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Press Release September 14, 2017
Canadian health groups respond to Philip Morris
International’s $1 billion research fund
Government action needed to block
tobacco industry interference in public health issues. Canadian health
organizations responded to the announcement yesterday
that Philip Morris International had pledged $1 billion
to a new purpose-built foundation by calling on the
Canadian government to immediately restore public
funding for tobacco control and to ensure that the costs
of reducing tobacco use are passed on to the tobacco
industry. “In this recent
ploy, Philip Morris is using the same bag of tricks it
invented in the 1950s, to create its own research bodies
in order to manipulate the research environment and
delay effective measures to reduce smoking,” explained
Neil Collishaw, Research Director of Physicians for a
Smoke-Free Canada.
[1] “We risk
repeating the tragedy of past decades unless the
government moves quickly to ensure that the new
challenges of e-cigarettes and so-called reduced risk
products are addressed by reliable and uncontaminated
research.” “A year has passed since we provided Health Canada with proposals for ways to protect public health from tobacco industry interference in research and policy” said Melodie Tilson, Director of Policy for the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association. [2] “Since that time, we have seen no action on any of our 20 recommendations, nor any indication that these are a priority of Health Canada. Recent events and the industry’s abuse of science as a front for tobacco marketing [3] have increased our concerns that Canada is vulnerable to tobacco industry interference.”
“The most recent
intrusion of the tobacco industry into research funding
is all the more dangerous in the context of massive cuts
to tobacco control funding by the previous government,
and the failure of the new government to restore
resources for independent activities,” said Cynthia
Callard, Executive Director of Physicians for a
Smoke-Free Canada. “The Canadian Tobacco Control
Research Initiative was
defunded in 2009, and policy-focused community work was
abandoned by Health Canada in 2012. The failure of the
new federal government to restore this important work
has left little national-level capacity for independent
response to industry-funded disinformation.”
[4] “The federal government should apply the polluter-pay principle to public health by levying a regulatory charge on tobacco manufacturers,” explained Flory Doucas, Co-Director and Spokesperson for the Quebec Coalition on Tobacco Control. “We have previously made this recommendation as a way to require the industry to internalize some of the costs they impose on society.” Like many other health groups, the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control and Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada have recommended that Canada follow the example of the United States and France in imposing licencing fees on the industry. [5] Tobacco control
organizations are calling on the Minister of Health and
parliamentarians to move quickly to implement these
measures. “Over the past
months, Philip Morris International and other
multinational tobacco companies have stepped up their
efforts to re-invent their markets, their public image
and their influence on government. Canadians deserve a
federal government that will respond quickly and
effectively to these new challenges,” said Michael
Perley, Executive Director of the Ontario Campaign
for Action on Tobacco. Contacts: Lorraine Fry Michael Perley Flory Doucas Cynthia Callard [3] L’Economiste. Philip Morris International: Le cigarettier parie sur les produits de substitution.
[5]
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada and
Coalition Québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac.
Pre-Budget Submission 2018.
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