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California's Top Public-Health Officer Urges Better Community Health Choices

Posted on: Thursday, 7 April 2005, 21:00 CDT

Apr. 7--STOCKTON -- California's top public-health officer believes the San Joaquin Valley is at a major juncture when it comes to what its quality of life will be at the end of the century.

Its leaders and residents can allow it to become another Los Angeles -- forsaking its agricultural heritage for urban sprawl stretching from Lodi to Bakersfield -- or they can plan communities that promote healthy choices.

"It needs a vision of itself as it goes into the future," said Dr. Richard Jackson, a pediatrician by training and former top official with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was appointed to his state post with the California Department of Health Services last year.

Wednesday, he brought his message on urban sprawl's connection with public health to Stockton. He addressed more than 100 invited guests with a stake in the well-being of San Joaquin County's residents at the annual Public Health Week luncheon sponsored by the county's Healthier Community Coalition.

"How we're building communities is really shaping people's lives," said Jackson, who used something as simple as a street without a sidewalk to make his point.

When most people think of that scene in terms of public health, they see the danger to pedestrians from passing motorists. Jackson, on the other hand, doesn't see any pedestrians. He sees the lack of a sidewalk as discouraging walkers and bicyclists from using the street at all.

And that factor is showing up in the many public-health studies illustrating the increase in chronic conditions such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure that can all be attributed in part to less physical activity.

In terms of resources, Jackson bemoaned the fact that very little of the state's massive health budget is earmarked for prevention, which would include promoting exercise and better diets. He said that $32 billion is budgeted for Medi-Cal, the state-sponsored insurance program for its poorest residents, and $1.5 billion goes just toward processing the paperwork associated with that program. Meanwhile, just $180 million is dedicated to public health programs.

A report out Monday from Jackson's department placed San Joaquin County at or near the bottom of the state's 58 counties in several causes of death, including homocide, cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes and infant mortality regardless of race.

Jackson said the state's obesity epidemic -- California has the second-worst rate in the nation -- is only getting worse because "we've engineered exercise and walkability out of our lives."

A second Health Services Department study, released Tuesday, said that obesity and physical inactivity will cost the state an estimated $21 billion this year in direct and indirect medical costs, workers compensation and lost productivity.

And he really worries about children.

"It's criminal what we are doing to our kids with their diets. The projected costs of this epidemic are staggering. I'd really be focusing on the kids," he said.

A representative from the Stockton office of the American Cancer Society said she couldn't agree more with Jackson's message.

"We've been talking about these same issues. Obesity is a cancer risk in itself," said Stacy Beintema, the society's health programs manager.

San Joaquin County's public-health officer, Dr. Karen Furst, said "the next challenge is how do we look at this issue and incorporate any changes into the planning process."

Furst's boss, Public Health Director Bill Mitchell, noted that his agency is not presently involved in "designing communities for healthy living. It's not something we've thought about before, but we'd like too."

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Source: The Record

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