---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 02 Jun 2000 08:15:13 -0400 From: Jay Kaufman <[log in to unmask]> Subject: [spiritof1848] Lancet: A quote from this week's Lancet: ("A manipulated dichotomy in global health policy" (Editorial) Lancet 2000; 355: 1923) These disputes are not simply examples of rarefied academic skirmishes. On May 15, immediately before this year's World Health Assembly, two editorials appeared in prominent national newspapers. In the Wall Street Journal, Roger Bate argued that "socialist" health elites have perverted the health agenda "at the expense of big business", and that, for example, smoking is merely "a free choice with health consequences". He preferred to see these issues not in the context of public health, but as matters of "commercial free speech and individual choice", rights that must be upheld against attacks by "leftist" bureaucrats. The Times of London called Gro Harlem Brundtland's preoccupation with "lifestyle diseases"--cancer, heart disease, and hypertension--an instance of pure and mistaken political correctness. With these latest editorials to hand, the stand being taken by the World Bank becomes a little clearer. In defence of international business interests, the Bank is shoring up the World Trade Organisation's troubled position on free markets. By converting tobacco into an issue of individual choice rather than one of collective responsibility for public health, the Bank is appealing, successfully in the case of The Times and Wall Street Journal, to our natural instincts of resisting undue government interference in our lives. But trade and unrestricted profit are the true objectives, not elevated philosophical notions of free will. Indeed, such open markets will only promote, not lessen, the exchange of harmful commodities--firearms, landmines, psychoactive substances, unsafe pharmaceuticals, contaminated food, and hazardous waste. Free trade has health consequences, and these should be faced, not shouted down. ( http://www.thelancet.com/newlancet/sub/issues/vol355no9219/body.editorial1923.html ) -- Jay S. Kaufman, Ph.D ----------------------------- email: [log in to unmask] ----------------------------- Department of Epidemiology UNC School of Public Health 2104C McGavran-Greenberg Hall Pittsboro Road, CB#7400 Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7400 phone: 919-966-7435 fax: 919-966-2089 ----------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ fnCentral.com lets you manage your finances from anywhere at anytime. Put the power of the internet to work - keep track of your finances,investments, expenses... all on fnCentral.com. OPEN YOUR FREE ACCOUNT TODAY! http://click.egroups.com/1/4649/10/_/660459/_/959947981/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We welcome posting on social justice & public health that provide: a) information (e.g. about conferences or job announcements or publications relevant to social justice & public health), and b) substantive queries or comments directly addressing issues relevant to social justice and public health. Please do NOT post petitions on the bulletin board, as they clog up the works; instead, if you have a petition you want to circulate, please post a notice about the petition and provide your email address so people can email you to get a copy of the petition. Also, to limit e-mail volume, please do not send posts directed toward a single individual to the list at large. Instead of hitting 'reply', cut and paste the person's address into the 'to' field, and send your message directly to the her/him. Community email addresses: Post message: [log in to unmask] Subscribe: [log in to unmask] Unsubscribe: [log in to unmask] List owner: [log in to unmask] To subscribe or un-subscribe sent an e-mail to the address specified above with the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject line.