The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7286 p172
14 February 2004

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Time for “No-Eating Day”? more
New approach to Council meeting reports more

Time for “No-Eating Day”?

With yet another report on the dangers of obesity — particularly those facing overweight children — and the part that pharmacists can play in helping people tackle the problem (p173), the issue is becoming as significant as smoking in terms of public health. And with “No-Smoking Day” less than a month away, how soon will it be before a “No-Eating Day” is introduced? (We are not suggesting, of course, that people stop eating completely!)

It has taken roughly 40 years from the time the association between smoking and mortality and morbidity was first identified for the dangers to be fully embedded in the public psyche. In the 1960s, 80 per cent of the population smoked; today under 30 per cent do. The current figure, however, masks significant health inequalities: the percentage of smokers in the highest socioeconomic classes is now in low single figures, while in parts of Britain the percentage in the lowest classes is still about 50 per cent. Lung cancer, for example, is a rare disease in social classes 1 and 2, but it remains a disease associated with poverty. Despite the known risks, if friends and family smoke there is little pressure to stop.

Although the link between poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise and cancer has not been confirmed yet, there is plenty of evidence linking diabetes and heart disease with obesity. Already bans on advertising for crisps, sweets and soft drinks on television have been recommended, and various sports personalities have been criticised for allowing their names to be linked with such products. It cannot be too long before a health tax is levied on these products and even bans introduced on sponsorship of any public event by their manufacturers.

Within the decade, it is easy to imagine that obesity among the middle classes will be as socially unacceptable as smoking, but it will remain common among the economically disadvantaged. The rich will live ever longer; the poor will die ever younger.

Creating meaningful and imaginative incentives for people to adopt healthy lifestyles will be the challenge — particularly for pharmacists, who will be at the front line of this new public health battle.

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New approach to Council meeting reports

As an experiment for six months, the Council has agreed that The Journal will report open business from the bimonthly Council meeting in a new way. Instead of one continuous report based on the transcript, we will be presenting proceedings as separate stories — written by Journal staff. Since these stories will not always be able to include every comment made by Council members in the debates, the official transcript (edited for sense and accuracy) will be posted on the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s website (www.rpsgb.org) afterwards. We hope that this approach will make the Council proceedings more accessible and easier to read.

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