Tobacco Control is essentially a public response to a social issue. The public policy underpinning that response can be influenced by the reality of the social issue involved and the perception of the social issue involved. The perception of the need for tobacco control, and therefore the public policy response, however, has been distorted by decades of manipulation by the international tobacco industry. The deceit of the tobacco industry is now being exposed, largely through public inquires and litigation. As a consequence, the public policy response to the tobacco issue is increasingly being recognised as urgent and important and is increasingly more reflective of the real underlying social issue involved.

The WHO FCTC is an example at the pan-global level. This APACT conference is an illustration at the regional-international level. Inevitably, however, policies must be implemented on a country by country basis. Just as trans-national tobacco companies have operated at an international, regional and national level to distort the truth and impede tobacco control, their efforts need to be exposed at all levels in order to ensure that their conduct does not continue to influence tobacco control efforts, and so that the tobacco industry can be made accountable for its actions.

Litigation and public inquiries can assist to this end and there are numerous examples, illustrations and suggestions for future action, including:

1. U.S. Tobacco Litigation - State AG's, Engle Class Action, Individual Cases, Third Party Reimbursement Cases, D of J Action, Foreign Claims.

2. U.K. Parliamentary Inquiry, UK Litigation.

3. W.H.O.Reports on Industry Documents, Voice of Truth, FCTC, UDHR, CRC, ILO.

4. Australian Litigation and Inquiries - Class Actions, Senate ACCC Report & potential ACCC action, potential Commission of Inquiry (c/f Agent Orange, Maralinga).

5. Asia/Pacific Regional Report on tobacco industry documents (APACT/WPRO).

6. Litigation in individual countries - Ireland, Israel, China, Korea, Marshall Islands etc.