Officials Laud Healthy Howard Initiative

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Several local leaders pledged support for a new county initiative announced earlier this week aimed at improving the health of residents and county employees.

The plan, announced April 9 by new Health Officer Dr. Peter Beilenson, targeted a goal of being the model health community in the United States.

As part of the Healthy Howard Initiative, the county will offer incentives such as public recognition for those who meet health standards for each initiative, Beilenson said at a press conference April 9.

County officials believe the campaign is the first such effort by any local government in the country.

The end goal is to make Howard County, one of the nation's wealthiest jurisdictions, a public health model for the rest of the country, said County Executive Kenneth Ulman.

"If we can't solve this in Howard County, where will we?," Ulman asked.

Ulman said he expects the program to cost the county about $100,000 a year.

Local leaders in the business community, nonprofit sector, and charitable fields pledged support for the idea, saying it takes a civic-minded approach to health at a time when the costs of health care are rising dramatically.

"They're really thinking about it at a level beyond taking the stairs," said Roy Appletree, board president of the Association of Community Services, an umbrella group that represents more than 100 local social service agencies and organizations.

County to offer incentives

In the initial phase of the initiative, which will focus on "healthy restaurants," the county plans to recognize restaurants in local newspapers and other publications that meet certain health standards, such as ending the use of trans fat cooking oil and making calorie information about menu items available to customers.

Restaurants that meet the standards would also be able to display a "Healthy Howard" logo in their windows, attracting consumers looking for healthy choices, said Beilenson.

Joe Barbera, president of the Howard County Bar and Restaurant Association, praised the plan for allowing restaurants to opt-in to the program rather than mandating restrictions such as ending the using of trans fat.

New York and Philadelphia have banned the use of trans fat, a cooking oil that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has linked to increases in cholesterol and subsequently heart disease.

"We appreciate ... that we're not being hit over the head like other jurisdictions where people are putting bans in that are going to cause difficulty (for businesses) in those areas," said Barbera, who owns Aida Bistro and Wine Bar in Columbia.

Aida is one of the three restaurants that have expressed interest in signing on for Howard's healthy restaurants initiative, Beilenson said.

In the coming months, the county plans to announce initiatives that include "healthy homes," "healthy citizens," "healthy workplaces" and "healthy schools."

Such efforts would involve yet-to-be-determined incentives for employers that promote a healthy work environment or employees who get regularly scheduled cancer screenings.

Pam Klahr, president and CEO of the Howard County Chamber of Commerce, said she supported raising public health awareness.

Businesses are interested in efforts to improve workforce health because such efforts can fight rising health insurance costs, she said.

The Horizon Foundation, a Howard-based nonprofit with an endowment of more than $90 million that grants money to health initiatives, has also pledged an unspecified amount of financial support to the program.

Richard Krieg, president and CEO of the Horizon Foundation, said he has plans to meet monthly with Beilenson and has pledged financial and other support, although that amount has not been determined.

Krieg, who was formerly Chicago's health commissioner, said he thinks Howard County can be a "laboratory" to come up with a systematic approach to public health that larger cities can implement.

"It's very exciting," he said.

-- Nate Sandstrom