A commentary just published in BMJ Global Health calls on all scientific journals and publishers to end advertising from manufacturers of breastmilk substitutes.
Conflicts of interest are harming maternal and child health: time for scientific journals to end relationships with manufacturers of breast-milk substitutes
https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/2/e008002.full
The summary box of the articles includes the following -
The examples provided in this commentary show how a manufacturer is using a leading scientific journal to market breastmilk substitutes through paid advertisements
By receiving funding from breastmilk substitute manufacturers, journals create a conflict of interest whereby the publisher and readers of the journal may favour corporations consciously or unconsciously in ways that undermine scientific integrity
All scientific journals and publishers should stop accepting funding from manufacturers and distributors of breastmilk substitutes in accordance with global public health guidance
This new research adds further weight to the call for all paediatric associations to cease taking funding or sponsorship from formula manufacturers owing to the inevitable conflict of interest created.
Tony Waterston
CHIFA profile: Tony Waterston is a retired consultant paediatrician who worked mainly in the community in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. He spent 6 years working in Zambia and Zimbabwe and directed the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Diploma in Palestinian Child Health teaching programme in the occupied Palestinian territories. He was an Editor of the Journal of Tropical Pediatrics and is on the Executive Committee of the International Society for Social Pediatrics. His academic interests are child poverty, advocacy for child health and children's rights. He is currently the lead moderator of CHIFA (HIFA's sister forum on child health and rights). He is also a member of the HIFA Steering Group.
Tony.Waterston AT newcastle.ac.uk
