Big Tobacco in Ukraine

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

>From the 9/4/1998 Kyiv Post


Cigarette companies join campaign against smoking
	
By Lily Hyde
POST STAFF WRITER

    Inside  a  conference  room  on  Kyiv's   main   square,
representatives from the city council, education authorities
and tobacco multinational company Philip Morris  unveiled  a
new campaign  this  week,  designed  to  stop  children  and
teenagers from smoking.
    "Smoke?  Is  that  interesting?  I  haven't  got  time!"
exclaim a series of posters to be shown on  streets  and  in
schools and  youth  centers,  depicting  fresh-faced,  happy
youngsters engaging in sport or computing.
    Outside on the main street, a group of teenage boys, the
targets of the posters, sat on benches recovering  from  the
first day back at school with a leisurely smoke.  They  were
surrounded by  ads  from  the  same  tobacco  mulitnational,
promoting a brand of cigarette  with  pictures  of  relaxed,
rugged cowboys engaging in healthy outdoor pursuits.
    Smoking has long been a popular habit in Ukraine. In the
Soviet Union, Ukrainians could  choose  from  a  variety  of
local brands, including the filterless papirosi, as well  as
cheap Bulgarian imports. In those days there was no  tobacco
advertising, but certain brands nevertheless  had  a  "cool"
image, like Belomorcanal papirosi, smoked by high  officials
and film actors.
    Since independence, tobacco multinational companies have
moved into Ukraine in a  big  way.  According  to  Oleksandr
Bukhalov, corporate affairs  manager  for  British  American
Tobacco  (BAT)  in  Ukraine,  multinationals  have  invested
around $130 million in Ukraine. Six of Ukraine's 11  tobacco
factories are joint ventures, producing 93  percent  of  all
cigarettes. Alcohol and Western-brand cigarette  advertising
make up 60 percent of  all  outdoor  billboard  advertising,
according to Big Board director Askold  Shestunov.  The  two
biggest advertisers, Philip Morris  and  BAT,  between  them
spent over $7 million on billboard campaigns in Ukraine last
year.
    "If  you  come  to  Boryspil  airport  or  Kyiv  railway
station, you  feel  you  have  come  to  Marlboro  country,"
Bukhalov commented of BAT's main rival.
    Despite the  flood  of  advertising  and  the  universal
availability  of  a  multitude  of  brands,  consumption  of
cigarettes overall is actually  falling.  Experts  attribute
this to a fall in income. But the prevalence of smoking  has
stayed stable among males, and  is  on  the  increase  among
females and young people.
    According to data collected by BAT, 43  percent  of  the
population smoke. THe 68 percent rate among males is one  of
the highest in the world. The Alcohol and  Drug  Information
Center  (ADIC),  an  independent  lobbying  and  information
organization, estimates that 40 percent of  adolescents  are
smokers, as are up to a quarter of women between 20 and 40.
    The World Health Organization estimates that the  annual
number of deaths caused by tobacco-related diseases  exceeds
100,000..  Ukraine  takes  fourth   place   in   Europe   for
smoking-attributed death in  men.  The  average  death  rate
among Ukrainian males is 57.
    Government policy aimed at curbing underage smoking,  or
indeed smoking at all, is scant.  Although  all  advertising
and cigarette  packs  bear  an  obligatory  health  warning,
Mikhailo Herasymenko from the Education Ministry said  that,
until the new Kyiv campaign launched  this  week,  educators
had never been  trained  to  deal  with  smoking  prevention
programs. It took until last year for the Ministry of Health
to impose limits  on  tar  and  nicotine  levels  in  filter
cigarettes. The tar level, 15 milligrams per  cigarette,  is
still three milligrams higher than in  the  European  Union,
and  Ukrainian  factories  have  been  granted  a   two-year
exemption from the ruling.
    According  to  Konstantin  Krasovsky,  who  heads  ADIC,
Ukrainians are  still  poorly-informed  of  the  effects  of
smoking on their health. Research in the US and in the  USSR
revealed in the 1960s the real problems smoking can cause to
health, but while  in  the  US  that  information  was  made
public, in the USSR it was not widely disseminated.
    Ukrainians have too many other social  issues  on  their
minds to think about the harm smoking may do them,  Bukhalov
said.
    Ukrainian  law  on  tobacco  and  cigarette  advertising
includes provision for 'social advertising', warning of  the
danger  of  smoking,  to  be  funded  by  five  percent   of
advertisers' profits. Anti-smoking ads however have  yet  to
appear. In their absence, the campaign launched  this  week,
"No to underage  smoking"  is  the  first  of  its  kind  in
