Yerger V B, Malone R E
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Nursing, and Center for Tobacco Control Research & Education, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143-1390, USA.
Tob Control. 2002 Dec;11(4):336-45. doi: 10.1136/tc.11.4.336.
Among all racial and ethnic groups in the USA, African Americans bear the greatest burden from tobacco related disease. The tobacco industry has been highly influential in the African American community for decades, providing funding and other resources to community leaders and emphasising publicly its support for civil rights causes and groups, while ignoring the negative health effects of its products on those it claims to support. However, the industry's private business reasons for providing such support were unknown.
To understand how and for what purposes the tobacco industry sought to establish and maintain relationships with African American leaders.
Review and analysis of over 700 previously secret internal tobacco industry documents available on the internet.
The tobacco industry established relationships with virtually every African American leadership organisation and built longstanding social connections with the community, for three specific business reasons: to increase African American tobacco use, to use African Americans as a frontline force to defend industry policy positions, and to defuse tobacco control efforts.
As the tobacco industry expands its global reach, public health advocates should anticipate similar industry efforts to exploit the vulnerabilities of marginalised groups. The apparent generosity, inclusion, and friendship proffered by the industry extract a price from groups in the health of their members. Helping groups anticipate such efforts, confront industry co-optation, and understand the hidden costs of accepting tobacco industry largesse should be part of worldwide tobacco control efforts.
在美国所有种族和族裔群体中，非裔美国人承受着与烟草相关疾病的最大负担。几十年来，烟草行业在非裔美国人社区一直极具影响力，它向社区领袖提供资金和其他资源，并公开强调其对民权事业和团体的支持，却忽视了其产品对它声称所支持群体的负面健康影响。然而，该行业提供这种支持的商业私利尚不清楚。
了解烟草行业如何以及出于何种目的寻求与非裔美国领导人建立并维持关系。
对互联网上700多份此前保密的烟草行业内部文件进行审查和分析。
烟草行业与几乎每一个非裔美国领导组织都建立了关系，并与该社区建立了长期的社会联系，出于三个特定的商业原因：增加非裔美国人的烟草使用量，利用非裔美国人作为捍卫行业政策立场的一线力量，以及化解控烟努力。
随着烟草行业扩大其全球影响力，公共卫生倡导者应预见到该行业会有类似利用边缘化群体弱点的行为。该行业表面上的慷慨、包容和友好是以其成员的健康为代价从这些群体那里获取回报的。帮助各群体预见到此类行为、应对行业的拉拢，并理解接受烟草行业馈赠的隐性成本，应成为全球控烟努力的一部分。
