Commercial priorities over health are deadly
Commercial priorities over health are deadly, and governments must turn from strictly financial gains to ensure a sustainable future for the planet
Gilmore AB, et al. Defining and conceptualizing the commercial determinants of health. The Lancet. Series on Commercial Determinants of Health. April 2023. 401; 10383: 1194-1213. Although It is challenging to estimate the exact effect commercial sector products and practices have on health due to the scarcity of comprehensive data and specific studies on this topic, the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study (appendix pp 2, 4) estimates that just four commercial products (tobacco, alcohol, ultra-processed food, and fossil fuels) account for 19 million global deaths annually (34% of the 56 million total deaths or 41% of the 42 million NCD deaths).
This paper, the first in a Series on the commercial determinants of health, explains how the shift towards market fundamentalism and increasingly powerful transnational corporations has created a pathological system in which commercial actors are increasingly enabled to cause harm and externalize the costs of doing so. Consequently, as harms to human and planetary health increase, commercial sector wealth and power increase, whereas the countervailing forces having to meet these costs (notably individuals, governments, and civil society organizations) become correspondingly impoverished and disempowered or captured by commercial interests. This power imbalance leads to policy inertia; although many policy solutions are available, they must be implemented. Health harms are escalating, leaving healthcare systems increasingly unable to cope. Governments can and must act to improve, rather than continue to threaten, the well-being of future generations, development, and economic growth.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00013-2/fulltext
Stephen Hamann
