SYDNEY, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Public health experts were urging authorities to crack down on junk food advertising targeting children, following new research showing 85 percent of Australian parents and caregivers were concerned about the issue.

The study led by Deakin University, which surveyed nearly 4,000 adults, found strong public support for government intervention to protect children from unhealthy food marketing.

Clara Gomez-Donoso, lead author from Deakin's Global Center for Preventive Health and Nutrition, said more than 60 percent of respondents backed a total ban on junk food advertising aimed at children. Other popular measures included banning such ads on TV before 9pm and removing child-focused packaging like cartoons from unhealthy products.

Senior author Kathryn Backholer, also from Deakin and vice president of the Public Health Association of Australia, said the findings, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, showed that parents had the same fears as public health experts about the pervasive nature of junk food marketing.

"Our children can't walk to school, go to the shops or sit down and watch TV without being bombarded with unhealthy food advertising," Backholer said, adding this constant exposure is contributing to rising childhood obesity and preventable diseases.

Terry Slevin, CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia, warned that obesity had overtaken tobacco as the country's leading cause of preventable disease, calling it a "ticking time bomb."

Jane Martin, executive manager of the Food for Health Alliance, added that self-regulation by the food industry has failed.

For too long, profits had come before children's health, Martin said, adding the government must act now to curb the volume and power of junk food advertising. Enditem

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