Monique E Muggli

The Smoke You Don't See: Uncovering Tobacco Industry Scientific Strategies Aimed Against Environmental Tobacco Smoke Policies

OBJECTIVES This review details the tobacco industrys scientific campaign aimed against policies addressing environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and efforts to undermine US regulatory agencies from approximately 1988 to 1993. METHODS The public availability of more than 40 million internal, once-secret tobacco company documents allowed an unedited and historical look at tobacco industry strategies. RESULTS The analysis showed that the tobacco industry went to great lengths to battle the ETS issue worldwide by camouflaging its involvement and creating an impression of legitimate, unbiased scientific research. CONCLUSIONS There is a need for further international monitoring of industry-produced science and for significant improvements in tobacco document accessibility.

British American Tobacco and the “insidious impact of illicit trade” in cigarettes across Africa

Objectives: To provide an overview of the complicity of British American Tobacco (BAT) in the illicit trade of cigarettes across the African continent in terms of rationale, supply routes and scale. Methods: Analysis of internal BAT documents and industry publications. Results: BAT has relied on illegal channels to supply markets across Africa since the 1980s. Available documents suggest smuggling has been an important component of BAT’s market entry strategy in order to gain leverage in negotiating with governments for tax concessions, compete with other transnational tobacco companies, circumvent local import restrictions and unstable political and economic conditions and gain a market presence. BAT worked through distributors and local agents to exploit weak government capacity to gain substantial market share in major countries. Conclusions: Documents demonstrate that the complicity of BAT in cigarette smuggling extends to Africa, which includes many of the poorest countries in the world. This is in direct conflict with offers by the company to contribute to stronger international cooperation to tackle the illicit tobacco trade.

Eliminating child labour in Malawi: a British American Tobacco corporate responsibility project to sidestep tobacco labour exploitation

Objectives: To examine British American Tobacco and other tobacco industry support of the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation. Design: Analyses of internal tobacco industry documents and ethnographic data. Results: British American Tobacco co-founded the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT) in October 2000 and launched its pilot project in Malawi. ECLT’s initial projects were budgeted at US

Legislating tolerance: Spain's national public smoking law

2.3 million over four years. Labour unions and leaf dealers, through ECLT funds, have undertook modest efforts such as building schools, planting trees, and constructing shallow wells to address the use of child labour in tobacco farming. In stark contrast, the tobacco companies receive nearly US

Efforts to Reprioritise the Agenda in China: British American Tobacco's Efforts to Influence Public Policy on Secondhand Smoke in China.

40 million over four years in economic benefit through the use of unpaid child labour in Malawi during the same time. BAT’s efforts to combat child labour in Malawi through ECLT was developed to support the company’s “corporate social responsibility agenda” rather than accepting responsibility for taking meaningful steps to eradicate child labour in the Malawi tobacco sector. Conclusion: In Malawi, transnational tobacco companies are using child labour projects to enhance corporate reputations and distract public attention from how they profit from low wages and cheap tobacco.

British American Tobacco and Formula One motor racing.

While Spains national tobacco control legislation prohibits smoking in many indoor public places, the law provides for an exception to the prohibition of smoking by allowing separate seating sections and ventilation options in certain public places such as bars and restaurants, hotels and airports. Accordingly, Spains law is not aligned with Article 8 Guidelines of the World Health Organizations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which requires parties to ensure universal protection against secondhand smoke exposure in all enclosed public places, workplaces and on all means of public transport. Spains law is currently being promoted by the tobacco companies in other countries as a model for smoke-free legislation. In order to prevent weakening of smoke-free laws in other countries through industry-supported exceptions, we investigated the tactics used by the tobacco companies before the implementation of the new law and assessed the consequences of these actions in the hospitality sector. Internal tobacco industry documents made public through US litigation settlements dating back to the 1980s were searched in 2008–9. Documents show that tobacco companies sought to protect hospitality venues from smoking restrictions by promoting separate seating for smokers and ineffective ventilation technologies, supporting an unenforceable voluntary agreement between the Madrid local government and the hospitality industry, influencing ventilation standards setting and manipulating Spanish media. The Spanish National Assembly should adopt comprehensive smoke-free legislation that does not accommodate the interests of the tobacco industry. In doing so, Spains smoke-free public places law would be better aligned with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Waking a Sleeping Giant: The Tobacco Industry’s Response to the Polonium-210 Issue

