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Canberra Today 15°/17° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Moore / Big Tobacco’s galling grab for kids’ data

FIONA Nash, Assistant Federal Health Minister, reacted strongly on learning a tobacco company trying to use freedom-of-information laws to access taxpayer-funded research on children’s attitudes to cigarettes.

“If tobacco companies are obtaining research on young people through state FOI to increase their sales to children, then I am appalled,” the NSW senator said.

Michael Moore.
Michael Moore.
The tactics have been exposed. The FOI is for the data behind the survey. Its results are public.

When British American Tobacco decided to launch an FOI into the Australian Secondary Students Alcohol and Drug (ASSAD) survey it put the lie to one of Big Tobacco’s claims that it is only interested in selling its lethal product to adults.

Tobacco might be legal. However, the work of a team led by ANU academic Prof Emily Banks examining a cohort of more than 200,000 Australians illustrated that when tobacco is used as directed by the manufacturers, on average, it shortens lives by 10 years. This is a toxic, lethal substance.

When lashing out at British American Tobacco, Senator Nash revealed that it doesn’t matter which party is in power – efforts will be made to further and further marginalise smoking.

“Smoking causes great harm to Australians, leads to deaths from cancer, lung and heart disease, and hurts families,” she said.

“The Coalition Government has powered ahead with plain packaging and invested in reducing smoking rates, including a particular focus on indigenous communities”.

The Cancer Council Victoria is responsible for the ASSAD survey, which questions around 25,000 students on a regular basis. The ASSAD survey is run as a collaboration between Cancer Councils and the federal and state Departments of Health. According to them, British American Tobacco is seeking the data behind this survey. It has attempted to obtain the material “on the proviso that it would remain confidential and not be used for commercial purposes”.

The Cancer Council has good reason not to trust any Big Tobacco company. After the number of lies, deceits and trickeries that have been exposed in Big Tobacco’s activities over the years it is hardly surprising that its efforts are being resisted.

However, it’s the way the survey is funded that provides an opening for the company to be able to use the FOI process. The problem is that in 2012 the CEO of the Cancer Council of Victoria, Todd Harper, pointed out that “the survey showed preventative health policies and programs, such as graphic warnings on packaging and an increase in smoke-free areas, had made a significant impact”.

The director general of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, has provided a warning. Earlier this year she said: “The tobacco industry would be delighted to see a drop in the drive for control, especially regulatory control.

“They invest heavily in making this happen”.

Despite all of its ludicrous attempts to argue the case against plain packaging and other measures to stem the use of tobacco, Big Tobacco knows that many more countries are lining up to follow the lead set by then-Health Minister Nicola Roxon in introducing plain packaging for the first time. Other successful measures introduced in Australia are also in their gunsights.

British American Tobacco spokesman, Mark Connell, claimed that “children are not, and will never be, our audience and we have always made this clear”. The irony! Its demands on the Cancer Council Victoria, however, could never be construed in any other way than an attempt to work out more effective ways to get its product to Australian and other children.

The intention of FOI legislation was to ensure the public interest. The Victorian Health Minister, Jill Hennessy, said: “Let’s not kid ourselves. They’re not after this information for altruistic purposes” and added that she was willing to examine current legislation to see if changes were needed to prevent any future access to the data.

This galling attempt by Big Tobacco is not in the public interest.

Michael Moore was an independent member of the ACT Legislative Assembly (1989 to 2001) and was minister for health. He is the CEO of the Public Health Association of Australia.

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore

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