Women and the tobacco industry

 

Sheet translated and adapted from the document “ Women and the Tobacco Industry » by STOP (Stopping Tobacco organizations & products)

STOP is an international monitoring organization that monitors the tobacco industry's interference practices in public policies. STOP is a partnership between the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, The Union and Vital Strategies.

March 2021

 

Global tobacco use among women is increasingly complex, involving a variety of factors, including globalization, aggressive marketing by the tobacco industry, and the changing status of women. In high-income countries, smoking among women is declining, but it is increasingly concentrated among women in low- and middle-income countries. Women who smoke are exposed to the same health risks as men who smoke, but they incur specific additional risks that are often unknown and neglected, particularly in terms of reproductive health. Tobacco use among women and girls is a major concern in tobacco control, as increasing consumption rates threaten progress made in gender equality.

 

Gender-specific risks of tobacco products

1. Of the billion smokers in the world, 200 million are women[1].
2. Two million women die each year from smoking. Of the 8.71 million annual deaths from smoking, 2.15 million are women (2019)[2], of which 71% live in low- and middle-income countries[3].
3. In the world, 600,000 women are victims of passive smoking every year. 64% of annual deaths linked to passive smoking are women[4].
4. Smoking poses additional risks to women's reproductive health. In addition to the increased risk of non-communicable diseases (stroke, heart and lung diseases, cancers), women may suffer specific problems related to reproductive health if they smoke before or during pregnancy:

• increased risk of infertility and delays in conception;
• increased risk of cervical cancer;
• greater risks of premature birth, stillbirth and newborn death.

5. Smoking increases the likelihood of falling into poverty, which fuels domestic violence, particularly against women[5]. Tobacco-related expenses crowd out other household expenses, often spent on basic needs such as food, education, housing, leisure, etc. When household resources are limited, conflict and gender imbalance in decision-making can arise more easily.
6. Women working in the tobacco sector are disproportionately affected by environmental, health and social impacts[6].

• Women represent nearly 50% of the agricultural workforce in low-income countries[7].
• Women are heavily involved in the tobacco workforce, particularly in the artisanal manufacturing of tobacco products in some countries. In Indonesia, women make up 94% of workers in kretek manufacturing factories[8]. In India, the manufacturing of bidis[9] employs twice as many women as men.

The role of the tobacco industry

Women, prime targets of tobacco industry marketing campaigns

Since the 1960s, the tobacco industry has aimed its marketing campaigns at women through advertisements that rely on gender stereotypes and falsely associate tobacco use with concepts of beauty, thinness, sophistication, prestige, emancipation, freedom, glamor and seduction [10]-[11]These campaigns used the women's liberation movement in America and subsequently around the world to convey a favorable image of their products.

Today, tobacco companies use the same strategies to market their products, including new tobacco and nicotine products, on every available platform, including social media through influential women.

• Japan Tobacco International (JTI) sponsors numerous tournaments and sporting activities. In Japan, JTI owns the women's volleyball team JT Marvelous who plays nationally and competes in the Volleyball World Cup in Japan[12].
• In 2018, Philip Morris International (PMI) funded the Independent Women's Forum, a US-based women's think tank, which promoted PMI's new heated tobacco product[13].

These actions have devastating consequences for women. If the mortality of men caused by tobacco has been declining in recent years, that of women, on the other hand, is experiencing continued growth. In France, lung cancer is skyrocketing among women and will soon be the deadliest female cancer, ahead of breast cancer. Thus, between 2000 and 2014, mortality from lung cancer increased by 71% among women aged 55 to 64 while it decreased by 15% among men for the same age group. The incidence of myocardial infarction before age 65 increased by 50% in women (16% in men).[14]

Tobacco industry sponsors initiatives aimed at women

Every year, tobacco companies “celebrate” International Women’s Day with a promise of gender equality and fairness[15]. The tobacco industry highlights its actions and activities related to women in order to divert attention from the devastating global impact of smoking on their health. Tobacco companies seek to position themselves as defenders of gender equality, in support of the development of women and they present themselves as respectful employers, essentially in order to better market their products to women while restoring a damaged image [16].

