Deadly games
the tobacco industry has been secretly campaigning to wreck efforts by the World Health Organisation (who) to fight smoking, claims a recent report. Other allegations include that the industry tried to discredit the who and get its budgets cut and even that it secretly monitored meetings and obtained confidential documents.
The investigation, commissioned by the who, was conducted by Thomas Zeltner, director of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. Much of its information was drawn from internal tobacco industry documents unearthed during legal action in the us .
The report details a 1988 plan headed by tobacco giant Philip Morris' chief executive Geoffrey Bible to attack who anti-smoking initiatives worldwide. The report concludes: "The tobacco companies' own documents show that they viewed who, an international public health agency, as one of their foremost enemies." The report comes at a time when official negotiations for an international tobacco control treaty is about to take place.
Figures released in the uk suggest that lung cancer deaths have fallen by 50 per cent - mainly as a result of fewer people smoking. However, in many parts of the world, particularly developing countries, smoking rates are rising fast, and anti-smoking messages are difficult to deliver in a climate of unregulated advertising. The report accuses the industry of working to convince the un Food and Agriculture Organisation that poorer nations should not emphasise anti-smoking efforts because tobacco was a lucrative cash crop.
The tobacco giants formulated an "action plan", claims the report, which identified 26 "global threats" to the industry and strategies to counter each of them. "That top executives of tobacco companies sat together to design and set in motion elaborate strategies to subvert a public health organisation is unacceptable and must be condemned," says the report.
Other damaging allegations suggest that Philip Morris and British American Tobacco orchestrated a "dirty tricks" campaign to disrupt a major tobacco and health conference in 1992. These included, claimed the report, "training" journalists to both "hound a conference participant", and take over a press conference. In addition, the industry managed to place its own "consultants" at the who to monitor its anti-smoking efforts, secretly monitoring meetings and obtaining confidential documents.
However, a statement from Philip Morris said that while it had "regrets" over past situations in which "conflict prevailed over consensus", the report did not reflect current relations with the who . It denied the claims that it had "improper influence" over who activities, or sought to "prevent or obstruct" them.
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