Globalization Has A Negative Impact on Global Health Essay -- Outsourci

Globalization is the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets (www.merriam-webster.com, 2012). Globalisation has had both, positive and negative effects on health. This essay will examine how globalisation has helped alcohol and tobacco trade around the world and in doing so affected health, how globalization has enabled the global community to combat these issues and an estimation of alcohol and tobacco consumption in different countries. This essay will also contain statistics from the World Health Organization based on alcohol and tobacco to illustrate the impact of globalisation. Alcohol: The question as to when alcohol was invented is still unknown, but the discovery of late Stone Age beer jugs is proof that alcohol/fermented beverages was used in times of the Neolithic period. (Patrick, 1952). Researchers use the years between 6000-4000 BCE as a starting point when examining the history of alcohol because the evidence is very clear. During this time, viticulture, the process of making wines was invented and the evidence lies in Egyptian pictographs. A vital moment in the history of wine was during 3000-2000 BCE when wine production and trade became a vital part of Mediterranean market and culture, ships carried enormous amounts of wine between the cities. Over the years the production of wine increased and it was during 500 ACE when wine production reaches Tang China along the Silk road (www.lmu.edu, 2012). The above explains the history of wine trade. Today wine can be found all over the world, it is a global product and the production of wine will only continue t o grow. By looking at Figure 2 –world wi... ... on the consumption of tobacco and smoking. There was great success by implanting this treaty for example: Ireland in 2004 banned smoking in public places, in 2006, Iran banned all types of tobacco advertising, in 2009, Turkey implemented a similar smoking ban and there are many other success stories related to the implementation of this treaty (www.who.int, 2011) Conclusion: As boundaries vanish because of globalisation, people and goods are allowed to move around the world easier which in doing so creates new challenges to global health. These cannot be combated by national governments alone but must be dealt with instead by international organizations and agreements. Globalisation has had a negative impact on health in terms of alcohol and cigarette trade but with the help of the global community, these problems can be successfully combated.