🔗 Share this article

The tobacco company stands accused of “utter hypocrisy” for campaigning against anti-smoking regulations in Africa which are already enforced in the UK.

Campaign in Zambia

Correspondence acquired by reporters originating from the firm's affiliate in Zambia to the country’s government ministers asks for plans to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship to be scrapped or postponed.

The tobacco firm seeks modifications of a draft bill that include lowering the proposed size of visual health alerts on cigarette packaging, the removal of restrictions on scented cigarette varieties, and reduced sanctions for any firms breaking the new laws.

Activist commentary

“Were I in government, I would say that they enable the defense of the British people and sustain the fatalities of the Zambian people,” stated the anti-tobacco campaigner.

More than 7,000 Zambians a year succumb to cigarette-linked health conditions, according to WHO calculations.

The advocate mentioned the letter was understood to have been copied to various ministerial offices and was in circulating through civil society groups.

Worldwide lobbying patterns

It comes amid broader worries about corporate intervention with medical guidelines. In recent weeks, WHO officials raised concerns that the smoking product companies was intensifying efforts to weaken global control measures.

“There is proof of industry lobbying everywhere. Tobacco company fingerprints are on postponed duty hikes in Indonesia, halted laws in Zambia and even a weakened declaration at the UN high-level meeting,” said the tobacco industry watchdog.

Potential consequences

“Should anti-smoking legislation doesn't get enacted because of this letter, the consequences may be suffered in lives of people who might potentially stop smoking.”

The tobacco control bill going through Zambia’s parliament includes regulations surpassing UK legislation by including provisions for e-cigarettes, and mandating that visual health alerts cover seventy-five percent of product packaging.

Corporate counter-proposals

Through correspondence, the company recommends this be decreased to less than half “within the WHO-FCTC suggested parameters”, deferred for no less than one year after the law is enacted.

Global health authorities actually suggests a caution must occupy at least fifty percent of the cigarette package face “and seek to occupy as much of the main visible surfaces as possible”. Across the United Kingdom, warnings need to encompass 65% of a packet’s front and back.

Scented product controversy

BAT asks for the removal of broad restrictions on scented smoking items, suggesting that it would lead smokers to “black market” products. It suggests restricting fewer varieties of “tastes inspired by desserts, candy, energy drinks, soft drinks and alcohol drinks”. Every scented tobacco product have been banned in the UK since 2020.

The proposed legislation proposes sanctions for various offences “ranging from a fraction of annual sales to ten-year jail sentences”.

Company justification

In the letter, the managing director of the African subsidiary says the corporation is focused on ethical business practices” and “endorses the aims of governments to reduce smoking incidence and the related medical consequences” but maintains that “certain measures can have negative and unanticipated results.”

Campaigner rebuttal

The campaigner argued the corporation's recommended amendments would “weaken this legislation so much that the necessary effect for it to cause long-term change in society will not be achieved”.

The reality that many such provisions operated within the UK, where the company maintains its main office, was “utter hypocrisy itself”, he said.

“We live in a international community. If I plant tobacco in my garden and gather the crop and sell it out – and my family members avoid tobacco, but my neighbour’s children do … to enrich myself and all the generations of my children while my neighbor's family are perishing … is in itself total emotional failure.”

Anti-smoking regulations in the Britain or other nations had not caused companies to close, the campaigner stated. “Laws don't eliminate the industry. It only protects the people.”

Standard business position

A BAT Zambia spokesperson said: “The corporation runs its operations according with applicable local laws. Further, the company participates in the nation's lawmaking procedures in line with the appropriate structures which allow for interested party involvement in legislation creation.”

The corporation remained “not resisting legislation”, they said, mentioning that young individuals should be protected from obtaining cigarettes and nicotine.

“We champion progressive regulation to achieve intended community wellbeing objectives, while acknowledging the spectrum of rights and obligations on corporations, customers and associated groups,” the spokesperson stated, noting that the company's suggestions “represent the situation of the African nation's economy and tobacco industry, which involves increasing amounts of illegal commerce”.

Zambia’s department of business, commercial affairs and industrial development was contacted for response.