Half a million people are out of work due to unhealthy habits

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the Obesity Health Alliance (OHA) and the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA), have joined forces to outline the scale of harm caused collectively by tobacco, alcohol and unhealthy food and drinks, which are major causes of death and chronic disease.

The charities say big businesses are currently profiting from ill-health caused by smoking, drinking alcohol and eating unhealthy foods, while the public pay the price in poor health, higher taxes and an under-performing economy.

The wage penalty, unemployment and economic inactivity caused by tobacco, alcohol and obesity costs the UK economy an eye-watering £31bn and has led to an estimated 459,000 people out of work.

Meanwhile each year, the industries which sell these products make an estimated £53bn of combined industry revenue from sales at levels harmful to health.

The coalition is calling on the government to put in place a comprehensive strategy to prevent ill health from commercially driven risk factors and redress the balance between industry influence and the public’s health.