MOST health educators would agree that cigarette smoking is the most important avoidable cause of ill-health and death in this country, so it is the prime target for health education campaigns. But what should rank second? Drug abuse? Alcoholism? Unwanted pregnancy? STD? Food poisoning? Accidents at work or on the road or in the home? Dental caries? Coronary heart disease?
All of these are avoidable causes of suffering which health educators should fight against, but my choice for Public Health Enemy No 2 is Obesity.
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