Global
Agricultural Issues Factsheets
Tobacco and Agricultural Issues
For years, the tobacco industry has sought to hide behind tobacco growers to protect its
own economic interests. In many countries, the industry has successfully shifted the terms
of the debate from the protection of public health to the perceived damage that tobacco
control policies will have on tobacco growers and their communities. Through the use of
secret lobbying, working through front groups and misrepresenting the truth, the companies
are hoping that tobacco growers and tobacco producing countries will actively fight
current efforts to adopt a Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Yet a closer
look reveals that tobacco companies are far more concerned with their own economic
interests than those of developing countries or farmers.
Tobacco Industry Manipulation of Agricultural Issues
For over 20 years, cigarette companies and leaf dealers have sought to thwart tobacco
control initiatives by manipulating agricultural issues.
Tobacco and the Environment
The damaging health and environmental impacts of tobacco begin long before a cigarette is
taken out of a packet and lit. From the moment the tobacco seed is planted to the time it
is harvested and cured, the health of those who cultivate the crop is constantly put in
peril.
Lowering Leaf Content, Boosting Profits
With tobacco use increasing in many countries, one would expect cigarette manufacturers to
be purchasing more and more tobacco leaf. But thanks to new technologies that allow them
to artificially inflate the volume of tobacco leaf, the cigarette companies are actually
using less and less per cigarette.
11th World Conference Fact Sheets
The following fact sheets were prepared for the 11th World
Conference on Tobacco OR Health, which took place in Chicago in August 2000. The Campaign
would like to thank the official hosts of the Conference (the American Cancer Society, the
American Medical Asosication and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) for allowing us to
make these available.
Adobe
Acrobat documents
Tobacco
Advertising
Tobacco
Agriculture
Tobacco Cessation
& Treatment
Cigarette Content
& Design
Economics of
Tobacco Control
Environmental Tobacco
Smoke (ETS)
Tobacco Facts
Tobacco &
International Trade
Litigation
Against the Tobacco Industry
Tobacco Prices &
Public Health
School and
Community-Based Education Programs
Searching Tobacco
Industry Documents
Tobacco Smuggling
Tobacco Warning
Labels & Packaging
WHO Framework
Convention of Tobacco Control
Youth Access Policies
Other Factsheets
About the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
The past twenty years has witnessed the passage of a number of historic international
agreements, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Landmine
Treaty. Now, the international community is taking action on the number one cause of
preventable death in the world today - tobacco.
Summary of WHO Infiltration Report
On August 2, 2000 a panel of experts released a 260 page report detailing a decades-long
effort by the tobacco industry to subvert the World Health Organization's (WHO) efforts to
control the death and disease caused by tobacco. The report, which was based on previously
confidential tobacco industry documents, exposed the tobacco industry's efforts to thwart
the tobacco control initiatives of the WHO through subterfuge, deception, and guile.
Tobacco: A Global Killer
Globally, around 4 million people die from tobacco-related illness each year. This is the
equivalent of twenty-seven 747 airplanes full of passengers crashing every day. By the
year 2030, 10 million people will be dying each year from tobacco use.
Economic Myths of Tobacco Control
Many countries have delayed taking concerted action to reduce tobacco consumption out of
concern that their economies will suffer. Many policymakers still believe that taking
effective action to reduce tobacco consumption will mean the permanent loss of thousands
of jobs in the farming and manufacturing sectors. Furthermore, they fear that higher
tobacco taxes will result in lower government revenues, that higher prices will encourage
massive levels of cigarette smuggling, and that higher prices will disproportionately harm
the poor. Yet according to a landmark 1999 report by the World Bank, Curbing the Epidemic
, many of the these concerns are unfounded or exaggerated.
Tobacco and Women: Global Trends
Throughout the world, smoking by women is a serious, growing public health problem.
Because of the significant gender differences in the cultural and social influences on
smoking, consumption patterns, health effects and responses to tobacco marketing and
promotion, smoking amongst women must not only be addressed by general anti-smoking
initiatives but by efforts specifically targeted at women.
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion
Each year, the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars around the globe on
advertising, marketing and promotion. In the United States alone, with less than 5 percent
of the world’s smokers, tobacco companies spent over $5.66 billion on advertising and
promotional expenditures in 1997. Tobacco companies promote cigarettes through every
conceivable medium, including radio, television, magazines and newspapers, billboards and
the internet. Recently disclosed industry documents reveal that the companies have
carefully studied the habits, tastes and desires of their potential customers --
including, children, women and other historically low-smoking groups -- and then used that
research to develop products and marketing campaigns aimed at them.
Reducing International Tobacco Smuggling: A Public Health
Priority
Tobacco smuggling is an ideal subject for international cooperation through the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) because it is a problem that cannot be adequately
addressed at the national level. Approximately one-third of all cigarette exports never
reach their intended destination. They disappear into the lucrative black market for
tobacco products.
Public Comment by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids Regarding
the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (March 15, 2000)
We were heartened by the news that in May 1999, the United States joined the other member
states of WHO in unanimously endorsing the start of negotiations for the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). If these negotiations are successful and produce a
strong Convention, the FCTC will make an enormous contribution to stemming the growth of
the tobacco epidemic. It will raise national and international awareness of the problem,
provide technical and financial resources for effective national tobacco control measures,
and foster multilateral cooperation on aspects of tobacco control that transcend national
boundaries, such as the global marketing and promotion of tobacco products and smuggling.
