Does cigarette promotion increase susceptibility to smoking? : a re-test of the link between tobacco industry promotion and adolescent susceptibility to cigarette use

In 1998, using the Index of Receptivity to Tobacco Industry Promotion (IRTIP), it was claimed that tobacco promotion increased youth susceptibility to smoking. Arguably, this claim started the belief that ?cigarette advertising causes smoking? and led to many countries severely restricting cigarette promotion. The problem is, ten years lat... more »er, youth are still lighting up. Could they have gotten it wrong? The IRTIP procedure is widely used to model the link between promotional activities and susceptibility to product use. It is now being used for other products like alcohol, fast-food and colas. This book reports the results of a verification and re-test of the IRTIP model. Using the original data, it was found that IRTIP magnifies Response-Style and Respondent Drop-Out Biases. These biases are shown to lead to the finding of a positive link between tobacco promotion and susceptibility to smoking. Because the IRTIP process is biased, it may be prudent to revisit the many research studies that have used this procedure. The faulty 1998 claim may have harmed efforts to control and limit the use of cigarettes.

By-product recovery in industrial wastewater pollution control

By-products from most industries become waste when they are not recovered. This article gives examples of by-product recovery from industries such as pulp and paper, dairy, pig farm and food processing.

Although the recovery of by-products will require new processes, the investments on those processes will be paid-back easily from the benefits brought by those by-products. Also, in order to have a sustainable development, by-product recover will play a significant role in all industries in the near future.

Enterprise systems for innovation in products and processes : beyond operational efficiency

It has been widely accepted now in industry and academia that Enterprise Systems (ES) can create value for adopting organizations by enabling operational efficiency. However, given the enormous investments they warrant, the potential of such systems to deliver more than improving operations is emerging as a popular area of investigation. This paper reports a research-in-progress that proposes innovation as a means of creating business value with Enterprise Systems. The primary contribution of this paper is a process model that proposes that Enterprise Systems can enable innovation - in products and processes, and supports it with empirical evidence using three case studies. The intention is to test this model further with more case studies and a survey.

The Pharmaceutical Industry and Access to Medicines in India

Pharmaceutical policy in India as elsewhere is shaped by conflicting economic and social interests and opposing values and priorities. Tensions can be understood as revolving around the contradiction between use value and exchange value in the production of medicinal drugs as commodities, as per Marx’s original analysis. The use value of medicines – if safe and efficacious, of good quality, and prescribed and consumed appropriately – is the prevention, cure or alleviation of ill-health and disease. Health policy is – or should be – aimed at optimising the use value of medicines. For this purpose government agencies administer regulatory oversight of the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of medicines. Drugs made available to patients are expected to meet adequate safety, quality and efficacy standards, but regulation to ensure such standards is subject to controversy in most countries. This is a domain where definition and interpretation of scientific-technological principles and criteria is infused by partiality and bias grounded in social and material interests, as evidenced by recurrent debates about industry ‘capture’ of regulatory agencies, including the world’s most regulator, the US Food and Drug Administration (Angell 2005; Law 2006). In India, a Parliamentary Committee Report in 2012 depicted the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) as dysfunctional and influenced inappropriately by the exchange value perspective of manufacturers (Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Welfare 2012). The clash between use and exchange value perspectives is starkly illustrated by cases of products known to cause more harm than good, particularly common in poorly regulated markets such as India’s, as shown by Srinivasan & Phadke.

"Lose 30lbs in 30 days" : assigning responsibility for deceptive advertising of weight-loss products

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to outline key social marketing issues apparent in deceptive weight-loss advertising, from the perspective of government policy-makers, manufacturers, the media, and consumers. The purpose is to examine the complexity of one aspect of the obesity battle and provide a framework for coordinated and integrated social marketing initiatives from a multiple stakeholder perspective.

Design/methodology/approach – The results of deceptive weight-loss advertising are framed using the harm chain model, and the paper offers recommended solutions based on a framework of marketing, education and policy changes across the network of stakeholders.

Findings – This paper concludes that a resolution to the harm created by deceptive weight-loss advertising can be achieved by the creation of a more holistic, system-wide solution to this important health and policy issue. This networked approach must involve all aspects of harm in a multi-stakeholder solution, including both upstream and downstream integration. Specific recommendations are made for policy-makers, manufacturers, the media, and consumers to achieve this goal.

Social implications – From a marketing perspective, analyzing the issue of deceptive weight-loss advertising using the harm chain allows for the creation of a more holistic, system-wide solution involving stakeholders in all aspects of harm for this important health and policy issue.

Originality/value – This research examines the problem of obesity and weight-loss advertising from the unique perspective of the harm chain framework. The authors make unified recommendations for various stakeholders including industry, media, government and consumers, in order to direct integrated social marketing and consumer-oriented strategies within this industry.

