To favor breastfeeding could save more than 820,000 livesper year, recalls theWorld Health Organization (WHO) in a report that she co-signed with Unicef and the International Network of Action Groups for Infant Feeding (IBFAN). THE’feeding with milk indeed constitutes an effective preventive weapon against diarrhea, respiratory infections, overweight, obesity and diabetes in children, but also against breast and ovarian cancer in the mother. However, “before the age of six months, almost two in three children are not exclusively breast-fed“, warns the WHO. This is why this organization launches the alert against advertising campaigns”aggressive“for breastmilk substitutes which”continue to undermine efforts to improve breastfeeding rates“.
Reconcile legislation and public health objectives
The WHO has therefore decided to look into the effective application of the “International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes” put in place in 1981 to limit advertising practices “inappropriate“. But 35 years after the adoption of this Code, the artificial milk industry is still on the rise: worldwide revenues from sales of industrial infant milkreach $ 44.8 billion, and could climb to more than $ 70 billion by 2019. While many countries have legal tools to ensure the application of this code, full compliance with this text remains rare . “Of the 136 countries with legal measures, only 29% have comprehensive legislation that covers all or almost all of the Code’s clauses“, deplores the WHO. The report therefore proposes a series of recommendations aimed at”strengthen legal measures to make the Code effective “. Because “even in the harshest trade regimes, there is room for public interest laws to meet legitimate health objectives when they are based on internationally adopted standards and recommendations such as the Code.“affirms the institutions in this report.
The WHO also raises the question of the new modes of advertising which pass through the internet and social networks: “these new forms of promotion raise both legal and practical challenges, and require countries to better understand marketing strategies to ensure that policy and legal measures can be adjusted accordingly. “
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