Massachusetts will bring schools into the anti-obesity battle

Massachusetts is planning to begin an anti-obesity campaign that calls for public schools to measure the height and weight of first-, fourth-, seventh-, and 10th-graders and calculate whether a child is overweight. The finding would be sent home with students along with detailed advice on eating better and exercising more, with the goal of reducing the incidence of health conditions once almost unheard of in the young, including type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol. Those measures would go into effect next fall if approved by the state's Public Health Council.