As May 31 World No Tobacco Day approaches, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for a comprehensive ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, saying that the tobacco companies’ ” aggressive marketing” has led to addiction killing at least 6 million people worldwide each year, reports the Xinhua News Agency. In a statement issued Thursday, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Dr. Shin Young-soo cited the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as saying governments around the world “must comprehensively ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.”
How the Trans-Pacific Partnership Endangers Access to Medicine in Peru
U.S. Firearms Trafficking to Guatemala and Mexico
A new report from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars examines the role that the trafficking of US weapons into Guatemala may play a role in the continuing violence and criminality in that Central American nation. The report reviews an analysis that the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) conducted of weapons from two Guatemalan military bunkers in 2009. One bunker contained firearms and the other explosives and military ordnance.
Court Rules Against Industry Efforts to Hide Health Effects of Styrene
Earth Justice, an environmental group, reports that the D.C. District Court dismissed the styrene industry’s challenge to the identification of styrene as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen,” ensuring that government can alert the American public to the potential dangers of styrene, a chemical used extensively in the manufacture of plastics, as well as boats, cars, bathtubs, and products made with rubber, such as tires and conveyer belts.
Turkey Considers Tighter Limits on Alcohol Sale and Consumption
Reuters reports that the Turkish government has prepared a draft law that would ban advertising alcoholic drinks in what officials say is an effort to protect children but could further divide religious and secularist Turks.
New Resource for Educating about Pharma Advertising
Pharmed Out, a Georgetown University Medical Center project that advances evidence-based prescribing and educates healthcare professionals about pharmaceutical marketing practices, has created a new set of drug ad resources that can be used to teach about pharmaceutical industry drug advertising tactics.
WTO Declares Ontario’s Green Energy Act Illegal
In December 2012, the World Trade Organization ruled part of the Ontario Green Energy and Green Economy Act (GEA) illegal. According to the Council of Canadians, one of seven environmental, labor and student groups that defended the Green Energy Act, the WTO panel decided that “Buy Local” conditions on wind and solar power projects, designed to ensure local development and jobs benefits to Ontarians, violate international free-trade rules. This decision exposes the very real barrier that these rules put in front of economic and environmental policy options, and to the idea of sustainable development more generally.
Charged with Bribery, Wal-Mart Ad Touts “American Success Story”
The Wall Street Journal reports that Wal-Mart has launch a new ad campaign that depicts the world’s largest retailer as an American success story. Faced with a drop in brand perception among college-educated adults last year because of charges of bribery, contracting with Bangladeshi factories where fires killed workers, and paying US workers low wages with few benefits, the multi-million dollar campaign seeks to correct the misperceptions of people who “don’t know the whole story,” according to a Wal-Mart spokesman.
New EPA auto pollution standards save lives and money
For the past few weeks, the EPA has been holding hearings in Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities to solicit comments on new standards for cleaner burning gasoline which lowers life- threatening tailpipe pollution. A new report from The American Lung Association, “A Penny for Prevention: The Case for Cleaner Gasoline and Vehicle Standards ” estimates that by 2030, these standards would prevent more than 2500 early deaths each year, prevent more than 3.3 million missed days at school and work each year and provide up to $22 billion in health and economic benefits each year.
Community coalitions can reduce density of alcohol outlets
A new report in Preventing Chronic Disease by CHW writer David Jernigan and his colleagues examines the role of community coalitions in reducing the density of alcohol outlets. They conclude that “public health agencies have a vital and necessary role to play in efforts to reduce alcohol outlet density. They are often unaware of the potential of this strategy and have strong potential partners in the thousands of community coalitions nationwide that are focused on reducing alcohol-related problems.”
Corporations and Health Watch 