Today is World No Tobacco Day – 31st May

The theme for this year is Stop Tobacco Industry Interference. The primary goal of tobacco control is to prevent tobacco-caused diseases 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 or the third-hand smoke are most effective when smoking is prohibited in public areas.

In the same way WHO states that introducing of pictorial health warnings on tobacco products is vital in reducing the consumption of cigarettes.

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 and promote cessation. 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.

“It is horrific to think that an industry known for its dirty tricks and dirty laundry could be allowed to trump what is clearly in the public’s best interests. Big Tobacco can afford to hire the best lawyers and PR firms that money can buy. Big money can speak louder than any moral, ethical or public health argument and can trample even the most damning scientific evidence. I urge all these countries to stand firm together, do not bow to pressure... we must never allow the tobacco industry to get the upper hand.”

-Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization

In the usual public health model of communicable disease control, the tobacco industry has been described as the principal ‘vector’ of tobacco-caused diseases. When making 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.

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.

The WHO Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) monitors and draws global attention to the activities and practices of the tobacco industry.

Some of the strategies that the tobacco industry uses to undermine tobacco control policies and activities in the world are;

• Intelligence gathering to monitor opponents and social trends in order to anticipate future challenges.

• Public relations to mould public opinion, using the media to promote positions favorable to the industry.

• Political funding to use campaign contributions to win votes and legislative favours from politicians.

• Lobbying to make deals and influence political processes.

• Consultancy to recruit allegedly independent experts who are critical of tobacco control measures.

• Funding research, including universities to create doubt about evidence of the health effects of tobacco use.

• Smokers’ rights groups to create an impression of spontaneous, grassroots public support.

• Creating alliances and front groups to mobilize farmers, retailers, advertising agencies, the hospitality industry, grassroots and anti-tax groups with a view to influencing legislation.

• Intimidation to use legal and economic power as a means of harassing and frightening opponents who support tobacco control.

• Philanthropy to buy friends and social respectability from arts, sports, humanitarian and cultural groups.

• ‘Corporate social responsibility’ to promote voluntary measures as an effective way to address tobacco control and create an illusion of being a ‘changed’ company and to establish partnerships with health interests.

• Youth smoking prevention and retailer education programmes to appear to be on the side of efforts to prevent children from smoking and to depict smoking as an adult choice.

• Litigation to challenge laws and intimidate tobacco industry opponents.

• Smuggling to undermine tobacco excise tax policies and marketing and trade restrictions and thereby increase profits.

• International treaties and other international instruments to use trade agreements to force entry into closed markets and to challenge the legality of proposed tobacco control legislation.

• Joint manufacturing and licensing agreements and voluntary policy agreements with governments to form joint ventures with state monopolies and subsequently pressurize governments to privatize monopolies.

• Pre-emption to overrule local or state government by removing its power to act.

According to WHO, attempts by the tobacco industry to influence policy and programmes reach beyond health to social issues, education and the environment.

The Preamble of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recognized the Parties’ “need to be alert to any efforts by the tobacco industry to undermine tobacco control efforts and the need to be informed of activities of the tobacco industry that have a negative impact on tobacco control efforts”.

Use of the guidelines for implementation of Article 5.3 of the Convention will have an overarching impact on countries’ tobacco control policies and on implementation of the Convention, because the guidelines recognize that tobacco industry interference, including that from the State-owned tobacco industry, cuts across a number of tobacco control policy areas, as stated in the Preamble of the Convention, articles referring to specific tobacco control policies and the Rules of Procedure of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The purpose of these guidelines is to ensure that efforts to protect tobacco control from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry are comprehensive and effective. Parties should implement measures in all branches of government that may have an interest in, or the capacity to, affect public health policies with respect to tobacco control. The guidelines draw on the best available scientific evidence and the experience of Parties in addressing tobacco industry interference.

The guidelines apply to persons, bodies or entities that contribute to, or could contribute to, the formulation, implementation, administration or enforcement of those policies and are applicable to government officials, representatives and employees of any national, state, provincial, municipal, local or other public or semi/quasi-public institution or body within the jurisdiction of a Party, and to any person acting on their behalf. Any government branch (executive, legislative and judiciary) responsible for setting and implementing tobacco control policies and for protecting those policies against tobacco industry interests should be accountable.

The tobacco industry produces and promotes a product that has been proven scientifically to be addictive, to cause disease and death and to give rise to a variety of social ills, including increased poverty. Therefore, Parties should protect the formulation and implementation of public health policies for tobacco control from the tobacco industry to the greatest extent possible.

Parties, when dealing with the tobacco industry or those working to further its interests, should be accountable and transparent.

Any preferential treatment of the tobacco industry would be in conflict with tobacco control policy. The Parties should raise awareness about the addictive and harmful nature of tobacco products and about tobacco industry interference with tobacco control policies.

The Parties should establish measures to limit interactions with the tobacco industry and ensure the transparency of those interactions that occur. They should interact with the tobacco industry only when and to the extent strictly necessary to enable them to effectively regulate the tobacco industry and tobacco products, when interactions with the tobacco industry are necessary, they should be conducted in public, for example through public hearings, public notice of interactions, disclosure of records of such interactions to the public.

The tobacco industry should not be a partner in any initiative linked to setting or implementing public health policies, given that its interests are in direct conflict with the goals of public health.

Parties should not accept, support or endorse partnerships and non-binding or non-enforceable agreements as well as any voluntary arrangement with the tobacco industry or any entity or person working to further its interests.

Parties should not accept, support or endorse the tobacco industry organizing, promoting, participating in, or performing, youth, public education or any initiatives that are directly or indirectly related to tobacco control.

Any voluntary code of conduct or instrument drafted by the tobacco industry that is offered as a substitute for legally enforceable tobacco control measures should not be accepted, supported or endorsed.

Any offer for assistance or proposed tobacco control legislation or policy drafted by or in collaboration with the tobacco industry should not be accepted, supported or endorsed.

Clear rules regarding conflicts of interest for government officials and employees working in tobacco control are important means for protecting such policies from interference by the tobacco industry.

Payments, gifts and services, monetary or in-kind, and research funding offered by the tobacco industry to government institutions, officials or employees can create conflicts of interest. Conflicting interests are created even if a promise of favorable consideration is not given in exchange, as the potential exists for personal interest to influence official responsibilities as recognized in the International Code of Conduct for Public Officials adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and by several governmental and regional economic integration organizations.

Monitoring implementation of Article 5.3 of the Convention and of these guidelines is essential for ensuring the introduction and implementation of efficient tobacco control policies. This should also involve monitoring the tobacco industry, for which existing models and resources should be used, such as the database on tobacco industry monitoring of the WHO Tobacco Free Initiative.

Nongovernmental organizations and other members of civil society not affiliated with the tobacco industry could play an essential role in monitoring the activities of the tobacco industry.

International cooperation is essential and vital for making progress in preventing interference by the tobacco industry with the formulation of public health policies on tobacco control.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) required Parties to the treaty to implement the regulation on warnings, to cover at least 50% of the pack with pictorial health warnings highlighting the harm of smoking.

Though Sri Lanka is a Party to the treaty, which ratified the FCTC in 2003 as the First Asian country, the country is now four years behind the prescribed schedule. Throughout the world the industry has been involved in interfering in health policy matters to delay very important tobacco control policies. Thus industry interference in policy matters related to health matters should never be allowed.

Therefore we request the government to expedite the implementation process of the regulation of Pictorial Health Warnings on Tobacco products and save the 20,000 untimely deaths occurring in Sri Lanka every year!

- Asian Tribune

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