This blog is closed to new posts due to inactivity. The post remains here as part of the network’s archive of useful research information. We hope you'll join the conversation by posting to an open topic or starting a new one.
 
The following is from a note sent by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding through members of CHILD2015 discussion forum I though it will be nice if members of this network shared. Action (WABA). It highlight's the business interests of powerful economic operators and their tactics and resulting impact on global health. We would like to share with you the excellent speech made by the Dr Margaret Chan, WHO's Director-General at the 8th Global Conference on Health Promotion Helsinki, Finland 10 June 2013. WHO Director-General addresses health promotion conference "Efforts to prevent non-communicable diseases go against the business interests of powerful economic operators. In my view, this is one of the biggest challenges facing health promotion. As the new publication makes clear, it is not just Big Tobacco anymore. Public health must also contend with Big Food, Big Soda, and Big Alcohol. All of these industries fear regulation, and protect themselves by using the same tactics. Research has documented these tactics well. They include front groups, lobbies, promises of self-regulation, lawsuits, and industry-funded research that confuses the evidence and keeps the public in doubt. In the view of WHO, the formulation of health policies must be protected from distortion by commercial or vested interests." "Tactics also include gifts, grants, and contributions to worthy causes that cast these industries as respectable corporate citizens in the eyes of politicians and the public. They include arguments that place the responsibility for harm to health on individuals, and portray government actions as interference in personal liberties and free choice." Please click on http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2013/health_promotion_20130610/en/index.html for the full speech from Dr Margaret Chan.
 In a comment, another forum member wrote :
Unfortunately, paediatricians and other child health workers are prone to accepting such gifts and grants both from pharmaceutical companies and from infant formula manufacturers (IFMs). The WHO Code of Marketing of Breast milk substitutes http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/code_english.pdf lays down the conditions for marketing infant formula but is regularly flouted by manufacturers, see for example http://www.bmj.com/content/316/7138/1117 If paediatricians make it clear that they are opposed to such violations, and will refuse to take any funding from IFMs, then such regrettable commercial practice is likely to be eradicated. It will be helpful to hear of examples from countries in which the paediatric association has refused funding from IFMs