 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD, 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
International intelligence gathering operations for the tobacco industry have been coordinated through three successive organizations and an increasingly sophisticated communications network. The International Committee on Smoking Issues (ICOSI), first established as an international non-profit in 1978 under Swiss law, was founded by seven major tobacco companies to counter the increasingly effective political and communications efforts of tobacco control advocates. In 1981, the organization renamed itself the International Tobacco Information Centre (INFOTAB), coordinating communications with industry groups in 28 countries. In 1992, INFOTAB became the Tobacco Documentation Centre. For decades, these operations have gathered information about industry opponents, including detailed reports about individual activists and tobacco control groups worldwide. Drawing on case analyses of internal tobacco industry documents, we will share key resource documents that help advocates see how the industry views particular issues, groups and individuals and provide information about INFOTAB’s Global Argumentation Project which, beginning in 1990, sought to counter advocacy efforts worldwide. Funding: California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (11RT-0139), National Cancer Institute (CA90789).
Learning Objectives:
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.