Big Way Of Life

The United Nations has launched an all-out attack on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), bringing together dozens of heads of State to promote the lifestyle changes needed to curb the soaring toll of a scourge that already causes over 63 per cent of all the world's deaths.

The high level General Assembly meeting is only the second ever to deal with health (the first was HIV/AIDS), and tackled four NCDs: cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke, and chronic lung disease, which are influenced by modifiable risk factors – tobacco, diet, obesity, alcohol and lack of exercise.

The two-day meeting, attended by more than 30 heads of State and Government and at least 100 other senior ministers and experts, adopted a declaration calling for a multi-pronged campaign by governments, industry and civil society to set up by 2013 the plans needed to curb the risk factors behind the four groups of NCDs – cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes.

Steps range from price and tax measures to reduce tobacco consumption to curbing the extensive marketing to children, particularly on television, of foods and beverages that are high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, sugars, or salt. Other measures seek to cut the harmful consumption of alcohol, promote overall healthy diets and increase physical activity.

"This will be a massive effort, but I am convinced we can succeed," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the opening session of the landmark summit, noting that over a quarter of all people who die from NCDs succumb in the prime of their lives, the vast majority of them in developing countries.

"Our collaboration is more than a public health necessity. Non-communicable diseases are a threat to development. NCDs hit the poor and vulnerable particularly hard, and drive them deeper into poverty," he said, with millions of families pushed into poverty each year when a member becomes too weak to work or when the costs of medicines and treatments overwhelm the family budget.

"The prognosis is grim. According to the World Health Organization, deaths from NCDs will increase by 17 per cent in the next decade. In Africa, that number will jump by 24 per cent."

He called on governments, individuals, civic groups and businesses to all play their part. "There is a well-documented and shameful history of certain players in industry who ignored the science, sometimes even their own research, and put public health at risk to protect their own profits," he said.

"There are many, many more industry giants which acted responsibly. That is all the more reason we must hold everyone accountable, so that the disgraceful actions of a few do not sully the reputation of the many which are doing such important work to foster our progress," he added, calling on corporations that profit from selling processed foods to children, including manufacturers, media, marketing and advertising companies, to act with the utmost integrity.