The Tobacco Template

It has been claimed, by ASH, that

... the “domino theory” i.e. that once a measure has been applied to tobacco it will be applied to other products is patently false.

Sadly, it is their statement that is false, not the domino theory. This page lists attempts by organisations and goverments to copy the 'tobacco template' in order to denormalise users of, or reduce consumption of, products.

General Controls

General stuff not covered below

GAPC - Alcohol

• “What worked for Tobacco Control?” - Ms. Shoba John
• “Control marketing: lessons learn from tobacco control movement” Ms. Bungon Ritthiphakdee

MD, PhD and a DrPH, California - Sweeteners

Added sweeteners pose dangers to health that justify controlling them like alcohol, argue Robert H. Lustig, Laura A. Schmidt and Claire D. Brindis

And they claim it contributes to 35million deaths a year worldwide and is so dangerous it should be controlled through taxation and legislation.

Higher Taxes

Ever higher taxes are imposed with the belief that they will either (1) increase the tax the government receives or (2) reduce consumption by pricing consumers out of the market. (Obviously it can't do both at the same time.)

However, unintended consequences occur in the form of (a) increased sales on the black market and/or those (legitimately or not) obtaining their supplies from abroad and (b) increase in poverty because the hardest hit (and of which, demographically, tend to smoke more) are the poor who are either unwilling or unable to cut down or give up.

[Minimum Pricing], while not increasing the tax-take to the government, is a form of this.

Mike Rayner - Department of Public Health at Oxford University - food - May 16 2012

"Fat taxes" would have to increase the price of unhealthy food and drinks by as much as 20% in order to cut consumption by enough to reduce obesity and other diet-related diseases

He called for a 12p tax on soft drinks, even bigger than the 2 cents tax introduced in France, claiming it would prevent several thousand deaths a year as people switched to healthier drinks. [...] Mr Rayner said taxes were already used to discourage people from drinking or smoking and a fat tax plan would raise money for the Treasury and prevent people dying.

In all of this I see a sacred dimension. You may not believe that I have heard God aright but I think God is calling me to work towards the introduction of soft-drink taxes in this country and I am looking forward to the day when General Synod debates the ethical issues surrounding this type of tax rather than some of the other issues that august body seems obsessed by. [Emphasis added]

Thomas Gaziano, Harvard School of Medicine - salt - April 21, 2012

While a taxation increase of 40 per cent on industry prices (similar to tobacco), determined by previous work to lead to a 6 per cent reduction in consumption, was also evaluated.

The analysis found that both strategies would be save money by reducing the number of people needing treatment for hypertension and CVD events such as myocardial infarction (heart attacks) and stroke.

Sadly there was either insufficient funding, or insufficient time to determine the incidence of Hyponatremia (and the associated costs) that this would cause as a result.

Denmark - October 2011

Denmark has introduced what is believed to be the world's first fat tax - a surcharge on foods that are high in saturated fat.

Butter, milk, cheese, pizza, meat, oil and processed food are now subject to the tax if they contain more than 2.3% saturated fat.

Doctor - Wales - fatty foods

An expert on obesity has called for a tax on fatty foods to help reduce the number of overweight people in Wales.

Dr Nadim Haboubi runs a weight management clinic and has advised on government strategy to tackle obesity

United Nations - food

In De Schutter(2011), it looks towards "Using taxation to encourage healthy diets" (page 17)

The introduction of food taxes and subsidies to promote a healthy diet constitutes a cost-effective and low-cost population-wide intervention that can have a significant impact. (page 17)

50 (d) Impose taxes on soft drinks (sodas), and on HFSS foods, in order to subsidize access to fruits and vegetables and educational campaigns on healthy diets; (page 21)

Bans - Products

National Obesity Forum (UK) - fizzy drinks - May 2012

Supersize fizzy drinks should be banned from cinemas, restaurants and sports grounds in London to curb obesity, health experts say.

Anti-obesity campaigner Tam Fry today called on Mayor Boris Johnson to copy New York, which has imposed a 16oz limit on the sale of sugary drinks.

The ban applies to restaurants, cinemas and sports stadiums, and includes Coca-Cola, Pepsi and some iced-coffee drinks sold in Starbucks. Starbucks’s largest iced coffee in the UK is the Venti, which is 20oz. The equivalent is 22oz in the US, where the largest offering is the 31oz Trenta.

Mr Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said the move by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was the way forward to tackle the capital’s obesity epidemic. In an interview with the Standard, he said: “London should take a leaf out of New York’s book. Everything Michael Bloomberg does is backed up with perfectly good science. If England were to follow more what America was doing then we would be in a much better situation.”

Assemblyman William Monning (California) - food vans 'outside schools' - Feb 2012

In an effort to stop kids from running away from their 'healthy school meals' Assemblyman William 'Bill' Monning decided that was was needed was bill that bans food truck operators from vending within a quarter-mile of any school. Businesses were not happy at the unintended consequences:

“The problem is that many of the businesses that we serve are near schools,” said Nancy Nguyen, an owner and operator of O Mi Ninja, a Vietnamese food truck operating out of Santa Clara County. “If you're K through 9 [four-13 yr olds], you're not even allowed to leave campus. I've never seen a food truck directly across from a school.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Monning, but fortunately for all those businesses affected, the bill was dropped. Not because he realised it was a bad idea, but:

Monning, chairman of the Assembly Health Committee, said his measure lacked enough votes to win approval this year.

