"We all know that eating nutritious foods and getting plenty of physical activity will help kids maintain a healthy weight. But how can kids make the right choices if they live in communities where they can't walk to school or play in a park because of distance, traffic, or crime?" asks Dr. David Schwartz, director of NIEHS.
Lynn Swann, former professional football star and current Chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt, Surgeon General Richard Carmona, and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee will join Schwartz at the conference to:
1. Learn more about how the environment impacts childhood obesity rates.
2. Build on promising programs to create safe, healthy communities that help kids make healthy choices.
"The ultimate goal is to create environments that help stem the obesity epidemic," said Schwartz. "This means shaping communities that promote healthy food choices and safe places to run and play." In the last three decades, obesity has doubled among preschoolers and adolescents and tripled among kids between the ages of 6 and 11.
The NIEHS is leading the fight to determine how the environment affects obesity. Throughout the conference, researchers, policy makers, community and transportation planners, builders, architects, teachers and school administrators, industry, non-profit, medical and health care personnel, and national, state and local leaders will fully explore how they can work together to find environmental solu
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1-Jun-2005