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http:\/\/steve-leeder-better-health.blogspot.com.au\/2014\/05\/anpha-lost-in-earthquake.html<\/p>\n
So. The seismic monitor suggests that ANPHA, the Australian National Preventive Health Agency, established in 2011, is likely to slip into Hades through a crack in the ground as the tectonic plates of the Commission of Audit and the Hockey budget shift and grind.\u00a0\u00a0What a pity.\u00a0\u00a0ANPHA began in 2011.\u00a0Let\u2019s be clear why it was a good idea, so that when it\u2019s gone (assuming it goes) we can mourn its passing properly.<\/p>\n
The major afflictions of our community are conditions such as heart disease. stroke, cancer, depression, and problems of bones and joints.\u00a0\u00a0None of these things are as preventable as whooping cough or polio, but the decline in heart disease in Australia in the past half century is deeply encouraging.\u00a0\u00a0Through a combination of better treatment, less smoking and dietary change we\u2019ve more than halved \u2013 considerably more in the case of the under 65s \u2013 death rates.\u00a0\u00a0These disorders have a major preventive element in them.<\/p>\n
The risks for heart disease are fully described.\u00a0\u00a0They relate closely to what we eat, how much we drink, our physical activity and more.\u00a0\u00a0Yes, these behaviours are ultimately matters of choice: we are, as GW Bush would say, are the deciders.<\/p>\n
But we\u2019re not really.\u00a0\u00a0The shopping environment influences what we choose to buy.\u00a0\u00a0The advertising environment powerfully influences our purchases of alcohol.\u00a0\u00a0The economic environment determines where we can afford to live.\u00a0\u00a0Get real.\u00a0These\u00a0<\/em>are shapers, the causes behind the causes.\u00a0\u00a0And we must attend to these things if prevention is to work.<\/p>\n Without legislation, kiss goodbye to tobacco control.\u00a0\u00a0Other countries label foods so that people \u2013 not just robots \u2013 can work out which are the healthiest.\u00a0\u00a0New York has eliminated trans fats \u2013 by legislation from all prepared food.\u00a0\u00a0More broadly in the US, man-made trans fat consumption fell by 600 million tonnes between 2005 and 2012 as Dow and other vegetable oil producers acceded to the expectations and legislative urging of American citizens and govenrnments that they would produce stuff that was health promoting and not damaging.<\/p>\n Set yourself a preventive agenda that seeks to achieve these lifestyle opportunity-promoters and you need strength including at a national level.\u00a0\u00a0Individuals struggle to win these battles.\u00a0\u00a0Groups such as the National Heart Foundation, cancer societies and others have been zealous.\u00a0\u00a0But the thought behind ANPHA was that it could become a counterweight to the big-time, burly avarice that drives health-destroying profiteering.\u00a0\u00a0No wonder the alcohol industry will declare drinks all rounds in celebration when the bulldozers demolish ANPHA!\u00a0\u00a0Bewdy mate, drink up!<\/p>\n The\u00a0politics\u00a0<\/em>of prevention are what made ANPHA so important to our health future and so hated by those who, like the tobacco barons of yore, want free rein to push their wares no matter the health costs.\u00a0\u00a0Get rid of food labelling, they beseech the government!\u00a0\u00a0It infringes our liberty as manufacturers to sell whatever we want.\u00a0\u00a0Think of our civil liberties!\u00a0\u00a0Make health a matter of choice but diminish the capacity of the consumer to choose intelligently! Please, Mr Government, DO it!<\/p>\n Yes, ANPHA could support more research in prevention.\u00a0\u00a0From the perspective of big business research is pretty innocent stuff and usually has little commercial impact.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s safe.\u00a0\u00a0But when research is translated into advocacy, that\u2019s when trouble starts. That\u2019s when those driven fundamentally by profit start worrying, and when the political tectonic plates start grinding in response. And advocacy is what a national agency with muscle could do.<\/p>\n So. When ANPHA goes\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0is what goes with it – the ability for an agency, with clout, to argue for changes that will help ensure a future in which it would be easier to choose to be healthy.\u00a0\u00a0Shame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" http:\/\/steve-leeder-better-health.blogspot.com.au\/2014\/05\/anpha-lost-in-earthquake.html Monday, May 5, 2014 ANPHA: LOST IN AN EARTHQUAKE So. The seismic monitor suggests that ANPHA, the Australian National Preventive Health Agency, established in 2011, is likely to slip into Hades through a crack in the ground as the tectonic plates of the Commission of Audit and the Hockey budget shift and grind.\u00a0\u00a0What … Continue reading Steve Leeder on the shutting down of ANPHA<\/span>