Assessing the impact of HRM on dairy farm performance: an Australian study

This thesis explains the benefits of HRM policies and practices for Australian dairy farmers. A conceptual roadmap for rural industry policy-makers and farm owner-managers is presented in this thesis. It helps farmers to enhance dairy farm performance through HRM practices, which in turn would contribute to regional economic development.

Creating healthy food environments through global benchmarking of government nutrition policies and food industry practices

Unhealthy processed food products are increasingly dominating over healthy foods, making food and nutrition environments unhealthier. Development and implementation of strong government healthy food policies is currently being circumvented in many countries by powerful food industry lobbying. In order to increase accountability of both governments and the private sector for their actions, and improve the healthiness of food environments, INFORMAS (the International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases (NCDs) Research, Monitoring and Action Support) has recently been founded to systematically and comprehensively monitor food environments and policies in countries of varying size and income. This will enable INFORMAS to rank both governments and private sector companies globally according to their actions on food environments. Identification of those countries which have the healthiest food and nutrition policies and using them as international benchmarks against which national progress towards best practice can be assessed, should support reductions in global obesity and diet-related NCDs.

Comparison of food industry policies and commitments on marketing to children and product (re)formulation in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji

Unhealthy food environments are known to be major drivers of diet-related non-communicable diseases globally, and there is an imperative for major food companies to be publicly accountable for their actions to improve the healthiness of food environments. This paper examines the prevalence of publicly available policies and commitments of major packaged food and soft drink manufacturers, and fast-food restaurants in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji with respect to reducing food marketing to children and product (re)formulation. In each country, the most prominent companies in each sector were selected. Company policies, commitments and relevant industry initiatives were gleaned from company and industry association websites. In Australia and New Zealand, there are a higher proportion of companies with publicly available marketing and formulation policies than in Fiji. However, even in Australia, a large proportion of the most prominent food companies do not have publicly available policies. Where they exist, policies on food marketing to children generally focus on those aged less than 12, do not apply to all types of media, marketing channels and techniques, and do not provide transparency with respect to the products to which the policies apply. Product formulation policies, where they exist, focus mostly on salt reduction and changes to the make-up of overall product portfolios, and do not generally address saturated fat, added sugar and energy reduction. In the absence of strong policies and corresponding actions by the private sector, it is likely that government action (e.g. through co-regulation or legislation) will be needed to drive improved company performance.

A clustering-based failure mode and effect analysis model and its application to the edible bird nest industry

Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) is a popular safety and reliability analysis tool in examining potential failures of products, process, designs, or services, in a wide range of industries. While FMEA is a popular tool, the limitations of the traditional Risk Priority Number (RPN) model in FMEA have been highlighted in the literature. Even though many alternatives to the traditional RPN model have been proposed, there are not many investigations on the use of clustering techniques in FMEA. The main aim of this paper was to examine the use of a new Euclidean distance-based similarity measure and an incremental-learning clustering model, i.e., fuzzy adaptive resonance theory neural network, for similarity analysis and clustering of failure modes in FMEA; therefore, allowing the failure modes to be analyzed, visualized, and clustered. In this paper, the concept of a risk interval encompassing a group of failure modes is investigated. Besides that, a new approach to analyze risk ordering of different failure groups is introduced. These proposed methods are evaluated using a case study related to the edible bird nest industry in Sarawak, Malaysia. In short, the contributions of this paper are threefold: (1) a new Euclidean distance-based similarity measure, (2) a new risk interval measure for a group of failure modes, and (3) a new analysis of risk ordering of different failure groups. © 2014 The Natural Computing Applications Forum.

The development of ultrafine-grained hot rolling products using advanced thermomechanical processing

The aim of the work is development of industry guidance concerning production of ultrafine-grained (UFG) High Strength Low Alloy (HSLA) steels using strain-induced dynamic phase transformations during advanced thermomechanical processing. In the first part of the work, the effect of processing parameters on the grain refinement was studied. Based on the obtained results, a multiscale computer model was developed in the second part of the work that was subsequently used to predict the mechanical response of studied structures. As an overall outcome, a process window was established for the production of UFG steels that can be adopted in existing hot rolling mills. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Use of illicit tobacco following introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco products in Australia: results from a national cross-sectional survey

