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Public Health Advocates Say State Can't Grow Complacent

Todd Bookman
/
NHPR

 Earlier today, public health advocates gathered inside the State House cafeteria--as good a place as any--to update lawmakers on initiatives aimed at combating obesity.

Healthy Eating Active Living, or HEAL NH, organized the forum. Community projects set up displays touting successes like playground gardens and improved sidewalks.

New Hampshire consistently ranks as one of the healthiest state in the nation, but Jeanie Holt with the NH Public Health Association says more investment is necessary.

Holt: “We are a healthy state, and we don’t want to lose that. It is very easy to slip, to become complacent. And just because we are a healthy state, doesn’t mean we don’t have areas to work on.”

Holt points to the high youth smoking rate and childhood obesity figures as key targets for future changes in policy.

Todd started as a news correspondent with NHPR in 2009. He spent nearly a decade in the non-profit world, working with international development agencies and anti-poverty groups. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University.
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