The government should ban eating and drinking on public transport to tackle childhood obesity, says Dame Sally Davies in her final report as outgoing Chief Medical Officer for England.
Davies says the government needs to put children’s health before company profits and recommended banning the advertisement or promotion of junk food anywhere (adverts on children’s TV are already banned from encouraging poor diets or unhealthy lifestyles), as well as eating or drinking on buses and trains.
Her suggestion had the exceptions of drinking fresh water, breastfeeding, or eating and drinking because you have a medical condition that requires you to do so, like diabetes.
Given a third of all primary school children are classified as overweight or obese, and the government has promised to halve childhood obesity figures by 2030, clearly steps need to be taken – but is this the right one?
We asked HuffPost UK readers, both parents and non-parents, what they thought of the proposals.
Parents largely thought it was a bad idea, and that it was overlooking solutions such as encouraging physical activity or moving fast food temptations away from children.
Some parents also highlighted the hypocrisy of children being able to eat or snack in private vehicles, versus those who travel on public transport.
Non-parents were also worried about the impact it would have, especially concerning adults who need to eat on transport if they are working antisocial hours, or are on a long journey.
And some people raised the question: how would this be enforced and by whom?
Others were worried about the impact it would have on food businesses near transport hubs.
Ans some cited examples of where similar policies had failed in other places.
Put simply, people were not impressed.
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