The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #60618

Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD¹, Elizabeth A. Smith, PhD¹, Nathaniel Wander, PhD², Naphtali Offen, BS¹, and Valerie B. Yerger, MA, ND². (1) Dept. of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, University of California, San Francisco, Box 1390, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390, 415-476-3273, rmalone@itsa.ucsf.edu, (2) Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, University of California, San Francisco, Box 1390, San Francisco, CA 94143-1390

While public health advocates know that the tobacco industry is not their friend, they may not understand how comprehensive and coordinated it can be in thwarting their efforts. This session presents a linked set of papers that offer “snapshots” of covert tobacco industry activities related to intelligence gathering and counter-advocacy, based on analyses of previously-secret internal tobacco industry documents. The objectives of the session are to describe and illustrate typical patterns of industry activity and to provide specific examples of ways to use industry documents to promote tobacco control. Paper titles (in order of presentation): Tobacco Industry Intelligence Organizations; Industry-Sponsored Smoker’s Rights Organizations: Building a Grassroots Movement From the Top Down; Minding the Stock: How the Tobacco Industry Defends Itself Against Divestment; How the Industry Can Benefit From Tobacco Boycotts; and Putting the Industry’s Words to Work: Strategies for Using Tobacco Industry Documents for Tobacco Control Advocacy. The focus of the session will be on providing advocates with specific information to help them anticipate, recognize and counter the tobacco industry’s hidden, patterned, and carefully coordinated efforts (14 minutes each, 20 minutes for questions/discussion). Moderator: Ruth Malone; Discussant: Anne Landman. Funding: National Cancer Institute (CA90789 and CA87472), California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (11RT-0139 and 11BT-1701).

Learning Objectives:

• Learning Objectives: After this session, participants will:
• 1) Recognize and describe patterns of tobacco industry activities aimed at obstructing public health efforts;
• 2) Discuss how public health advocates can anticipate, recognize and thwart industry counter-advocacy;
• 3) Describe ways in which tobacco industry documents may be effectively incorporated into advocacy and other tobacco control activities.

Keywords: Advocacy, Tobacco Industry

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.