Türkiye: NGO calls for international solidarity to counter Philip Morris offensive

In the days following the February 6 earthquake, Philip Morris International (PMI) offered $2 million in aid to Turkey. The Turkish National Coalition on Tobacco or Health (TNCH) is calling for a response by mobilizing other sources of international support.

To once again become credible stakeholders and influence public health decisions, multinationals are seizing every opportunity to enhance their image through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Disasters, whether natural or man-made, provide opportunities to implement this strategy.

PMI was quick to offer a donation

To prevent such a scenario from recurring after the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023, Dr. Elif Dagli, President of the Turkish National Coalition on Tobacco or Health (SSUK), alerted international tobacco control networks about the intentions of Philip Morris International (PMI).[1].

The alert was prompted by two PMI Twitter posts, written in Turkish and English, which attracted attention, one on February 10 and the other on February 15. In the latter, PMI announced its intention to donate US$2 million (€1.88 million) to Turkey. "to support immediate humanitarian aid and long-term recovery assistance".

Several precedents of this type in Türkiye, to the detriment of public health

Following a previous earthquake in Turkey in 2011, PMI had already made two donations totaling $500,000 (€470,000) to rehouse 75 families in shipping containers. This operation served PMI as a publicity vehicle, and the streets passing between these containers were renamed after PMI's partner donor.

The crisis linked to the COVID-19 pandemic has also provided many occasions the main tobacco manufacturers to become interlocutors of the public authorities again, after having punctually distributed financial aid and care and protective equipment, and having ensured very wide publicity. In Turkey, donations and distribution of medical equipment (respirators, masks, gloves, etc.) in 2020 had allowed them to obtain a postponement of tax increases, to defer the application of rules on health warnings and to reduce the rate of consumption tax from 67 % to 63 %[2]The project for a standardized plain packaging for cigarettes had also been postponed.[3]PMI had donated US$700,000 (€658,000) that year, while Japan Tobacco International (JTI) had allocated around US$275,000 (€258,000).

An opportunity to renew international solidarity

It is therefore to prevent the tobacco industry from perpetuating this situation of partial and highly self-serving assistance that Dr. Dagli is calling for a strengthening of the international solidarity already underway, in order to participate in the reconstruction effort. This could constitute a new way of recalling that Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control prohibits any intrusion by the tobacco industry into public health policies.

Keywords: Türkiye, earthquake, CSR, PMI, JTI

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[1] ENSP, Urgent need to support the Republic of Türkiye, The Network, ENSP newsletter, February 16, 2023.

[2] How deadly is tobacco industry interference in Turkey? Global Tobacco Index 2021, factsheet, accessed February 17, 2023.

[3] Assunta M. Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2021. Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control (GGTC). Bangkok, Thailand. Nov 2021.