At its web site, the American Medical Association says this about its mission:
The AMA has seven main functions: medical education, science, communications, the Council on Scientific Affairs, the health care system, policymaking and the House of Delegates, and ethics.
Now, the AMA can add "consumer market research" to its capabilities.
On December 2, 1997, the AMA issued a news release titled "Banning Smoking Could Boost Business for Restaurants and Bars."
The news release reported the results of a survey designed to find out whether people would change their dining habits if restaurants became smokefree. More than 2,300 Massachusetts adults were surveyed.
Although two-thirds of the respondents said ending smoking in restaurants would have no impact on how frequently they patronized those establishments, about one in five respondents said they would patronize bars more often if they became smokefree.
The AMA's press release said:
The survey has uncovered a potential new market for bars among non-smokers. Thirty-two percent of the population said that they never go to bars, lounges or places where alcohol is served. Ten percent of that group said they would start going if smoking were eliminated. In Massachusetts this amounts to 120,000 new customers for smokefree bars and clubs.
The researchers (Lois Biener of the University of Massachusetts and Michael Siegel of the Boston University School of Public Health) further stated in the news release that
Our analysis of a representative sample of Massachusetts adults suggests that smokefree policies are likely to increase overall patronage of restaurants and bars.
Since when does the AMA do market research? And to promote alcohol consumption--smokefree or otherwise? Did anyone read the AMA slogan, prominently printed on the news release--Physicians dedicated to the health of America?
What's next? The Budweiser frogs in surgical scrubs?
But the real irony is that the December 3, 1997 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association contained three anti-alcohol articles:
- A study titled "Alcohol-Related Injury Death and Alcohol Availability in Remote Alaska" reported that "measures limiting access to alcoholic beverages in this region may decrease alcohol-related deaths."
- A study titled "Impact of Banning Alcohol on Outpatient Visits in Barrow, Alaska" reported that "In a geographically isolated community, the prohibition of alcohol can be an effective public health intervention, reducing the health problems associated with alcohol use."
- An editorial titled "Alcohol Problems and Public Health Policy" stated that "[The results of these two studies] are not surprising because a significant body of research has demonstrated public health improvements associated with various alcohol-related policy measures, including those restricting the availability of alcohol."
What a week for the AMA: promoting bars and prohibition.
Perhaps the AMA should stick to medicine?
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