civil-law medical
Is there legal basis to sue a newspaper for potential health risking advice?
<p>In an online news site (or a regular newspaper), under its "Health" section, there are sometimes extremely dubious articles published. Some of them contain nutrition advice which poses a potential health risk to anyone who follows it. They might belong to the alternative medicine school at best.</p>

<p>As an example, a few months ago an article was published by a nutritionist advising readers to immediately stop consuming any and all dairy products. There were some (unreferenced, generally viewed as incorrect) reasons why this is important to do. The author also advised to consume calcium through deer horns and turtle shells because these apparently have a higher calcium absorption rate than dairy products<sup>1</sup>.</p>

<p>I'm not interested in opening a discussion on the contents of this article, but rather on what an individual can do to stop a newspaper from publishing potential health risking articles. To make the idea clearer, imagine an article which advises the readers to consume cyanide and suppose no one actually follows the advice, can a reader sue or file a complaint with a legal basis against publishing of such content? What laws should one look at?</p>

<p>In the case I gave above, I wrote to the editorial staff a complaint letter, but was completely ignored.</p>

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<p><sup>1</sup> While it might be true, by taking the numbers supplied in the article itself I calculated that since dairy products contain more calcium overall, even with lower absorption rates the amount of calcium absorbed is many times greater.</p>

<p>There probably isn't any basis for legal action, as news paper columns fall under free-speech and everybody have a right to their own opinion and articulate such under free-speech.</p>

<p>While you have the right to your own opinion you don't have any rights to your own facts -- but as a critical reader you have figured out that the news paper were communicating opinion and not fact simply because they failed to cite any scientific references.</p>

<p>If you were harmed by the advice, that could give you a reason to sue. A weak reason, in this case, but at least you could link the advice directly to damages. Reading a magazine is not the same as obtaining professional advice, however, so your chances of winning any significant damages are minimal at best. </p>

<p>If you don't agree with the opinion, then that's not a basis for a lawsuit. Especially in a situation where the advice is dubious, but not explicitly harmful. The advice is not that you should avoid calcium. It's that you should source it from somewhere other than dairy products. </p>
