Partnerships between public health agencies and industries which trade in potentially harmful products or activities – such as the recently announced and much criticised partnership between Public Health England (PHE) and the alcohol industry-funded body, Drinkaware – risk delaying or preventing effective policies to improve population health, say public health scientists Mark Petticrew, Martin McKee and Theresa Marteau in their Lancet Comment, published online on September 20th 2018.

The authors say that such partnerships with industry promote voluntary models of harm reduction which are largely ineffective and are likely to benefit the relevant industries rather than improving the health of the nation. They conclude by recommending that PHE should work with the public health community to redefine its relationships with industry.

Read the full Comment in The Lancet

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Professor Dame Theresa Marteau is Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit (BHRU) at the University of Cambridge

More information: Lucy Lloyd, Communications Manager, Primary Care Unit, University of Cambridge

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