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January, 2016:

UK teens heavily exposed to alcohol and tobacco content in YouTube music videos

Jan 14th, 2016
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http://www.economicvoice.com/uk-teens-heavily-exposed-to-alcohol-and-tobacco-content-in-youtube-music-videos/

13-15 year olds and girls most exposed, findings suggest

UK teens are heavily exposed to alcohol and tobacco images and lyrics in digital YouTube music videos, indicates research published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Those exposed the most are 13-15 year olds, and girls, the findings suggest

Relatively little attention has been paid to YouTube content, despite the fact that some music videos contain extensive alcohol and tobacco content, which is often depicted in a positive light, and that these videos tend to be most popular with younger audiences, say the researchers.

They used the results of two nationally representative online surveys of British adults and teens to calculate viewing figures for the 32 most popular music videos of top 40 chart songs in the UK during the 12 weeks of 3 November 2013 to 19 January 2014.

And they analysed the number of 10 second intervals in each of the 32 videos to estimate the total number of images/depictions/lyrics (impressions) of alcohol and tobacco content.

In all, 2068 teens aged between 11 and 18, and 2232 adults from the age of 19 onwards completed the surveys, and the results suggested that the average percentage of viewing across the 32 music videos was 22% for the teens and 6% for the adults.

The videos were available for an average of 7 to 10 months after release. And based on population census data, the researchers calculated that these delivered a total of 1006 million impressions of alcohol and 203 million of tobacco to the British population during the period between release of the video and the point of the survey.

Most of this content was delivered to 25-34 year olds, but levels of individual exposure were almost four times higher among teens, the figures indicated.

Teens aged 13 to 15 received an average of 11.48 tobacco impressions, while those aged 16 to 18 received an average of 10.5. This compares with 2.85 for adults.

Furthermore, exposure was around 65% higher among girls, with the highest numbers of tobacco impressions delivered to 13-15 year olds.

The pattern of exposure for alcohol was similar to that of tobacco, but the overall number of impressions was five times higher.

An estimated 52.11 alcohol impressions were delivered to each teen compared with 14.13 to each adult. Individual exposure levels rocketed to 70.68 among 13-15 year old girls.

“Trumpets” by Jason Derulo, and “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke delivered some of the highest number of tobacco impressions, while ”Timber” by Pitbull, and “Drunk in Love” by Beyoncé, delivered the most alcohol content.

“If these levels of exposure were typical, then in 1 year, music videos would be expected to deliver over 4 billion impressions of alcohol, and nearly 1 billion of tobacco, in Britain alone,” write the researchers.

“Further, the number of impressions has been calculated on the basis of one viewing only; however, many of the videos had been watched multiple times, so this number is likely to be much bigger,” they warn.

A ban on paid-for placement of branded tobacco products has been in force since 2002 in the UK, while alcohol promotion is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority, the Portman Group, and industry voluntary codes of practice.

But while films are classified, and TV content is subject to controls during periods when children are likely to be watching, no such regulations apply to digital music videos. The British Board of Film Classification has consulted on an age rating system for music videos made in the UK, but this does not cover tobacco and alcohol content.

Instead, it includes drug misuse, dangerous behaviour presented as safe, bad language, sex and nudity, threatening behaviour and violence.

The evidence suggests that teens exposed to depictions of alcohol and tobacco content in films are more likely to start smoking or drinking, and the researchers suggest that music videos pose a “significant health hazard that requires appropriate regulatory control.”

They urge: “Owing to the obvious health implications for adolescents, we suggest that overly positive portrayals of both alcohol and tobacco in music videos should be included in both the drug misuse and dangerous behaviour presented as safe rating categories.”

Judge Tosses Big Tobacco Request for His Recusal

Jan 14th, 2016
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http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/01/14/judge-tosses-big-tobacco-request-for-his-recusal.htm

(CN) – A federal judge refused to recuse himself from a Big Tobacco challenge to new labeling rules the industry considers “draconian.”

Philip Morris and other tobacco companies seek to invalidate a Food and Drug Administration “guidance,” issued in September 2015, describing the “FDA’s current thinking on whether and when a change to a tobacco product’s label, product quantity in the package, additives, or specifications renders that later product a ‘new tobacco product’ subject to premarket review.”

Since a tobacco product’s label is now considered “part” of that product, under the amended Tobacco Control Act, the guidance states that a label change to a tobacco product will create a “new tobacco product,” raising a host of other regulatory issues.

