There is one more reason to require girls to take PE

San Jose Mercury News: One-third of California’s adolescents don’t exercise enough. Nearly 10 percent don’t exercise at all.

The consequences — a leap in the number of overweight and obese youth — are bad enough. But a new study published Wednesday reveals another threat to girls who aren’t physically active: a higher risk of breast cancer, which kills 40,000 American women every year.

Parents and schools should redouble their efforts to make sure regular physical activity is a part of every child’s life.

Breast cancer

The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, asked 65,000 nurses ages 24 to 42 to detail their physical activity since they were 12 years old. The women who reported exercising regularly as teens and young adults were 23 percent less likely to develop pre-menopausal breast cancer.

The study, by Dr. Graham Colditz of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, suggests that girls and young women don’t need to be “extreme” athletes to reduce their risk of breast cancer. Those who averaged about three hours of running a week or 13 hours of walking a week reported the best results.

California students must take physical fitness tests. But they aren’t necessarily required to take PE classes to stay in shape.

That’s a shortsighted approach with potentially disastrous consequences.