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UK children shorter, fatter and sicker amid poor diet and poverty, report finds
Children across the UK are getting shorter, fatter and sicker amid an epidemic of poor diets, food insecurity and poverty, according to a report warning that millions are facing a “timebomb” of avoidable health conditions.
The average height of five-year-olds is falling, obesity levels have increased by almost a third and the number of young people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has risen by more than a fifth, the report by the Food Foundation said.
Aggressive marketing of cheap ultra-processed food, diets lacking essential nutrition and high levels of poverty and deprivation are driving the “significant decline” in children’s health, researchers found.
Failure to reverse the alarming trajectory will result in a generation burdened throughout their lives by diet-related illnesses and the mental health impact of living with disease – followed by an early death, the report concluded.
Health experts, politicians and food campaigners warned that without immediate action to reverse the damage, the crisis would overwhelm the NHS and weaken the economy for decades with much of the population too sick to work.
Anna Taylor, the executive director of The Food Foundation, said the health problems prompted by poor diets were “entirely preventable”.
“Politicians across the political spectrum must prioritise policies that give all children access to the nutrition they need to grow up healthily, as should be their right.”
Source: The Guardian, 19 June 2024
See also: The Food Foundation Report: A Neglected Generation: Reversing the decline in children's health
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Alarming lack of access to green space fuelling UK child obesity crisis, doctors warn
Doctors have warned that a “truly alarming” lack of access to outdoor space at schools is exacerbating Britain’s child obesity crisis.
Child obesity is already a significant public health problem. In England, one in three children are leaving primary school overweight or obese and face a higher risk of serious health conditions, mental health problems and dying prematurely.
But medics and public health experts say that poor access to playing fields and playgrounds at state schools is contributing to worsening and wider health inequalities, which is leading to thousands of children growing up overweight or obese.
The stark revelation emerged as part of a Guardian investigation examining disparities in access to green space between private and state school pupils.
Children at the top 250 English private schools have more than 10 times as much outdoor space as those who go to state schools. Meanwhile children at state schools are facing a devastating loss of space and time outdoors, with experts warning that the problem may be linked to rising numbers of children experiencing mental health difficulties.
Dr Kath McCullough, the Royal College of Physicians’ special adviser on obesity, said there was “no doubt” that a lack of access to green space – and the gap between state and private schools – was compounding the crisis.
“This huge gulf in access to open spaces at school is another example of the health inequalities facing young people. Merely because of the school they go to, too many children may be growing up in an environment that is simply not conducive to healthy long-term development.”
Dr Jackie Applebee, a GP in Tower Hamlets, east London, which has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK said “If schools have restricted outdoor space they are limited in the organised games they can provide. Rugby, football, tennis, hockey, netball for example all require large areas to enable playing. Many urban schools aren’t able to offer any of this.”
An inability to learn and participate in team sports makes it less likely pupils will pursue the games
outside school, Applebee said, which in turn can further raise their risk of growing up overweight.
Source: The Guardian, 19 June 2024
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Hunt blames Sunak for delayed NHS plan as he attacks ‘Stalinist’ targets
The i attended a local campaign event of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt where they heard a Chancellor who was prepared to blame the Prime Minister and criticise aspects of the Conservatives’ performance in government as he fought for his political survival.
He told voters that delays in the introduction of the long-term [workforce] plan that Mr Hunt, a former health secretary, says is needed for the NHS, were down to Rishi Sunak saying “no”. He described the national targets for the NHS that the Conservative government had as a “bureacratic nightmare” Stalin would be proud of.
And Mr Hunt also criticised his current department, the Treasury, for being too focused on balancing the books at the expense of growth – “for many years”.
Pressed on NHS waiting lists and how the Conservatives would deliver more doctors and nurses, Mr Hunt said failures on workforce planning had led to a lack of capacity in hospitals to meet demand. And he singled out Mr Sunak, suggesting he had hampered his efforts to tackle the crisis at an earlier stage.
“When I was chairing the health and social care select committee I lobbied in parliament to have a long-term workforce plan for the NHS that was scientifically saying how many doctors we’ll need in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years and said let’s start training them now,” Mr Hunt said.
“And I tried to persuade the chancellor, who was Rishi Sunak, and he said ‘no’ and then I became chancellor and he then said ‘yes’.” Mr Hunt then went on to advocate for new ways for under-pressure hospitals to “innovate”.
