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Background: Although China ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [FCTC] in 2005, the partial ban on tobacco advertising does not cover the internet. Weibo is one of the most important social media channels in China, using a format similar to its global counterpart, Twitter. The Weibo homepage is a platform to present products, brands and corporate culture. There is great potential for the tobacco industry to exploit Weibo to promote products., Methods: Seven tobacco industry Weibo accounts that each had more than 5000 fans were selected to examine the content of Weibos established by tobacco companies or their advertising agents., Results: Of the 12073 posts found on the seven accounts, 92.3% (11143) could be classified into six main themes: traditional culture, popular culture, social and business affairs, advertisement, public relations and tobacco culture. Posts under the theme of popular culture accounted for about half of total posts (49%), followed by 'advertisement' and 'tobacco culture' (both at 12%), 'traditional culture' and 'public relations' (both at 11%), and finally 'social and business affairs' (5%). 33% of posts included the words 'cigarette' or 'smoking' and 53% of posts included the tobacco brand name, indicating that tobacco companies carefully construct the topic and content of posts., Conclusions: Weibo is an important new online marketing tool for the Chinese tobacco industry. Tobacco industry use of Weibo to promote brands and normalize smoking subverts China's ratification of the WHO FCTC. Policy to control tobacco promotion needs reforming to address this widespread circumvention of China's tobacco advertising ban.

The tobacco industry is not obligated to disclose ingredients and additives used in manufactured tobacco production. This paper describes global reaction to a press release highlighting evidence that porcine haemoglobin ("pig's blood") was sometimes used in cigarette manufacturing while never being disclosed to smokers. The case study illustrates the power of press releases to ignite major interest in tobacco control issues.

Objective: Effective tobacco control policies include price increases through taxes, restrictions on smoking in public and work places, adequately funded mass media campaigns, bans on advertising, health warnings on packages and cessation assistance. As these policies have been largely implemented in Australia, what next should the country do in tobacco control?, Methods: Ninety-one Australian tobacco control stakeholders took part in a web-based survey about the future of tobacco control policies., Results: The policy deemed most important in decreasing smoking was to increase excise and customs duty by 30%. Other policies receiving high support included: funding mass media campaigns through tax hypothecation; introducing retail display bans; plain packaging of tobacco products; and banning smoking in outdoor dining areas. Reintroducing the sale of smokeless tobacco products received the least support., Conclusion: Countries that have largely implemented the provisions of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control must maintain commitments to proven tobacco control measures, but also provide global leadership through the adoption of innovative policies., Implications: The release of the Australian 2009 National Preventative Health Taskforce's report presents an opportunity to translate these ideas into action., (© 2010 The Authors. Journal Compilation © 2010 Public Health Association of Australia.)

Background: The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) bans all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. The comprehensiveness of this ban has yet to be tested by online social networking media such as Facebook. In this paper, the activities of employees of the transnational tobacco company, British American Tobacco, (BAT) on Facebook and the type of content associated with two globally popular BAT brands (Dunhill and Lucky Strike) are mapped., Methods: BAT employees on Facebook were identified and then the term 'British American Tobacco' was searched for in the Facebook search engine and results recorded, including titles, descriptions, names and the number of Facebook participants involved for each search result. To further detail any potential promotional activities, a search for two of BAT's global brands, 'Dunhill' and 'Lucky Strike', was conducted., Results: Each of the 3 search terms generated more than 500 items across a variety of Facebook subsections., Discussion: Some BAT employees are energetically promoting BAT and BAT brands on Facebook through joining and administrating groups, joining pages as fans and posting photographs of BAT events, products and promotional items. BAT employees undertaking these actions are from countries that have ratified the WHO FCTC, which requires signatories to ban all forms of tobacco advertising, including online and crossborder exposure from countries that are not enforcing advertising restrictions. The results of the present research could be used to test the comprehensiveness of the advertising ban by requesting that governments mandate the removal of this promotional material from Facebook.

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) has little to say about the regulation of tobacco retailing, with most research and policy debate having been restricted to confining sales to adults and removing advertising displays, including packs. Tobacco retailing is largely unregulated, reflecting the historical regulatory trivialisation of tobacco products, now demonstrably anachronistic with the advent of near global support for the FCTC. This situation contrasts markedly with the regulation of pharmaceuticals, and many other goods and services subject to a wide variety of restrictions. This review proposes that the international tobacco control community should open up debate on retail regulation to examine the suitability of principles long accepted in pharmaceutical regulation. These include: restrictions on the number and location of tobacco retail outlets, the banning of tobacco retail displays, floor (minimum) price controls, restricting the amount of tobacco smokers could purchase over a given time and loss of retail licensure following breaches of any of the conditions of license. It proposes that retail licenses should be heavily restricted and tradable, becoming valuable commercial assets, where the threat of loss or revocation would act as an incentive for strict adherence to the measures proposed.

