Tobacco industry influence in pro-vaping lobbying: the example of the United Kingdom

January 3, 2024

Par: National Committee Against Smoking

Dernière mise à jour: August 6, 2024

Temps de lecture: 12 minutes

Influence de l’industrie du tabac dans le lobbying pro-vapotage : l’exemple du Royaume-Uni

An investigation by The Times traces the lobbying actions in favour of vaping conducted in recent years in the United Kingdom by the tobacco industry. It highlights in particular the role of influence of third parties, whether it is scientific endorsement or pressure on decision-makers. Doctors, scientists and various groups of vapers presenting themselves as independent are thus revealed to be affiliated with the tobacco industry. If pro-vape lobbying is particularly active in the United Kingdom, it is also present in many other European countries including France.

For decades, the tobacco industry has used doctors to deliver commercial messages, funded research that yielded favorable results for the industry, and used "independent" user groups to put pressure on authorities. These techniques aim to combat the scientific evidence of the harmfulness of tobacco and to challenge the addiction induced by nicotine, in order to prevent the adoption of restrictive measures. Defined at the international level, these strategies are then adapted according to the local contexts of countries.

Tobacco control efforts have nevertheless contributed to reducing smoking prevalence and contracting the market for cigarettes and smoked tobacco. New products, such as e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, have emerged and are competing with tobacco products. After buying up major operators, the tobacco industry's challenge today is to maintain a large market for nicotine products in order to maintain its financial margins and reassure its investors.

The tobacco companies' influence strategy has thus been transposed to vaping products to ensure their promotion in most countries. According to an investigation by the daily newspaper The Times, it has been deployed in a particularly meticulous manner in the United Kingdom[1]. Scientific research favourable to the vaping industry has been funded by tobacco companies. British doctors have benefited from training sessions on smoking cessation focused on e-cigarettes. An influence campaign has been conducted by organisations claiming to be vaping associations.

These actions were aimed at warding off criticism, opposing restrictive regulatory measures and justifying the systematic use of e-cigarettes as part of smoking cessation. This strategy has so far proven successful, at least in the short term, and e-cigarette use has grown significantly in the UK.

Funding of scientific publications

Funding and promoting scientific studies that support its products is a tried and tested tactic of the tobacco industry. The aim is to counter scientific evidence provided by health professionals and independent researchers, to spark scientific debate and, at the very least, to sow doubt among policy makers about the advisability of regulating these products.

Dozens of scientific publications highlighting the health benefits of electronic cigarettes have been funded by the tobacco industry. The Times mentions in particular the example of Peter Lee, a consultant to the tobacco industry since 1979 who has already distinguished himself by contesting the harmfulness of passive smoking.[2]. In 2019, Peter Lee published a paper co-authored by two employees of Philip Morris International (PMI) and funded by the company. The paper claimed to be independent and denied any “gateway effect” between e-cigarettes and youth smoking initiation. It was widely cited by groups presenting themselves as vaping associations. It was also used to counter the results of an Australian study indicating that young vapers were three times more likely to become smokers than non-vapers.[3].

Peter Lee also published several tobacco industry-funded articles in 2022, including one for PMI concluding that e-cigarettes had a positive effect on smoking cessationThe use of paid scientific journals allowed him to pre-publish some of these articles so that they would then be better accepted by peer-reviewed journals, which are more vigilant with regard to conflicts of interest.

Other authors, such as Ian Fearon, working for Imperial Brands and who denied the “gateway effect” of vaping to smoking, and Sarah Cooner, former director of British American Tobacco (BAT), have also declared themselves as independent researchers. Sarah Cooner notably highlighted the publication of one of her articles by a world-renowned toxicology journal, which was subsequently cited 200 times and downloaded 30,000 times.

Taking up the concept of risk reduction developed in addictology, these articles aim to provide arguments and references to other players in the vaping lobby, as well as to third parties in the tobacco industry.

Falsely independent third parties

The use of third parties to advance the commercial interests of the tobacco industry is a long-standing practice. It has been dubbed “astroturfing,” after a brand of synthetic grass.[4]. It consists of bringing into the public space organizations that appear independent but support the positions of an industry or a political actor. The objective is to give the illusion of a spontaneous popular movement.

Different pressure groups calling themselves independent and composed of vapers were actually initiated by the tobacco industry. This is notably the case of the World Vapers' Alliance (WVA), a group set up in 2020 by the Consumer Choice Center (CCC). However, the CCC is a think tank funded by several tobacco multinationals, including PMI and BAT. BAT executives thus received direct briefing notes on the progress of the "Back Vaping/Beat smoking" campaign, orchestrated by the WVA. For this campaign, a "vape bus" crisscrossed several European countries and encouraged passers-by to write to their MP to support the use of vaping. The WVA has also been active on the social networks by posting advertisements in favor of vaping.

Another particularly active organization is the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW). Created in 2017, this structure – which declares itself independent – received nearly $400 million (€368 million) from PMI, its sole funder. After accepting a final payment of $120 million (€110 million), it recently announced that it was ending its relationship with PMI and is expected to change its name in 2024. Despite this declaration of emancipation, FSFW has not returned to PMI the hundreds of millions of euros it received.

