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Organizations Highlight Dangers of Philip Morris Split Corporation expects split to increase profitability For Immediate Release: Contact: BOSTON— On March 28 the world’s largest transnational tobacco corporation split into U.S.-based Altria (PM USA) and Swiss-based Philip Morris International (PMI). The corporations’ executives expect the split to increase profitability for both PM USA and PMI. In the week of the split Corporate Accountability International delivered a letter to current Altria Chair and CEO Louis Camilleri expressing concerns about the dangerous lack of accountability of PMI, which Camilleri will head following the spinoff. The membership organization has been challenging industry influence over health and tobacco control policies since 1993. “Faced with an epidemic that kills 5.4 million people each year, the world will not tolerate increased profits for a few, at the expense of the health and lives of so many,” says Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International. In light of the split, Mulvey and international civil society organizations placed added emphasis on the importance of the World Health Organization’s global tobacco treaty. More than 150 countries have ratified the treaty, which aims to stem the global tobacco epidemic and deter the expansion of transnationals like PMI. In advance of the split, 173 organizations from 74 countries called on governments to take action to prevent the Philip Morris/Altria split from worsening the global tobacco epidemic—suggesting that ratification and immediate implementation of the treaty can best serve this end. A full list of the demands and signatories is available at www.philipmorrisbreakup.org/calltogovs/. “People around the world are concerned about the lack of accountability of PMI to the public and policymakers,” says Akinbode Oluwafemi of Environmental Rights Action–Nigeria, a NATT member. “The global tobacco treaty recognizes the tobacco industry’s fundamental conflict of interest with public health. We will be vigilant in exposing and challenging interference by PMI in the treaty and domestic health policies.” ### The Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) includes more than 100 NGOs from over 50 countries working for a strong, enforceable Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Corporate Accountability International, formerly Infact, is a membership organization that protects people by waging and winning campaigns challenging irresponsible and dangerous corporate actions around the world. For 30 years, we’ve forced corporations—like Nestlé, General Electric and Philip Morris/Altria—to stop abusive actions. Corporate Accountability International, an NGO in Official Relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), played a key role in development of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
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