SURVEILLANCE OF THE TOBACCO INDUSTRY

On a day packed with sessions discussing monitoring and surveillance of: tobacco use, the tobacco epidemic, and policy development Stella Bialous highlighted the importance of tobacco industry surveillance reminding us that the Industry plays a key role in the epidemic and that understanding their tactics is essential to the development of effective tobacco control.

Bialous explained that: “as unique as each of our countries are the strategies of the tobacco industry from country to country are very similar,” with their main goals being growth and profit, protecting market freedoms the industry and the smoker, and promoting a good public image.

During the session participants learned how to utilize the Industries own documents to expose their tactics and how to perform industry surveillance in their countries. Bialous ended by reminding the participants that the biggest challenge is not the surveillance of the industry but how to use the information gathered to achieve your goals.

-Maggie Hawthorne, Institute for Global Tobacco Control