Weight Discrimination Laws

Guest: Dr. Rebecca Puhl, PhD, Deputy Director for the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity and Professor in Residence in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Connecticut  More than a third of American adults are obese according to the CDC. They’re consequently at much higher risk for dying from heart-disease, stroke, diabetes and some types of cancer. Overweight and obese people are also more likely to be discriminated against in the work place.  Some new survey research published in the The Milbank Quarterly finds strong support for laws that would prohibit job discrimination based on a person’s weight, but there’s a limit to the public support.