'To quarterback behind the scenes, third-party efforts': the tobacco industry and the Tea Party.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The Tea Party, which gained prominence in the USA in 2009, advocates limited government and low taxes. Tea Party organisations, particularly Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, oppose smoke-free laws and tobacco taxes.

Methods

We used the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, the Wayback Machine, Google, LexisNexis, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Center for Responsive Politics (opensecrets.org) to examine the tobacco companies' connections to the Tea Party.

Results

Starting in the 1980s, tobacco companies worked to create the appearance of broad opposition to tobacco control policies by attempting to create a grassroots smokers' rights movement. Simultaneously, they funded and worked through third-party groups, such as Citizens for a Sound Ec

SUBMITTER: Fallin A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3740007 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature