Legislature has the means to take the key step against childhood obesity.

Byline: GUEST VIEWPOINT By Wendy Stires and John Valley For The Register-Guard

Earlier this week, the American Heart Association and former President Bill Clinton, flanked by Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, announced plans to join forces to help create a new generation of healthy Americans by addressing one of the nation's leading public health threats: childhood obesity.

Part of the effort will focus on increasing physical activity and improving nutrition in schools across the nation. Today, more than twice as many children - and almost three times as many teens - are overweight as met that standard in 1980. Overweight children and adolescents have about a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight adults, increasing their risk of heart disease. If this trend continues, it could cut two to five years from the average lifespan.

In the spirit of this new partnership with the Clinton Foundation, the American Heart Association in Oregon is working to address the childhood obesity problem during this year's legislative session.

Since physical inactivity is one of the main causes of obesity, we decided to look at science-based approaches that would best increase the physical activity habits of young people. What we found out is that delivering high-quality physical education to young people in school will help students acquire exercise habits that last a lifetime and reduce their chances of being obese.

The model - which was recommended by the U.S. surgeon general, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Oregon's own statewide physical activity plan - was to establish standards prescribing a minimum number of minutes of physical education instruction.

The specific recommendation is to have 150 minutes of physical education per week in grade schools and 225 minutes in middle schools.

Schools meeting those standards would come close to having physical education every day in kindergarten through eighth grade. School districts still would have the flexibility of fitting those minutes of physical education into weekly class schedules.

Based on the overwhelming support from the scientific and medical community, legislation was drafted to move the policy reform forward. The legislative proposal became Senate Bill 228.

Earlier this year, the Senate Education Committee held a public hearing on SB 228. A variety of organizations testified in support of the bill, including the Oregon Medical Association, the American Diabetes Association, and NikeGO.

The bill passed out of the committee unanimously. Such bipartisan support demonstrates that SB 228 is the right approach in addressing the obesity problem by improving the physical activity habits of young people through high-quality physical education.

The bill has now been referred to the Ways & Means Committee in an effort to make sure this policy is funded for the upcoming 2005-07 biennial budget.

According to Oregon's Department of Human Services, in 2000 Oregon had 48,000 weight-related hospitalizations at a cost of nearly $730 million. SB 228 provides an opportunity to help reduce the cost of obesity here in Oregon and improve the quality of life for Oregonians.

The American Heart Association is proud to partner with President Clinton and Governor Huckabee in the fight against childhood obesity. By funding and implementing SB 228, Oregon can become a leader in the fight against obesity.

Wendy Stires of Eugene is executive director of the American Heart Association. John Valley of Portland is Oregon government affairs director for the association.