Tobacco stocks plunged after a report said the U.S. government may only allow cigarettes with nicotine levels so low they’d no longer be addictive, and may also move to ban menthol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to rule on menthol cigarettes by the end of the month under pressure from a deadline...
Tobacco companies are like chameleons, changing their outward-facing appearance to whatever it needs to be in order to survive. In the 1950s, when scientists first discovered a link between smoking and lung cancer, the tobacco industry realized that the truth about their deadly products could inspire people to quit. And in the eyes of...
Two troubling recent investigations from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have shone a fresh spotlight on the tobacco industry’s continued complicity in tobacco smuggling in Africa. The first highlighted how Philip Morris (PMI)’s representative in Burkina Faso, Apollinaire Compaoré, remains in the tobacco giant’s employ despite being well-known throughout the region...
It has been 3.5 months since Ukraine’s government tripled the excise tax for heated tobacco products — it is now the same as the minimum tax for traditional cigarettes. The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomed this move. It was supposed to bring Hr 115.8 billion ($4.1 billion) to Ukraine’s budget by 2025, according to estimates...
Marlboro cigarettes maker Altria Group wants to enlist an unlikely partner in convincing consumers that nicotine isn’t as bad as they think - its regulator. The company asked the US Food and Drug Administration to tackle misperceptions about nicotine as part of a proposed $US100 million ($130 million) advertising campaign to reduce the harm caused...
Brussels 10 March 2021 A new report, launched today reveals the continued and extensive contacts between the tobacco industry, its allies and pro-vaping groups and industry associations, and eight separate Directorates-General (DGs) of the European Commission (EC); and calls for a more proactive transparency system regarding such contacts, especially following the release of the...
Last year the Spanish boyband Dvicio were riding high after their latest album topped the charts. The “boys” – by now all in their late 20s or early 30s – were the summer’s cover stars for Like!, a tween magazine. Despite the pandemic, the band were still touring Spain. But these were gigs with...
Major tobacco firms have long used corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to cosy up to government officials and policy makers across the world. In the Philippines, pandemic donations have been made at a time when an industry-friendly vaping bill was being pushed in Congress. Image: Eco-Business A recent industry-friendly bill could undermine recent tobacco control...
In a study published on 6 January, scientists from King’s College London have finally put to rest the myth that smokers enjoy a degree of protection from COVID-19. Their research was clear: smokers who contract the novel coronavirus are more likely to suffer severe symptoms than non-smokers, and are twice as likely to end...
Donations of ventilators and supplies are part of a ‘classic tactic’ by the industry to get close to governments and try to undermine health policies, say public health advocates. Should tobacco firms’ CSR activities be allowed? On 26 March this year, as the Philippines recorded 707 Covid-19 cases two weeks into a nationwide lockdown to...
