See also Tobacco
litigation and The
Light/Mild scam
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TOBACCO
INDUSTRY:
UNLAWFUL,
DECEPTIVE AND LETHAL
17/8/06: US
District Judge Gladys Kessler has issued a damning judgment against the
tobacco industry in a landmark US government lawsuit against the major
tobacco companies. She found that they have violated civil racketeering
laws, defrauded the public, lied for decades about the companies’
targeting of children and about the health risks of smoking. Some excerpts:
[The tobacco companies] have not ceased engaging in unlawful activity...
Their continuing conduct misleads consumers in order to
maximize … revenues
by recruiting new smokers (the majority of whom
are under the age of 18), preventing current smokers from quitting, and
thereby sustaining the industry.
[This
case] is about an industry... that survives, and profits, from selling a
highly addictive product which causes diseases that lead to a staggering
number of deaths per year, an immeasurable amount of human suffering and
economic loss, and a profound burden on our national health care system.
Defendants have known these facts for at least 50 years or more. Despite
that knowledge, they have consistently, repeatedly, and with enormous
skill and sophistication, denied these facts to the public, to the
Government, and to the public health community... In short, [they] have
marketed and sold their lethal products with zeal, with deception, with
a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for
the human tragedy or social that success exacted.
See
summary at
tobaccofreekids.org
and
full
judgment
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Latest news on tobacco
industry misdeeds
(most recent at top):
Tobacco companies and dealers try to
derail NSW child protection measures
21/7/08: Philip Morris and some
NSW tobacco dealers have tried to scuttle an out-of-sight shop display policy
by misinforming NSW cabinet ministers. Research evidence shows retail
display of tobacco predisposes children to smoke. (The bill was later
passed by NSW parliament.) See
ASH media
release 21/7/08
See Why
NSW Cabinet should put children's health ahead of misleading
claims
See Philip
Morris scare tactics - and the truth Latest on
Protecting children
Oh, and we... er, forgot to tell you
about the radioactive poison
17/7/08: Tobacco companies suppressed research and information on the
presence of deadly radioactive poison Polonium 210 in tobacco, says a
study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
See Campaign
for Tobacco Free Kids release and
study
abstract
BAT accused of targeting African children
July 2008: Check this BBC
documentary on
British American Tobacco targeting African Children with cigarettes. Is
this a socially responsible corporate citizen? "We
don't want children to smoke" - see BAT
response and The
Mother of All Motherhood Statements
Smoked out: big tobacco's deals in
clubland
11/7/08: Tobacco companies are paying Victorian pubs and clubs
commissions for selling tobacco - showing the kind of connection that's
frustrated and weakened smokefree pub and club laws. See
Melbourne
Age report 11/7/08
UK tobacco firm connected with
smuggling, sanction busting, product dumping
27/4/08: A legal case has exposed a British cigarette manufacturer
Gallaher's connection with tobacco smuggling, breaking international
sanctions inn Iraq, and dumping inferior product in the Third
World. See Sunday
Times online report 27/4/08
"Vitamin E enhanced"
cigarette latest ploy to associate tobacco with health
24/9/07: A new cigarette "enhanced" with Vitamin E has
drawn criticism from health experts after its launch by German tobacco
company AG Frankfurt. The move is seen as the latest attempt to deceive
smokers into associating smoking with health or reduced harm. See
statement
from Tobacco-Free Kids (US) 24/9/07
Philip Morris breaks promise to end
Formula One sponsorship
17/4/07: The world's biggest tobacco company, Philip Morris, has
gone back on a promise to end its high-profile sponsorship of Ferrari's
Formula One car racing team - a sponsorship that critics say promotes
tobacco to children. See
Tobacco
Free Kids article 17/4/07
Industry undermines tobacco treaty in
Nepal
4/3/07: The tobacco industry in Nepal is doing its best to skate
around the country's ratification of the worldwide tobacco treaty, the
FCTC. See Kathmandu
Post story 4/3/07
Philip Morris' passive smoke coverup
allied with greenhouse denial industry
19/9/06: How tobacco giant Philip Morris masterminded and funded a
huge lobbying effort to deny and undermine evidence on harm from
secondhand smoke - an effort which fostered and allied itself with a
massive industry of climate-change denial. Read
excerpt
from Guardian (UK) article
Tobacco giant pushes ventilation
scam
28/1/06: Internal documents from British American Tobacco show the
company knew ventilation/filtration schemes were ineffective at removing
secondhand smoke, but continued pushing these options through
hospitality industry around the world to delay and undermine smokefree
venues. See tobacco.org
news 27/1/06 and full
BMJ study 1/06
Trust us, we're a big tobacco company
8/11/05: New report for ASH New Zealand by University of Otago health
expert unpicks British American
Tobacco's publicity spin of "social responsibility" to reveal
a corporation continuing to deceive and mislead. See
Scoop
NZ report with ASHNZ media release 8/11/05
Summary and full ASH NZ
report, "Trust
us: we're socially responsible"
Marlboro
leads the pack with buzz marketing
31/10/05: Philip Morris' top brand is still out there in the US, using a
range of flash marketing strategies to continue pushing its deadly
product to young people. See
Business
Week report 31/10/05
Big
Tobacco "meddling, manipulating and interfering" in treaty
7/10/05: A major international
report says the tobacco companies have tried to manipulate,
undermine and derail the treaty aiming to stem the global tobacco
epidemic - while they claim to be "socially
