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…
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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,”…
A recent study has reportedly documented “lower cognitive performance and reductions in brain structural integrity” among adolescents with metabolic syndrome (MeTS), “thus suggesting that even relatively short-term impairments in metabolism, in the absence of clinically manifest vascular disease, may give rise to brain complications.” Po Lai Yau, et al., “Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome and Functional and Structural Brain Impairments in Adolescence,” Pediatrics, October 2012. Researchers with the New York University School of Medicine and the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research apparently conducted cognitive testing on 111 adolescents with and without MeTS, concluding that those with metabolic syndrome “showed significantly lower arithmetic, spelling, attention, and mental flexibility and a trend for lower overall intelligence.” In addition, MRIs of the participants reportedly showed, “in a MeTS-dose—related fashion, smaller hippocampal volumes, increased brain cerebrospinal fluid, and reductions of microstructural integrity in major white matter tracts.” According to the report, these “alarming” findings imply that…
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.”…
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…
New York University researchers using the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children with data on more than 11,000 children have purportedly found a consistent association between antibiotic exposure in the first six months of life with “elevations in body mass index with overweight and obesity from ages 10 to 38 months.” L. Trasande, et al., “Infant antibiotic exposures and early-life body mass,” International Journal of Obesity, August 21, 2012 (online). The researchers suggest that the administration of antibiotics during early life, “a critical period for gut colonization,” may disrupt “ancient patterns of intestinal colonization.” U.S. farmers since the late 1940s have apparently given low-dose antibiotics to domesticated mammalian and avian species to hasten weight gain with the understanding that “alterations in the microbiota change ‘feed efficiency.’” Thus, the researchers explored the possibility of similar effects in human children. According to lead researcher Leonardo Trasande, “Microbes in our intestines may…
A coalition of advocacy organizations has filed five complaints with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against companies including McDonald’s Corp., General Mills, Inc. and Doctor’s Associates, Inc., calling for an investigation into Websites they purportedly use to promote food and TV programs to children. According to the coalition, the food-related websites— HappyMeal.com, ReesesPuffs.com, TrixWorld.com, and SubwayKids. com—violate the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by encouraging children to provide their friends’ email addresses and create videos promoting branded products to send to their friends. According to the coalition, “tell-a friend,” or “viral marketing,” is profitable given the effectiveness of word-of-mouth advertising and the opportunity to create “lifetime customers.” The coalition is also requesting that FTC update existing COPPA regulations “to include data collection and storage of photographs online from children, as well as placement of cookies used for types of behavioral advertising.” Claiming that “several of the child-directed websites we…
Chilean Senator Guido Girardi has reportedly filed a formal complaint with the country’s Ministry of Health, alleging that fast-food companies have violated a new ban on using toys and other giveaways to market children’s meals. According to media sources, the complaint claims that several fast-food restaurants have flouted the law, along with other food manufacturers that purportedly use crayons, stickers and similar incentives to market products which appeal to children. Girardi has asked the Ministry of Health to enforce sanctions if the companies named in the complaint do not begin complying with the toy ban. “These businesses know that this food damages the health of children and they know that the law is in effect. They’re using fraudulent and abusive means,” said Girardi, who apparently drafted the law. “These corporations threatened that if the law was approved there would be no more money for children’s foundations, the sick, or athletes, but…
According to news sources, human-services authorities in Victoria have sought protection for extremely obese children on at least two occasions in 2012, arguing to children’s court magistrates that they would be unable to lose weight in their parents’ care. One case reportedly involved a preteen boy who weighed more than 240 pounds and a teenage girl with a 66½-inch waist that was greater than her height; she had apparently gained 66 pounds over 18 months. The public is divided about whether weight management is an appropriate reason for removing children from their homes, and at least one obesity expert, Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute Associate Professor John Dixon, suggested that more cases like this can be expected. Dixon said that removal can be the best option in some cases, although he acknowledged that obesity “can be the result of a whole range of environmental issues, the food, the lack of…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has sent a July 18, 2012, letter to the chief executive officer of DreamWorks Animation SKG, criticizing the studio’s decision to license its popular film characters to food companies. Focusing on the recent film Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the consumer group cited tie-ins “with multiple companies and retailers” that allegedly market food products to children, but singled out DreamWorks’ partnership with Snyder’s-Lance, Inc. as particularly problematic because the snack manufacturer is not currently a member of the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI). “DreamWorks characters from Madagascar 3 are depicted on the packages of Nekot Cookies and Sandwich Crackers, which are of poor nutritional value,” alleges CSPI, which has also called on Snyder’s-Lance to apply nutrition standards “to 100% of the company’s marketing, not only via television, print, radio, Internet, and mobile devices, but…
