OLAF steps Up cooperation with U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

OLAF, the European Commission’s Anti-Fraud Office, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today signed a Cooperation Arrangement aimed at enhancing cooperation between the two organisations and stepping up the fight against international organized crime.

"We already enjoy an excellent working relationship with the law enforcement authorities in the United States,” said Ian Walton, Director, Investigations & Operations II, who signed the Cooperation Arrangement on behalf of OLAF. “Today we have formalised our relationship with the ATF and we are looking forward to even closer cooperation in the future. OLAF and the ATF have a number of areas of common interest and we will be tackling them together.”

The Cooperation Arrangement sets out the basis for the working relationship between OLAF and the ATF in combating the illicit trade in tobacco products.

“This arrangement demonstrates our shared commitment to fighting international organized crime. We are very happy to have OLAF as a partner,” said James E. McDermond, ATF Assistant Director during a signing ceremony in Brussels.

According to the latest available statistics, 5.3 billion illegal cigarettes were seized by law enforcement agencies across the EU in 2008 and several billion Euro in tax and customs revenue is lost by the EU and Member States each year to smugglers. OLAF has a special Task Group specifically dedicated to combating contraband and counterfeit cigarettes in the EU.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a law enforcement agency in the United States’ Department of Justice. Based in Washington, the ATF has 25 field offices in the United States and over 2,500 special agents. One aspect of their work is to investigate the illegal diversion of tobacco products. In the United States, federal and state governments estimate that tobacco diversion costs over $5 billion in revenue from unpaid excise taxes annually.

Source: Europa Press Release, 19 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/6dtxuC

Norway drops tobacco producers from wealth fund

Norway has dropped 17 tobacco companies, including top cigarette makers like Altria, Lorillard, Philip Morris and British American Tobacco (BAT), from its $450 billion wealth fund for ethical reasons.

The fund, which invests the Nordic nation's oil and gas wealth in foreign stocks and bonds to save for future generations, holds more than 1 percent of all global stocks.

The central bank-managed fund follows ethical guidelines set by the government and, in the past, has excluded companies that produce nuclear arms or cluster munitions, damage the environment or abuse human or workers' rights.

It said it had extended its ethical drive to recreational tobacco use.

"A rule has been adopted that in principle will exclude all production of tobacco, regardless of the percentage of business represented by tobacco production," the finance ministry said, adding more companies not classified in tobacco-maker indexes.

"The divestment of shares in these companies has now been completed," the finance ministry said.

The central bank declined to specify the value of the tobacco company stakes held by the fund before selling out.

The fund's biggest shareholdings included a 1.3 percent stake in British American Tobacco Plc, worth 4.8 billion Norwegian crowns ($842.5 million) at the end of 2008, 0.5 percent in Philip Morris International (3.3 billion crowns) and 1.3 percent in Imperial Tobacco (2.4 billion crowns).

Known as the "oil fund", Norway's Government Pension Fund -- Global is the world's second biggest sovereign wealth fund after that of the United Arab Emirates.

The excluded companies are: Alliance One International (AOI.N), Altria Group (MO.N), BAT (BATS.L) and British American Tobacco BHD, Gudang Garam tbk PT (GGRM.JK), Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT.L), ITC (ITC.BO), Japan Tobacco (2914.T), KT&G Corp (033780.KS), Lorillard (LO.N), Philip Morris International (PM.N) and Philip Morris Cr AS, Reynolds American (RAI.N), Souza Cruz (CRUZ3.SA), Swedish Match (SWMA.ST), Universal Corp (UVV.N) and Vector Group (VGR.N).

Source: Reuters News, 19 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/8teq4h

Smoking and alcohol advice from Barnet borough fire brigade aims to reduce house fire risk

Fire chiefs are urging residents to cut back on the “lethal combination” of alcohol and cigarettes in a bid to reduce call-outs to homes. 

In a New Year's message, London Fire Brigade’s Borough Commander for Barnet, Tom George, warned drinking and smoking at home comes with a serious fire risk.

