Making decisions on public health: a review of eight countries

Smoking, hazardous drinking, fast driving, unhealthy eating, unsafe sex. These are just some of the things that pose a threat to the health of populations everywhere. Although they are to some extent under the control of individuals, the decisions that people make are powerfully shaped by societal, commercial and other forces. If these threats to health are to be tackled effectively, then there must be an effective societal response, involving governments at all levels, civil society and international agencies. The diversity of policies that have been adopted by different countries provides enormous scope for mutual learning. However, too many of these policies are poorly documented and many are little known outside their countries of origin. This book begins to tackle this situation by bringing together accounts of public health policies from eight industrialized countries. Originally assembled to inform the UK Treasury's Wanless report, it provides much information that will be of value to health policy-makers elsewhere.