ASH Daily News for 17/12/2001
HEADLINES
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ASH Daily News
17 December 2001
HEADLINES
Dubai diplomat accused of smuggling BAT cigarettes
Young people at risk
Smoke out Big Tobacco
FULL TEXT
Dubai diplomat accused of smuggling BAT cigarettes
The most senior Middle East ambassador to London is a cigarette smuggler, according to evidence uncovered by the Guardian newspaper.
A trading group owned by His Excellency Easa Saleh al-Gurg, who has represented the United Arab Emirates in the UK and Ireland for a decade, played a prominent part in a worldwide smuggling operation involving British American Tobacco (BAT).
The revelations come as an embarrassing blow to the BAT, which has consistently denied any complicity in smuggling cigarettes. Nevertheless, the company is under investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry over a series of disclosures made by the Guardian: that the company exploited the global market in tobacco smuggling throughout the 1980s and 1990s in order to boost it products.
The allegations of involvement of the a senior UAE diplomat in smuggling operations are supported in detailed internal files of the London based tobacco corporation. Letters, minutes, and notes describe how the al-Gurg group arranged for millions of cigarettes, particularly the Benson and Hedges brand to be shipped aboard dhows down the Persian Gulf, into Somalia under the cover of his legitimate trade.
The disclosures are deeply embarrassing for the Foreign office as well as BAT and the ambassador. Mr. Al-Gurg, an anglophile, was awarded a CBE in 1991, and has boasted of dining with the Queen at Windsor.
The UAE ambassador enjoys diplomatic immunity. But Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health said: “If he can’t be taken to court over this matter over here, al-Gurg should at least be expelled from Britain and have his CBE taken away from him.” He added: “How did the Queen ever end up giving a CBE to someone trafficking illegal cigarettes into Somailia?”
BAT remained characteristically circumspect in their comments to the media – a spokeswoman said: “BAT companies do not smuggle and do not condone smuggling. We have got a DTI inquiry [into cigarette smuggling] and there has been an undertaking on their side and our side that no comment will be made.”
Full text of Guardian revelation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/bat/article/0,2763,619753,00.html
ASH Press Release: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/press/011217.html
Source: The Guardian, 17 December 2001
Young people at risk
Smoking, drinking and drugs misuse among young people increased between 1999 and 2000 according to a survey of 7000 school children aged 11-15, published by the department of heath.
The proportion of pupils who smoked at least one cigarette a week (the criteria that defines a young person as a ‘regular smoker’) increased to 10 percent, an increase of one percent on the year before. Smoking also increases sharply with age , with 23 percent of 15 year olds smoking regularly.
Source: Chemist & Druggist, 8 December 2001
Smoke out Big Tobacco
Luke Johnson, writing in the Sunday Telegraph draws the readers attention to the many ills of the corporations that make up Big Tobacco.
He points out that whilst the industry is perceived to be under siege from its opponents, most dangerously US plaintiff law – the industry is actually quite resilient and adaptable in the face of such pressure, not least because of its financial muscle: it managed to negotiate the Mater Settlement Agreement with the US state attorney generals in 1998 that will pay $208 billion over the next 25 years.
Other companies are busy expanding aggressively, and irresponsibly into third world countries, with a deliberate policy of encouraging people to start smoking there. The hypocrisy of such behaviour becomes apparent when one juxtaposes the practice next to the mission statement of one of the majors: “Integrity, trust, passion, creativity, quality and sharing.”
Major multinationals like Esso, and pathetic Huntington Life Sciences have become the much vilified targets of activists, but there are few that are more obvious corporate monsters, more rich and more deadly than Big Tobacco. ‘But who campaigns against Imperial and BAT?’ asks Johnson.
He ends the piece by saying: “Dr Kellogg, the inventor of cornflakes, said ‘The tobacco industry is a conspiracy against womanhood and manhood.’ It is a shame that so few see it like that.”
Source: The Sunday Telegraph, 16 December 2001
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