ABSTRACT
In furtherance of public health goals, multiple levels of government in the United States (‘US’) have sought to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases (‘NCDs’) by influencing the conduct of enterprises involved in the tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food businesses. In this chapter, I first explain the implications of the complex nature of the US government for regulation in this field, before providing examples of recent public health measures targeted at these three risk factors for NCDs. The balance of the chapter explores a range of legal attacks brought by the relevant industries on public health measures in this field. The chapter demonstrates the diculties arising for public health regulation as a result of the litigious nature of US society and the propensity of the courts to be wary of interference with business interests.
