Clear The Air News Tobacco Blog Rotating Header Image

June 22nd, 2013:

TobaccoTactics

MEMO00069.jpg

http://www.tobaccotactics.org/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png

TobaccoTactics.org is a ground-breaking new online academic resource, launched by the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath.

TobaccoTactics.org provides up-to-date information on the Tobacco Industry, its allies or those promoting a pro-tobacco agenda. The website explores how the industry influences and distorts public health debates, using a whole raft of lobbying and public relations tactics.

Investigating the activities of the main tobacco industry players and the links between the organisations and people involved, TobaccoTactics.org maps the echo chamber of the industry and charts its influence on contemporary public health debates.

So whether you are interested in the current debate on plain packaging of cigarettes, concerned about smuggling, or whether you want to know more about often hidden links between the tobacco industry and seemingly independent groups or about the importance of the pack, TobaccoTactics.org reveals how the industry manipulates public policy.

Plain Packaging: bare knuckle fight

Having lost the argument on plain packaging in Australia, one industry analyst predicted a “bare knuckle fight” from the industry in the UK. TobaccoTactics.org outlines the different tactics the industry is using, from front groups to PR firms to scaremongering over smuggling.

At the same time, the website documents how the industry is targeting women and young people with a whole host of clever new pack designs. The industry’s current tactics are also given historical context by analysis of thousands of internal tobacco documents.

Click on the links to find out more on the current smoking debate:

· Plain Packaging in the UK

· Plain Packaging Opposition in the UK

· Plain Packaging in Australia

· Good Quotes on Plain Packaging

· Countering Industry Arguments against Plain Packaging

Tobacco Tactics – How does it work?

TobaccoTactics.org provides easy public access to research on the transnational tobacco companies and their efforts to influence public health policy. Using the same open software as Wikipedia, TobaccoTactic.org shares the simple structure with many free encyclopaedias on line. Our website, however, can only be edited by the team at the University of Bath. Due to a policy of Strict Referencing we can guarantee TobaccoTactics.org is a trustworthy source of information, aimed at meeting the best possible standards of quality, fairness and accuracy.

Where to start?

There are several ways to find your way at TobaccoTactics.org:

  • Begin with the overview of the broad range of Tobacco Tactics offering explanation and examples.
  • The section Organisations & People identifies some of those involved in attempts to influence the health debate.
  • For specific names or issues, it’s good to try the Search engine – firmly fixed on the left-hand column of each page.
  • The What’s New section at this page offers the most recent edits,
  • The Twitter-feed picks up the latest news.

Furthermore, you might want to check the Tobacco Control Research Group blog

http://www.tobaccotactics.org/images/thumb/f/f2/MEMO0065.JPG/250px-MEMO0065.JPG

http://www.tobaccotactics.org/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png

The tobacco industry pioneered tactics such as denying the health impacts of its products

Tobacco Tactics – Background

TobaccoTactics.org builds on the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Research Groups extensive research experience in documenting the activities and influence of the tobacco industry and aims to address the difficulties of making such research publicly available in a timely and useable manner.

Prof Anna Gilmore:

People may ask why the University of Bath has produced this pioneering Wiki. Tobacco remains a leading cause of death, disease and inequalities globally. To address this tobacco epidemic, it is necessary to examine its vector, the tobacco industry. Specifically, we need to explore how the tobacco industry influences public health, both directly through the promotion of products damaging to health, and indirectly through influence over public policy. The Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath has set up TobaccoTactics.org to achieve this.

Read more…

What’s New on TobaccoTactics.org?

13 June 2013

The Premier League and its links to an Indonesian tobacco company

3 June 2013

‘Big Tobacco’ funded rightwing thinktanks. Exposure in the Observer confirms TobaccoTactics‘ research on history of accepting money from the industry.

· Updates on the independent faces of the smoking lobby: The Adam Smith Institute and the Institute of Economic Affairs.

23 May 2013

More updates on The Common Sense Alliance – involvement of Ogilvy & Mather:

· A profile on Rory Sutherland, the executive creative director of OgilvyOne London and the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather UK. Since August 2012, he is also the director of The Common Sense Alliance, listed as one of the founding members of this lobby group supported by British American Tobacco (BAT).

· Advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather has a well documented history of working with Big Tobacco: PR for the Tobacco Institute, a front group of the industry, and Influencing Science by creating doubt about second hand smoke in the 1980s. Today BAT is still one of their largest clients.

Twitter Feed @BathTR – Tobacco Control Research Group

There seems to be a problem with the Twitter feed that is beyond our control.

Is TobaccoTactics.org meant for me?