responsible." See
ASH
media release 7/10/05 See the report
Philip Morris exploits Aboriginal site
in ad campaign
2/9/05: Philip Morris leading
brand Winfield has used an Aboriginal special site, Kata Tjuta (in
Central Australia, also known as "The Olgas") in an ad
campaign seen in Germany. The
ad turns the site upside down in line with its "Down Under"
theme. This is particularly insensitive since Aboriginal smoking rates
remain shockingly high, especially in outback areas. Philip Morris has
never taken responsibility for a single Aboriginal death or disease
caused by its products. See
the Kata
Tjuta ad More on Aboriginal health and
smoking at CEITC
website
Philip Morris opposes proven measures
to reduce child smoking
15/7/05: Tobacco giant Philip Morris says it "doesn't want kids to
smoke" but has opposed measures to reduce child smoking in the US
states of Texas and North Carolina, says a statement from the Campaign
for Tobacco-Free Kids. See Tobacco-Free
Kids release 15/7/05
Big Two AGMs attract worldwide
protests; report batters BAT
28/4/05: Tobacco's Big Two
company AGMs have attracted worldwide protest; and a new report shows
how BAT has destroyed health and environment under a mask of
"social responsibility." See
ASH
media release 28/4/05
Tobacco industry's artificial nicotine
trick
22/4/05: The big tobacco companies experimented with developing
artificial nicotine substitutes to trick governments and smokers,
anticipating that nicotine might one day be banned, says a new research
paper. See media
release 22/4/05 and the paper
Philip Morris talk of "harm
reduction" is a sham
25/3/05: A Philip Morris Executive, David Davies, has told
Australia's National Press Club that the company is on the brink of trialling
“reduced harm” cigarettes on humans. Light and mild cigarettes were
also marketed as a safe alternative delivering health benefits - a claim
that the ACCC found to be misleading and deceptive. See
Melbourne
Age report 25/3/05
Philip Morris hooked young people,
concealed dangers: US Supreme Court
22/3/05: A smoker hooked on tobacco as a 15-year-old has had her US$10m
damages suit against tobacco giant Philip Morris upheld by the US
Supreme Court, which rejected the company's application for a review. See
sfgate
report 22/3/05
Philip
Morris Indonesian deal "a blow to regional health"
16/3/05: "Responsible"
tobacco giant slips around tobacco treaty to target regional poor. ASH
media release features Mary Assunta of the SE Asia Tobacco Control
coalition.
Philip Morris worked to downplay SIDS
link with secondhand smoke
7/3/05: Company documents
have shown how the tobacco giant worked for several years to undermine,
downplay and cover up the emerging research link between secondhand
smoke exposure and SIDS (cot death). See
study
in Pediatrics 3/3/05 See San
Francisco Chronicle report 7/3/05
BAT hit by new smuggling allegation
9/1/05: British American Tobacco has been hit by a new smuggling
allegation in Canada - from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. See
media
report 9/1/05
From "light & mild" to
"smooth & fresh" - but not "deadly &
addictive" !
20/2/05: The tobacco industry in Australia is quite unapologetic despite
being found by the ACCC to have misled consumers with "light"
and "mild" cigarette labels. In fact, Big Tobacco has bounced
straight back to suggest they now be allowed to call their products
"smooth" and "fresh". See
The
Age, report and editorial 20/2/05
Democrat Senator Lyn Allison put the
spotlight on the ACCC’s lengthy
investigation into light and mild cigarettes during an Estimates
Committee meeting on 17 February 2005. See her grilling of Mr Samuels on
pp E33-41 in Hansard.
More on this issue at The
Light/Mild scam
Secondhand harm hidden
11/11/04: Philip Morris hid harm from secondhand
smoke for 20 years, says a study published in The Lancet. A
lab owned by Philip Morris USA uncovered evidence in the early 1980s
about potential risks from passive smoking but its findings were
never made public, says the article. The evidence shows
secondhand smoke can be more harmful than active smoke. See
media
report 11/11/04 See full Lancet
article 11/04
Company breaks UK law
4/8/04: Imperial tobacco found guilty of breaking
advertising law in UK.
See ASH
UK release 4/8/04
I helped BAT destroy
embarrassing documents
26/9/04: Lawyer spills
the beans on what Big Tobacco means by "document
retention". The McCabe v BAT case established that the company
had deliberately destroyed thousands of its potentially embarrassing
documents relating to tobacco marketing strategies, particularly
targeting young people. See
Melbourne
Age report 26/9/04 (look under Sept 2004, Birnbauer...)
Philip Morris US fined for dumping
emails relevant to court case
21/7/04: Philip Morris US and its
parent Altria Group Inc have been fined US$2.7m for deleting emails
relevant to a court case.
See Associated
Press report 21/7/04
Note that British American Tobacco have
also been found (in the McCabe case in Australia) to have
destroyed thousands of potentially embarrassing documents - though it
was not established that they did so to avoid their use in that
particular case.
What Philip
Morris didn't tell us about pesticides in their cigarettes
3/11/03: Philip Morris Australia's own documents reveal that they
knew for more than 20 years about high DDT and other pesticides levels
in their cigarettes, but didn't tell the public. See
the research
The Federal Government also knew these levels were high, but ignored its
own advisers and has now left cigarette contents entirely in the hands
of the tobacco industry - with its record to date! - to self-regulate.
Philip Morris hid what they
knew about tobacco's link with meningococcal disease
See ASH
media release 28/11/01
Note that a Queensland
study has now found children's risk of this disease is multiplied by not
4 but 9 times by having parents who smoke. See Smoking
parents give kids 9 times higher risk of meningococcal disease
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