From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Patti Rundall</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:prundall@me.com">prundall@me.com</a>></span><br><div class="gmail_quote">Date: Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 12:36 PM<br>Subject: Fwd: COI Coalition: News release: Corporate Involvement in International Nutrition and Alcohol Laws Help or hindrance?<br>
To: <br><br><br><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>There were a few typos and inconsistences in the COI Coalition Statement so do make sure you have the latest version. <font color="#FF0000"><a href="http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/policyblog/COIstatement" target="_blank">http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/policyblog/COIstatement</a></font></div>
<div><br></div><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89)"><i><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="font-size:small"><b><span style="font-size:medium">Here is a link to our letter in today's Lancet (16.9.11</span></b><i><b><span style="font-size:medium">): </span></b></i></span></span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-family:Helvetica"><span style="font-size:small"><i><b> </b></i></span></span><span style="font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:small"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:small"><a href="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2811%2961463-3/fulltext" style="color:rgb(204, 0, 0);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61463-3/fulltext</a></span></span></div>
<div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"></div><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<span style="font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="font-size:x-small"><b><span style="font-size:small"><br></span></b></span></span></span></div><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<span style="font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="font-size:x-small"><b><span style="font-size:small">There are also articles in the BMJ. </span></b></span></span></span></div><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<i><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;display:inline !important"><span style="font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="font-size:x-small"><b><span style="font-size:small"><br>
</span></b></span></span></span></div></i></div><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><i><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;display:inline !important">
<span style="font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><span style="font-size:x-small"><b><span style="font-size:small">A piece in The Guardian </span></b> </span></span><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:small"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/16/un-summit-spread-lifestyle-diseases" style="color:rgb(204, 0, 0);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/sep/16/un-summit-spread-lifestyle-diseases</a></span></span></div>
</i></div><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><span style="font-size:small"><br></span></div><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<span style="font-size:small">Bloomberg Business Week:</span></div><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px">
<span style="font-size:small"><span style="color:rgb(51, 51, 51);font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:10px"><h1 style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:6px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;font-weight:bold;line-height:1.2em;font-size:13px">
Nestle, Glaxo Lobby UN Over Biggest ‘Epidemic’ Battle Since AIDS</h1></span><div><span style="font-size:medium"><i><div style="color:rgb(0, 45, 89);font-family:Helvetica;line-height:normal;font-size:medium;margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;display:inline !important">
<span style="font-size:small"> <font color="#FF0000"><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-16/nestle-glaxo-lobby-un-over-biggest-epidemic-battle-since-aids.html" target="_blank">http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-16/nestle-glaxo-lobby-un-over-biggest-epidemic-battle-since-aids.html</a></font></span></div>
</i></span></div></span></div><div><span style="font-size:small"><br></span></div></i></span><div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div><div style="padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;padding-top:15px" name="Compose message area">
<div><font color="#000023"><div align="center"><b><span style="color:red;font-size:20pt" lang="EN-US">News
Release<u></u><u></u></span></b></div><p style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="color:red" lang="EN-US"><u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="color:#002060;font-size:18pt" lang="EN-US">Corporate Involvement in
International Nutrition and Alcohol Laws<u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="color:red;font-size:14pt" lang="EN-US">Help or hindrance for protecting
health, government budgets, and worker productivity? <u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p style="text-align:center" align="center"><b><span style="color:red" lang="EN-US"><u></u><u></u></span></b></p><p><b><span lang="EN-US"></span></b><span lang="EN-US">A
consortium of non-profit public health advocacy groups, will press world leaders
and other representatives of the 193 member states to call for strong public
policy measures to curb nutrition and alcohol-related diseases and safeguards
against conflicts of interest in the policy-making process when they meet in New
York City at the United Nations General Assembly next week.</span><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> (1)<u></u></span></p><p>The U.N. “High Level Meeting on
the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases” will adopt a strategy at
the <span> </span>General Assembly on Monday and
Tuesday, September 19-20, 2011, following difficult negotiations on a “Political
Declaration” that began in June.<span> </span></p><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm">
<span lang="EN-US">Last year, the U.N. pledged to
create a strategy to limit cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and chronic
respiratory diseases caused by poor nutrition, excess consumption of alcoholic
beverages, tobacco, and physical inactivity.<span> </span>Negotiations during the summer revealed
competing views about the effectiveness of voluntary food industry efforts,
adequacy of existing international law, and the role of for-profit companies and
public-interest groups in the policy-making process. </span><span lang="EN-US">The
public-interest groups stress that governments now have an unprecedented full
