2nd HEC Paris Workshop on Regulation: Regulating Lifestyle Risks in Europe - The Case of Alcohol, Tobacco, Unhealthy Diets & Gambling September, 20-21 2012

In September 2011, the UN General Assembly declared that the global burden and threat of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) constituted one of the major challenges for development in the twenty-first century: in 2008, 36 of the 57 million deaths globally (63%) were attributed to NCDs, including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. By recognizing NCDs as largely preventable, it urged the international community to take action at global, regional and national levels to prevent and control their surge. To this end it recommended the adoption of a 'regulatory mix' of multi-sectoral, cost-effective, population-wide interventions in order to reduce the impact of the common NCD risk factors, namely tobacco use, harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. Yet how to respond to the growing incidence of NCDs is a major source of complexities in risk analysis and regulatory decision-making: the conditions in which people live, poverty, uneven distribution of wealth, lack of education, rapid urbanization and population ageing, as well as the economic, social, gender, political, behavioral and environmental determinants of health are all contributory factors to the prevalence of NCDs. At the same time, the legitimacy, the effectiveness as well as the design of any regulatory intervention aimed at promoting healthier lifestyle remain highly contested.

The European Union has recently recognized the growing impact of NCDs on the EU's economy and the well-being of its citizens and has consequently started to develop policies intended to tackle the four main factors to which they are linked. Nevertheless, if common themes emerge between the different EU policies intended to promote healthier lifestyles, no attempt has yet been made to systematize them.

This 2-day workshop will thus discuss the emerging global phenomenon of regulating lifestyle risks, also called risk factors, such as harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets, tobacco use, and gambling, in light of the legal, political and moral challenges facing any attempt made at regulating individual choices. It targets industry representatives, researchers and academics as well as policymakers and other interested parties, who have to answer the growing calls for regulatory action on lifestyle risk factors and face the difficulty of formulating socially-acceptable and economically-effective policies. The event will be addressing the emerging policy and legal initiatives adopted across jurisdictions by focusing in particular on the role of the EU in developing lifestyle policies and regulations.

For further details and the full programme: http://appli6.hec.fr/forms/risk-regulation-2012/