ABSTRACT
Objectives: To assess whether following standardisation of tobacco packaging in Australia, smokers were, as predicted by the tobacco industry, more likely to use illicit tobacco.
Methods: National cross-sectional telephone surveys conducted continuously from April 2012 (6 months before implementation of plain packaging (PP)) to March 2014 (15 months after) using responses from current cigarette smokers (n=8679). Changes between pre-PP, the transition to PP and PP phase were examined using logistic regression models.
Results: Among those whose factory-made cigarettes were purchased in Australia, compared with pre-PP, there were no significant increases in the PP phase in use of: ‘cheap whites’ (<0.1%; OR=0.24, 95% CI 0.04 to 1.56, p=0.134); international brands purchased for 20% or more below the recommended retail price (0.2%; OR=3.49, 95% CI 0.66 to 18.35, p=0.140); or packs purchased from informal sellers (<0.1%; OR=0.24, 95% CI 0.04 to 1.47, p=0.124). The prevalence of any use of unbranded illicit tobacco remained at about 3% (adjusted OR=0.79, 95% CI 0.58 to 1.08, p=0.141).
Conclusions: While unable to quantify the total extent of use of illicit manufactured cigarettes, in this large national survey we found no evidence in Australia of increased use of two categories of manufactured cigarettes likely to be contraband, no increase in purchase from informal sellers and no increased use of unbranded illicit ‘chop-chop’ tobacco.

Eat, drink and gamble: marketing messages about 'risky' products in an Australian major sporting series

BACKGROUND: To investigate the alcohol, gambling, and unhealthy food marketing strategies during a nationally televised, free to air, sporting series in Australia. METHODS/APPROACH: Using the Australian National Rugby League 2012 State of Origin three-game series, we conducted a mixed methods content analysis of the frequency, duration, placement and content of advertising strategies, comparing these strategies both within and across the three games. RESULTS: There were a total of 4445 episodes (mean = 1481.67, SD = 336.58), and 233.23 minutes (mean = 77.74, SD = 7.31) of marketing for alcoholic beverages, gambling products and unhealthy foods and non-alcoholic beverages during the 360 minutes of televised coverage of the three State of Origin 2012 games. This included an average per game of 1354 episodes (SD = 368.79) and 66.29 minutes (SD = 7.62) of alcohol marketing; 110.67 episodes (SD = 43.89), and 8.72 minutes (SD = 1.29) of gambling marketing; and 17 episodes (SD = 7.55), and 2.74 minutes (SD = 0.78) of unhealthy food and beverage marketing. Content analysis revealed that there was a considerable embedding of product marketing within the match play, including within match commentary, sporting equipment, and special replays. CONCLUSIONS: Sport is increasingly used as a vehicle for the promotion of range of 'risky consumption' products. This study raises important ethical and health policy questions about the extent and impact of saturation and incidental marketing strategies on health and wellbeing, the transparency of embedded marketing strategies, and how these strategies may influence product consumption.

They are working every angle. A qualitative study of Australian adults' attitudes towards, and interactions with, gambling industry marketing strategies

As gambling products have diversified so too have the ways in which the gambling industry has been able to target, reach and engage different sectors of the community. Limited research has explored the ways in which individuals conceptualize and respond to gambling marketing strategies. Semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with 100 adults in Victoria, Australia, who had gambled at least once during the previous year. Participants described the multi-layered ways in which gambling was marketed and were concerned about the role of marketing in ‘normalizing’ gambling for some groups. Male participants felt ‘bombarded’ and ‘targeted’ by sports bet marketing. Most women and older men actively resisted gambling marketing strategies. Older women, younger men, moderate and high risk gamblers and those from low socio-economic backgrounds were particularly influenced by incentivization to gambling. This study highlights the complex ways in which different individuals interpret and respond to gambling industry marketing strategies.

Digital marketing of unhealthy foods to Australian children and adolescents

The emergence of new media—including branded websites, social media and mobile applications—has created additional touch points for unhealthy food and beverage companies to target children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to perform an audit of new media for three top selling food and beverage brands in Australia. The top selling brand in three of the most advertised food and beverage categories was identified. Facebook, websites and mobile phone applications from these three brands were assessed using a combination of descriptive analyses and structured data collection during June and July 2013. Information on target audience, main focus of the activity, marketing strategies employed and connectivity were collected. Promotional activities were assessed against industry self-regulatory codes. McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Cadbury Dairy Milk were audited, with 21 promotional activities identified. These promotional activities appeared to use a number of marketing strategies, with frequent use of indirect product association, engagement techniques and branding. We identified strategic targeting of both children and adolescents. We found that while all promotional activities technically met self-regulatory codes (usually due to media-specific age restrictions) a number appeared to employ unhealthy food or beverage marketing directed to children. Brands are using engaging content via new media aimed at children and adolescents to promote unhealthy food and beverages. Given the limitations of self-regulatory codes in the context of new media, strategies need to be developed to reduce exposure of children and adolescents to marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products via these avenues.