PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Free trade deal is a major threat to UK public health, warn experts

New deal will make it harder for the UK to regulate tobacco and alcohol or ban products like those containing harmful pesticides

2023-04-13
(Press-News.org) The UK’s decision to join one of the world’s largest free trade agreements, known as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), poses a major threat to UK public health, warn experts in The BMJ today.

In acceding to the CPTPP, the government hopes to boost trade, improve economic growth, and strengthen the UK’s strategic position as a global rule setter. 

But Courtney McNamara and colleagues argue that free trade deals have serious and wide ranging implications for public health and policy making, as they commit countries to certain regulatory and legal obligations. 

As such, they call on the government to commission a health impact assessment before signing takes place later in 2023 to evaluate the potential benefits and harms of this deal.

The CPTPP poses several threats to public health in the UK, they explain. For example, it is likely to make it more difficult to enact policies to cut consumption of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food and drinks through clauses that allow foreign corporations to contest any such regulations.

It also contains provisions that effectively rule out a precautionary approach to food safety, meaning that bans on products like those containing harmful pesticides can be challenged.

And while some workers might benefit from a boost in exports and demand, which might increase wages, they argue that those working in industries that are undercut by cheaper imports and unable to compete are likely to experience economic insecurity and potentially job losses, which carry huge consequences for health.

The UK government has said the agreement will not mean lower health or food standards in the UK, and the authors acknowledge that the gross domestic product (GDP) boosting consequences of a free trade agreement could conceivably have positive health effects.

Based on the UK government’s own calculations, however, they point out that the economic case for joining the CPTPP “amounts to no more than a 0.08% increase in the country’s GDP over a 15 year period.”

More problematically, the government’s calculations fail to account for the implementation costs of joining the agreement, they add. “To our knowledge, no national evaluation has been done to account for implementation costs with respect to changes in regulatory and dispute settlement rules.”

“If a priority of the government is to do no harm, a commitment made explicit during Brexit negotiations, then it should take account of the health implications of its trade policies,” they write.

“Even if it is unlikely that, given the government’s poor track record on public health, the findings would influence its decision to sign, evidence produced by the assessment will still be extremely valuable by pointing to populations at risk and communities whose health might be safeguarded during the agreement’s implementation,” they add.

If the government fails to undertake a health impact assessment, it will fall to public health scholars, professionals, and advocates to mobilise and act to undertake this important work, they conclude.

[Ends] 

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Female healthworkers need better radiation protection to minimise breast cancer risk

2023-04-13
Women working in healthcare who are regularly exposed to radiation from x-rays and other imaging procedures need better ionising radiation protection to help minimise their risk of developing breast cancer, argue doctors in The BMJ today. Ionising radiation is a known human carcinogen and breast tissue is highly radiation sensitive. As such, there are concerns that regular exposure to ionising radiation during image guided procedures may be linked to a higher risk of breast cancer in female healthcare workers. Personal protective equipment (PPE) such as lead gowns are used to shield the body from harmful radiation during these ...

Higher dose corticosteroids associated with a 60% increased risk of death in hypoxic COVID-19 patients requiring only non-invasive oxygen therapy (The Lancet / RECOVERY trial)

2023-04-13
*Note: this is a joint press release from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) and The Lancet.  Please credit both the congress and the journal in your stories* A new study to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2023, Copenhagen 15-18 April), and published in The Lancet, shows that, compared with standard care that included low dose corticosteroid use, treating hypoxic COVID-19 patients needing ...

Assisted reproduction kids grow up just fine – but it may be better to tell them early about biological origins, twenty-year study suggests

2023-04-13
Paper available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1y9GfgYkRdUtwyq6nBhySePTUHZYP6iAj?usp=share_link Landmark study finds no difference in psychological wellbeing or quality of family relationships between children born by assisted reproduction (egg or sperm donation or surrogacy) and those born naturally at age 20. However, findings suggest that telling children about their biological origins early – before they start school – can be advantageous for family relationships and healthy adjustment. The study, by University of Cambridge researchers, is the first to examine the long-term ...

The hidden culprit behind nitrogen dioxide emissions

The hidden culprit behind nitrogen dioxide emissions
2023-04-13
Nitrogen dioxide is one of the criteria air pollutants that plays an important role as a precursor gas of fine particulate matter and ozone. NO2 emissions are known to be primarily generated by industrial facilities or vehicle exhausts. Recently, a research team from POSTECH analyzed satellite remote sensing data from the European Space Agency (ESA) and released results showing that food processing facilities and high-rise apartments that are 10 stories or higher are significant sources of NO2 emissions. Their findings have drawn attention from NASA.   A ...

Notable birth cohort effects on the incidence trend of renal replacement therapy in Japan

Notable birth cohort effects on the incidence trend of renal replacement therapy in Japan
2023-04-13
Niigata, Japan - A new Japanese study reveals significant birth cohort effects on the incidence trend of ESKD requiring RRT. “Different birth cohorts may have different levels of exposure to a particular risk factor, which may produce a change in disease incidence for individuals born at a particular time, i.e. a cohort effect,” said Dr. Wakasugi, the corresponding author of the study. “Age-Period-Cohort (APC) analysis, a statistical method to distinguish between age, period, and ...

