ASH, 102 Clifton Street, London EC2A 4HW Tel: 0207 739 5902
Fax: 0207 613 0531

ASH Daily News

2-4 December 2000

Headlines
'Tobacco firm backs corporate ethics professorship'
'Drop in California's cancer rates follows anti-smoking crusade'
'U.S. Lawsuit to open'
'Tobacco ad ban to be in force by next summer'
'Model in NHS smoking advert has emphysema'
Daily Telegraph: Sell Imperial Tobacco
'1 million cigarettes stolen from Gatwick Airport'

Full Text

'Tobacco firm backs corporate ethics professorship'

The Sunday Times reports, 'Britain's first International Centre for
Corporate Social Responsibility is to be opened at Nottingham University.
The funding will come from British American Tobacco (BAT).
The tobacco giant has promised £3.8m over three years to fund staff and
students as they study the social and environmental responsibilities of
multinational companies.'
The article adds, 'Sir Colin Campbell, the university's vice-chancellor,
said: "Companies can no longer afford to be a money-making machine. They
have to pay attention to the society in which they operate."
Karl Brookes, of the health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH),
said: "It's clearly cash for ethics. BAT's products kill hundreds of
thousands of people a year and internationally, it's accused of racketeering
and is being sued by several governments for a vast array of misdemeanours.
It's baffling to see how this corporate behaviour makes a university think
that this is an acceptable sponsor for a school of ethics. Whatever next?
Will they be allowing the arms industry to sponsor a school for peace
studies?"

Source: Sunday Times, 3 December, ASH Press Release, 4 December 2000

'Drop in California's cancer rates follows anti-smoking crusade'

The International Health Tribune reports that 'A decade after California
initiated the most comprehensive and aggressive anti-smoking program in the
United States, the incidence of deadly lung cancer and bronchial cancer has
dropped far more dramatically there than it has nationwide.'

Source: International Herald Tribune, 2 December 2000

'U.S. Lawsuit to open'

The Wall Street Journal Europe reports, 'Opening arguments are to begin
today in the latest flashpoint in the U.S tobacco wars, a lawsuit brought on
behalf of smokers with lung disease who were exposed to abstestos, the
lethal industrial fibre. The case is the first in a backlog of tobacco suits
before U.S. District judge Jack B. Weinstein in Brooklyn, New York, a
plaintiff friendly judge who has long been receptive to mass liability
suits. The companies deny that allegations that they concealed the higher
risk of cancer for asbestos workers, and Wall Street tobacco analysts
dismiss the case as a stretch.'

Source: Wall Street Journal Europe, 4 December 2000

'Tobacco ad ban to be in force by next summer'

The Independent on Sunday reports that, 'Tough new curbs on tobacco
advertising and sponsorship are to be unveiled this week in the Queens
speech.It follows the surprise decision by the European Court of Justice
that an EU-wide blanket ban on tobacco advertising was illegal.'

Source: The Independent on Sunday, 3 December 2000

'Model in NHS smoking advert has emphysema'

The Independent reports that, 'Christy Turlington's lungs will never recover
from the damage caused by a decade of smoking, doctors said yesterday. The
supermodel, who is fronting an NHS anti-smoking campaign, found she was
suffering from early-stage emphysema when she volunteered, for a lung scan
in the United States. She is 31 and gave up smoking five years ago.'

Source: The Independent, Daily Express and all other newspapers, 2 December
2000

Daily Telegraph: Sell Imperial Tobacco

The Telegraph reports that brokers Williams De Broe, are recommending
selling shares in Imperial Tobacco at their current price of £7.05p.

Source: The Daily Telegraph, 2 December 2000

'1 million cigarettes stolen from Gatwick Airport'

1 million cigarettes have been stolen from a warehouse at Gatwick airport.

Source: The Independent, Sun and News of the World, 3 December 2000
Karl Brookes
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London
EC2A 4HW
Tel: +44 (0)20 7739 5902
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7613 0531
http://www.ash.org.uk