HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS REGISTER		Author Keyword(s) Vol Page [Advanced]

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Callard, C Articles by Collishaw, N Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Callard, C Articles by Collishaw, N

Transforming the tobacco market: why the supply of cigarettes should be transferred from for-profit corporations to non-profit enterprises with a public health mandate

¹ Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
² Aurora Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Correspondence to:
Cynthia Callard
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, 1226A Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 3A1, Canada; ccallard{at}smoke-free.ca

Current tobacco control strategies seek primarily to decrease the demand for cigarettes through measures that encourage individuals to adopt healthier behaviours. These measures are impeded and undermined by tobacco corporations, whose profit drive compels them to seek to maintain and expand cigarette sales. Tobacco corporations seek to expand cigarette sales because they are for-profit business corporations and are obliged under law to maximise profits, even when this results in harm to others. It is not legally possible for a for-profit corporation to relinquish its responsibility to make profits or for it to temper this obligation with responsibilities to support health. Tobacco could be supplied through other non-profit enterprises. The elimination of profit driven behaviour from the supply of tobacco would enhance the ability of public health authorities to reduce tobacco use. Future tobacco control strategies can seek to transform the tobacco market from one occupied by for-profit corporations to one where tobacco is supplied by institutions that share a health mandate and will help to reduce smoking and smoking related disease and death.

Abbreviations: CSR, corporate social responsibility; FCTC, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; RMM, regulated market model; TPA, Tobacco Products Agency

Keywords: tobacco policy; tobacco industry

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Chapman Benefits and risks in ending regulatory exceptionalism for tobacco Tob. Control, April 1, 2008; 17(2): 73 - 74. [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Gilmore, J. Collin, and J. Townsend Transnational Tobacco Company Influence on Tax Policy During Privatization of a State Monopoly: British American Tobacco and Uzbekistan Am J Public Health, November 1, 2007; 97(11): 2001 - 2009. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Milberger, R. M Davis, C. E Douglas, J. K Beasley, D. Burns, T. Houston, and D. Shopland Tobacco manufacturers' defence against plaintiffs' claims of cancer causation: throwing mud at the wall and hoping some of it will stick Tob. Control, December 1, 2006; 15(suppl_4): iv17 - iv26. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J. Liberman The future of tobacco regulation: a response to a proposal for fundamental institutional change. Tob. Control, August 1, 2006; 15(4): 333 - 338. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				P A McDaniel, E A Smith, and R E Malone Philip Morris's Project Sunrise: weakening tobacco control by working with it Tob. Control, June 1, 2006; 15(3): 215 - 223. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]