"Young people aged 11 to 17 are unable to distinguish between non-alcoholic products and traditional alcoholic beverages when these are promoted through sports sponsorship," found a new study. @stir.ac.uk www.stir.ac.uk/news/2026/fe...

Hot off the press - a letter from the Exec Chair of @ukri.org explaining his plans and in particular the financial position of STFC. It notes curiosity driven research is protected and will make up around half of UKRI spend over the coming period www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

📢 New report Alcohol marketing restrictions were meant to be in England’s 10 Year Health Plan. Then they disappeared. Our new report uses FOIs to show how alcohol industry lobbying targeted ministers and pressured government departments to kill the policy. www.ias.org.uk/report/now-y...

Blog from our intern, Sachin, who worked on our project last summer. We are engaging Sheffield residents on corporate influence and the commercial determinants of health. Read below 👇 sphr.nihr.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

Thanks to @felly500.bsky.social for chatting to me about how Sheffield's public health team successfully challenged proposals for a new McDonald's drive through in an area with multiple schools, sports facilities, playgrounds and other places children hang out. www.bmj.com/content/392/...

"The risk of alcohol-specific death was 1.8 times higher in those identifying with an LGB+ orientation, compared with those identifying as straight or heterosexual within our study period [in England and Wales]." www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...

Who is the Big Tobacco of today? In new work, we find 50% of high profile social media papers are connected to big tech through funding, collaboration and employment. Most connections aren't disclosed. @jbakcoleman.bsky.social @jevinwest.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com 1 arxiv.org/abs/2601.11507

How can Britain tackle falling child vaccine uptake? The NHS is partly to blame and must make access easier. Great to talk to Helen Skirrow off the back of a new Lancet paper on UK vaccine hesitancy:

Many women use alcohol to cope with menopause and midlife changes. In this blog for @aha-uk.bsky.social Dr Abi Rose explores why it’s time to include alcohol in the menopause conversation. Read more 🔽 ahauk.org/menopause-an...

🧵1/ The Christmas @bmj.com is always an opportunity to use satire as a vehicle for serious health messaging. Borrowing from Jonathan Swift, I ask, if public health is to “work with industry,” why stop at alcohol and gambling? Why not go all the way… and collaborate with organised crime?

In this new opinion piece published via @bmj.com, FPH President Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz outlines the changes we need to see in public health following the UK covid-19 inquiry's second report. - Proper funding - Clear communication - A protected workforce www.bmj.com/content/391/...

Celebrity chefs told Californians that PFAS-coated pans were “safe,” and successfully lobbied Gavin Newsom to veto a bill phasing them out They didn’t mention they all sell PFAS-coated pans. New joint investigation with @mirandagreen.bsky.social and @atmosmag.bsky.social is out:

www.sciencedirect.com:5037/science/arti... 10 yr analysis of growth of harmful product industries on high streets split by income helpful analysis More deprived areas were more likely to gain health harming amenities. More deprived areas were more likely to lose health conducive amenities

Smells like eugenics: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Tomorrow, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments on whether the Commonwealth can continue to pursue its case against Meta. Meta is trying to block the case by expanding Section 230 into a broad legal protection, arguing it shouldn’t face scrutiny for its platform design.

Proud to be supporting this joint call on Gov to deliver a strong & fair Food Strategy for everyone as members of @oha-updates.bsky.social, in partnership with Sustain, Eating Better, Wildlife and Countryside Link & Plant-Based Food Alliance UK. obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/2025/12/04/f...

Wow. Should not be surprised because this really is the playbook of industry influence in action but this is a lot.

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

* 70th Society for Social Medicine & Population Health Conference & European Congress of Epidemiology 2026 * Dates: 9-11 Sept 2026 Venue: Mile End Campus, QMUL, London Abstract submissions: Jan and Feb 2026. Results required so start planning! Website: bit.ly/4oyrifb @qmul-wiph.bsky.social

Australia just recorded zero cervical cancer cases in women under 25 for the first time since records began in 1982. The amazing result of HPV vaccination.

Zero-alcohol drinks: moderation tool or marketing Trojan horse? Our latest blog unpacks how alcohol companies publicly praise 0% products as “responsible” while privately celebrating them as a way to grow the market and reach new audiences. www.ias.org.uk/2025/11/26/z...

🚭🍷🍔💰Policy responses to tobacco, alcohol, gambling & unhealthy food are inconsistent, despite industries using similar tactics to promote harmful products. This study explores public opinion on measures to address unhealthy commodity industries. bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

I’ve spent almost seven years covering Meta and have had a good deal of exposure to internal work product on teen well-being. But a Friday filing in the school district social media litigation breaks some ground on Meta’s causal findings regarding social media harm. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

"Ultra Processed Food, and the system that produces it, has overtaken tobacco in terms of health and economic harms, and is also the leading cause of plastic pollution, loss of biodiversity and deforestation, and the second leading cause of emissions. " www.thelancet.com/series-do/ul...

