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Lighting up
the powerful global smoking lobby
Global public health efforts to reduce smoking are at odds with the interests
of the tobacco industry. According to a case study published in the journal
Globalization and Health, competing tobacco companies co-operate via a global
network of national and regional manufacturing associations to undermine public
health measures to counter smoking.
Patricia McDaniel, Gina Intinarelli and Ruth Malone from the University of
California, San Francisco dug deep into documentary data from tobacco industry
documents archives. Their case study, which maps globally tobacco
industry-linked groups known as "issues management organizations,"
draws upon previously secret tobacco industry documents and details some
of the strategies these bodies used.
The International Committee on Smoking Issues (ICOSI) was formed in 1977 by
seven tobacco company chief executives to create common anti-tobacco control
strategies and build a global network of regional and national manufacturing
associations. Later renamed INFOTAB, multinational companies built the
organization rapidly: by 1984, it had 69 members operating in 57 countries.
According to the authors, INFOTAB material, including position papers and
"action kits" helped members challenge local tobacco control measures
and maintain tobacco-friendly environments. In 1992 INFOTAB was replaced by two
smaller organizations: The Tobacco Documentation Centre, which continues to
operate, distributes smoking-related information and industry argumentation to
members, some produced by cross-company committees. Agro-Tobacco Services, and
now Hallmark Marketing Services, assists the INFOTAB-backed and industry
supported International Tobacco Growers Association in promoting tobacco's
economic importance in developing nations.
"Policymakers should be aware that although these associations claim to
represent only national or regional interests, they are allied to and
coordinated with a confederation of trans-national tobacco companies seeking to
protect profits by undermining public health," says Ruth Malone.
"Cigarette manufacturers and their attorneys played the biggest role. Under
their explicit direction, INFOTAB set policies and crafted strategies that
ensured that the global tobacco community spoke and acted as one."
Tobacco is the second major cause of death worldwide, with 84% of smokers
living in developing and transitional economy countries. Litigation against the
tobacco industry led to the public release of over 47 million pages of internal
industry documents housed in paper depositories and online electronic archives.
Globalization and Health Journal. The journal
is affiliated with the London School of Economics (LSE Health).
Concise Encyclopedia and Internet Press Office
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