33 countries' resilience to the tobacco industry in new index

The five countries best at preventing the tobacco industry from interfering in public health policy are the United Kingdom, followed by Uganda, Iran, Kenya, and Brazil.

At the other end are Japan, Jordan, Bangladesh, Lebanon, and Indonesia. The United States is eighth worst.

Sweden is not among the countries surveyed.

–In Japan, the biggest problem is that the government owns about a third of the tobacco company Japan Tobacco, which manufactures and sells brands such as Winston and Camel. The Japanese government therefore has a direct interest in the tobacco company doing well, says Mary Assunta, who wrote the report , to the news site NPR.

“Tobacco advertising is allowed in Japan, and there are no pictorial warnings required on the packaging. The government even subsidizes restaurants to build smoking rooms in buildings,” she says.

In some countries, there are problems with employees leaving government jobs to work for tobacco companies, according to Mary Assunta. Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, for example, have this problem.

Code of Conduct for Employees

According to the report, the tobacco industry is more likely to approach employees who work in business and economics, while those who work in health issues are less vulnerable.

To prevent employees from being influenced in their decisions, countries can regulate how contacts with the tobacco industry must be reported. For example, the Philippines has had a code of conduct for government employees since 2010. It prohibits interaction with the tobacco industry unless it is absolutely necessary. In cases where contact is necessary, reports and minutes of meetings are required. According to the code of conduct, unnecessary contacts, gifts, donations or other preferential treatment of the tobacco industry are prohibited. It is also prohibited for officials to have financial interests in the tobacco industry themselves, or to have a conflict of interest in other ways.

But it is equally important to limit contacts between the tobacco industry and politicians. Among the countries where politicians are allowed to accept donations, only Kenya and the United States require these to be openly reported.

"There are few countries where donations need to be disclosed. I think it's logical that any company that makes political contributions will one day ask the recipients to return the favor," Mary Assunta tells NPR.

More work required

The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index is based on available public information in each country for the period January 2017–December 2018.

According to the report, government efforts to tackle the tobacco industry's influence are far from satisfactory and major improvements are needed in all countries.

The report's main findings:

• Transparency matters – countries are better able to resist the tobacco industry when they are open about their meetings with tobacco companies. In some countries, including Brazil, Canada, France and Iran, tobacco companies are prohibited from making contributions to politicians, and in the countries surveyed where it is allowed, transparency about political contributions is required only in Kenya and the United States.
• Senior executives were intensively courted. Tobacco companies particularly targeted senior officials in the ministries of finance and trade.
• E-cigarettes pose a new threat. There is growing evidence that the industry is using harm reduction claims about e-cigarettes to facilitate the introduction of new products.
• Tax breaks benefit the industry. Only Sri Lanka prohibits duty-free sales of cigarettes.
• Any country can succeed. The UK, Uganda and Iran are economically, politically and culturally diverse and the most successful in resisting the influence of industry.