Background: The international trend towards comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising has seen the tobacco industry become increasingly innovative in its approach to marketing. Further fuelling this innovation is the rapid evolution and accessibility of web-based technology. The internet, as a relatively unregulated marketing environment, provides many opportunities for tobacco companies to pursue their promotional ambitions., Methods: In this paper, "open source marketing" is considered as a vehicle that has been appropriated by the tobacco industry, through a case study of efforts to design the packaging for the Camel Signature Blends range of cigarettes. Four sources are used to explore this case study including a marketing literature search, a web-based content search via the Google search engine, interviews with advertising trade informants and an analysis of the Camel brand website., Results: RJ Reynolds (RJR) has proven to be particularly innovative in designing cigarette packaging. RJR engaged with thousands of consumers through their Camel brand website to design four new cigarette flavours and packages. While the Camel Signature Blends packaging designs were subsequently modified for the retail market due to problems arising with their cartoon-like imagery, important lessons arise on how the internet blurs the line between marketing and market research., Conclusions: Open source marketing has the potential to exploit advertising ban loopholes and stretch legal definitions in order to generate positive word of mouth about tobacco products. There are also lessons in the open source marketing movement for more effective tobacco control measures including interactive social marketing campaigns and requiring plain packaging of tobacco products.

Objectives: We sought to assess the impact of several tobacco control policies and televised antismoking advertising on adult smoking prevalence., Methods: We used a population survey in which smoking prevalence was measured each month from 1995 through 2006. Time-series analysis assessed the effect on smoking prevalence of televised antismoking advertising (with gross audience rating points [GRPs] per month), cigarette costliness, monthly sales of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and bupropion, and smoke-free restaurant laws., Results: Increases in cigarette costliness and exposure to tobacco control media campaigns significantly reduced smoking prevalence. We found a 0.3-percentage-point reduction in smoking prevalence by either exposing the population to televised antismoking ads an average of almost 4 times per month (390 GRPs) or by increasing the costliness of a pack of cigarettes by 0.03% of gross average weekly earnings. Monthly sales of NRT and bupropion, exposure to NRT advertising, and smoke-free restaurant laws had no detectable impact on smoking prevalence., Conclusions: Increases in the real price of cigarettes and tobacco control mass media campaigns broadcast at sufficient exposure levels and at regular intervals are critical for reducing population smoking prevalence.

This article reviews the history of the introduction and use of light and mild labeled cigarettes in Japan, the "lightest" market in the world. Systematic keyword and opportunistic Web site searches were conducted on tobacco industry internal documents relevant to Japan, supplemented with relevant material from the tobacco trade and sociological literatures. Certain "market quirks" of the Japanese society benefited the tobacco industry in promoting its light and mild cigarettes. Japan's is a trend-conscious society with a penchant for new fashion and products. The Japanese are innovative, with the propensity to transform concepts into something characteristically their own marked by a distinct cultural style, such as the concept of keihaku tansho ("light-thin-short-small"). With big-budget sophisticated advertising, tobacco companies developed a lucrative market for mild, light, and ultra-low-tar cigarettes. Smokers had a preference for charcoal filters, which they believed protected them. Tar numbers meant little to smokers. The transnational tobacco companies capitalized on consumer concerns about the health hazards of smoking to promote low-tar cigarettes as a safer alternative. This may be one factor that explains why smoking prevalence in Japan remains high. Light and mild cigarettes are popular in Japan because Japanese smokers believe low tar/nicotine cigarette with charcoal filters protect them and help mollify their health concerns about smoking.

Aims: The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) requires nations that have ratified the convention to ban all tobacco advertising and promotion. In the face of these restrictions, tobacco packaging has become the key promotional vehicle for the tobacco industry to interest smokers and potential smokers in tobacco products. This paper reviews available research into the probable impact of mandatory plain packaging and internal tobacco industry statements about the importance of packs as promotional vehicles. It critiques legal objections raised by the industry about plain packaging violating laws and international trade agreements., Methods: Searches for available evidence were conducted within the internal tobacco industry documents through the online document archives; tobacco industry trade publications; research literature through the Medline and Business Source Premier databases; and grey literature including government documents, research reports and non-governmental organization papers via the Google internet search engine., Results: Plain packaging of all tobacco products would remove a key remaining means for the industry to promote its products to billions of the world's smokers and future smokers. Governments have required large surface areas of tobacco packs to be used exclusively for health warnings without legal impediment or need to compensate tobacco companies., Conclusions: Requiring plain packaging is consistent with the intention to ban all tobacco promotions. There is no impediment in the FCTC to interpreting tobacco advertising and promotion to include tobacco packs.

Background: In nations with histories of declining smoking prevalence and comprehensive tobacco control policies, smoking-positive cultures have been severely eroded. Smoking, smokers and the tobacco industry are today routinely depicted in everyday discourse and media representations in a variety of overwhelmingly negative ways. Several authors have invoked Erving Goffman's notions of stigmatization to describe the process and impact of this radical transformation, which importantly includes motivating smoking cessation. Efforts to describe nations' progress toward comprehensive tobacco control have hitherto taken little account of the role of cultural change to the meaning of smoking and the many ways in which it has become denormalised., Methods: This paper identifies a diversity of generally undocumented yet pervasive markers of the "spoiled identity" of smoking, smokers and the tobacco industry, illustrated with examples from Australia, a nation with advanced tobacco control., Results: We caution about some important negative consequences arising from the stigmatization of smokers., Conclusions: We recommend that schemes rating the comprehensiveness of national tobacco control should be supplemented by documentation of markers of this denormalisation.

We need to be sure any introduction of smokeless tobacco will actually reduce overall harm.

Serious efforts to reduce the harm caused by tobacco use throughout populations require implementation policies and interventions capable of reaching all smokers and potential smokers. While the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control promises to accelerate the adoption of comprehensive tobacco control policies throughout the world, its extensive 'optional' language provides considerable latitude for governments unwilling to implement rigorous controls. This paper examines four broad areas in which important debates and policy advances will be necessary to ensure population-wide impact of tobacco control: harm reduction; demand reduction strategies involving particularly the use of news generation in increasing the coverage of tobacco and health issues; denormalisation of tobacco use, especially among health workers in nations where use remains high; and further efforts to regulate the tobacco industry, particularly in regard to plain packaging, under-the-counter retail sales and the regulation of tobacco products.

Objective: To analyse structural factors revealed by politicians that shaped legislation on tobacco control in New South Wales, 1955-95., Methods: Parliamentary debates and other records were collected. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 17 Members of Parliament (MPs) who were significantly involved, and then analysed for structural elements., Results: Tobacco industry lobbying had a significant but limited influence on policy making, being exerted largely through social interactions with executives and based on concerns about the economic impact on third parties. MPs saw health advocates' chief functions as (1) generating community concern about the issue and support for control measures, and (2) bringing any new information to political attention, providing pro-control arguments and data through the media. Factors that delayed tobacco control policies included: the conservative stance of Premiers and major parties, commitments to unanimous federal action, and rivalry between parties. Factors that facilitated control policies included: reforms that gave the Legislative Council increased power, the use of parliamentary committees, and backbencher and grass roots support., Conclusions: Tobacco control policy and legislation has been the product of political structures that gave power to those MPs in the least powerful positions--minor parties, Members of the Legislative Council (MLCs), backbenchers, women and party rank and file--rather than to major parties and their executives., Implications: Advocates should make the most of their access points to the political process, providing information, arguments and support and demonstrating public opinion in favour of further control.

The right to information is a fundamental consumer value. Following the advent of health warnings, the tobacco industry has repeatedly asserted that smokers are fully informed of the risks they take, while evidence demonstrates widespread superficial levels of awareness and understanding. There remains much that tobacco companies could do to fulfil their responsibilities to inform smokers. We explore issues involved in the meaning of "adequately informed" smoking and discuss some of the key policy and regulatory implications. We use the idea of a smoker licensing scheme-under which it would be illegal to sell to smokers who had not demonstrated an adequate level of awareness-as a device to explore some of these issues. We also explore some of the difficulties that addiction poses for the notion that smokers might ever voluntarily assume the risks of smoking.

