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| US/WORLD: Smokeless Tobacco to Get Push by Venture Overseas
by Kevin Helliker, Wall Street Journal
February 4th, 2009
Swedish Match AB and Philip Morris International Inc. announced a joint venture Tuesday to market smokeless tobacco world-wide. The venture combines a world-wide giant in smokeless, Swedish Match, with the world's second-largest purveyor of cigarettes, PMI, an Altria Inc. spinoff. |
| US: Tobacco Trial Opens in Florida, First of Many Suits
by Associated Press, Wall Street Journal
February 3rd, 2009
The first of about 8,000 lawsuits blaming the health problems and deaths of Florida smokers on tobacco companies went to trial Tuesday. The key to the case is proving whether now-deceased Stuart Hess was addicted to cigarettes made by Richmond, Va.-based Philip Morris, a unit of Altria Group. |
| US: Altria Ruling Ignites Legal Moves
by BRENT KENDALL, The Wall Street Journal
December 21st, 2008
The Supreme Court's ruling last week allowing smokers in Maine to sue Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris unit for allegedly deceptive advertising of "light" cigarettes already is prompting new legal activity, including an effort to revive a multibillion-dollar case against the tobacco company that had been thrown out. |
| US: Altria Said to Be in Talks With Tobacco Maker UST
by ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and ANDREW MARTIN, The New York Times
September 4th, 2008
Altria Group is in advanced talks to buy UST, the maker of the popular Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco brands, for more than $10 billion, people with close knowledge of the negotiations said late Thursday. The terms could not be learned. |
| US: Menthol Dose Manipulated, Study Says
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times
July 17th, 2008
A new Harvard study claims that the tobacco industry in recent years has manipulated menthol levels in cigarettes to hook youngsters and maintain loyalty among smoking adults. The report could further inflame a controversy over menthol in pending tobacco legislation. |
| TOBACCO: Profits in Hand, Wealthy Family Cuts Tobacco Tie
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times
June 11th, 2008
Now, the next generation of Tisches has removed tobacco from the portfolio of the conglomerate they lead, the Loews Corporation, spinning off its tobacco unit, Lorillard, as a stand-alone business, with the Newport brand representing more than 90 percent of the new company’s revenue. The new stock began trading Tuesday, and analysts have said the new company might be a takeover target. |
| US: Opposition to Menthol Cigarettes Grows
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times
June 5th, 2008
The seven, from Democratic and Republican administrations, faxed a letter to members of the Senate and House of Representatives demanding that menthol-flavored cigarettes be banned just like various other cigarette flavorings the legislation would outlaw. |
| US: At One University, Tobacco Money Is a Secret
by ALAN FINDER, The New York Times
May 22nd, 2008
On campuses nationwide, professors and administrators have passionately debated whether their universities should accept money for research from tobacco companies. But not at Virginia Commonwealth University, a public institution in Richmond, Va. |
| US: Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With Leniency
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times
May 13th, 2008
Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time. |
| UK: Retailers in tobacco price probe
BBC NEWS
April 25th, 2008
n the case of Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, Asda, Sainsbury, Shell, Somerfield and Tesco, there was an indirect exchange of proposed future retail prices between competitors, it adds, allegedly between 2001 and 2003. |
| US: Reynolds Ads Oppose Move to Regulate Tobacco
by STEPHANIE SAUL, The New York Times
April 1st, 2008
As legislation moves through Congress that would empower the F.D.A. to regulate the tobacco industry, Reynolds, whose brands include Camel cigarettes, is attacking what it views as the bill’s vulnerability: a weak, overextended F.D.A. |
| US: Some Campuses Decide Tobacco Company Money Is ‘Tainted’
by ALAN FINDER, The New York Times
February 4th, 2008
Across academia, universities and graduate schools are wrestling with whether to accept financing from tobacco companies for research or student activities. In the past few years, 15 public health and medical schools have turned away donations from the industry; McCombs’ move was unusual because of its longstanding ties to an array of corporations. |
| US: Nicotine boost was deliberate, study says
by Stephen Smith, Boston Globe
January 18th, 2007
Data supplied by tobacco companies strongly suggest that in recent years manufacturers deliberately boosted nicotine levels in cigarettes to more effectively hook smokers, Harvard researchers conclude in a study being released today. |
| US: Tobacco Makers Lose Key Ruling on Latest Suits
by David Cay Johnston and Melanie Warner , The New York Times
September 26th, 2006
In a legal blow to the tobacco industry, a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled yesterday that people who smoked light cigarettes that were often promoted as a safer alternative to regular cigarettes can press their fraud claim as a class-action suit. |
| US: BAT shredded evidence helpful to dying smokers' claims, judge says
by Simon Bowers, The Guardian
August 22nd, 2006
British American Tobacco lawyers are planning to appeal against what the company called "vile" findings against it - particularly in relation to its systematic shredding of legally sensitive documents - contained in a 1,700-page judicial opinion delivered at the end of one of the largest civil trials ever heard in the US. |
| AUSTRALIA: Judge Reopens Investigation of BAT
by Elizabeth Sexton, The Age
May 31st, 2006
A Sydney judge has reopened the legal assault on the tobacco industry with a preliminary finding that British American Tobacco's controversial document retention policy was intended to conceal the destruction of legally potent records. |
| US: Why Big Tobacco Loves Globalization
by Andrew Leonard, Salon.com
May 24th, 2006
Tobacco consumption in the developed world is flat or declining, but it is booming worldwide, boosted by the removal of tariffs and other restrictions on trade that have been an integral part of globalization. But, tobacco, as its critics like to point out, is not like most other products – it's "the only legal consumer product that kills half of its regular users." So, naturally, governments are wont to regulate it. |
| US: For Tobacco, Stealth Marketing Is the Norm
by Julie Bosman, New York Times
March 10th, 2006
Tobacco companies, which are able to vastly outspend antitobacco groups, may still be winning the marketing wars. While tobacco companies have abandoned most conventional advertising, they are using other means to get their point across. Antismoking groups, on the other hand, are now struggling to find the money to maintain even a small-scale campaign. |
| US: Exposed: the secret corporate funding behind health research
by George Monbiot, The Guardian
February 7th, 2006
Three weeks ago, while looking for something else, I came across one of the most extraordinary documents I have ever read. It relates to an organisation called Arise (Associates for Research into the Science of Enjoyment). Though largely forgotten
today, in the 1990s it was one of the world's most influential public-health groups. |
| LATIN AMERICA: Big Tobacco Fights Back
by Diego Cevallos, Inter Press Service
January 12th, 2006
According to the non-governmental Corporate Accountability International, based in the northeastern U.S. city of Boston, the tobacco industry is interfering in public health policy in several Latin American countries, and is attempting to block the regulations implemented in compliance with the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). |
| UK: Tobacco giants face smuggling fines
by Tom McGhie and Dan Atkinson, Financial Mail
December 18th, 2005
Giant tobacco firms face punishing fines of more than £350m a year if they fail to help squash a smuggling racket that costs the Treasury billions in lost revenue. |
| US: Court reverses Philip Morris verdict
by Brad Dorfman, Reuters
December 15th, 2005
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris USA, ordering a lower court to dismiss the case in which the company was accused of defrauding customers into thinking "light" cigarettes were safer than regular ones. |
| US: Big Tobacco Outspends Stop-Smoking Programs 28 to 1
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
November 30th, 2005
There is a growing gap between the inadequate amounts states are spending on tobacco prevention programs and the record sums the tobacco companies are spending to market cigarettes and other tobacco products, putting at risk the nation's progress in reducing youth smoking, according to a report released today by a coalition of public health organizations. |
| KOREA: Tobacco firm has secret North Korea plant
by Ian Cobain and David Leigh, The Guardian
October 17th, 2005
British American Tobacco, the world's second largest cigarette company, has secretly been operating a factory in North Korea for the past four years, the Guardian has learned. The company opened the plant in a joint venture with a state owned corporation shortly before the regime was denounced by George Bush as a member of the "axis of evil", and despite widespread concern over the country's human rights record. |
| US: Jury Rules for Philip Morris
by Myron Levin, LA Times
April 22nd, 2005
A Moreno Valley man didn't prove that smoking caused his lung cancer, the panel decides after less than three hours of deliberations. |
| Study: Anti-Smoking Campaign is Helping
by Hilary Roxe, Associated Press
February 22nd, 2005
The American Legacy Foundation's "truth" campaign prevented about 300,000 youths from becoming smokers between 2000 and 2002, according to a study to be released Wednesday in the March edition of the American Journal of Public Health. But anti-smoking advocates say money for such campaigns is drying up. |
| US: Court Blocks Nation From Seeking Billions From Tobacco Industry
by David Stout , New York Times
February 4th, 2005
A federal appeals court ruled, in a big victory for cigarette makers, that the federal government could not use an antiracketeering statute to collect $280 billion from the tobacco industry, which it accuses of conspiring for decades to hook people on smoking and conceal the deadly effects of the habit. |
| US: Tobacco Firms Can Be Sued Under RICO
Associated Press
March 18th, 2004
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler said the department was "not engaging in policymaking" but was trying to enforce the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. |
| China: Tobacco Grips the Smokers' Republic
by Jonathan Watts, Guardian (London)
December 4th, 2003
After signing the United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control last month, China is obliged to tighten restrictions on cigarette marketing and consumption so that more priority is placed on countering the health risks rather than emphasising the tax revenues. |
| US: Bush Tries to Weaken Tobacco Treaty
by David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle
April 30th, 2003
As more than 160 nations prepare to sign a landmark treaty to control tobacco, the Bush administration is waging a last-ditch effort to gut the accord of its strongest provisions, including a worldwide ban on tobacco advertising. |
| US: Government Seeks $289 Billion from Tobacco
by Jonathan D. Salant, Associated Press
March 18th, 2003
The nation's tobacco companies should forfeit $289 billion in profits for a scheme to deceive and defraud smokers and the general public, the Justice Department says in court filings. |
| USA: Anti-smoking Measures Gain in Tobacco Country
by David M. Halbfinger, New York Times
March 4th, 2003
LEXINGTON, Ky., Feb. 26 The tobacco patches that cover the hilltops near here are dusted with snow, their sheds locked up till the spring thaw. But what is occupying farmers and politicians across Kentucky, the Carolinas and the rest of tobacco country seems as improbable as a blizzard in August. |
| Burma: Tobacco Giant under Pressure to Pull Out of Joint Venture
by Bob Burton, InterPress Service
March 4th, 2003
CANBERRA- Ahead of its mid-April annual general meeting, British American Tobacco (BAT) is facing increasing pressure from human rights groups in Asia and elsewhere to withdraw from a joint-venture partnership with the Burmese military regime. |
| UK: Former Tobacco Executive Faces Embarrassment over Burma Link
by Alison Maitland and Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times
November 12th, 2002
Kenneth Clarke, former chancellor and deputy chairman of British American Tobacco, faces severe embarrassment today over revelations that he criticised companies investing in Burma -- where BAT has a joint venture with the military junta. |
| Iraq: Despite Embargo, Baghdad Gets Winstons; Who's to Blame?
by Steve Stecklow and Alix M. Freedman, The Wall St. Journal
October 30th, 2002
Immediately after the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991, billions of Winstons and other American-brand cigarettes began turning up inside Iraq. Even now,the flow continues.Under U.S. trade sanctions, companies that make cigarettes in the U.S. can't knowingly sell them in the Iraqi market -- either directly or through intermediaries -- unless they obtain a license from the U.S. government. |
| UK: Tobacco Advertising Ban Passed
by Mike Peacock, Reuters
October 21st, 2002
LONDON -- Legislation to ban tobacco advertising in Britain cleared its last parliamentary hurdle on Monday and is set to become law. |
| World: WHO Chief Renews Attack on Tobacco
by Clare Nullis, Associated Press
October 15th, 2002
GENEVA -- Warning that delay means more deaths, World Health Organization chief Gro Harlem Brundtland urged governments Tuesday to agree to sweeping anti-smoking restrictions and tighter controls on the tobacco industry. |
| Brazil: Tobacco Makes Farmers Sick
by Jim Lobe, OneWorld US
February 4th, 2002
Tobacco companies are jeopardizing the health of Third World tobacco farmers who are required to use dangerous pesticides under exclusive contracts that hook them to company credits, according to a report released Monday by a major development group. |
| Japan: Tobacco Firm to Profit from Cancer Vaccine
by Sarah Boseley, The Observer
November 11th, 2001
One of the world's biggest tobacco companies aims to make billions of pounds from the diseases caused by cigarette smoking through deals with biotech companies for the exclusive rights to market future lung cancer vaccines. |
| USA: Oil Firms Fund 'Tobacco Terrorism'
by John Creed, Anchorage Daily News
November 7th, 2001
We interrupt our regularly scheduled sense of decency for the following heart-breaking news bulletin: A huge tobacco company is spreading disease across our state with help from Williams Alaska Petroleum and Tesoro Alaska. |
| USA: Negotiator In Global Tobacco Talks Quits
by Marc Kaufman, Washington Post
August 2nd, 2001
The top U.S. official working on an international treaty to reduce cigarette smoking worldwide has resigned at a time when the United States is embroiled in contentious negotiations with more than 150 countries on how to counter the rising global use of tobacco. |
| Korea: Seoul Backs Down on Proposed Cigarette Tariff
by Renee Kim, Bloomberg News
June 14th, 2001
South Korea backed down from plans to impose an immediate 40 percent tax on imported cigarettes, opting to introduce the tariff in 10 percent increments over four years, starting in July, to avoid potential trade conflicts. |
| USA: Jury Orders Philip Morris to Pay Record $3 Billion
by Jessica Wohl and Brad Dorfman, Reuters
June 7th, 2001
Shares in Philip Morris Cos. Inc. and other tobacco companies slipped on Thursday after a jury ordered the cigarette giant to pay a record $3 billion in damages to a smoker, but investors remained calm amid expectations the verdict will be overturned or reduced. |
| World: U.S. Under Fire Over Tobacco Treaty
by Frances Williams, Financial Times
May 7th, 2001
Negotiations on an international tobacco control treaty failed to make progress last week as anti-smoking groups accused Washington of siding with the tobacco industry in trying to water down the draft. |
| Switzerland: Activists Demand Tougher Tobacco Treaty
by Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press Service
May 2nd, 2001
Flaws plague the draft of an international anti-smoking treaty being discussed this week in talks sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO), charge civil society groups, particularly because proposed bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship have been watered down. |
| USA: Big Tobacco Busted Again
by James Cruickshank and Fran Abrams, The Independent (U.K.)
March 25th, 2001
Two of the world's biggest tobacco manufacturers knowingly sold cigarettes worth billions of pounds to Latin American drug barons and to a smuggling ring based in Britain, according to documents seen by the Independent on Sunday. |
| USA: Bush Cabinet Ties to Tobacco Lobby
by Marc Kaufman, Washington Post
January 21st, 2001
Thompson, Ashcroft and Norton are among a number of figures in the Bush administration who have been relatively helpful to the tobacco industry and who could take positions that would signal a marked change in the federal government's approach to cigarette makers. |
| World: WHO Denounces Interference by Tobacco Industry
by Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press Service
January 16th, 2001
The tobacco industry exerted pressure in Switzerland throughout recent decades to prevent the approval of stricter measures against smoking, says a study sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO). |
| USA: Ten Worst Corporations of 2000
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation
January 3rd, 2001
Here is the annual Top 10 Worst Corporations of 2000 list compiled by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman. This year, rushing to the head of the pack of irresponsible biotech companies was the French corporation Aventis, the maker of Cry9C corn, sold under the name StarLink. |
| USA: Europeans Sue Big Tobacco
by Suzanne Daley, New York Times
November 7th, 2000
The European Commission said today that it had filed a civil lawsuit in the United States against the Philip Morris Company and the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company seeking damages for what it called their involvement with organized crime in smuggling cigarettes into Europe. |
| Africa: WHO Enlists Politicians in Anti-Tobacco War
by Judith Achieng, Inter Press Service
October 25th, 2000
The World Health Organisation (WHO), is targeting African policy-makers, to counter the intensified marketing campaigns by tobacco multinationals in the continent. |
| World: WHO Starts Talks On Tobacco Treaty
UN Wire
October 18th, 2000
Government representatives began discussions Monday in Geneva on a proposed anti-tobacco treaty for preventing smoking-related deaths, which are predicted to reach 10 million annually by 2030. |
| World: Cigarette Firms Tried to Foil WHO, Say Investigators
by Gordon Fairclough, Wall Street Journal
August 1st, 2000
World Health Organization investigators say Philip Morris Co. and other multinational cigarette makers worked for years to discredit the agency and thwart its efforts to curb smoking around the globe. |
| USA: A Civics Lesson for Big Tobacco
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation
July 18th, 2000
The $145 billion punitive damage award against the tobacco industry in the Engle case in Florida should be celebrated as evidence of a civil justice system that works, proof of the value of juries and a major public health achievement. |
| USA: High Court Rules FDA Lacks Power Over Tobacco
by James Vicini, Reuters
March 21st, 2000
A closely divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lacks the power to regulate tobacco products, handing President Clinton a stinging setback in the effort to curb youth smoking. |
| USA: Big Tobacco Off the Ropes?
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation
February 23rd, 2000
Whether Big Tobacco succeeds will depend in significant part on whether tobacco control groups and their many new allies of various stripes refuse to succumb to Big Tobacco's combined intimidation and charm offensive. |
| India: A Doctor Takes on Big Tobacco
by Frederick Noronha, Third World Features
May 1st, 1999
India (and South East Asia) are a huge market for tobacco. Cigarette companies are also targetting youth between 15-25. Two countries where tobacco sales are expected to zoom up are India and Indonesia. |
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