o tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law."
The guidelines include the following recommendations, rooted in the principle that the tobacco industry has a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict with public health:
- governments should reject partnerships with the tobacco industry;
- conflicts of interest such as the "revolving door" between the tobacco industry and public health offices, government investments in the tobacco industry and tobacco industry representation on tobacco control bodies should be avoided;
- government interaction with the tobacco industry should be strictly limited and transparent;
- the tobacco industry should be required to be transparent about its activities, a measure which will help to counter interference by Big Tobacco's front groups and allied organizations.
Effective tobacco control is, almost by definition, antithetical to the economic interests of the tobacco industry, associated industries, and entities or persons working to further the tobacco industry's agenda, says the preface of this report.
Those interests depend largely on the prosperity of the tobacco industry and its means for ensuring its real or perceived commercial well-being. The primary goal of tobacco control is to prevent tobacco-caused disease and death. In the hierarchy of objectives for reaching this goal, preventing the uptake of tobacco use and assisting tobacco users in ceasing use of all forms of tobacco rank highest. Similarly, efforts designed to reduce exposure to second-hand smoke are most effective when smoking is prohibited in public areas, further reads the preface of this report.
This triumvirate of objectives-preventing uptake, maximizing cessation and prohibiting smoking in public places-stands in direct opposition to the commercial objectives of the tobacco industry, says the report.
Although the industry sometimes makes expedient public statements to the contrary, it routinely seeks to maximize uptake of tobacco use, do all that is possible to ensure that tobacco users continue to be consumers and prevent the erosion of smoking opportunities by restrictions known to reduce smoking frequency and promote cessation.
Thus, when tobacco control succeeds, the tobacco industry fails. People employed by the tobacco industry have fiduciary responsibilities to their shareholders or government owners to take all legal steps possible to maximize profits. It is therefore entirely predictable that the tobacco industry does what it can to ensure that effective tobacco control policies fail.
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