Call to ban junk-food adverts pre-watershed

Published on Tuesday 8 June 2004 01:33

PUBLIC health doctors yesterday called for a ban on TV advertising of junk food before the watershed to protect children’s health.

The British Medical Association’s conference of public health medicine and community health heard calls from doctors for action to tackle childhood obesity by stopping the targeting of youngsters.

The matter was referred to the BMA’s public health committee, after representatives from around the country supported a ban on junk-ood advertising before the watershed at 9pm and completely on children’s television channels.

"I think it is utterly and fundamentally wrong that the food industry, or any other kind of industry, should assume the right, for no more than their own commercial purposes, to persuade people to harm themselves.

"This is especially true of children," Dr Steve Watkins, deputy chairman of the public health committee said.

He branded the practice of targeting children with high fat, high salt and high sugar foods as being "utterly despicable".

"The food industry relies very much on promoting this food to children as if this should be the type of food they should be eating.

"This is a pernicious process," Dr Watkins said. "It is important that we confine the advertisement of most processed foods to a time when they will not be promoted directly to children."

In its highly critical report on obesity, the Commons health committee recommended voluntary action by the advertising industry to cut the targeting of youngsters with junk foods.

But Dr Watkins was sceptical that such a call would have any effect.

"Why would the industry take voluntary action when these methods are what commercial success is based on?," he said.

But Dr Watkins accepted that tackling obesity was not only to do with changing diets.

"We have to understand that obesity is not just about diet, it is about exercise, and we do need to increase exercise as well," he said.

Dr Peter Tiplady, the chairman of the BMA’s public health committee, also said banning adverts aimed at children was essential to protect children’s health.

"Children are being bombarded with adverts for products that are extremely bad for their health. Food manufacturers are deliberately targeting them by using sports personalities to send out the message that junk food and fizzy drinks will make them more popular," he said.

Dr Tiplady called for a joined-up approach to tackle the problem of obesity.

"It’s easy to say that obesity is a matter of personal choice, but often that’s not true for children. Schools should allow children to eat healthily and get enough exercise, but many have sold off their playing fields, installed junk-food vending machines, and failed to provide healthy school meals.

"If we’re going to prevent a major public health crisis we need a joined,up approach," said Dr Tiplady.

Dr Kailash Agrawal, who chaired the conference, added: "Childhood obesity is a public health time-bomb.

"If the government ignores it we will see huge increases in diabetes, strokes, cancer and heart disease - obesity has the potential to cause the same devastation as smoking."

The public health committee’s report found that children are bombarded with adverts for junk food at the rate of 1,150 a day, while the average child watches 20,000 adverts a year on children’s television.

The report also recommended that children across the UK should have their body mass index measured annually at school, by the school nurse or a health visitor.