Dr. Alan Blum Points Out Big Tobacco Connections of Sponsor of Film on Cancer

Dr. Alan Blum - the Gerald Leon Wallace, M.D., Endowed Chair in Family Medicine at the University of Alabama and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society - published an interesting op-ed last Friday in the Tuscaloosa News. The commentary reveals that several of the sponsors of the recent PBS documentary on cancer as well as the Stand Up to Cancer telethon have strong connections to Big Tobacco and are actually helping contribute to the tobacco epidemic.I recommend reading the whole piece, but a few of the most relevant excerpts follow: "At the 16th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Abu Dhabi last week, the latest grim statistics shocked even veteran anti-smoking advocates. In spite of the growing number of nations that have banned smoking in public places and have prohibited or restricted cigarette advertising and marketing, the annual death toll from cigarette smoking keeps rising. ... The assumption of the more than 2000 public health professionals from over 100 countries at the conference is that the tobacco industry is the villain, wielding enormous economic and political clout.""But it’s not just the cigarette companies who benefit from smoking. Without its business allies, the tobacco industry couldn’t exist. These include retailers such as the major chain supermarkets, drugstores, and convenience stores. Then there are the suppliers of packaging, chemicals, paper and the very machines used to manufacture cigarettes.""Take...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs