Tax tobacco, alcohol, soft drinks to help poor beat lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and strokes, global health leaders urge
Raft of studies, and editorial, in leading medical journal make the case for higher taxes to curb consumption of harmful products and fund treatment of diseases they cause among world’s poor
Global health leaders declared war on lifestyle diseases on Thursday, decrying the impact of tobacco, alcohol and soft drinks on the world’s poor and calling for taxes to curb their consumption and finance health care.
In six studies in leading health journal The Lancet, experts detailed the link between poverty and non-communicable diseases (NDCs) such as strokes and diabetes, and made the case for consumer taxes – opposed by industry and many politicians.
NDCs, which also include heart disease and cancer, “are a major cause and consequence of poverty worldwide”, said Rachel Nugent, vice-president of RTI International, a non-profit health policy institute in the American city of Seattle and chairwoman of The Lancet Taskforce on Non-Communicable Diseases.
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Many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which run to 2030, will remain out of reach unless governments invest in policies that break the chains binding unhealthy habits and so-called “lifestyle” diseases, she said.