Philip Morris asserts the guidance violates its First Amendment rights as well as administrative procedural requirements.

The tobacco companies moved to have U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta recuse himself based on his former law partner’s representation of an anti-tobacco organization, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The organization submitted comments to the FDA about the disputed guidance.

Mehta was a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder for four years before his appointment to the bench in December 2014. His wife is presently a partner at the same firm, which has represented other anti-tobacco organizations.

But Mehta disagreed that his personal connections to his former firm created an “appearance of partiality,” as the tobacco plaintiffs claim.

“Although I generally knew that CTFK was a Zuckerman Spaeder client, I was not aware at the time the advice was given that the firm was advising CTFK in connection with the draft guidance,” he said.

And while CTFK naturally has an interest in the outcome of the case, Mehta said it was unlikely to seek to intervene, and at any rate, its interest is not enough to warrant his recusal.

Mehta noted that members of the D.C. bench often had careers with large law firms in the city with extensive legislative and government regulatory practices.

“Given these realities, it is not hard to conceive how litigants could be emboldened to judge-shop if I were to recuse in this case,” Mehta said. “If I accepted plaintiffs’ position, would a judge be required to recuse when her former law partner, unbeknownst to the judge while she was at the firm, lobbied Congress on behalf of a client in favor of a piece of legislation that is later challenged as unconstitutional? Or, instead of lobbying Congress, what if the former partner met on behalf of a client with an Executive Branch official about an executive order that is later challenged as exceeding the President’s authority?”

These situations are not unusual, especially in the nation’s capital, the judge said. He also said his wife has never provided any legal services to CTFK or any of the firm’s other anti-tobacco clients.

“A judge is not required to recuse merely because a litigant has discovered an attenuated connection between the judge’s former law firm and the issues before the court,” Mehta concluded.

Alcohol in e-cigarettes can affect ‘vapers': Study

Jan 14th, 2016
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Are we going to need designated drivers for “vapers” now?

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/13/

A new Yale University study finds that people who used a commercially available electronic cigarette liquid with a relatively high alcohol level had their motor skills significantly impaired — even though they didn’t feel like they were “buzzed” from the vaporized booze.

E-cigs have become increasingly popular in recent years as users seek alternatives to traditional tobacco products, which cause cancer. The battery-operated e-cigs vaporize a liquid, which contains nicotine and often flavorings.

“They didn’t actually know they were under the influence of alcohol,” said Dr. Mehmet Sofuoglu, a professor at the Yale School of Medicine who co-authored the study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. “It still influenced their performance.”

“In this study, they had motor impairment, but they didn’t know they were intoxicated.” -Dr. Mehmet Sofuoglu, professor, Yale School of Medicine

Several of the study participants ingested enough alcohol via the e-cigs that metabolized booze was detected in their urine.

Sofuoglu said the findings are “worrisome,” particularly on the heels of new data showing a dramatic upward spike in the number of middle school and high school students using e-cigarettes. There’s also cause for concern, researchers said, because of the popularity among e-cig users of making their own vaping liquids — which can have higher alcohol levels than commercially sold liquids.

Sofuoglu said the study showed how e-cig users, even if they didn’t end up having enough detectable alcohol in their urine to trigger a DUI charge, could end up being “intoxicated” and too impaired to drive because of how much “more quickly and efficiently” alcohol affected the brain after people inhaled vaporized booze compared to drinking it.

E-cig vapers who use liquids high in alcohol content may be on the track to “a faster level of dependence” on both alcohol and nicotine, Sofuoglu said.

Of 31 such e-liquids obtained by the Yale researchers for their study, about one-third didn’t have any measurable alcohol in them, a paper on the study noted. Almost 40 percent had 0.75 percent or less alcohol content. And another 23 percent had alcohol levels of 1 to 3 percent.

One of the liquids, organic French vanilla, made by Virgin Vapor of California, had a whopping 23.5 percent alcohol content.

Researchers used that liquid to compare its effects with that of another e-liquid made by Virgin Vapor — organic naked vanilla — which had just a 0.4 percent alcohol content.

The 16 participants in the study, who all were traditional cigarette users and social drinkers, were tested on two separate days: one for each of the two different e-cig liquids.

When they were asked a series of questions after their puffing sessions, none of the participants indicated that they felt intoxicating effects from the higher-alcohol e-liquid, the study found. That was true after an initial five-minute session when they were asked to puff just 10 times, and even after a subsequent 20-minute session when they were allowed to puff as much as they wanted.

