The Tobacco Industry and Health

•To describe the effects on health of smoking cigarettes•To describe the current patterns of cigarette consumption

•To explain how and why these patterns are changes•To outline how Tobacco TNC’s are looking to expand

markets and profits by targeting LEDC’s.

How many cigarettes are smoked each year?

5.5 trillion

5,500,000,000,000

There are believed to be

1.1 billion smokers in the

world, 800 million of them in developing

countries.

What’s in that cigarette?

Cigarette smoke contains about 4,000 chemical agents, including over 60 carcinogens including substances, such as carbon monoxide, tar, arsenic, cyanide, benzene, formaldehyde,

methanol, acetylene, ammonia, lead.

Effects of smoking on human health

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/medical_notes/473673.stm Use this website to annotate the body to show the effects of smoking

Effects of smoking on your health• Smoking is a greater cause of death and disability than any

single disease, says the World Health Organisation. • According to their figures, it is responsible for approximately

five million deaths worldwide every year. • Tobacco smoking is a known or probable cause of approximately

25 diseases, and even the WHO says that its impact on world health is not fully assessed.

• 5X more likely to have a heart attack• Increased risk of stoke• Men are 22X likely to get lung cancer• Smoking also increases the risk of oral, uterine, liver, kidney,

bladder, stomach, and cervical cancers, and leukaemia. • Another health problem associated with tobacco is emphysema,

which, when combined with chronic bronchitis, produces chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

• Smoking in pregnancy greatly increases the risk of miscarriage, is associated with lower birthweight babies, and inhibited child development.

• Smoking by parents following the birth is linked to sudden infant death syndrome, or cot death, and higher rates of infant respiratory illness, such as bronchitis, colds, and pneumonia.

Healthy Lung vs. Smokers Lung

Who imposed the world’s 1st smoking ban?

• The Nazi party banned smoking in it’s offices, hospitals, universities and post offices and broadcast anti smoking campaigns until 1945.

Smoking Bans in MEDC’s- an example of public health policy

South Africa 1993

California and New York 1998

Japan 2002

Sweden 2005

EU wide ban on Advertising 2005

Spain 2006

Denmark, UK 2007

France, Netherlands, India, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria 2008

Hungary 2009

In most countries a ban on smoking in public places has led to smokers reducing consumption by 15% and increasing their chances of giving up by 84%.

Bar graph showing annual tobacco consumption in grams

As a result of smoking and advertising bans markets in MEDC’s have declined and tobacco

TNC’s have started to look to LEDC’s and emerging economies (eg. China) to guarantee new smoking addicts and guaranteed profits.

• What do you think of this?• Are tobacco TNC’s: drug dealers/ providing consumer choice/ causing

manslaughter/?• Is it ethical to exploit LEDC’s or is it just the way

business works?

Map showing the proportion of men who smoke in each country

Source:worldmapper.org

World map showing location and % of males who smoke.

Source: WHO 2008

Tobacco TNC’s

Case Study BAT (British American Tobacco)

• Main brands: Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Vogue, Rothmans, Peter Stuyvesant, Benson & Hedges.

• Annual revenue: £33,921 million (2008)• Cigarette factories in 44 countries

BBC2 “This World” documentary 2008:“ Bannatyne takes on Big Tobacco”

Duncan Bannatyne

• “Using Case Study information outline two ways in which tobacco TNC’s are impacting on the lives of people in the developing world”

(8marks)

L1 (1-4) simple description of effects

L2 (5-8) more detailed description with specific case student detail of countries and a TNC

Websites for further reading:http://www.globalissues.org/article/533/tobaccohttp://www.ash.org.uk/ ASH is an anti smoking pressure groupwww.forestonline.org/A pro smoking pressure groupwww.bat.com British American Tobaccohttp://www.who.int/tobacco/resources/publications/tobacco_atlas/en/index.htmlWorld Health Organisation tobacco atlas a very in

depth look at global patterns and the tobacco industry.