Jump to full article: Medical News TODAY(UK), 2006-02-25
Intro: A paper in the British Medical Journal reveals for the first time how British American Tobacco actively undermined and eventually overturned groundbreaking legislation that would have served to protect the health of the Uzbek population.
In 1994, Uzbekistan's tobacco industry was privatised and BAT established a production monopoly in a joint venture with the Uzbek government, led by the President Islam Karimov. Having observed just one electronic billboard in the country during a visit in July 1993, BAT noted in a marketing report that Uzbekistan was ‘unique in the world in terms of its singularly unexploited advertising and promotional environment', with advertising costs that were ‘cheap enough to allow multinationals almost unrestricted market spend'. The company aimed to exploit this environment, projecting a 45% increase in annual cigarette consumption between 1993 and 1999.
This would clearly require freedom to advertise and when BAT learned that the Uzbekistan's Chief Sanitary Doctor had issued ‘Health Decree 30', a potentially highly effective piece of tobacco control legislation that was unprecedented in the region, it responded immediately. . . .
BAT fought to have the degree withdrawn or amended. When the chief sanitary doctor refused to concede to BAT's demands, the matter went straight to President Karimov and BAT ultimately achieved their desired amendments. The intended total ban on advertising was replaced with a voluntary code. . . .
Until now, the only information available on these events was a self-serving report by BAT that failed to mention the existence of the original decree, implying instead that BAT had instigated the development of the new code, and attempting to present the code as an example of ‘the company's responsible attitude to its advertising practices'. Today's paper reveals the real story of the code's development, based on detailed analysis of BAT corporate documents . . .
The findings were corroborated by individuals who cannot be named for their own safety as those who have been involved in tobacco control in Uzbekistan have been subject to harassment and torture. . . .
cco advertising in Uzbekistan became ubiquitous from the mid-1990s. Reports from this highly secretive state suggest that tobacco consumption has increased by between 7% and 8% each year, primarily among young people, and cigarette sales rose by 50.5% between 1990 and 1996. By 1999, BAT had achieved a market share of over 70%.
Dr Anna Gilmore of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the report's leading author, comments: ‘Between 1992 and 2000 BAT's investment accounted for over a third of total foreign direct investment into Uzbekistan. The Chief Sanitary Doctor was powerless next to BAT. There can also be little doubt that BAT's behaviour has condemned the Uzbek population to suffer far higher rates of tobacco related diseases than would otherwise have occurred.' . . .
: ‘In the light of these and other, similar revelations, the International Monetary Fund needs to reconsider its support for tobacco industry privatisation which is clearly fraught with danger for the population's health.
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