Tobacco – a special

briefing for journalists

Professor Bill Bellew The Union

Acknowledgments: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney

Anne Jones: ASH Australia

In association with the National Press Foundation

 First – what’s on your mind?

• For 2-3 minutes

• Talk to person next to you (2s or 3s)
• What are the questions you would like to see
addressed in this session?
• What are the issues you want to hear about?
 Overview
• History
• Health impact
• Tobacco control
• The tobacco industry (busting tobacco
industry myths)
history
 TOBACCO IN HISTORY
• TOBACCO USE IS THOUSANDS OF YEARS OLD
• 3500 BC, people in Peru and Mexico used
tobacco (both chewed or smoked) and there are
records indicating that they regarded it as a
valuable, tradable substance.
• 600-1000 CE: UAXACTUN, GUATEMALA. First
pictorial record of smoking
• A pottery vessel found here dates from before
the 11th century. On it a Mayan is depicted
smoking a roll of tobacco leaves tied with a string.
• The Mayan term for smoking was sik'ar
Read more:
http://www.faqs.org/health/topics/19/Smokelesstobacco.html#ixzz14eySSSie
Sir Walter Raleigh
1552 – 1618

Often credited with

‘discovering Tobacco and
introducing it to the
Europeans

In fact it was introduced

earlier, by the Spanish

www.luminarium.org
 1492-11 Rodrigo de Jerez
and Luis de Torres Discover Smoking

Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, in Cuba searching for the Khan of Cathay (China),
are credited with first observing smoking. They reported that the natives wrapped
dried tobacco leaves in palm or maize "in the manner of a musket formed of paper."
After lighting one end, they commenced "drinking" the smoke through the other.
Jerez became a confirmed smoker, and is thought to be the first outside of the
Americas. - became the First European Smoker
http://logicophilosophicus.org
 Jean Nicot
1530-1600

• French diplomat who introduced tobacco to the French

court.
• 1560, while serving as ambassador in Portugal, he was shown
a tobacco plant in the garden of Lisbon botanist Damião de
Goes, who claimed it had healing properties.
• Nicot sent home seeds and leaves of tobacco, recommending
its therapeutic value. Nicot also sent snuff to Catherine de
Medici, the Queen of France to treat her migraine
headaches.
• She was impressed with its results. The tobacco plant,
Nicotiana tabacum, and its active substance, nicotine, derive
their names from him. http://www.britannica.com
Nicotiana tabacum

http://www.scientificamerican.com
http://www.britannica.com
Tobacco – all pervasive!
Tobacco – industry exposed
health impact
 More than 4000 chemicals have
been identified in cigarette smoke –
some of them are shown)

Carbon monoxide binds to

haemoglobin in red blood cells,
preventing affected cells from
carrying a full load of oxygen.

Carcinogens in tobacco smoke

damage important genes that
control the growth of cells, causing
them to grow abnormally or to
reproduce too rapidly.

Smoking affects the working of the

immune system and may increase
the risk for respiratory and other
infections.

Source: WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic,

2009: implementing smoke-free environments (2009
 2008 Study

http://drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNVol22N2/Imaging.html
Nicotine Receptors in the Brain
http://archives.drugabuse.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol20N2/Site.html

NIDA Vol. 20, No. 2 (August 2005)

Evolution of the Tobacco Epidemic

Lopez AD, Collishaw NE, Piha T.

A descriptive model of the cigarette epidemic in developed countries.
Tobacco Control, 1994; 3: 242-247.
 India - 10 lakh (1 million) victims study
Conclusions of the study:
• In 2010, smoking will cause about 930,000 adult
deaths in India; of the dead, about 70% (90,000
women and 580,000 men) will be between the ages of
30 and 69 years.
• Because of population growth, the absolute
number of deaths in this age group is rising by about
3% per year.
• Among 30-69 year-olds studied, smoking doubled
the risk of death from any medical cause among
women and increased this risk by 70% among men;
• Tobacco was responsible for 1 in 5 of all male
deaths and 1 in 20 of all female deaths in middle age How T
im
(30-69 years); ‘10 lak es of India
h victi
• Daily smoking of even a small amount of tobacco ms’ la reported th
ndma e
rk stud
was associated with an increased death rate. March y;
2008

