Studies on plain packaging impacts industry-linked

The tobacco industry is financially linked to the majority of studies showing negative impacts of standardised packaging, according to a Press Association story quoting a Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) study funded by Cancer Research UK.

Academics with the University of Bath say that more than half the evidence tobacco companies relied on to claim that standardized packaging would have negative economic impacts comprised either company-commissioned reports or the opinions of those financially connected to the industry.

The TCRG was said to have reviewed 74 pieces of evidence cited by tobacco companies to argue that standardised packaging would have detrimental economic and illicit trade impacts.

Of these it found there were no independent, peer-reviewed pieces of evidence that supported the companies’ position and that 47 percent were industry-connected, comprising reports commissioned by tobacco companies and other evidence from third-parties financially connected to a tobacco company.

The University of Bath is part of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, a network of 12 UK and one New Zealand universities that is funded by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, which builds on the work of its predecessor, the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies.