HPHWD

May 31 is World No Tobacco Day. This year’s theme is tobacco industry interference, chosen, in WHO’s words, “to expose and counter the tobacco industry’s brazen and increasingly aggressive attempts to undermine the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC)”. In its 2008 report Tobacco industry interference with tobacco control, WHO outlines “the long history and the extent of tobacco industry efforts to avoid, delay and dilute” effective tobacco control policies. Key methods include lobbying, political donations, exploiting legislative loopholes, undermining or countering research, and funding groups or individuals to advance the tobacco industry’s objectives. Examples include the industry’s attempts to counter research by the International Agency for Research on Cancer that showed the link between passive smoking and lung cancer, and to undermine the US Environmental Protection Agency’s assessment of the risks associated with second-hand smoke. Direct funding of business analysts, scientists, and even historians has been important in promoting the interests of the tobacco industry over those of public health.