By Liz Kresse
June 19, 2006

The Health Luncheon and Forum opened the Annual Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors for the tenth consecutive year. Presided over by Richmond (CA) Mayor Irma Anderson, Chair of the Standing Committee on Children, Health and Human Services, the luncheon focused on the growing national obesity epidemic and healthy living in general through best practice presentations made by three mayors.

Noting that “as Chair of the Standing Committee on Children, Health and Human Services, I’ve been very encouraged by mayors’ interest in protecting the health of our constituents,” Anderson encouraged mayors to sign up for the Mayors’ Healthy Cities Campaign. The Campaign is designed to enlist mayors to promote policies and programs that encourage physical activity and healthy eating as a way to prevent obesity and chronic diseases.

Outgoing Conference President Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill thanked mayors who have been part of the Conference of Mayors cancer awareness initiatives for the past ten years and gave special thanks to mayors who have shared their own cancer experiences with their colleagues and constituents. She asked those mayors who are not currently members of the Mayors’ Campaign Against Breast Cancer or the Mayors’ Coalition for Prostate Cancer Awareness and Education to become members.

David P. Nicoli, Vice President of Corporate Affairs for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, noted that the luncheon marked the 10th anniversary of AstraZeneca’s sponsorship of the health luncheon. Over the years, AstraZeneca has seen positive results of the mayors’ involvement in promoting the message of early detection, specifically an increase in the number of women screened for breast cancer through mammography with a resulting increase in breast cancers discovered early. Nicoli mentioned several AstraZeneca programs designed to help patients get actively involved in their health. Visions of Hope, which is designed for breast cancer patients, offers education about the disease, the importance of early detection, proper treatment and survivorship. Everydaykids.com is AstraZeneca’s pediatric asthma education website and the annual Action for Asthma Run and Walk was created by and for kids to raise awareness about pediatric asthma.

Dallas Mayor Laura Miller identified four key behaviors responsible for 53 percent of all cancer deaths and 43 percent of all heart disease deaths in the U.S.: poor diet, physical inactivity, tobacco use, and alcohol abuse. Miller then shared her initiatives for addressing these behaviors. These include: a smoking ban in public spaces; the Mayor’s 5K Run for school children which provides participants with running shoes donated by New Balance; a Mayor’s press conference on teenage drinking to stress that adults who provide liquor to youth under 21 are breaking the law; Lighten Up Big D, a fitness program that encourages companies to start wellness programs for their employees; Get a Move On, a childhood obesity prevention program which distributed pedometers to 10,000 3rd graders and taught them how to use them; participation in Shaping America’s Youth, a national initiative on childhood obesity that holds town hall meetings in cities around the country; the creation of a local Task Force to explore ways to tackle the problem of obesity; and the Mayor’s Back to School Fair for low-income kids, which distributes backpacks and school supplies and provides free services such as vaccinations, fluoride treatment and blood pressure checks to approximately 17,000 youngsters.

Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer spoke about a problem that is affecting his city and other cities nationwide: the phenomenon of urban hospitals moving to more affluent suburbs. Recently, the CEO of one of Trenton’s three hospitals informed the mayor that the hospital is planning to move to the suburbs in order to stay competitive. The potential departure of the hospital will be a great loss to the city, particularly because the hospital delivers a majority of the babies born in the city and has a critically needed neonatal intensive care unit. In response, the Mayor convened a grassroots coalition to educate the public about the hospital’s impending move. He also commissioned a healthcare needs assessment of Trenton’s current and future healthcare needs to provide detailed information that can be used to help hospitals that are considering leaving the city or moving to the city become more competitive.

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Stressing the importance of leading by example, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann stated that he participates in at least twelve fitness activities annually such as the Honolulu Triathlon and Marathon by personally taking part in the activity, chairing the event, or raising funds. He also requires his cabinet and city employees to participate in such events. In addition, because of a family history of diabetes, Hannemann chairs the American Diabetes Association Walk in which he, his staff, and cabinet participate, raising up to $400,000. He has also made it a priority to build and invest in the sports and recreation infrastructure of the city. Programs for children and youth provided by Hannemann’s administration include free and low-cost summer recreation programs for 14,000 children; a junior lifeguard and junior paramedic program; an NFL Youth Education and Training Center for at-risk youth; and tours of the city morgue for at-risk high school students to discourage drug use.