Tobacco Companies’ Use of Developing Countries’ Economic Reliance on Tobacco to Lobby Against Global Tobacco Control

The Case of Malawi

Bibliographic Data

ID11024285
AuthorsMartin G Otañez (At the time of this study, Martin G. Otañez was with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco. Hadii M. Mamudu and Stanton A. Glantz are with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco.), Hadii M Mamudu (0000-0002-3304-5577, At the time of this study, Martin G. Otañez was with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco. Hadii M. Mamudu and Stanton A. Glantz are with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco.), Stanton A Glantz (0000-0003-4620-6672, At the time of this study, Martin G. Otañez was with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco. Hadii M. Mamudu and Stanton A. Glantz are with the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, University of California, San Francisco.)
Year2009
Volume99
Issue10
Pages1759-1771
Publication date2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0090-0036 • E-ISSN: 1541-0048
PublisherAmerican Public Health Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2105/ajph.2008.146217
PMID19696392
PMCIDPMC2741530
OpenAlexW2165731800
LanguageEN
Citations received37
References cited19

Transnational tobacco manufacturing and tobacco leaf companies engage in numerous efforts to oppose global tobacco control. One of their strategies is to stress the economic importance of tobacco to the developing countries that grow it. We analyze tobacco industry documents and ethnographic data to show how tobacco companies used this argument in the case of Malawi, producing and disseminating reports promoting claims of losses of jobs and foreign earnings that would result from the impending passage of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). In addition, they influenced the government of Malawi to introduce resolutions or make amendments to tobacco-related resolutions in meetings of United Nations organizations, succeeding in temporarily displacing health as the focus in tobacco control policymaking. However, these efforts did not substantially weaken the FCTC

Argument (complex analysis) · Business · Convention · Cultivation of tobacco · Developing country · Dissemination · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Government (linguistics) · Political science · Public health · Tobacco control · Tobacco industry · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Law · Medicine