• Compared with non-smokers, smokers had greater rates of deaths that were chiefly
due to tuberculosis (women three times the risk, men 2.3 times the risk of dying
from TB); excess deaths also resulted from respiratory and vascular diseases, as well
as from cancers.
Tobacco use is a risk factor for six of the
eight leading causes of death in the world

Source: WHO MPOWER: a policy package to reverse

the tobacco epidemic (2008)
tobacco control
WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
What is the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco
Control (WHO FCTC)?
– A legally-binding international treaty to which 171
countries are Parties. This means those countries
have agreed to be bound by the FCTC’s obligations.
 WHO FCTC and MPOWER
are tools to implement the most effective
tobacco control interventions
• Each measure can be powerful on its own
• Comprehensive implementation is best:
Individual effects of policies +
synchronistic impacts of combination of
policies
 WHO FCTC
• All Parties to the FCTC are required to
submit regular reports on progress (every
2-3 years)
• The Framework Convention Secretariat
provides regular summary reports on
progress
http://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/en/
Protection from second-hand smoke

WHO FCTC 2009 Summary Report on global progress in th implementation of the WHO
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. FCS. http://www.who.int/fctc/secretariat/en/
 A recommended package
Warning on top part
of pack

Shocking picture

Non-misleading Warning is 80% of main

ingredient surface
information
Clear text warning,
quitting encouragement

PLAIN PACKAGING: No branding, standard

background, no misleading descriptors
Parallel to the top of Parallel to the top of and
the principal display as close as possible to the
surfaces top edge of the principal
display surfaces
Japan, October 2010 – POS advertising at vending machine
 el Sm ok in g Room
Ca m
t 10 N ov e mb er 2010
or
Frankfurt Airp
tobacco industry
 Tobacco’s global epidemic
 5.4 m deaths every year

 8 m deaths by 2030 with 80% in LMICs

 Of the 1 billion smokers alive today,

500m will be killed by tobacco

 Spread not by a virus but by marketing

tactics of a powerful global tobacco
industry (TI).
Acknowledgment: ASH Australia; Anne Jones
“No sir, nicotine is not addictive” Tobacco Executives 1994

Acknowledgment: ASH Australia; Anne Jones

 The Tobacco Industry
Who are they?
 Tobacco companies:
 Philip Morris, BATA, Imperial plus several smaller companies
 Many other names/ identities depending on the country
 Sometimes owned by the government
 Shareholders, interrelated companies
 High profile individuals
 Associated interests: retail, hospitality, gaming
 Front groups
 Lobbyists, legal advisers, consultants, think tanks
 Charities accepting TI funding
 Governments and politicians accepting donations,
hospitality
Acknowledgment: ASH Australia; Anne Jones
 TI – your sources of information?
• The industry itself – company websites
• TI documents
• TI and related industry publications
• Court records
• Freedom of Information requests
• Mandatory filings with governments under
FCTC
• Monitoring of marketing tactics and activites
Acknowledgment: ASH Australia; Anne Jones
http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/
 Evidence shows…
 The Tobacco Industry spends billions each year
- misinforming governments, politicians,
businesses, public
- hiding health harm, duping smokers
- targeting young people and users with advertising,
promotions and sponsorships
- opposing tobacco control legislation and policies
If these tactics are not countered they will succeed in further blocking
and delaying reforms leading to more preventable loss of life, chronic
diseases and costs
 Busting Tobacco Industry Myths

Simon Chapman
Courtesy of:
Professor of Public Health
University of Sydney
 3 areas where myths abound
• Health effects
• Marketing targets (“we don’t want kids to
smoke)
• Economic impacts (“tobacco control will ruin
business & the economy”)

Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney

 The scream test
• What does the tobacco industry
complain about & lobby against?
• What does the tobacco industry
support?
• What should the answers to these
questions tell us?
Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney
 From sales data, the tobacco
industry knows the
immediate, medium & long
term impact of every
marketing & tobacco control
variable

Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney

 The ‘Scream Test’
What does the tobacco industry
“scream” about?
• Tax rises
• Smoking restrictions/denormalisation
• Advertising bans
• Big, hard-hitting TV campaigns
• Picture-warnings on packs
• Plain “generic” packs
Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney
 Industry Tactic – False cooperation

