Tobacco Industry's Global Network to Undermine Public Health
Author Information
Author(s): Patricia A. McDaniel, Gina Intinarelli, Ruth E. Malone
Primary Institution: University of California, San Francisco
Hypothesis
How do tobacco industry organizations coordinate to undermine tobacco control efforts globally?
Conclusion
The tobacco industry's coordinated efforts through organizations like INFOTAB illustrate their ability to undermine public health initiatives.
Supporting Evidence
- The tobacco industry claims to represent only national interests while being coordinated with transnational companies.
- INFOTAB helped members challenge local tobacco control measures.
- By 1984, INFOTAB had 69 members operating in 57 countries.
Takeaway
Big tobacco companies work together to make it harder for people to stop smoking and to keep selling cigarettes, even when it hurts people's health.
Methodology
Documentary data was collected from tobacco industry documents archives using a snowball sampling strategy.
Potential Biases
The study may be biased due to the reliance on internal documents from the tobacco industry, which may not fully disclose all activities.
Limitations
The findings likely represent a conservative account of the true scope and scale of the tobacco industry's activities due to historical document destruction.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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