- DATE: Thursday, 26 August 2021
- TIME: 11:00am EDT [click here for your corresponding time zone]
- DURATION: 120 minutes
While the COVID-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to the health sector, the tobacco industry (TI) has continued to implement strategies to undermine ongoing efforts to prevent the use of its products, by interfering in tobacco control policy implementation, targeting youth in advertising, promotion and sponsorship actions and influencing the scientific debate, among other things.
The TI has taken the COVID-19 pandemic as a new opportunity to interfere with science and to use the media for the promotion of its products. In the past, the tobacco industry instilled doubts on the causal association between tobacco consumption and cancer, by presenting "low-risk products", such as the introduction of filters for cigarettes, among other “scientific lies”. Most recently, the TI has managed to significantly promote its novel and emerging products, such as heated tobacco products (HTPs), along with electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and electronic non-nicotine delivery systems (ENNDS). These products have been advertised during the pandemic, and the industry has eluded the higher risk that their use presents for poor outcomes in patients suffering from COVID-19.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that HTPs “produce aerosols containing nicotine and toxic chemicals when tobacco is heated or when a device containing tobacco is activated. They contain the highly addictive substance nicotine as well as non-tobacco additives, and are often flavoured”, which makes them appealing for new and young users.
In addition, WHO defines ENDS and ENNDS as a diverse group of devices that “heat a solution (e-liquid) to create an aerosol which frequently contains flavourants, usually dissolved into Propylene Glycol or/and Glycerin”, which disrupt normal lung function.
The evidence reveals that tobacco companies have carefully designed marketing campaigns via the use of social media, that unfortunately recruit new users and discourage quitting through the promotion of conventional, novel and emerging products.
Generating doubts and attracting new consumers, mainly youth and women, and roping in a new generation into nicotine addiction, requires cutting edge marketing promotion just as much as blocking the approval of advertising, promotion, and sponsorship bans. The TI has found a way to use legislation gaps in its favor and openly position itself onto Internet platforms and social media.
As if this was not enough, the tobacco industry has also taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to improve its image through donations, claiming it is contributing to the response of this current global situation. During this session we will have the opportunity to learn through country experiences on how the TI interferes in tobacco control policy implementation and promotes its so-called corporate social responsibility actions in the context of COVID-19, as well as how Member States have addressed those issues.
About Session 1
Objectives of the Session:
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Provide an overview of the different types of novel and emerging nicotine and tobacco products currently being commercialized globally and in the Region.
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Raise awareness about TI marketing tactics on social media to promote novel and emerging nicotine and tobacco products, targeting the youth and undermining ongoing efforts to prevent the use of these products to curb the tobacco epidemic.
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Share country experiences regarding the regulation of novel and emerging products in line with policy options approved by FCTC Parties.
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Raise awareness about the efforts of the tobacco industry to enhance its reputation by offering donations related to the COVID-19 response.
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Share country experiences in countering opposing arguments to banning tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship that will eliminate the TI's capacity to promote tobacco and novel and emergent products as well as its corporate social responsibility actions.
Agenda
Click here for a bibliography of resources for Session 1