Cargando…

Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?

Tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods are key contributors to non-communicable diseases globally. Public health advocates have been proactive in recent years, developing systems to monitor and mitigate both health harms and influence by these industries. However, establishing and implementating stron...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lencucha, Raphael, Thow, Anne Marie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7430321/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32816826
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002246
_version_ 1783571405948846080
author Lencucha, Raphael
Thow, Anne Marie
author_facet Lencucha, Raphael
Thow, Anne Marie
author_sort Lencucha, Raphael
collection PubMed
description Tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods are key contributors to non-communicable diseases globally. Public health advocates have been proactive in recent years, developing systems to monitor and mitigate both health harms and influence by these industries. However, establishing and implementating strong government regulation of these unhealthy product-producing industries remains challenging. The relevant regulatory instruments lie not only with ministries of health but with agriculture, finance, industry and trade, largely driven by economic concerns. These policy sectors are often unreceptive to public health imperatives for restrictions on industry, including policies regarding labelling, marketing and excise taxes. Heavily influenced by traditional economic paradigms, they have been more receptive to industry calls for (unfettered) market competition, the rights of consumers to choose and the need for government to allow industry free rein; at most to establish voluntary standards of consumer protection, and certainly not to directly regulate industry products and practices. In recent years, the status quo of a narrow economic rationality that places economic growth above health, environment or other social goals is being re-evaluated by some governments and key international economic agencies, leading to windows of opportunity with the potential to transform how governments approach food, tobacco and alcohol as major, industry-driven risk factors. To take advantage of this window of opportunity, the public health community must work with different sectors of government to(1) reimagine policy mandates, drawing on whole-of-government imperatives for sustainable development, and (2) closely examine the institutional structures and governance processes, in order to create points of leverage for economic policies that also support improved health outcomes.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7430321
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-74303212020-08-24 Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy? Lencucha, Raphael Thow, Anne Marie BMJ Glob Health Analysis Tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy foods are key contributors to non-communicable diseases globally. Public health advocates have been proactive in recent years, developing systems to monitor and mitigate both health harms and influence by these industries. However, establishing and implementating strong government regulation of these unhealthy product-producing industries remains challenging. The relevant regulatory instruments lie not only with ministries of health but with agriculture, finance, industry and trade, largely driven by economic concerns. These policy sectors are often unreceptive to public health imperatives for restrictions on industry, including policies regarding labelling, marketing and excise taxes. Heavily influenced by traditional economic paradigms, they have been more receptive to industry calls for (unfettered) market competition, the rights of consumers to choose and the need for government to allow industry free rein; at most to establish voluntary standards of consumer protection, and certainly not to directly regulate industry products and practices. In recent years, the status quo of a narrow economic rationality that places economic growth above health, environment or other social goals is being re-evaluated by some governments and key international economic agencies, leading to windows of opportunity with the potential to transform how governments approach food, tobacco and alcohol as major, industry-driven risk factors. To take advantage of this window of opportunity, the public health community must work with different sectors of government to(1) reimagine policy mandates, drawing on whole-of-government imperatives for sustainable development, and (2) closely examine the institutional structures and governance processes, in order to create points of leverage for economic policies that also support improved health outcomes. BMJ Publishing Group 2020-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC7430321/ /pubmed/32816826 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002246 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
spellingShingle Analysis
Lencucha, Raphael
Thow, Anne Marie
Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?
title Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?
title_full Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?
title_fullStr Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?
title_full_unstemmed Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?
title_short Intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?
title_sort intersectoral policy on industries that produce unhealthy commodities: governing in a new era of the global economy?
topic Analysis
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7430321/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32816826
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2019-002246
work_keys_str_mv AT lencucharaphael intersectoralpolicyonindustriesthatproduceunhealthycommoditiesgoverninginaneweraoftheglobaleconomy
AT thowannemarie intersectoralpolicyonindustriesthatproduceunhealthycommoditiesgoverninginaneweraoftheglobaleconomy