Intimidation against advocates and researchers in the tobacco, alcohol and ultra-processed food spaces: a review.

Unhealthy commodity industries (UCIs) engage in corporate political activity, using diverse practices, including intimidatory tactics, to thwart, delay and dilute regulations that threaten their businesses. While examples of such intimidation exist across multiple sectors, no attempt has been made to synthesize these. Furthermore, much of the literature focuses on intimidation of policy-makers.

Complex Interventions for a Complex System? Using Systems Thinking to Explore Ways to Address Unhealthy Commodity Industry Influence on Public Health Policy.

Background: Interventions are needed to prevent and mitigate unhealthy commodity industry (UCI) influence on public health policy. Whilst literature on interventions is emerging, current conceptualisations remain incomplete as they lack considerations of the wider systemic complexities surrounding UCI influence, which may limit intervention effectiveness. This study applies systems thinking as a theoretical lens to help identify and explore how possible interventions relate to one another in the systems in which they are embedded.

"They try to suppress us, but we should be louder": a qualitative exploration of intimidation in tobacco control.

Background: Tobacco control advocates and researchers face powerful opponents who go to great lengths to protect their interests. While threats and attacks are documented in the grey literature, research into intimidation remains scarce. Building on previous exploratory research, this study seeks to offer in-depth insights into experiences of intimidation in the global tobacco control community.

Hosting the Tobacco Industry Supply Chain and Political Interference.

Introduction: We found no comprehensive studies on the location of transnational tobacco and leaf company (TTLC) subsidiaries (business entities they control) or the consequences of their presence on health policy.

Aims And Methods: Here we assess (1) the global reach of TTLCs by mapping their tobacco growing and manufacturing subsidiaries and (2) the relationship between in-country presence of the tobacco industry and their power and interference. Data on subsidiaries were collated through systematic searching for countries' supply chain activities in documents and web pages.

Advocacy counterstrategies to tobacco industry interference in policymaking: a scoping review of peer-reviewed literature.

Background: There has been remarkable tobacco control progress in many places around the globe. Tobacco industry interference (TII) has been identified as the most significant barrier to further implementation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Civil society has been recognised as a key actor in countering TII.

Tobacco industry interference to undermine the development and implementation of graphic health warnings in Bangladesh.

Background: In Bangladesh, the 2013 Amendment of the Tobacco Control Act made graphic health warnings (GHWs) on the 50% of all tobacco packs obligatory. However, at the time of writing (May 2022), GHWs are still being printed on the 50% of packs. This paper seeks to explore how the tobacco industry undermined the development and implementation of GHWs in Bangladesh, a country known for a high level of tobacco industry interference (TII) that has rarely been examined in the peer-reviewed literature.

Seeking to be seen as legitimate members of the scientific community? An analysis of British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International's involvement in scientific events.

Introduction: For decades, tobacco companies manipulated and misused science. They funded and disseminated favourable research and suppressed research that showed the harms of their products, deliberately generating misinformation. While previous work has examined many of the practices involved, their engagement in scientific events has so far not been systematically studied.

': perceptions and experiences of intimidation in the LMIC-based tobacco control community.

Background: It is well-evidenced that environmental or human rights advocacy comes with risks for those involved. Much less is known about the risks of tobacco control advocacy despite the emphasis on tobacco industry conduct. This study explores the experiences and perceptions of intimidation among members of the tobacco control community in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Developing more detailed taxonomies of tobacco industry political activity in low-income and middle-income countries: qualitative evidence from eight countries.

Introduction: Historical evidence, predominantly from high-income countries (HICs), shows that the tobacco industry uses a recurring set of arguments and techniques when opposing tobacco control policies. This data formed the basis of a model of tobacco industry political activity known as the policy dystopia model (PDM). The PDM has been widely used in tobacco control research and advocacy and has subsequently been shown relevant to other unhealthy commodities industries in both HICs and low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Needs of LMIC-based tobacco control advocates to counter tobacco industry policy interference: insights from semi-structured interviews.

Introduction: Advocacy is vital for advancing tobacco control and there has been considerable investment in this area. While much is known about tobacco industry interference (TII), there is little research on advocates' efforts in countering TII and what they need to succeed. We sought to examine this and focused on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where adoption and implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) tend to remain slower and weaker.