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2011-09-22 12:48:32
Updated September 21, 2011 11:22:00
A United Nations summit on preventable diet and lifestyle-related diseases is being criticised over the role placed by industry in international negotiations.
Margot O'Neill
ALI MOORE, PRESENTER: The global epidemic of preventable lifestyle and diet-related illnesses - such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers - will cost more than $40 trillion* in lost productivity and medical bills over the next two decades.
The findings are contained in a new Harvard University report.
Traditionally associated with rich nations, 80 per cent of deaths from these diseases now occur in developing countries, and have become the leading cause of death worldwide.
But controversy has surrounded a United Nations summit about to get under way in New York over the role being played by industry in the international negotiations.
Margot O'Neill reports.
MARGOT O'NEILL, REPORTER: It's being compared by public health experiments to inviting bomb makers to disarmament talks. They say giant food and beverage corporations like PepsiCo and McDonald's have been given unprecedented access to help shape the United Nations agenda to tackle a worldwide scourge of diet-related diseases.
PHILIP JAMES, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF OBESITY: If you are trying to stop guns being used, you don't bring in the gun manufacturers to say what we should do. You decide that you're going to ban guns - and restrict your access to guns and so on - and then you involve the industry in how they'll implement it.
At the moment the food industries are absolutely locked in to the whole process, and therefore it's contaminating the decision-making at the highest level.
MARGOT O'NEILL: In the lead-up to the UN summit, more than 100 leading international health groups called for a clear code of conduct for UN negotiators dealing with commercial lobbyists, saying they shouldn't be given the same standing as public health experts.
Professor James says the industry's high profile reflects its political power.
PHILIP JAMES: The big food businesses have most governments strangled by the neck. Most presidents and prime ministers can be seen within 48 hours by a big food industry or soft drink industry, should they want. It is a pervasive influence.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Public health advocates claim fast food companies want to delay effective action so they can exploit rapidly growing sales of junk food in the developing world.
PHILIP JAMES: Studies in India show a three-fold increase - not just, you know, 10 percent or something; a trebling of fat, sugar and salt intakes, with a 10-fold increase in overweight and obesity problems and therefore in diabetes and high blood pressure and so on. This is a massive problem.
MARGOT O'NEILL: As Lateline reported two weeks ago, governments like Australia and the US have been accused of watering down the draft political declaration for the summit. But the World Health Organisation denies industry has had too much influence.
ALA ALWAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION: The food and non-alcoholic beverages industry has a major role to play. They should be part of the solutions. And we have a clear understanding what have needs to be done by the industry. They need to work more intensively in developing healthier products, and they need to do much more in relation to responsible marketing and advertising - particularly for children.
MARGOT O'NEILL: And industry won't be let off the hook because there is likely to be new monitoring regimes.
ALA ALWAN: Some governments are starting with voluntary action, with active monitoring, and then they will need to watch and see what happens - and some of them might end up in going in the direction of regulations.
MARGOT O'NEILL: The summit will look at four key issues: tobacco, alcohol, diet and exercise. While public health experts believe tobacco controls have already saved millions of lives, they're disappointed that the UN isn't pushing a similarly strong line against the marketing of alcohol and junk food, or setting targets to reduce levels of salt, fat and sugar in processed foods.
A new Harvard study puts the global price tag for dealing with ballooning lifestyle diseases at $47 trillion* by 2030. But industry says regulation isn't needed, because it's already voluntarily improving the health of its products, and that it's unfair to just blame junk food.
KATE CARNELL, AUSTRALIAN FOOD AND GROCERY COUNCIL: Obesity and chronic diseases generally is a really complicated area. And it's not just about food: it's about activity, it's about lifestyle, it's about the whole balance - not just in our diet - but also in the amount of activity we get, inactivity we get. That's what makes this such a complex area.
MARGOT O'NEILL: Industry also accuses public health experts of being too extreme.
KATE CARNELL: The public health lobbyists will always take a particular line. They'll always push it just that step possibly too far. It's very clear what will work, and that's government, community, industry - working together to achieve healthier lifestyles, more balanced approaches to nutrition, but also an active lifestyle.
It's those things coming together that will really achieve the outcomes. Evidence has shown that globally. So that's what we need to do here, and I think the UN is taking that approach in a very commonsense, a very appropriate way.
MARGOT O'NEILL: The Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon is representing Australia at the summit.