front groups

  • 500,000 against plain packaging? The figures just don’t add up.

    Plain packaging for cigarettes would require cigarettes to be sold in packets of a standard colour and shape with brand names written in a standardised font and pictorial health warnings covering a substantial proportion of the packet. The public consultation on plain packaging in the UK came to a close on the 10th August 2012. A few days later the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association (TMA) publicised that ‘half a million oppose plain packaging .’ There are three significant issues with this figure:

  • Tobacco industry’s influence on tobacco taxes: methods revealed

    There are many case studies documenting how the tobacco industry attempts to influence tobacco tax policies but until now there has been no attempt to collate this information. Together with a colleague at the University of Edinburgh, we have published a systematic review of 36 studies (largely in the US) investigating tobacco industry efforts to influence tax policies between 1985 and 2010.

  • Big Tobacco create retail group as a disguise

    Australian retailers group created to conceal origin of Big Tobacco’s opposition to plain packaging.