Nearly 60 percent of the scientists used as consultants by the European Food Safety Authority, or E.F.S.A., have direct or indirect ties to industries regulated by the agency, according to a report from the Corporate Europe Observatory, an advocacy group that criticizes corporate influence on public policy, reports the New York Times. Martin Pigeon, a researcher at the Corporate Europe Observatory, said the notion that there were no scientists free of industry entanglement was a fiction, noting that many already worked for the food safety agency. “It’s not true that such people don’t exist,” he said, “They do.”
Keeping Salmonella Out of Chicken
In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times writes that Sweden has virtually eliminated salmonella in store-bought chicken, even though poultry there is industrially produced, just like in the United States. And even in this country, a 2010 Consumers Union study found no salmonella in the organic store-brand chickens it tested. In other words, consumers shouldn’t have to accept salmonella-tainted chicken as just one of those unavoidable things.
Partnerships of Peril: Keeping Food, Alcohol and Beverage Industries Out of Global Health Governance
In a blog on PLOS Medicine, Heather Wipfli, from the University of Southern California, highlights the lack of consensus regarding the role of private industry in efforts to control the burden of non-communicable diseases. At the May meetings of the World Health Assembly, there was widespread discussion about the role of the private sector in NCD control. While WHO’s position on the tobacco industry is definitive, the definition and parameters of partnerships with other industries driving NCD epidemics are not, despite recent efforts to put safeguards in place. The lack of clarity on when and how to engage with the private sector and the increasing push for public-private partnerships to address global health challenges provides industries with vested interests in policy outcomes direct access to, and greater influence on, decision makers.
Pricing in the Global Tobacco Industry: A Flagship Concept Under Threat?
A new report from Research and Markets, an international market research company, found that pricing strength remains of paramount importance to the tobacco industry. But things are changing and the prognosis is for less bullish price growth than previously, due to less uptrading and reduced product mix improvement.
Athlete Endorsements in Food Marketing
A new article in Pediatrics reports that 100 athletes endorsed 512 brands in 2010. Food and beverages constituted 23.8% of these endorsements. Seventy-nine percent of the 62 food products in these athlete-endorsed advertisements were energy-dense and nutrient poor; and 96.4 % of the 46 advertised beverages had 100% of their calories from added sugar. Peyton Manning and LeBron James had the most endorsements for energy-dense, nutrient poor products.
A Blind Spot on Rearview Cameras
On average, backover car accidents kill some 230 people a year, mostly children and mostly in accidents in which a parent or another relative is driving, writes the New York Times in an Editorial. Another 18,000 people are injured annually in backover accidents. Yet the Obama administration has balked at carrying out a law that requires rearview technology in new cars…. One reason the industry doesn’t want mandatory rearview cameras is that it makes more money selling them as options. The added cost to a car is small — $160 to $200, according to a government estimate from 2010 — and that is surely too high now, given the technology’s declining cost.
Sugar Rush: Land Rights and the Supply Chains of the Biggest Food and Beverage Companies
A new report by Oxfam shows how one crop – sugar– has been driving large-scale land acquisitions and land conflicts at the expense of small-scale food producers and their families. Major food and beverage companies rarely own land, but they depend on it for the crops they buy, including sugar. These companies, says Oxfam, must urgently recognize this problem, and take steps to ensure that land rights violations and conflicts are not part of their supply chains.
FDA and Johnson & Johnson Fail to Act on Acetaminophen Risks
During the last decade, more than 1,500 Americans died after accidentally taking too much of a drug renowned for its safety: acetaminophen, one of the nation’s most popular pain relievers. Acetaminophen – the active ingredient in Tylenol, produced by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a unit of Johnson & Johnson – is considered safe when taken at recommended doses. Yet a new investigation by Pro Publica shows that federal regulators have delayed or failed to adopt measures designed to reduce deaths and injuries from acetaminophen overdose, which the agency calls a “persistent, important public health problem.” The FDA has repeatedly deferred decisions on consumer protections even when they were endorsed by the agency’s own advisory committees, records show.
Bribery Scandal Dents Big Pharma Sales in China, GSK Hardest Hit
A crackdown on corruption in China’s pharmaceutical sector, reports Reuters, has hurt sales at international and local firms, with many doctors at Chinese hospitals refusing to see drug representatives for fear of being caught up in the widening scandal. Britain’s GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the group at the center of the furor, has suffered the most. Industry insiders expect its China drug sales growth to slow sharply or even reverse in the third quarter after a 14 percent year-on-year rise in the last three months.
China’s Plan to Curb Air Pollution Sets Limits on Coal Use and Vehicles
The New York Times reports that the Chinese government announced an ambitious plan to curb air pollution across the nation, including setting some limits on burning coal and taking high-polluting vehicles off the roads to ensure a drop in the concentration of particulate matter in cities. The government is responding to criticism over the abysmal condition of the country’s air, soil and water.
Corporations and Health Watch 