Academics urge British Government to consider wider options in public health white paper

The government's forthcoming public health white paper should consider other options aside from imposing personal obligations on individual citizens to take responsibility for their own health, if it is to succeed in improving the health of the nation, according to a leading health think tank.

In the second of three discussion papers on the topic of health obligations published today, Professor Edward Peck, Dr Perri 6 and Dr Sue Laverty from the University of Birmingham's Health Services Management Centre present the view that shifting the focus of obligations to public bodies and producers and distributors of unhealthy products could have a larger impact on public health.

They argue that regulating or even banning consumption or use of certain products can change habits and improve public health.  Targeting suppliers of widely acknowledged health "bads" such as cigarettes, alcohol and fatty foods with further regulatory measures could be key. Options to consider include:

  • regulation to require information about health risks/quantities/levels of contents that may be harmful to health to be clearly available and labelled on the products themselves;
  • price controls, taxes or subsidies to manipulate incentives to reduce consumption of less healthy and increase consumption of more healthy products and services;
  • regulation to restrict access to products and practices deemed harmful, or increasing the enforcement of existing restrictions or increasing penalties for violation.

Perri 6, Senior Research Fellow at the Health Services Management Centre and responsible for leading this work, said today: "Personal responsibility for health may be an important moral theme for ministers to strike. There might even be a fiscal or a moral argument for introducing duties. But there is no evidence that individual obligations would significantly improve the health of the public, if that is the goal of policy. There is much better evidence for the effectiveness of using the tax system, regulating consumer information and product standards than there is for directly regulating people's behaviour."

The full discussion papers can be viewed on the Health Services Management Centre website at http://www.hsmc.bham.ac.uk/, where members of the public can also take part in an online discussion on health obligations.

Comments

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
Post a new comment
Post

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.

You might also like...
Common farming pesticides linked to rheumatoid arthritis