The International Association of Tobacco Growers attacks WHO

Abstract

The International Association of Tobacco Growers (IATG) has publicly blamed WHO's tobacco control policies for a decline in the amount of land where tobacco is grown in the Americas and for the fact that many farmers have lost a way to make a living. Contrary to these allegations, the surface of land where tobacco is grown and the production of tobacco have increased between 1990 and 2000 (from 471 975 to 505 636 hectares and from 703 431 to 868 302 metric tons, respectively). Furthermore, the IATG's internal documents point to the cause of the declining harvests observed in some countries as being the drop in prices that has been triggered by surplus production on a global scale. According to internal documents belonging to the tobacco industry, the IATG is a public relations agency that was created by the industry as its spokesman in developing countries in an effort to curb tobacco control initiatives. WHO aims to reduce the use of tobacco products and the morbidity and mortality that are attributable to such use, a measure which will have no impact on the current generation of tobacco growers because, even if the prevalence of smoking does decline, the total number of smokers will continue to grow due to the overall increase in the size of the population.