Alliance sur les MNT

The UN System Task Team on the Post-2015 Development Agenda released their report to the Secretary General yesterday, outlining the priority areas for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Citing the need for a "new, more holistic" approach to development, the full report incorporates strong language on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and the ways the post-2015 could address them.

The PLoS Medicine series on Big Food aims to examine and stimulate debate about the activities and influence of the food industry in global health. We define “Big Food” as the multinational food and beverage industry with huge and concentrated market power. The series adopts a multi-disciplinary approach and includes critical perspectives from around the world. It represents one of first times such issues have been examined in the general medical literature.

The Conversation

Ruth Colagiuri

Rio provided the ideal backdrop for the Rio+20 “earth summit” – with the jungle at its backdoor, nestled among magnificent jagged mountaintops, bordered by kilometres of white sandy Atlantic beaches, and the ever-present favelas, where the very poor live, reminding all of the need to progress the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Diabetes and climate change are two urgent challenges in the 21st century. The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) has produced a policy report that establishes both the interconnections between these global risks and the opportunity to combat them together. Launched for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), the Diabetes and Climate Change Report puts diabetes, NCDs, and health at the center of sustainable development.

The Guardian

The global sustainable development summit that begins next week in Rio is "too important to fail", the UN secretary general, Ban ki-Moon has said.

In a desperate last-minute plea to world leaders before the meeting, Ban said the international community was in danger of squandering a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use the Rio+20 meeting to map out a new course for economic and social development.

The Guardian

Jacques Peretti

Up a rickety staircase at the Newarke Houses Museum in Leicester, England hangs a portrait of Britain's first obese man, painted in 1806. Daniel Lambert weighed 53st (335kg) and was considered a medical oddity. Too heavy to work, Lambert came up with an ingenious idea: he would charge people a shilling to see him. Lambert made a fortune, and his portrait shows him at the end of his life: affluent and respected – a celebrated son of Leicester.

 New York Times

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Diesel fumes cause lung cancer, the World Health Organization declared Tuesday, and experts said they were more carcinogenic than secondhand cigarette smoke.

The W.H.O. decision, the first to elevate diesel to the “known carcinogen” level, may eventually affect some American workers who are heavily exposed to exhaust. It is particularly relevant to poor countries, where trucks, generators, and farm and factory machinery routinely belch clouds of sooty smoke and fill the air with sulfurous particulates.

Jun 04, Colombo: In an effort to combat the high incidences of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the country, the Health Ministry of Sri Lanka has taken measures to improve facilities in secondary level hospitals with the assistance of the Government of Japan.

The cabinet on a proposal made by Minister of Health Maithripala Sirisena has given approval to use a Japanese funded project of 3.935 billion Yen (US$ 50 million) to enhance the non-communicable disease management through improvement of facilities in secondary level hospitals and drug security.

A NEW REPORT* published today (Thursday) reveals how tobacco companies worked to prevent the strengthening of European tobacco legislation such as  improvements to tobacco labelling and the removal of misleading terms such as ‘light’ and ‘mild’.

The report was commissioned by the Smoke Free Partnership (SFP) through a Cancer Research UK grant and carried out by academic researchers at the University of Bath, University of Edinburgh, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It is being released on World No Tobacco Day which is themed “Tobacco Industry Interference”.

For an overview of key World No Tobacco Day Resources, visit the homepage of the Framework Convention Alliance here.

GENEVA, 31 May – The global tobacco industry is expanding its war against public health, beyond national courts and into the international arena. Governments must understand these new threats, and stand together to defend their sovereignty and public health.