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ASH Daily News

21 December 2004

HEADLINES

Through the smokescreen, investigating BAT
Department of Health anti-tobacco strategy acclaimed
Italians fired up over smoking ban

FULL TEXT


Through the smokescreen, investigating BAT

Kelley Lee, co-director of the Centre on Global Change and Health at the =
London School of Tropical Medicine, was part of a team of people who, =
with a =A31 million grant from the Wellcome trust, undertook the =
Herculean task of obtaining and making publicly available a 7 to 8 =
million page collection of internal documents from British American =
Tobacco, in an article in New Scientist she talks about her six years =
spent digging up BAT's dirty secrets:

BAT was ordered to make the information publicly available after a US =
court case and was storing the files in a warehouse in Guildford but the =
firm was making it hard for people to access them. The idea was to make =
these files available on the internet for anyone to be able to read.

Over four years the team, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical =
Medicine in collaboration with Stanton Glanz at the University of =
California, faced a series of obstacles in obtaining this information as =
BAT made it increasingly difficult for them. The firm also carried out =
covert surveillance on the team at the Guildford site, indexing their =
database queries by 'perceived threat' to the firm and monitoring mobile =
phone calls made on site.

But now the task is approaching completion and the information is =
starting to yield valuable information to aid the global public health =
battle against the tobacco industry.

"I first got involved in this project through researching the effects of =
globalisation on human health. While there have been increasing moves to =
clamp down on the tobacco industry in many western countries, cigarette =
sales are rising fast in the developing world. In poorer countries =
where tobacco control is generally a low priority, there are billions of =
potential customers, few of whom are well informed about the dangers of =
tobacco use. These record profits keep the tobacco companies strong", =
Kelley Lee explains.

The Guildford files came into existence after the State of Minnesota and =
its health insurer sued several cigarette firms in the 1990s. As part =
of the eventual settlement the judge ruled that thousands of files were =
to be made publicly available for 10 years, the ones from US firms at a =
site in Minnesota, and the ones from British based BAT.

The Minnesota depository, containing around 40 million pages, was =
managed by a firm independent of the tobacco industry, which soon put =
the documents on the internet. But the UK depository was left under =
BAT's control.=20

The team faced excessive bureaucracy in accessing the Guildford files =
and discovered that the indexing system being used was ineffective and =
not organised in any logical or systematic way. Despite these serious =
setbacks the team soon uncovered interesting data - invoices from =
consultants such as academics and journalists, correspondence with =
politicians and strategies to undermine tobacco control policies in =
countries around the world.

"We soon realised it would be impossible to fully exploit the archive =
under BAT's restrictive terms of access. It was at this point we =
decided to attempt the mammoth task of ordering the entire collection =
file by file, and creating our own electronic archive with proper =
indexing and full electronic search capacity and put it on the =
internet."

Request forms had to be filled in, by hand, for 41,000 files. These =
files then had to be scanned, stored, indexed and filed.

"Our constant concern was that BAT would find out what we were doing and =
impose other restrictive measures to stop us. The firm was now taking =
over a year to provide us with photocopied documents. With the =
depository closing down in 2009, the clock was ticking. BAT refused =
point blank to produce some documents, saying they concerned trade =
secrets or attorney-client privilege...we were also concerned that some =
files appeared to be missing. In 2000, BAT told an inquiry into the =
tobacco industry by British MPs that there were 40,784 held at =
Guildford. But when we visited there were only 40,603 files listed on =
the database. What had happened to the missing 181 files? BAT had =
shown itself willing to destroy damaging internal documents in the past. =
The firm was criticised by the judge in the Minnesota court case for =
destroying three cases of files about the health effects of smoking."

The task, which had to be carried out under some secrecy, is already =
yielding positive results. Last month the journal 'Tobacco Control' =
published five of the team's papers describing BAT's complicity in =
smuggling in Asia.

"But these papers are just the beginning. The archive currently =
contains only about one million pages; as more and more files are added =
it will grow at the rate of 40,000 pages per week, and should be =
complete by 2006. We and other groups are continuing to analyse them to =
see what further revelations may emerge".

Source: New Scientist, 18 December 2004
The Guildford files are available at: http://www.bat.library.ucsf.edu =
=20


Department of health anti-tobacco strategy acclaimed

The recent Department of Health funded tobacco education adverts have =
scooped a range of honours in Campaign Magazine's annual direct awards, =
including a Gold Award for best overall execution.

Speaking of the BHF's 'Artery' adverts one judge said:

"Hitherto, anti-smoking arguments have been presented statistically," =
one judge said. But this campaign shows that cigarettes do harm by =
accretion, which is a much stronger argument. This campaign has =
reinvented the category. It's the easyJet of anti-smoking advertising."

The strategy also received awards for best TV, best poster ad and best =
press ad.

The adverts, which are part of the Department of Health's overall =
communications strategy, have been reported to be responsible for 32% of =
recent smoking cessation attempts, compared to 21% prompted by GPs. =
According to research by the Tobacco Education Campaign Tracking study =
for February 2004, the ads are responsible for an additional 1 million =
smokers ditching the habit, quadrupling the effectiveness of the =
government's anti-smoking campaign.

Source: Campaign Magazine, December 2004
Article link: =
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1342255,00.html?gusrc=3Drs=
s=20


Italians fired up over smoking ban

Restaurant and bar owners in Italy are fuming over the new law which =
requires them to report people who flout the no-smoking rule.
=20
"We are being asked to become informers, but we don't want to give up =
our relation with customers," lamented Edi Sommariva, the director =
general of the Italian federation that groups bars, restaurants and =
other public places.=20

If the law isn't changed, he said on Monday, the association will go to =
court.
=20
The new legislation goes into force Jan. 10. It was originally expected =
to take effect at the end of this month, but officials agreed to =
postpone enforcement to allow smokers a few last puffs on New Year's.=20

"We will not allow any more delays," Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia =
said over the weekend. "Those who want to smoke can do so in the streets =
or in their homes, not around those who do not tolerate it."

Failure to adhere to the law could result in fines up to =A31,700.

Presently about 26.2 per cent of the population aged 15 or older smokes, =
according to Health Ministry figures.

Source: The Times, Daily Express, International Herald and Tribune, 21 =
December 2004
Article link: http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/12/20/news/rome.html=20

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