The tobacco epidemic is normally called a “non-communicable” disease, because it is not contagious and isn’t passed from one person to another. Some experts, however, have pointed out a major similarity with malaria, AIDS and other communicable diseases – it has a vector. The tobacco vector is not a mosquito or a snail, but rather the multinational tobacco industry. And unlike mosquitos, Big Tobacco is smart, rich, and bent on increasing its reach.
Big tobacco has shown time and again its willingness to use all legal and often illegal methods to stop efforts to control tobacco, open up new markets and addict new generations of customers. A comprehensive strategy to end the tobacco epidemic in our lifetime must include monitoring industry efforts, including marketing, lobbying, smuggling, generating misleading science, and corrupting government officials.
Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control obligates national governments to keep Big Tobacco from interfering in the process of regulating tobacco. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it sounds, and history has shown that if the industry is precluded from participating openly, they will use graft and backdoor politics to influence decision makers in the shadows
ASH works closely with its allies to track and publicize industry behavior. The more light we can shine on their efforts to stop meaningful tobacco control, the less effective those efforts will be.
Industry monitoring resources:
Framework Convention Alliance
Corporate Accountability International
National Association of Attorneys General
Tobacco Control Legal Consortium
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
Legacy Digital Library of Tobacco Documents
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Documents Library
World Health Organization
University of Sydney
Action on Smoking and Health
(ASH)
701 4th St. NW / Washington, DC
20001 / (202) 659-4310
A national nonprofit, scientific and educational organization founded
in 1967.
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