Research by leading international business and corporate governance scholar Daniel Malan identifies inherent conflicts of interest with many of the countries leading the development of global tobacco control policy. The “Contradictions and Conflicts” report specifically identifies contradictions between governments’ fiduciary responsibility to maximize  state monopoly profitability and their health responsibility to minimize public health risks, as well as generate potential solutions.

Tobacco products kill 8 million people every year. Between 2000 and 2019, overall global tobacco use declined by less than a quarter of a percentage point per year, despite global attempts to address the pandemic, spearheaded by the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), in force since 2005. There are currently 182 parties to the FCTC, which has as its main objective “to protect present and future generations from the devastating health, social, environmental and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure”