News

14 May 2020
Big tobacco sees an opportunity in the pandemic

Over the last few months, as COVID-19 has spread around the world, big tobacco has exploited the pandemic to push its branding and products. As Andy Rowell, from the Tobacco Control Reserch Group at the University of Bath explains in a new article, the industry never misses a trick when it comes to exploiting the chaos of international crises, …

11 May 2020
The two faces of the tobacco industry during Covid-19

While tobacco companies ostentatiously behave like model corporate citizens in their Corporate Social Responsibility efforts around the coronavirus crisis, behind the scenes they aggressively push back against emergency public health actions to reduce coronavirus transmission. As part of national lockdowns governments have stopped the production and sale of non-essential goods in order to limit unnecessary human-to-human contact. This led…

06 May 2020
Philip Morris International: The Beginning of the End?

As Philip Morris International (PMI) shareholders meet online this week, the world’s health is in a precarious position, but so too is PMI. Already dealing with a long-term decline in its core business as people turn away from smoking, it now faces two new external crises (COVID-19 and the associated major economic recession) and a failure to diversify its tobacco-related…

06 May 2020
New resource explores illicit trade loopholes

Effective track and trace systems allow officials to track cigarettes from their place of manufacture and trace them to the point where all taxes have been paid—and identify the weak points in the supply chain where product enters the illicit market. This new resource from STOP (Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products) has details on Track and Trace programmes across the world and explores…

29 April 2020
BAT’s ‘resilience’ does not herald a ‘Better Tomorrow’

As British American Tobacco (BAT) prepares for its Annual General Meeting, the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Group and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), are calling out the tobacco company for undertaking a rebranding exercise intended to hook a whole new generation of young adults to its tobacco and nicotine products, in the middle of the COVID-19…

24 April 2020
Leaked PMI documents on illicit trade

A new paper looks at leaked Philip Morris International (PMI) documents which suggest that the company may have intended to use third parties in the UK to promulgate arguments about standardised packaging and an increase the illicit tobacco trade. The paper, in the British Medical Journal, was co-authored by Dr Karen Evans-Reeves, Dr Jenny…

24 April 2020
Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index

A new resource showcases research into tobacco industry interference in 33 countries. The Global Tobacco Industry Interference Index has been put together by the Global Centre for Good Governance in Tobacco Control; part of Stop Tobacco Organizations and Products (STOP). The report found: “governments’ efforts to tackle tobacco industry interference have been progressing slowly and are far from…

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