Tobacco companies in Indonesia, India and Mexico circumvented international football governing body FIFA’s advertising ban on their products by associating them with the World Cup, according to a new social media analysis by public health group Vital Strategies. Data recorded by Vital Strategies’ digital media monitoring system found 354 instances of tobacco marketing in public posts across Facebook, Instagram...
When the tobacco giant Reynolds American cut a cheque for Brent Jackson’s political campaign in November 2019, it was well aware of the accusations against the Republican North Carolina state senator. Jackson – dubbed “the only mega-farmer” in the North Carolina senate – had been accused by several migrant workers of either failing to pay...
At a glance Heated tobacco is touted as a better alternative to cigarettes for smokers, yet new research suggests that one brand contains much more nicotine than claimed A heated tobacco stick used in an Iqos device contains more than 4mg of nicotine, eight times the amount often claimed by maker Philip Morris International ...
A pastor was offered hundreds of thousands of dollars to lead a campaign against banning the sale of menthol cigarettes in the US, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal. Reverend Horace Sheffield, a prominent Black civil rights campaigner in Detroit, was told the money was coming from RJ Reynolds, the tobacco giant behind America’s...
The World Vapers’ Alliance has been promoting the health benefits of switching from cigarettes to vaping. Emails reveal the truth of who is behind the effort. A pro-vaping group says it wants to save your life. Cigarettes, they remind us, can kill you. But smokers may be surprised who’s behind that message. “The World Vapers’ Alliance...
In 2018, Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko radically restructured the country’s tobacco industry to benefit his close crony Aliaksei Aleksin, who until then had been better known as an energy tycoon. Just months after receiving these favors, Aleksin made a pricey gift of nine cars and motorcycles to Lukashenko’s bodyguard service, OCCRP has found. The donations,...
Hong Kong Customs said they seized approximately 27 million “suspected illicit cigarettes” last week during a raid on an industrial complex in the island’s Tuen Mun region and arrested a 31-year-old man. The cigarettes are estimated to be worth HK$76 million (US$9.7 million) on the open market. In Hong Kong, the trade or possession of illicit cigarettes...
High-level employees from British American Tobacco’s U.K. headquarters oversaw a corporate espionage ring in South Africa, buying expensive surveillance equipment that was later used to illegally spy on the company’s competitors, leaked documents show. Allegations that British American Tobacco’s (BAT) South African unit had bribed law enforcement agents to disrupt its competitors’ operations hit headlines...
British American Tobacco (BAT) Conducted Extensive and Potentially Illegal Activity To Undermine Health Policy, Sabotage Competitors And Secure Profits In Africa New STOP reports reveal how BAT ran a mass surveillance operation and informant network in South Africa and made questionable payments totaling $600,000 in 10 other African countries New York, September 13, 2021 – Two new analyses...
