January 1st, 2014:
BBC: Comic Relief money invested in arms and tobacco shares
by Declan Lawn, reporting for BBC Panorama:
Millions of pounds donated to Comic Relief have been invested in funds with shares in tobacco, alcohol and arms firms, BBC Panorama has learned.
The BBC has also seen evidence which suggests Save the Children censored criticism of energy firms, to avoid upsetting corporate partners.
Comic Relief said it used its funds to “deliver the greatest benefits to the most vulnerable people”.
Save the Children said its campaigns were unaffected by any partnerships.
Comic Relief has raised nearly £1bn for worthwhile causes in the UK and abroad.
It pays out the money it receives to other charities, sometimes over several years.
That means Comic Relief holds tens of millions of pounds at any one time.
The charity uses a number of managed funds which invests that money on the charity’s behalf, including in the stock market.
Panorama has learnt that between 2007 and 2009, some of these investments, amounting to millions of pounds, appear to contradict several of its core aims.
Despite its mission statement claiming it is committed to helping “people affected by conflict”, in 2009 the charity had £630,000 invested in shares in weapons firm BAE Systems.
Comic Relief also had more than £300,000 invested in shares in the alcohol industry despite its mission statement saying it is “working to reduce alcohol misuse and minimise alcohol related harm”.
The majority was invested in Diageo, which manufactures dozens of alcoholic drinks and was criticised by the Health Select Committee in 2009 for exploiting weaknesses in the regulation of alcohol advertising.
Comic Relief also appeals for money to fight tuberculosis and has given over £300,000 to a charity called Target Tuberculosis.
Target TB believes that smoking may be responsible for over 20% of TB cases worldwide.
While raising funds in 2009, nearly £3m of Comic Relief money was invested in shares in tobacco companies.
During that time, entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den star Duncan Bannatyne was a full trustee of Comic Relief.
In 2008 he made a BBC documentary attacking a tobacco company for targeting African children.
He told Panorama he “wouldn’t put donors’ money into tobacco companies” and said charities should invest ethically.
IBT: China has doubled tobacco production since the signing of a WTO agreement to curb tobacco
by Sophie Song, reporting for the International Business Times:
The World Health Organization is all but ignored in China, it seems, as tobacco production has almost doubled in the 10 years since China signed a WHO convention to curb tobacco.
In 2002, just before China signed the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the nation produced 1.75 trillion cigarettes. That number rose to 2.58 trillion annually by 2012, according to a new report entitled Tobacco Control in China from a Civil Society Perspective 2013, from the Beijing-based think tank Research Center for Health Development.
While the Chinese government signed the convention and vowed to control tobacco, China has fallen behind many other signatory members, said Wang Ke’an, director of the research center, the Global Times reported on Thursday. In a 2012 assessment report, China was awarded only two out of 16 points for banning smoking in public places including schools and hospitals. Its curb on tobacco advertising has not won any credits either.
Tobacco production is a lucrative business in China. The industry paid a total of 864.9 billion yuan ($141.9 billion) in taxes in 2012 and handed 716.7 billion yuan to the state treasury, the equivalent of 8 percent of the national tax income, according to People’s Daily.
Some local governments actively encourage development in the tobacco industry as a boost to the local economy. In the township of Enshi in the Hubei Province, for example, the tobacco industry has generated 5.1 billion yuan and is a mainstay supporting impoverished locals.
The Chinese Health Ministry surveyed hotels and restaurants in four regions in China and found that only 6.1 percent had designated smoking areas and only 1.4 percent had anti-smoking signs. In addition, most cigarette packages have only a small health warning on them, instead of covering at least one-third of the package, as stipulated by the WHO convention.
“These signs are an essential part of tobacco control, which would work with the legal efforts to gradually change the smoking habit,” Wang said, adding that civil servants should set a good example to society in banning smoking, according to the Global Times.
5 Dec 2013
Nicotine-mediated cell proliferation and tumor progression in smoking-related cancers
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Nicotine-mediated+cell+proliferation+and+tumor+progression+in+smoking-related+cancers.
Abstract
Tobacco smoke contains multiple classes of established carcinogens including benzo(a)pyrenes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and tobacco-specific nitrosamines. Most of these compounds exert their genotoxic effects by forming DNA adducts and generation of reactive oxygen species, causing mutations in vital genes such as K-Ras and p53. In addition, tobacco-specific nitrosamines can activate nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) and to a certain extent β-adrenergic receptors (β-AR), promoting cell proliferation. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that nicotine, the major addictive component of tobacco smoke, can induce cell-cycle progression, angiogenesis, and metastasis of lung and pancreatic cancers. These effects occur mainly through the α7-nAChRs, with possible contribution from the β-ARs and/or epidermal growth factor receptors. This review article will discuss the molecular mechanisms by which nicotine and its oncogenic derivatives such as 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone and N-nitrosonornicotine induce cell-cycle progression and promote tumor growth. A variety of signaling cascades are induced by nicotine through nAChRs, including the mitogen-activated protein kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase pathway, phosphoinositide 3-kinase/AKT pathway, and janus-activated kinase/STAT signaling. In addition, studies have shown that nAChR activation induces Src kinase in a β-arrestin-1-dependent manner, leading to the inactivation of Rb protein and resulting in the expression of E2F1-regulated proliferative genes. Such nAChR-mediated signaling events enhance the proliferation of cells and render them resistant to apoptosis induced by various agents. These observations highlight the role of nAChRs in promoting the growth and metastasis of tumors and raise the possibility of targeting them for cancer therapy.