ArticleTobacco control2019
Brussels Declaration: a vehicle for the advancement of tobacco and alcohol industry interests at the science/policy interface?
Article in Tobacco control, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- From the tobacco industry's uses of science for public relations purposes to the alcohol industry: Tobacco industry documents study.Drug and alcohol review · 2023Pooled it
- Turning the tables on industry narratives: a health communication playbook for promoting health.Health promotion international · 2026Article
- Europe must learn from America's assault on science.European journal of public health · 2026Article
- The attributes of public health leadership.European journal of public health · 2025Article
- Lobbying in the Sunlight: A Scoping Review of Frameworks to Measure the Accessibility of Lobbying Disclosures.International journal of health policy and management · 2024Article
- The Commercial Determinants of Health and Evidence Synthesis (CODES): methodological guidance for systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses.Systematic reviews · 2023Article
- The emperor has no clothes: a synthesis of findings from the Transformative Research on the Alcohol industry, Policy and Science research programme.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2023Review
- "Using information to shape perception": tobacco industry documents study of the evolution of Corporate Affairs in the Miller Brewing Company.Globalization and health · 2022Article
- WHO's Attempt to Navigate Commercial Influence and Conflicts of Interest in Nutrition Programs While Engaging With Non-State Actors: Reflections on WHO Guidance for Nation States Comment on "Towards Preventing and Managing Conflict of Interest in Nutrition Policy? An Analysis of Submissions to a Consultation on a Draft WHO Tool".International journal of health policy and management · 2022Article
- The Views of Researchers on the Alcohol Industry's Involvement in Science: Findings from an Interview Study.European addiction research · 2022Article
- Coordination, framing and innovation: the political sophistication of public health advocates in Ireland.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Article
- Alcohol, cardiovascular disease and industry funding: A co-authorship network analysis of systematic reviews.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2021Article
- Alcohol policy, multi-level governance and corporate political strategy: The campaign for Scotland's minimum unit pricing in Edinburgh, London and Brussels.British journal of politics & international relations · 2021Article
- Our Postpandemic World: What Will It Take to Build a Better Future for People and Planet?The Milbank quarterly · 2021Article
- The Commercial Determinants of Three Contemporary National Crises: How Corporate Practices Intersect With the COVID-19 Pandemic, Economic Downturn, and Racial Inequity.The Milbank quarterly · 2021Article
- The changing health needs of the UK population.Lancet (London, England) · 2021Article
- Beyond nutrition and physical activity: food industry shaping of the very principles of scientific integrity.Globalization and health · 2021Review
- Alcohol marketing versus public health: David and Goliath?Globalization and health · 2021Article
- Reconceptualising the study of alcohol policy decision-making: the contribution of political science.Addiction research & theory · 2021Article
- Mechanisms for addressing and managing the influence of corporations on public health policy, research and practice: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The case for policies to be based on evidence appeared to gain a major boost with the publication of the Brussels Declaration, apparently with support from many leading scientists and institutions. Yet, as we show in this analysis, there are major concerns about how it was developed and, in particular, the extensive involvement of tobacco and alcohol industry actors. We describe how its coverage of conflicts of interest and vested interests is consistent with the perspectives of these same actors. The process of developing the Declaration successfully involved science advisors, other senior officials in governments and politicians in its preparation. Despite this, the final Declaration fails to address the need for safeguards to protect the integrity of science or policy from corporate interests, including in relation to the tobacco industry. This undermines Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which seeks to protect public health policies from interference by the tobacco companies. More broadly, the Declaration offers potential to serve as a vehicle for advancing the vested interests of corporate sectors in public policymaking and appears to have been regarded in this way by a range of organisations related to the alcohol industry. This exercise is now being extended to the continent of Africa, which is strategically important to both the tobacco and alcohol industries. It will be important to study carefully to what extent initiatives like this form part of the global political strategies of tobacco and alcohol industry actors.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.