Subject: AIDS drops to 7th lead killer in SF; restaurant prohibition demanded
From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 18:34:59 EDT

For Immediate Release                             
September 8, 1999
Contact: Michael Petrelis
Phone: 415-621-6267

AIDS DROPS TO 7th LEAD CAUSE OF DEATH IN S.F.;
Heart Disease No. 1 Killer - Restaurant Prohibition Demanded 

San Francisco, CA -- A newly obtained report from the S.F. Department of Public 
Health on lead causes of death shows AIDS dramatically dropped to seventh place 
on the index, while heart disease was the top-ranked killer.

The latest report is for 1997 when 6,789 deaths occurred overall.  Heart disease 
accounted for the largest portion, 1,912; cancer was second with 1,504 deaths; 
cerebrovascular strokes were third with 562 deaths recorded.  Pneumonia and 
influenza rated fourth with 474 deaths; unintended injuries from motor vehicle 
accidents were fifth with 293 deaths; pulmonary disease was sixth with 270 
deaths.  AIDS deaths ranked seventh with 239 deaths.

Health activists will hold a news conference at the S.F. health department 
headquarters to demand health director Dr. Mitch Katz immediately close all 
commercial restaurants.

WHEN: Thursday, September 9

WHERE: Dept. of Public Health, 101 Grove Street

TIME: 12 noon

"If the bathhouse ban helped AIDS deaths plummet to 7th place, then by extending 
the DPH logic a restaurant prohibition will dramatically decrease the twin 
epidemics of heart disease and strokes," said Michael Petrelis, one of the leaders 
behind the ongoing effort to reopen gay bathhouses through an initiative he hopes 
makes the March 2000 ballot.

"At minimum, DPH must immediately commence heart disease prevention 
programs comparable to AIDS prevention.  People with AIDS taking 'protease 
cocktails' experience higher risk of heart trouble, showing connections between 
AIDS and hearts ailments," Petrelis noted.  "Why does the DPH have an AIDS 
Office with a 150 person staff and $60 million annual budget, but not a single 
brochure about the deadliness of heart disease and its prevention is 
available?"

"Sadly, the outrageously high number of deaths due to heart illnesses is a crisis of 
epidemic proportions demanding prompt attention and resources comparable to 
AIDS," said Petrelis of the AIDS Acceptability Project.

The 'unsafe eating' engaged in by San Francisco residents at high-risk for heart 
disease in commercial food establishments is killing them in the thousands 
annually.  To decrease the chances of strokes all restaurants must be prohibited to 
bring this preventable epidemic under control. 

Some restaurant owners are so callous they jokingly sell certain entrees as " a heart 
attacks on a plate," clearly demonstrating disregard for patron's health. The DPH 
must put an end to this rampant risky eating by developing "safe eating" rules to be 
quickly adopted and adhered to, until a cure and a vaccine for heart disease are 
discovered.

Permanently closing restaurants may seem extreme and infringe on the civil 
liberties of owners and eaters, but wanton gluttony in pursuit of culinary pleasures 
unfairly strains the taxpayers with extra health care costs for people with heart 
diseases (PWHDs) or in high risk categories.

Heart disease prevention must target the enormous high risk population with 
behavior modification messages to curb dangerous appetites.  Campaigns should 
use newspapers, bus shelter ads, TV and radio commercials, and support groups to 
alter deadly patterns of eating.

Regulations for "eating clubs" may eventually be adopted with community 
cooperation and public hearings.  These food venues could exist, so long as "food 
monitors" are constantly inspecting the oral orifices of patrons to ensure "safe 
eating" rules are strictly followed.  Any person attempting to order or eat 
substances known to cause high cholesterol and triglycerides will be ejected from 
the premises, after monitors sternly lecture them.  Only "eating clubs" religiously 
following heart-smart, low-risk or no-taste diets will allowed.

"If restrictive DPH policies drastically reducing AIDS deaths demonstrate 
anything, it is that unfairly curtailing personal choices regarding basic human 
needs is literally life-saving," said Petrelis.  "That same standard should 
be applied 
to the heart disease epidemic ravaging San Francisco.  Anything less invites 
genocide to be served on every restaurant's menu."

The leading causes of death report is available from DPH, Room 400.

        #    #    #