"Our calculus was: It was still not ready for prime time," Monning said, adding that he would look for other ways to address his concerns about obesity among schoolchildren.

UK Parents - Childrens' books in Libraries

Classic stories including Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and The Nutcracker were "too scary and sinister" for children, according to some parents who complained about their presence on library shelves, while Dahl's story books Revolting Rhymes and Even More Revolting Rhymes were attacked for their "coarse language". In Dahl's version of Little Red Riding Hood, the heroine takes a decidedly Dahl-ian approach to offing the wolf. "The small girl smiles. One eyelid flickers. / She whips a pistol from her knickers. / She aims it at the creature's head, / And bang bang bang, she shoots him dead."

Librarians in East Sussex removed copies of Babar's Travels, in which one of the cartoon elephant's adventures finds him faced with 'savage cannibals'.[...]Those wishing to borrow it must now order it specially, after staff upheld a complaint that it contained offensive stereotypes of black Africans.[...]A similar complaint saw staff in Lewisham, London, remove Herge's Tintin in the Congo, while elsewhere the title has been transferred to the adult's section.

Bans - Advertising

This covers not only direct advertising (identifiable adverts in media) but 'indirect' advertising; e.g. no smoking allowed in children's films (Think Cruella DeVille from 101 Dalmations)

FakeCharity Sustain (UK) - sweets

Sustain (a FakeCharity) wants to ban supermarket sweet displays

UK Government - alcohol

Following the publication of the Government’s Alcohol Strategy, the Health Committee is to hold an inquiry examining the Government’s proposals so far as they relate to health issues, and in particular will look at: [...]

• Plain packaging and marketing bans.

United Nations - food

50 (c) Adopt statutory regulation on the marketing of food products, as the most effective way to reduce marketing of foods high in saturated fats, trans-fatty acids, sodium and sugar (HFSS foods) to children, as recommended by WHO, and restrict marketing of these foods to other groups; De Schutter (2011) page 21

Scottish Government - fatty foods/salt/sugar

Television adverts for food high in fat, sugar and salt should not be shown before the 9pm watershed, according to Scotland's public health minister.

US Researchers - Alcohol in films

The results suggest that family focused interventions would have a larger impact on alcohol onset while limiting media and marketing exposure could help prevent both onset and progression.

Australian government - 'junk' food

Greens leader Bob Brown introduced a private members bill last Monday to ban junk food advertising during children’s television viewing times of 6-9 am and 4-9 pm on weekdays, as recommended by the Obesity Policy Coalition.

BMA - alcohol advertising

There should be a ban on all alcohol advertising, including sports and music sponsorship, doctors say.

The British Medical Association said the crackdown on marketing was needed, along with an end to cut-price deals, to stop rising rates of consumption.

Howard Stoate (Dartford, Labour, UK) - alcohol advertising

The only sure way to tackle the problem is removing the alcohol industry's ability to target young people in that way. Banning alcohol advertising and sponsorship from events that are attended by children and young people, or watched by them on TV, is one way to enable young people to develop a healthier relationship with alcohol.

Gory Pictures/Warning Labels

Gory pictures on packets are supposed to deter (potential) smokers. Typically the medical type photographs show nothing that smoking could have caused (perfectly white teeth affected by dental caries, totally blackened lungs when we know smokers lungs are used for transplants, etc.)

BMA - Wine

[T]he British Medical Association is currently demanding that graphic warnings be placed on wine bottles and wants – in their own words – “a complete ban on [alcohol] advertising as has been done very successfully with tobacco.”

Plain Packaging (or Graphic Warnings)

Plain packaging is claimed to reduce the appeal of cigarettes. None of the studies (since it has not been put into practice yet) have conclusively proved that this is the case. Graphic warnings likewise are intended to reduce the appeal. Most are ignored by smokers.

South African Dental Association - Alcohol - May 21 2012

The planned use of graphic images on cigarette packs to show the effects of tobacco should be extended to alcohol products as it is more cancerous than tobacco, says the SA Dental Association (Sada).

It said that while smoking increased the risk of people developing cancer up to five times the norm, alcohol usage elevated the risk of contracting mouth cancer ninefold, making alcohol more dangerous.

Australian health activists - alcohol

Health activists who believe even one alcoholic drink can cause cancer are lobbying MPs in Canberra (Jul '11) for limits on how much we consume and how much we pay for it. If they're successful in branding alcohol a carcinogen it could lead to tough restrictions similar to those applied to tobacco, including warnings on labels and laws requiring plain packaging.

UK Government - alcohol

Following the publication of the Government’s Alcohol Strategy, the Health Committee is to hold an inquiry examining the Government’s proposals so far as they relate to health issues, and in particular will look at: [...]

• Plain packaging and marketing bans.