Novello Speaks at K-School

The U.S. Surgeon-General attacked under-age alcohol consumption and substandard medical treatment of women in a passionate speech last night to about 75 people at the Kennedy School of Government.

Dr. Antonia Novello--who replaced C. Everett Koop as the "national physician" in March 1990--said that half the children in junior high school and high school drink alcohol regularly, despite the national minimum drinking age of 21.

Novello proceeded to attack beer advertisement for blending images of beer with scenes of young people engaged in potentially dangerous sports--many of which require high levels of bodily coordination.

"Advertisements have to be looked upon much more closely by parents and kids," according to Novello, who added that 69 percent of boating accidents, as well as many ski injuries, are alcohol-related.

Extending her critique of television advertisement, the Surgeon-General, a clinical professor of pediatrics at Georgetown school of Medicine, also singled out the multi-million-dollar cigarette industry as a danger to children.

"Brand awareness in childhood is brand preference in adulthood," she said, citing the popularity among children of Old Joe, the cartoon mascot of Camel Cigarettes.

"I believe that Old Joe has to take a hike," she said, "not the only for the kids of today but for the kids of tomorrow."

Novello, chair in 1988 of a national task force for women's research of also delivered pointed criticism of medical studies, which she said too often ignore women.

While women are 12 times more likely than men to suffer from bladder problems recent studies of bladder difficulties were performed in an Army Veteran's Hospital and thereby excluded women, she said.

Insisting that "awareness [of the problem] is the key," Novello emphasized the prevalence of marital abuse in the United States. One is five women experiences persistent beating by her husband, according to the surgeon-General.

"The [American Medical Association] must retrain resident to ask [women] questions and open the Pandora's Box," she said.

Novello said that drawing attention to the effect of the AIDS epidemic on women and adolescents was an important part of her agenda.

Currently, 22,000 women are infected with the AIDS virus, according to Novello, who said she was disturbed because most of these women are between the ages of 25 and 50, and were infected in the last two years.

Furthermore, current AIDS figures for adolescents are deceptive because they do not account for the incubation period, Novello said. To observe the degree to which adolescents are infected, she argued, it is necessary to study patients in their 20s.

Communities, families and the government should work together to inform children of AIDS prevention methods, Novello said.

"Get the information out there no matter how hard it is," she said.