Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) has reportedly proposed levying a $50 annual fee on smokers, the chronically ill or obese who receive aid from the state’s financially strapped Medicaid program. Effective October 1, 2011, if approved by the Arizona Legislature, the plan would apply to childless adults who “need to work with their primary care physician to develop a care plan.” According to news sources, the measure is part of a wider plan to help the state save $510 million. “If you want to smoke, go for it,” a spokesperson for Arizona’s Medicaid program was quoted as saying. “But understand you’re going to have to contribute something for the cost of the care of your smoking.” State Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Phoenix) asserted that she would vote against the measure because it would unfairly penalize the obese. “If someone is obese because they’re severely disabled or can’t exercise, we shouldn’t be…
Tag Archives obesity
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation have selected Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar as literary fodder for their anti-obesity campaign, distributing copies of the best-selling children’s book to 17,500 pediatrician offices across the United States. The iconic story follows a caterpillar’s transformation from larva to butterfly while emphasizing the importance of good nutrition, with the insatiable protagonist experiencing a stomachache after binging on chocolate cake, ice cream and other treats. According to a March 8, 2011, press release, doctors will also receive “growth charts and parent handouts that encourage doctors and parents to have meaningful conversations about the importance of healthy eating.” “Parents and doctors both play an enormously important role in ensuring children develop healthy eating habits early on in life,” said President Bill Clinton on behalf of the William J. Clinton Foundation, which founded the Alliance for a Healthier Generation…
The Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, who hold about $2,000 of common stock in McDonald’s Corp., joined by nuns from orders in other states, have reportedly submitted a shareholder proposal seeking a report “within six months of the 2011 annual meeting, assessing the company’s policy responses to public concerns regarding linkages of fast food to childhood obesity, diet-related diseases and other impacts on children’s health.” They also want to know how these public concerns potentially affect “the company’s finances and operations.” The “whereas” clause of the proposal contends that “the contribution of the fast food industry to the global epidemic of childhood obesity and to diet-related disease, such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease, have become a major public issue,” and cites a number of studies about the incidence and costs of obesity, as well as actions taken by policymakers involving fast food marketing to children and menu-labeling. The…
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Food and Nutrition Board’s Committee on Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention has announced a public information-gathering workshop on measurement strategies to combat the nation’s obesity problem. The draft agenda for the March 23-24, 2011, event in Irvine, California, indicates that a panel discussion moderated by Northwestern University Professor Ellen Wartella will focus on “Marketing and Industry Measures and Evaluations.” A live video recording of the workshop, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, will be available on IOM’s Website and a taped version will reportedly be posted later. More information about the event is available here.
The Arizona House of Representatives Commerce Committee has reportedly approved a bill (H.B. 2490) that would block cities and counties from enacting laws that would prohibit restaurants, food establishments or convenience stores from offering “consumer incentive items” with meals. Scheduled to go before the House for a full vote, the law identifies the items as “any licensed media character, toy, game, trading card, contest, point accumulation, club membership, admission ticket, token, code or password for digital access, coupon, voucher, incentive, crayons, coloring placemats or other premium or prize or consumer product.” Telling a news source that “government needs to stay out of the way of free enterprise,” Representative Jim Weiers (R-Glendale) challenged arguments that toy giveaways tied with high-fat, high-calorie meals contributed to childhood obesity. “Ask the parents who are supposed to be ultimately responsible,” he said. But House Minority Leader Chad Campbell (D-Phoenix) asserted that the issue should be…
The parties to obesity-related litigation, brought on behalf of several teenagers against fast-food giant McDonald’s Corp. in 2002, have filed a stipulation of voluntary dismissal with prejudice. Pelman v. McDonald’s Corp., No. 02-7821 (S.D.N.Y., stipulation filed February 25, 2011). The action followed entry of an order in December 2010 scheduling pretrial discovery and motions filing and briefing for the individual claims remaining in this putative class action. A court refused to certify the action as a class in October. Pelman was closely watched by industry and consumer advocates as it made several trips before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that ultimately narrowed the issues for trial. It was expected to be groundbreaking litigation that would allow access to industry documents which plaintiffs’ interests believed could be used to bring a flood of litigation against companies they blame for the nation’s increasing incidence of obesity. The experience of litigators opposing…
A recent study has claimed that, “among formula-fed infants or infants weaned before the age of 4 months, introduction of solid foods before the age of 4 months was associated with increased odds of obesity at age 3 years.” Susanna Huh, et al., “Timing of Solid Food Introduction and Risk of Obesity in Preschool-Aged Children,” Pediatrics, February 2011. Harvard researchers apparently followed 847 children enrolled in a pre-birth cohort study known as Project Vida, using “separate logistic regression models for infants who were breastfed for at least 4 months (‘breastfed’) and infants who were never breastfed or stopped breastfeeding before the age of four months (‘formula-fed’), adjusting for child and maternal characteristics.” The study findings apparently indicated that, among the formula-fed infants only, “introduction of solid foods before 4 months was associated with a six-fold increase in odds of obesity at age 3 years.” “One possible reason why we saw…
The National Research Council (NRC) recently issued a report suggesting that past smoking and current obesity levels are major reasons why U.S. life expectancy at age 50, though still rising, has not kept pace with that of other high-income countries, such as Japan and Australia. Sponsored by the National Institute on Aging’s Division of Behavioral and Social Research, the report explained that the health consequences of smoking, which 30 to 50 years ago was “much more widespread in the U.S. than in Europe or Japan,” continue to influence today’s mortality rates. It anticipated, however, that “life expectancy for men in the U.S. is likely to improve relatively rapidly in coming decades because of reductions in smoking in the last 20 years,” while women’s mortality rates “are apt to remain slow for the next decade.” The report also concluded that current obesity rates “may account for a fifth to a third of…
Jennifer Pomeranz and Kelly Brownell, who are with the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, have authored an article titled “Advancing Public Health Obesity Policy Through State Attorneys General.” Referring to the role played by state attorneys general (AGs) in public health policy on tobacco, the authors contend that they “can be leaders in formulating and effectuating obesity and food policy solutions.” The article also takes note of recent actions state AGs have taken regarding purported misleading labeling of food and beverage products. Among other matters, the authors suggest that, using their parens patriae authority, state AGs “may seek declaratory relief or recover costs or damages incurred by behavior that threatens the health, safety, or welfare of the state’s citizenry [and] can redress wrongs when other remedies are lacking and can act to protect public interests in areas where other parties cannot.” They also suggest that the authority to…
“I don’t want any more government interference than the next guy, but I believe that the precedent has already been set for successful government intervention on behalf of improving our health,” writes Hanover College Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology Professor Bryant Stamford in the first of a two-part article comparing obesity prevention tactics to federal curbs on tobacco advertising. Acknowledging the public outcry against fast-food incentive bans, Stamford suggests that the government would not set “a dangerous precedent” insofar as it has already made a concerted effort to stymie youth tobacco use with product warnings and advertisement restrictions. Without these measures, he claims, “the cigarette industry would continue to run roughshod over the American public with the specific purpose of capturing us when we are young, addicting us and ensuring that the majority of the addicted will be customers for life.” For Stamford, the parallels between the tobacco and fast food…
