Alcohol – Corporations and Health Watch

Alcohol, Cancer and the Right to Know

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Corporations and Health Watch

Credit Source Based on UK survey

There is a “direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers” — that’s what Irish health officials want their country’s drinkers to know each time they look at a bottle of alcohol, reports the European edition of Politico. Even as producers of wine, beers and spirits fret about any European Commission regulation that would force them to list ingredients and calories on their products, health officials in Dublin are making a big push for what the alcohol industry considers a nightmare scenario: mandatory cancer warnings on liquor. “Reducing alcohol intake is an important step in reducing the burden of cancer,” Irish Health Minister Simon Harris said in February, ahead of submitting to the parliament a bill with proposals that include some of the toughest provisions on alcohol labeling on the Continent, including a label stating the link between drinking and cancer. “This is a landmark piece of public health legislation which will make a real difference when it comes to reducing the harm caused by alcohol,” Harris added.

In this five minute video, Michael Greger summarizes the evidence on alcohol’s role in cancer. And in a March 2018 article in Drug and Alcohol Review, the authors conclude that the alcohol industry “appears to be engaged in the extensive misrepresentation of evidence about the alcohol-related risk of cancer. These activities have parallels with those of the tobacco industry. This finding is important because the industry is involved in developing alcohol policy in many countries, and in disseminating health information to the public, including school children. Policymakers, academics, public health and other practitioners should reconsider the appropriateness of their relationships to these alcohol industry bodies.”

Taking the Overseas Blinders Off Corporate Governance

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Corporations and Health Watch

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In its annual Good Governance report, writes Fair Observer, the Institute of Directors assesses the United Kingdom’s largest listed companies against indicators that include board effectiveness, audit and risk accountability, remuneration, shareholder relations and stakeholder relations. Ironically, the IoD index’s top performers often come from the alcohol and tobacco industries. This year’s report gave pride of place to the distiller Diageo and the 2016 winner was British American Tobacco (BAT). The IoD’s standards may be appropriate for how these companies behave in London. In Kinshasa, Kampala and Juba, though, the praise of BAT surely raises eyebrows. As the rest of the world has learned over the intervening months, above-board corporate behavior in the UK does not guarantee ethical conduct elsewhere. Over the summer, The Guardian revealed in a series of explosive investigative pieces that BAT (as well as other multinational tobacco firms) has been ruthless in staking out market share and seeing off health regulations in African markets. BAT and its allies have threatened governments in some eight African countries to counteract policies that have underpinned public health initiatives in Western markets.

Framing the tax and health nexus: a neglected aspect of public health concern

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Corporations and Health Watch

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Previous studies have described various associations between tax policy and health. This article proposes a unifying conceptual framework of ‘Five R’s’ to stimulate awareness about the importance of tax to health improvement. First, tax can improve representation and democratic accountability, and help make governments more responsive to the needs of its citizens. Second, tax can create a revenue stream for a universal pool of public finance for health care and other public services. Third, progressive taxation when combined with appropriate public spending can help redistribute wealth and income and mitigate social and health inequalities. Fourth, the re-pricing of harmful products (e.g. tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food) can help reduce their consumption. Fifth, taxation provides a route by which certain harmful industries can be regulated. The paper also discusses the barriers that hinder the full potential for taxation to be used to improve health, including: weak tax administrations, large ‘shadow economies’, international trade liberalisation, tax avoidance, transfer pricing by transnational corporations and banking secrecy. The authors suggest that a greater awareness of the manifold associations between tax and health will encourage health practitioners to actively promote fairer and better taxation, thereby helping to improve health and reduce health inequalities.

Citation: Mccoy D, Chigudu S, Tillmann T. Framing the tax and health nexus: a neglected aspect of public health concern. Health Econ Policy Law 2017 Apr;12(2):179-194.

Alcohol Labeling in Europe: Who sets the standards?

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Corporations and Health Watch

A new report from the Commission to the European Parliament and Council regarding the mandatory labeling of the list of ingredients and the nutrition declaration of alcoholic beverages recommends the industry develop a voluntary labeling proposal. Mariann Skar, Secretary General of the European Alcohol Policy Alliance noted: “We welcome the report as it clearly recognizes the need for better alcohol labeling and widespread support for it. Disappointingly, the conclusions do not seem to be in line as it asks for self-regulatory proposal from the industry. Self-regulation is not a suitable regulatory mechanism. Member States in the European Council should follow up and empower the European Commission to take regulatory actions.”