CNBC reports that Kenneth Feinberg, the attorney who is overseeing the General Motors compensation fund for victims in crashes linked to defective ignition switches, has linked 19 deaths to the faulty switches and expects the death toll to go higher. In the five weeks the fund has been operating, it has received 125 death claims and 320 injury claims. Feinberg has found 31 claims eligible for compensation. “Already there are more deaths than GM said from day one,” Feinberg said.
Climate Change, Food and Health: Taking Action to Address Root Causes
The “good” news is that three of the world’s most serious threats —human-induced climate change, accelerating epidemics of chronic diseases, and growing food insecurity — have common causes and therefore potentially common solutions. The 2014 Climate Summit at the United Nations later this month provides an opportunity for scientists, government leaders, activists and concerned citizens from around the world to examine these common causes and identify the actions we can take to modify the underlying causes of these intersecting crises.
What are these common roots? Our economy’s continued dependence on fossil fuels ensures that carbon continues to accumulate, accelerating rising global temperatures and their impact on weather, climate and human well-being. The global energy industry from Exxon to BP to Gazprom uses its economic and political power to thwart widespread implementation of alternatives. Evidence shows that coal plays an especially important role in climate change yet countries like China, the United States and others continue to support coal production. According to Greenpeace, the fossil fuel industry is planning 14 massive coal, oil and gas projects that would produce as much new carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 as the entire US, and delay action on climate change for more than a decade.
Hyperconsumption describes lifestyles and health behaviors that put people at risk of premature death and preventable chronic illnesses. Each year the tobacco, alcohol and processed food industries spend billions of dollars aggressively promoting their products around the world, despite the World Health Organization’s finding that increased consumption of tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food are primary drivers of growing rates of chronic diseases, today’s leading global killers. The production and distribution practices of the food, alcohol and tobacco industries contribute to global warming and also magnify global health inequalities.
Autocentrism is the irrational promotion of automobiles as the main mode of human transportation. Despite growing evidence that active transportation like walking and bicycling and mass transitcontribute to more physical activity, better health, fewer emissions of carbon and other pollutants, and people-friendlier cities and towns, the automobile industry and the governments that support it resist pursuing alternatives at a scale that can achieve their benefits.
Industrial agriculture describes the transformation of food production from small and medium size farmers and manufacturers to a system where giant multinational corporations like Monsanto, Cargill, Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Nestle and Walmart control every stage of our food system from patented seeds, monoculture farming, and integrated distribution to global marketing and retail outlets. Industrial agriculture insists that the bottom line is their profit, not human need. Its practices on fertilizers, transportation, meat production and global trade contribute to carbon emissions, diet-related diseases and food insecurity.
One reason that climate change, chronic disease and food insecurity have worsened in recent decades is that the industries involved and business and international trade associations they have created have coordinated a massive effort to roll back regulations that protect public health and the environment and discredit the science that documents the dangers the world faces.
Underlying these trends has been the growing concentration of wealth and power in the hands of corporations and the moneyed interests that own and control them. The synergistic impact of these developments has been a rise in inequality and declines in democracy, developments that make it harder to propose and mobilize public support for alternative policies.
Some who agree on the magnitude of the threats and the evidence on common causes of climate change, premature deaths from chronic diseases and growing food insecurity are reluctant to act because they believe the problems are too big and complex and the perpetrators too powerful to make change possible. But the acceleration of each of these problems results from human decisions made over the course of the last few decades. And what people decide in one time, they can change in another.
To the chorus of the powerful that there is no alternative to the status quo the response of the majority must be that another world is possible. By encouraging public discussion of the common roots of climate change, chronic diseases and food insecurity, we can begin to shine a light on the actions that will lead us to that other world.
Every generation is judged by the world we leave our children and grandchildren. The decisions we make in the years to come will determine whether our legacy is shortened lifespans, growing hunger, and further deterioration of the environment that supports life. Or we can decide that our gift will be better health, food security and a more sustainable planet. The choice is ours.
Another World is Possible
For more information, read the recent Lancet summary on climate change and health and Chapter 7 on food security and Chapter 11 on Human Health from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014.
