cheeseburger bills” — is partly a response to a high-profile suit against McDonald’s filed by two New York City teenagers who said their burger-and-fries diet made them fat. Lower courts in New York dismissed the case twice, but a federal appeals court reinstated part of it earlier this year. A handful of similar suits have been thrown out since the New York case was filed in 2002 and there are no other known cases pending, legal experts said.

The bills provide food vendors and producers with immunity from civil suits based on weight gain or other health conditions caused by the long-term consumption of their food.