Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index

The tobacco industry is trying to block life-saving policies during a pandemic, when health should be the number one priority.

Governments have the power to end this interference.

If they don’t take timely action, people will continue to die.

21,918 lives every day
666,667 lives every month
8,000,000 lives every year

Based on WHO estimates that more than 8 million lives are lost to tobacco per year.

The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index shows which governments are leading the way in protecting policies from Big Tobacco’s meddling, and which governments can do better.

Emerging Trends in 2021

COVID-19:

During the pandemic, policies protecting public health should have been safe-guarded and strengthened. Instead, the tobacco industry persuaded many governments to weaken or delay such policies. Despite known links between tobacco use and worse COVID-19 health outcomes, the industry lobbied to keep its deadly products easily accessible and even labeled as “essential” throughout lockdowns and smoking bans.

Successful Resistance

In Kenya, even though cigarettes were initially listed as “essential,” the government eventually dropped tobacco products from the list of essential goods.

Industry Interference

The Association of Brazilian Tobacco Growers successfully lobbied for continued cigarette production, which was subsequently authorized at full capacity.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

Big Tobacco’s so-called corporate social responsibility continued at a disturbing rate, often related to the pandemic. Donations and other contributions, however, seemed to leave some governments indebted to the industry. In several cases, changes in policy that favored the industry followed, such as delayed or reduced tax measures. Some governments made vulnerable by the pandemic disregarded bans on tobacco industry CSR and accepted—and even promoted—industry donations and activities.

Successful Resistance

In Ukraine, both the Ministry of Health and the Office of the President rejected funding from the tobacco industry that had been given through a charitable institution.

Industry Interference

In Poland, Philip Morris Polska donated funds for personal protective equipment and produced disinfectants to support the government in pandemic relief efforts, and saw a subsequent delay in the introduction of tax and lower tax rates for its heated tobacco product.

Novel Electronic Products:

In the face of declining smoking rates in many parts of the world, tobacco companies put forth considerable effort trying to persuade governments to approve e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products. Where these products were already on the market, tobacco companies angled for favorable treatment of novel products over combustibles, including lower taxes.

Successful Resistance

In Israel, Philip Morris International (PMI) lobbied a Knesset Economic Affairs Committee to place its heated tobacco product, IQOS, in a separate regulatory category from cigarettes. The request was denied, as were PMI’s requests to meet with the Ministry of Health.

Industry Interference

Tobacco companies persuaded lawmakers in Bolivia to remove a ban on electronic smoking devices, claiming “there is still no scientific basis to corroborate that they are harmful.”

These seven indicators highlight stories of government resistance and industry interference.

Indicator 1: Policy Development

When the tobacco industry interferes with government efforts to develop tobacco control policies.

Successful Resistance

Botswana published its Tobacco Control Bill in March 2021, which includes Article 5.3—despite a lengthy delay between the passage of the law and the country’s ratification of the WHO FCTC.

Industry Interference

Panama’s National Assembly is permeable to tobacco industry interference because the industry is allowed to participate in the discussions of bills in the various committees. The health committee of the National Assembly amended 36 articles in a bill without going through the review of civil society or the health authority, and approved the bill immediately amid accusations of bribery and extortion.

Indicator 2: “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) Activity

The tobacco industry spends millions of dollars on so-called corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities each year.

Successful Resistance

All tobacco-related CSR activities are banned in Iran and there was no evidence of such activities occurring.

Industry Interference

In the Philippines, Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp and/or LT Group, Inc., conducted 34 out of the 36 monitored tobacco-related charity activities in 2020. Most of the donations were done in partnership with local government units, the Philippine National Police, as well as local government executives and representatives in Congress. Public officials contravene a government circular when they endorse such charity.

Indicator 3: Benefits to the Tobacco Industry

The tobacco industry enjoys many types of benefits. Direct benefits include privileges, incentives, tax exemptions or endorsements to encourage their business.

Successful Resistance

The government did not accommodate requests from the tobacco industry for a longer time frame for implementation or postponement of the tobacco control law in Norway.

Industry Interference

In the Dominican Republic, the tobacco industry receives a plethora of benefits as the State is projected as a “tobacco-state” where the global tobacco trend suffers a regression. The industry receives benefits such as tax exemptions, state-backed international lobbying, local legislation in its favor and the ability to interfere in local health governance.

Indicator 4: Government Interaction with the Industry

Unnecessary interactions occur when top level government officials attend social functions hosted by tobacco companies or when the government accepts offers of assistance or enters into partnerships with the tobacco industry.

Successful Resistance

Brunei continues to implement the code of conduct, applicable to all civil servants, issued by the Prime Minister’s Office that prohibits unnecessary interactions with the tobacco industry or its representatives, requires transparency in any necessary (regulatory) interaction with the tobacco industry and rejects partnerships with and funding or sponsorship from the tobacco industry.

Industry Interference

In Canada, the government collaborated with Medicago Inc., which is partly owned by Philip Morris International (one-third equity), to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. This collaboration is a violation of Article 5.3 which does not augur well for the government which, in the past, had been serious about Article 5.3 implementation.

Indicator 5: Transparency

Lack of transparency in government interactions makes many vulnerable to influence from the tobacco industry

Successful Resistance

Transparency has reduced unnecessary interaction with the tobacco industry in New Zealand. Notifications of meetings between the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the tobacco industry are announced on the MOH website.

Industry Interference

Tobacco industry interference is a major obstacle facing Côte d’Ivoire in their efforts to control tobacco use. Authorities do not disclose their interactions with the tobacco industry. The industry intervened in the adoption of Codentify, a track and trace system for illicit tobacco products, lobbying the Ministry of Commerce to adopt it although this system is not approved by the international Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products.

Indicator 6: Conflicts of Interest

Senior government officials working for the industry present a conflict of interest.

Successful Resistance

France required the disclosure of possible conflicts of interest to protect public policies. In 2020 and early 2021, the tobacco industry targeted MPs both directly and indirectly, through third-party allies and lobbyists. They tried to use public health arguments to promote their activities and attempted to pass pro-tobacco amendments, but failed.

Industry Interference

In Japan, the government’s share in Japan Tobacco Inc. continues to present conflicts of interest enabling the Finance Ministry to be involved in the industry.

Indicator 7: Preventing Influence

Governments can proactively take several preventive measures to protect their officials from being exposed to interference.

Successful Resistance

In July 2020, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India adopted a code of conduct aimed at preventing industry interference and conflicts of interest among public officials and all departments within the Ministry’s jurisdiction. Thirteen Indian states have adopted measures that limit interaction with the industry and require mandatory disclosure of interaction records.

Industry Interference

By failing to ratify the FCTC, Switzerland’s minimal and non-encompassing federal tobacco control laws benefit the tobacco industry greatly, allowing it to use the country as a political playground and a marketing laboratory.

Governments already have the power to stop tobacco industry interference.

Specific actions for governments include:

• The whole government, not just the health sector, must curb tobacco industry interference
• Endorsement of tobacco industry activities must stop
• De-normalize so-called socially responsible activities of the tobacco industry
• Reject non-binding agreements with the tobacco industry
• Stop giving incentives to the tobacco industry
• Governments must divest from the tobacco industry
• Require greater transparency for increased accountability
• Implement a code to provide a firewall
• Compel the tobacco industry to provide information about its business