Our collaborative series on the international tobacco industry is informed by two key statistics: tobacco is the world’s leading cause of preventable death, and more than 80% of the world’s tobacco is now consumed in low and middle income countries.
In this project, the work of The Examination and our partners covers how the world’s largest tobacco companies are exploiting weak regulations and institutions in Latin America, the Middle East and China to influence health policy and sell addictive products that are banned or restricted in the U.S. and Europe.
To do this, The Examination forged reporting partnerships with news organizations in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Stories from this collaboration were published in Spanish, Chinese, English and Arabic.
In each of these articles, The Examination and our collaborators focused on the particular actions of companies that had major impacts on public health. The work uncovered an array of strategies that highlight the resilience and creativity of China National Tobacco Corp., Philip Morris International and British American Tobacco in their efforts to grow cigarette and new nicotine product sales in emerging markets, despite well-known effects on public health.
In Latin America, this took the form of rolling out dozens of varieties of conventional cigarettes in fruit and candy flavors that are attractive to teens – belying the companies’ promises to transition their businesses from selling traditional cigarettes to e-cigarettes and other nicotine products.
In China, we investigated how the discredited strategy of marketing “low tar” cigarettes was adopted from the U.S., and how it has become central to the success of the state tobacco company. We also showed how China Tobacco markets cigarettes infused with traditional medicinal herbs – including herbs often used to treat lung ailments – in an effort to create a health halo around their products.
And in Egypt, our reporting showed how Philip Morris International and a politically-connected business partner were able to end a decades-old government monopoly on the cigarette-trade through a series of opaque transactions, seizing the upper hand in the world’s sixth-largest market. Our work also highlighted the role of the International Monetary Fund in advocating for privatization of Egypt’s tobacco monopoly, despite research showing such privatizations lead to higher rates of smoking.
To accomplish these stories, The Examination and its partners filled at least 20 Freedom of Information Act requests in eight different Latin American countries, combed through obscure Chinese government procurement databases and patent registries, and obtained corporate records from government offices across the Middle East and Europe. Our reporting team also patiently cultivated sources, from teen smokers in Santiago to public health advocates in Hong Kong and Cairo.
