Pressure mounts on tobacco firms over health concerns 

Pressure is mounting on big tobacco firms to address health and environmental issues caused by tobacco use.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) at the ongoing World Health Organisation (WHO) biennial tobacco control summit in Panamá City piled pressure on delegates to make tobacco firms pay for the ills.

Led by the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnational (NATT) and government champions, the CSOs urged the 10th Conference of the Parties (COP10) to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to accept a draft decision strengthening nations’ ability to hold the industry liable.

The proposal is being championed by Oman, Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and co-sponsored by Brazil, Djibouti, Ghana, Iraq, Kuwait, Panama, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen.

“Abusive corporations from Big Tobacco to Big Oil are selling a deadly product and saddling society with all the costs that come with it. It is not right and it is past time for us to end this corporate stranglehold on society,” said Akinbode Oluwafemi, the Executive Director of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA).

According to him, for decades, the tobacco industry has caused millions of deaths and cases of preventable disease, polluted the environment and violated human rights.

The Guardian checks revealed that smoking is responsible for approximately 29,000 deaths in Nigeria yearly. In 2019, the total economic burden attributable to tobacco was estimated at ₦634 billion.

CAPPA noted that cigarette smoking is estimated to cost the country N526.45 billion yearly in direct treatment, while yearly tobacco-related global healthcare costs are estimated at $422 billion, while economic costs are put more broadly at $1.85 trillion.

Holding the industry liable could help governments recoup billions in such costs, Oluwafemi said.

He added: “When an individual violates someone’s health or safety, we as a society are supposed to hold them accountable. The same is true of tobacco corporations, which have inflicted enormous harm around the world. We must hold them responsible for their actions – not only to redress past harms, but also to prevent them from continuing their abusive behaviour unchecked,” said Daniel Dorado, Tobacco Campaign Director of Corporate Accountability, a NATT member.

NATT and its allies presented COP10 delegates with a petition to make Big Tobacco pay for its harms, which was endorsed by more than 85 legal experts and garnered more than 30,000 signatures – representing people in 95 countries and territories and all six WHO regions.

Five member states proposed a measure that would strengthen Article 19 of the FCTC, a groundbreaking but underutilised provision that enables parties to pursue liability.