Brookline votes to ban trans fats from town restaurants

BROOKLINE, Mass. --Brookline has joined New York City and Philadelphia in banning artery-clogging trans fats from the town's restaurants and schools.

Town Meeting members voted 194 to 11 on Thursday night to make Brookline the first community in Massachusetts to ban trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which doctors say cause heart disease. Trans fats are used to enhance taste and extend shelf life.

"I think it's a great public health step," said Anita Johnson, a Town Meeting member who sponsored the proposal. "I hope that a trans fat ban will be extended to other cities and towns in Massachusetts."

Similar bans have been proposed in Boston and Cambridge, but neither city has taken action. The Legislature's Joint Committee on Public Health is scheduled to hold a hearing next month to consider a statewide ban.

Brookline's approximately 200 restaurants must stop using trans fats for frying by Nov. 30, 2008, and halt their inclusion in baked foods by April 30, 2009. The ban does not apply to prepackaged food.

Town Meeting member Karen Wenc said she opposed the measure because she didn't want to legislate what can and can't be eaten.

"I feel a little hypocritical saying, 'Let's ban trans fats, but enjoy all of the buttery croissants we want and all the ice cream we want,'" she said.

The ban may be amended for religious reasons.

"If it turns out in its application that it's going to be too onerous for kosher establishments, I'm going to move next session to pass a religious exception to the bylaw," Town Meeting member Scott Gladstone said.

Brookline is a town of about 55,000 residents next to Boston.