Parents of UK porkers may face "action" by social services

Der BBC:

Social services may have to take action over children who are overweight if the UK's obesity problems continue to grow, council chiefs have warned.

The Local Government Association (LGA) questioned whether parental neglect should include child obesity, in the same way as under-nourishment.

The LGA, which represents more than 400 councils in England and Wales, is warning that as obesity increasingly becomes a problem for children, it is likely that local authorities will have to step in more and more to deal with the problem.

David Rogers, LGA spokesperson on public health, said councils were increasingly having to consider taking action where it was considered that parents were putting children's health in danger.

"If parents consistently place their children at risk through bad diet and lack of exercise is it right that a council should step in to keep the child's health under review?"

That's a rhetorical question. The LGA outlines the "heavy" toll fatties take on government services:

• The cost to social services of caring for house-bound people suffering from illnesses that are the consequence of obesity, including arthritis, heart disease and diabetes

• Furniture in school classes, gyms and canteens having to be made wider for larger children

• Crematoria furnaces having to be widened

• Fire services being called in to winch obese members of the public out of dangerous buildings in emergencies such as fires.

Americans are so much more self-reliant. Many even have winches on their trucks for the sole purpose of hauling loved ones out of burning buildings. We can widen our crematoria without government help, too, thank you.

(forgot to say, via B-BBC)