We have previously reported on Associate Health Minister Casey Costello’s links to the tobacco industry, and more recently, that her own officials had accused her of inserting tobacco industry talking points into policy documents.
Now RNZ has done a close comparison between notes Costello sent to officials, and a range of documents produced by the tobacco industry and its supporters.
The tobacco industry has long since moved on from the days when it tried to discredit or distract from a mounting body of evidence that smoking kills.
But researchers say it’s now applying the same tactics to a raft of next-generation alternatives to cigarettes.
Otago University Professor of Public Health Janet Hoek says a really important part of that strategy is to “shape the discourse” and normalise the industry’s new products among members of the public, media – and politicians.
“People have picked up on that [discourse] without realising how it’s been socialised and seeded.”
Readers can draw their own conclusions about how an Associate Health Minister came to take tobacco industry talking points on board as policy.
Read the full piece by Kate newton for RNZ