A group of large employers on June 17 announced a project to encourage overweight workers and their families to lose weight, as part of an effort to promote better health and reduce health care costs for employers nationwide, the New York Times reports. Companies, including Ford Motor, Honeywell, Pfizer, Aetna, General Mills and PepsiCo, along with the Washington Business Group on Health, a consortium of 175 employers that provide benefits to 40 million people, founded the Institute on the Costs and Health Effects of Obesity to combat condition that accounts for $12 billion in health care costs for employers, according to the Times. The institute will use research financed by the CDC and the Institute of Medicine, which are also members of the institute's board, to plan ways to counter weight-related problems and share information on strategies that work. WBGH President Helen Darling suggested that companies start with "small, inexpensive initiatives," such as posting nutritional information in company cafeterias, encouraging workers to take the stairs and building community bike paths (Freudenheim, New York Times, 6/18). In addition, the institute has published a booklet describing the costs and results of some weight-management programs that are already marketed to companies. "This is like smoking 30 years ago," Darling said, adding, "This is a public health problem that affects everybody" (Landers/Bayne Anderson, Wall Street Journal, 6/18).