UK monitoring assistant
Baby Milk Action welcomes the reports it receives from members of the public and health workers about baby food marketing practices that may break the marketing rules. The best way to make these reports to us is via the Baby Feeding Law Group website: http://www.babyfeedinglawgroup.org.uk/
We are looking for an intern in the UK to help us process these reports and conduct some other monitoring activities over the next three months. This is a unpaid voluntary post. Details below.
Internship position - mainly via internet
One or two days per week for three months
Closing date: Monday 23 July 2012, 6 pm.
Click here for a pdf file with further details.
Wyeth's SMA Baby Know How roadshow in the UK scheduled for June and July 2012 was cancelled following the protests organised by Baby Milk Action - press release.
Wyeth manufactures the SMA range of formulas. It was planning a series of SMA Baby Know-How events in the UK, to start on 14 June 2012. These break marketing rules.
None of the events went ahead as shopping centres pulled out and Wyeth cancelled the whole roadshow on 20 June - click here for Baby Milk Action's press release.
However, Wyeth says the roadshow is only postponed, so the campaign continues.
Click to join the campaign (Opens in a new window. Remember to share this page on Facebook if you use it).
Left: Gloria and Miguel at a protest to defend new baby milk marketing regulations in the Philippines in 2007. After Miguel became sick, Gloria realised she had been misled by baby milk promotion and decided to act to stop companies misleading other mothers. The regulations were successfully defended then, but they are under attack again in 2013.
The attack is led by Nestlé, together with Mead Johnson, Abbott and Fonterra. These companies put their own profits before infant health. Through the Department of Trade and Industry they are threatening members of congress by saying that the Philippines will lose US$400 million in investment if their draft law is not passed to remove the protection given by the existing Milk Code.
Please sign the petition on the AVAAZ site calling for legislators in the Philippines to protect mothers and babies from the baby food industry - click here.
According to the Philippines Department of Health 8,400 babies would be saved every year by optimal infant feeding practices. The regulations that came into effect in 2007 regulate the marketing of milks for babies and young children. They require clear warnings on labels about the protective effects of breastfeeding as specified by the Department of Health.
The Department of Health, the World Health Organisation and UNICEF have condemned a new draft law being pushed by the industry in the Congress, saying in a joint statement: "The draft House Bill... aims to support multinational companies while damaging the Filipino society: families, the mothers and children."
Further details below. We will keep updating this page as the situation develops and more information becomes available.
Many thanks to supporter Nigel Harrison for creating the MyMeter detector simulator iPhone app for Baby Milk Action.
This is a fun detector simulator. Watch the film clip to see what it does and how it works.
Click here to download a pdf of the monster leaflet, with the logo (left) and ten facts Nestlé executives don't want people to know.
Print it double sided and cut in half to make two leaflets.
Further information on the ten points listed on the leaflet is given below.
This information is also available as an isite for reading on a smartphone. There is an QR code on the leaflet that can be scanned to access the isite.
Use our MyMeter iPhone app to raise the boycott when you see someone using a Nestlé product.
Nestlé demonstration - Croydon
11:00 - 12:00 Saturday 19 May 2012
Download the flier with map, car park and travel details - click here
Join the virtual demonstration on Facebook - click here.
Mr. Chairman, Directors, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Nestlé has quietly weakened its Policy and Instructions for Implementation of the WHO International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.
Baby Milk Action met with FTSE on 20 February 2012 with Dr. Arun Gupta of the Breastfeeding Protection Network of India.
Dr. Gupta raised concerns about illegal activities in India by Nestlé, the largest of the baby food companies. These include targeting of health workers with sponsorship and conferences.