Why are we paying -- with our taxes, our health, our lives, and our planet -- to sustain one of the world’s most deadly industries? Why are our governments being forced to pay billions of dollars to address the impacts of the tobacco epidemic, diverting resources that could be used on essential services such as education, food security, and housing? Why are people -- particularly Black communities, people of color, youth, and communities in the Global South who are most targeted by the tobacco industry -- being forced to pay for the harms corporations cause for the sake of making their Global North shareholders wealthy?

The short answer is: the political and economic power of Big Tobacco.

Tobacco products kill 8 million people every year[1], while almost 150,000 youth are addicted each year[2]. This is staggering and heartbreaking. Every year, 8 million parents, siblings, friends, loved ones are lost to an entirely preventable epidemic. And every year, the tobacco industry addicts a whole new generation, many of whom will go on to get sick or die in the coming decades.

This has a severe economic impact[3] as well: US$1.85 trillion, including health-care costs as well as loss of productivity. This is equivalent to 1.8% of the world’s annual gross domestic product. Almost 40% of these costs occur in the Global South. And it’s not just health care costs. There are environmental impacts and costs, too. For example[4], around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded every year, making them the most littered item on Earth, and annual tobacco production emits and uses more than 80 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. People and governments are forced to pay the costs of the tobacco industry’s pollution.

We cannot let this deadly industry destroy lives and harm the planet in service of its profits. And we cannot let this industry continue its decades-long attempts to deceive the public -- most recently with its bogus claims[5] of “harm-reduction” and a “smoke-free future” even as it continues marketing cigarettes to youth. It’s time to find the courage to make the tobacco industry pay for the harms it causes. In truth, we can't afford NOT to.

Liability is a proven and feasible way that governments can unlock billions of dollars for healthcare costs, end corporate abuse, and provide justice to those who have been harmed by Big Tobacco. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), the global tobacco treaty, explicitly recognizes liability’s potential among its provisions. That’s why there’s a growing movement to make this deadly industry pay, using tools available to governments and civil society around the world.

Governments can take action today to begin holding the tobacco industry liable, both internationally and nationally. We call on you to take the following actions:

1. Advance liability measures within the WHO FCTC during the 10th Conference of the Parties, taking place in Panama in 2023.
2. Provide funding to the WHO FCTC Secretariat to:
-Provide technical guidance on implementing Article 19 WHO FCTC, where the right and ability for governments to hold the national and transnational tobacco industry corporations liable is embodied in international law.
-Structure and form better frameworks for international cooperation such as international liability regimes.
3. Implement Article 19 WHO FCTC and advance liability in your country through collaboration with local civil society organizations, academics, and legal experts (among them, the signatories below), including by, among others, advancing taxation measures, imposing corporate regulatory measures including bonds[6] and other financial guarantees, imposing effective and dissuasive sanctions, adopting non-judicial or administrative compensation mechanisms[7], and using the civil liability toolkit to instigate tobacco lawsuits or update litigation rules to enable the same[8] (created by an expert working group and adopted by the WHO FCTC governing body).

By taking these actions, with your bold leadership, we can end the abuses of Big Tobacco, protect the planet, and save millions of people’s lives.

Sincerely,

Sources
1. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/tobacco#:~:text=Tobacco%20kills%20more%20than%208,-%20and%20middle-income%20countries
2. https://www.lung.org/quit-smoking/smoking-facts/tobacco-use-among-children
3. https://tobacconomics.org/files/research/523/UIC_Economic-Costs-of-Tobacco-Use-Policy-Brief_v1.3.pdf
4. https://exposetobacco.org/wp-content/uploads/Talking_Trash_EN.pdf
5. https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/31/2/313
6. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/WGTransCorp/Session6/LBI3rdDRAFT.pdf
7. https://ash.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2-Tues_COP-Week-Webinar.pdf
8. https://untobaccocontrol.org/impldb/tobacco-control-toolkit/#/