Tobacco companies use corporate social responsibility for political purposes
Katharine Barker, University of Bath, UK, August 25th.
The author describes how:
This appears to be some form of criticism of the tobacco industry, but this form of 'lobbying' is normal practice in many industries, especially the pharmaceutical industry, who are the world leaders in this field. It is hardly 'innovative' - indeed it is the standard modus operandi of the pharma industry. The piece ends with:
This commentary is hilarious considering the way the pharmaceutical industry has perverted the course of legislation and practice in the health industry by manipulation, astroturfing and pressure carried out by the fake public health groups it runs. In fact many would say the entire climate of the health industry has been utterly corrupted by this practice. As regards the practice being 'innovative', this is clearly an outright lie if made by those aware that this is a core feature of the pharma industry operation.
And what's the betting that the report is authored by people connected in some way with pharma funding? In which case this is yet another example of the poison these people put out. How about The Giant Hypocrisy Award for 2011?
Hardly anyone has any sympathy for Big Tobacco these days but when they are attacked by the world's biggest political poisoners, it's hard not to feel sympathetic.
So let's look at the USA national score for last year in our own area: the pharma vs consumer harm reduction quit-cigs contest -
NRTs
Chantix: 60,000+ heart attacks, dozens of suicides, and the odd murder or two. Successful smoking quitters: under 10% - although that's probably optimistic.
Other NRTs: a magnificent success rate of somewhere between 2% to 7%. But at least they probably didn't kill anyone.
Total success numbers for all NRT types in 2011: a few thousand maybe (way under 10% of attempters, whatever way you look at it).
Consumer harm reduction
Snus and e-cigarettes: 2 million+ off smoking, and no deaths reported.
Some contest. So keep up the astroturfing and lies, pharma, it's the only thing you're any good at.
Katharine Barker, University of Bath, UK, August 25th.
The author describes how:
"Corporations may use corporate social responsibility programmes not only to improve their public image, but also to gain access to politicians, influence agendas, and shape public health policy to best suit their own interests.
In a research article led by Gary Fooks from the University of Bath's tobacco Control Research Group in the UK and published in this week's PLoS Medicine, these programmes are revealed as "an innovative form of corporate political activity".
This appears to be some form of criticism of the tobacco industry, but this form of 'lobbying' is normal practice in many industries, especially the pharmaceutical industry, who are the world leaders in this field. It is hardly 'innovative' - indeed it is the standard modus operandi of the pharma industry. The piece ends with:
The authors say: "our case study underlines the value of understanding BAT's [corporate social responsibility programme] as an innovative form of corporate political activity. This approach to conceptualising [corporate social responsibility] has potentially important implications for public health given the widely documented impact of tobacco companies' political activity in delaying and blocking health related policies."
They continue: "More generally, it is likely to be relevant to understanding the impact of [corporate social responsibility] in other industrial sectors, such as alcohol and food, where corporate social responsibility also seems to have been used to shape government policy."
The authors add: "we suggest that our findingsand the absence of strong evidence suggesting that co-regulation is capable of aligning the business models of big food and drinks companies with the demands of public healthsuggest that the role of corporate social responsibility in the [UK Government's Public Health Responsibility] Deal needs to be subjected to closer scrutiny."
This commentary is hilarious considering the way the pharmaceutical industry has perverted the course of legislation and practice in the health industry by manipulation, astroturfing and pressure carried out by the fake public health groups it runs. In fact many would say the entire climate of the health industry has been utterly corrupted by this practice. As regards the practice being 'innovative', this is clearly an outright lie if made by those aware that this is a core feature of the pharma industry operation.
And what's the betting that the report is authored by people connected in some way with pharma funding? In which case this is yet another example of the poison these people put out. How about The Giant Hypocrisy Award for 2011?
Hardly anyone has any sympathy for Big Tobacco these days but when they are attacked by the world's biggest political poisoners, it's hard not to feel sympathetic.
So let's look at the USA national score for last year in our own area: the pharma vs consumer harm reduction quit-cigs contest -
NRTs
Chantix: 60,000+ heart attacks, dozens of suicides, and the odd murder or two. Successful smoking quitters: under 10% - although that's probably optimistic.
Other NRTs: a magnificent success rate of somewhere between 2% to 7%. But at least they probably didn't kill anyone.
Total success numbers for all NRT types in 2011: a few thousand maybe (way under 10% of attempters, whatever way you look at it).
Consumer harm reduction
Snus and e-cigarettes: 2 million+ off smoking, and no deaths reported.
Some contest. So keep up the astroturfing and lies, pharma, it's the only thing you're any good at.