Is the EU facilitating an industrial epidemic? (EuroHealthNet moderating)
Eurocare (the European Alcohol Policy Alliance) is holding an event “Is the EU facilitating an industrial epidemic?” hosted by Nicolás Gonzalez Casares, MEP and supported by The Lancet on 27 June. The event will be moderated by EuroHealthNet Director Caroline Costongs.
Evidence has been accumulating for decades on how the products and practices of some commercial actors, notably those of the transnational corporations, are responsible for escalating rates of avoidable ill health, planetary damage, and social and health inequity; these problems are increasingly referred to as the Commercial Determinants of Health (CDoH).
CDoH impact on a wide range of risk factors, including smoking, air pollution, alcohol use, obesity and physical inactivity, and health outcomes, such as mental health and noncommunicable diseases. Indeed, it is now established that the production, price-setting and targeted marketing of products, such as breast-milk substitutes, unhealthy foods and drinks, tobacco and alcohol, as well as gambling lead to mental problems and addictions as well as noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancers, as well as hypertension and obesity.
This high level conference will first explain what is meant by the Commercial Determinants of Health. The conference will then explore some of the effective public health actions that could be put in place, in particular the packaging and labelling of alcohol, to counter the Commercial Determinants of health. In this context, many questions related to the lobbying and the undue influence of the corporate sector at EU and national level, especially regarding the supply and demand of unhealthy products will also be discussed.
