London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Over 50 staff and students from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have written an Open Letter to Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley, calling on him to act now to avoid a 'fat tsunami' in the NHS, after recent report that ambulance services are having to adapt vehicles to cope with increasingly heavy patients.

Led by Ian Roberts, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Dr Helen Woodward, they warn that current Government policy has the potential to worsen the fatness epidemic, and that reducing the costs of motorised transport will be bad for the nation's health and bad for the environment.

They comment: 'Promoting safe walking and cycling in our towns and cities will reduce population fatness, improve health and limit the atmospheric carbon dioxide pollution that is causing global warming. The health benefits from safe walking and cycling are immediate: lower risks of road traffic injury; a leaner and happier population with lower rates of many diseases including diabetes, heart attacks and cancer; and cleaner air'.

They add: 'We ask for your commitment that fuel prices will be escalated not stabilised, as a vital strand of health policy. The NHS faces a fat tsunami that threatens its viability. This wave will not be nudged. It requires strong public health policy and public health leadership that we urge you to provide'.