60,000 obese children in Republic

Between a quarter and a third of children in the Republic are either overweight or obese, a major health conference heard yesterday.

Dr Tim Lobstein, of the International Obesity Taskforce, estimated there were almost 330,000 children aged 5-17 throughout Ireland who exceeded body-weight guidelines.

These included 161,000 overweight children and 60,000 obese children in the Republic, out of a child population of 820,000.

A separate study, details of which were revealed at the conference in Co Cavan, indicated 30 per cent of children were overweight and half of them obese.

The survey of 20,000 schoolchildren, conducted by the UCC-based Cork Dental School, also suggested obesity levels in children had tripled since 1990, while the number of those overweight had doubled.

Referring to the survey findings, Mr Chris Fitzgerald, principal officer with the Health Promotion Unit, said obesity was now a public health problem of "enormous proportions".

A member of the National Task Force on Obesity, Mr Fitzgerald said a central recommendation of its report - due to be published next January - would be the creation of "joined-up Government" on the issue. While the report had yet to be finalised, one likely recommendation was for Government policy to be "obesity-proofed", to ensure that decisions taken by separate Departments did not contribute to weight problems in society.

Another recommendation was for the Department of Transport to allocate a certain proportion of its budget to walkways, and tie healthy transport options into its planning decisions.

The Minister of State for the Department of Health, Mr Seán Power, who opened the two-day all-Ireland conference, "Tackling Obesity Together", said a 40-year-old person who was obese could expect to die seven years younger than someone of healthy weight.

"In the same way the recent workplace smoking ban managed to influence lifestyle behaviours, other lifestyle choices can be influenced through public policy and environmental support."

Asked whether the Government had neglected the issue to date, Mr Power replied: "My view is that the problem has not been fully appreciated or understood in the country, and Government Departments would be no exception in that regard."

Dr Lobstein said policy-makers were wrong to treat weight problems as "non-communicable", or merely the fault of the victims. The diseases of obesity and overweight "are being communicated in families, schools, on TV, and in packaging".

Europe was fast approaching obesity trends in the US, adding: "The surge of obesity among children, in short, will result in a global explosion of illnesses that will drain economies, create enormous suffering and cause millions of premature deaths."

Dr Brian Gaffney, chief executive of the Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland, expressed concern at the proliferation of vending machines in schools, describing as "scandalous" the situation where schools depended on such machines for income.

The trend was particularly worrying when figures showed more than a quarter of schoolgirls had no breakfast before leaving home each morning.

If action wasn't taken to address the obesity problem, he added, "we will be wiping out all the medical advances made over the past few decades."

The conference was attended by 200 healthcare staff from the Republic and Northern Ireland.