Tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and fossil fuels kill 2.7 million people a year in Europe, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has called on governments to impose stricter regulation of health-damaging products.
On a groundbreaking report The WHO said powerful industries are causing poor health and premature deaths by using “deceptive” marketing and interfering with governments’ efforts to prevent deadly diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
The new report calculates that tobacco, fossil fuels, UPFs and alcohol are responsible for more than 7,400 deaths every day in the 53 European states. In total, the four industries cause an estimated 2.7 million deaths in Europe each year, around a quarter (24.5%) of all deaths.
The UN health agency’s findings amount to an unprecedented attack on the enormous damage that big companies and their products are doing to human health. The report describes how “big industry” uses overt and covert methods to increase their profits by delaying and derailing policies to improve public health.
“A small number of transnational corporations… exercise significant power over the political and legal context in which they operate, hindering public interest regulation that could impact their profit margins,” the WHO said.
Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said: “The industry’s tactics include exploiting vulnerable people through targeted marketing strategies, misleading consumers and making false claims about the benefits of their products or their environmental performance.”
The tactics deployed by “big commercial industries” undermine measures to reduce smoking, drinking and obesity, which are the biggest causes of preventable health problems.
The figures will follow in 2023 research which found that alcohol, tobacco, processed foods and drinks and fossil fuels caused 19 million deaths per year worldwide, or 34% of all deaths.
The WHO analysis shows that all European countries are not on track to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals of halting the rise in obesity or reducing smoking among people aged 15 and over by 30%. The 53 countries combined consume more alcohol than any other region in the world.
Despite the health risks, only a minority of European countries have banned smoking in public places, while attempts to make harmful products less attractive through plain packaging, alcohol taxes and food labeling have also not been widely implemented, the report said.
“With the notable exception of tobacco marketing laws passed in many countries, global efforts to regulate harmful marketing have been disappointing at best,” the report concludes.
“Although legal measures regulating the marketing of alcohol and unhealthy foods exist in several countries in the WHO European Region and around the world, these are often limited in scope and targeted at specific media or settings, certain population groups or specific marketing techniques. therefore do not provide sufficient protection.”
The WHO estimates that tobacco is responsible for more than 1 million deaths per year, 10% of all deaths in Europe. Nearly 600,000 (578,908) deaths annually are caused by fossil fuels (5% of all deaths), while alcohol causes over 400,000 deaths per year (426,857). And every year, more than 350,000 people die from consuming too much processed meat, sugary drinks and fatty, salty foods.
At the launch of the report, Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister, said: “For too long we have viewed risk factors as mainly linked to individual choices. We need to redefine the problem as a systemic one, where policies must counter ‘hyper-consumption environments’, limit marketing and stop interference in policymaking.”
The report urges governments across Europe to impose much stricter regulations on how health-damaging products are marketed, to curb monopolistic practices and lobbying, and to ensure that trade agreements and economic laws prioritize public health.
The World Cancer Research Fund urged people to adopt a vegetarian diet more often and limit their alcohol consumption to reduce their risk of developing the disease.
“Our evidence shows that eating a variety of plant foods, as well as whole grains, fruits and legumes, and limiting your alcohol consumption are effective ways to reduce your risk of cancer,” said Kendra Chow, policy and public affairs. .
Dr. Kawther Hashem, a lecturer in public health nutrition at Queen Mary University of London and campaign director at Action on Sugar, said the next British government after the July 4 general election should force food and drink manufacturers to reformulate their products.
Rebeca Fernández, director of food safety, research and innovation at Rebeca Fernández, responded to the study FoodDrinkEurope, who represents the European food and drink industry, said: “Linking processed food consumption with the tobacco and fossil fuel industries is irresponsible and outrageously misleading. We all need food – and we all need processed food.
“Unfortunately, the WHO report does not recognize that there is no agreed definition of what ultra-processed foods are, let alone their impact on health.”
Ulrich Adam, the director general of spiritsEurope, which represents the spirits industry in Europe, also questioned the WHO’s methodology, which he said “undermines” its credibility.
He added: “While more needs to be done to tackle harmful alcohol use in Europe, alcohol consumption has fallen by 10% since 2010 and alcohol-related deaths have fallen by more than 30% in the same period.”
Nathalie Darge, Director General of Tobacco Europerepresenting the three largest tobacco companies, said: “Tobacco Europe and its members are committed to reducing the health impacts of smoking in Europe by investing in innovative and potentially less harmful new tobacco and nicotine products to support adult smokers who are considering changing their consumption patterns to change. .
“This is a unique opportunity to reduce the harm associated with smoking and contribute to the goals of smoking The European Cancer Control Plan.”