Having banished any further threat of bioterrorist attack along with all forms of infectious disease, and having addressed the "epidemics" of gun ownership, tobacco use and domestic violence, the Centers for Disease Control has now released a report in conjunction with the Sierra Club, concluding that suburban sprawl is a public health hazard. According to the report, automobile-driving suburbanites don't get enough exercise walking to shops or work the way many city dwellers do. The conclusion runs counter to another CDC finding that suburban areas boast better public health indicators than either urban or rural areas. Writing in the Rocky Mountain News, Vincent Carroll also notes that Colorado has the country's lowest rate of obesity despite having some of the most sprawling suburbs.

[Ed.: The British Medical Journal later devoted one of its issues to the subject of war, identifying its origin as inequality and poverty.]

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