FTC Sues Pharmaceutical Companies for Blocking Consumer Access to Lower-Cost Drug
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint in federal district court charging several major pharmaceutical companies with illegally blocking American consumers’ access to lower-cost versions of the blockbuster drug AndroGel. The FTC’s complaint alleges that AbbVie Inc. and its partner Besins Healthcare Inc. filed baseless patent infringement lawsuits against potential generic competitors to delay the introduction of lower-priced versions of the testosterone replacement drug AndroGel..
Philip Morris International Fined in Brazil for Targeting Youth with its “Be Marlboro” Ads
Philip Morris International’s “Be Marlboro” campaign is coming under fire again for targeting youth, writes the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. This time, the consumer protection agency from the Brazilian state of São Paulo has fined Philip Morris over $480,000. The agency acted after a formal complaint was filed against Philip Morris by tobacco control activists who documented how its marketing tactics were aimed at youth.
Assessing the Health Impact of Burger King’s Acquisition of Tim Horton’s
Last month, the U.S. fast food corporation Burger King (BK) announced that it planned to buy Tim Horton’s, the Canadian coffee and doughnut chain for $11 billion to create the world’s second largest fast food chain. Media and political commentary on the deal has focused on BK’s decision to move the merged company to Canada, a so-called tax inversion that can lower BK’s tax rate. U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (Dem-Ohio) called the decision unpatriotic and urged Americans to boycott BK. “Burger King’s decision to abandon the United States means consumers should turn to Wendy’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers or White Castle sliders,” companies that happen to be based in Ohio, said Brown. “To help business grow in America, taxpayers have funded public infrastructure, workforce training and incentives to encourage [research and development] and capital investment. Runaway corporations benefited from those policies but want US companies to pay their share of the tab.”
Fast Food Goes Global
But BK, like other fast food companies, had already become a global corporation, with closer ties to international capital than any government. The financial shenanigans leading up to the acquisition illustrate the globalization of the fast food industry. In 2002, Bain Capital, TPG Capital and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners took BK public. In 2010, however, they sold off a majority stake to 3G Capital, a Brazilian private equity firm. By 2012, according to the Guardian, the company’s profits had fallen in half and 3G pushed BK to go public again. It used a merger with an already public shell company Justice Holdings, to expedite the public offering. The Brazilian 3G Capital will be the owner of the new company, in which BK will continue to be based in Miami and Tim Horton’s in Oakville, Ontario. 3G also owns Heinz, another multinational processed food company that brags about being “famous for our iconic brands on six continents.” A major investor in both BK and Heinz (as well as in Dairy Queen) is the billionaire investor Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway.
Both BK and Horton’s have a global presence. BK has approximately 12,000 outlets in the U.S. and 73 countries and U.S. territories worldwide. Tim Horton’s operates in Canada and the US. In 2011, it signed an agreement with a company based in Dubai to open up to 120 multi-format restaurants in markets in the Middle East.
Health impact of acquisition
How might the BK/Horton’s marriage affect population health? In the absence of data, only informed speculation is possible. In general, market concentration shifts power away from consumers to producers. It allows bigger companies to spend more on marketing and research and development, activities carried out to further consolidate market share and enhance profitability. For these two companies, whose business depends on selling inexpensive high calorie, low nutrient food to people around the world, expansion means reaching more eaters with products known to contribute to obesity, diabetes and other diet-related diseases.
For BK, the acquisition offers an opportunity to cash in on the only growing sector of the fast food market—take out breakfast. Adding Tim Horton’s will allow BK to compete more with a main rival, Dunkin Donuts, the only fast food company that has not lost customers in recent years, according to Harry Balzer, vice-president of the NPK Group. Like other fast food companies, BK hopes to gain round the clock stomach share for fast food. Compared to other fast food meals, breakfast has even more potential to add calories, fat, sugar and salt to consumers’ diets since it replaces the often healthier home alternatives.
