Evidence map›Paper›PMID 21504915›Full record

ArticleTobacco control2011

Social responsibility in tobacco production? Tobacco companies' use of green supply chains to obscure the real costs of tobacco farming.

Marty Otañez, Stanton A Glantz

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Tobacco control, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
24citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Environmental effect of smoking cessation.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2021
    Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Occupational health: a world of false promises.Environmental health : a global access science source · 2018
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Tobacco growing and the sustainable development goals, Malawi.Bulletin of the World Health Organization · 2017
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Tobacco control and tobacco farming in African countries.Journal of public health policy · 2015
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Marty OtañezDepartment of Anthropology, University of Colorado at Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA.
Stanton A Glantz

Funding

ANALYSIS OF TOBACCO INDUSTRY DOCUMENTSR01CA087472 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI LING, PAMELA MAY · 2000 to 2018
$12.5M
NCI NIH HHS CA-87472NCI NIH HHS R01 CA087472
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundTobacco companies have come under increased criticism because of environmental and labour practices related to growing tobacco in developing countries.

methodsAnalysis of tobacco industry documents, industry websites and interviews with tobacco farmers in Tanzania and tobacco farm workers, farm authorities, trade unionists, government officials and corporate executives from global tobacco leaf companies in Malawi.

resultsBritish American Tobacco and Philip Morris created supply chains in the 1990 s to improve production efficiency, control, access to markets and profits. In the 2000s, the companies used their supply chains in an attempt to legitimise their portrayals of tobacco farming as socially and environmentally friendly, rather than take meaningful steps to eliminate child labour and reduce deforestation in developing countries. The tobacco companies used nominal self-evaluation (not truly independent evaluators) and public relations to create the impression of social responsibility. The companies benefit from $1.2 billion in unpaid labour costs because of child labour and more than $64 million annually in costs that would have been made to avoid tobacco-related deforestation in the top 12 tobacco growing developing countries, far exceeding the money they spend nominally working to change these practices.

conclusionsThe tobacco industry uses green supply chains to make tobacco farming in developing countries appear sustainable while continuing to purchase leaf produced with child labour and high rates of deforestation. Strategies to counter green supply chain schemes include securing implementing protocols for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to regulate the companies' practices at the farm level.

Indexed as

Conservation of Natural ResourcesNicotianaSocial ResponsibilityAgricultureDeveloping CountriesHumansPublic RelationsSocioeconomic FactorsTobacco Industry

Identifiers

PMID21504915
PMCPMC3155738

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.