About Us
TobaccoTactics is a knowledge exchange platform, established by the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) in 2012. It is a unique resource, providing rigorous academic research and monitoring data on the tobacco industry and its allies. The site attracts thousands of users from across the world including researchers, policy makers, journalists and advocates.
Want to stay one-step ahead of Big Tobacco? Stay in touch with Tobacco Tactics
Additional background information:
Background
There is general consensus in the global tobacco control community that tobacco industry interference is the greatest barrier to progress in reducing tobacco’s deadly toll.1
To this end, Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), an international public health treaty with 182 parties, obliges countries to protect their health policies from the “vested interests of the tobacco industry”. Monitoring and researching the tobacco industry, and holding it to account, are essential for the success of tobacco control policies.23
In 2011, TCRG established the first comprehensive tobacco industry monitoring programme in line with Article 5.3. TobaccoTactics, set up in 2012, is the primary output of this programme.
A new model of knowledge exchange
A unique feature of TobaccoTactics is that it enables TCRG to make preliminary research findings publicly available faster than via traditional academic outputs. The site provides timely access to findings in a user-friendly format. On TobaccoTactics you can find information on:
- tactics and arguments used by the industry to promote a pro-tobacco and nicotine- agenda and halt advances in public health;
- the organisations, institutions, and people that the industry collaborates with, including front groups and third parties, who lobby on its behalf; and
- current topics such as plain packaging, price & tax, the illicit tobacco trade , newer nicotine and tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, and the activities of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.
The Secretariat to the WHO FCTC has recognised TobaccoTactics as the gold standard on tobacco industry monitoring and other regional monitoring sites around the world are based on the TCRG model.4 Sites have been set up in Brazil and Sri Lanka,5 in which the TCRG has played a key supportive role.67 A further monitoring centre has been established in South Africa.
TCRG provides training to those who wish to learn more about implementing effective tobacco control policies, monitoring methods and good practice, and how to use the resources on TobaccoTactics.
Our funders
Some of the research for TobaccoTactics was funded by Cancer Research UK Limited and Bloomberg Philanthropies. This work has previously received funding from The New Venture Fund, Smokefree South West, and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Knowledge Exchange Opportunities scheme.
TCRG is a partner in the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use (BI) and is part of the STOP network.
STOP is a global tobacco industry watchdog whose mission is to expose the tobacco industry tactics that undermine public health. Comprised of a network of academic and public health organisations, STOP researches and monitors the tobacco industry, shares intelligence to counter its tactics, and exposes its misdeeds to a global audience. STOP is funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies as part of the BI.
For more information, visit exposetobacco.org.
The Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG)
TCRG is a multidisciplinary, international research group at the University of Bath. Our work focuses on the commercial determinants of health. We specifically examine how major corporations influence health and policy; evaluate the impacts of policy change on health; and provide evidence to inform the development of new policy.
TCRG is a member of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, one of six UK Public Health Research Centres of Excellence.
For more information, TCRG news and details of our impact see the Tobacco Control Research Group web pages.
