Tobacco.org

• TV presenter joins London day of action against BAT 

Television entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne joined campaigners outside the London headquarters of British American Tobacco today as shareholders arrived for the company's annual general meeting. [1]

The Day of Protest was organised by the campaigning charity ASH, which has been researching BAT's activities in Africa. Its report, BAT's African Footprint, says that while smoking is declining in the West, BAT's profits in Asia and Africa grew by £2 million to £470 million last year.

Mr Bannatyne, the business philanthropist on TV's Dragon's Den, is a fierce anti-smoker. He had arrived back in the UK after a two-week trip to Africa to investigate BAT's involvement in the tobacco trade there for himself. "I was making a documentary for BBC2 ," he said. "I have been looking at their marketing tactics all over Africa and I don't like what I have seen."

He said he would be posting his views on YouTube, and asking members of the public to join him at the tobacco corporation's next year's annual meeting - by buying a single BAT share, giving them the right to attend the meeting and ask questions.

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• Anti-Smokers Protest British American Tobacco Expansion in Africa, Asia 

British American Tobacco (BAT) has been in Africa since 1902. The shareholders at the London meeting had reason to celebrate; the company made a pretax profit of more than $4.5 billion last year. But Action on Smoking and Health, a non-profit group that works to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco, used the opportunity to protest the company's growing presence in Africa.

Group spokesman Martin Dockrell says African countries are experiencing the highest increase in tobacco use among developing countries.

"The shareholders are meeting in London today to count their profits," he said. "They sold 1.1 billion cigarettes in Africa and the Middle East region last year, and we are not so happy because by our calculation that is equivalent to about 100,000 deaths."

Dockrell says since smoking is on the decline in the West due to pressure by organizations like his and the general public's awareness of the health implications of smoking, companies such as BAT have shifted their focus to Africa and Asia with aggressive advertising. . . .

BAT responded with a written statement saying Action on Smoking and Health's facts just do not stand up. It also dismissed the charge it is breaking into emerging markets to dodge regulation, since it has been in those markets for more than 100 years and abides by the laws and regulations of all the countries it operates in.

The company says the health risks associated with smoking are well-known and warnings about the hazard are printed on every single pack of cigarettes it makes whether the law requires it or not.

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BAT, CEPS Fight Counterfeiting  

The British American Tobacco (BAT) company and the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) are engaged in a two-day anti-counterfeiting workshop at the La Palm Royal Hotel.

The two organizations signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in the area of fighting counterfeiting and trading in such products with particular reference to cigarettes.

In his overview of the workshop, Don Ayao Dussey, BAT's Corporate & Regulatory Affairs Manager, West and Central Africa, described the event as another milestone in the fight against illicit trade in Ghana. . . .

"It is in recognition of the tremendous contribution of CEPS and other security agencies to reducing the illicit trade that we donated 12 jungle motorbikes to help CEPS in their efforts to have better control of our borders and the product flow," he said.

BAT, he said, was committed to setting high standards of good corporate citizenship by helping to improve the capacity of their partners in the process of eliminating illicit trading activities. . . .

Some 12 countries mostly in Africa and the Middle East accounted for most of the financial losses of BAT in terms of illegal trade in tobacco products.

Nigeria with a very big market, he pointed out, accounted for $48 million, followed by South Africa with $44 million.

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• ASH Protests At BAT's Footprint On Africa 

As British American Tobacco celebrates 100 years of trade in Africa at its AGM in London (on Wednesday, 30th April), campaigners will be outside, protesting about the heavy footprint it leaves on the continent - death, hunger, poverty, and environmental destruction.

A new report by ASH, BAT's African Footprint [1], says that while smoking is declining in the West, BAT's profits in Asia and Africa grew by £2 million to £470 million last year. The growth in sales means more ill-health and ultimately rising tobacco-related deaths.

According to an analysis carried out for the campaigning charity ASH, one person dies for every million cigarettes sold. BAT sold 101 billion cigarettes in the Africa and Middle east region last year. Sir Richard Peto, Professor of Medical Statistics at Oxford University said: "If BAT continues selling 100 billion cigarettes a year in Africa and the Middle East, this will, in the long run, cause 100,000 deaths per year."

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Study: Cigarette Smuggling Causing Public Health Problem in Developing World 

Anti-tobacco campaigners negotiating a treaty to combat the illicit tobacco trade say cigarette smuggling is big business throughout the African continent and is resulting in serious health problems. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

Studies by a consortium of anti-tobacco groups find the illicit trade in tobacco products represents about 10 percent of global sales, and cost governments between $40-$50 billion every year in lost revenue.

