But the 12 steps are
1. Address the issue of individual responsibility versus collective or environmental action early and often
2. Evidence of harm is necessary, but is not sufficient to motivate policy change
3. Decisions to act need not wait for evidence of the effectiveness of interventions
4. Fully implement interventions known to be effective
5. Real and perceived needs and concerns of developing countries need to be addressed even if they involve going beyond the initial scope of the risk being addressed
6. The more comprehensive the package of measures considered, the greater the impact
7. Broad based, well networked, vertical and horizontal coalitions are key
8. Change in support for tobacco control took decades of effort led by media savvy and politically astute leaders
9. Modest, well spent funds can have a massive impact, but without clear goals funding may not be sustainable
10. Complacency that past actions will serve well in future may retard future progress
11. Rules of engagement with the tobacco and food industries need to be different and continually under review
12. Risk factor envy is harmful—a joint approach is needed
Threads like these belong in the Smoky Backroom.
< |:)~
But, but, but, but they were going to stop at smokers right?
PING!!
See #2 & #3 - Evidence, We don't need no stinkin' evidence
Stop childhood obesity. Give them Marlboros, not milkshakes.
...the authors suggest that 12 lessons learnt from attempts to control tobacco smoking could be used to tackle the chronic disease epidemics evolving from unhealthy diets and a lack of physical activity.
I know what's best for you, so shut up and do what I tell you to do.
Ha...I don't smoke and I live healthily. I love watching smokers and folk gorge on junk food, it only makes me look better and likely ensure that when I'm 70 I'll be jogging past their graves.
Yes -- that's it -- a joint approach is needed !!! ;-))
Smoke marijuana and lose weight? Those twelve points are deep. Too deep to grasp, too deep to understand.
Why not something simple and easy to remember, like, “I’d walk a mile to smoke a Camel”, which what the Fokker Triplane pilots of the German Flying Corps said during the Great War, meaning a Sopwith Camel, of course.
Thanks a lot. This thread made me think I wanna go outside for a smoke now. Ok brb.
And the Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine want us to quit? Where would they get their damn money if we did! This is sickening.
Maine uses tobacco money to set up anti-obesity network
By COLIN HICKEY
December 6, 2004
Energy expenditure versus energy consumption.
In an ideal world, a balance exists between the two, and nobody ever has to go on the Atkins diet.
But that is not the reality these days -- not by a long shot.
Dora Anne Mills, director of Maine's Bureau of Health, refers to the increase in obesity rates in Maine among adults and children in the last decade as an epidemic.
She has the numbers to support her claim: Obesity rates since 1990 have risen 75 percent, so that today 59 percent of adults are classified as either overweight or obese.
Children have not escaped the epidemic.
Obesity rates have doubled for them in the last 20 years, with the latest data, based on a 2001 survey, revealing that about 25 percent of high school students are overweight.
"In our society it is an uphill swim for most people to maintain a healthy weight," Mills said. "Our basic approach is to change the tide so it is easier to make healthy choices."
To combat obesity, the state has developed Healthy Maine Partnerships, a network of community organizations funded by settlement money from the class action suit against the tobacco industry.
The Waterville area, however, has an additional initiative, spearheaded by MaineGeneral Medical Center physician Sheridan Oldham, to help in the fight.
On one level, the initiative is a capital campaign to match the $1 million contribution the New Balance Foundation recently pledged to rehabilitate and upgrade Camp Tracy, the Waterville Area YMCA summer camp on McGrath Pond in Oakland.
Oldham, however, said the fund-raising effort is part of a larger campaign to reduce obesity among children and encourage them to make healthier choices in regard to activities and food.
"This is a problem that requires education first of all and also opportunities for people to be more physically active," Oldham said. "Basically, we need to eat less and be more active."
Oldham sees an investment in Camp Tracy as an ideal way to provide that greater opportunity for physical activity. The plan is to turn the camp into a year-round facility, so children can cross country ski and skate in winter and hike trails and swing through ropes courses in the spring and fall.
"After 32 years of medical education and training, I know for a fact it is no fun to be sick, and prevention is the best medicine in the world, and it can be fun," she said. "A lot of time people see exercise as a chore and just don't like to do it, but make activities fun, and they'll do them."
Oldham realizes that combating the forces of obesity will not be easy. Fast-food restaurants are everywhere and sedentary pursuits -- cable TV, video games, computers -- are just as available and just as enticing.
To help overcome those challenges, Oldham realized that she had to recruit others to join her in the fight. And she did.
Oldham said area school systems as well as partners such as New Balance, Inside Out Playground, the MaineGeneral Community Health program, Alfond Youth Center, University of Maine and Maine Dartmouth Family Practice have all joined the effort.
Money raised through the capital campaign will be used to build a lodge and residence hall, reconstruct waterfront shower facilities, and develop trail and ropes courses.
At the same time, Oldham said the coalition is pursuing grant money from the National Institute of Health that would be used for programming at Camp Tracy.
Oldham, like Mills, realizes that convincing people to adopt a healthier lifestyle will not happen overnight.
"People will go day after day without doing enough physical activity to even make them sweat," she said, "and that is a problem ... but basically everybody is affected by this problem, and that's why this is a good community project."
Colin Hickey -- 861-9205
http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/1198269.shtml
Total State control through the military, the prisons, the schools, and the hospitals ought to make a dent in this huge problem.