“The thing that I didn’t do is scrap all the national targets that we have, which are a bureacratic nightmare,” he said, adding: “I should say this is not the policy of the government – this is what I happen to believe.
“Stalin would frankly be proud of the number of the targets we have in the NHS and I think it is really holding us back.”
Source: The i, 18 June 2024
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How many preventable deaths were in your hometown in recent years?
Blackpool has more avoidable deaths than anywhere else in England and Wales, official data show. The seaside town has more than three-and-a-half times as many preventable and treatable deaths than the affluent Hampshire area of Hart, which has the fewest.
There were 133.2 so-called avoidable deaths in Hart per 100,000 people, data show, between 2000 and 2022. Blackpool had 455.3 such deaths.
Avoidable deaths are defined as either preventable or treatable for those aged under 75 and include some cancers, drug and alcohol-related deaths and some types of respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Preventable deaths account for around two-thirds of this figure.
Treatable deaths are sometimes used as a proxy for the effectiveness of an area’s healthcare systems because they could have been avoided through “timely and effective healthcare interventions”.
The ONS figures reveal that the disparity between the healthiest and unhealthiest regions is growing. Between 2001 and 2003 the difference between the healthiest (Hart) and least healthy (Manchester) was a factor of 2.5. This has now grown to more than three-fold.
Experts say that this is caused by a general worsening in public health over the past decade with life expectancy going down and the number of avoidable deaths up from pre-pandemic levels.
Dr Gabriel Scally, visiting professor of public health at the University of Bristol, told The Telegraph that poverty, food shortages, reductions in social care spending and an NHS crisis have all contributed to “the health of the country getting worse and worse since 2012”.
Avoidable deaths from cancer are at an all-time low, which Dr Scally attributed largely to an ever-dwindling number of lung cancer deaths as a result of plummeting tobacco smoking.
Source: The Telegraph, 18 June 2024
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Almost 2,000 children die every day from air pollution, report finds
Nearly 2,000 children under five are dying every day from air pollution, which has overtaken poor sanitation and a lack of clean water to become the second biggest health risk factor for young children around the world.
More than 8 million deaths, of children and adults, were caused by air pollution in 2021, according to a new study from the Health Effects Institute (HEI), as both outdoor and indoor pollution continue to take an increasing toll on health.
Dirty air is now the second biggest killer globally, overtaking tobacco use, and second only to high blood pressure, as a risk factor for death among the general population. Among children under five, air pollution is second only to malnutrition as a risk factor in mortality.
This year’s State of Global Air report, published by the HEI since 2017, and produced this year in partnership with Unicef, also shows that children in poor countries are suffering some of the worst impacts, with the death rate linked to air pollution in children under five 100 times higher in most of Africa than it is in high income countries.
Tiny particles called PM2.5 – meaning they are smaller than 2.5 micrometres in diameter – are to blame for more than 90% of global air pollution deaths, the report found. PM2.5 particles can enter the bloodstream and have been found to affect organs throughout the body. They have been found to be associated not only with lung disease but heart disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia and miscarriage.
The report showed how pervasive and damaging the prevalence of PM2.5 pollution has become, finding that the presence of elevated levels of the fine particles was now “the most consistent and accurate predictor of poor health outcomes” around the world.
Source: The Guardian, 19 June 2024
See also: State of Global Air report
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Zyn shortage: Philip Morris suspends online sale of popular nicotine pouches
Tobacco company Philip Morris International is suspending online sales on Zyn.com after finding their affiliate may have illegally sold products in the US capital.
Swedish Match North America, an affiliate of the tobacco giant who owns the nicotine pouch brand Zyn, faces a subpoena in Washington, DC. The district’s Attorney General has zero’ed on Zyn sales and if they comply with a 2022 ban on flavored tobacco and flavored synthetic nicotine.
Zyn.com is halting sales after Phillip Morris’ preliminary investigation revealed the flavored nicotine pouches may have been sold in Washington, DC, mostly from online sales and independent sellers, according to a statement. As the company reviews its “sales and supply chain arrangements,” it will no longer be selling products online as an “initial remedial measure.”
Zyn products have been a point of controversy for months. In January, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for regulators to investigate the nicotine pouches, citing their appeal to teenagers.
The Food and Drug Administration says it is watching underage use of nicotine products.
Roughly 1.5 percent of high school and middle schoolers reported using nicotine last year, the FDA said, much lower than the 10 percent of students who reported using e-cigarettes.
Source: The Independent, 18 June 2024
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