since 1999, PM and Brown & Williamson have both worked to disseminate Life Skills Training programs into schools across the country. Why? As part of their effort, the two companies hired a public relations firm to evaluate the program. The evaluation showed that LST was not effective at reducing smoking, after either the first or second year of implementing the program. Despite this, the tobacco companies have continued to eagerly award grants to implement the program.
And it doesn’t hurt, the article adds, that “LST” eschews any criticism of the tobacco industry, unlike most medically-based school health programs.
Every time I’m tempted to think the tobacco industry has thrown in the towel, maybe even decided to turn the page on its sordid and horrific history of fraud and deceit, they pull something like this.
By the way, this comes from a peer-reviewed study by UC San Francisco’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
Posted via web from robcottingham’s posterous
