News and Opinion
There are stories relating to obesity breaking around the world every day. The stories below are those where journalists haver sought NOF opnion/quotes or summaries of research on which NOF may have a view. Where possible the source of the stories are identified by the newspaper banner or a URL in red.
NOF Opinion will always be identified in italics.
UN cops out on obesity
- Details
- Published on Monday, 26 September 2011
On Sept 19th a High-Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly signed a Declaration recognizing the economic and social burdens of Non-Communicable Disease [NCD], also known as chronic disease. However, despite being told by Secretary-General Ban ki-moon that " collaboration is more than a public health necessity " and that "NCDs are a threat to development ", the Assembly failed to set any specific goals to reduce their impact.
If you want an opinion of the UN kop out, read the scathing editorial published on THE LANCET 's Online First. The declaration, it says, has clearly come under multiple pressures from governments and lobbyists resulting in a watered down document reflective of national and industry interests. " It lacks ambition and is more a politically correct document that a political declartion of war. Individual countries must now take bold steps to accelerate their responses below the slow timetable the UN proposes if real progress is to be made ".
What the UK will do is anybody's guess. Andrew Lansley addressed the UN and called for " tough " action on obesity. However, the fine words he used in New York need to be replicated at home in his forthcoming document [possible publication date October 13th] setting out how obesity will be tackled in the new public health and NHS systems. Given that one of its central themes - the Responsibility Deal - has been declared a non-starter by a number of obeservers, the document might be as bland as the UN's Declaration.