Sydney Health Law

Tag: obesity

  • International Guidelines on Human Rights, Healthy Diets and Sustainable Food Systems: could they make a difference?

    The BMJ has published an Opinion calling on the Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr Michelle Bachelet, to jointly initiate a process to develop International Guidelines on Human Rights, Healthy Diets, and Sustainable Food Systems. 180 signatories from 38 countries have supported…

  • The people’s award for undermining taxpayer-funded health promotion messages goes to…

    (drum roll) The people’s award for undermining taxpayer-funded health promotion messages goes to… Mars Wrigley Confectionary, makes of Maltesers, a confectionary multinational who have just launched this Maltesers-inspired chocolate bar into Australia.   You’ll want to sit down for this, it urges in billboard advertising. Clearly something momentous.  A new chocolate bar.  With Maltesers.  Call…

  • Why the media gets it wrong on obesity

    “I’m not overweight”, writes columnist Katrina Grace Kelly in The Australian.  “I’m just the helpless pawn of a vicious corporate conspiracy”. Amusing read, but it also illustrates why public health researchers are failing to cut-through with governments and the broader community on obesity. “The ‘obesogenic environment’ is the culprit here, apparently”, Kelly writes, referring to…

  • Beyond the “hot tub”: Australia’s runaway obesity epidemic

    How sure are you that you won’t lose your feet or toes to diabetes? According to a new report by the Obesity Collective, based at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, obesity in Australia is getting much, much worse. Between 2014-15 and 2017-18, the obesity rate in Australian adults rose from 27.9%…

  • Santa, Coke and Christmas: Why we need legislative restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to children

    Laws in many countries prohibit false and misleading advertising. The recent case of ACCC v Heinz (which I discussed in a blog post last week) shows how these laws can knock out false and misleading food advertisements. But what about the perfectly legal promotions for unhealthy foods and beverages that fill our TV screens, social…

  • ACCC v Heinz: A significant win for public health

    In a significant victory for public health, Australia’s Federal Court has held that Heinz engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in the marketing of a snack food targeted to toddlers (ACCC v Heinz [2018] FCA 360). The case should be seen as a win for public health not just because of the final outcome, but…

  • Liability for failure to effectively manage morbidly obese patients: it’s time to look again at Varipatis v Almario – here’s why

    What should a GP do with a morbidly obese patient who is in denial about their weight problem? Although it involved a complex set of facts, it’s time to revisit Almario v Varipatis (No 2) [2012] NSWSC 1578, reversed on appeal (Varipatis v Almario [2013] NSWCA 76). Doctors should take no comfort in the fact…

  • Queensland’s Healthy Futures Commission

    Health promotion in Queensland could receive a turbo-boost if the Healthy Futures Commission Queensland Bill 2017 is passed. This Bill illustrates a sometimes neglected aspect of public health law: use of law to build new institutions, to encourage partnerships, and to create a clear legislative mandate to address health challenges. The Healthy Futures Commission was an…

  • Promoting health goals in a self-regulating industry

    Earlier this year I published an article on self-regulation of food marketing to children in Australia. I focused on two voluntary codes developed by the Australian food industry to respond to concerns about children’s exposure to junk food advertising, and how it might affect their eating habits. My article pointed out the many loopholes in…

  • Dr David Nabarro, WHO D-G candidate, on a sugar tax

    The World Health Organisation may be in for interesting times if Dr David Nabarro becomes the next Director-General. Only three candidates are now in the contest.  Two of them were Commissioners of the WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity: Dr Nabarro, from the UK, and Dr Sania Nishtar, from Pakistan (who was Co-Chair of the…

  • Self-regulation of junk food advertising to kids doesn’t work. Here’s why.

    Recently, Cancer Council NSW published a study finding that food industry self-regulation in Australia has not been effective in reducing children’s exposure to unhealthy food marketing. Australian children still see, on average, three advertisements for unhealthy foods and beverages during each hour of prime time television they watch. This figure remains unchanged despite the Australian…

  • Once more with feeling…Barnaby Joyce on the merits of a sugary drinks tax

    Photo: Tongan Health Promotion Foundation   When I looked up from marking exams and saw the look on Barnaby Joyce’s face, I just knew he was seeing red about the Grattan Institute’s proposal for a sugary drinks tax, levied at a rate of 40 cents per 100 grams of sugar. The Grattan Institute report estimates…

  • Could a sugary drinks tax improve Australian diets?

    The UK tax on soft drink and Jamie Oliver’s call to action  Today Britain announced that from 2017 it would levy a tax on soft drinks containing more than five grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, as part of efforts to contain rising levels of childhood obesity. The announcement prompted Jamie Oliver to post a video…

  • WHO Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity presents final report and recommendations

    The World Health Organisation’s Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, appointed by WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan in 2014, has now formally presented its final report. The Commission was co-chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, the Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Dr Sania Nishtar, the founder and President of Heartfile, a…

  • Consider yourself warned: Public health coming to a fast food menu near you

    New York City’s Board of Health last week unanimously agreed to require ‘salt-shaker’ warning symbols on menu items with more than an entire day’s recommended limit of 2300mg of sodium. That’s around one teaspoon of salt. Restaurants with more than 15 outlets nationally will display warnings from 1 December 2015. Industry groups and the National…

  • Local government action: a new pathway for obesity prevention in Australia

    Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, Stephen Simpson (Director of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney) and Rosemary Calder (health policy Director at the Mitchell Institute for Health and Education Policy at Victoria University), call for community-based action to prevent chronic disease. They point to communities like Broken Hill, which has high…

  • World Health Organisation publishes new report on overweight, obesity, diabetes and the law

    Posted by Jenny Kaldor and Roger Magnusson This is the view when you look out the front gates of the World Health Organisation’s regional headquarters in Manila. A few blocks away, in the processed food aisles of the supermarket, parents are encouraged to purchase “nutrition power for kids”. The Western Pacific Region, which includes Australia,…

  • Fanta ad falls flat before the Advertising Standards Board

    Coca-Cola has been forced to remove advertisements for Fanta after the Advertising Standards Board found that the promotions breached the Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative, a voluntary code on responsible food marketing to children. The rulings came after the Obesity Policy Coalition laid three complaints about the ‘Fanta Tastes Like’ campaign, which included ads during prime…

  • Does Coca Cola have a role in delivering Pacific aid?

    Posted by Roger Magnusson and Alexandra Jones The Foreign Minister, The Hon. Julie Bishop MP has announced that Australia will partner with companies like Coca-Cola to distribute essential medicines to Pacific Island recipients of Australian aid. The Minister is right about one thing: tobacco and fizzy drink companies have strong distribution networks that reach into…