Albuquerque Journal

Should fashion models have minimum BMI?

Editorial says U.S. should follow the lead of France

- BY KAREN KAPLAN LOS ANGELES TIMES

Fashion models should be benched if they are dangerousl­y thin, and U.S. regulators should make sure this happens.

So says a provocativ­e editorial published Monday in the American Journal of Public Health.

The authors, both experts on eating disorders affiliated with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, argue that fashion models are just as deserving of protection as coal miners and garment factory workers. Instead of being vulnerable to black lung or repetitive stress injuries, models are at risk of eating disorders like anorexia nervosa.

“The U.S. government regulates the extent to which any other industry can expose employees to harm,” write Katherine L. Record and S. Bryn Austin. “Profession­al fashion models are particular­ly vulnerable to eating disorders resulting from occupation­al demands to maintain extreme thinness.”

That’s hardly a trivial problem, they say: Anorexia is the deadliest of all mental illnesses in the U.S., claiming the lives of roughly 1 in 10 sufferers, according to Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

In the United States, a woman is considered underweigh­t if her body mass index is below 18.5. But Record and Austin assert that a typical model strutting her stuff at an internatio­nal fashion show has a BMI below 16, which the World Health Organizati­on considers “severe thinness.” For a woman who is 5 feet 9 inches tall, that means weighing no more than 108 pounds.

For those who have any doubt that this can be deadly, consider the case of Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston. She developed an eating disorder after being told

she was too fat. Two years later, the 5-foot-8 model dropped down to 88 pounds by eating only apples and tomatoes. She died in 2006.

A ban on excessivel­y thin fashion models may sound like doublespea­k, but several countries have implemente­d them. The most notable is France, which passed a law in April that requires models to prove they have a BMI of at least 18 in order to work. If they fail to do so, their agents and fashion houses that hire them could be subject to steep fines and jail time.

There’s no good reason why the U.S. Occupation­al Safety and Health Administra­tion (OSHA) couldn’t implement a similar policy here to prevent the “lifethreat­ening starvation of runway models,” as Record (who works for the Massachuse­tts Health Policy Commission) and Austin (a researcher­s at Boston Children’s Hospital) put it. Recognizin­g that their proposal is likely to be met with skepticism, they address three likely criticisms in their editorial.

First, they acknowledg­e that BMI is “an imperfect measure of health.” But at the extreme ends of the weight spectrum, “the deficienci­es associated with BMI as a metric dwindle,” they write.

Second, although fashion models are typically self-employed independen­t contractor­s — and thus not eligible for OSHA protection — Record and Austin argue that they’re effectivel­y employees of their agents. As evidence, they note that “a model cannot negotiate or enter into any modeling opportunit­y without her agent, who retains exclusive rights to her name and image and determines and distribute­s her wages.” In fact, they add, regulating agents would be even more effective than regulating models.

Third, they take issue with the idea that the Americans with Disabiliti­es Act would prevent any regulation linked to a person’s BMI. Setting a minimum threshold would be allowed “so long as it was implemente­d to protect employee health,” they say.

Not only is it possible for U.S. regulators to enforce a minimum BMI requiremen­t for fashion models, it is necessary for them to do so, according to the editorial.

“Paired with similar restrictio­ns in France, OSHA regulation­s in the United States would shake the fashion industry,” Record and Austin write. “Designers would be hard pressed to maintain a presence in the fashion industry without participat­ing in the New York City and Paris Fashion Weeks.”

 ?? THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Experts in eating disorders are concerned about an Internetfu­eled trend in which young women pursue an elusive and possibly dangerous weight-loss goal.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Experts in eating disorders are concerned about an Internetfu­eled trend in which young women pursue an elusive and possibly dangerous weight-loss goal.

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