News Release

November 24, 2004

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

The Skinny On The CDC Obesity Report

WASHINGTON -- Cato policy analyst Radley Balko made the following comments today regarding the announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that its obesity report was flawed:

"The CDC's announcement that it will lower its estimate of deaths attributable to obesity is some welcome sanity in the obesity debate, but it's troubling that the original number was ever published and touted to begin with. According to LexisNexis, that number was used in media reports over 1,500 times. It has been widely cited by anti-obesity activists to call for widespread and intrusive government programs that restrict consumer choice and punish the food industry. Now we learn that critics were right, and the number was grossly inflated, perhaps by as much as 400 percent. The lesson here for the media is to be more skeptical of hysterical obesity research. The lesson for policy-makers is to resist rash reactions to media frenzies. And the lesson to all of us is to be wary of researchers, government officials, and activists who attempt to use junk science to trespass on personal freedom."

Balko is available for interviews and additional comment at 202-789-5228 or 703-507-2631.
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