What does the tobacco industry

support?
• Voluntary codes of advertising control
• Small, general pack warnings
• Separate smoking areas
• Signage in shops re not selling to kids
• Pamphlets, advice on quitting
Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney
 Industry lines on Health effects

• For decades, tobacco industry denied tobacco

caused disease
• Availability of millions of internal industry
documents (1998) showed they knew dangers
for many years

Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney

In 1975, delegates at a BAT meeting agreed that it was “about
right” that the average smoker lost about 10 minutes of life
expectancy from smoking each cigarette.”

BW100428409/8427 June 1975

OFFER SMOKERS REASSURANCE!

Andrew Whist (PM Aust) Apr 13 1978

The industry collected lists of things reported to be unhealthy or
dangerous to try and trivialise the health risks of smoking

BW690137964/7983
Tobacco Trade Journal,
Qld 1964
1977: Australian Retail Tobacconist
 Marketing & promotion myths

• “Tobacco promotion is only aimed at

existing smokers, not at non-smokers”
• “Smoking is an adult choice ... the tobacco
industry does not want children to smoke.”

Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney

 Not to kids?

• "Cigarette people maintain peer pressure is

the culprit in getting kids to start smoking and
that advertising has little effect. That's like
saying cosmetic ads have no effect on girls too
young to put on lipstick. . . . "
• Rance Crain, ADVERTISING AGE, October 30,
1995, p. 20.

Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney

“A phony way of showing sincerity”

“This is one of the proposals

that we shall initiate to
show that we as an industry
are doing something about
discouraging young people
to smoke. This of course is a
phony way of showing
sincerity as we all well
know”
(2024950089/0098).
1993: campaigns to prevent youth smoking “ammunition,
if and when needed” to “move the needle”

PM 2504200158
1975: Make sure you no longer refer to “youth” .. Here’s the language
We all must use from now on…
“As in previous years” 33% of “in-switchers”
are new smokers (ie: youth)

PM 2048078627
 Economic myths
1. Tobacco control will:
•- reduce tax receipts to government
•- put 1000s out of work

2. Smokefree restaurants, bars will:

•- not work (people will ignore .. Smoking “police”
needed)
•-cause major economic losses
Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney
No loss of revenue to governments
Smoke-Free Workplace Laws Do
Not Harm Businesses

Source: Philip Morris Internal Document

Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney

 Smoke-Free Workplace Laws Aren’t
Bad for Business – Sales
Bars/Restaurants Serving All Alcohol
Bars/Restaurants Serving Beer\Wine Only
12
Smoke-free Smoke-free
11 Restaurants Bars
Sales in $ Billions

10
9
8
7
6
5
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

Taxable sales in California

Source: California Board of Equalization.
 Smoke-Free Workplace Laws Aren’t
Bad for Business – Jobs
Smoke-free Smoke-free
Restaurants Bars
950000
Number of Employees

930000
910000
890000
870000
850000
830000
810000
790000
770000
92

93

94

96

97

98

99

00
95
19

19

19

19

20
19

19

19

19
Year
Source: State of California, Employment Development Department, Labor Force Statistics, April 2001
There is No Relationship between Smoke-Free
Policies and International Travel
US Cities Visited by International Travelers: 1993-2000
Smoke-free
restaurants in Smoke-free
NYC, LA, & SF bars in LA & SF
25%

20%

NYC
Percentage

15%
LA
SF
10%
Miami

5%

0%
1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Year
Source: Office of Tourism, International Trade Association, US Department of Commerce,
ITA Survey of International Air Travel.
 Industry Strategies
to Stop Smoke-free Workplace Laws
• Create front groups including smokers and
restaurant/bar owners
• Manufacture economic impact “studies”
• Intensely lobby elected officials
• Offer counter proposals and delay tactics
• Launch advertising campaigns
• Encourage law-breaking and try to overturn
statute after passed
Acknowledgment: Prof Simon Chapman: University of Sydney
 Reprise
• History
• Health impact
• Tobacco control
• The tobacco industry (busting tobacco
industry myths)
Thank You!