The Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP) is a newly established non-profit organization which aims to encourage the worldwide availability of independent consumer information about the safety of motor vehicles. Its chairman Max Mosley has urged CEOs at Renault-Nissan, General Motors and Suzuki to apply the UN’s minimum crash safety standards to their global passenger car production. New crash test results have indicated that popular cars sold by the manufacturers in Latin America pose an unacceptably high risk of death or injury in the event of a crash.
Minimum Unit Price for Alcohol Proposal Shelved
Health groups have strongly condemned the government for last week’s decision to shelve minimum unit pricing for alcohol and substitute a series of measures to curb excessive drinking that they say will not work. They warn that more lives will now be lost, reports the Guardian. The Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) accused the government of buckling to pressure from the drink industry, which has fiercely opposed minimum pricing – a measure which is supported by doctors, children’s charities, pub landlords and the police.
Bain Capital Buys British Blood Bank
Bain Capital, the private equity firm branded a “job destroyer” in the US presidential elections, has bought a majority stake in the state-owned blood products firm Plasma Resources UK, reports the Guardian. Lord Owen, a former Labour health minister in the 1970s, who created a service to make the UK self-sufficient in blood supplies, said it was “hard to conceive of a worse outcome” than the £200m sale of an 80% stake in the Hertfordshire-based company to private equity. The Department of Health will retain a 20% share in the business.
Cigarette Packaging in the UK: the Corporate Smokescreen
It’s a victory for the hidden persuaders, the astroturfers, sock puppets, purchased scholars and corporate moles, writes George Monbiot in the Guardian. On Friday the British government announced that it will not oblige tobacco companies to sell cigarettes in plain packaging. How did it happen? The public was overwhelmingly in favour. The evidence that plain packets will discourage young people from smoking is powerful. But it fell victim to a lobbying campaign that was anything but plainly packaged.
Firearms Industry Sues Connecticut
The Connecticut Mirror reports that the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade group, filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Connecticut General Assembly of bypassing normal legislative procedures in passing its emergency-certified gun violence reduction bill. NSSF is based in Newtown near the elementary school where 20 children and six educators were shot to death on December 14.
Painkillers, Profits and Politics
In a blog on Open Secrets, Monica Vendituoli reports that two lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health (Chairman, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA.) and Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX), the subcommittee’s vice chairman) appear to be favorites of the companies that produce some of the most popular painkillers, drugs that are increasingly associated with overdose deaths.
Drinks Industry Resists Efforts to Phase Out Its Sponsorship of Sports Events
A renewed effort in the United Kingdom to phase out sponsorship of sports events by the alcohol industry has elicited predictable industry responses, reports the Irish Times. Senior sporting figures have been lined up to warn of the dangers of removing sponsorship by alcohol companies. As usual, alcohol companies are positioning themselves as philanthropists. Yet the reality is that sponsorship helps secure a whole new generation of drinkers. Read more.
Do Car Pollution Regulations Lead to Cleaner Air?
In his recent California speech on the environment, President Barack Obama said, “At the time when we passed the Clean Air Act, to try to get rid of some of this smog, some of the same doomsayers were saying, ‘New pollution standards will decimate the auto industry.’ Guess what? It didn’t happen. Our air got cleaner.” PoliticFact.com rates his claim.
Top Medicare Prescribers Rake in Speaking Fees From Drug Makers
An investigation by Pro Publica’s Charles Ornstein, Tracy Weber and Jennifer LaFleur found that at least 17 of the top 20 prescribers of Bystolic, a blood pressure medicine, in Medicare’s prescription drug program in 2010 have been paid by the drug maker Forest Laboratories to deliver promotional talks. In 2012, they together received $283,450 for speeches and more than $20,000 in meals. Pay-to-prescribe is illegal, but these doctors say they haven’t been influenced by the money they get for promoting drugs they also prescribe to large numbers of their patients. Read More.
European Union to Ban Menthol Cigarettes
The Independent reports that the European Union has agreed to ban menthol cigarettes and radically alter the packaging of so-called “slim” cigarettes as part of an overhaul of its tobacco rules. Currently slim cigarettes are sold in packaging that may attract young people, particularly girls. Under the new rules, slims will have to be sold in traditional cigarette boxes. Read More.
Corporations and Health Watch 