This is a new website in the Netherlands (Dutch language) that’s getting a lot of attention locally.
The website was set up by two lung specialists. Their goal is to prevent tobacco use, in particular among young people, and to that end they want to openly discuss the tactics used by the tobacco lobby to achieve their goals.
An important part of the website, and what’s gaining the most attention, is their revealing all the known links between the Dutch government and tobacco industry. It’s a very aggressive naming and shaming of the big players, and involves some very well known people in the country, like the Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health.
There’s been a remarkable change in this country in the last few years. We’ve gone from almost no smoking controls, even to the extent that some school teachers smoked in front of the children during class, to a partial public smoking ban and active discussion of youth smoking. There’s even some discussion about going to plain cigarette packaging, like has just happened in Australia.
Even though an international treaty that Holland is a signatory of requires it, and some 80% of the country is in favor, we still don’t have a comprehensive public smoking ban!
There’s really increasing impatience with the smoking lobby here, and as the lung doctors who started the website point out, dealing with the tactics of the smoking lobby is really the first important step in dealing with the overall problem in the country.
This website is likely to be very effective here. Already nearly all the important political parties and politicians have had some reaction to it, if only to say they don’t find it meaningful. If a politician here says something like this website isn’t meaningful, that means they’re scared! A couple of important political parties have come forward to say they agree with the goals of the website.
Holland is a small country, making something like this more effective than in a place like the US, where there are so many jurisdictions and politicians. I still think something like this could help a lot in the battle against the food industry, almost anywhere in the world.
Anyone out there looking for a good project to get started on?
