Jennifer Fang China National Tobacco Company (CNTC) is the world’s largest manufacturer of cigarettes, accounting for a third of the total global output. The powerful state-owned tobacco monopoly, previously focused on the vast domestic market with 350 million smokers, has been nurturing growing global ambitions since the early 2000s. Faced by an increasingly saturated domestic […]
Category: Tobacco Industry
Euromonitor International now accepts tobacco industry funding: a win for PMI at the expense of research on the tobacco industry
Allen W A Gallagher and Anna B Gilmore On the 18th and 19th March 2019, respectively, the market research organisation Euromonitor International, which describes itself as “the world’s leading independent provider of strategic market research”, became the recipient of funding from not one, but two initiatives solely-funded by Philip Morris International (PMI)- the Foundation […]
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic & Paralympic Games: time for Japan to showcase smokefree hospitality
Authors: Shuhei Nomura and Haruka Sakamoto with Yusuke Tsugawa, Naoko Iwanaga, Seiichiro Kuchiki, Ichiro Kawachi, Kenji Shibuya Despite its outstanding health record in other areas, Japan is a global laggard in tobacco control, and does not meet standards set by the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), particularly for smoke-free public spaces. The […]
How should governments deal with multinational consulting firms that work for the tobacco industry?
George Thomson, Louise Delany Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand george.thomson@otago.ac.nz The New Zealand Ministry of Health is currently using a consulting firm EY (formerly Ernst & Young) to research the impacts of tobacco taxation, despite EY’s work locally and internationally for tobacco companies. This decision may breach the Framework […]
Ending child labour in tobacco production by 2025: the tobacco industry is the problem, not part of the solution
Mary Assunta Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) Related: more than 100 organisations call on ILO not to renew tobacco industry contracts Today is World Day Against Child Labour and this article is dedicated to the millions of children trapped in child labour. It is a reminder that in the 21st century we have failed […]
#QuitBigTobacco: saying no to helping the tobacco industry’s dirty work
A campaign launched at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Cape Town, South Africa in March, is aimed at separating the tobacco industry from the vendors that make their dirty work possible, especially advertising agencies. Quit Big Tobacco is an initiative of Vital Strategies. It is calling on non-profit organizations with health in their […]
Tobacco industry investment in electronic nicotine delivery devices: an evolving strategy
Benjamin Hawkins, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Ben.Hawkins@lshtm.ac.uk Ross MacKenzie, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia British American Tobacco’s (BAT) decision to divest its interests in its Voke inhaler and reports that e-Voke (from here referred to collectively as Voke), the first electronic nicotine delivery (END) system to receive a medical licence, is unlikely to ‘see the light of […]
Questions for the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World
Mike Daube The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World was announced four months ago, with a September 12th statement from the Philip Morris International company that “PMI currently expects to support the Foundation by contributing approximately USD 80 million per year, depending on the Foundation’s requirements and operations, over the next 12 years, beginning in […]
Philip Morris Smoke Free Foundation: questions about independence and transparency, while top universities distance themselves
Seventeen universities in Canada and the USA have issued a joint statement that they will not accept funding from, or pursue work with, the Philip Morris International (PMI)-funded ‘Foundation for a Smoke Free World’. The statement echoes concerns previously raised by the World Health Organization and other public health groups and leaders, stating: “If Philip […]
Austria’s new government: a victory for the tobacco industry and public health disaster?
Manfred Neuberger In Austria the conservative Austrian People’s Party (Oesterreiche Volkpartei, OeVP) won the 2017 elections, and negotiated with the third-largest party, the right-wing nationalist Freedom Party of Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Oesterreichs, FPOe) to form a new government. In its election campaign, the FPOe had promised to attack the tobacco law, which had been […]