TOBACCO INDUSTRY EFFORTS TO THWART EFFECTIVE TOBACCO CONTROL

TOBACCO INDUSTRY EFFORTS TO

THWART EFFECTIVE TOBACCO

CONTROL

Effective tobacco control is, almost by definition, antithetical to the economic interests of the

tobacco industry, associated industries, and entities or persons working to further the tobacco

industry’s agenda. Those interests depend largely on the prosperity of the tobacco industry and

its means for ensuring its real or perceived commercial well-being. The primary goal of tobacco

control is to prevent tobacco-caused disease and death. In the hierarchy of objectives for reaching

this goal, preventing the uptake of tobacco use and assisting tobacco users in ceasing use of all

forms of tobacco rank highest. Similarly, efforts designed to reduce exposure to second-hand

smoke are most effective when smoking is prohibited in public areas.

This triumvirate of objectives—preventing uptake, maximizing cessation and prohibiting

smoking in public places—stands in direct opposition to the commercial objectives of the tobacco

industry. Although the industry sometimes makes expedient public statements to the contrary,

it routinely seeks to maximize uptake of tobacco use, do all that is possible to ensure that tobacco

users continue to be consumers and prevent the erosion of smoking opportunities by restrictions

known to reduce smoking frequency (1) and promote cessation (2). Thus, when tobacco control

succeeds, the tobacco industry fails. People employed by the tobacco industry have fiduciary

responsibilities to their shareholders or government owners to take all legal steps possible to

maximize profits. It is therefore entirely predictable that the tobacco industry does what it can to

ensure that effective tobacco control policies fail.

In an analogy with the classic public health model of communicable disease control, the tobacco

industry has been described as the principal ‘vector’ of tobacco-caused disease (3). Like efforts to

understand the chain of transmission and death in communicable diseases, comprehensive

tobacco control requires that public health authorities monitor and counteract the efforts of the

tobacco industry to promote tobacco use and to undermine tobacco control.

Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director-General of the WHO, described tobacco use as “a

communicated disease—communicated through marketing”(4). The promotional activities of the

industry are directly responsible for the spread of tobacco use, especially among young people

and women and in developing countries, who are the latest targets of tobacco industry marketing.

Scrutinizing, countering and eliminating their activities will decrease the disease burden of

tobacco use.

Monitoring of the tobacco industry by WHO

WHO is well aware of the long history and the extent of tobacco industry efforts to avoid, delay

and dilute the advancement of effective tobacco control policies and interventions. The position

of WHO is that it will not accept funding from the tobacco industry (5). Understanding and

effectively counteracting efforts by the tobacco industry and its allies to oppose tobacco control

are crucial. Given this reality, the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) monitors and draws global

attention to the activities and practices of the tobacco industry (6).

Part I. Tobacco industry efforts to thwart effective tobacco control

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