Our audience includes health professionals and public health advocates, NGOs, journalists, civil servants, politicians and academics. In the end, TobaccoTactics.org is aimed at anyone with an interest in the Tobacco Industry and its wide range of tactics to influence the debate on public health.

TobaccoTactics.org also addresses the need to monitor the tobacco industry activities, an action recognised by the World Health Organisation as essential to public health. Article 5.3 of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control requires signatories of the Treaty to protect their health policies “from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry”. TobaccoTactics.org helps people do this.

Visitor statistics

Since it was launched in June 2012, the website has received 1.4 million hits, with over 800,000 pages served with a daily average of nearly 6,300 hits! These April 2013 statistics, along with positive feedback from users of the site, reflect its success and popularity. Update: check the TobaccoTactics User Statistics for May 2013.

Knowledge Exchange

TobaccoTactics.org also represents a new model of academic research dissemination. Its unique feature is that it enables preliminary research findings to be made publicly available faster than would occur via traditional academic outputs. We aim to expand TobaccoTactics.org as an exemplary and pioneering model of knowledge exchange.

We also offer workshops on the wiki for new audiences and dedicated talks for a broad range of stakeholders. Do get in touch if you want to invite TobaccoTactics.org to your conference, or if you want us to talk about uncovering the tactics of the tobacco industry. And do not hesitate to contact us with information that needs to be published on the website.

Tell us what you think!

The TobaccoTactics team wants to build more alliances with key stakeholders. To maximise usefulness we are also actively seeking feedback as well as specific requests for information.

Email: TobaccoTactics AT Bath.ac.uk.

Editorial Oversight

TobaccoTactics is a project of the Tobacco Control Research Group at the Department for Health at the University of Bath and is overseen by two managing editors, Eveline Lubbers and Andrew Rowell. TobaccoTactics has a policy of Strict Referencing. Any feedback or material to add? Please contact us at TobaccoTactics AT bath.ac.uk.

Disclaimer. Some of the research for TobaccoTactics was funded by Cancer Research UK Limited and Smokefree South West. These funders have had no input into the research reported on this website or its conclusions. They are not responsible for the content or the publication, nor do they necessarily endorse it. Published by the University of Bath. Read the General Disclaimer.

Logo Bath uni.gif

http://www.tobaccotactics.org/skins/common/images/magnify-clip.png

Powered by MediaWiki

MSPs roll up £1m of pension fund in tobacco firms

http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/msps-roll-up-1m-of-pension-fund-in-tobacco-firms.19259729

MSPs roll up £1m of pension fund in tobacco firms

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sites/default/files/TOM%20GORDON-wee.jpg

Tom Gordon

Scottish Political Editor

Sunday 28 October 2012

MORE than £1 million of MSPs’ pension cash is invested in big tobacco companies, despite Holyrood passing multiple anti-smoking laws in recent years, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

MORE than £1 million of MSPs’ pension cash is invested in big tobacco companies, despite Holyrood passing multiple anti-smoking laws in recent years, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

MSPs' pension cash is being invested in tobacco companies

MSPs’ pension cash is being invested in tobacco companies

Custom byline text:

exclusive By Tom Gordon

Another half million is invested in the controversial mining giant, BHP Billiton.

Anti-smoking campaigners last night said the Parliament had a “moral duty” to disinvest in tobacco as it undermined public health policy.

The shareholdings appear in the annual accounts for the Scottish Parliamentary Pension Scheme (SPPS), which were published last week.