Aims: To explore the tobacco industry's interest and intentions driving its nicotine analogue research., Methods: Review of internal tobacco industry documents regarding nicotine analogues released as part of the Master Settlement Agreement between the tobacco industry and US state governments in 1998., Findings: The tobacco industry investigated nicotine analogues extensively. Four principal areas of interest are evident. First, research on tobacco products was directed towards greater understanding of nicotine pharmacology, how to screen for potential analogues and how to separate the central and peripheral effects of nicotine. Secondly, interest lay in the potential for analogues to replace nicotine in order to create more 'desirable' products and to circumvent anticipated nicotine regulation. Thirdly, interest lay in potential pharmaceutical applications for analogues such as treatments for neurological disorders. Finally, there was interest in the public relations potential of the therapeutic potential of analogues to reduce the demonization of nicotine, by allowing the industry to point to its beneficial uses., Conclusions: With tobacco product and nicotine regulation being increasingly advocated in tobacco control it is important to understand the industry's interests in the potential role of nicotine analogues. Initial interest included using analogues as a means to circumvent regulation, but evidence suggests these plans were discarded due to fear that this may have instigated regulation of tobacco products. Nicotine analogue research has led to potential therapeutic uses for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and alarmingly for the industry, to a potential vaccine to prevent nicotine addiction., Recommendations: Tobacco manufacturers should be obliged to declare all additives being used in tobacco products. Regulatory bodies should be aware that that there is a distinct possibility that the industry has discovered ways to circumvent future regulation of nicotine through the utilization of nicotine analogues. Any regulatory drafting should broaden the definition of nicotine in order to incorporate analogues into the scope of pharmacologically active substances being regulated.

In the late 1980s, the international tobacco industry assisted in the establishment of the International Society of the Built Environment, which published the journal Indoor and Built Environment. Using evidence from tobacco industry documents, we examine the industry associations of the Society's executive, the journal's editor and board, and the extent to which the journal publishes papers on environmental tobacco smoke that would be deemed favourable by the tobacco industry. The society's executive has been dominated by paid consultants to the tobacco industry: all six members in 1992 and seven of eight members in 2002 had financial associations through industry lawyers. 67% of the editorial board in 1992 and 66% in 2002 had histories of financial associations with the tobacco industry. 61% (40/66) of papers related to environmental tobacco smoke published in Indoor and Built Environment in the study period reached conclusions that could be judged to be industry-positive. Of these, 90% (36/40) had at least one author with a history of association with the tobacco industry. The executive of the International Society of the Built Environment and the editorial board of Indoor and Built Environment are in large part consisted of people with histories of consultancies to the tobacco industry. On the basis of the evidence presented in this paper, there is a serious concern the tobacco industry may have been unduly influential on the content of the journal.

Study Objective: To identify and examine the strategies utilised by multinational tobacco companies to undermine and discredit key anti-tobacco activists and organisations in the Asian region., Method: A series of case studies drawing upon material gathered through systematic reviews of internal tobacco industry documents., Date Sources: Tobacco industry documents made public as part of the settlement of the Minnesota Tobacco Trial and the Master Settlement Agreement., Results: The industry sought to identify, monitor, and isolate key individuals and organisations. The way industry went about fulfilling this mandate in the Asian region is discussed. Industry targetted individuals and agencies along with the region's primary anti-smoking coalition., Conclusions: Attack by multinational tobacco companies is a virtual quid pro quo for any individual or agency seriously challenging industry practices and policies. Understanding their tactics allows anticipatory strategies to be developed to minimise the effectiveness of these attacks.

Objective: To explore tobacco industry accounts of its use of indirect tobacco advertising and trademark diversification (TMD) in Malaysia, a nation with a reputation for having an abundance of such advertising., Methods: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement., Results: 132 documents relevant to the topic were reviewed. TMD efforts were created to advertise cigarettes after advertising restrictions on direct advertising were imposed in 1982. To build public credibility the tobacco companies set up small companies and projected them as entities independent of tobacco. Each brand selected an activity or event such as music, travel, fashion, and sports that best suited its image. RJ Reynolds sponsored music events to advertise its Salem brand while Philip Morris used Marlboro World of Sports since advertising restrictions prevented the use of the Marlboro man in broadcast media. Despite a ban on tobacco advertisements in the mass media, tobacco companies were the top advertisers in the country throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The media's dependence on advertising revenue and support from the ruling elite played a part in delaying efforts to ban indirect advertising., Conclusion: Advertising is crucial for the tobacco industry. When faced with an advertising ban they created ways to circumvent it, such as TMDs.

