The Kaiser Network reviews Obesity and Public Health Law that appears in the Thursday edition of The New England Journal of Medicine. From their summary:
...anti-obesity initiatives are most likely to be accepted if they focus on children and adolescents, and states must conduct evaluations of their current anti-obesity initiatives. They also say that additional research on advertising could help build the case for regulation of food products and call on the U.S. to encourage the food industry to self-regulate. Finally, the authors recommend that the initial strategy for regulation concentrate on improving public awareness of the role of the food industry and the food environment in contributing to obesity.
Refer to tobacco playbook for more details. With the recent voluntary school vending machine agreement can other forms of restricting access and economic disincentives (all right - taxes) be far behind? The question is on whom will the tax burden fall first? [Hint: think excise taxes to fund anti-obesity programs. It's in the playbook.] Will there still be room for social marketing approaches to obesity prevention and new strategies for public education programs to fight the obesity epidemic or has the legal train left the station?
Technorati Tags: Obesity, Legal Strategies, Public Policy
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