The tobacco epidemic, which is responsible for over eight million deaths a year, is driven by the hugely profitable tobacco industry. A new brief titled Smoke and Mirrors brings together evidence to counter common tobacco industry arguments regarding:

• The transformation of the tobacco industry away from harm and towards public health;
• Newer products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products;
• Public trust in tobacco industry science and its right to be involved in policymaking; and
  
• The illicit trade in tobacco products.

The revealing resource, by the award-winning Tobacco Control Research Group, aims to help the tobacco control and wider public health communities combat the tobacco industry’s ongoing efforts to spread disinformation.

Tobacco control expert, Dr Sophie Braznell, comments:

The tobacco industry is constantly innovating and reinventing itself to try to remain one step ahead of public health. Whatever claims these companies make, their true objective remains the same: make money from selling addictive and harmful products. The tobacco epidemic is not best tackled by the tobacco industry, but by core tobacco control measures. Instead, governments and public health bodies should look to resources such as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).

This work was carried out with financial support from Cancer Research UK. This project was supported through the University of Bath's Consultancy Services.

Alexander Wright, Head of Global Policy and Programmes at Cancer Research UK, notes:

Through Cancer Research UK’s International Cancer Prevention programme, we support civil society organisations in Low- and Middle-income Countries (LMICs) to strengthen national tobacco control policies, particularly focusing on Article 6 on taxation in the WHO FCTC. Taxation is one of the most effective tools to reduce tobacco use, and despite evidence that higher tobacco taxes reduce consumption and do not fuel illicit trade, the industry continues to push misleading claims to undermine tobacco control. This document equips global tobacco control advocates to challenge these narratives, and debunk the industry's most common and misleading arguments.