Large tobacco companies fight tougher restrictions around the globe

The New York Times: "As sales to developing nations become ever more important to giant tobacco companies, they are stepping up efforts around the world to fight tough restrictions on the marketing of cigarettes. … Companies like Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco are contesting limits on ads in Britain, bigger health warnings in South America and higher cigarette taxes in the Philippines and Mexico. They are also spending billions on lobbying and marketing campaigns in Africa and Asia, and in one case provided undisclosed financing for TV commercials in Australia. The industry has ramped up its efforts in advance of a gathering in Uruguay this week of public health officials from 171 nations, who plan to shape guidelines to enforce a global anti-smoking treaty" (Wilson, 11/13).

Xinhua News: "China received a Dirty Ashtray Award from the NGO Framework Convention Alliance after China's representatives made excuses for not printing warning pictures on cigarette packing at the third Conference of the Parties of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in 2008. The fourth contracting parties conference of WHO FCTC will be on Monday in Uruguay, and anti-tobacco campaigners are worried China might receive another Dirty Ashtray Award. There are no warning pictures and specific words of warning on cigarette packs on the Chinese mainland" (11/15).

The Guardian: "The heads of four of Britain's leading public health bodies have expressed concerns at reports that the government is to water down plans to ban tobacco displays in shops. Health campaigners say the large displays of cigarettes behind shop counters influence young people. But the tobacco lobby has fiercely opposed the ban, saying it will lead to a surge in smuggling and prove costly for small shopkeepers" (Doward, 11/14).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.