The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has issued a paper titled “Projecting the Effect of Changes in Smoking and Obesity on Future Life Expectancy in the United States.” Funded by the Social Security Administration and a grant from the National Institute on Aging, the research applied Markov modeling to National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys data from 1999 to 2008 to conclude that reductions in smoking rates coupled with increases in obesity will result in a gain of nearly one year of life expectancy for men and just a quarter of a year’s gain for women. According to the authors, “By 2040, male life expectancy at age 40 is expected to have gained 0.92 years from the combined effects. Among women, however, the two sets of effects largely offset one another throughout the projection period, with a small gain of 0.26 years expected by 2040.” The researchers also project…
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The International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO) has released a report criticizing the food and beverage industry’s efforts to reduce marketing to children in the European Union. Part of the StanMark Project, which receives EU funding, A Junk-Free Childhood 2012 focuses on the EU Pledge signed by 20 companies that agreed to stop marketing products to children younger than age 12 and to submit to independent monitoring. Citing data from the 2011 EU Pledge Monitoring Report, IASO notes a “disappointing” 29 percent decline in the number of advertisements for “non-compliant” products that were viewed by children between January and March 2011 as compared to those viewed between January and March 2005. “While for some countries there were significant decreases in advertising (e.g. in Poland, Ireland and France), in other countries significant increases were recorded, including Slovenia (up 26%) and the Netherlands (up 38%),” states the report. “The problem…
A recently released documentary short, titled “Unjustified: The Unchecked Power of America’s Justice System,” focuses on the fallout from a 2008 immigration raid on a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa. Former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin was later charged with numerous violations, including violating child labor laws, identity theft and bank fraud. He was convicted on 86 financial fraud counts and sentenced to 27 years in prison, and his case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The documentary was apparently directed by an Emmy-nominated producer who has worked on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” and Michael Moore’s Bravo TV series “The Awful Truth.” Additional information about Rubashkin’s case appears in Issue 439 of this Update. See The Des Moines Register, September 19, 2012.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has released a 60-page report in conjunction with its National Summit on Alcohol Marketing to Young People that accuses industry of targeting children with new media tactics as well as alcohol-flavored food and cosmetic products. Urging “more robust policy and stronger regulatory oversight,” the report aims to document current alcohol advertising tactics in Australia, examine the impact of these tactics on drinking patterns, and make a case for regulatory and statutory reform. In particular, the report claims that “the introduction of digital technologies has opened up new platforms for marketing and promotion, with alcohol companies aggressively harnessing the marketing potential of online video channels, mobile phones, interactive games, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.” It also argues that alcohol-flavored foods and cosmetics, such as vodka-flavored lip gloss, not only “circumvent most existing regulations regarding marketing and the placement of alcoholic products” but introduce…
The Mercury Policy Project (MPP) and a coalition of other consumer groups have released a report claiming that canned albacore tuna sold in U.S. schools may contain higher mercury levels than those reported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Of the 59 canned tuna samples that MPP tested from this market sector, 48 were “light” tuna products representing six brands and 11 were “white” or albacore tuna products representing two brands. Although the report acknowledged that “the mercury content of these products is similar to what has been reported for supermarket canned tuna by other investigators and by [FDA],” it nevertheless alleged that the albacore tuna samples “averaged 0.560 µg/g, much higher than FDA’s reported average of .350 µg/g.” The results also purportedly indicated a high variably in mercury content across tuna samples, revealing, for example, that U.S-caught light tuna “had the lowest country-oforigin average mercury level, 0.086 µg/g,”…
After testing more than 200 rice products, Consumer Reports purportedly found levels of total arsenic, both organic and inorganic, far in excess of the federal limit of 10 parts per billion (ppb) for arsenic in drinking water. Among the products tested were baby cereals, crackers, milk, pasta, flour, and an array of brown, white and basmati rice. One infant cereal product apparently contained up to 329 ppb of arsenic. Consumer Reports recommended that consumers cook their rice in twice the amount of water, 6 cups to 1 cup of rice, eat a varied diet and experiment with other grains that are less prone to absorbing arsenic from soil and water as they grow. Its investigation included a data analysis by researchers experienced in National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) analyses. They found that of 3,633 rice consumers who participated in NHANES, those consuming one rice food item before their urine…
The U.K. Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) has issued a statement urging regulators to prohibit all TV advertising for foods high in sugar, fat or salt before the 9 p.m. watershed. Citing a 2003 Food Standards Agency review that allegedly measured the impact of food promotion on children, RCPCH President Hilary Cass reportedly said that the current regulations are too weak to protect young viewers from “commercial exploitation.” “Although they are trying to avoid junk food advertising around specific children’s program, you’ve still got it around soaps and other programs that children watch,” Cass was quoted as saying. “So the only realistic way to do it is to have no junk food advertising before the watershed in any programs at all.” RCPCH has endorsed the International Obesity Taskforce’s Sydney principles “for achieving a substantial level of protection for children against the commercial promotion of foods and beverages.”…
The Kellogg Co. has reportedly agreed to modify its “Froot Loops” cereal website following recommendations from the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), which called for better disclosure that advertising is present within the site’s games and activities. An “investigative unit of the advertising industry’s self-regulatory system . . . administered by of the Council of Better Business Bureaus,” CARU noted in a press release that “none of the 12 different games—all of which featured Fruit Loops cereal and/or Toucan Sam—disclosed the advertising within the games’ content.” It was evidently concerned that “children would not understand that the games promote the sale of Froot Loops and, to comply with CARU’s guidelines, should be clearly labeled as advertising.” The disclosures will apparently state “This is advertising from Kellogg’s.” See CARU News Release, August 27, 2012.
A recently published study involving transgenic rice has reportedly drawn criticism from Greenpeace China, which has accused U.S. researchers of using Chinese children “as guinea pigs in [a] genetically engineered ‘Golden Rice’ trial.” According to media sources, the advocacy group has cited a joint Chinese-U.S. study appearing in the August 2012 edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition as evidence that scientists sidestepped authorities by allegedly feeding vitamin-enriched Golden Rice to 24 children without the required approvals. “It was actually back in 2008 that we first heard of this experiment and immediately informed the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture,” opined a August 31, 2012, Greenpeace China blog post that has since sparked a government investigation into the trial. “The Ministry came back and assured us no Golden Rice had been imported and the trial had been stopped—something that unfortunately appears not to be the case.” The study in question apparently examined…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly approved the use by Ohio State University (OSU) investigators of brain pacemakers as an obesity treatment. Deep-brain stimulation has apparently been approved for use in the treatment of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, tremor, dystonia, and severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and OSU researchers and clinicians evidently made the case for use of the therapy to treat obesity in an article recently published in Neurosurgery. According to OSU Professor of Neurological Surgery Ali Rezai, the goal will be to stimulate the region of the brain linked to addictive behavior to improve its function, regulation and control. “Research shows that many of the complexities of obesity are traced to faulty signals in the brain. Considering the heightened health risks in obese individuals and the problems that some patients have after bariatric surgery, it is reasonable to consider deep-brain stimulation as a treatment,” he said. See…
