World leaders at UN will discuss junk food ad ban

[January 22, 2011]  GENEVA (AP) -- The U.N. health agency says world leaders will discuss efforts to clamp down on junk food marketing to children when they meet in New York on Sept 19-20.

The World Health Organization says heads of state will use the U.N. General Assembly meeting to talk about limiting the number and type of ads that children are exposed to.

WHO says 43 million preschool children around the world are overweight or obese. Experts talk of a "fat tsunami" that is already causing millions of premature deaths each year.

Bjorn-Inge Larsen of the Norwegian Directorate of Health told reporters Friday that he expects voluntary measures limiting junk food advertising to eventually evolve into laws banning the practice in the same way that has occurred with tobacco.

[Associated Press]

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