¡¡¡EAfter several years of discussion, the issue of the baby foods sold by international companies in the countries of the developing world has this week reached the World Health Assembly, meeting in Geneva. It is an issue which has stirred up a great deal of emotion, and with good reason. If they are used in proper conditions, in strict conformity with the manufacture's instructions, these baby foods are a perfectly adequate substitute for breakfast feeding. But in a backward country, where the water needed to dilute them may not be of good quality, where illiterate mothers may not be able to read the instructions, and where they may not be able to carry out the proper sterilization procedures, they can be a hazard to a child's health, if only indirectly. And there is a great deal of information to suggest that the companies concerned have been unscrupulous in their selling techniques. Baby foods have been sold as the key to a child's health, and, overall, the number of babies who are now breastfed, in spite of the fact that this is generally a much safer method in backward conditions, has dropped significantly.

¡¡¡¡In 1979, there was a meeting in Geneva, held under the auspices of the World Health Organization and Unicecf, the United Nations Children's Fund, at which representatives of many of the main producer companies agreed to some of the demands of their critics. They undertook to put an end to sales promotion of products to be used as substitutes for breast milk. But the agreement has not always been respected, and a few weeks ago the companies were accused by the International Baby Food Action Network of more than 1000 violations. So it is widely felt that more effective action is needed, and in Geneva this week delegates from member countries of the WHO will be discussing a code of behavior on the marketing of breast milk substitutes. It rules out, among other things, advertising to the general public and the provision of samples to pregnant women, and it calls for the encouragement of breast-feeding.

¡¡¡¡The code has been criticized by the International Council of Infant Food Industries, which groups the companies concerned. It has also been opposed by the Reagan Administration, with the result that two senior officials of the Agency for International Development have resigned this week after expressing disagreement with Washington's policy. But otherwise it has received wide support from other members of the WHO, including this country. So the expectation is that it will be adopted, not as a regulation of the organization, which would have binding force, but as a recommendation. This seems to be about right. There would be practical and legal difficulties about enforcing such a far-reaching regulation, while a recommendation by the WHO will enable the pressure to be kept up on the companies that are involved. It is important that this basic form of consumer protection should be provided to people of the developing world - and that it should be maintained by keeping a constant watch on how it is observed.