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Background The tobacco industry has a long history of attempting to influence science in order to cast doubt on evidence showing the harms of its products and to argue against the need for regulation of those products. In the 1950s when science began to establish a causal link between smoking and cancer, the industry mobilised to cast doubt on…

Image source: Nathan Hughes Hamilton/CC BY 2.0 DEED Key Points Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia, part of the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Region. It is the fourth most populous country in the world, with a population in 2022 of 275.5 million. Tobacco use prevalence is high, particularly amongst men. 34.5% of all adults were current…

Image source: Storm Crypt/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED Key Points The Philippines is an island nation in Southeast Asia consisting of over 7,000 individual islands. It is part of the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Region. Its population was 115.6 million as of 2022. The previous year, adult tobacco use prevalence was 19.5%. The Philippines ratified the World Health…

In the late 1980s, Philip Morris (PM),155 working with its lawyers Covington and Burling, outlined a covert pan-European plan to use independent scientists in their fight against regulations on second-hand smoke, called Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) by the industry. Whitecoat’s objectives were both ‘proactive’ and ‘reactive’. The end goal of the project was to “resist and roll back smoking…

A class action lawsuit against Canada’s three largest tobacco companies in early 2012 brought new evidence of Imperial Tobacco Canada publicly denying the link between tobacco and cancer, and creating doubt about scientific evidence. This page is based on contemporaneous reports in The Montreal Gazette.160161 All the direct quotes are from these newspaper articles.For further information, including documents released…

In 2005 researchers from the University of California examined the strategies the tobacco industry used to contest the evidence on the impact of second-hand smoke (SHS) on maternal and child health. They found that industry executives pressured the author of a review funded by the tobacco industry into changing his scientific conclusions.163 A review on sudden infant death syndrome…

Tobacco companies have a long history of attempting to influence science to promote their products, protect profits and influence regulation. For example, internal industry documents show that in the 1960s tobacco companies were aware that nicotine was an addictive substance,165 but despite this, in 1994 Brown and Williamson’s CEO testified before the US Congress that nicotine was not addictive.

Image source: Luis Barrios/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Key Points Mexico is a country in North America, covered by the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Americas. It has a population of over 127.5 million with current smoking prevalence of 19% amongst the population aged 20 and over. Mexico ratified the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control…

Background The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is an international treaty that aims to reduce the supply and demand of tobacco. The WHO FCTC includes a specific obligation, Article 5.3, requiring Parties to protect public health policies from commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry.265 More information on Article 5.3, and tobacco…

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) is an international treaty that aims to reduce the demand and supply of tobacco.349 The WHO FCTC includes a specific obligation, Article 5.3, to protect public health policies from commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry.350351 More information on Article 5.3, and tobacco industry attempts…