RESOURCES FOR THE FAMILY DOCTOR

"Trust Us,  We're The Tobacco Industry"

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Action On Smoking and Health (ASH) – UK  in London compiled the report, "Trust Us We're The Tobacco Industry". The report contains the tobacco industry's own words, culled from once secret internal documents, to expose the continuing deceit of their industry.

The report contains over 250 quotes from internal tobacco industry documents on topics from addiction and advertising, to women and youth smoking, and indexes the dozens of countries mentioned in the documents. The evidence contained in the report makes a certain case that the tobacco industry has not changed.

While they claim they have reformed and are now "responsible," their own documents tell a different story. As the report points out in its introduction, "lately the tobacco industry has engaged in an expensive public relations offensive designed to portray itself as a reformed industry.

Because it has reformed, the industry implies, it should not be judged by its past actions." However the tobacco companies have not changed. Using the industry's own words, this report exposes "denial, deceit, and obfuscation as the major tools of the tobacco trade."

An important step in holding the tobacco industry accountable occurred on May 22, 2001 when the World Health Assembly (the governing body of the World Health Organization) passed a resolution mandating WHO to report on tobacco industry efforts to undermine health legislation around the world.  The report, “Trust Us We're the Tobacco Industry”, contributes to this effort by highlighting, in the companies' own words, industry efforts to subvert public health.
A full copy of the report is available on the internet in an html version, with links to the original documents for most of the 278 quotes: www.ash.org.uk/html/conduct/html
/trustus.html
Or in pdf format at:  http://tobaccofreekids.org/campaign
/global/framework/docs/TrustUs.pdf