Research uncovers tobacco companies’ tactics to undermine tobacco control in Czech Republic
26 June 2012
Two of the world’s largest tobacco companies have actively weakened tobacco-control policies in the Czech Republic over the past two decades researchers from the Department for Health have found.
The University’s Tobacco Control Research Group uncovered ongoing interference from British American Tobacco and Philip Morris to influence tobacco tax policies, which are one of the most effective means of reducing tobacco consumption. They found the corporations collaborated with broader tobacco interests to keep tobacco taxes low and lobbied competitively for tobacco tax structures that would favour their brands.
They also found evidence that Philip Morris ignored, overturned and weakened the Czech policymakers’ attempts to restrict tobacco advertising, promoting voluntary restrictions as an alternative to binding legislation.
The research comes from the first study to examine tobacco industry influence in the Czech Republic, which is published in PLoS Medicine this week.
