Tobacco Industry Monitoring

Qiang Li/Fiona GodfreyThe Union Regional MPOWER/FCTC

Workshop

We need to monitor the TI because...

• It is an FCTC requirement• It helps to fulfil obligations under FCTC Articles 5.3, 11

and 13• The single greatest threat to tobacco control is TI

interference in health policies• If we don’t know what the TI is doing we cannot

effectively regulate it:

• “It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles” (Sun Tzu, The Art of War)

Who is the tobacco industry?

• Tobacco companies• Shareholders, inter-related companies

(ie retail, hospitality, gaming)

• Front groups, think tanks• Lobbyists, legal advisers, consultants• High profile individuals and politicians who

accept payments, donations and perks

How does the TI interfere in public health policies?

The TI blocks and dilutes government efforts by:• Promoting voluntary agreements and TI membership

of government committees• Using front groups and third parties to hide behind• Drafting industry friendly sample legislation• Offering incentives, donations and study tours• Threatening to sue governments• Conducting public misinformation campaigns• Undermining FCTC implementation

How can we protect health policies from TI interference?

FCTC Article 5.3 Guidelines say govts should:• Limit interaction with TI or make transparent• Reject voluntary agreements & offers of help• Ban political donations or require disclosure• Require TI reporting of activities incl lobbying• Ban TI involvement in TC initiatives• Monitor TI activities

Where can we get information about the TI?

1. The TI itself2. TI documents3. Financial analysts reports4. TI journals5. Publications of related industries6. Court records7. Freedom of Information requests8. Mandatory filings with government eg.

Lobbying payments etc.9. Monitoring marketing tactics and activities

What do we need to know about them?

• Their financial and business health• Their “Corporate Social Responsibility”

activities• Their lobbying activities• Their front groups and hired guns• Their think tank memberships• Their interference in other policy areas they

are involved in to sell more tobacco products

Information sources

1. Company websites are a good place to start

“Imperial Tobacco‟s distribution method is not strong especially compared to that ofcompetitors. The company needs to create a more efficient system of distribution that does notneed to be altered with each acquisition the company heeds. This cost of such re-organizationon a repeated basis must be large and thus distribution is evaluated as a weakness in thecompany‟s value chain. “ p.80

2. Tobacco Industry documents

• In 1998, six million tobacco industry internal documents became available to the public.

• The documents include letters, memos, telexes, emails and research reports; strategic, political and organizational plans; organizational charts, lists of consultants, invoices and copies of cheques paid; testimony in courts and before legislatures; advertising, marketing, media and public relations strategies; and several other categories.

Why these documents are important

A powerful weapon to protect the public’s health

It is important to develop a whole body of compelling evidence shown by many documents from different sources and over time.

The documents can be used in LawsuitsShow governments what TI did – lead to legislation

intended to reduce the harm tobacco causesAssisted WHO and member states in the process of

FCTC negotiation.

Where to find these documents• 1. Tobacco industry sponsored document web

sites– http://www.tobaccoarchives.com– http://www.pmdocs.com (Philip Morris)– http://www.rjrtdocs.com/rjrtdocs/index.wmt?

tab=home (R.J. Reynolds)– http://www.bwdocs.com/ (Brown & Williamson and

American Tobacco)– http://www.lorillarddocs.com/ (Lorillard)– http://www.tobaccoinstitute.com/ (TI)– http://www.ctr-usa.org/ctr/index.wmt?tab=home

(CTR)

Where to find these documents

• 2. Non-industry maintained document web sites– http://web.archive.org/web/20001216215300/

wwwgate.net/~jcannon/liggett/index.html– http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/industrydocs/index.htm– http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/– http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2004/

guildfordproject.html– http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/news/2004/

guildfordproject.html

3. Financial analysts reports can be useful

4. TI journals

5. Publications of related industries

What do we need to know about them?

Their financial & business health

Corporate social responsibility activities

Are on the increase everywhere:Running a community library bus service in ChileProviding food to WW2 veterans in EuropeBuilding schools and giving out scholarships in AsiaProviding clean water supplies in Africa

Lobbying activities: New packaging laws:

Look out for emerging front groups to challenge stricter packaging laws in your country:Interbrand or its national subsidiaries

“Plain Pack” GroupsAny new groups with “trademark” or “intellectual property” in its name may also be a cover for the TI.

Source: ASH UK, 2010

Tax lobbyingThe ITIC regularly advises Finance Ministers on tobacco taxation policy and has run conferences in various countries on illicit trade that call for close TI interaction with governments on a range of TC policies.

Industry hired gunsWho are their scientists? Their “independent” media spokespeopleTheir economic and legal advisors? Their PR agencies?

Photo: cover of Merchants of Doubt, N Oreskes and E Conway

TI think tank memberships

• Has the TI set up an ostensibly “independent” think tank in your country?

• Which other think tanks is it a member of? • How influential are they? Who do they have

access to in government?• How are they using think tanks to influence

the agenda in ways we have not thought of?

Source: The Global “Go-To Think Tanks Survey, 2009

Changing the playing field: a case study

• In 1998 BAT teamed up with the leading think thank in Brussels, the EPC

• Their aim was simple: change the EU treaty to require impact assessments of all new laws

• Their objective: to rig the system so that new TC laws could never pass an impact assessment and to block or at least weaken any such legislation

Source: “Working the System”—British American Tobacco's Influence on the European Union Treaty and Its Implications for Policy: An Analysis of Internal Tobacco Industry Documents, Smith KE, Fookes G et al

What is the TI up to in your region?

Conclusions (I)

• TI monitoring is a crucially important tool for TC

• We should not focus too much on the past• We need to adopt a very broad approach to TI

monitoring before we can see the full picture• TI monitoring needs to be strategic, policy

related and carried out in real time • We should pay more attention to the info the

TI gives us

Conclusions (II)

• We should look far beyond TC/health policy to ensure that we have the full picture of TI activity

• We need to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach and involve experts who can analyse the business and marketing data provided and tell us where it leads

• NGOs should also pay more attention to TI monitoring in its broadest sense

Conclusions (III)

• FCTC Parties need to include TI monitoring as a core part of their tobacco control programmes

• FCTC Parties need to implement the Article 5.3 and 13 guidelines in full