The "Accommodation" strategy, in its broadest definition, is an international campaign to promote the accommodation of smoking in public places such as restaurants and bars. The tobacco industry developed this strategy to preserve the number of environments in which people could smoke, thereby protecting cigarette consumption and the industry's profits. The strategy is used pro-actively to pass weak clean indoor air laws (preemptive state policy or weak local policy) to remove the smoking issue from the agenda, and to change public attitudes toward smokers. The strategy is also used reactively to rescind, prevent, or weaken strict clean indoor air laws. Over the years, it has developed from a localized program involving the restaurant industry to an expansive and international framework from which the tobacco industry's many front groups and operatives can work. This network has grown to include industry-organized and industry-created restaurant or hospitality coalitions, smokers rights groups, ventilation consultants, and beverage associations. Public health advocates can more effectively oppose the tobacco industry by learning to recognize and expose industry front groups and anticipate the arguments they use.
Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to recognize and describe the tobacco industry's "Accommodation" strategy, its expansion into countries outside the United States, and the diverse array of front groups and programs used to promote it.
Keywords: Tobacco Industry, Tobacco Policy
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, the Tobacco Institute, National Smokers Alliance, Honeywell, The Chelsea Group, The International Hotel, Restaurant, and Cafe Association
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.