Should we use regulation to demand improved public health outcomes from industry? Yes

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1750

Published 2 October 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1750
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1750

Head to Head

Should we use regulation to demand improved public health outcomes from industry? Yes

Stephen D Sugarman, Roger J Traynor professor of law

¹ School of Law, Berkeley, CA 94720-7200, USA

sugarman@law.berkeley.edu

Preventable chronic diseases are a major threat to health worldwide.Stephen Sugarman argues that setting targets for companies willproduce innovative solutions, but Stig Pramming (doi:10.1136/bmj.a1761)believes collaboration is the best way to improve health

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Current approaches to some of our most pressing public healthproblems—voluntary cooperation with business and requiringcompanies to change how they operate—are not moving useffectively or efficiently in the socially desired direction.Let’s instead call for businesses themselves to figureout how to improve public health outcomes through a promisingnew regulatory approach: performance based regulation. Thiswill enable the most innovative and nimble aspects of privateenterprises to be called in. Through performance based regulation,the government tells businesses what outcomes it wants fromthem and leaves them to work out the best ways of attainingthose regulatory targets.

Old fashioned public health regulation of business orders companiesto do things like put graphic pictures of illness on cigarettepacks, include calorie counts on fast food menus, install airbags in cars, and train pub workers not to sell drinks to peoplewho are likely to drink and . . . [Full text of this article]

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