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Medical Journal Warns Obesity Guidelines May Endanger Children

June 16, 2006

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Is obesity the new attention deficit disorder, an excuse to treat millions of kids with drugs?

Two articles in the British Medical Journal suggest it is, and question the financial links between the organization promoting new obesity guidelines and the pharmaceutical industry.

The articles claim an influential expert committee of the American Medical Association has "tentatively decided" to reclassify obesity definitions.

This, the author contends, will result in healthy children being categorized as medically overweight or obese, meaning that approximately a quarter of toddlers and two fifths of children aged 6-11 in America will be classed as having the disease.

Author Ray Moynihan, who has previously written about drug companies promoting an increasing reliance on medications to the public, says the U.S. proposals have been greeted with alarm by some senior public health academics who have written to the committee.

Dr. Jenny O'Dea from the University of Sydney, for instance, warned that labeling children as overweight or obese can lead to stigmatization, eating problems, and avoidance of exercise.

Moynihan maintains that one of the prime movers behind the proposed changes being considered by the expert committee is Dr. William Dietz, a senior member of the International Obesity Task Force.

In a second article Moynihan claims the high profile and highly influential Task Force, which has close ties to the World Health Organization, was set up in the mid-1990s with the help of grants from three drug companies and continues to benefit from drug company sponsorship.

Now merged with another international obesity forum, the Task Force reportedly gets two thirds of its funding from pharmaceutical giants Roche and Abbott.

Roche makes the anti-obesity drug Xenical (orlistat), and Abbott makes the appetite suppressant Reductil (sibutramine hydrochloride). Over recent years, the article states, drug company sponsorship is likely to have amounted to "millions".

The Task Force has responded to Moynihan's questions about its funding, saying that it has made no secret of the grants it has received from drug companies and emphasizing that an internal ethical scrutiny system ensures independence from sponsors.

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