But the participants then were given a test designed to measure their motor skills. The test required putting a series of metal pins into holes. Participants were tested on placing the pins with their dominant hands, non dominant hands and then both hands, over 30-second periods.

Participants scored markedly worse when they vaped with the high-alcohol liquid than they did when they used the trace-alcohol liquid, according to the study.

And their scores “did get much worse after the [20-minute] free time,” noted Sofuoglu.

He said that when people drink alcohol, they often are aware that they are becoming impaired. That doesn’t appear to be the case, or is much less so, with vaping e-cig alcohol.

“In this study, they had motor impairment,” he said, “but they didn’t know they were intoxicated.”

Annette Rogers, CEO of Virgin Vapor, said the company uses organic flavors, some of which “come in a base of organic ethyl alcohol as this is commonly used in the flavor industry when extracting flavor from organic base ingredients.”

“When we first started our company in 2010, the only flavors available that were suitable for use in e-liquid were ones extracted using organic ethyl alcohol. Since that time and with the help of our chemist, Dr. Marc Foster, we have developed new and better flavors that do not require organic ethyl alcohol as an extraction method,” Rogers said. “We prefer flavors that do not contain organic ethyl alcohol because we look to create a product with as few ingredients as possible.”

“Due to our ongoing product development and innovation, we only have a few flavors that we still carry that are extracted using organic ethyl alcohol, because of their long-standing popularity but most do not. All of our ingredients are listed on every bottle of Virgin Vapor liquid, including organic ethyl alcohol when present,” she said.

Last week, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing a very large increase in the number of middle school and high school students using e-cigs, a rise that has tracked, and may be related to an explosion in advertising for the devices, according to the agency.

In 2011, the CDC said, ad spending on e-cigs stood at $6.4 million annually, and 280,000 middle and high school students reported having used the devices in the past 30 days.

As of 2014, the number of such students who reported using the devices had risen to 2.49 million — up from 800,000 in 2013. The ad spending on e-cigs had reached $115 million by 2014.

The CDC noted that “about 69 percent of middle and high school students were exposed to e-cigarette advertisements in retail stores, on the Internet, in magazines/newspapers, or on TV/movies.”

“Exposure to e-cigarette advertisements may be contributing to increases in e-cigarette use among youth,” the CDC said.

E-Cig Explosion Almost Paralyzes Tennessee Man

Jan 13th, 2016
by Editor.
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http://sanfrancisco.legalexaminer.com/defective-dangerous-products/e-cig-explosion-almost-paralyzes-tennessee-man/

So why do E-cigarettes have such a passionate following, when it seems that every week we learn of more and more exploding batteries and injuries? As a dangerous and defective products attorney, it is my duty to inform the public of potential dangers in using certain products and how to avoid injury. Although my last article on vaporizers and e-cigarettes caused a bit of an uproar, and more than a bit of hate mail, I believe it’s important to continue to advocate for consumer’s rights, and to ensure that these devices are made safely and distributed according to law, and are consumer-friendly, with proper warnings. It seems to me that the vape industry is full of individuals and companies who want to take short cuts not normally allowed American manufacturers, distributors or retailers. With batteries made in China and sold without any labeling and no warnings, and e-cigarettes sold with no warnings or proper instructions for safety, we have an explosive situation on our hands, and in our pockets, and in our cars, and occasionally in our faces. That’s why this case below is especially troubling.

Cordero Caples, a 29 year old man from Tennessee is in the hospital after an electronic cigarette exploded in his face this past Friday. Mr. Caples suffered a fractured vertebra, facial fractures, and at least one missing tooth in the sudden explosion. And to make matters worse? The injuries he sustained from the explosion may leave him permanently paralyzed, never to walk again.

Although no official reports about what caused the explosion have been released, a smoke shop owner in Memphis was shown a photo of the e-cigarette Caples was using and noticed that the battery seemed odd. “This is way too powerful to power this” said Mary Grace Burns, owner of the smoke shop. “Way too hot of a battery. You can have a way-too-high amped battery in there or something like that could easily misfire and cause something like that. It’s operator error though.”

Caples has been in surgery since Sunday, and his condition has been upgraded to “fair.”

“Any sudden move can cause him to be in a paralyzed state, and that is something we don’t want. He’s going to need 24-hour care for a while and constant monitoring from family and friends and loved ones. You know it is heart breaking but we’re going to bond together” said Caples’ sister.

