By Crystal D. Swann and Carol Moody Becker
July 12, 2004

The Conference's newest health initiative — Healthy Cities — was launched at the June 25 Health Program luncheon at the 72nd Annual Meeting. Health Committee Chair Richmond (CA) Mayor Irma Anderson, who presided over this session, explained to the audience of close to 300 persons that Healthy Cities will address the nation's growing obesity epidemic by enlisting mayors to establish practices and programs to encourage more physical activity and better nutrition. These practices include:

• Transportation facilities and services that encourage walking and/or biking;
• Crime prevention to make the streets safer for walking; and
• Land-use planning and development that promote sidewalks and retail stores with fresh produce.

Cancer Survivorship — New Focus

Survivorship will be a focal point of the Cancer Awareness Program because, as explained by Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill, there are ten million cancer survivors today in the United States. She commended the more than 250 mayors who belong to The Mayors' Campaign Against Breast Cancer and/or The Mayors' Coalition for Prostate Cancer Awareness and Education for their awareness activities and the lives they have saved through their efforts.

Cancer survivors Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, and Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, using themselves as examples, urged their fellow mayors to continue to emphasize the importance of early detection to their constituents. Miller and Oberndorf, who are breast cancer survivors, thanked AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals Ltd, the luncheon sponsor, for the role that its medications played in their recovery.

In giving the mayors the latest information on the relationship of obesity to chronic disease and ways to address this epidemic, Center for Disease Control's noted national authority on this issue Dr. William Dietz gave the luncheon's keynote address. He opened his remarks by saying that Boston was a model city for physical exercise and good nutrition with its highly connected central schools, neighborhoods, and shopping centers as well as partnerships with academia and insurance companies on health issues.

Dietz's statistics were compelling. Obesity relates to a body mass index greater than or equal to 30, which is the equivalent of a person 5 feet 4 inches tall weighing 175 pounds and a person 6 feet tall weighing 225 pounds, and 30 percent of the population is now estimated to have a BMI more than 30. This phenomenon is driving health costs up because obesity affects 60 to 70 percent of diabetes, 60 percent of cardiovascular disease, and 15 to 20 percent of cancers. Especially, worthy of note is that exercise can help to reverse the effects of chronic diseases even if the increased physical activity does not result in weight loss.

Deitz listed some strategies to reverse the trend toward obesity in the United States such as:

1) exercise between 30 and 60 minutes a day, and modifying the worksite provides some of the best opportunities; 2) reduce the amount of time viewing television; 3) increase the rates of breast feeding; 4) start meals with soup or a salad to reduce the volume of food consumed; and 5) reduce portion size.

The mayors are key partners in the national strategy to reduce obesity because of their influence on community design and programs. Connected neighborhoods, central schools, and shopping centers are needed as opposed to cul-de'sac communities that impede walking from one area to another.