October, 2012:

John Dalli: “I did not have any idea or awareness about any communication about this issue”  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20004962?print=true

Former EU health commissioner John Dalli has insisted on his innocence in an alleged attempt to peddle influence, days after he resigned.

He was asked about a fresh allegation that a businessman with links to him had sought 60m euros (£49m; $79m) from a Swedish company.

“These are really fantastic figures,” he told New Europe TV in an interview.

He said at the time he had absolutely no idea of any approach to the tobacco firm made on his behalf.

Mr Dalli, a former Maltese cabinet minister, has argued that he is the victim of a tobacco lobbying campaign to block tough new legislation – the Tobacco Directive – to make smoking less attractive.

‘Down payment’

Tobacco producer Swedish Match said it had been asked to pay 60m euros, and in return the commissioner would water down the new legislation.

“I can say that those are the amounts we are talking about, and I’d also like to stress that for us the amount of money does not matter,” PatrikHildingsson, a spokesman for the Swedish company, told AFP news agency.

He said the alleged bribe would have been paid in two instalments, with 10m euros due before the new legislation was enacted, and the remaining 50m euros to be paid when the new rules were in place.

On Tuesday, the European Commission announced Mr Dalli’s resignation, saying that the EU’s anti-fraud office (Olaf) had established that a Maltese businessman had tried to use his contacts with Mr Dalli for financial gain.

Olaf said it had not found “conclusive evidence of the direct participation of Mr Dalli but did consider that he was aware of these events”.

‘Snus offer’

Swedish Match complained to the commission in May that a Maltese entrepreneur had used his contacts with Mr Dalli to try to gain financial advantages from the company.

Snus

• A moist tobacco which is placed under the lip
• Produced in various flavours, including liquorice, lemon, coffee, aniseed, elderflower, cranberry and mint
• Banned in all EU states except Sweden

The entrepreneur had allegedly offered to influence legislation regarding an EU export ban on snus, a smokeless tobacco taken orally.

No transaction was concluded between the company and the entrepreneur and no payment was made, the commission said.

Olaf’s final report and its recommendations were being sent to the attorney-general of Malta, the commission added.

Mr Dalli, 64, became the EU’s commissioner for health and consumer policy in 2010.

His official biography shows that his career in Maltese politics stretches back more than a quarter of a century.

First elected an MP in 1987 for the centre-right Nationalist Party, he was a cabinet minister in several governments, serving as finance minister three times.

Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic is taking over Mr Dalli’s duties on an interim basis until a new commissioner of Maltese nationality is appointed.

BBC 18 October 2012 Last updated at 23:12 GMT

Deputy Adam said smoking was the main cause of premature deaths

Tobacco retailers in Guernsey will have to obtain an annual licence, if proposals by the Health and Social Services Department are approved.

Health Minister Hunter Adam also wants to give police the power to confiscate cigarettes and “smoking paraphernalia” from under-18s in public places.

The department has proposed licence fees of between £300 and £1,000, depending on the size of the retailer.

Deputies will debate the proposals at their meeting on 28 November.

Additional measures include restricting the display of prices, which has been viewed as a potential loophole following the outlawing of prominent product displays.

The licensing regime would be policed by officers from the Office of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation, who “already visit virtually all of the tobacco outlets”.

‘Preventable death’

Deputy Adam said the licence fee would be set in such a way as to ensure the cost of administration and enforcement were covered, as well as signage and training.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-guernsey-19995842?print=true

A further proposal suggests it should cover the cost of the Quitline service, which helps those attempting to give up smoking.

However, the Treasury and Resources Department has warned that some retailers may choose not to sell tobacco products anymore, if a licensing regime is introduced.

This, it said, would reduce the funds available.

A previous tobacco licensing regime, introduced in 1904, was repealed in 1980 because it cost more to administer than was being raised through fees.

Deputy Adam said the proposals were primarily aimed at reducing the prevalence of smoking, especially among children.

“Smoking remains the major preventable cause of premature death and ill health in the Bailiwick,” he said.

The latest proposals form part of a Tobacco Control Strategy agreed by the States in 2008.

If approved, it is estimated the legislation would come back before deputies for final approval early in 2013.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/tobacco-companies-wrongdoing-lies-addictive_n_1968699.html

By David Ingram

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) – U.S. tobacco companies told a federal judge on Monday they should not be required to tell the public they manipulated nicotine levels to make cigarettes more addictive, or that they repeatedly lied about the health effects of light cigarettes.

The companies – including Altria Group Inc and Reynolds American Inc – have been fighting with the U.S. Justice Department for six years about the wording of what are known as “corrective statements.”

The statements are part of the penalty the companies must pay after U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, in a historic 2006 decision, found that the tobacco industry engaged in a multi-decade fraud to deceive the public.

Labels with the statements are set to run eventually in newspapers, on cigarette packaging and elsewhere.

The labels are separate from those that have run on U.S. cigarette packaging for decades, and from new graphic labels proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Although Kessler’s decision concluded that the companies manipulated nicotine and lied about health effects – and an appeals court upheld her decision – the companies maintain they did nothing wrong.

To force the companies to advertise those conclusions would mean spreading a message they do not believe, in violation of their speech rights, Noel Francisco, a lawyer for several companies, said at a hearing on Monday.

“Simply because the court found it, doesn’t mean it can force us to say it,” Francisco told Kessler. The statements need to be purely factual and non-controversial, he said.

A Justice Department lawyer said the proposed statements are factual, based on Kessler’s 2006 decision, and that the public needs to be aware of the extent of the companies’ lying.

“The tobacco companies would love these statements to be generic health warnings. They would love these statements to be about their products and not about them,” said the Justice Department’s Daniel Crane-Hirsch.

Kessler said she would rule on the proposed wording of the “corrective statements” soon.

The dispute is the latest round in a legal fight between the government and major cigarette-makers dating to the Clinton administration.

In 1999 Justice Department lawyers accused the companies of running a fraud against Americans by denying or downplaying the effects of their products.

One 1954 newspaper ad, for example, dismissed experiments suggesting a link between cancer and smoking. “We accept an interest in people’s health as a basic responsibility, paramount to every other consideration in our business,” the ad said.

Kessler ruled that the companies violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a 1970 law designed for use against organized crime.

She rejected a Justice Department proposal that the companies pay billions for anti-smoking campaigns, but she did bar them from using terms such as “low tar” or “light” in their cigarette marketing, and she required them to make corrective statements to the public.