The Centre for 21st Century Public Health is an international, award-winning, multi-disciplinary team whose research advances our understanding of the world’s biggest and most complex public health challenges, and how to address them.
The Centre is pioneering studies that evaluate the complex systems of commercial, political, economic, and social influences that affect population health across the globe. It uses these findings to generate innovative policy approaches to improve population health at global, regional and national levels.
Studying and addressing commercial sector influences on public health
Approximately 40 percent of chronic disease deaths globally are directly linked to just four products manufactured by transnational corporations – tobacco, ultra-processed foods, alcohol, and fossil fuels. The University of Bath has been at the forefront of research to understand and conceptualise these issues and is now leading an £8 million project to find solutions with a focus at local government level. The study will identify, implement, and evaluate interventions most likely to improve health, wellbeing, and equity at scale. It brings together researchers, NGOs, public health professionals, citizens, and local government for the first time to do this.
This work, conducted under the Local Health and Global Profits (LHGP) consortium, is driving discussions on the need for robust regulations to protect health and policy integrity. The consortium - a coalition of leading researchers from the Universities of Bath, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Sheffield, and LSHTM with civil society organisations - is supported by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of its Population Health Improvement UK (PHI-UK) network.
Evaluating the impact of Low Emission Zones
Researchers at the Centre undertook a robust and independent study evaluating the impact of London's Low Emission Zones, a scheme to limit the presence and use of highly polluting vehicles in the city. Using large administrative and survey data, they showed that the scheme improved air quality, physical health, and people’s well-being.
Investigating Big Tobacco’s influence on public health
Tobacco is the only legal consumer product that kills at least half of its users when used exactly as the manufacturer intends. For over a decade, the multidisciplinary and award-winning Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) has uncovered how the tobacco industry promotes smoking, blocks public health policies, and avoids tax on a massive scale.
The work of TCRG has achieved real impact for example in changing tobacco tax policy, helping secure the passage of plain packaging legislation, improving governance in global tobacco control and supporting efforts to address tobacco smuggling. In addition to publishing research on tobacco industry influence, TCRG also manages TobaccoTactics.org, a knowledge exchange platform which details key issues in tobacco control, as well as focussing on the global tobacco industry and those connected to or interacting with it.