<p>With a total value of &pound;36.9m at the end of the March 2012, the SPPS is the dedicated pension scheme for all 129 MSPs, as well as the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland.</p>< p>All its investments are in a single pooled fund run by independent manager, Baillie Gifford.</p>< p>The accounts show two tobacco giants in the “top 10″ of the fund’s shareholdings last year.</p>< p>British America Tobacco (BAT) accounted for 1.6% of the fund, and Imperial Tobacco 1.2%, making the SPPS holdings worth just over &pound;1m in total. </p>< p>BAT and Imperial are the second and fourth-largest tobacco companies in the world, and last year sold 1.1 trillion cigarettes between them.</p>< p>The use of tobacco companies by the fund comes as stock markets struggle worldwide. Tobacco is traditionally seen as a “safe haven” for investment.</p>< p>Indeed, some argue pension funds have a financial “duty” to invest in tobacco to maximise returns.</p>< p>The Scottish Parliament led the way in the UK by banning smoking in public places in 2006, and has since passed laws to crack down on the display of cigarettes and tobacco in shops, and on the use of cigarette vending machines.</p>< p>The SPPS has four MSPs as trustees &ndash; Tory Alex Johnstone, the SNP’s Gil Paterson, Labour’s David Stewart and its chair, the LibDem Tavish Scott.</p>< p>The Parliament last night said that because SPPS was only one investor among many in a pooled fund, it could not dictate the shareholdings.</p>< p>However, Louise Rouse, director of engagement at FairPensions, the campaign for fair investment by pension funds, said MSPs could lobby the trustees to invest in another kind of fund.</p>< p>”If MSPs were concerned about the investment strategy from an ethical point of view they could raise that with the trustees,” she said.</p>< p>In Australia, the taxpayer-owned Futures Fund, a pension pot for public servants, is currently reviewing whether to end its &pound;140m investment in tobacco firms on ethical grounds.</p>< p>Sheila Duffy, chief executive of the anti-smoking charity ASH Scotland, said: “Tobacco isn’t like any other consumer product, in that when used exactly as intended long-term it will reliably kill one in two of its consumers. </p>< p>”Any investment in tobacco companies is an investment that undermines public-health policies.</p>< p>”We know that tobacco companies are looking to increase their market share and we know that spreads an epidemic of disease and early death, which Scotland has suffered badly from. </p>< p>”I think there’s a moral duty to disinvest in tobacco and I would like to see the Scottish Parliament take a lead in this.”</p>< p>Mining firm BHP Billiton has been repeatedly criticised over its labour relations and mining operations in developing countries, and is currently expanding into the controversial “fracking” method, for extracting for shale gas in the US, </p>< p>A spokesman for the Scottish Parliament said: “The members’ pension scheme is part of a pooled fund run by the independent investment manager Baillie Gifford, which operates in accordance with the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Investment.</p>< p>”The Parliament is only one of a large number of investors in the fund and cannot therefore direct where investments are made.”</p>

Contextual targeting label:

Block list

With a total value of £36.9m at the end of the March 2012, the SPPS is the dedicated pension scheme for all 129 MSPs, as well as the Lord Advocate and Solicitor General for Scotland.

All its investments are in a single pooled fund run by independent manager, Baillie Gifford.

The accounts show two tobacco giants in the “top 10″ of the fund’s shareholdings last year.

British America Tobacco (BAT) accounted for 1.6% of the fund, and Imperial Tobacco 1.2%, making the SPPS holdings worth just over £1m in total.

BAT and Imperial are the second and fourth-largest tobacco companies in the world, and last year sold 1.1 trillion cigarettes between them.

The use of tobacco companies by the fund comes as stock markets struggle worldwide. Tobacco is traditionally seen as a “safe haven” for investment.

Indeed, some argue pension funds have a financial “duty” to invest in tobacco to maximise returns.

The Scottish Parliament led the way in the UK by banning smoking in public places in 2006, and has since passed laws to crack down on the display of cigarettes and tobacco in shops, and on the use of cigarette vending machines.

The SPPS has four MSPs as trustees – Tory Alex Johnstone, the SNP’s Gil Paterson, Labour’s David Stewart and its chair, the LibDem Tavish Scott.

The Parliament last night said that because SPPS was only one investor among many in a pooled fund, it could not dictate the shareholdings.

However, Louise Rouse, director of engagement at FairPensions, the campaign for fair investment by pension funds, said MSPs could lobby the trustees to invest in another kind of fund.

“If MSPs were concerned about the investment strategy from an ethical point of view they could raise that with the trustees,” she said.

In Australia, the taxpayer-owned Futures Fund, a pension pot for public servants, is currently reviewing whether to end its £140m investment in tobacco firms on ethical grounds.

Sheila Duffy, chief executive of the anti-smoking charity ASH Scotland, said: “Tobacco isn’t like any other consumer product, in that when used exactly as intended long-term it will reliably kill one in two of its consumers.

“Any investment in tobacco companies is an investment that undermines public-health policies.

“We know that tobacco companies are looking to increase their market share and we know that spreads an epidemic of disease and early death, which Scotland has suffered badly from.

“I think there’s a moral duty to disinvest in tobacco and I would like to see the Scottish Parliament take a lead in this.”

Mining firm BHP Billiton has been repeatedly criticised over its labour relations and mining operations in developing countries, and is currently expanding into the controversial “fracking” method, for extracting for shale gas in the US,

A spokesman for the Scottish Parliament said: “The members’ pension scheme is part of a pooled fund run by the independent investment manager Baillie Gifford, which operates in accordance with the United Nation’s Principles for Responsible Investment.

“The Parliament is only one of a large number of investors in the fund and cannot therefore direct where investments are made.”

news

1.

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQk3HltvzlqH3TISiCqMxLYYhsmvInmPlghZaPYXVflwUSU0AE3zdItROVBJxNU36pXll7n6_g

How seeing just 10 tobacco adverts can boost risk of teenagers

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Daily Mail21 Jun 2013

Seeing 10 adverts for tobacco can increase teenagers’ risk of taking up smoking by almost 40 per cent, a new study has today claimed.