So even without the official word on why the e-cigarette exploded, it looks like it may be due to faulty battery, or a battery in the device that was much too powerful for Caples’ cigarette. In any event, shouldn’t manufacturers be aware that these higher amped batteries are being used in their products? Shouldn’t we be warning users not to tamper with batteries, or upgrade devices with such dangerous power sources? How are we as consumer to know what kind of battery goes in these devices without the company alerting us as to the dangers of such use, or misuse? If a company makes a product, it’s up to them to tell us how to properly use it, and understand how it may be used after purchase.

E-cigarettes have gone unregulated and the sellers of the components have been unaccountable for too long; it’s time we hold them responsible for the products they produce and sell.

And you know, I would feel this way about any product sold in this country where we supposedly have the best consumer protection. If the product is defective and harms someone, the companies and individuals who are responsible must be held accountable, even if the product is as popular as the e-cigs.

And, in my last post on this subject, I asked those who commented most strongly to present to me some evidence supporting the safety of e-cigarettes, or even how they were healthier than commercial cigarettes, but I got not responses. I wonder if those who were so passionate in their condemnation of my last post on this subject are really shills of the e-cigarette or tobacco industry?

Panel’s questions will delay large cigarette packet warnings, says expert

Jan 13th, 2016
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http://www.bmj.com/content/352/bmj.i176?etoc

An Indian parliamentary panel has raised questions about whether the health ministry’s move to increase the size of health warnings on cigarette packaging would reduce tobacco use, Reuters has reported.

The panel also raised concerns about whether this move would affect the livelihood of farmers who cultivated tobacco or increase its illegal trade and asked the ministry to state which tobacco ingredients were harmful and could cause cancer and how many cancers were linked to tobacco use.

Health warnings must currently cover 40% of one side of the packet or 20% of both sides. The new recommendation, announced in October 2014, said that health warnings would have to cover 85% of each side of the packet, of which 25% would be text and 60% would be a picture. It was meant to be enforced from 1 April 2015, but implementation was delayed until 1 April 2016.

Pankaj Chaturvedi, a surgical oncologist at Tata Memorial Hospital and a member of the committee that recommended larger graphical warnings, told The BMJ that the 32 questions raised by the panel would only serve to further delay the ministry’s proposal. He said that the purpose of the panel was to monitor various legislations and suggest any possible concerns to the appropriate ministry—not to stop a public health move that would prevent millions of youngsters from picking up a habit that kills every third user prematurely.

Previous studies have estimated that in 2012 about 110.2 million Indians smoked cigarettes and that 18.3% of cancers among women and 42% of cancers among men in the country were linked to tobacco usage.

Chaturvedi said that the list of questions echoed the same illogical concerns that were expressed publicly by an earlier panel, which included members directly involved in the tobacco industry. “A picture can speak a thousand words,” Chaturvedi said, stressing the importance of pictorial warnings as the most effective way to educate people, many of whom could be ignorant, illiterate or partially literate, or very young.

He cited the example of Australia, which has gone a step further to reduce tobacco use by allowing only plain packaging of cigarettes. “The expert committee constituted by ministry of health deliberated on several aspects of pictorial warnings—type of picture, size of picture, international best practices, public opinion, field research, etc—before their final recommendation,” he said.

Hookah tobacco smoke contains more toxins than cigarette smoke

Jan 12th, 2016
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http://www.metronews.ca/life/health/2016/01/12/hookah-tabacco-contains-more-toxins-than-cigarette-smoke.html

From this analysis the team found that when comparing one hookah session with one cigarette, more harmful toxins are present during the hookah session.

New research has found that smoking tobacco from hookahs, the traditionally Middle-Eastern pipes that involve drawing tobacco smoke through water before being inhaled, causes the user to inhale a much larger amount of toxins than from cigarettes.

The meta-analysis, funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute, was led by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The team narrowed down 542 previously published articles related to cigarette and hookah smoking to 17 studies which contained enough reliable and sufficient data to analyze the toxins inhaled during both forms of smoking.

From this analysis the team found that when comparing one hookah session with one cigarette, more harmful toxins are present during the hookah session, with the user inhaling 125 times the smoke, 25 times the tar, 2.5 times the nicotine and 10 times the carbon monoxide in comparison.

Lead author Brian A. Primack acknowledged that it is difficult to compare the two forms of smoking and make a conclusion as to which poses the greater health risk, as what researchers refer to as frequent users could mean an individual who smokes for example 20 cigarettes a day or someone who participates in a few hookah sessions on a daily basis.

