"How can we allow the tobacco industry to fill its coffers while we, the people, have to empty our pockets to fend for ourselves and suffer all the harms the tobacco industry has caused? It is high time to shift the financial burden from people and communities to the tobacco industry for ALL the harms caused by its businesses," said Shobha Shukla while opening the launch of the historic Global Week of Action to Make Big Tobacco Pay.
"No matter where we live or what we look like,
everyone deserves to lead a healthy life. But the tobacco industry sells
dangerous and deadly products at huge profits. Meanwhile, we all pay - with our
lives, our taxes, and our environment," said Daniel Dorado, tobacco
campaign director at Corporate Accountability and organizer of the Make Big
Tobacco Pay coalition (and a winner of this year’s prestigious World Health
Organization (WHO)'s World No Tobacco Day Award).
Many people know that tobacco use kills approximately 8
million people each year worldwide and is a risk factor for many life-altering
diseases including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and TB. Every
disease and untimely death caused by tobacco and nicotine products could have
been prevented. Even one tobacco death is a death too many.
But few people realize that the tobacco industry also costs
society over USD $1.4 trillion every year to treat these preventable diseases
and to clean up the industry’s toxic pollution. Cigarette butts, which are made
of plastic, are the most littered item in the world; e-cigarette waste
continues to grow; and both products leach toxic chemicals into our water and
soil.
Meanwhile, tobacco corporations bring in nearly USD $1
trillion in revenue from addicting people to products they know are dangerous
and deadly. That's more than Google, Meta, and Apple combined.
"If we only clean 'downstream', the industry gets
profit and communities get all the pollution, clean-up costs, and health harms.
This is not an accident; it is a business model - one that privatizes the
profits and socializes the harm," said Willow NajjarAnderson, Senior Staff
Attorney at the Public Health Law Center.
"Tobacco corporations cheat us financially whether we
use their products or not. The industry can only be profitable because it has
foisted the costs of its business onto the people and our governments,"
said Jaime Arcila, senior researcher at Corporate Accountability.
"Fortunately, we have a powerful tool to make Big
Tobacco pay for its harms: the global tobacco treaty," he added.
183 nations worldwide have ratified the legally binding
World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC).
Signatories are committed to holding the tobacco industry legally and
financially liable for its harms (Article 19) and preventing industry
interference in health policymaking (Article 5.3).
Advocates emphasized that Article 19 provides many ways to
achieve liability beyond large-scale litigation, as many countries lack
judicial systems that are adequate to hold transnational corporations liable.
"We have made a lot of progress on WHO FCTC Article 19
on liability at the last two global tobacco treaty meetings (COPs) and this
Global Week of Action is so important in keeping the momentum going before the
next one," said Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, Managing Attorney, Action on Smoking
and Health (ASH).
"The Brazilian government is trying to implement the
FCTC Article 19 through a lawsuit against the two largest cigarette
manufacturers in the country and in the world and their national partners. This
action was proposed in 2019 by the Attorney General’s Office, and it aims to
reimburse the public health system for the expenses of the treatment of 27
diseases related to smoking. It is a very important lawsuit not only for us in
Brazil, but for the world - as the final decision will positively or negatively
impact other countries," said Mariana Pinho, Tobacco Control Coordinator
at ACT Promoção da Saúde (ACT Health Promotion), Brazil.
"We need to make Big Tobacco pay through any means
necessary: litigation, regulation, sanctions, and anything else we can do to
build a healthier community where people come first," said Akinbode
Oluwafemi, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability& Public
Participation Africa (CAPPA).
During the Week of Action, advocates will be calling on
their governments to advance liability measures at both the national and
international level. The week kicks off with an online launch on June 1,
followed by in-person and virtual actions in Mexico, Brazil, the United States,
the Philippines, Nigeria, and Ghana. Partner organizations are also circulating
a petition to Make Big Tobacco Pay, which already has nearly 40,000 signatures
worldwide.
"Finding the tobacco industry at fault means very
little if the penalties amount to peanuts compared to the scale of harms caused
by its businesses. Our goal should always be clear: that we want to make the
tobacco industry pay for the full costs of its products, both on health and the
environment. We shouldn’t stop at exposing the industry’s wrongdoing; we must
make sure there is compensation and remediation," said Debby Sy, Global
Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC)
"There are many ways to hold the tobacco industry
accountable. We have been in countries exploring environmental law, which is
cutting-edge and has a lot of potential in countries with judiciaries that are
not particularly strong to make Big Tobacco pay for its actions," said
Patricia Sosa, Regional Advocacy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean,
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Yul Dorado Make Big Tobacco Pay Award
Corporate Accountability also announced the creation of the
Yul Dorado Make Big Tobacco Pay Award to recognize visionary leadership in
advancing health justice and tobacco industry accountability. Beginning next
year, the award will honour outstanding efforts by governments, civil society,
and advocates who are helping advance the global movement to make Big Tobacco
pay for the harms it causes.
#MakeBigTobaccoPay
It is time for accountability, and for the tobacco
industry, that is: Big Tobacco pay for ALL the harms they have caused to human
life and our planet.
Make Big Tobacco Pay is a campaign led by Corporate
Accountability, in coalition with civil society and NGO groups from around the
world, including Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT),
CNS, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Global enter for Good Governance in
Tobacco Control (GGTC), European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention
(ENSP), Coalition América Saludable (CLAS), ACT Promoção da Saúde (ACT), Salud
Justa MX Mexico, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), Health
Justice Philippines, African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), Vision for
Accelerated Sustainable Development (VAST) Ghana, Corporate Accountability and
Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), and Global Alliance for Tobacco Control
(GATC).
Let us hope that Global Week of Action to make Big Tobacco
Pay results in urgent action by the governments at the domestic level, as well
as with stronger progress on Article 19 of FCTC.
