The Social Medicine Portal

International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals

One of our readers passed along to us the following press release (dated 9/17/08) from Corporate Accountability International.  It concerns a week of actions to stop interference by the tobacco industry in efforts to control smoking.  The WHO website has information on the tobacco treaty, its history, and the Working Group which monitors its implementation. The United States signed the agreement in 2004, but has yet to ratify it. A 2006 NPR report discusses some of the politics behind the Bush Administration’s failure to present ‘the first global public health treaty” to Congress.

BOSTON- Next week, Corporate Accountability International and its allies are launching a series of actions in 25 countries demanding tobacco transnationals stop interfering in the implementation of the global tobacco treaty (formally known as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).

The 9th Annual International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals is a precursor to the third enforcement meeting on the treaty this November in Durban, South Africa. Countries will be considering specific guidelines on how to implement Article 5.3, including recommendations to:
• keep the tobacco industry out of tobacco control bodies such as treaty delegations;
• prohibit government partnership or collaboration with the tobacco industry; and
• require the tobacco industry to be transparent about its activities and operations.

Action organizers are alerting governments to expected efforts by Big Tobacco to block or water down such provisions.

“The tobacco industry poses the single greatest threat to people getting the health protections they need under the treaty,” says Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International. “It is plain nonsensical-and contrary to the treaty itself-to allow these corporations that are damaging our health to sit at the table when our health policies are developed.”

At next week’s events around the world, Corporate Accountability International and the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) will be releasing a report  called Protecting Against Tobacco Industry Interference: The 2008 Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide. The report provides a snapshot of tobacco industry interference in a range of countries from Nigeria to Mexico and provides activists and policy makers with tools and tactics to counter industry interference.

The following is a short list of in-country actions:

• In Sri Lanka, to illustrate the close ties between Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco) and many government sectors, the Swarna Hansa Foundation will be holding a press conference at Buddhist Ladies College, which is just meters from a shop refurbished by CTC, the national hospital, the capitol city town hall and the main tobacco dealer.
  The Zambia Consumers Association (ZACA) is planning a training workshop for Provincial Health Inspectors to improve implementation of a new smoking ban and to highlight BAT attempts to weaken the ban.
  In Costa Rica, which just ratified the FCTC on August 21, the National Anti-Tobacco Network is planning a delivery of the Action Guide to government officials.

“Corporations like Philip Morris International have a fundamental conflict of interest with public health,” says Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth-Nigeria. “While millions of people are getting sick and dying from their deadly products, these giant corporations are pulling out all the stops to undermine effective policies.”

The global tobacco treaty has now been ratified by 160 countries, protecting nearly 85 percent of the world’s people. Tobacco kills 5.4 million people around the world each year. The death toll is projected to rise to eight million a year by 2030, with 80 percent of those deaths occurring in developing countries. The WHO estimates that broad implementation of the treaty could save 200 million lives by 2050.

For a full schedule, news and photos of the International Week of Resistance to Tobacco Transnationals, or to download the 3rd edition of the Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide, available in English, French and Spanish, visit: www.StopCorporateAbuse.org.

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Corporate Accountability International is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. The Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) includes over 100 NGOs from more than 50 countries working for a strong, enforceable FCTC. For more information visit www.StopCorporateAbuse.org.

Global Tobacco Treaty Toolkit
This toolkit includes all you need to take action to help us build public pressure, such as submitting letters to the editor and writing to your senators to ask them to call on the Bush administration to submit the treaty to the Senate for consideration.  Download the toolkit now to take action!

Global Tobacco Treaty Action Guide:
Challenging Tobacco Industry Interference - Second Edition
This Action Guide is a tool to help public health advocates, non-governmental organizations, government officials and concerned citizens stop the tobacco industry’s attempts to use its money and influence to undermine ratification and implementation of the global tobacco treaty. It is a collection of first-hand stories about how tobacco transnationals, like British American Tobacco, Philip Morris/Altria and Japan Tobacco, are attempting to interfere with health policy and what government officials and NGOs are doing to expose and challenge this interference.
September 2006
Download PDF (English) | Download PDF (Français) | Download PDF (Español)

Report on Tobacco Industry Interference in  Heath Policy and Measures in the Global Tobacco Treaty to Prevent it
The purpose of this document is to expose tobacco industry interference in countries that have ratified the FCTC, to highlight measures currently being taken to prevent this interference, and to call for coordinated action by Parties to safeguard treaty implementation against commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry.
Download PDF (English) | Download PDF (Français) | Download PDF (Español)