UK Criminalizes Formula Marketing Offenses and
JAMA Forum Comes Out against “Big Food”
According to a report, the UK government has introduced regulations that would make a company’s failure to fall in line with EU infant formula and baby food marketing laws a criminal offense subject to fines. Continue reading
New Hampshire’s 19 maternity facilities have all stopped distributing formula company discharge packs, Ban the Bags has learned. New Hampshire thus becomes the nation’s fifth bag-free state following Rhode Island (1), Massachusetts (2), Delaware (3), and Maryland (4), as well as the District of Columbia. Continue reading
The United States is one of a minority of countries with no legal provisions in place to protect the WHO Code of Marketing of Breast-Milk Substitutes, according to 2016 report released by The World Health Organization, UNICEF, and International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN). Global sales of product now are $44.8 billion US dollars, on track to nearly double (to $70.6 billion) by 2019.
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Delegates to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Britain’s national pediatrician’s organization, passed a non-binding resolution urging the College to “decline any commercial transactions or any other kind of funding or support” from all companies that market breast milk substitutes. Continue reading
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a positive step for new mothers, Public Citizen reports all Maryland maternity hospitals now are free of infant formula marketing, including company-sponsored discharge bags. Maryland joins Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Delaware in making this transition. Continue reading
The New York City Commissioner of Consumer Affairs subpoenaed Abbott Labs to produce documents backing up its multiple health claims of its infant formulas. Continue reading
From the Caribbean to India, Nestlé continues to undermine breastfeeding, by co-opting health workers and scientists (India) and undermining women’s confidence with ads that appear to show concern (Trinidad). See how Nestle is manipulating public opinion in IBFAN’s story.
Congratulations to Delaware on becoming the nation’s third bag-free state, joining Rhode Island (1), Massachusetts (2), and the District of Columbia. Read more.
May 2015- The 2015 CDC mPINC survey shows that 78.7% of hospitals report that they do not give out “discharge packs” with formula samples to breastfeeding mothers. Data from older mPINC surveys shows the number of hospitals distributing formula companies discharge packs to breastfeeding mothers has markedly declined between 2007 and 2013, according to a study published May 2015 in Pediatrics. The percentage of hospitals distributing infant formula discharge packs to breastfeeding mothers was 72.6% in 2007 and 31.6% in 2013, a decrease of 41 percentage points. In 2007, there was only 1 state (Rhode Island) in which <25% of hospitals distributed infant formula discharge packs to breastfeeding mothers, whereas in 2013 there were 24 such states and territories. Note that the CDC data is different from BantheBags’ data in two important aspects: CDC data is based on self report only, whereas BantheBags verifies the self report of every hospital we list. CDC data also does not specify whether the discharge bags are from formula companies or not, and only specifies whether they are given to breastfeeding mothers. At BantheBags, we will only list hospitals who have banned all industry-sponsored discharge bags to all mothers.
All six birthing hospitals in the city of Philadelphia have and all eight birthing hospitals in Washington, DC have eliminated distribution of industry sponsored formula bags as of August 1, 2014. Philadelphia’s effort comes as part of a larger effort to improve breastfeeding support in that city’s birthing hospitals. A bag free Philadelphia coincides with efforts of the Philadelphia Multi-Hospital Breastfeeding Task Force to declare Philadelphia “The City of Motherly Love” and encourage members of the public to sign a pledge showing their support for nursing mothers in the city. According to Dr. Sahira Long, chair of the DC Breastfeeding Coalition, some facilities stopped earlier than others, but all stopped giving out the bags voluntarily as of August 1.
A new study from Public Citizen and the Ban the Bags campaign shows that the majority of the top ranked hospitals in the U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Hospitals” no longer distribute gift bags from infant formula manufacturers. See the press release at http://www.citizen.org/
Sept 23, 2012—This month, New York City hospitals starts implementing their voluntary breastfeeding initiative, Latch On NYC. Earlier this summer, Latch On NYC hit news and blogs all over the country, with many Americans objecting to the requirement of participating hospitals to track their inventories of infant formula, as they do with medications. Some commentators thought this move unnecessarily “punished” formula feeding mothers, and likened the move to locking up narcotics.
