Appearing on Cleveland s NPR radio show The Sound of Ideas yesterday, ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross spoke to listeners about the Healthy Cleveland Initiative, a partnership between the city and four major hospitals, which seeks to make Northeast Ohioans more fit by promoting better choices. Some of these ideas are valid others, such as banning smoking in more public places and eliminating trans-fats are not.
I pointed out to the listeners, and Councilman Joe Cimperman, that banning trans-fats will likely have negligible beneficial health effects, since even eliminating cholesterol and reducing fat in people s diets have little impact on cholesterol levels, according to studies and my own experience. And I went on to say that banning smoking outdoors will definitely have zero health effect. While second-hand smoke indoors is an aesthetic annoyance and can cause health problems in youngsters, outdoor smoke can t harm anyone and is merely a ploy to show that government is doing something. Such useless governmental interventions are unnecessary and intrusive."
We invite you to listen to the whole interview here.