Polluter pays – increasing funding for global tobacco control
14 Sep, 10 | by Becky Freeman, Web Editor
In the August 2010 issue of Tobacco Control, Cynthia Callard wrote an enlightening article on just how uneven the playing field is in tobacco control. She compared the 2008 total revenues of
the five major tobacco companies that control 90% of the global market as compared to the total amount spent on global tobacco control. The results show just how much the deck is stacked against effective tobacco control, especially in low and middle income countries. The revenues of these five companies exceeded $300 billion ($160 billion of that is provided to governments as tax) and the corporate earnings of the four publicly traded companies were over $25 billion, of which $14 billion was retained after corporate income taxes were paid. In comparison, funding for global tobacco control was a paltry $240 million. That would be less than 2% of the retained earnings of the four public companies alone
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the five major tobacco companies that control 90% of the global market as compared to the total amount spent on global tobacco control. The results show just how much the deck is stacked against effective tobacco control, especially in low and middle income countries. The revenues of these five companies exceeded $300 billion ($160 billion of that is provided to governments as tax) and the corporate earnings of the four publicly traded companies were over $25 billion, of which $14 billion was retained after corporate income taxes were paid. In comparison, funding for global tobacco control was a paltry $240 million. That would be less than 2% of the retained earnings of the four public companies alone.
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