Tobacco lobby tripping over its own spin

In his letter to this paper, John Mallon, of the tobacco-funded lobby group, Forest Éireann, has demonstrated one of the key tactics used by ‘big tobacco’ in fighting plain-packaging legislation.

He has used misleading figures to ‘prove’ that plain-packaging hasn’t worked in Australia. Tobacco companies first started to manipulate data in the 1960s to argue that smoking didn’t cause cancer. They have been losing the fight against a tidal wave of health measures.

Fewer Australians are smoking now, and plain-packaging is a reason. Plain-packaging eliminates the last great marketing tool of the tobacco industry — an industry that costs 5,200 Irish lives every year.

Mr Mallon says plain-packaging has had ‘no impact on adults’ and references an unnamed source that shows an increase in smoking adults. According to the statistics from the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare (AIHW), the smoking rate in Australia is now just 12.8%, a drop of 15% since 2010. In comparison, Ireland still has a smoking rate of 21.5%. Why would the pro-tobacco lobby keep citing unnamed sources rather than official government research?

Mr Mallon says that plain-packaging is ‘fuelling the black market’ in Australia and cites a KPMG report. The KPMG report was funded by the tobacco industry to create a problem that doesn’t exist.

The pro-tobacco lobby is tripping over its own misinformation.

Kathleen O’Meara

Head of Advocacy & Communications

Irish Cancer Society

Dublin