Concentration also gives industries more leeway to compete on price since they can achieve economies of scale and afford to lower prices in order to drive smaller competitors out of business. By making its energy-dense nutrient-poor fare more affordable to low income populations, the new company may further contribute to already high inequalities in diet-related disease among the poor and the better off.
The sad truth is that today no local, national or global organization has the mandate, resources or commitment for assessing the health impact of mergers or acquisitions like the one between Burger King and Tim Horton’s. Until that changes, we can expect these deals will continue to be good for profits but bad for public health.
Good News for Auto Companies is Bad News for Breathers
U.S. August auto sales were unexpectedly strong, reports the Chicago Tribune, thanks in part to heavy discounting by the manufacturers, with the industry selling at an annualized pace not seen since early 2006. The lowest gasoline prices in four years helped GM and Chrysler Group, a unit of Fiat SpA , achieve double-digit gains in sales of full-size pickups, which provide the bulk of profit. The best-selling pick-ups and SUVs pollute more and contribute more to global warming.
Novartis Japan Admits Concealing Drug Side Effects
The Japanese unit of Swiss pharma giant Novartis has admitted it did not report more than 2,500 cases of serious side effects in patients using its leukaemia and other cancer drugs, reportedly including some fatalities, writes AFP. The revelations, which marked the latest in a string of scandals at the company’s Japanese subsidiary, come after local authorities slapped the firm on the wrist, saying it had to clean up its operations.
Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
In Memory of James Brady, 1940-2014
More on the work of the Brady Center:
Changing the Gun Industry For over 25 years the Brady Center’s Legal Action Project has been the nation’s only law group fighting in the courts to prevent gun deaths and injuries. We reform the negligent and dangerous practices of the gun industry by representing victims of gun violence in high-impact lawsuits, including law enforcement officers shot in the line of duty, as well as children and families. We have won landmark precedents holding that gun companies can be held legally responsible for the damage caused by their irresponsible business practices. Our victories have forced gun dealers and manufacturers to reform their practices to prevent sales of guns to dangerous people, and sent a message to the bad-apple gun dealers that supply over half of guns traced to crime that they cannot get away with profiting from arming criminals and gun traffickers. The Legal Action Project also works with public officials to defend gun laws that are under attack, and challenges laws and regulations that worsen the problem of gun violence. We have filed briefs or provided legal advice in hundreds of gun law cases, and won precedent-setting victories in high-level state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Finish the Job Since the Brady law went into effect on February 28, 1994, background checks have stopped more than 2.1 million gun sales to prohibited purchasers including convicted felons, domestic abusers, fugitives from justice, and other dangerous individuals. Millions of guns are sold every year in “no questions asked” transactions. Experts estimate that 40 percent of guns now sold in America are done so without a Brady background check. It’s time for Congress to finish the job and expand Brady background checks to stop criminals and other dangerous people from getting guns in America.
Changing the Laws The Brady Campaign supports a policy platform that addresses the problem of gun violence and is driven by the opportunity to save the most lives. Every death is a tragedy, whether in a mass shooting that horrifies our entire nation, or one of the 32 gun murders or 90 gun deaths in our communities and homes every day.
Good Time to Buy Stock in Philp Morris International?
Sure there are problems, writes the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch, like the widening global ban on smoking in public, most recently in Russia, and the growing popularity of e-vapor cigarettes. Global cigarette sales, by volume, continue to decline because of these trends. But here’s the key: Philip Morris has been warning about these trends all year, and by now they seem priced in. “Our key takeaway is that the absence of any new issues results in less risk,” says Morgan Stanley’s David Adelman, who has a “buy” rating on the stock.
To Lower Prescription Drug Costs, Give Medicare Authority to Bargain With Drug Companies
Late last month, reports the Center for Public Integrity, two advocacy groups, the Medicare Rights Center and Social Security Works, released a report suggesting that Congress could save taxpayers $141 billion over 10 years just by reauthorizing a program that was eliminated at the behest of drug makers in 2003. The groups noted that while the prescription drug benefit helped Medicare beneficiaries afford their medications, “the law also severely limited the government’s ability to control Medicare drug prices.”
Corporations and Health Watch 