Tobacco promotion in Ghana

Abstract

The transnational tobacco companies, sensing that their economic interests are being threatened by the worldwide anti-smoking campaign, have embarked on a counter — campaign to deny that smoking is a health hazard. At the same time, they have been reaching out for new markets in Africa and Asia. In 1996, a number of journalists from Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Uganda and the former Zaire were invited to a seminar on tobacco issues in Mauritius, organized by the transnational tobacco companies. The companies brought with them their foreign mercenaries, or experts, who obediently put across their usual, highly misleading arguments on tobacco issues, denying that tobacco products are harmful; they further asserted conclusively that passive smoking is not a health hazard. The seminar raised a number of questions. Why was the meeting held in Africa? Do the companies think that African journalists can be more easily convinced? Do they think that we are unable to decide for ourselves on the basis of the evidence from the West?