Obesity bill passed unanimously but still to become law
Minister Chris Fearne has failed to implement legislation aimed at combating obesity which was unanimously approved by Parliament over a year ago in spite of the estimate that obesity costs Malta €45-€50 million per year, Opposition MP Robert Cutajar told The Malta Independent.
Tackling obesity is supposed to be one of the main priorities of Malta’s EU Presidency, but Minister Fearne failed to mention the programme during his visit to the European Parliament some weeks ago.
Mr Fearne has also never mentioned it since it became law on 6 January 2016, Mr Cutajar said.
Mr Cutajar went on to say that “since it was an bill presented by the Opposition, Minister Fearne swept it under the rug”
Mr Cutajar’s statements come after former Prime Minister and current MEP Alfred Sant said that obesity is estimated to cost the EU €70 billion annually in health care and lost productivity. Dr Sant was addressing a seminar at the European Parliament on ‘Fighting the burden of obesity’.
The €45-€50 million per year figure was quoted from Minister Fearne directly during a press conference he gave on 1 December 2016.
The law, which was the first of its kind to be introduced in Europe and is the brainchild of Mr Cutajar, also received endorsement from the World Health Organisation.
It sought to tackle obesity by introducing specifically designed programmes in a whole-society and a whole-governmental approach.
It is a whole government approach since the legislation stipulated that an inter-ministerial advisory committee involving representatives of six or seven ministries, including the Office of the Prime Minister, would oversee its implementation. It is also a whole-society approach since it involved every individual ranging from mothers-to-be to active ageing.
The legislation was then expanded to extend towards promoting a healthy lifestyle in order to reduce the amount of non communicable diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cholesterol, heart problems, and cancer, which are caused by obesity.
It was a shame, Mr Cutajar said, that in spite of the fact that Malta has the highest obesity rate in all of Europe, Mr Fearne has failed to issue the four legal notices which would have enforced the legislation.
The first legal notice involved pregnant women and would provide them with the necessary information on both diet and physical exercise for themselves and their new born children.
The legalization would also see educational establishments provided with the amount of the minimum number of hours a child would require to exercise per week, the dietary restrictions of the school’s canteen, and ensure that water been accessible in every school.
The law would also stipulate that an advisory board establishes a minimum distance from the school to where unhealthy food truck vendors could station their vehicles.
The third legal notice calls on government to allocated additional funds to local councils specifically targeted to educate and provide information to the community on the importance of healthy eating and exercise. The notice will also say that these funds could also be used to create open-air public gyms in the localities.
This, Mr Cutajar insists, will work after he implemented a similar system when he was Mayor of Mellieha.
The fourth and final legal notice concerned active ageing. This meant that the government would implement programmes at day centers and old people’s homes, namely dietary programmes and physical exercise activities.
When he was mayor, Mr Cutajar introduced this into the Mellieha locality by establishing a bi-weekly fitness class with coaches from Sport Malta (then The Malta Sport Council), which he says was a resounding success.