Health experts have urged Bridget Phillipson to stop schools using educational materials funded by the food, drink and gambling industries, in order to protect children from “harmful” influences.
Dozens of doctors, health charities and public health specialists have written to the education secretary warning her that such firms are sponsoring resources used in lessons with pupils, despite them misrepresenting the evidence about diets, alcohol and betting.
Some of the materials teach young people how to pour glasses of wine, distort the evidence about alcohol’s role in causing cancer, and promote “responsible gambling” to them, the letter says.
The Obesity Health Alliance, British Medical Association, and directors of public health and World Cancer Research Fund are among those who have signed the letter. They are alarmed by companies gaining “corporate reach” in schools by supplying teacher resource packs and student information sheets that they claim constitute “misleading and harmful classroom materials”.
“We wouldn’t let big tobacco teach children about smoking. So why are we allowing the alcohol, gambling and junk food industries into classrooms?” said Chris van Tulleken, a professor of infectious disease and global health at University College London. “Allowing these industries into schools distorts learning and helps industry establish the next generation of customers.”
The coalition of 58 health experts, groups and academics wants Phillipson to adopt the same tough approach as the Republic of Ireland. In 2022 its government told schools not to use materials in the classroom that had been funded by the alcohol industry or other “parties with conflicts of interest”.
Academic studies have found that “self-claimed prevention education programmes … serve the interests of their commercial funders. The materials help to normalise harmful behaviours, omit or misrepresent important risks, and shift responsibility for harm on to individuals, including children and young people, and away from the industries and their practices.”
Dr May van Schalkwyk, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh and expert in corporate tactics, said: “The evidence is clear. Industries whose products are undermining the health and wellbeing of children and young people fund harmful youth education programmes as part of their corporate strategies. Urgent action is needed to prevent this form of influence and conflicts of interest”.
The letter…
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