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Paramedics, others need
more protection

THE ISSUE Paramedics are asking that people convicted of assaulting them be subject to enhanced criminal penalties.

STATE legislators this year put off deciding whether to provide special protection to sports referees against assaults, and they will be asked in the next session to include paramedics among the specially protected categories. The concept should be reviewed to determine what professions are vulnerable and need special laws to discourage such assaults.

Hawaii law now makes it a felony to assault school employees, prison guards and law-enforcement officials, the notion being that members of certain professionals are placed in harm's way on a regular basis. An offender faces a prison term of up to five years for an assault that otherwise would be a misdemeanor.

Recent violence on the nation's high school athletic fields has triggered new laws aimed at discouraging attacks on sports officials. A Big Island youth was barred from prep sports last year after trying to tackle a referee in a basketball game. More than half the states, but not Hawaii, afford some enhanced penalties for attacks on sports officials.

Emergency Medical Service officials in Hawaii now say they need such protection. The plea follows an assault last week by a 32-year-old man on two paramedics who had put a patient in an ambulance for transport to a hospital. Medical treatment ultimately had to be provided to the assailant and the paramedics as well as the original patient.

Firefighters are not protected by enhanced penalties for their assailants, but the emotion that some fires ignite could escalate into violence against those of immediate authority. Lawmakers should go forward with a task force suggested in the last session to examine which professions ought to be provided tougher laws for their protection.

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Let’s exercise more
despite the weather

THE ISSUE A study shows fewer Hawaii residents exercise than residents of any other state.

HAWAII'S sunny warmth might seem inviting for outdoor exercise, but few residents take up the offer. A lower percentage of people get the recommended exercise than in any other state, and a new study places much of the blame on the weather. Exercise should be encouraged more in schools and homes.

Taking results from a survey of physical activity in 355 U.S. counties, Ray Merrill, a professor at Brigham Young University, and other researchers found a correlation between weather and exercise. People in northern states are much more active than those in warmer states.

The survey, which included Puerto Rico and all states but Alaska, found that cool and dry Montanans are the most physically active, with 60.9 percent meeting recommended physical activity levels. Puerto Ricans had the lowest rate at 30.9 percent, followed by Hawaii's 36.4 percent.

Recommended exercise is defined as 30 minutes a day of moderate physical activity -- brisk walking, biking, vacuuming, gardening -- five to seven days a week, and 20 minutes of vigorous activity -- running, aerobics, heavy yard work -- three to seven days a week.

"It's pretty obvious that weather influences physical activity," Merrill concluded. "It's intuitive that cooler, milder weather days are associated with more activity, but it's never really been quantified before."

This should come as no surprise. A study conducted last year showed that 14.6 percent of Hawaii's 5-year-olds were overweight and 19.2 percent were obese, but the state Board of Education persists in refusing to prescribe a needed dose of exercise. By the time the children reach adulthood, they have formed couch-potato patterns of behavior.

Hawaii nutritionists and Star-Bulletin columnists Joannie Dobbs and Alan Tichenal advise parents that "like adults, children typically drink less than they should during exercise. Meeting water needs is critical."

Too often, of course -- also like adults -- they don't exercise at all and are not encouraged to do so at home or school.

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