China's first week-long campaign against obesity was launched in Beijing on Monday by the Chinese Preventive Medical Association.

In the four cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, experts will give lectures and provide free examinations to help more people understand the dangers of obesity and the right prevention and treatment.

Shi Yifan, a professor of endocrinology with Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that obesity was a growing threat to the population's health, which most people failed to realize. The campaign aims to inform people that obesity can lead to many diseases, and losing weight is imperative, though only under a doctor's supervision.

Statistics show that in 1998 China had 100 million overweight people from the ages of 14 to 64. Obesity levels have soared from ten percent in 1982 to 15 percent in 1992 and 25 percent in recent years.

(China Daily May 7, 2002)