The Political Economy of the Tobacco Industry in Southeast Asia (2001- 2004).
This project was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation’s Trading Tobacco for Health Initiative and based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of London.
The aim was to analyse tobacco industry activities in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in collaboration with researchers from each of the six countries. The project focused on five selected themes; tobacco industry strategies around sport sponsorship, smuggling, and influencing the scientific process; issues of health equity; and the economics of tobacco control.
The LSHTM research team took the lead on acquisition and analysis of British American Tobacco documents held at the company’s depository in Guildford UK, and provided training and support in document analysis to the national research teams who undertook extensive reviews of primary and secondary source materials in their respective countries.
All researchers and project consultants attended regional workshops in Penang, Malaysia in January 2003, and in Nakorn Pathom, Thailand September that year, and outputs were presented at the 7th Asia-Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health, Gyeongju, Korea, 15-18 September 2004, and the 12th World Conference on Tobacco or Health, Helsinki, Finland in August 2003.
Outputs
- Lee K, Kinh, HV, MacKenzie R, Gilmore A, Minh NT, Collin J (2008). Gaining access to Vietnam’s cigarette market: British American Tobacco’s strategy to enter “a huge market which will become enormous.” Global Public Health 3(1): 1-25.
- MacKenzie R, Collin J, Sriwongcharoen K (2007). Thailand - “Lighting up a Dark Market": British American Tobacco, sports sponsorship and the circumvention of legislation. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 61:28-33.
- Collin J, LeGresley E, MacKenzie R, Lawrence S, Lee K (2004). Complicity in Contraband: British American Tobacco and
Cigarette Smuggling in Asia.Tobacco Control 13(Suppl 2):ii104-ii111. - Lawrence S, Collin J (2004). Competing with kreteks: Transnational tobacco companies in Indonesia. Tobacco Control 13(Supp II):ii96-ii103.
- MacKenzie R, Collin J, Srivongcharoen K, Muggli M (2004). “If we can just ‘stall’ new unfriendly legislation, the scoreboard is already in our favour”: Transnational tobacco companies and ingredients disclosure in Thailand. Tobacco Control 13(Suppl 2):ii79-ii87.
- MacKenzie R, Collin J, Chim S, Yel S (2004). “Almost a model of what we would like to do everywhere’: British American Tobacco in Cambodia. Tobacco Control 13(Suppl 2):ii112-ii117.
- MacKenzie R, Collin J, Lee K (2003). The tobacco industry documents: an introductory handbook and resource guide for researchers. London: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.