Corporations influence delay in implementing public health policy

Only one-third of WHO’s recommended public health policies on unhealthy foods, alcohol and tobacco had been fully implemented worldwide on average as of last year. — 123rf.com

Implementation of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended public health policies on alcohol, unhealthy foods and tobacco has been slow globally, according to a study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom.

Published in the journal The Lancet Global Health, the study found particularly low implementation in poor and less democratic countries, and where corporations had more influence, e.g. through corruption and political favouritism.