Asian Americans Targeted by Tobacco IndustrySeptember 5, 2002
Research Summary
New research reveals that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States have been targeted by the tobacco industry over the last 15 years in an effort to improve sales and gain allies to help defeat anti-smoking measures, Australia's Inter Press Service reported Sept. 1.The findings were made by a team of U.S. and Canadian researchers in an examination of 500,000 pages of internal tobacco industry documents. The documents were made public as part of U.S. court cases.
The research found that the tobacco industry has used advertising and promotion strategies that focus on Asian-owned stores, community cultural events, youth orientated promotions, and corporate sponsorships.
Simon Chapman, professor of public health and community medicine at the University of Sydney, said he is concerned that the tobacco strategies would be used in the near future in Asia and the Pacific because anti-smoking laws there are weak or non-existent.
'"In the tobacco industry, strategies that successfully boost sales in one country are quickly globalized. What works targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States today may well be used in Asia and the Pacific tomorrow," he said. "The global tobacco companies strategy is to compensate for declining sales in some countries such as the United States by boosting sales in regions such as Asia and the Pacific -- where the protection of public health from tobacco is less advanced."
The study's findings are published in the September 2002 edition of Tobacco Control.
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