“It’s not a perfect comparison because people smoke cigarettes and hookahs in very different ways,” said Dr. Primack. “We had to conduct the analysis this way — comparing a single hookah session to a single cigarette — because that’s the way the underlying studies tend to report findings. So, the estimates we found cannot tell us exactly what is ‘worse.'”

However Dr. Primack did comment that these results still show the potential dangers of hookah smoking, which he believes many are unaware of, and called for it to be monitored more closely.

The results of the study will be published in the January/February print issue of the journal Public Health Reports.

The use of hookahs is currently on rise among US high school students. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control reported in April 2015 that, when measuring the levels of both forms of smoking amongst high school students over a 30-day period, levels of hookah tobacco use were higher than levels of cigarette use.

Yale study finds alcohol level in some e-cigarette liquids can affect motor skills

Jan 12th, 2016
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http://www.nhregister.com/article/NH/20160112/NEWS/160119859

NEW HAVEN >> Some e-cigarette liquids could give you an alcoholic buzz, a new Yale School of Medicine study has found.

But an author of the study said commercially available e-cigarettes are not high in alcohol.

According to Dr. Gerald Valentine of the Yale Psychiatry Department, the risk of ingesting enough alcohol to cause impairment comes from e-cig liquids that are bought on the Internet, or from enthusiasts who mix their own vaping liquids.

The liquid that e-cigarettes vaporize, which contains nicotine, includes additional chemicals, including alcohol. The researchers studied e-cig liquids bought on the Internet containing between 0.4 percent and 23.5 percent alcohol, but the highest percentage represented just one of 31 samples, Valentine said. Most had less than 3 percent alcohol.

The brand with 23.5 percent alcohol was Virgin Vapor of California, he said. A message left with Virgin Vapor was not immediately returned.

Those who “vaped” the high-alcohol brand did not report feeling differently after using the e-cigarette, but tested lower on psychomotor tests and some were found to have alcohol in their urine, the study found.

Valentine said it is unclear how long any impairment might last. “It might only be 30 seconds. It might be two minutes. We don’t know the duration of that effect,” he said.

But he said alcoholics might be at risk of relapsing by inhaling even low levels of alcohol, presenting “a whole different set of health issues.”

He said previous studies have looked at other chemicals that could be harmful if inhaled, but not alcohol.

While the study subjects were adults, Valentine said, “We have a lot of contact with young smokers who use e-cigarettes. They’re enthusiasts. They’re experimenting.”

Dr. Mehmet Sofuoglu of Yale’s Department of Psychiatry, senior author of the study, said in a release, “Given the widespread and unregulated use of e-cigarettes, especially by youth and other vulnerable populations, further studies are needed to evaluate both the acute safety and long-term health risks of using alcohol-containing e-cigarettes.”

The study was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Man Suffers Third Degree Burns When E-Cigarette Battery Bursts

Jan 11th, 2016
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http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/01/11/man-suffers-third-degree-burns-when-e-cigarette-battery-bursts/

A Wise County father was taken to Parkland Hospital in Dallas with second and third degree burns after a battery from an e-cigarette caught fire in his pocket.

Jeremy Green, 34, thought e-cigarettes would be a healthier smoking alternative when he started using them a few years ago. “I’ve done it every day for a long time now never had an issue with it,” he said.

That was until Thursday when the lithium battery used to power his e-cig exploded in his pant’s pocket.

“I bent over to grab something and in the process of bending over the battery exploded,” he said. “It was like a blowtorch going off inside my pants… the most excruciating pain that I’ve felt ever,” said Green.

Green now struggles to walk and suffered extensive second and third degree burns from his hip to his knee where his jeans caught fire.

“I saw the flames the sparks so I grabbed the battery and pulled it out of my pants,” said Green.

He was treated in Parkland Hospital’s burn unit and faces a long recovery from a danger he said he wasn’t aware of.

An e-cigarette industry website said 30 smokers have experienced similar lithium battery explosions since 2012. But most of those were while the battery was on its charger.

Green’s incident has raised concerns about the safety of the batteries when they aren’t charging.

It’s a lesson Green learned the hard way. He’s home now but without medical insurance to pay his bills and unable to work for at least another month – times are tough.

“Right now I’m the sole provider for my family this is going to put me out of commission for a while,” said Green.

Several e-cigarette users have filed lawsuits over damage and injuries from exploding batterie. Green is considering following their lead.

