I am sharing this post at the request of Chris Mulford and urge readers to please take action. Together we can make a difference.

By Chris Mulford

“I am inviting you to take a simple action to support mothers and babies in the Philippines.

At the La Leche League International Conference in Chicago, there was a lot of interest in the reports by breastfeeding advocates from the Philippines.

They told about their government’s efforts over that last two years to get stronger regulations passed to implement their Milk Code.

The Philippines Milk Code, a 1986 law based on the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, has not been well enforced, so these revised regulations are needed.

The baby milk industry (which is mostly U.S. pharmaceutical companies) has fought these efforts at every step of the revision process. See Do as I say, not as I do? and Informed Decision-Making for additional information.

It was noted that members of the Philippines advocacy team used their visit to the United States as an opportunity to raise international support for their efforts. They even visited Senator Edward Kennedy’s office in Washington and talked to his health staff.

Remember that it was Senator Kennedy who held hearings in 1979 that exposed unethical marketing practices in third world countries. These hearings helped pave the way for the World Health Assembly (WHA) to pass the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes.

I have drafted a short letter asking Senator Kennedy to investigate the attempts by U.S. business interests to influence the health regulations in the Philippines. I am sending it to Senator Kennedy, with copies to my U.S. Senators and Representative.

I invite you contact your Representatives and Senators. A sample letter follows. You are welcome to use this sample, or even better, consider writing a letter of your own.

In solidarity,

Chris Mulford

Sample Letter Senator or Representative
Dear [Senator or Representative] ______,

As a breastfeeding advocate for over 35 years, I would like to call your attention to the situation in the Philippines. U.S. business interests appear to be going all-out to keep the government from regulating the marketing of baby food products under the national Milk Code. Babies everywhere lose out in health and well-being when they are not breastfed, and the effect is worst in conditions of poverty and poor sanitation.

I have asked Senator Kennedy to investigate. I hope you will support this request.

Sample Letter Senator Kennedy

Dear Senator Kennedy:

Because of your record in the 1970s of protecting breastfeeding mothers and their babies against the unrestrained and unethical marketing of baby milk and baby foods, I am writing to ask your support again, this time on behalf of mothers and children in the Philippines.

The Philippines Department of Health (DOH) has moved to strengthen the 1986 national law (EO51, Milk Code) that implements the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes. After a two-year revision process, during which some accommodations were made in response to objections voiced by the baby milk industry, revised implementing rules and regulations (IRR) were signed at the DOH in May 2006. However, the new IRR were soon blocked when industry requested a temporary restraining order from the Philippines Supreme Court. The results of a Supreme Court hearing on the issue in June
2007 are due to be announced soon.

UNICEF Philippines, local and international media, and breastfeeding advocates (see below) have reported in detail about this issue. They say that pressures from business interests to block the IRR have been applied at various levels of the Philippines government, including a personal letter from Thomas J. Donohue, head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to the President of the Philippines. Donohue’s letter objects to the action by the DOH, saying that it could affect foreign investors’ confidence in the Philippines as a place to do business, and asks the President to reconsider the IRR in this light.

I question the degree of pressure that U.S. business interests appear to be using to influence the government of another country to regulate health matters for its own people. Even the formula makers agree that breastfeeding provides the best nutrition and health protection for babies and young children. It should therefore be obvious to them that when there is more breastfeeding, there will be less formula feeding . . . a result that has been shown to improve the health and survival of young children.

Senator Kennedy, I hope that you will once again take the lead. Help the public find out whether and how U.S. business has been acting to prevent the government of the Philippines from protecting the health and well-being of its youngest citizens by implementing their own Milk Code.

Yours truly,

PS. For additional information please see the Christian Science Monitor, Southeast Asia Times, UNICEF Philippines, and the Inquirer.