Objective: To review tobacco company strategies of using youth smoking prevention programmes to counteract the Malaysian government's tobacco control legislation and efforts in conducting research on youth to market to them., Methods: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private internal industry documents. Search terms included Malay, cmtm, jaycees, YAS, and direct marketing; 195 relevant documents were identified for this paper., Results: Industry internal documents reveal that youth anti-smoking programmes were launched to offset the government's tobacco control legislation. The programme was seen as a strategy to lobby key politicians and bureaucrats for support in preventing the passage of legislation. However, the industry continued to conduct research on youth, targeted them in marketing, and considered the teenage market vital for its survival. Promotional activities targeting youth were also carried out such as sports, notably football and motor racing, and entertainment events and cash prizes. Small, affordable packs of cigarettes were crucial to reach new smokers., Conclusion: The tobacco industry in Malaysia engaged in duplicitous conduct in regard to youth. By buying into the youth smoking issue it sought to move higher on the moral playing field and strengthen its relationship with government, while at the same time continuing to market to youth. There is no evidence that industry youth smoking prevention programmes were effective in reducing smoking; however, they were effective in diluting the government's tobacco control legislation.

Objective: To review strategies of transnational tobacco companies (TTCs) at creating a favourable advertising environment for their products in Hungary, with special regard to efforts resulting in the liberalisation of tobacco advertising in 1997., Method: Analysis of internal tobacco industry documents relevant to Hungary available on the World Wide Web. Transcripts of speeches of members of the Parliament during the debate of the 1997 advertising act were also reviewed., Conclusions: The tobacco companies not only entered the Hungarian market by early participation in the privatisation of the former state tobacco monopoly, but also imported theirsophisticated marketing experiences. Evasion and violation of rules in force, creation of new partnerships, establishment and use of front groups, finding effective ways for influencing decision makers were all parts of a well orchestrated industry effort to avoid a strict marketing regulation for tobacco products.

Objective: To describe tobacco industry efforts in Malaysia to thwart government efforts to regulate tobacco promotion and health warnings., Methods: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement and secondary websites; relevant information from news articles and financial reports., Results: Commencing in the 1970s, the industry began to systematically thwart government tobacco control. Guidelines were successfully promoted in the place of legislation for over two decades. Even when the government succeeded in implementing regulations such as health warnings and advertising bans they were compromised and acted effectively to retard further progress for years to come., Conclusion: Counter-measures to delay or thwart government efforts to regulate tobacco were initiated by the industry. Though not unique to Malaysia, the main difference lies in the degree to which strategies were used to successfully counter stringent tobacco control measures between 1970 and 1995.

Objective: To review how tobacco transnational companies conducted their business in the hostile environment of Singapore, attempting to counter some of the government's tobacco control measures; to compare the Malaysian and the Singaporean governments' stance on tobacco control and the direct bearing of this on the way the tobacco companies conduct their business., Methods: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private internal industry documents., Results: The comprehensive prohibition on advertising did not prevent the companies from advertising cigarettes to Singaporeans. Both British American Tobacco and Philip Morris used Malaysian television to advertise into Singapore. To launch a new brand of cigarettes, Alpine, Philip Morris used a non-tobacco product, the Alpine wine cooler. Other creative strategies such as innovative packaging and display units at retailers were explored to overcome the restrictions. Philip Morris experimented with developing a prototype cigarette using aroma and sweetened tipping paper to target the young and health conscious. The industry sought to weaken the strong pack warnings. The industry distributed anti-smoking posters for youth to retailers but privately salivated over their market potential.

Objective: To identify and analyse the themes employed by the Asian based transnational tobacco companies to construct a tobacco culture among Asian young men and women., Methods: Systematic review of relevant tobacco industry documents made public through the Master Settlement Agreement., Results: The industry utilised six vehicles and themes to construct a tobacco culture in Asia: music, entertainment (including nightclubs, discos, and movies), adventure, sport (including motorsports, soccer, and tennis), glamour (beauty and fashion), and independence., Conclusions: The tobacco industry set about constructing a tobacco culture that sought to make smoking desirable, even normal, for young men and women. Understanding the way industry constructed this culture provides insights into ways that culture might now be challenged. Countering the transnational nature of many activities will require coordinated effort at the international, regional, and national levels. Implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) will be a powerful tool in this process. All nations throughout Asia are encouraged to support the FCTC and its broad protocols addressing advertising and sponsorship. Measures are also required to disassociate smoking from progress in sex equality.

