Cleveland Clinic CEO Makes Comment About Not Hiring Fat People

[OhioChick]

12:43 pm EDT September 10, 2009

CLEVELAND -- The head of the Cleveland Clinic is defended his recent statement that if he could, he would choose not to hire obese people.

Clinic CEO Dr. Delos "Toby" Cosgrove opened a conference on obesity Wednesday by saying his remark to The New York Times last month was intended to spur discussion. He said obesity represents a major social, economic and medical problem that should be given the same priority as efforts to curb tobacco use.

The clinic stopped giving jobs to smokers two years ago.

Cosgrove said he never considered not hiring obese people but said his point was that bold action is needed.

A conference panelist from an organization that fights insurance and job discrimination against the obese accused Cosgrove of having a "bias mentality."

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/20833580/detail.html

[enlightenment]

1. Hmm.

William Howard Taft weighed over 300 pounds for most of his adult life and lived to age 72, surviving the stresses and strains of a lifelong political career.

Jim Fixx was, outwardly, the epitome of health - not an ounce of extra flab on him. He died of a heart attack from blocked arteries, while running, at the age of 52.

Dr. Cosgrove needs to stop thinking in such black and white terms - outward appearance isn't everything.

[Winterblues]

2. Hmm I guess the diabetes rate that is skyrocketing in America is of no concern.

It is true that obesity in America is causing a concern in the health industry and does need to be addressed, it is also true that it is only a problem for the obese person. Tobacco on the other hand effects anyone in the immediate area of a smoker. There is a major difference between the two.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Actually the obese person affects you indirectly with increased

stresses in the medical system.

That is why he is making the comparison. I have a problem with the way he is going about it, but it is a REAL concern.

[soleft]

9. But not all obese people are unhealthy

Some are in great health. I know a lot of obese athletes, and they are not a strain on the health system.

[Lance_Boyle]

10. obese athletes? sumo wrestlers?

I look forward to your list of "obese athletes" who are "in great health." BTW - "competitive eating" is not "athletics."

[Missy Vixen]

19. Try most of the NFL

If someone here could assist me in calculating BMI, I feel fairly certain that 100% of NFL linemen are considered "obese" by that standard.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. And they are not considered healthy either

But I am sure you realize this.

I worked as a TA in a College Football program, and a few of the linemen were on blood pressure medications, never mind they ran and lifted weights. A few were also on special diets because of that.

There are a few of them who have normal values, but overall they are not the best examples of healthy and do run the risk of developing the same problems that come with being overweight or obese. They may be able to delay it, but that's about it.

Oh and by the way, some of those kids had a heck of a time completing their runs, and had problems with their joints... care to imagine why

I realize that there is this myth developing that you can be obese and healthy, but the SCIENCE yes, that pesky thing, contradicts this most of the time. Yes, there are exceptions to the rules, but they are EXCEPTIONS for a reason.

Now I am talking of the linemen who are actually obese, and not the few linemen who would be obese under BMI but not under any other sets of tests out there that are THAT MORE EXACT... they tend to be on the lower side of weight by the way...

Now on those kids, they ate that way... but I will also say this... the food they were fed was not the best and their coaches also had some strange ideas...

[Missy Vixen]

24. Nadin, the NFL's pretty hardcore about that stuff

Those who get drafted (and survive the average NFL career) are the best of the best. By the time they've hit that level, they know how to eat, they know to lift and get themselves in peak condition, or they don't make it. Julian Peterson, now of the Lions, was a bit of a junk food junkie when he played in Seattle. This was widely commented on in the press here, just because he was considered the exception to the "food is fuel" rule in Seattle's locker room. (Their coach is 49 and runs a local mountain once a week for fun with a buddy. If they don't keep up with him, they're probably gone.)

I've read about the training regimen of the Seahawks, which exhausts me just reading it. Here's an example of what Patrick Kerney (6'5", 270 pounds,) spends his days doing, for instance...

http://www.seahawks.com/media-lounge/videos/lifting-with-kerney/873f54ac-691b-41bb-8bc7-d11947ff4cdf

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Look I know a FEW will be healthy

but most are not. Why we have this... increased risk of... (insert malady here) if you are obese.

This is statistics.

So STATISTICALLY if you are obese you DO HAVE increased risks of diabetes, heart disease, and other maladies. Therefore, statistically you will be an increased burden on the system.

Exception to the rule notwithstanding.

And yes I say this as a former obese person who got that way as a SIDE EFFECT of medications ok.

[HughBeaumont]

17. Jim Fixx, prior to running, weighed 240 lbs, smoked two packs a day . . .

. . . and had a male family history of heart disease.

Not exactly the "epitome of health" to begin with. Running put him in better shape, but that doesn't mean he was in "good shape". Some people are like ticking time bombs.

[saucy susanna]

18. How many Jim Fixxes are there? We can always find those with genetic weaknesses

and point to them as "proof" that it is all arbitrary. Smokers do the same thing: "Hey, George Burns lived to be 100 and he smoked cigars every day..." But it still doesn't make the average person safe from lung cancer and other hideous illnesses due to that toxin.

[NWHarkness]

3. Fat Hate- the last acceptble prejudice. nt

[treestar]

4. Given the rate of obesity in this country, he is severely cutting the labor

pool he can pick from.

