Science Belongs to People
Special Edition Newsletter on World Health Day 2026
A message from Kristina Šperková, International President, Movendi International
People everywhere value health highly.
We want to know the truth about what harms our health – and what protects it.
“Yet across our digital and public spaces, our streets and our screens, alcohol companies flood daily life with pro-alcohol messages designed to normalise alcohol consumption and obscure its dangers and risks. They lobby against cancer warnings on their own products. They fund their own research to muddy the evidence. They attack independent science and scientists. They work to keep people in the dark about the risks and harms inherent in their products and practices.
“The result is a public discourse polluted by commercial interests – where the science on alcohol harm struggles to reach the people it was meant to serve.
“That is why at Movendi International, we stand with independent science – today on World Health Day and every day.
“Through our Alcohol and Society research series, our Science Digest, our blog platform, and our podcast, we create space for world-class, independent science to reach communities, advocates, journalists, and decision-makers who are building healthier futures.
“Science is a gift that belongs to people – not to those who profit from keeping people in the dark about real risks and serious harms. On World Health Day, we recommit to making sure the evidence on alcohol harm is accessible, credible, and impossible to ignore.”
Why Independent Science Matters
The products and practices of alcohol companies are causing severe and vast harm. And the alcohol industry deliberately works to keep people in the dark about the risks and harm of the products and practices. They do everything they can to shield their products from the scrutiny of independent science.
- Corruption and bribery.
- Deliberately breaking alcohol marketing laws.
- Alcohol industry-funded research designed to manufacture doubt.
- Attacks on independent scientists.
- Deliberate efforts to obstruct the institutions and regulations that exist to protect and promote people’s health.
This is what we call Sabotage – one of Big Alcohol’s core strategies for maintaining its grip on public policy and public discourse. Movendi International has documented more than 60 cases of Sabotage on Big Alcohol Exposed.
When the evidence base is polluted, policies stall. When independent science is attacked, communities pay the price. Defending independent science is one of the most concrete things we can do to promote people’s health and rights.
Independent science matters for people’s right to information about risks and harm caused by alcohol. Independent science also matters for an informed public discourse and an information environment that allows people to understand the full extent and real picture of risks and harm that come from the products and practices of alcohol companies.
Our Commitment to Independent Science
Alcohol and Society – Research Report Series
For more than a decade, an international group of medical and public health researchers from Canada, Australia, the United States, and Sweden has convened each year – without compensation – to produce the Alcohol and Society research report series.
Twelve reports to date. Twelve topics. One goal: to bring the best and latest available scientific knowledge on alcohol harm to the people who need it.
The series has so far covered second-harm from alcohol, alcohol and cancer, alcohol and the brain, alcohol and older people as well as alcohol and young people, the effects of low-dose consumption, and more – each report a rigorous, independent synthesis of the global evidence base.
This is what science in the public interest looks like.
The Alcohol Issues Science Digest
1,300+ Studies and counting. Weekly updates. Carefully curated. Accessible. Free.
Peer-reviewed science should be easily accessible, understandable, and useable. That is why Movendi International’s Science Digest – integral part of our Alcohol Issues Resource Center – processes, curates, and publishes the latest research so that advocates, journalists, policymakers, and communities can access it directly.
More than 1,300 peer-reviewed papers and reports processed to date. Over 40 in 2025 alone.
Science made accessible is science that can change the world.
On World Health Day, We Stand With Science
WHO’s call this year is clear: Together for health. Stand with science.
We do. On World Health Day. And every day. And we invite you to stand with us.
Explore our resources. Stay updated about latest science. And join the global conversation on what it means to put independent evidence at the heart of health promotion.