The tobacco industry continues to seek corporate "respectability", despite being responsible for the deaths of millions of smokers worldwide every year.

Objective: To illustrate, through internal industry documents, how RJ Reynolds exploited the concerns of the Japanese society about cleanliness to market the concept of cleaner, implicitly healthier cigarettes in Japan., Design: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private internal industry documents., Results: Industry documents show that RJ Reynolds developed marketing plans based upon their cultural assumptions of Japanese people as fastidious about hygiene and manners, and with relatively high penchants to try new products. RJ Reynolds found there was also a growing concern for health, the environment, and smokers were conscious about annoying others. Deodorised consumer products were one of Japan's biggest trends. These characteristics presented RJ Reynolds with a profitable formula for marketing Salem Pianissimo, a clean cigarette with less smell and smoke. Salem Pianissimo, a 100 mm cigarette claiming to contain 1 mg tar and 0.1 mg nicotine, targeted women since menthol cigarettes were popular among 18-24 year old female smokers, although Japan's law prohibited those below 20 years to smoke and the tobacco industry had a voluntary code disallowing advertising to women and youth., Conclusion: RJ Reynolds successfully launched its clean cigarette, Salem Pianissimo, in Japan aiming to exploit perceived cultural characteristics such as a penchant for cleanliness, an eagerness to try new products, and social harmony.

Objective: To examine the tobacco industry's efforts to influence public policy and block the legislative process on tobacco control in Hong Kong, 1973 to 1997., Method: Systematic review of relevant tobacco industry documents made public via the Master Settlement Agreement., Results: The tobacco industry in Hong Kong has sought to manipulate the policymaking process and delay the introduction of tobacco control legislation in Hong Kong from at least 1973. The industry ensured that each of the government's initial meagre steps toward tobacco control were delayed and thwarted by drawn out "cooperation" followed by voluntary concessions on issues the industry regarded as minor. By the 1980s the government had became increasingly active in tobacco control and introduced a number of initiatives, resulting in some of the tightest legislative restrictions on smoking in Asia. The tobacco industry was successful in thwarting only one of these initiatives., Conclusions: Throughout the 1980s and 1990s two factors played a significant role in hindering the tobacco industry from successfully blocking policy initiatives: a growing political imperative, and an active and sophisticated tobacco control movement. Political will to promote public health and a strong tobacco control advocacy presence can enable governments to resist the enormous pressure exerted upon them by multinational tobacco companies.

Study Objective: To review the tobacco industry's Asian environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) consultants programme, focusing on three key nations: China, Hong Kong, and Malaysia., Methods: Systematic keyword and opportunistic website searches of formerly private internal industry documents., Main Results: The release of the 1986 US Surgeon General's report on second hand smoke provoked tobacco companies to prepare for a major threat to their industry. Asian programme activities included conducting national/international symposiums, consultant "road shows" and extensive lobbying and media activities. The industry exploited confounding factors said to be unique to Asian societies such as diet, culture and urban pollution to downplay the health risks of ETS. The industry consultants were said to be "..prepared to do the kinds of things they were recruited to do"., Conclusions: The programme was successful in blurring the science on ETS and keeping the controversy alive both nationally and internationally. For the duration of the project, it also successfully dissuaded national policy makers from instituting comprehensive bans on smoking in public places.

Objective: To highlight revelations from internal tobacco industry documents about the conduct of the industry in the Philippines since the 1960s. Areas explored include political corruption, health, employment of consultants, resisting pack labelling, and marketing and advertising., Methods: Systematic keyword Minnesota depository website searches of tobacco industry internal documents made available through the Master Settlement Agreement., Results: The Philippines has long suffered a reputation for political corruption where collusion between state and business was based on the exchange of political donations for favourable economic policies. The tobacco industry was able to limit the effectiveness of proposed anti-tobacco legislation. A prominent scientist publicly repudiated links between active and passive smoking and disease. The placement of health warning labels was negotiated to benefit the industry, and the commercial environment allowed it to capitalise on their marketing freedoms to the fullest potential. Women, children, youth, and the poor have been targeted., Conclusion: The politically laissez faire Philippines presented tobacco companies with an environment ripe for exploitation. The Philippines has seen some of the world's most extreme and controversial forms of tobacco promotion flourish. Against international standards of progress, the Philippines is among the world's slowest nations to take tobacco control seriously.