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THE GLOBAL POLITICS OF TOBACCO
Globalization of Tobacco Addiction--Burning the Planet

Tobacco corporations are globalizing their operations and markets. With a stagnant, increasingly regulated environment in the U.S. and other industrialized countries, the Marlboro Man and his cohorts are seeking new frontiers in previously pristine, relatively untouched lands. Their search for new consumers of their addictive and deadly product is being facilitated by the process of economic globalization which has opened up previously protected markets in countries where relatively few people smoke.

Parallel to the international expansion of transnational oil, chemical, automobile, forestry and mining corporations, the tobacco industry is in effect exporting its hazards to the so-called Third World and former communist countries of Eastern Europe. In doing so, it is laying the groundwork for a future where tobacco will become one of the world's top public health problems. Tobacco curing in the tropical countries is also contributing to the deforestation of local ecosystems. The reallocation of land formerly dedicated to growing food crops is contributing to world hunger, while local farmers find themselves indebted to and impoverished by the tobacco lords. A settlement in the U.S. that does not take into account these international dimensions of a global industry dominated by U.S.-based corporations, is fundamentally and fatally flawed.

The following essays document how the tobacco corporations are burning the planet.

Tobacco's Impact on the International Community The San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition outlines the impacts of the globalization of the tobacco industry, explaining how the US government, along with international institutions such as the World Trade Organization are promoting this deadly trend. Tobacco's Impact on the International Community in Spanish

The Economic Impacts of the Global Tobacco Industry Rather than contributing to economic dynamism, tobacco is a net loser, both for the U.S. economy and for the rest of the world. Conservative estimates place this loss at $200 billion a year. The big winners, of course, are a handful of tobacco corporations. The Economic Impacts of the Global Tobacco Industry in Spanish

Tobacco and the Environment Little known are tobacco's environmental impacts, which include deforestation, pesticide use, soil erosion, fires, litter and other pollution. These problems are particularly severe in the low-income nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The use of peasant farmland in these countries is also making a significant contribution to world hunger. The S.F. Tobacco Free Coalition elaborates. Tobacco and the Environment in Spanish

Tobacco, Farmers, and Pesticides: The Other Story  The Pesticide Action Network (North America), with support from the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition, produced a briefing paper on pesticide use in the tobacco industry.

Addicted to Profit: Big Tobacco's Expanding Global Reach. The report looks at recent moves by the multinational cigarette companies to locate an increasing proportion of their operations overseas. The result, the report argues, is increasing mortality and morbidity rates overseas and the evisceration of local tobacco control efforts.

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For more information contact the San Francisco Tobacco Free Project,
30 Van Ness Avenue, #2300, San Francisco, California, 94102, USA.
Telephone: 415-581-2448 Fax: 415-581-2492
Email: Mele Lau
Email: Susana Hennessey Lavery