LONDON, May 29: Leading tobacco companies have manipulated the hospitality industry in a worldwide campaign to prevent restaurants and bars from introducing smoke-free areas, according to research published on Wednesday.

By capitalizing on fears of lost profits and through donations to industry organisations such as the International Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes (HORECA), tobacco firms led by Philip Morris tried to stifle support for smoke-free premises.

“The tobacco industry has effectively turned the hospitality industry into its de facto lobbying arm on clean air,” said Dr Stanton Glantz of the University of California, San Francisco.

In a report in the journal Tobacco Control, Glantz and his colleagues analysed publicly available tobacco industry documents which they said show the industry aggressively recruited hospitality groups to convince restaurants to fight against smoke-free areas.

If an association refused, the tobacco industry created its own organisation to promote its messages.

“Develop, as needed, creation of national hospitality associations where none exist and encourage their affiliation with HORECA International,” Philip Morris said in a 1996 worldwide strategy plan quoted in the research.

But Marc Fritsch, a spokesman for Philip Morris International in Lausanne, Switzerland, said the scientists inaccurately reported the company’s policies on public smoking restrictions.

“We continue to believe that a total ban on smoking in restaurants, bars, night clubs, hotels and similar establishments that cater to smokers and non-smokers is extreme,” the company said in a statement.

“Apparently, the authors of the Tobacco Control article believe that it is inappropriate for us to express these views or to seek the support of business sectors that might share the same concerns. We respectfully disagree,” it added.

The researchers also accused the tobacco industry of promoting the idea ventilation systems could reduce the dangers of second-hand smoke so smokers and non-smokers could share the same space.

Glantz said the strategy was first developed in the 1970s and intensified as more evidence accumulated about the dangers of second-hand smoke.

“For more than a decade the tobacco industry disseminated misinformation asserting that the hospitality industry will suffer financially when smoke-free environments are instituted,” Glantz said.

But he added that 100 percent smoke-free policies had been shown not to harm a business’s profits.

Glantz and his colleagues said public health advocates should be aware of the relationship behind organised restaurant associations and the tobacco industry.—Reuters