 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Elisa Tong, MD, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, UC San Francisco, 530 Parnassus, Suite 366, San Francisco, CA 94143, 415-476-3893, ongelisa@medicine.ucsf.edu and Stanton A Glantz, PhD, University of California, San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, 530 Parnassus Ave., Suite 366, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390.
The multinational tobacco companies have a history of collaborating against sensitive issues, such as scientific research on secondhand smoke. Documents resulting from lawsuits against the tobacco industry now demonstrate that this collaboration extends into Asia. Multinational tobacco companies entered the Asia market in the 1980s. Led by Philip Morris in the 1990s, these multinational companies developed a scientific industry network in Asia. ARTIST (Asian Region Tobacco Industry Science Team) is an organization of scientific representatives from different tobacco companies, including those originating within Asian countries. These new partners include Japan Tobacco Inc., ITC Ltd. (India), Korean Ginseng and Tobacco Research Institute, PTHM Sampoerna (Indonesia), Thailand Tobacco Monopoly, and China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Association. The charter states that ARTIST’s purpose is to inform members and discuss scientific developments relevant to the Asia-Pacific region, and promote “accommodation” of smokers with ventilation technologies. With this collaboration, tobacco control efforts in Asia will face new challenges as the multinational tobacco industry’s scientific agenda is promoted and assimilated to Asian tobacco companies.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Tobacco Industry, International
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.