Tobacco industry

Tobacco historian says industry relies on incomplete reports in court

Topics: 
Tobacco industry, Corruption, Public health & safety
Rating: 
3

The Canadian Press – November 27, 2012

Academics hired by the tobacco industry to paint a historical portrait of how much the public knew about the harmful effects of tobacco use left out an important element, according to a witness at a class-action trial: internal documents from the companies themselves.

Robert Proctor is testifying for the plaintiffs before the Quebec Superior Court at a landmark $27 billion lawsuit that pits an estimated 1.8 million Quebecers against the country's three major tobacco manufacturers — Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.; Rothmans, Benson & Hedges; and JTI-Macdonald.

Tobacco lawyers attack expert witness before testimony in Quebec

Topics: 
Tobacco industry, Corruption, Quebec
Rating: 
0

The Canadian Press – November 26, 2012

A Quebec judge has agreed to hear the testimony of a prominent witness in a massive class-action lawsuit against Big Tobacco, a man the industry has labelled as biased and ill-informed.

Robert Proctor is a historian from California's Stanford University who has published extensively on the tobacco industry in books and academic papers.He's also no stranger to tobacco litigation, having testified in some 30 trials.

U.S. tobacco whistleblower testifies in Quebec lawsuit

Topics: 
Tobacco industry, Public health & safety, Quebec
Rating: 
4

December 10, 2012

A famous former American tobacco executive says the industry suppressed knowledge that smoking was harmful to one’s health. Dr. Jeffrey Wigand is the former tobacco executive and scientist whose decision to become a whistleblower became the plot of a Hollywood film.

Now testifying in a Quebec class-action case, he says employees who worked in research and development were well aware of the effects of smoking — even as the industry sounded a reassuring tone in public.

FDA To Require Tobacco Companies Report Dangerous Chemicals

Topics: 
USA, Tobacco industry, Regulatory oversight, Public health & safety
Rating: 
2

Matthew Perrone – March 30, 2012

Tobacco companies in the USA will be required to report the levels of dangerous chemicals found in cigarettes, chew and other products under the latest rules designed to tighten regulation of the tobacco industry.

The preliminary guidance issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration marks the first time tobacco makers would be required to report quantities of 20 chemicals associated with cancer, lung disease and other health problems. The FDA will release the information in a consumer-friendly format by next April.

Historic tobacco suit hits Canadian courtroom; up to $27 billion at stake

Topics: 
Corruption, Tobacco industry
Rating: 
3

Sidhartha Banerjee – March 10, 2012

In the country next door, tobacco companies have been convicted in a landmark racketeering case and been forced because of other lawsuits to pay out at least US$206 billion over a quarter-century — a sum bigger than the annual GDP of most countries.

The legal skies have been somewhat less stormy here than in the United States.But that could change next week. A class-action lawsuit from smokers who claim they were duped for years by big tobacco companies as they became addicted to cigarettes, then suffered from serious health problems, will have its day in court.

Jeffrey Wigand's 1996 Interview With "60 Minutes"

Topics: 
Whistleblowers, Jeffrey Wigand, Tobacco industry, Videos
Rating: 
3

The CBS program "60 Minutes" re-broadcast its historic interview with tobacco-industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand. This is the famous 1996 interview that was cancelled by CBS when it caved in to legal threats from the industry.

Ironically, this action – suppression of an important public interest story – made headlines when exposed by the print media, and some months later CBS broadcast the interview.

The unstoppable march of the tobacco giants

Topics: 
Tobacco industry
Rating: 
1
Indonesia child smoker

How the industry ruthlessly exploits the developing world - its young, poor and uneducated

Emily Dugan – May 29, 2011

More than half a century after scientists uncovered the link between smoking and cancer – triggering a war between health campaigners and the cigarette industry – big tobacco is thriving.

Despite the known catastrophic effects on health of smoking, profits from tobacco continue to soar and sales of cigarettes have increased: they have risen from 5,000 billion sticks a year in the 1990s to 5,900 billion a year in 2009. They now kill more people annually than alcohol, Aids, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined.

Big Tobacco's nightmare

Topics: 
Jeffrey Wigand, Tobacco industry, New Zealand, Legal ethics
Rating: 
0
Jeffrey Wigand
Tobacco marketing specifically preys on children for future sales growth and more recognise the Camel mascot than Ronald McDonald, says Jeffrey Wigand.

By Anthony Hubbard - June 20, 2010

Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco industry whistleblower made famous when portrayed by Russell Crowe in the movie The Insider, is coming to New Zealand in a coup for the anti-smoking lobby. He gives a preview of his powerful message.

HE IS one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, but his face is relatively unknown. Jeffrey Wigand, the scientist who revealed Big Tobacco's dirtiest secrets and found a bullet in his letterbox, says he's "an ugly old man with white hair". But the world knows him as the fattened-up but still handsome Russell Crowe in a celebrated film.

Tobacco firms to pay $550M over smuggling

Topics: 
White-collar crime, Tobacco industry
Rating: 
0

CBC News – April 14, 2010

A decade-long legal battle pitting Big Tobacco against the federal and provincial governments drew to a close Tuesday, with two cigarette makers agreeing to pay more than half a billion dollars in connection with a massive smuggling operation set up in the 1990s to dodge taxes.

North-Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will pay the two levels of government a total of $325 million to settle claims related to the smuggling.

Health group condemns tobacco smuggling settlement

Topics: 
White-collar crime, Tobacco industry
Rating: 
0

TORONTO, April 13, 2010–The health association that led the campaign to persuade the federal government to sue tobacco companies over tobacco contraband condemned the settlements announced today by the federal government and Big Tobacco.

"The tobacco smuggling in the early 1990s was, at the time, the largest and most destructive fraud in the history of Canadian business and public health," said Garfield Mahood, executive director of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association (NSRA). "In court papers from 2005, the federal and provincial governments filed claims for nearly $10 billion against JTI-Macdonald Corp. and related companies over contraband. The settlement today for $550 million with the companies involved is a complete sell-out amounting to about 6 cents on the dollar."

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