Ukraine. Philip Morris donated $100, 000 to produce  posters
and  teacher's  information  packs  designed  by  Kyiv  City
Council and the Education Ministry. Posters will  appear  on
30 billboards around Kyiv, donated by the Big Board company,
which  has  already  printed  up  300  posters   hoping   to
distribute them to other cities.
    Philip Morris, and other tobacco multinationals, already
sponsor similar campaigns in Central and Eastern Europe.
    "This isn't  a  new  policy  for  Philip  Morris,"  said
Olexander  Vennikov,  media  relations  manager  for  Philip
Morris in Ukraine. "We never wanted kids  to  smoke  and  we
never advertised to underage smokers."
    Ukraine's law on alcohol and tobacco advertising, passed
in 1996, bans TV and radio advertising but permits print and
billboard ads, as well as certain types of  promotions.  The
law was passed not without a struggle; when  the  issue  was
first discussed in 1992 parliament voted to ban tobacco  and
alcohol advertising completely, as did a presidential decree
in 1994. The  Parliament  Commission  on  Mass  Media  later
prepared a law with only some limits on tobacco advertising,
after a document, "Questions and Answers on banning  tobacco
advertising in Ukraine prepared for members of parliament in
Ukraine by the association of independent advisors  for  the
development of the Ukrainian  tobacco  industry',  concluded
that a complete ban  on  tobacco  and  alcohol  advertising,
would cost Ukraine $400 million in  potential  revenues  and
investment.
    Tobacco Companies themselves, especially when denouncing
competitors, admit the ways  of  getting  around  the  law's
prohibitions are many and ingenious.
    Advertising by mail is  permitted,  and  companies  have
targeted teenagers with mail promotions associating  smoking
with toughness and success. It is forbidden to give out free
samples  of  cigarettes,  but  alongside  open   violations,
promoters can 'exchange' full packs of the promoted brand in
return  for  nearly  empty  packs  of  a  different   brand.
Distribution and sale of goods with cigarette trade marks is
forbidden to minors, but companies admit it is impossible to
enforce the ruling. Promotional parties may  try  to  invite
only older guests but the promotional items distributed  can
easily end up in younger hands, with undesirable results.
    "If a ten-year-old has a great T-shirt  with  the  Lucky
Strike mark, and then he sees the cigarettes  Lucky  Strike,
maybe he'll want to try them," said Bukhalov from BAT, which
produces Lucky Strike. "And that's bad," he added.
    Vennikov  and  Bukhalov  however  both  emphasize   that
multinational tobacco advertising is intended  to  encourage
already established  smokers  to  switch  to  better-quality
brands, rather than to attract new smokers.
    Supporters of measures to curb  underage  smoking  point
out that, without stricter laws on the sale of cigarettes to
minors, youngsters will continue to  smoke.  Cigarettes  are
freely available day and night  from  kiosks  and  from  the
ubiquitous 'babushkas" at street corners or subways.
    At present, Krasovsky said, sale of cigarettes to  under
18s  is  illegal  but   never   punished.   The   Government
Coordinating Body for Tobacco Control, of which Krasovsky is
a member, wants to impose fines and  withdrawal  of  license
for offenders, but the vast majority of  sellers,  those  on
the streets, sell without a license. They also sell smuggled
cigarettes, which officials says make up the largest section
of contraband in Ukraine.
    Smuggled  cigarettes  escape  the  two   measures   that
anti-smoking lobbyists support as curbs on  smoking;  health
warnings   and   excise   tax.   Krasovsky   shows   several
Western-brand cigarette packs he has collected  in  Ukraine;
some have no health warning at all, others have warnings  in
English or Russian.  Legally  imported  cigarettes  carry  a
health warning  in  Ukrainian  and  an  export  stamp  fixed
underneath the plastic packaging.
    Excise tax has been  increased  on  cigarettes  annually
until this year, when a presidential  decree  introduced  an
unprecedented hike this August. The rise meets with approval
from Krasovsky.
    "To decrease consumption we consider it a good  step  to
increase tax," he said. "We think  it  should  be  increased
more often."
    Figures show that the amount people smoke daily has been
steadily falling with rising prices; five years ago, smokers
in rural areas smoked a pack daily, now  they  are  down  to
half a pack, Krasovsky said.  According  to  BAT  data,  the
average daily consumption is down slightly from 13.9 in 1996
to 13.7 in 1997.
    Tobacco companies however argue that  increasing  excise
tax will only increase smuggling.