Tobacco, alcohol and processed food industries – Why are they viewed so differently?

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

Katherine Smith           November 18, 2015

Cross-posted from Policy and Politics Blog

One of the few indisputable truths in life is that we will all, eventually, die but what we will die of, and at what age, is changing across the world, with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) increasingly accounting for excessive morbidity and mortality burdens. The growing prevalence of NCDs is triggering substantial policy concern, evident, for example, in the 2011 UN high level meeting on NCDs. Yet, it is clear there are very different ways of thinking about this ‘epidemiological transition’: it has been framed, on the one hand, as a consequence of the choices that individuals make and, on the other, as a consequence of the strategies that corporations pursue.

Continue reading Tobacco, alcohol and processed food industries – Why are they viewed so differently?

California ballot measure will bypass NRA on gun control

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

An op ed in the Sacramento Bee notes that year after year, Americans are horrified by the relentless gun violence in this country – and feel despair that it can’t be stopped. Now California’s Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking the issue directly to the people, with his proposal of a state ballot measure to advance gun safety. The measure would make California the first in the nation to implement point-of-sale background checks for ammunition purchases.

This is how gullible General Mills thinks Americans are

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

The Washington Post writes that General Mills has a clever new trick, according to a lawsuit brought against the company this week by Center for Science in the Public Interest. The suit alleges that the cereal maker has been selling a new product called Cheerios Protein, which the company introduced last year, under false pretenses.

Look what is being sold to kids when they are in school

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

by Faith Boninger and Alex Molnar 

Cross-posted from The Conversation

Students are greeted these days with a barrage of marketing and advertising as they enter the school year. And there is no let-up. The ads are all over.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found ads in corridors, on scoreboards and vending machines, and inserted in the curricula through supplementary educational materials. They were on school equipment (eg, uniforms, cups, water coolers, beverage cases, food display racks) and on school buses. Ads were also put out through school newspapers, yearbooks and the school radio stations.

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EU urged to protect citizens from air pollution and fraudulent practices of car makers

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

Several European health and environmental groups have written to European leaders saying that in cheating on emission control, Volkswagen has “intentionally misrepresented and manipulated data for years to undercut standards which were put in place to protect our health and the environment.” They urge the European Union to “improve its capacity to protect European citizens from air pollution and the fraudulent behaviour of companies.”

Alcohol Ads Linked to Teen Alcohol Brand Choices

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

A new report in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse found that overall exposure to brand-specific alcohol advertising is a significant predictor of underage youth alcohol brand consumption, with youth ages 13 to 20 more than five times more likely to consume brands that advertise on national television and 36 percent more likely to consume brands that advertise in national magazines compared to brands that don’t advertise in these media.

Alarms raised on generic drug price increases

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

The Boston Globe reports that concerns about the soaring costs of prescription drugs have focused on new specialty treatments that can cost tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient. But insurers, health care providers, and industry specialists are now raising alarms about a new potential source of rising prices: generic drugs. Insurers say they are seeing huge cost increases for some commonly used generic drugs, with prices surging 15, 25, and even 75 times what they were just two years ago.

TPP Caves to the Tobacco Industry, Threatens Public Health

Posted on by Corporations and Health Watch

Ellen R. Shaffer, Joseph E. Brenner   Nov. 6, 2015               Cross-posted from CPATH

The vacuous “tobacco control” provision in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) virtually capitulates to the demands of multinational tobacco corporations, jeopardizing nations’ health and economic welfare.  Public health and medical advocates in the U.S. and abroad consistently urged negotiators to exclude tobacco control protections from trade challenges under the TPP.  But tobacco industry opposition won the day, bolstered by corporate allies concerned that addressing the uniquely lethal effects of tobacco in trade agreements could set a precedent for reining in their own practices.

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