More needs to be done to tackle the unhealthy products driving nearly half a million people out of work

• New report lays bare the huge cost to the economy from alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy foods.
• An estimated £53bn of combined industry revenue is made from sales at levels harmful to health EVERY YEAR in the UK.
• Health leaders argue that a focus on prevention is vital and call for a crackdown on the harmful substances holding us back.

A new report released today [November 20] by a coalition of health charities has laid bare the £31bn productivity cost to the economy from alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy foods.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) and the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA), have joined forces to outline the scale of harm caused collectively by tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food and drinks, which are major causes of death and chronic disease.

Big businesses are currently profiting from ill-health caused by smoking, drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy foods, while the public pay the price in poor health, higher taxes and an under-performing economy.

The wage penalty, unemployment and economic inactivity caused by tobacco, alcohol and obesity costs the UK economy an eye-watering £31bn and has led to an estimated 459,000 people out of work.

Meanwhile each year, the industries which sell these products make an estimated £53bn of combined industry revenue from sales at levels harmful to health.

The coalition is calling on Government to put in place a comprehensive strategy to prevent ill-health from commercially driven risk factors, and redress the balance between industry influence and the public’s health.

Key findings in the report include:

• Overall, 13% of adults in England smoke, 21% drink above the recommended drinking guidelines, and 64% are overweight or living with obesity, which is a key consequence of consuming too many unhealthy foods.
• This is putting great strain on NHS services, with millions of hospital admissions in England each year due to diseases caused by these products (506,000 tobacco-related admissions, 980,000 alcohol-related and 1,020,000 weight-related).
• Continuous exposure to these products drives consumption at levels damaging to health. While any level of smoking is harmful (100% of tobacco usage), analysis for the report found that 43.4% of alcohol purchased by UK households, and 28.8% of food purchased, were over government guidelines on safe consumption of alcohol and saturated fat, free sugars or salt. This equates to £81.5 billion being spent by consumers on products which harm them while businesses take home £53bn in revenue.
• Health harming commodity industries use similar tactics to avoid regulation. This lobbying by health harming industries has held back regulations to reduce the harm from these products.
• Public support for action is high in all areas, including:
  - Around 7 in 10 of the public supports protecting health policy from the influence of industries that make tobacco, alcohol or unhealthy food and drinks. (75% support this for the tobacco industry, 70% for the alcohol industry and 68% support this for unhealthy food and drinks manufacturers)
  - The majority of the public support the idea of levies on industries to reduce and/or prevent harms from the products those industries produce. 77% support a tobacco industry levy, 61% support an alcohol levy and 59% support a levy on unhealthy food and drink manufacturers.

ASH, OHA and AHA say policymakers’ current approach to tackling health inequalities is fragmented, with the introduction of piecemeal national policy preventing strategies from realising their full potential.

The organisations want the government to build on the progress made on tobacco and further regulate unhealthy foods and alcohol as part of a coherent cross-government health strategy, with a key focus on prevention of illness caused by these three product groups.

The report does not call for an identical approach to tackling these harms, recognising there are differences in the risks to health and the nature of industries, but does call for far greater coherence and for regulations to be proportionate to the harms products cause.

Recommendations in the report:

1. The Government should take a coherent policy approach to tobacco, alcohol and high fat, salt and/or sugar foods, with a focus on primary prevention.
2. Health should be prioritised through a cross-government approach to prevention.
3. Public health policymaking must be protected from the vested interest of health-harming industry stakeholders.
4. Spending on prevention should be treated as investment.
   

Five key actions:

• Regulate advertising to limit harm through restrictions on advertising, promotion and sponsorship of harmful products.
• Regulate product use and environment by raising the age of sale of some products appropriately to limit harms, removing products from prominent positions in shops, and using licencing to further regulate the sale of alcohol and tobacco.
• Raise the price of harmful products through appropriate taxation with automatic uprating mechanism, minimum unit pricing, and restrictions on alcohol promotions and multi-buy deals.
• Fund treatment services and ensure equitable access, focusing efforts on communities and individuals who experience the worst harms.
• Inform the public about the risks linked to health-harming products through evidence-based mass marketing health campaigns and product labelling.
  

Prof Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health University of Edinburgh and Chair of the report steering group, said:
“There is a clear role for Government in reducing the consumption of products which harm health and the economy and this fits with the Government’s own vision for improving public health. However, in practice with the exception of tobacco, action has been slow and concentrated not on what businesses do to increase consumption but on what individuals can do to resist temptation. This balance needs to be reset and industry activity must be regulated to protect the health of the public.”

Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, President of the BMA and Chair of the Alcohol Health Alliance, said:
“Tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food are the three leading causes of preventable death and ill health in England and are key drivers of health inequalities. The results of these place huge pressure on our already stretched health services.

“We know that people want the opportunity to lead healthy lives and make healthy choices. But the current lack of legislation around these harmful products makes it difficult when industry invests millions of pounds into strategies to coerce us into consuming them.

“For too long, the government has prioritised industry profits over public health. If the government is serious about tackling preventable diseases, protecting people and the NHS, a comprehensive strategy addressing price, availability and promotion – developed without the interference of big industry – is urgently needed.”

Owen Jackson, Director of Policy, Cancer Research UK and funders of the report said:
"The UK has a proud history of leading the way in public health. From the Soft Drinks Industry Levy which has resulted in over 50% of manufacturers reducing the sugar content of drinks, to the recently announced landmark plans to raise the age of sale of tobacco products, what is shown time and again is that sustained, bold political leadership on public health is supported by the public. I hope this report helps us to set a clear narrative on prevention not just for this parliamentary term but for future parliaments too."

Alice Wiseman, Policy Lead for Addiction for the Association of Directors of Public Health, said:
“This report highlights the frighteningly high level of influence industry has over our health. The Government must learn from the lessons of tobacco control and regulate all harmful products so that our society promotes good health, instead of constantly pushing us to consume products that actively harm our health. Directors of Public Health work in partnership to address these issues on a local level but to tackle them consistently across the country, we need bold, national action that enables communities to put health at the heart of their decision-making.”

View the full report here.

ENDS
Notes to the Editor

See report for all references

About ASH, AHA and OHA
Action on Smoking and Health is a health charity working to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco use. ASH receives funding for its programme of work from Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation, and provides the secretariat to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health and co-ordinates the Smokefree Action Coalition.

The Alcohol Health Alliance is a coalition of more than 60 organisations working together to reduce the harm caused by alcohol.

The Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) is a coalition of more than 50 health organisations who have joined together to advocate for policies to improve population health and address obesity.

For interviews and more information contact press@ash.org.uk