+

Show moreShow less

2. Say no to tobacco

3. Pakistan Observer19 hours ago

4. Georgia offers web and phone rehab for tobacco users

5. Rome News Tribune21 Jun 2013

6. all 15 news sources »

7.

Hungarians fume over revealing tobacco scandal

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

台北時報45 minutes ago

Originally, last year, the slashing of the number of outlets allowed to sell tobacco products from 42,000 — including gas stations and 

8.

9.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRzEZbPTcGAlV81v96OrC5gRP2qdXYN-u1Qkiah8gBQdxGy23qOZJqRTIpWovQReFgI2rCANhrp

Thirdhand Tobacco Smoke Damages Human Cells

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Environment News Service21 hours ago

Tobacco-specific nitrosamines, some of the chemical compounds in thirdhand smoke, are among the most potent carcinogens there are,”

Governments weaken EU tobacco curbs to secure agreement

http://uk.reuters.com/assets/print?aid=UKBRE95K0U220130621

Governments weaken EU tobacco curbs to secure agreement

Photo

Fri, Jun 21 2013

By Claire Davenport and Ilona Wissenbach

BRUSSELS/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – European Union health ministers agreed on Friday to ease tough planned restrictions on tobacco products to overcome opposition from some governments to the draft rules.

The ministers rejected a ban on slim cigarettes proposed by the bloc’s executive, the European Commission, but said they should be sold in normal-sized packets to reduce their appeal. They also agreed to outlaw menthol cigarettes and other tobacco flavourings.

The bloc’s health commissioner said that, despite the need for compromise in order to reach an agreement, the spirit of the Commission’s original proposals has been retained.

“The main thrust is that tobacco should look like tobacco – not like perfume or candy – and that it should taste like tobacco as well,” the Maltese commissioner Tonio Borg told a news conference in Luxembourg after the ministerial talks.

Cigarette sales in the 27-nation EU bloc have fallen sharply in recent years but – at about 33 percent – Europe still has a higher proportion of smokers than any other region of the globe, according to data from the World Health Organization.

The Commission proposed a crackdown on attractive tobacco branding in December, saying such branding was designed to recruit a new generation of younger smokers to replace the estimated 700,000 Europeans who die of smoking-related illnesses each year.

The discussions pitted western European nations that favour tough tobacco controls against a group of central and eastern member states led by Poland – one of Europe’s top cigarette producers – who fear the impact on tobacco industry jobs.

The Commission’s proposal that graphic visual and written warnings should cover 75 percent of the surface of all cigarette packets in future – leaving just 25 percent or less for the brand – was weakened to 65 per cent by ministers on Friday.

Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic did not support the compromise, but their opposition is not enough to prevent the law from being adopted.

Irish Health Minister James Reilly, who led Friday’s talks, dismissed economic arguments against tougher tobacco controls.

“It can never be – never – a choice between jobs and lives,” he told reporters.

Holding up a slim metallic cigarette packet designed to look like a lipstick, Reilly said: “That is advertising. That is entrapment of young people.”

In 2010, the world’s four leading tobacco companies – British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, Japan Tobacco, and Philip Morris – produced more than 90 percent of the cigarettes sold in Europe, the Commission said.

PLAIN PACKAGING

Last month, Ireland became the first European country to agree a ban on all branding on cigarette packs in favour of plain packaging and uniform labelling, following the example of Australia.

While the EU proposals stop short of a full ban on branding, ministers agreed that countries such as Ireland should be free to impose plain packaging if they choose.

The proposals must also get the approval of the European Parliament before becoming law, and the lawmaker leading the debate in the assembly has called for a total ban on branding.

Friday’s agreement means the rules could be finalised before the start of European Parliament elections next May, allowing them to enter force in 2016.

The draft rules have been in development for more than two years and were the focus of intense lobbying by the tobacco industry.

They played a part in the October resignation of former EU Health Commissioner John Dalli, after one of his associates was accused of seeking bribes from Swedish Match, a producer of moist oral-snuff known as “snus“, in return for lifting a sales ban on the product outside Sweden.

Under the agreement, the sale of snus would remain illegal across the EU except in Sweden. But a proposal that would have forced snus producers to reformulate their products to remove distinctive flavourings was dropped.

As concerns grow over the unregulated use of increasingly popular electronic cigarettes, ministers tightened proposed controls by agreeing that those containing 1 milligram (mg) of nicotine or more would be classified as medicinal products requiring prior EU marketing approval.

That also applied to e-cigarettes containing 2 mg or more per millilitre for those that mix nicotine with water.

(Writing by Charlie Dunmore; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)