and sophisticated grasp of gigantic health and economic burden NCDs, but have
been decidedly naive about conflicts of interest in policy-making.<span> </span>(See the near-final “Political
Declaration” at <a title="http://www.who.int/nmh/events/un_ncd_summit2011/political_declaration.pdf
CTRL + Click to follow link">http://www.who.int/nmh/events/un_ncd_summit2011/political_declaration.pdf</a>
, program agenda at <span> </span><a>http://cspinet.org/canada/pdf/summit-information-note-9-sept-2011.pdf</a>
, and the statement of the Conflict of Interest Coalition at <a title="http://cspinet.org/canada/pdf/conflict-of-interest.pdf
CTRL + Click to follow link">http://cspinet.org/canada/pdf/conflict-of-interest.pdf</a>
)</span></div><p><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US">“Leaders simply must get
fundamental disease rate-reduction targets locked in—starting with 25% by
2025—and really embrace effective regulations on population-level salt reduction
and trans fat elimination, nutrition standards for school meals, food tax
reform, </span><span style="font-size:11pt" lang="EN-US">controls on the
marketing of high fat, salt and sugar foods and alcohol to children and young
people</span><span lang="EN-US">, and front of pack labelling in order to
safeguard the health and economic development, nationally and internationally,”
said </span><span lang="EN-GB">Paul Lincoln of
the UK-based National Heart Forum.</span><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span lang="EN-US">“World leaders
need to demonstrate their dedication to public health nutrition as they have
already begun to do for tobacco control.<span>
</span>Leaders fall short when they white-wash ineffective food industry
promises, and duck specifics on regulatory reform while backward-looking World
Trade Organization rules (and Codex Alimentarius Commission nutrition standards)
tie the hands of national governments,” said Bill Jeffery of the Centre for
Science in the Public Interest-Canada and the International Association of
Consumer Food Organizations. </span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm">
<span><span lang="EN-US">“The United Nations needs a sensible,
evidence-based and experience-informed code of conduct to ensure that commercial
operations in food, alcohol, drug and other industries do not impair progress or
the effectiveness of NCD prevention policies,” said Dr. Kate Allen of the World
Cancer Research Fund International.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm">
<span lang="EN-US">“Manufacturers and distributors of alcohol beverages are bound to
continue to promote their vested interests by supporting ineffective
‘educational’ programs and obstructing the implementation of effective
legislative measures such as tax increases and advertising restrictions,”
s</span><span lang="EN-US">aid Derek Rutherford, Chair of Global Alcohol Policy
Alliance.</span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span lang="NO-BOK"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm">
<span lang="NO-BOK">”The multitude of 140, and
counting, public interest groups calling for safeguards against conflicts of
interest cannot be ignored, and citizens in any country don’t have to be experts
in good governance to know that the fox belongs outside the hen house,”
</span><span lang="EN-US">said Patti Rundall of the International Baby Food Action
Network.<span> </span>“Having industry at the
table can be ruinous for consensus on public health priority-setting, and
virtually guarantees the lowest and most useless common denominator,” she
added.</span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm">
<span lang="EN-GB">“At this summit we have the
ridiculous state of affairs whereby representatives of the pharmaceutical
industry and the food and drink industry will be speaking as civil society. The
WHO needs to clearly recognise the differences between industry lobbyists and
pubic interest NGOs and develop meaningful rules to manage the potential
conflicts of interest that arise when engaging with the private sector,” said
Indrani Thuraisingham, Consumers
International. <u></u><u></u></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><b><span style="color:red" lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></b></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm">
<span><span style="color:#222222" lang="EN-US">“Sky-high rates of obesity and overweight
among children and adults in developed countries are spreading to many emerging
economies with calorie-dense, nutrient-poor salty, sugary, fatty foods.<span> </span>Meek requests for further voluntary
forbearance by the food, drink, and advertising industries are no substitute for
regulatory limits on advertising to children,” said Professor Shiriki
Kumanyika.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span><span style="color:#222222" lang="EN-US"><br></span></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm">
<span><span style="color:#222222" lang="EN-US"><br></span></span></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><span><span style="color:#222222" lang="EN-US">(1) </span></span><i><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><span style="font-style:normal">The <a href="http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/policyblog/COIstatement" target="_blank">Conflict of Interest Coalition Statement of concern</a> has bee endorsed by 143 national, regional and global networks and organisations working in public health, including medicine, nutrition, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, mental health, infant feeding, food safety and development - including </span><u></u></span></i><i><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><span style="font-style:normal"> four Royal Colleges of Paediatrics and Child Health, Physicians, Midwives and General Practitioners.</span><u></u></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><i><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><span style="font-style:normal">The statement </span><u></u></span></i><i><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><span style="font-style:normal">can be found here: <u><a href="http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/policyblog/COIstatement" target="_blank">http://info.babymilkaction.org/news/policyblog/COIstatement</a></u></span><u></u></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:0cm;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:0cm"><i><span lang="EN-US"><u></u><span style="font-style:normal"><u><br></u></span><u></u></span></i></div><div style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:33.65pt;margin-bottom:0pt;margin-left:1cm">
<i><span lang="EN-US"><u></u> <u></u></span></i></div></font><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br>