Blair comes calling on poor Briton lifestyle

The UK prime minister urges Britons to take more responsibility in adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Britons on Wednesday to take more responsibility for their health as he warned that poor lifestyles were putting a huge financial strain on the health service.

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Companies, such as food retailers, must also recognise their duty to promote healthy living and the government must be prepared to act against those that fail to do so, Blair said.

"In the future, health care cannot be just about treating the sick but must be about helping us to live healthily. This requires more from all of us, individuals, companies and government," Blair said.

"And for government it has to encourage, it has to inform, but, if necessary, in a tougher way than ever before, it has to be prepared to act," he added in a speech in Nottingham.

His speech -- the latest in a series under the title Our Nation's Future -- was briefly interrupted by a bare-chested protester with the words "Impeach Tony Blair" painted on his back and a slogan against the Iraq war on his front.

Blair said the most pressing health problems were more related to individual lifestyles -- obesity, smoking, alcohol abuse, diabetes and sexually transmitted diseases.

If individuals do not act, the National Health Service could be crippled by the financial costs of treating heart disease, diabetes or smoking-related illnesses, Blair said.

"The alternative will be a future in which the capacity of the NHS to treat us simply won't keep pace with the state of the country's health," he added.

One in four adults and children in the UK is obese and the figure is rising, Blair said. According to parliament's health select committee, the full cost of obesity and overweight people to Britain is in the region of 7 billion pounds per year.

"The economic burden of chronic disease, including lost work, the early drawing down of pension entitlements and the need for palliative care, could be vast," he added.

Blair said the government was banning the sale of junk food and fizzy drinks from vending machines in schools. He said if voluntary moves to limit advertising of junk food to children had not worked by 2007, new laws would be introduced.

The government was also encouraging supermarket chains to adopt a single-system of labelling to identify healthy options.

"It will be much better if the industry comes together voluntarily around this scheme but once again, we are prepared to act if the voluntary system does not work," he said.

The government's role was to empower people to act responsibly, rather than return to the "paternalistic state" of the post-war years, he said.