Stumbled on This- OT, but Somewhat Relevant

[rothenbj]

I didn't see anything posted here on the subject of new laws in Japan on their health concerns about an overweight population and what they're doing about it-

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/world/asia/13fat.html

The health Nazis are at it again and it may be just a preliminary to what we'll see here.

“Nobody will want to be singled out as metabo (overweight in Japan),” Kimiko Shigeno, a company nurse, said of the campaign. “It’ll have the same effect as non-smoking campaigns where smokers are now looked at disapprovingly.”

However, this is the one that really made me laugh-

"But he said that the government’s real priority should be to reduce smoking rates, which remain among the highest among advanced nations, in large part because of Japan’s powerful tobacco lobby.


“Smoking is even one of the causes of metabolic syndrome,” he said. “So if you’re worried about metabo, stopping people from smoking should be your top priority.”"


Now hasn't it been recognized that people quitting smoking have a tendency of putting ON weight as opposed to TAKING IT OFF.


My final comment considering these new laws only affect persons 40 and older- BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN! Nah, two more comments. What about the 18 to 39 year olds? Finally a waist of 33.5" for the men and 35.4" for the women? WTF If I'm getting back to a 33.5 (which I could do if I got really stressed out enough) I want to be looking at women in the 24-26" range. HEHE

[Thyestean]

What the what!!!!!

[Janetda]

OMG, but we all knew it was coming.

[Valkerie]

Ummm, where have you all been? This has been occurring all over the US at private companies like Scott's (the lawn care people.)

No waist measurement, but your blood sugar, and weight better be in line with company insurance policies.

And, oh, yeah, they fired a new employee for not passing his mandatory blood test, because he had nicotine in his blood.

The employee lost the lawsuit.

My old company had a surcharge for smokers. And, if you lied about it, you were liable to pay back all the health care you got since their surcharge took effect. Including the cost of prescriptions.

They are coming after smokers and the obese. Blaming rising health care costs on these two groups is very popular right now.

Women are also getting royally screwed, with the new recommendations that mammograms and pap smears happen later and less often.

We're being persecuted for not being someone's ideal. Does anyone remember the Twilight Zone episode - Number 12 Looks Just Like You?

How far away are we from that?

[JohnandMe]

Has anyone seen the movie Gattica? In about 20 years their going to have to remove it from fiction and mark it as based on actual events.

Once they've dealt with the smokers and obese...they will try to stop women from growing boobs so they can eliminate breast cancer too.