Article on gambling industry advertising spend and rhetoric around potential tax rises: www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

"Meta internally projected late last year that it would earn about 10 per cent of its overall annual revenue — or $16bn — from running advertising for scams and banned goods, internal company documents show" - Reuters www.ft.com/content/4560...

I'm at #ADPHConf25 , and someone just brought up the fact that the term 'nanny state' was coined 60 years ago in the Spectator. Got me thinking about how removed from everyday life you have to be to automatically use the word 'nanny' to mean 'person who told me what to do when I was a child'.

Genuinely interested what someone just called for on radio4 - a *causal* study of COVID lockdown- would mean, methodologically Assuming a RCT is out but what kind of QED (who is the comparator?) or other method might work?

the nation’s public health agency, held hostage www.statnews.com/2025/11/20/c...

📢 Announcing the UK Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2025, part of the Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index. The UK is ranked 17 out of 100 countries, based on evidence captured between April 2023 and March 2025. www.bath.ac.uk/case-studies/the-uk-tobacco-industry-interference-index-2025/

The government recently announced plans to extend the opening hours for pubs and bars in England and Wales. This proposal shows a failure to differentiate between healthy and harmful growth, say @spidermaani.bsky.social @maizie333.bsky.social @markpetticrew.bsky.social www.bmj.com/content/391/...

This is one of the major concerns regarding zero alcohol products: that they only benefit wealthier people because they're more expensive than standard alcohol. Reducing alcohol deaths among the lowest socioeconomic groups has to be the priority, (🧵) www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Alcohol causes almost 1 in 25 new cancer cases and leads to over 1 million 🏥admissions every year. Current proposals for licensing reform focus on economic growth. 👀Read why we are calling for Public Health to be included as a licensing objective➡️bit.ly/498zOh0

"Such regulatory capture should be resisted by anyone with an interest in fair and effective governance, as well as a concern for effectively preventing harm." @jamesnicholls.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

‘In a twist that befuddled researchers for a year, almost no human beings visit the sites, which are hard to browse or search. Instead, their content is aimed at crawlers, the software programs that scour the web & bring back content for search engines & LLMs’ www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

📣 New Call for Papers on the Relationship Between Public Health and Politics 📅 Deadline: February 1, 2026 🔗 Info: buff.ly/huyzHG8 #CallForPapers #PublicHealth

Sell the brownie, not the recipe:

Regulatory capture & UK alcohol licensing review There is currently a call for evidence from stakeholders on reforming the licensing system www.gov.uk/government/c... I have written a bit on why this matters here gregfellpublichealth.wordpress.com/2025/10/29/r...

A new @addictionjournal.bsky.social commentary warns of regulatory capture in UK alcohol licensing The ‘Licensing Taskforce’ - led by industry figures - could weaken democratic accountability & redefine licensing as business promotion, not public protection onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Peer lobbying to water down tobacco bill fails to declare conflict of interest, story from @theguardian.com and @theexamination.org www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Guardian articles in 24 hours: “Saturday marks a decade since the World Health Organization in October 2015 declared processed meat to be carcinogenic to humans, putting it in the same category as tobacco and asbestos.” www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Register for the launch event of MPOWER+: a newly adapted framework designed to empower the public health community in tackling fossil fuel dependency. bsky.app/profile/fphu...

FPH members are invited to Join FPH’s Alcohol SIG for an online webinar: Alcohol Licensing Under Threat. bsky.app/profile/fphu...

Government plans to drop alcohol licensing notices from local papers risk shutting the public out of key decisions on pubs and night-time venues. Cornwall Council’s leader warns of a blow to transparency and local democracy. @cornwallcouncil.bsky.social www.cornish-times.co.uk/news/alcohol...

Join FPH for the launch of MPOWER+, a new framework to help the public health community tackle fossil fuel dependency. This webinar will cover why the fossil fuel industry should be viewed through a commercial-determinants lens and how MPOWER+ was developed. www.fph.org.uk/events-cours...

@bma.org.uk @aha-uk.bsky.social @ias.org.uk

As ICE torments our communities billionaires profit from million dollar contracts with the federal agency. littlesis.org/news/the-bil...

Absolutely everything about this situation is insane: Mississippi residents are forced to sue a UK-owned biomass firm that was granted a permit to further pollute their community (while producing a BS product).