CHEERS & JEERS: Employee health is serious biz

Opinion

Discussion

March 6, 2008

Anonymous The Glasgow Daily Times Thu Mar 06, 2008, 04:53 PM CST

GLASGOW — Kentucky ranks near the top of the CDC’s rankings each year of adult population obesity. We can truly say in the Commonwealth that our weight issues are epidemic.

We have ranked in the top 10 in each year of the last five years and as high as No. 3 in 2003. The number of overweight and obese adults in our state continually hovers around 25 percent.

Some might think the impact of being overweight effects only the individuals who are suffering through the consequences — such as adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, etc. — but that’s not true. Many employers have realized the impact excessive weight has on their employees and their business’ productivity and on they are taking action.

It’s certainly true locally.

That’s why we cheer a small industry owner like Bud Layne with SpanTech. He, having dealt with his own weight issues, realized it would be beneficial to offer a health and fitness program for his employees. His is not the only area industry to offer excercise programs, but it’s certainly striking considering the size of SpanTech’s operation compared to other area industries.

Many partner with the Barren County Family YMCA to offer wellness programs through its facilities. To that end, Y CEO Brian Held recently hired a new staff member whose job it will be to help facilitate those partnerships. That’s a promising sign for our community.

We do not have to follow the trend of the Commonwealth toward an evermore obese population and the health ills that follow the trend. We can reverse it with more employers — even small businesses — promoting health and wellness with programs such as the one Layne instituted or with partnerships with the Y and other wellness-centered operations.

Text Only

Opinion

YOUR VIEW: 24 jail employees disagree with PI’s conclusion
May 18, 2012
ELLIS COLUMN: Tea party will influence 4th
May 18, 2012
Fiscal court abdicates its duty
The foremost duty of elected officials is to serve the majority interests of their constituents.

May 4, 2012
Living off the landscape
There lives a man in Moab, Utah, who has chosen a spare existence. He awoke one day, he says, to a stark realization — money is an illusion.

May 4, 2012
PI's summary leaves too many questions
Walking into Barren County Fiscal Court on Tuesday night, I was excited. After six months of wild accusations and vague accounts of inappropriate behavior at the Barren County Detention Center, I was ready to hear proof, once and for all, of what has been going on.

May 4, 2012
Age is irrelevant when hangin' with the 'girls'
Do you want to know the secret of feeling young? Spend a few hours in the company of the friends with whom you graduated high school.

May 4, 2012
Always be prepared, or learn lessons the hard way
Some lessons are harder to learn than others and I became all too aware of that as severe storms passed through our area early Thursday morning.Always be prepared, or learn lessons the hard way

April 26, 2012
Before Wolfe and Fritz, there was Grandpa picker
My grandfather was a picker long before being one was the cool thing.

April 26, 2012
Is there a better use for IRS agents?
The Internal Revenue Service has long struck fear in the hearts of every law-biding, hard-working taxpayer with its no-holds-barred, no-stone-unturned policy of finding every last dollar that we earn each year and then making sure we pay our fair share in taxes on that money.

April 20, 2012
Equal Pay debate should have already faded into history
This week I celebrated my birthday. This week was also Equal Pay Day, a day in which women wear red and raise awareness for the ongoing proven statistic that working women make 77 cents to every dollar that men make in this country.

April 19, 2012
More Opinion Headlines

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

CHEERS & JEERS: Employee health is serious biz

Site Map