“..In the 1950s, more than half the U.S. population smoked.
Now that number is down to just 21 percent of adults.
As the domestic cigarette market shrinks, tobacco companies are taking their business to the developing world ..
.. where they don’t have to deal with pesky things like advocacy groups that oppose industry activity, smoking bans ..
.. or a populace that is aware of the health hazards of smoking.
Now Philip Morris (PM) is playing hardball in lesser-developed countries to try and preserve their ability to market cigarettes however they want.
On February 19, PM filed a lawsuit against Uruguay to try and force that country to withdraw a new law requiring 80 percent of each side of cigarette packs show graphic images depicting the health effects of smoking.
Laws requiring large, pictorial graphic warning labels on cigarette packs are not new.
Canada was the first to implement them, starting in 2000. Now 32 countries and the European Union require them.
Uruguay, in fact, already had a law requiring half of each side of cigarette packs to contain health warnings.
They just wanted to make the pictures a little bigger.
That was all it took to get Philip Morris to slap them with a lawsuit.
So why is Philip Morris coming down like a ton of bricks on less developed countries like this?
Because as cigarette makers lose their markets in the developed world .. they need poorer and less-educated populations to keep expanding their business.
That means moving into developing countries .. and how they market cigarettes there is often egregiously repugnant..”
go to source/story>>Philip Morris Pushing Smoking Hard in Foreign Countries | Center for Media and Democracy