Background Each year, 540 million Chinese are exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS), resulting in more than 100,000 deaths. Smoke-free policies have been demonstrated to decrease overall cigarette consumption, encourage smokers to quit, and protect the health of nonsmokers. However, restrictions on smoking in China remain limited and ineffective. Internal tobacco industry documents show that transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) have pursued a multifaceted strategy for undermining the adoption of restrictions on smoking in many countries. Methods and Findings To understand company activities in China related to SHS, we analyzed British American Tobaccos (BATs) internal corporate documents produced in response to litigation against the major cigarette manufacturers to understand company activities in China related to SHS. BAT has carried out an extensive strategy to undermine the health policy agenda on SHS in China by attempting to divert public attention from SHS issues towards liver disease prevention, pushing the so-called “resocialisation of smoking” accommodation principles, and providing “training” for industry, public officials, and the media based on BATs corporate agenda that SHS is an insignificant contributor to the larger issue of air pollution. Conclusions The public health community in China should be aware of the tactics previously used by TTCs, including efforts by the tobacco industry to co-opt prominent Chinese benevolent organizations, when seeking to enact stronger restrictions on smoking in public places.

A resposta da indústria do tabaco à criação de espaços livres de fumo no Brasil

Internal documents show that British American Tobaccos racing team has been successful in promoting the companys products, especially in emerging countries. Tougher worldwide action is needed to counter the tobacco industrys influence in Formula One

Tobacco industry strategies to undermine the 8th World Conference on Tobacco or Health

The major tobacco manufacturers discovered that polonium was part of tobacco and tobacco smoke more than 40 years ago and attempted, but failed, to remove this radioactive substance from their products. Internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the companies suppressed publication of their own internal research to avoid heightening the publics awareness of radioactivity in cigarettes. Tobacco companies continue to minimize their knowledge about polonium-210 in cigarettes in smoking and health litigation. Cigarette packs should carry a radiation-exposure warning label.

Tracking the relevance of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in legislation and litigation through the online resource, Tobacco Control Laws

OBJETIVOS: Documentar a reacao da industria do cigarro a regulamentacao do fumo em locais publicos no Brasil, iniciada com legislacao em 1996 METODOS: Foram pesquisados os bancos de dados Legacy Tobacco Documents Library (legacy.library.ucsf.edu/) e British American Tobacco (BAT) Company Documents (bat.library.ucsf.edu/). Utilizaram-se as palavras-chave Brasil/Brazil; Souza Cruz; fumo passivo, tabagismo passivo/passive smoking; fumo de segunda mao/secondhand smoking; convivencia em harmonia/courtesy of choice; e nomes de instituicoes, politicos e pessoas atuantes na area de controle de tabaco. Foram pesquisados ainda os websites de fabricantes de cigarro e de estabelecimentos da industria da hospitalidade no Brasil, e sites de noticias, jornais e revistas. A pesquisa foi limitada a documentos com datas entre 1995 e 2005. RESULTADOS: A primeira lei a restringir o fumo no Brasil (lei 9 294 de 1996) beneficiou a industria por sua redacao, pela qual um mesmo espaco poderia ser compartilhado por fumantes e nao-fumantes desde que houvesse uma separacao entre as duas categorias (area de fumantes e area de nao-fumantes). Como em outros paises, a industria do cigarro criou parcerias com associacoes de hoteis, bares e restaurantes para evitar a aprovacao de leis que exijam espacos 100% livres de fumo, conforme preconizado pela Organizacao Mundial da Saude. Entretanto, leis locais em municipios e estados representativos (como Rio de Janeiro e Sao Paulo) tem tido sucesso em criar espacos 100% livres de fumo. CONCLUSOES: E fundamental que o Brasil reconheca os prejuizos causados pelo fumo e revise a sua lei federal de regulamentacao do fumo em locais fechados. O conhecimento acerca das estrategias da industria permite que politicos e profissionais de saude preparem argumentos de oposicao a medidas que podem comprometer a saude publica.