Hookah Tobacco Smoking Session Delivers 25 Times the Toxicants of a Single Cigarette

Jan 11th, 2016
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http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/35712/20160111/hookah-tobacco-smoking-session-delivers-25-times-toxicants-single-cigarette.htm

Do you smoke hookah as opposed to cigarettes? You may be inhaling a lot of toxicants. Scientists have found that one hookah tobacco smoking sessions delivers 25 times the tar of a single cigarette.

In this latest study, the researchers reviewed 542 scientific articles relevant to cigarette and hookah smoking and then narrowed them down to 17 studies that included sufficient data to extract reliable estimates on toxicants inhaled when smoking cigarettes or hookah.

“Our results show that hookah tobacco smoking poses real health concerns and that it should be monitored more closely than it is currently,” said Brian A. Primack, one of the researchers, in a news release. “For example, hookah smoking was not included in the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey System questionnaire, which assesses cigarette smoking, chewing tobacco, electronic cigarettes and many other forms of substance abuse.”

Comparing a hookah smoking session to smoking a single cigarette is a complex comparison to make. This is largely due to the differences in smoking patterns. While a frequent cigarette smoker may smoke 20 cigarettes per day, a frequent hookah smoker may only participant in a few hookah sessions each day.

“It’s not a perfect comparison because people smoke cigarettes and hookahs in very different ways,” said Primack. “We had to conduct our analysis this way-comparing a single hookah session to a single cigarette-because that’s the way the underlying studies tend to report findings. So, the estimates we found cannot tell us exactly what is ‘worse.’ But what they do suggest is that hookah smokers are exposed to a lot more toxicants than they probably realize.”

The findings are published in the journal Public Health Reports.

British American Tobacco and Stella Artois among 35 companies ordered to cough up £524m in unpaid taxes after Belgian ‘excess profit’ dodge is ruled illegal

Jan 11th, 2016
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3394337/British-American-Tobacco-Stella-Artois-35-companies-ordered-cough-35m-unpaid-taxes-Belgian-excess-profit-dodge-ruled-illegal.html

• Stella Artois among 35 companies ordered to pay more than half a billion pounds in unpaid taxes
• European Commission competition officials said Belgium had wrongly given tax breaks worth 700million euros (£524m)
• Instead of paying tax on their full profits, companies were taxed on hypothetical profits of smaller companies

The makers of Stella Artois and Benson & Hedges were last night among 35 companies ordered to stump up more than half a billion pounds in unpaid taxes after deals they had with the Belgian government were ruled illegal.

European Commission competition officials said Belgium had wrongly given tax breaks worth 700million euros (£524m) under a scheme that helped multinationals reduce their taxable profits by up to 90 per cent.

British American Tobacco, which makes Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall, and brewer AB Inbev, whose brands include Budweiser, Corona and Beck’s, were named as among the companies that had benefited.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: ‘The European Commission has concluded that selective tax advantages granted by Belgium under its “excess profit” tax scheme are illegal under EU state aid rules.

‘Belgium has given a select number of multinationals substantial tax advantages that break EU state aid rules. It distorts competition on the merits by putting smaller competitors who are not multinational on an unequal footing.’

Under the tax scheme, launched in 2005 with the tagline ‘Only in Belgium’, international companies were encouraged to invest in the country with the promise they could cut their tax bills.

Instead of paying tax on their full profits, companies were taxed on hypothetical profits of what it was estimated a smaller company without their international scale and global brand recognition would earn.

The EU tax investigation follows those looking at Apple’s deals with Ireland, coffee-shop chain Starbucks’s arrangements with The Netherlands and McDonald’s with Luxembourg.

In October, the Commission decided that Luxembourg and the Netherlands had granted unfair tax advantages to Fiat and Starbucks, respectively, and ordered the firms to repay some taxes.

EU rules say some tax breaks offered to big companies breach the bloc’s rules on state aid, as they amount to a government subsidy that is aimed at attracting multinationals to do business in certain countries.

Belgian finance minister Johan Van Overtveldt yesterday said: ‘At this point we do not exclude any option. This also applies to the possibility of an appeal against the decision.’

An AB Inbev spokesman said: ‘While we are disappointed by this decision, we remain confident that our tax rulings are in full compliance with the EU jurisprudence on state aid and that we have always complied with Belgian and international tax provisions.

‘We will consider our options, taking into account the reactions by the Belgian authorities.’

British American Tobacco did not respond to a request for comment.

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