Health Centers Chief Praises School Programs on Drug Risks

School health programs have been successful in reducing drug, alcohol and tobacco use among American teen-agers, the director of the Centers for Disease Control said Friday, but the nation still faces formidable problems in other areas of disease prevention.

CDC Director William Roper, speaking to reporters at the National Press Club, praised the effectiveness of public school programs designed to acquaint teen-agers with the health risks of substance abuse.

“We have long believed that a program of comprehensive school health education in grades kindergarten through 12 can be very effective in producing high school graduates (who are) more likely to avoid high-risk behaviors which lead to disease and injury,” Roper said.

Roper said that a CDC study of nearly 5,000 junior and senior high school students from seven states demonstrated the effectiveness of school health programs directed at tobacco, alcohol and drug use.

Despite the success of such programs, Roper warned of “distressing setbacks” in preventive care programs aimed at toddlers.

Childhood immunization has lagged, resulting in recent increases in preventable diseases such as measles, he said, and greater progress should be made in reducing infant mortality rates. Environmental hazards affecting children in particular, such as lead poisoning and other “unseen dangers to health and growth,” must be eliminated, Roper said.

In addition, Roper said that occupational diseases and hazards need to be reduced to make the American workplace more productive. “We must redouble our efforts on old problems” such as eliminating environmental hazards, he said.

Roper spoke at a press conference called to discuss the findings of an annual preventive health survey of Americans by Prevention magazine. The survey noted that the United States is “the fattest nation on Earth,” with 64% of all adult Americans overweight.