These large sums were intended to fund research and other lobbying activities. Founded by Professor Gerry Stimson, Knowledge-Action-Change (KAC) was one of the beneficiaries of this funding. It received £5.7 million (€6.6 million) from the FSFW, and is expected to receive another £4.5 million (€5.2 million) from the same source. KAC is notably the organiser of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which is held annually in London and brings together tobacco industry, lobbyists, public health experts and researchers.

Gerry Stimson was also the first chair of the UK lobby group New Nicotine Alliance (NNA), which promotes harm reduction messages about nicotine. Founded in 2014, the group claims to represent consumers and denies any funding from the tobacco and vaping industries. However, its website name was trademarked by KAC, at a time when the organisation was already receiving funding from the FSFW.

The NNA also continues to parrot the tobacco industry's pro-vaping arguments and regularly cites the scientific papers it funds. It opposes the ban on disposable e-cigarettes ("puffs"), downplays the appeal of fruity aromas on adolescents and environmental consequences vaping, and disputes the damage that nicotine causes to the young brainsShe also believes that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the international treaty of the World Health Organization (WHO), should allow partnerships between tobacco manufacturers and governments, both national and local.

Doctors to influence doctors

Another example of a structure masking its objectives is provided by the Centre for Health Research and Education (CHRE), which states “not to receive any funding from the pharmaceutical, e-cigarette or tobacco industries”. Since March 2019, the CHRE has received 6.7 million pounds (7.7 million euros) from the FSFW, therefore indirectly from PMI, but does not report it. Located in the suburbs of Southampton, the CHRE was founded by a couple of doctors, Sudhanshu and Pooja Patwardhan.

The first worked for fifteen years for BAT (2005-2019) and its subsidiary Nicoventures[5]He regularly speaks at tobacco industry conferences, where he advocates “informed choices for patients about nicotine alternatives”. The second is a National Health Service (NHS) GP who has trained hundreds of UK doctors on the value of vaping in smoking cessation. Pooja Patwardhan wrote in 2020 that doctors are very receptive to harm reduction arguments when they come from another doctor. CHRE’s activities take place not only in the UK, but also in India, where vaping products are banned.

A strategy aimed at reintegrating tobacco manufacturers into the decision-making process

This comprehensive lobbying strategy is thus to build networks of relays of industry messages, apparently credible and declaring themselves independent of the tobacco industry. The objective is more particularly to allow tobacco manufacturers to reconquer new markets with new products while restoring a seriously degraded image. By presenting themselves as part of the solution to the problems they have caused with smoking, these multinationals hope take back a place at the negotiating table with public authorities. This would allow them in particular to minimise the impact of public health measures and regulatory developments, but also to counter the taxation of these new products.

The choice of the United Kingdom to initiate this strategy is far from neutral. It is because the authorities already had a favorable attitude towards vaping products that this country was selected by the tobacco industry. The idea was to make it both a full-scale laboratory, but also a promotional showcase intended to serve as a reference for the entire world. The United Kingdom was also chosen because smoking had declined more sharply there than elsewhere, during the 1990s and 2000s.

The current observation, both by health professionals and by politicians, of rapid diffusion The popularity of e-cigarettes among young people and adolescents, however, has led the British authorities to revise this pro-vaping strategy.

However, other countries are also the subject of major influence campaigns to rehabilitate the image of nicotine.[6]. Similarly, the "example" of Sweden, regularly put forward by the tobacco industry at each revision of the European directive on tobacco products, is currently being used to develop the snus market.[7] and nicotine pouches[8] in other countries.

This pressure from industry is particularly evident during the FCTC Conferences of the Parties (COPs), which are held every two years. Tobacco industry is very active, both directly and indirectly through pro-vaping organizations, in an attempt to influence the content of decisions.

Keywords: UK, lobbying, third parties, vaping, e-cigarette, pro-vape lobbying, Philip Morris, British American Tobacco, World Vapers' Alliance, Foundation for a Smoke-Free World

©Tobacco Free Generation

M.F.


[1] Kenber B, Revealed: how tobacco giants are bankrolling secret pro-vaping campaign, The Times, published December 14, 2023, accessed December 27, 2023.

[2] Peter Lee, Tobacco Tactics, updated February 4, 2020, accessed December 27, 2023.

[3] Baenziger ON, Ford L, Yazidjoglou A, Joshy G, Banks E, E-cigarette use and combustible tobacco cigarette smoking uptake among non-smokers, including relapse in former smokers: umbrella review, systematic review and meta-analysis, BMJ Open, 11 (3) (2021 Mar 30), Article e045603

[4] Astroturfing, or the art of creating false popular movements, The Conversation, published January 3, 2023, accessed December 27, 2023.

[5] DEAR, Tobacco Tactics, updated December 15, 2023, accessed December 27, 2023.

[6] Horel S, Keyzer T, Schram E and Karanikas H, Small tricks and big maneuvers of the tobacco industry to rehabilitate nicotine, Le Monde, published December 19, 2020, consulted December 28, 2023.

[7] Tobacco pouches placed between the gum and the lip.

[8] Nicotine pouches placed between the gum and lip, often confused with snus.

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