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27 June 2002

 

Social Responsibility and the Tobacco Industry are Mutually Exclusive

 

British American Tobacco of South Africa (BATSA) has released what they term their "Social Report".

Can civil society believe what BATSA says?

 

"Emphatically NO!" says Peter Ucko, director of the National Council Against Smoking. "We are proud that we boycotted the social survey. We are not the only organization who did so. We refrain from lending credence to a process designed to enhance the image of the killer tobacco industry. We will not add value to their survey by our participation."

 

BATSA claims to be socially responsible. Yet they maintain that the World Health Organisation (WHO) report on environmental tobacco smoke and passive smoking "found no meaningful increase in lung cancer risk for growing up, living, working, traveling or socialising with a smoker"

 

Derek Yach Executive Director: Non-communicable diseases at WHO refuted this statement in March this year saying that "BAT continues to knowingly spread it's lies and deception about the impact of passive smoking on health".

 

Can BATSA be believed ? Clearly they cannot. Passive smoking kills. Masses of evidence indicates risks of lung cancer, heart disease and many illnesses caused by second hand smoke in healthy non smokers. (data available on request)

 

BATSA claims social responsibility, but an example of their marketing code in practice is the "Smoking Parties" which it sponsors in South Africa. (Detailed story in the ASH report below). The story illustrates the effort BAT continues to make to associate cigarettes with positive images and experiences. It is telling that the smoking parties are a form of marketing that would not be controlled by BAT's marketing code and this lends further support to the idea that the Code should be judged by what it permits rather than what it bans. Such practices of sponsoring parties are prohibited in SA yet BATSA knowingly continues it's activities and exposes our youth to their deadly addictive product and encourages them to start smoking.

 

Should anyone believe BATSA ? Certainly not.

 

Who are the "stakeholders" in BATSA? Undertakers? Morticians? Funeral Parlours? Coffin manufacturers? Cemeteries? Can the tobacco industry run programmes on youth smoking or give advice on stopping smoking ?. Definitely not. It's an empty public relations gesture. That would be akin to asking the devil to absolve you from your sins. (see ASH report below)

 

Hundreds of internal documents show BAT has actively managed and developed the black market in its own products. They are facing government investigation in the UK and legal action in the US courts for racketeering and money laundering.

 

There is clear evidence that BAT has fixed prices or market share with its main rivals in at least 23 markets.

 

BAT was found by an Australian court to have deliberately shredded documents to deny justice to victims of smoking-related disease. The court took the very serious step of striking out Bat's defence in a lung cancer case.

 

Is it possible in the light of all the evidence to believe the tobacco industry? The answer to the question cannot be yes.

 

More details are in "The Other Report to Society," compiled by UK based Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). This document is available on the following websites:

Summary with section-by-section links to the main report http://www.ash.org.uk/html/conduct/html/reporttosocietysum.html

PDF for printing and reading at leisure http://www.ash.org.uk/html/conduct/pdfs/reporttosociety.pdf