The Children’s Environmental Health Institute will conduct its “Sixth Biennial Scientific Symposium” on October 21-22, 2010, in Houston, Texas; the focus this year is “Prenatal & Early Life Exposures: How Environmental Toxins Affect the Course of Childhood.” The symposium will include sessions on “Improving Access to and Consumption of Healthy, Safe, and Affordable Food for Children and Families” and “Becoming Change Agents for Access to and Consumption of Healthy, Safe, Affordable and Accessible Food.” Among other matters, conference participants will “discover strategies for childhood obesity prevention efforts that have been implemented by local governments.” The symposium will also include a session on corporate best practices and responsible investing to prevent purported environmental health risks.
Tag Archives children
The Florida Board of Education is reportedly considering a ban on chocolate milk and sugary beverages in the state’s public schools. Board members evidently tabled the issue last spring in anticipation of federal government action, but recently decided to move forward to hear opinions from physicians and researchers on whether such a ban would improve children’s health. Hearings will be held over the next two months, with possible legislation coming in December. “When you think about it, we probably have a million overweight or obese children in our schools,” board member John Padget was quoted as saying. “I think the clock is ticking in terms of personal health.” Board member Susan Story reportedly wants the board to consider a possible ban on other foods sold in schools, including chips and ice cream. “To me, it’s a bigger issue that needs to be looked at and not a chocolate milk-versus-white milk…
The Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has released a fall 2010 paper highlighting obesity prevention policies with “the potential for the greatest impact.” The center’s recommendations relate to preschools and schools, consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, marketing to children, weight bias, food deserts, and ongoing surveillance of these efforts. Among other guidelines, the paper urges legislators, regulators and other public health officials to (i) prohibit the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages and whole milk in preschools; (ii) restrict school sales of competitive foods to those which meet standards set by the Institute of Medicine, as opposed to the federal government; (iii) raise the cost of sugar-sweetened beverages by 10 to 20 percent; (iv) remove materials with branded foods from schools, preschools and all government properties frequented by children; and (v) require children’s meals to meet nutritional standards if they include incentives. According to the Rudd Center, “All of these strategies…
A recent study purportedly ties compounds in nonstick cookware and waterproof fabrics to higher cholesterol levels in children. Stephanie Frisbee, et al., “Perfluorooctanoic Acid, Perfluorooctanesulfonate, and Serum Lipids in Children and Adolescents,” Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, September 2010. Researchers from West Virginia University evaluated 12,476 children and teens in the mid-Ohio River Valley to determine possible connections between their cholesterol levels and the compounds perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS). According to the abstract, researchers determined that the compounds were “significantly associated” with increased total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Results also apparently indicated that the children with the highest levels of PFOA had total cholesterol levels 4.6 points higher and LDL levels 3.8 points higher than those with the lowest levels. See Reuters, September 6, 2010.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has ordered 48 food companies “to file a special report” on their youth marketing practices in an effort “to measure the effect that self-regulation has had over the last three years,” according to FTC spokesperson Carol Jennings. The companies have 90 days to respond to the subpoenas, which will assist FTC in compiling a follow-up to its 2008 report titled “Marketing Food to Children and Adolescents: A Review of Industry Expenditures, Activities, and Self-Regulation.” Additional information about this ongoing process appears in Issue 320 of this Update. See Advertising Age, September 1, 2010. “We are supportive of industry voluntary efforts to limit their marketing to kids and this will see whether more is needed,” stated Jennings, who noted that the commission is “not proposing any regulation” at this time. See Advertising Age, September 1, 2010.
The National Academies’ Institute of Medicine Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention will convene a public workshop on October 21, 2010, in Washington, D.C., to “highlight the evidence on current and potential legal strategies and their outcomes” in the prevention of childhood obesity. The gathering of researchers, policy makers, legal scholars, industry representatives, and public health advocates will discuss (i) “current legal strategies in use at national, state, and local levels and their outcomes”; (ii) “other public health initiatives that have used legal strategies to elicit societal and industry changes”; (iii) “the challenges involved in implementation”; (iv) “when legal strategies are needed and effective”; and (v) “opportunities for coordination and sharing information on the success of existing and future legal strategies."
Overweight Americans ages 2 to 19 have become heavier over the last decade, according to a newly published study. May Beydoun & Youfa Wang, “Sociodemographic disparities in distribution shifts over time in various adiposity measures among American children and adolescents: What changes in prevalence rates could not reveal,” International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, August 2010. Conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the National Institute on Aging, the study used population data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to examine changes in the body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and triceps skinfold thickness (TST) of boys and girls across sociodemographic groups. According to Wang, the data showed significant weight gains that were “unequally distributed” across the demographic groups and spectrums of BMI, WC and TST. “Heavier children and adolescents gained more adiposity, especially waist size, and these findings were most significant among children…
A lawsuit filed in a federal court in California by a putative class of parents on behalf of their children alleges that Clearspring Technologies, Inc. and other companies used an online tracking device that enabled their websites to access and disclose users’ online activities and personal information. White v. Clearspring Techs., Inc., No. 10-5948 (C.D. Cal., filed August 10, 2010). Based on research conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, the complaint alleges that the companies install a Flash cookie on user computers without the users’ knowledge or consent, and the cookie can re-spawn itself even when users regularly delete their cookies. According to the research article, the “top 100 websites are using Flash cookies to ‘respawn,’ or recreate deleted HTTP cookies. This means that privacy-sensitive consumers who ‘toss’ their HTTP cookies to prevent tracking or remain anonymous are still being uniquely identified online by advertising companies. Few websites disclose their…
The National Consumers League has filed a consumer fraud action in a Washington, D.C. court against Nestlé HealthCare Nutrition, Inc., alleging that the company falsely advertises its BOOST Kid Essentials® drinks as products that can strengthen children’s immune systems and aid their digestive systems. The Nat’l Consumers League v. Nestlé HealthCare Nutrition, Inc., No. 5772-10 (D.C. Super. Ct., filed July 30, 2010). Bringing the action on behalf of the D.C. general public, the nonprofit organization alleges one count of violating the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act and seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, as well as “treble damages or statutory damages in the amount of $1,500 per violation, whichever is greater,” costs and attorney’s fees. The league relies on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) complaint against the company to assert that clinical studies do not support the promotional health-related representations. Additional details about the FTC’s settlement of its complaint and Nestlé’s agreement…
Three elected San Francisco officials recently introduced legislation to amend the city’s health code by restricting restaurant toy giveaways to only those meals that meet stringent nutritional guidelines. The Healthy Food Incentives Ordinance (10196) would apply to all San Francisco restaurants, but mostly affect fast food establishments that offer toys linked to the purchase of meals targeted to children and high in calories, salt or fat. In April 2010, Santa Clara County, California, became the first local government to enact a similar measure, highlighted in Issue 347 of this Update. The proposed San Francisco measure would prohibit restaurants from offering an “incentive item” such as toys, trading cards or admission tickets with a single menu item containing more than 200 calories or 480 milligrams of sodium or an entire meal containing more than 600 calories or 640 milligrams of sodium. Another stipulation calls for toy giveaway meals to provide no…
