Editor’s Note: Student Union’s weekly columns are a joint effort of the region’s high schools, the Bangor Daily News and Acadia Hospital. This week’s column was written by John Bapst Memorial High School students. Their adviser is Lynn Manion.

A plague is sweeping through America, and it can affect everyone and anyone, from Washington to Maine. This is a unique plague, one that cannot be contracted from the spread of germs or by using infected needles. No, this plague spreads from the use of government subsidies, crooked advertisements directed toward children, and the mass consumption of junk food. The plague, which we call obesity, has America eating itself to death.

Obesity rates have skyrocketed along with waist sizes in America. Today, 65 percent of U.S. citizens are either overweight or obese, a dramatic increase since 1983, when that number was 30 percent. Coupled with the rise of obesity has been an increase in cases of diabetes, an affliction commonly associated with being seriously overweight. Diabetes has increased by 27 percent in just the last five years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 17 million American adults have already been diagnosed with diabetes, and 12 million adults are developing the disease.

Children are not protected from this spreading epidemic. More than 15 percent of children ages 9 to 19 are considered obese or overweight, a rate which has tripled since 1970. Another disturbing fact worth noting is that one in three children born in 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes, as well as the heart disease, blindness, asthma, sleep apnea, gall bladder disease and depression that may come with it. Type 2 diabetes accounted for 2 to 4 percent of all childhood diabetes before 1992, but skyrocketed to 16 percent by 1994. Children even younger than age 9 are affected by the obesity plague, as 25 percent of students in elementary school have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Kids at young ages are setting themselves up for life-threatening complications.

The food industry spent $34 billion to market its products this year; $12 billion of that was used to market foods to kids, twice as much as they spent last year. Companies such as C&R Research actually bring in a panel of children, who are paid, to research their reactions to different commercials. Study after study shows that children do not understand how these advertisements work, or how they are being manipulated.

Some countries have brought change to advertising geared toward children. In Italy, ads aimed at children are not allowed during cartoons. Australia does not allow ads during shows directed toward preschool kids, and Norway and Sweden prohibit ads aimed at children under the age of 12. In 1979 there was a fight in this country to stop advertising geared toward children, but nothing changed. This problem is much like the one experienced 20 years ago, when cigarette companies were under fire for misleading advertising.

With 15 percent to 19 percent of Maine’s population obese in the year 2001, we are not being spared by this spreading epidemic. Obesity is a large problem, figuratively and literally, which the government must address, whether by subsidizing healthy foods or pulling ads targeted toward children off television.

This plague will not fade away unless America is prepared for a drastic change.

Schools participating in Student Union include Hampden Academy, Brewer High School, John Bapst Memorial High School, Old Town High School, Mount Desert Island Regional High School, Stearns High School in Millinocket, Nokomis Regional High School, Hermon High School, and Schenck High School in East Millinocket.