wfn.org | Church agency blasts Philip Morris over 'savings' claims

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Aug. 3, 2001     News media contact: Joretta Purdue 7(202)
546-87227Washington    10-21-71B{338}

WASHINGTON (UMNS) - The top staff executive at the United Methodist social
action agency is criticizing Philip Morris Cos. Inc.'s recent cost-benefits
analysis of smoking in the Czech Republic, in which the tobacco giant
claimed that early deaths caused by cigarettes have a positive effect on the
economy there.

"Philip Morris, a corporation that has deceived the public for decades about
the dangers of smoking, is now telling the Czech Republic that the early
deaths of smokers can save the government up to $30 million a year," said
Jim Winkler, staff head of the denomination's Board of Church and Society,
in a statement issued July 31.

The company itself issued a statement July 26 apologizing for the study.
"The funding and public release of this study, which, among other things,
detailed purported cost savings to the Czech Republic due to premature
deaths of smokers, exhibited terrible judgment as well as a complete and
unacceptable disregard of basic human values," the tobacco maker said.

"For one of our tobacco companies to commission this study was not just a
terrible mistake, it was wrong," the company said. "All of us at Philip
Morris, no matter where we work, are extremely sorry for this."

Apology notwithstanding, board staff executive Jaydee Hanson expressed
concern. "While Philip Morris has apologized for its actions in the Czech
Republic, I wonder why they did this study in the first place," Hanson said.
He expects the company not to do this kind of study again and to follow
through on its promises to reform, he said.

The report, prepared by a consulting company for the Czech arm of Philip
Morris, a U.S.-based international corporation, calculates that the smokers'
early deaths save the government money on health care, pensions and housing
for the elderly, Winkler said. 

"The report, which tries to convince the Czech government that
tobacco-related deaths are good for the country's economy, is a blatant
example of Philip Morris' disregard for human life and goes against the
United Methodist Social Principles that state, 'We believe that persons come
before profits. We deplore the selfish spirit that often pervades our
economic life,'" Winkler said. 

He said that Phillip Morris controls more than 80 percent of the Czech
tobacco market and was clearly trying to defend its business there with the
report, which disagrees in its conclusions with a 1999 World Bank study. The
World Bank research concluded that comprehensive tobacco control policies
could produce great health benefits without harming the economy. Winkler
also pointed out that the Morris report assumes that if people stopped
buying tobacco products, they would not buy other goods.

"Regardless of the report's validity, Philip Morris' irresponsible behavior
as a corporation is made abundantly clear," Winkler stated.

He quoted another part of the denomination's Social Principles that
maintains corporations are responsible not just to their stockholders but to
their workers and customers, their suppliers and vendors, the communities in
which they do business and the earth that supports them.

"Marketing and selling a product that is responsible for over 4 million
deaths a year (when used correctly) is not responsible, and neither is
telling a government that dead smokers will help the country's budget,"
Winkler said. "The corporation claims they have changed, but this report
clearly indicates otherwise."

In his statement, Winkler noted that the voting members of the Board of
Church and Society, at their biannual board meeting in March, decided to
join a boycott against Kraft Foods, a subsidiary of Philip Morris, to
protest the company's aggressive tobacco retailing practices. The
Alabama-West Florida and Northern Illinois annual conferences both joined
the boycott in June.

The board is urging United Methodists around the world to boycott Kraft
Foods in protest of Philip Morris.

"One of the boycott's demands," Winkler added, "is to stop spreading
cigarette addiction globally, such as in the Czech Republic, where an
explosion of tobacco advertising following Philip Morris' entry into the
Czech market in the early 1990s caused a corresponding increase in smoking
among teen-agers."  

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United Methodist News Service
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