• PMI and British American Tobacco (BAT) are investing heavily in public relations campaigns highlighting their actions on executive pay equality as well as their women's empowerment/leadership programs.
• A 2018 report[17] revealed that PMI's public relations campaigns on "women's empowerment" have been deployed in around 30 countries, a majority of which are low- and middle-income countries, where a significant increase in smoking among women has been observed.
• Ceylon Tobacco Company (a subsidiary of BAT) stated that one of the objectives of its sustainable agricultural development program in Sri Lanka[18] is “to empower women and recognize their important role in every household.” In 2019, Philip Morris International (PMI) paid Jaime V. Ongpin Foundation, a Philippine NGO, more than $2 million as part of a program aimed at “reducing poverty throughout the country” by “empowering women” and “effectively responding to emergency situations”.

Meanwhile, these same companies hide information about increasing smoking prevalence and deaths among women, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.

Women suffer from poor working conditions on tobacco plantations

• Tobacco companies depend on the raw materials they want at the lowest possible price. This contributes to and perpetuates poor working conditions on tobacco plantations where almost half of the workers are women.
• A study carried out in China, Tanzania and Kenya[19] concluded that few women working in tobacco fields were financially independent, with men holding land titles and receiving higher income for the same amount of work.
• Through public relations campaigns, tobacco companies tout their actions to achieve gender equality in the world of work, even citing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but without ever mentioning their responsibility for the harms that their products cause women[20].
• Women who work on tobacco farms in low- and middle-income countries do the same work as men, while caring for their children and maintaining their homes. The adverse health effects of tobacco farming are most severe for women who may suffer miscarriages due to their work on tobacco farms during pregnancy[21].

Tobacco companies continue to invest heavily in marketing campaigns that target women

Lawsuits launched in the 1980s and 1990s by victims have dragged on for decades and remain unresolved as tobacco companies seek to avoid paying. Although tobacco companies have compensated a small number of women (primarily airline flight attendants) for their exposure to passive smoking in the United States.[22]), many women around the world who find themselves in a similar situation do not have the means to seek redress. Additionally, the tobacco industry continues to invest heavily in marketing campaigns targeting young women to promote its products.

• In 2021, BAT invested £1 billion in promoting its new products on TikTok, where 60% of users are women[23].
• The PMI-funded Smoke-Free Foundation supports women's initiatives (e.g. in India, Malawi, USA and New Zealand). Internal documents indicate that the Foundation actually contributes to the advancement of PMI and Altria's goals. It increases their visibility and the group's sales, particularly through so-called “socially responsible” activities.

In 2020, the Smoke-Free Foundation awarded small grants for research, including for women bidi rollers in India[24].

 

Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG): Gender equality and the tobacco industry

How the Tobacco Industry’s “Corporate Social Responsibility” Activities Hinder SDG 5 (Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls)

As part of their so-called corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, tobacco companies sponsor initiatives aimed at women. These activities are part of an image policy and with the aim of putting pressure on decision-makers in order to prevent policies to reduce tobacco consumption which protect women in particular.

In recent years, the tobacco industry has claimed that its support for women's programs aims to promote the SDGs.

The tobacco industry undermines the achievement of UN Goal 5 to empower women and promote gender equality in the following ways:

• By marketing products that kill more than 2 million women each year, and by putting on the market, with intense promotion, new products whose long-term impact on women's health is to this day little known.
• By refusing to compensate women for gender-specific health risks linked to tobacco, such as exposure to passive smoking and tobacco consumption during pregnancy.
• By diverting attention from the plight of women working in tobacco cultivation, consumers or those exposed to tobacco smoke in order to highlight the gender policies of tobacco companies.
• By participating in women's empowerment programs and sponsoring initiatives aimed at women to rehabilitate its image and/or reintegrate political decision-making processes.
• By creating partnerships with influential female groups or personalities to gain legitimacy and credibility, particularly through CSR campaigns.
• By financing women's think tanks which carry out lobbying activities or speak out in favor of tobacco products. For example, the Independent Women's Forum (IWF), a US-based think tank focused on social policy issues for women. This organization supported the PMI brand (IQOS) and criticized the media debate around vaping in the United States, asserting that “women are the biggest losers from Bloomberg's anti-e-cigarette propaganda”. IWF accepted industry funding from Philip Morris as early as 1998 and recently received donations from Altria.