Time out: We all need a three-day weekend

Time out: We all need a three-day weekend
2023-04-13
As a four-day work week is trialled in countries across the globe, health researchers at the University of South Australia say they’re ‘all in’ when it comes to a long weekend, especially as new empirical research shows that the extra time off is good for our health.   Assessing changes in daily movements before, during and after holidays, researchers found that people displayed more active, healthy behaviours when they were on holiday, even when they only had a three-day break.   Across the 13-month study period, people generally took an average two to three holidays, each being around 12 days. The most common holiday type was ‘outdoor ...

Using a new technique, PESI/MS/MS, to analyze the nutritional compounds in crops

Using a new technique, PESI/MS/MS, to analyze the nutritional compounds in crops
2023-04-13
Anthocyanins are compounds related to the color of plants. They also have beneficial effects on human health and are used as a supplement. Various species of anthocyanins, divided by their molecular shape, are present in plants. Therefore, simple, and rapid, analytical techniques that can distinguish among these species in crops are necessary for breeding and quality assessment. A team of Nagoya University researchers in Japan has used a technique called probe electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (PESI/MS/MS) to analyze anthocyanins in crops. ...

HKU biologists determine the evolutionary age of individual cell types providing critical insights for animal development

HKU biologists determine the evolutionary age of individual cell types providing critical insights for animal development
2023-04-13
A research team led by Dr Chaogu ZHENG from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) has recently made a significant discovery about the evolutionary age of different type of cells in a small animal called Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). By using single-cell transcriptomic data and refined phylostratigraphy, the team determines the transcriptomic age of individual cells, which means they are able to estimate the evolutionary origin of different cells based on the age of the genes expressed in the ...

Coral-eating fish poo may act as ‘probiotics’ for reefs

2023-04-13
Until recently, fish that eat coral — corallivores — were thought to weaken reef structures, while fish that consume algae and detritus — grazers — were thought to keep reefs healthy. But scientists have discovered that feces from grazers leave large lesions on coral, possibly because they contain coral pathogens. By contrast, feces from corallivores may provide a source of beneficial microbes that help coral thrive. “Corallivorous fish are generally regarded as harmful because they bite the corals,” said Dr Carsten Grupstra of Rice University, ...

New study demonstrates hospital safety climate and organizational characteristics predict healthcare-associated infections and occupational health outcomes

2023-04-13
Arlington, Va., April 13, 2023 – New data published today in the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) provide the first published evidence that a positive safety climate and adherence to standard precautions predict key healthcare-associated infection (HAI) and occupational health outcomes among patients and health care workers, respectively. The findings highlight features within hospitals’ organizations and safety climates that could be modified to improve these outcomes. “Despite the infection prevention and safety benefits associated with standard precautions, generating consistent adherence in the healthcare setting has been ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Breaking free from dependence on rare resources! A domestic high-performance permanent magnet emerges!

Symptoms of long-COVID can last up to two years after infection with COVID-19

Violence is forcing women in Northern Ireland into homelessness, finds new report

Latin American intensivists denounce economic and cultural inequities in the global scientific publishing system

Older adults might be more resistant to bird flu infections than children, Penn research finds

Dramatic increase in research funding needed to counter productivity slowdown in farming

How chemistry and force etch mysterious spiral patterns on solid surfaces

Unraveling the mysteries of polycystic kidney disease

Mother’s high-fat diet can cause liver stress in fetus, study shows

Weighing in on a Mars water debate

Researchers ‘seq’ and find a way to make pig retinal cells to advance eye treatments

Re-purposed FDA-approved drug could help treat high-grade glioma

Understanding gamma rays in our universe through StarBurst

Study highlights noninvasive hearing aid 

NASA taps UTA to shape future of autonomous aviation

Mutations disrupt touch-based learning, study finds

Misha lived in zoos, but the elephant’s tooth enamel helps reconstruct wildlife migrations

Eat better, breathe easier? Research points to link between diet, lung cancer

Mesozoic mammals had uniform dark fur

Wartime destruction of Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine has long-term environmental consequences

NIH’s flat 15% funding policy is misguided and damaging

AI reveals new insights into the flow of Antarctic ice

Scientists solve decades-long Parkinson’s mystery

Spinning, twisted light could power next-generation electronics

A planetary boundary for geological resources: Limits of regional water availability

Astronomy’s dirty window to space

New study reveals young, active patients who have total knee replacements are unlikely to need revision surgery in their lifetime

Thinking outside the box: Uncovering a novel approach to brainwave monitoring

Combination immunotherapy before surgery may increase survival in people with head and neck cancer

MIT engineers turn skin cells directly into neurons for cell therapy

[Press-News.org] Free trade deal is a major threat to UK public health, warn experts
New deal will make it harder for the UK to regulate tobacco and alcohol or ban products like those containing harmful pesticides