Tobacco News

The OFT is in hangover mode after a year blighted by the Competition ­Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Any hope it had of restoring its reputation faded in December after its price-­fixing case against tobacco manufacturers and retailers fell apart.
In March 2011 the Government ­unveiled plans to merge the Competition Commission and OFT to create the Competition and Markets ­Authority (CMA) (The Lawyer, 16 March 2011). The consultation closed in June and a working group is currently considering the way forward.
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A startling revelation seems to have hit the smoking front. Recently, the UCLA analysts have disclosed that companies were apparently aware that cigarette smoke comprised radioactive alpha particles for almost more than 4 decades and its cancerous attributes but chose to keep mum.

An extensive analysis of the documents from the tobacco industry since 1998 showed that the industry knew the presence of radioactive materials in cigarettes 5 years earlier than initially assumed. Also, investigations to gauge its lung cancer risk had begun right from the 1960s.
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The world’s largest tobacco firm were blasted yesterday for trying to force a Scottish university to hand over research about children smoking.
Marlboro manufacturers Philip Morris are using a freedom of information request to get the data from Stirling Uni.
The team have done 5500 confidential interviews with children aged 11 to16. Forty per cent of smokers have their first puff before 16. Ream more »

THE two MPs for Northampton have been given free tickets to some of Britain’s poshest social events, by one of the world’s largest tobacco firms.

Both the Conservative MP for Northampton North, Michael Ellis, and his colleague for Northampton South, Brian Binley, were given tickets worth £1,132 to this year’s Chelsea Flower Show by Japan Tobacco International – which sells brands such as Benson & Hedges and Camel cigarettes.

Mr Binley also received two tickets worth £1,132 to the Glyndebourne opera festival from the firm.
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Tobacco companies are seeking clarification from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on the smoking ban in public places in Metro Manila which started in earnest last July 1.

They insist that Republic Act 9211 (Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003) allows smoking on streets and other open or non-enclosed spaces. The MMDA has started issuing tickets to violators of the smoking ban.
Chris Nelson, president of Philip Morris and Fortune Tobacco, told ANC’s “Top Story” Wednesday that they want MMDA to clarify the implementation of the ban.
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Russia’s largest tobacco distributor, Megapolis group, plans to raise over $1 billion by floating over 25 percent of its stock in an initial public offering in London this fall, a banking source told RIA Novosti late on Wednesday.
“Megapolis has recently held non-deal meetings with investors in London.

They discussed the IPO, the appetite for the company. There are plans to float in London in fall,” the source said, adding that after the meetings Megapolis had increased the target from $500 millionto $1 billion. Ream more »

The state Supreme Court breathed new life Thursday into lawsuits by seriously ill ex-smokers, ruling that a former cigarette addict can seek damages from tobacco companies for her cancer despite having failed to sue for earlier smoking-related illnesses.

California law authorized suits against tobacco companies in 1998, after a decade in which the companies enjoyed legal immunity. But many of the suits have been bogged down in federal courts in disputes over whether they were filed in time. Ream more »

TOBACCO manufacturer PJ Carroll has been accused of giving vouchers to shop staff as a reward for promoting its cigarette products.
In the first prosecution of its kind, the tobacco company is accused of breaching the sponsorship ban by introducing a ‘Pocket-a-Packet’ programme for selected retailers in Ireland.
Yesterday, former Justice Minister Michael McDowell, for the Office of Tobacco Control (OTC), told Dublin’s District Court that shop staff and owners were motivated to promote Pall Mall cigarettes under a mystery shopper scheme operated by PJ Carroll in the summer of 2009. Ream more »

Ron Carroll prefers to smoke cigars and pipes. But when he can’t do that, he says he manages to unobtrusively get his nicotine fix by slipping a packet of tobacco, about the size of a tea bag, under his upper lip.
“I use it all the time — movies, planes,” said the Chicagoan, who adds that he likes the fact he can remove the packet as easily as a piece of gum. There’s no chewing, spitting or mess, he said.
“It’s discreet, and you don’t look like an addict,” he said. “Smoking’s definitely more about the flavor; the whole experience. With this, it’s just taking the edge off.” Ream more »

Tobacco firm’s continued sponsorship is worth $100 million to Formula One racing team
Racing fans got a good look at Ferrari’s new Formula One cars in the opening Grand Prix of the 2010 season in Bahrain: In one of the dullest races in recent memory, Fernando Alonso completed 49 laps without incident to take the checkered flag, with teammate Felipe Massa close behind. Read more