To meet SDG Goal 5, the following actions should be taken:

• Stop marketing its products to women and stop presenting itself as a company that benefits society.
• Stop opposing effective public health measures to reduce the tobacco epidemic (ban on advertising, promotion and sponsorship, tax policies, etc.)
• Compensate victims for harm caused by tobacco consumption.
• Stop so-called CSR activities, because they are deployed with a view to establishing a dialogue with decision-makers and they undermine the actions of public authorities to protect the population from the commercial interests of the tobacco industry. In this sense they are contrary to the provisions of article 5.3 of the WHO international treaty. Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
• Article 13 of the Framework Convention imposes a complete ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, which includes so-called CSR activities or communication around these activities. Governments should not allow exceptions.
• Prohibit the promotion of industry activities relating to gender: this has the effect of conveying misconceptions about the true role of the tobacco industry in relation to women's health.

©Tobacco Free Generation

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[1] World Health Organization. 2010. 10 Facts on gender and tobacco. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO Department of Gender, Women and Health; 2010 [2] Global Health Metrics. Tobacco-Level 2 risk. Global burden of disease 2019 risk factor summaries [3] Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington. 2021. GBD Compare / IHME Viz Hub. Global Burden of Disease 2019. [4] World Health Organization, supra note 1 [5] Slabbert, I. August 8, 2016. Domestic Violence and Poverty: Some Women's Experiences. Research on Social Work Practice [Online]. 2017;27(2):223-230. doi.org/10.1177/1049731516662321. [6] Lecours N, Almeida GEG, Abdallah JM, Novotny TE. 16 February 2012. Environmental health impacts of tobacco farming: A review of the literature. Tobacco Control. 2012;21:191-196. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2011-050318 [7] International Labor Organization. 2019. Background report for the technical meeting to promote an exchange of views on the further development and implementation of the integrated strategy to address decent work deficits in the tobacco sector [8] Indonesian cigarettes made with a complex blend of tobacco, cloves and an aromatic “sauce”. [9] The bidî is a type of cone-shaped Indian cigarette. [10] Tobacco Control Research Group – University of Bath. December 21, 2020. Targeting Women and Girls. Tobacco Tactics. [11] Maitin-Shepard M, Correll-Carlyle R and Shaikh S. April 7, 2020. Tobacco Industry Targets Women and Girls as Next Generation of Smokers. The Tobacco Atlas [12] Christopher Johnson, Tobacco sponsorship of sports could doom Japan's Olympic bid, Washington Times, December 1, 2011, accessed March 8, 2021 [13] 2 Coley V. January 24, 2018. Julie Gunlock testimony before US Food and Drug Administration Advisory Panel. Independent Women's Forum – US FDA to approve PMI's IQOS ecigarettes, arguing that women need the products for various biological reasons to help them quit smoking regular cigarettes. [14] CNCT, The scourge of female smoking, a consequence of tobacco industry advertising strategies, October 31, 2019, accessed March 8, 2021 [15] Japan Tobacco International. Empowering a new generation of business women in Turkey. [16] British American Tobacco. Women in Leadership. Diversity Initiatives. Introducing our Women in STEM initiative BAT hailed for IWD best practice [17] 16% of all monetary charitable contributions were spent on “Empowering women” in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; Israel, Jordan, Morocco, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine; Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, Switzerland; Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador, Panama, Canada, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico. See: Philip Morris International. 2018. 2018 Charitable contributions at a glance. HAS [18] Ceylon Tobacco Company, Corporate Social Investments, CLC website [19] T. Hu, AH Lee, Women in Tobacco Farming: Health, Equality and Empowerment, Center for International Tobacco Control, Public Health Institute, October 2016 [20] 1 Philip Morris International. Integrated Report 2019. British American Tobacco. Sustainability Strategy Report 2019 [21] T. Hu, AH Lee, Women in Tobacco Farming: Health, Equality and Empowerment, Center for International Tobacco Control, Public Health Institute, October 2016 [22] Broin v. Philip Morris Companies, et al., 641 So.2d 888 (Fla. App. 1994). In: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. 2021. Litigation by country: United States. Broin v. Philip Morris Companies, Inc. [23] Generation Without Tobacco, BAT invests £1bn to promote new products to young people, February 22, 2021, accessed March 8, 2021 [24] Grant to AF Development Care LLP in: Foundation for a Smoke-Free World (FSFW). 2019. Awarded grants National Committee Against Smoking |