Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
There is little doubt that national legislations are being enacted to address this
growing problem. For example, almost a third of the population in Mexico were re-
ported as being overweight, 14 % have diabetes and the average daily consumption
of sugary drinks was half a litre. This led to Mexico's 2013 decision to increase by
10 % the tax on sweetened beverages, using major advertising campaigns to support
the policy. In other countries, such as Britain, attempts are being made to create
Agreement Partnerships with large retailers to reduce the number of sale prices on
products with large portions of fat and sugar, as well as on alcohol products. Many
also believe it is important to reduce the level of advertising on such products, espe-
cially those aimed at children. The mandatory labelling of calorie levels in tinned or
packaged products is also taking place, in the hope that the public will become more
aware and make more informed choices about what, and how much, they are eating.
Yet only a multifaceted strategy will solve this increasing crisis as summarized in
a WHO report (
2000
) on
Obesity: Preventing and managing the global epidemic.
Unfortunately, limited progress has been achieved since its publication. However,
some cities are taking the lead in public health actions such as those relating to diet,
before national regulations are developed. For example, Alcon (
2012
) has argued
that Mayor Bloomberg's leadership in promoting healthy initiatives in New York
provided one of the first examples of a municipal politician taking controversial
stances in this field. This led the Health Commissioner, Thomas Farley, to note that:
…For way too long public health departments have defined their responsibility as essen-
tially infectious disease control, rather than the improvement of health of the population.
(Alcon
2012
, p. 2038)
The New York approach has been to implement policies to reduce levels of addic-
tion and improve diets, such as by the banning of smoking in public places and
businesses, plastering anti-smoking advertisements on subways, banning transfats
in restaurants, and an attempted ban on large sugary drink containers that was struck
down by the courts. In addition there has been greater targeting of crime problem ar-
eas, for most have high levels of ill-health, as seen in the crime measures described
in the discussion on Safe Cities (Chap. 12), and in creating district public health
offices in areas of low health, such as one in the Bronx.
In other countries more and more planning decisions are being made to improve
the walkability of subdivisions and adding segregated bicycle paths to increase this
form of transport, as described in Chaps. 4 and 6. Such policies are designed to in-
crease exercise levels, which in turn improves health. But it is overeating the wrong
types of food that is the major problem in most areas. In addition, the trend that has
reduced play time, sports and exercise periods in schools is being reversed in many
cities in an attempt to increase the fitness and therefore health of children, while the
increasing popularity of physical health clubs for adults shows that a start has been
made on the problem by at least some people. Although it is difficult to quantify the
effect of exercise, recent surveys indicated that 9 % of premature mortality in non-
communicative diseases is due to low levels of activity, although this varied with
the type of disease or illness (Lee et al.
2012
), while other researchers argued that
participation in sport is associated with a 20-40 % reduction in all causes of mortal-
ity (Khan et al.
2012
).
