Corporate Accountability International: Big Tobacco’s Split a Mixed Bag for Global Health
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2008
9:09 AM
|
CONTACT: Corporate Accountability International
Nick Guroff, 617-695-2525
|
| |
|
Big Tobacco’s Split a Mixed Bag for Global Health
Philip Morris/Altria to Announce Timing of Spin-off Today
|
| |
|
BOSTON - January 30 - Today, the world’s largest and most profitable transnational is expected to announce the timing of its split into the Swiss-based Philip Morris International and U.S.-based Altria (parent corporation to Philip Morris USA). In simple terms, the split appears to be a mixed bag for the movement to curb the world’s greatest preventable epidemic.
“On the one hand, the split means that each corporation’s economic and political clout will be significantly reduced,” said Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International. “On the other hand, the off-shoring of Philip Morris International means that the U.S. public and policymakers will have fewer levers for pressuring the corporation.”
Mulvey and other international public health advocates are now looking to the global tobacco treaty, formally known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), to hold Philip Morris International (PMI) accountable where U.S. tobacco controls no longer apply. Among other provisions, the treaty bans tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship in ratifying countries. It also protects public health policy from interference by the tobacco industry.
Tobacco control advances in the U.S. have contributed to a downturn in Philip Morris/Altria domestic revenues since 2001. Unfortunately, such controls have encouraged the corporation to shift its marketing muscle and political influence-peddling overseas. The result has been a considerable increase in the corporation’s sales and profits internationally in the same time period.
In terms of public health, the upcoming spin-off and the global expansion of PMI have potentially deadly consequences. The World Health Organization projects that 10 million people will die annually from tobacco-related disease by 2020, with seven out of ten deaths occurring in the developing world.
“Once implemented, the global tobacco treaty can prevent these staggering figures,” said Mulvey. “What remains to be seen is just how PMI will attempt to derail treaty implementation in order to pad its bottom line, and how countries will use the power of the treaty to resist this interference.”
Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For 30 years, we’ve forced corporations—like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria—to stop abusive actions. Corporate Accountability International, an NGO in Official Relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), played a key role in development of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
###
|
|
Printer Friendly Version
E-Mail This Article