[juno jones]

6. And where does he draw the line?

What are his criteria for obese and is it really just that he likes looking at skinny nurses rather than plump ones?


Sounds like he is a piece of work.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. I am betting at BMI... and as a former medic

I can tell you this the grossly obese cannot do the job... at all

I don't like his statement, but we will see some kind of action to get the country to react. That said, he is blaming the victim... the food industry has a lot more with this than many, even in the medical field, realize.

[juno jones]

13. I agree.

The crap that passes for food in this country makes me mad. This is from a cook who can do anything in the world and usually does with fresh ingredients and scratch cooking. The intrusion of fake food in my industry is insidious and invisible to many customers. On edit: Hospital staff often eat food from Aramark or some other industrial vendor. Worst shit ever. Corporate plastic 'food' if ever there was. And while they poison the public, they don't treat cooks well either, from what I hear.

There's a lot of heavy nursing staff out there-just as there's a lot of heavy cooks- but you are right, the grossly, unhealthily obese cannot do our jobs. But they wouldn't be hired on in the first place for physical work. And if they're behind a desk, presumably they were hired for brains and experience. He sounds like he's just bitching about hiring 'fat' people. Maybe it came out wrong, but that's what I get from it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. If you want to really be horrified

read Kessler's the End of Overeating...

It goes into a lot of what passes for food these days.

Lets just say I USED to like... the Panda Inn... not any more... all I can think of is sugar, fat and salt... and how it works in brain...

And I will need to go get lunch soon, fresh ingredients, I have time to cook.

[juno jones]

20. I know what you mean.

My husband used to bring home sammiches from a local pub. After working there a few weeks, I won't touch the food, cause I see what's in it. I'm hoping I find another second job soon before I go mad with guilt and ennui.

I just commented (as an edit) above about industrial vendors like Aramark who run food in institutions nationwide. If nurses are exposed to that utter shite day after day, god help 'em, because that stuff is the cheapest, most unhealthy stuff to come down the pike ever. I feel for hospital patients and staff who must eat it, because it's even worse than the crap I currently serve at the 'brew pub'.

Food and medicine were never meant to be 'industries'. Both have become perverted from the contact with uber-capitalism.

[readmoreoften]

8. Never mind toxic and addictive additives pumped into our food. Let's blame the individuals

who are more physically susceptible to what the food industry calls "bliss points." They give us the cheapest, antibiotic-filled, rubbery meat. Then they die it and inject salt, sugar, and fat in to give it taste. Not to mention MSG and HFCS. And all we do is blame the "immorality of individuals" and "greedy Americans."

Wake the hell up. This is a systemic problem, not an "individual morals" problem.

[LeftinOH]

12. The Cleveland Clinic is a huge world-class facility, situated in the heart

of one of the fattest cities in the country (I live here). It does not reflect well on a medical institution to have a disproportionately large number of obese people on staff. Many patients come to the Clinic from abroad, and are generally not accustomed to seeing so many people 'of size' -all in the same place (I've worked at the Clinic).

[OhioChick]

28. Do they still have McDonald's and Pizza Hut in the Cafeteria?

:)

[Juche]

14. There go 70% of your potential employees

If you ban all fat people and all smokers, you lose about 3/4 of the American public. Good luck.

On another note, one of the biggest motivations for smoking is fear of getting fat (I think it is the biggest for women). Its a catch 22. People want to be bigoted against fat people, which encourages fat people to smoke as a means of weight control. But they want to be bigoted against smokers too.

[keroro gunsou]

16. his loss

then again, i like my job too much to work with such a prat as the good doctor.

[Hannah Bell]

22. about 1/4-1/3 of the population = "obese". i guess they don't deserve jobs

& should die.

cosgrove can shove it.

[SoCalDem]

23. This is what happens when task-doing bumps up against civil rights

If shuffling papers & talking on the phone is what "your job" requires, why should it matter what you weigh, what color you are, how old you are?

Jobs & pay for those jobs should be dependent on what that job requires..and when the day is done, your life is your own..with no interference from "the boss-man/boss-lady".


The intrusion of "employer-paid benefits", has allowed them to become your Mommy-Daddy, and by extension, put them in charge of private parts of your life.

Obviously, if your job involves climbing a telephone pole, it would be a real problem if you weighed 400lb, and had breathing problems.

[Missy Vixen]

25. Don't kid yourself -- he's already doing it

I'm sure everyone that walks in the door and is even slightly overweight is not even considered for a job there.

In the meantime, I'll talk to a doctor that has a real and workable plan. I won't talk to one that is interested in nothing more than scapegoating and discrimination. "Bold action"? If I were one of his patients, I would have left his practice a long time ago.

:eyes:

[Vinca]

26. Then he better also consider not hiring the very skinny.

Or the people who ride motorcycles without helmets. Or the people who have unprotected one night stands. Or the people who chat on their cell phones while driving. Or the joggers who run at night without fluorescent attire. Or the people who keep reptiles as pets and don't always wash their hands. Or the people who are genetically predisposed to hundreds of horrible diseases. Something tells me the "social" part bothers this doctor more than anything else. I wish him a hundred pound spontaneous weight gain.

[KamaAina]

27. People of some ethnicities, like Pacific Islanders, tend to be large

so basically he's saying "If I could, I would choose not to hire Samoans, Tongans, or many native Hawaiians." :eyes: