Tobacco.org

• Jail Sentence for US Cigarette Smuggler 

In the first case of its kind, a third country national has received a custodial sentence in the United States for fraud against the financial interests of the European Union and has been ordered to re-pay $1.5 million in restitution.

In the so-called "Miami" case, the Court in the Southern District of Florida has sentenced a US citizen to 2 years in jail and ordered him to re-pay a massive $1.5 million to the EU authorities for his part in smuggling millions of cigarettes onto the EU black market. Roman Vidal was handed the sentence on Friday after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to charges relating to his part in defrauding European taxpayers of several million Euros in customs duties and taxes. The defendant had conspired with individuals in the EU to smuggle cigarettes mis-described as other goods from the port of Miami into a number of EU countries including Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Jump to full article »

Homestead cigarette smuggler sentenced to 2 years  

A Homestead man was sentenced to two years in prison last week for smuggling cigarettes out of the country and into Europe to avoid paying more than $5.6 million in customs and tax duties.

Roman Vidal, 57, was also ordered to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution.

Federal officials said Vidal conspired with others in Miami, Spain, Great Britain, Ireland and Germany to smuggle cigarettes out of the Port of Miami and into ports abroad. Vidal's role, they said, was to arrange purchases of the cigarettes from Panama and have them transported to Miami. He arranged to buy other cargo to conceal the cigarettes.

From December 2001 through April 2008, Vidal managed to smuggle more than 27 million cigarettes out of the Port of Miami through four falsified shipments.

Jump to full article »

Fire-safe cigarette delay 'costing lives' 

Anti-smoking campaigners say lives will be lost because of a delay in bringing in new self-extinguishing cigarettes. . . .

They were due to be introduced across the EU later this year, but work on developing an EU standard is running at least six months behind schedule.

Deborah Arnott, of anti-smoking group Ash, said the cigarettes would mean a "significant decline" in fire deaths.

Jump to full article »

Imperial Tobacco Says French, U.K. Cigarette Markets Expanded  

Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of West and JPS cigarettes, said sales this fiscal year are meeting its expectations as the French and U.K. markets expand.

France consumed 55 billion cigarettes in 2009, 3 percent more than the prior year, while the U.K. duty-paid cigarette market expanded 1 percent to 45.5 billion, the Bristol, England- based company said today in a Regulatory News Service statement.

“We have made a good start to the year with trading in line with our expectations despite the weak economic environment,” Chief Executive Officer Gareth Davis said in the statement. Imperial has raised prices in the U.K., Spain and France since the end of its fiscal year in September, he added.

Jump to full article »

UPDATE 2-Imperial says makes good start to its year  

Britain's Imperial Tobacco Plc (IMT.L), the world's fourth-biggest cigarette maker, said on Tuesday it had made a good start to its new financial year with trading in line with its forecasts despite weak economies.

Imperial, with cigarette brands including Lambert & Butler, West and Gauloises, was reporting on its first-quarter trading from October to December 2009 within its current financial year to end-September 2010.

"We have made a good start to the year with trading in line with our expectations despite the weak economic environment," Chief Executive Gareth Davis said in a statement ahead of the company's annual shareholder meeting later on Tuesday.

Jump to full article »

Imperial Tobacco Says FY10 Trading In Line With Its Expectations - Update 

British tobacco company Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (IMT.L, ITYBY.PK), Tuesday, in an interim management statement, said that it has made a good start to the financial year ending September 30, 2010, with trading in line with the board's expectations, despite weak economic environment.

The Bristol, UK-based company operates mainly under two businesses: Tobacco and Logistics.

Imperial noted that cigarette volumes in Rest of European Union region have been particularly strong, and it maintained its growth momentum in Rest of the World region with further cigarette share gains in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific. In the first quarter, the company's international cigarette brand Davidoff grew share in its top five markets and both West and JPS also performed well.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco smuggling to get a whole lot tougher  

Tobacco smuggling could get a lot harsher as an EP conference this evening, a UN Conference in March and a World Health Organisation report all point towards governments being too lax on the issue

European Union officials and international experts fighting against global illicit tobacco sales will meet tonight at a conference to discuss the ongoing concern over the illegal cigarette market just weeks before a vital United Nations meeting in March on the issue.

The UN will meet from 14 - 21 March on a new protocol that could secure a binding international agreement to combat the massive market of illegal tobacco sales. It will be the fourth meeting of the International Negotiating Body on the supplementary protocol to the already-in-place Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which passed in 2005 and was the first treaty negotiated under the auspices of the World Health Organization.

Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes, who is hosting tonight's conference in Brussels to push more EU leadership on the issue, said it is necessary to have strong action rather thansimply more political talk.

Jump to full article »

BSP speculates with tobacco producers fears: agriculture minister  

The Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) in the face of Kornelia Ninova, is speculating with the fears of the tobacco producers. This goes beyond all bounds, said agriculture minister Miroslav Naydenov at a news conference commenting on the Thursday’s protest of the tobacco producers, FOCUS News Agency reporter informs.

According to Naydenov in the National Assembly Ninova has almost called for tobacco producers to stage a protest.

Jump to full article »

• EU attacks smokers with new recommendations 

The EU has declared war against smokers! Brussels wants to eliminate cigarettes with a ‘smoking police’, ashtray bans and high-publicity legal processes against celebrities who enjoy a puff.

A dossier with recommendations for the 27 member states has been released by the EU. The objective - a “100 per cent smoke free environment”.

Health ministers proposed the paper and the EU parliament has approved it.

Member countries now have three years to bring the recommendations into their own legal systems, and in Germany it is set to spark a new debate over the controversial smoking ban.

The new 31-page document makes recommendations for drastic measures to ban smoking in all workplaces, public buildings and facilities . . .

• Shock trials: The EU states will be encouraged to carry out sensationalist prosecutions designed to shock the public.

Celebrities who smoke will also be targeted and exposed publicly as smoking offenders.

Jump to full article »

• Lung cancer mortality trends in 36 European countries: secular trends and birth cohort patterns by sex and region 1970-2007 

This study represents a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the time trends of lung cancer mortality in Europe, taking into consideration the major differentials across 36 countries in 4 regions by sex and the components of time (age, calendar period and birth cohort). The article serves to highlight the varying phases of the lung cancer epidemic in different European countries and the disparities in rates and time trends between the sexes. These observations reflect the smoking habits of generations of men and women born from the late 19th century onwards, but also point to the relative successes or failures of smoking prevention and cessation efforts over the continent in the last few decades.

Men and women are clearly in very different phases of the smoking epidemic, and these may differ considerably between neighboring countries. The trends in lung cancer mortality in men are largely encouraging, in that there are general declines in most European countries, particularly during the last one or 2 decades, and among successive birth cohorts born as early as 1900 (the United Kingdom) or as late as 1955 (France and Italy). While the overall male rates are still increasing in parts of Southern Europe (Portugal and the Republic of Macedonia), and in Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Romania, and the Republic of Moldova), the declines observed in recent birth cohorts indicate an overall decline may emerge in the next years.

Among women, lung cancer mortality rates have reached a plateaux or are beginning to decline in a number of Eastern European countries (notably in the high-risk countries of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic), and in Northern Europe (in particular Denmark, Iceland and the United Kingdom). This is reflected in the generational trends and successive declines in risk among females born predominantly after 1950 in these regions. While there are increasing trends in the all-ages rates among women in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Norway and Finland, declines may be anticipated in the future assuming that the successive decreases in risk among female cohorts born after the Second World War adequately reflect recent changes in smoking habits. More concerning are the continuing generational increases in risk among Bulgarian and Romanian women.

Jump to full article »

Italian parents stage 'Avatar' protest 

"Avatar" is sparking protests from parents' groups in Italy where the James Cameron blockbuster bows Friday with a controversial general admission rating. . . .

Elsewhere the MPAA's PG-13 rating for "Avatar," "for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking," has been echoed by age restrictions in most countries, such as 12 in Germany, a 12A (accompanied) in the U.K., and 14 (accompanied) in most of Canada. Exceptions include Quebec and France where "Avatar" has also hit screens unrestricted.

In Italy, the "Avatar" general admission rating prompted the Italian parents org Moige to complain that "the decision represents a discrimination against the protection of Italian children,"

Jump to full article »

Bulgarian tobacco producers to organize petition for cancelling Lisbon Treaty clause 

Bulgarian tobacco producers will organize a petition for cancelling a Lisbon Treaty clause, Fikret Bekir, chairman of the Association of Tobacco Producers in the village of Listets, told FOCUS – Shumen Radio. The petition will call for permission to grow tobacco after 2013.

Jump to full article »

Major corporations reshape EU policymaking system in attempt to put profits before public health and the environment  

One of the world's largest tobacco companies has been instrumental in pushing through fundamental changes to EU policymaking, researchers from the University of Bath have found.

The changes are designed to give large businesses more power in how laws are drafted. If used as intended they could seriously impair measures to improve public health and protect the environment.

The research team, led by Dr Anna Gilmore, included Dr Katherine Smith (first author) and Dr Gary Fooks of the University of Bath's School for Health, and Dr Jeff Collin and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh. Their findings are revealed in an article published this week in PLoS Medicine and in a related paper in the current issue of Tobacco Control.

Jump to full article »

• “Working the System”—British American Tobacco's Influence on the European Union Treaty and Its Implications for Policy: An Analysis of Internal Tobacco Industry Documents 

Impact assessment (IA) of all major European Union (EU) policies is now mandatory. The form of IA used has been criticised for favouring corporate interests by overemphasising economic impacts and failing to adequately assess health impacts. Our study sought to assess how, why, and in what ways corporations, and particularly the tobacco industry, influenced the EU's approach to IA. . . .

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that BAT and its corporate allies have fundamentally altered the way in which all EU policy is made by making a business-oriented form of IA mandatory. This increases the likelihood that the EU will produce policies that advance the interests of major corporations, including those that produce products damaging to health, rather than in the interests of its citizens. Given that the public health community, focusing on health IA, has largely welcomed the increasing policy interest in IA, this suggests that urgent consideration is required of the ways in which IA can be employed to undermine, as well as support, effective public health policies. . . .

A lobbying campaign, initiated by BAT but involving a “policy network” of other companies, first helped to secure binding changes to the EU Treaty that require policymakers to minimize legislative burdens on businesses. The analysis shows that after achieving this goal, which BAT described as an “important victory,” further lobbying ensured that these treaty changes were translated into the implementation of a business-orientated form of IA within the EU. Both the tobacco industry and the chemical industry, the researchers argue, have since used the IA to delay and/or weaken EU legislation intended to protect public health.

What Do These Findings Mean?

These findings suggest that BAT and its corporate allies have fundamentally altered the way in which EU policy is made by ensuring that all significant EU policy decisions have to be assessed using a business-orientated IA. As the authors note, this situation increases the likelihood that the EU will produce policies that favor big business rather than the health of its citizens. Furthermore, these findings suggest that by establishing a network of other industries to help in lobbying for EU Treaty changes, BAT was able to distance itself from the push to establish a business-orientated IA to the extent that Commission officials were unaware of the involvement of the tobacco industry in campaigns for IA. Thus, in future, to safeguard public health, policymakers and public-health groups must pay more attention to corporate efforts to shape decision-making processes. In addition, public-health groups must take account of the ways in which IA can be used to undermine as well as support effective public-health policies and they must collaborate more closely in their efforts to ensure effective national and international policy. . . .

Implications for Public Health and Policymakers

Given that contemporary public health problems are increasingly being linked to the activities of large corporations, our findings have important consequences for public health. First, they confirm that corporate influence over health policy can extend well beyond the immediate remit of a particular sector's product; public health groups and policymakers therefore need to give more attention to corporate efforts to shape decision-making processes as well as specific outcomes. In the current European context, and in light of the ambitions of some of the companies involved, further analysis is required to explore how large corporations are attempting to reframe debates about risk and the costs of legislation.

Second, the findings suggest the public health community's positive acceptance of IA (focusing on HIA) [260],[261] ought to be reconsidered [251]. This is particularly important in the context of the private sector's well-documented ability to use its resource advantage to shape both scientific knowledge and public understandings of science by consistently challenging the method of robust scientific studies and by misrepresenting the findings of industry-funded science [262]–[266]. In light of these factors, it is important to consider whether tools such as IA and CBA are inevitably flawed from the perspective of those interested in maximising human (or environmental) well-being, as some have claimed [26],[27], or whether it is possible to employ IA tools in ways that do not systematically advantage corporate interests. Further, comparative research is required to investigate this issue by exploring whether IA processes are prioritising business interests (and underplaying health impacts) to the same extent elsewhere. In the meantime, a review of the current system of IA operating in the EU is urgently required. One possible starting point would be for the European Commission to reopen the relatively short consultation period for its most recent guidelines on IA, which ran between June and July 2008 [267], and to ensure that this is now more widely publicised. Finally, given that the EU Treaty also requires the EU to “ensure a high level of human health protection” in all its activities, perhaps it is time for the public health community to officially challenge the European Commission's failure to undertake HIAs of its policies [45].

Combined, these issues underline the need for public health groups in Europe to have better information from, and representation in, Brussels given the important influence that EU developments will have on national public health policy. Moreover, in light of the apparent success of BAT's attempts to influence EU policy by establishing a pan-industry “policy network,” our results suggest that it may be more effective, and efficient, for different interest public health groups to collaborate more closely in their efforts to influence policy.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco corporations lobby to hamper passing of EU health laws, say academics  

Major corporations, led by British American Tobacco, waged a successful lobbying campaign to hamper the passing of public health legislation and weaken its impact, a group of academics claim today.

Proposals to restrict smoking in public were in BAT's sights in the 1990s but the changes the lobbying brought about to EU policymaking have been fundamental and enduring, say the academics.

They are now being used to undermine legislation designed to protect the public against toxic chemicals, they say.

The strategy is revealed in internal documents that BAT was forced to disclose during litigation on tobacco harm in the US.

Disguised behind respectable consultancies and thinktanks, the companies succeeded in getting a form of impact assessment made mandatory for every EU policy which – critics say – emphasised the financial costs to business and underestimated the impact on public health.

The manoeuvering behind the scenes is revealed in a paper published by researchers from the school of health at Bath University, the Centre for International Public Policy at Edinburgh University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Their paper, published today by PLoS (Public Library of Science) Medicine, says that "BAT and its corporate allies have fundamentally altered the way in which all EU policy is made".

Jump to full article »