Tobacco Transnational Corporations

Tobacco Transnational Corporations

Tobacco transnational corporations are perhaps the largest and most powerful of transnational corporations playing major roles in many countries economies and health.

British American Tobacco

British American Tobacco is one of the largest tobacco suppliers in the world. It sells its products in many countries, mainly targeting African, Indian & Indonesian markets. It uses controversial advertising techniques to sell its products and there are strong accusations that it attempts to advertise and sell its products to young children in an attempt to get them addicted to tobacco. One of the alleged techniques is to sell single stick cigarettes in less developed countries, a practice which is frowned upon and illegal in many countries. These single stick cigarettes are far more accessible to young children with limited incomes who couldn’t afford a full pack of cigarettes and are an effective way of getting people hooked while they’re young.

The primary brands sold by British American Tobacco are Pall Mall and Embassy. The tobacco for these products is grown in warm equatorial environments and British American Tobacco will often employ the local population in the tobacco farming industry. British American Tobacco and other tobacco companies bring numerous advantages and disadvantages to the countries that they employ people in. One country that relies heavily on tobacco farming and tobacco transnational corporations is Malawi, a small landlocked nation located in the south of Africa. The advantages and disadvantages tobacco transnational corporations bring to Malawi are outline below:

Advantages

• Tobacco farming provides a very large source of income for the country as a whole. Tobacco farming accounts for 2/3 of Malawi’s yearly income.
• Tobacco transnational corporations provide the people of Malawi with employment, stopping them from being forced to turn to crime. In Malawi, 75% of the population is dependent on tobacco farming in some way. The tobacco industry provides 1.7 million people with direct jobs and 5 million with indirect jobs relating to the tobacco industry in Malawi.
• Tobacco transnational corporations provide employment for women in many less developed countries which is very unusual and good progress towards developing women’s rights.
• Tobacco transnational corporations will often have ‘charitable givings’ where they provide clean water or health care to people in less developed countries. In Malawi, tobacco transnational corporations provide 40,000 people with clean water.

Disadvantages

• Children are often employed on tobacco farms despite this being illegal in Malawi and many other countries. This is unfair on the child as it takes them out of their education and prevents them from attaining better careers.
• Workers on the farm often die from tobacco poisoning including children.
• In Malawi, the high dependency on the tobacco companies means that if they were to leave the country, the people and the country would be without a reliable source of income.
• Due to the potential profitability of tobacco farming, many farmers choose to grow tobacco instead of food leading to famines within countries were tobacco farming is popular.
• The pay for tobacco farmers is very low since the farmers often have to take out huge loans from the tobacco companies to run farms.
• Tobacco farming acts as propaganda and increases the likelihood of people smoking in a country.

Health Implications Of Smoking

• Smoking is the second major cause of death in the world. It causes 90% of the deaths from lung cancer; 80% of the deaths from bronchitis & emphysema; 17% of deaths from heart disease and a third of all cancer deaths.

Reducing The Impacts Of Smoking

In the UK, many government lead programmes have been carried out in order to reduce smoking in the country. Some of these programmes include:

• Advertisement campaigns featuring shocking and graphic scenes relating to the risks of smoking aired during prime time TV.
• A ban on the sale of cigarettes to under 18s.
• All cigarettes must be kept behind a counter and away from public view.
• Vending machines that dispense cigarettes are illegal.
• Public smoking is banned except for in designated areas.
• Cigarette packaging must be generic and plain and must feature large warnings about the risks of smoking.
• The NHS offers free stop smoking clinics.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCFC) is an international agreement that outlines the minimum standards on tobacco e.g. advertising bans. The framework was signed by most countries but, noticeably, the USA and Indonesia did not sign.