ArticleTobacco control2014
Towards a greater understanding of the illicit tobacco trade in Europe: a review of the PMI funded 'Project Star' report.
Article in Tobacco control, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 78 citations in OpenAlex.
- Tobacco industry data on illicit tobacco trade: a systematic review of existing assessments.Tobacco control · 2019Pooled it
- Illegal product purchasing in the experimental tobacco marketplace: Effects of menthol cigarette and cigarette ventilation ban.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Trial
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- A Systematic Investigation of Tobacco Industry Sourced Data Relating to Illicit Tobacco Trade Featured in Pakistan's Media Coverage (2015-2020).Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Article
- Trends in cross-border and illicit tobacco purchases among people who smoke in England, 2019-2022.Tobacco control · 2024Article
- Non-compliant packaging and illicit smokeless tobacco in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan: findings of a pack analysis.Tobacco control · 2024Article
- Estimating the Size of Illicit Tobacco Market in Lithuania: Results from the Discarded Pack Collection Method.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
- Perceptions of Illicit Tobacco Sources Following a Proposed Reduction in Tobacco Availability: A Qualitative Analysis of New Zealanders Who Smoke.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2023Article
- Measuring anomalies in cigarette sales using official data from Spanish provinces: Are the anomalies detected by the Empty Pack Surveys (EPSs) used by Transnational Tobacco Companies (TTCs) the only anomalies?Tobacco induced diseases · 2021Article
- Article
- Illicit tobacco trade is 'booming': UK newspaper coverage of data funded by transnational tobacco companies.Tobacco control · 2020Article
- Illicit Tobacco in Lithuania: A Cross-Sectional Survey.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Estimating the Magnitude of Illicit Cigarette Trade in Bangladesh: Protocol for a Mixed-Methods Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Article
- Memoranda of understanding: a tobacco industry strategy to undermine illicit tobacco trade policies.Tobacco control · 2019Article
- Impact of the WHO FCTC over the first decade: a global evidence review prepared for the Impact Assessment Expert Group.Tobacco control · 2019Review
- Tobacco industry's elaborate attempts to control a global track and trace system and fundamentally undermine the Illicit Trade Protocol.Tobacco control · 2019Article
- Response to Tobacco Free Ireland 2025: SimSmoke prediction for the end-game.Tobacco prevention & cessation · 2019Article
- The impact and relevance of tobacco control research in low-and middle-income countries globally and to the US.Addictive behaviors · 2018Review
- European Union implementation of Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.Globalization and health · 2018Article
- Availability and Use of Cheap Tobacco in the United Kingdom 2002-2014: Findings From the International Tobacco Control Project.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundFollowing a legal agreement with the European Union (EU), Philip Morris International (PMI) commissions a yearly report ('Project Star', PS) on the European illicit cigarette trade from KPMG, the global accountancy firm.
methodsReview of PS 2010 report. Comparison with data from independent sources including a 2010 pan-European survey (N=18,056).
findingsWithin PS, data covering all 27 EU countries are entered into a model. While the model itself seems appropriate, concerns are identified with the methodologies underlying the data inputs and thus their quality: there is little transparency over methodologies; interview data underestimate legal non-domestic product partly by failing to account for legal cross-border sales; illicit cigarette estimates rely on tobacco industry empty pack surveys which may overestimate illicit; and there is an over-reliance on data supplied by PMI with inadequate external validation. Thus, PMI sales data are validated using PMI smoking prevalence estimates, yet PMI is unable to provide sales (shipment) data for the Greek islands and its prevalence estimates differ grossly from independent data. Consequently, comparisons with independent data suggest PS will tend to overestimate illicit cigarette levels particularly where cross-border shopping is frequent (Austria, Finland, France) and in Western compared with Eastern European countries. The model also provides data on the nature of the illicit cigarette market independent of seizure data suggesting that almost a quarter of the illicit cigarette market in 2010 comprised PMI's own brands compared with just 5% counterfeited PMI brands; a finding hidden in PMI's public representation of the data.
conclusionsPS overestimates illicit cigarette levels in some European countries and suggests PMI's supply chain control is inadequate. Its publication serves the interests of PMI over those of the EU and its member states. PS requires greater transparency, external scrutiny and use of independent data.
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Registered trials
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.