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The Tobacco Files / What insider documents show about tobacco industry tactics to protect profits at the expense of public health efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean 

According to insider documents released by the tobacco industry since 1998 and reviewed at the request of PAHO, this wasn't the first or the last time that the industry would enlist the help of respected medical and scientific professionals to undermine tobacco control efforts in Latin America and the Caribbean. In one such effort, tobacco companies recruited the dean of the Graduate Program in Health Sciences of the Catholic University of Argentina, a friend of then Argentine President Carlos Menem, to lobby against legislation that would ban advertising and restrict smoking in public or enclosed areas.

In addition, according to insider documents, tobacco companies:

a.. Secretly hired medical and scientific researchers throughout the region to misrepresent the science linking secondhand smoke to disease in nonsmokers;

b.. Courted the media with expenses-paid junkets and cosponsored proindustry conferences with journalists' associations;

c.. Designed "youth smoking prevention" campaigns primarily as public relations tools while simultaneously targeting young smokers in their marketing strategies;

d.. Actively participated in smuggling networks to increase market shares and sales volumes, while publicly opposing illegal cigarette sales.

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