This Philip Morris (PM) Regional Corporate Affairs plan lists as an objective to "Stop the decline in, and start re-building the social acceptability of smokers and smoking in society," thus revealing PM's internal corporate goal of reversing the gains made by public health authorities against tobacco use since the 1964 Surgeon General's report. PM worried that the EPA's looming classification of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS, or secondhand smoke) as a Class A carcinogen could cause "the ultimate threat" of "widespread smoking bans." In this report, PM also links public concern about secondhand smoke to the double threat of declining cigarette sales and reduced influence with policymakers:
"We also risk consumption decreased due to shrinking possibilities to smoke at the workplace as well as a deterioration of the social acceptability of smokers and smoking. With the lack of social acceptability, we will face further problems in ally-building and government relations work."
A PM strategy was to shift discussion about ETS away from science, saying "The messages on ETS-related issues will focus on solutions and accommodation rather than on a scientific debate." PM also worked to influence indoor air quality and ventilation standards in part to "focus more on standards and regulations and less on scientific base work."
The report also discusses the emergence of concern about "the primary issue" [smoking-induced illness] in less developed countries of Africa and Eastern Europe, saying the information had been "channeled effectively to the global media by our opponents."
The document reveals PM's internal corporate policies were squarely at odds with the goals of governments around the world to reduce tobacco use. It describes PM's vast activities to derail and minimize public policy attempts to regulate tobacco in Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, the Gulf Council Countries, Egypt, the Czech Republic and North Africa.