"It puts lower cost tobacco products on to the market and that...correlates with higher consumption," said Kathryn Mulvey, Director of International Policy for Corporate Accountability International. "It correlates with more young people getting addicted to tobacco. So, that is helping to grow their markets for their deadly products. And, they also benefit because often it is a way of getting their brands into markets that they might not yet be established in."

This is borne out by the situation in Nigeria. Akinbode Oluwafemi is a member of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals. He says smuggled cigarettes carrying the Japan Tobacco brand name became so popular throughout Nigeria that the company last year set up a factory there.

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• Smoke alarm from Afghanistan to Morocco 

Under WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI), the 21 Member States of WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, are stepping up tobacco-control efforts. The Initiative was launched in 1998 and WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which is now one of the most widely supported treaties in the history of the United Nations, entered into force in 2005.

The moves can’t come soon enough, according to Dr Fatimah El-Awa, the regional adviser for the Tobacco Free Initiative at WHO’s Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, which is based in Cairo.

“When we talk about tobacco, some people still look at us and laugh, saying, ‘Well, people are starving and dying from poverty and you’re talking about tobacco.’ But they don’t understand that tobacco contributes to poverty.”

With stronger tobacco control policies, including smoking bans expanding in public areas like restaurants in more parts of the United States of America (USA) and Europe, cigarette manufacturers are dumping their toxic merchandise in other parts of the world such as the Eastern Mediterranean Region, making tobacco control measures even more imperative, says El-Awa. The region comprises 21 Member States, from Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia in north Africa, through the Gulf countries, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the rest of the Middle East to Afghanistan and Pakistan in south Asia. It also includes Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Justice Crabbe receives award from WHO 

Mr. Justice V.C.R.A.C. Crabbe, Commissioner of Statute Law Revision, Attorney General's Department was on Monday awarded with a special prize and certificate by the World Health Organisation (WHO), African Regional Office for his contribution towards tobacco control. . . .

Justice Crabbe is the first Ghanaian to have won the prize. The award was given at a seminar on Global Tobacco Surveillance Dissemination in Accra, by Dr Joiaquim Saweka, WHO Country Representative who praised Justice Crabbe for bringing to bear his experiences as a drafter of constitutional laws on the draft bill. "On behalf of the Director General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan and Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo, I congratulate Justice Crabbe for winning the award", he said. During the seminar, Major Courage Quashigah, Minister of Health said tobacco should be seen as a health issue and not as a human right issue.

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• The World's Heaviest-Smoking Countries  

Thanks to celebrity activism and widespread media attention, HIV, malaria and starvation are well-known diseases of the third world. But there's another resource-draining plague afflicting these countries, one hiding in plain sight: smoking.

While the smoking population is half what it was a generation ago in the U.S. and other industrialized nations, with only one in five using tobacco, it's different in Africa and East Asia, where time stands still when it comes to cigarettes. Smoking rates of 40% or more of the population are common in these regions, making for an extra-tough health hazard when medical services are as limited as filterless, hand rolled smokes are plentiful.

We assembled a list of the countries where the highest percentage of citizens smoke according to the most recent public health data available and ranked them based on that figure. But we also took it further, estimating the potential drain on each nation's potential income opportunity due to smoking deaths as compared to the nation's gross domestic product.

In Pictures: The World's Heaviest-Smoking Countries . . .

In Namibia, where half of the country's two million citizens smoke, the average income is about $3,230 a year, according to the World Bank. How much does the habit drain that? About $448.61 per year in lost income. Multiplied by just over 1 million smokers, it adds up to $461 million in income losses nationwide, or 6.9% of the country's $6.6 million total.

The average lifespan in Namibia is 47

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• The fight against a killer  

The Union World Conference on tuberculosis and lung health opens in Cape Town on November 9, with more than 3 000 scientists brainstorming new strategies to attack one of the most successful killers of human beings.

This year the traditionally scientific and sober meeting looks set to develop a harder advocacy edge. Alarmed by the link between TB mortality and HIV infection, health activists are turning their honed advocacy skills to the need for greater resources and political commitment to stop the spread of the disease.

South African scientists are well represented on the packed schedule of the four-day conference, which is focusing on HIV/TB co-infection and drug-resistant disease. TB is the biggest killer of HIV-positive people in South Africa.

Globally TB, which kills more than 1,5-million people a year

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British American Tobacco names Gray as regional director Africa, Middle East | Latest News | News | Hemscott 

British American Tobacco PLC said it has appointed Andrew Gray, currently the president of Souza Cruz, the group's Brazilian unit, to succeed Nicandro Durante as regional director, Africa & the Middle East.

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• TISA turns spotlight on illicit trade in tobacco products 

The legal tobacco industry, government and law enforcement agencies are working tirelessly to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products. This was evident in presentations made at the TISA Anti-illicit Trade Day held on 3 September 2007 at the Sandton Sun and Towers.

The day was attended by international customs and law enforcement officials as well as senior tobacco industry officials involved in regional efforts to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products. Visiting officials represented the following countries: Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC); Kenya; Nigeria; Ethiopia; Turkey and the United Kingdom.

The purpose of the TISA day was to present to visitors what is being done by South African customs and law enforcement agencies and the SA tobacco industry in combating the illicit trade in tobacco products.

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Protocol agreements sealed to cope with cigarettes counterfeiting 

The State is losing yearly $162mn as a result of losing control over tobacco counterfeited products, which owners evade taxes imposed by the State, while traders sell normally that counterfeited products or banned trade marks because of loopholes in control due to be undertaken by trade ministry. International specialized institutions, however, estimate the losses resulting in smuggling, fraud and copycat at $500mn a year, worldwide. In this respect, an official in anti-smuggling direction at customs services Mr. Nadir Redouane told El Khabar that customs managed to confiscate 100 thousand cartons of smuggled and counterfeited cigarettes especially those US trade marks at the southern borders during 2007 first five months of coming mainly from Mali and Niger.

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Outsourcing ... death  

It appears that the tried and true aggressive marketing tactics of American owned multi-national tobacco companies are working in developing nations. For the past few years, Philip Morris and its cohorts have stepped up the aggressive marketing of their deadly products to African youth and young women.

The billboard in Senegal shown in the photo entices the young to smoke and send in their proof of purchase seals to enter into a drawing to �win a trip to America.� Unfortunately, few if any would be granted an appointment to even request a visa to the U.S. if they were ever lucky enough to �win� the contest.

But the true winner in this scenario is of course big tobacco; they are simply playing a numbers game knowing that for every hundred youth who are enticed to smoke, a certain percentage will become addicted to cigarettes and thus lifelong contributors to their billion dollar coffers. . . .

As Africa deals with economic development, the crisis of AIDS and the specter of war and civil strife, it does not need the added burden of the death and sickness of tobacco related diseases. Our brothers and sisters in Africa need the protection of a strong framework. To find out how you and your organizations can help support the FCTC contact, email me at cmcgruder@usa.net.

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• Does tobacco empower the African woman? 

Women all over Africa are struggling for empowerment, equality and freedom. The tobacco industry knows this full well and wastes no time or resources exploiting this need in order to win over this ‘untapped market’ for its deadly products.

According to UN about 250 million women worldwide are daily smokers. This figure excludes those using other forms of tobacco. The percentage of women smoking in developing countries (22%) is much higher than that of the developing world (9 %). However, the situation is gradually changing. The tobacco industry, faced with declining smoking rates in the West, is looking for new and replacement smokers among the youth and women of Africa- a continent in the early stages of the tobacco epidemic.

The low female smoking rates in Africa are due to the social and cultural taboo against women smoking and not due to health awareness. The tobacco industry, in order to maintain profits, is steadily breaking these cultural norms through its aggressive and deceptive promotion of cigarettes as symbols of empowerment, equality, glamour, modernity, sophistication and Western- style independence. . . .

How free is a woman trapped in a deadly addiction? The ‘light’ or ‘mild’ female brands give a false impression of being less dangerous than other brands

How economically empowered are women who slave away on tobacco farms in Africa? They are exposed to unhealthy working conditions, are burdened with impoverishing tobacco company loan schemes and they expect little pay and low food security.

Clearly tobacco does not empower women in Africa or elsewhere in the world. In fact, tobacco violates women’s rights most notably the right to health as provided for under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and other international human rights instruments. CEDAW also require states to take appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in its preamble reiterates this important provision. . . .

The recent report, ‘Turning a New Leaf: Women, Tobacco, and the Future’, by the International Network of Women Against Tobacco (INWAT) and the British Columbia Center of Excellence for Women’s Health recommends and gives guidelines for the gendered application of the FCTC provisions.

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• Malawi presses tobacco fight 

But the country, while still pursing the diversification agenda, has not given up the fight to rescue a crop that is very much the backbone of the country’s economy as oil is to the Middle East. This time, however, Malawi does not want to continue with the battle alone. Economic Report has established that Malawi has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with tobacco producing countries of Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to help position the industry so that the countries reap more. Industry, Trade and Private Sector Minister Ken Lipenga said in an interview that the MOU was signed last November. Among other things, he said, the agreement looks at issues of collective marketing as well as value-adding.

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