He said people are unaware of the dangers, adding that cutting down on consumption levels has a significant impact on the levels of safety and could reduce the chances of someone being injured or killed in a house fire.

“Those who drink heavily or smoke are at greater risk of having a serious house fire,” said Mr George.

“When people are intoxicated they are more likely to take risks, their responses become slower and they can fall asleep easily – it’s a lethal combination which can be deadly if a fire starts.”

There were 230 fires in homes last year across the borough, which represents about half of all incidents recorded by the brigade.

A total of 13 people died in accidental house fires in the borough between 2000 and 2008, and about two thirds of those were alcohol related or sparked by cigarettes or other smoking materials.

The Fire Brigade said the most common causes of fires involving alcohol include cigarettes not being put out properly and candles or cooking being left unattended after people have fallen asleep, and added: “A person affected by alcohol is not always in a position to escape from a fire and so can badly injured or killed.”

Source: Times-Series, 19 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/4x6Jso

Proof lacking on e-cigarettes' safety, experts warn

There is a worrying lack of safety data on electronic cigarettes, despite their growing popularity with the public, two leading Greek researchers have warned.

In the British Medical Journal, they say that without more evidence it is impossible to know if such products actually do more harm than good.

Some studies have raised safety fears, but retailers argue e-cigarettes are a healthy alternative to the real thing.

Users can inhale nicotine without tar, tobacco or carbon monoxide.

The Department of Health suggested consumers "exercise caution".

The Department of Health is not aware of any evidence about the long-term safety of e-cigarettes and, as such, would suggest that consumers exercise caution

The report authors said consumers should stop using the devices until ongoing safety studies reported back within the next year.

The World Health Organisation is among those to raise concerns about the safety of these new types of cigarette substitute, which deliver a nicotine hit in a fine vapour.

And in the past year, US regulators have detained and blocked numerous shipments of e-cigarettes at borders because the devices are not approved.

In the UK, it is illegal to sell e-cigarettes as a "quit smoking" aid.

But they are widely available to buy as a "cigarette alternative" over the internet and are sold in a number of places, including some bars and clubs, the department store Harrods and even on board Ryanair flights.

Andreas Flouris and Dimitris Oikonomou, from the Institute of Human Performance and Rehabilitation in Greece, say there have been three main reports on e-cigarette safety - one by US regulators, one by a publicly-funded Greek research institute, and another by a private company in New Zealand.

The US Food and Drug Administration report expressed concern after finding different brands of the battery operated device delivered markedly different amounts of nicotine vapour with each puff.

The FDA also detected traces of powerful cancer-causing chemicals.

The Greek institute Demokritos took a neutral stance on the products and did not find any evidence of chemical contamination.

Private enterprise Health New Zealand did find cancer-causing chemicals in products, but concluded that overall e-cigarettes should be recommended on the basis of the health risks associated with smoking normal cigarettes.

The researchers told the BMJ: "The scarce evidence indicates the existence of various toxic and carcinogenic compounds in e-cigarettes, albeit in possibly much smaller concentrations than in traditional cigarettes."

Callum Reckless, director at Smart Smoker, a company that sells e-cigarettes, said: "I believe that electronic cigarettes are indeed a safer alternative to smoking real cigarettes."

He welcomed more research into the safety of the products.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said it had been working with regulators to test the products and that none of those tested so far complied with product safety regulations.

She said the government was working to ensure e-cigarettes were labelled and sold appropriately.

"E-cigarettes are not promoted by, or available on, the NHS," she said.

Deborah Arnott, of the charity Action on Smoking and Health, said: "We do need better data on safety and appropriate regulation for e-cigarettes, although these products are certain to be significantly less hazardous than cigarettes, which lead to premature death in half all long-term users."

She said there was demand for the products from smokers - UK estimates suggest around one in ten has already tried them.

Source: BBC News, 20 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/8hRUnm

Tobacco companies set up smokescreen over lobbying activity

The following letters are a response to Dr Chris Proctor, Chief Scientific Officer at BAT who responded to a study criticising BATS influence in EU policy making.
Link: http://bit.ly/4tyyMv

Reading Chris Proctor's claims that British American Tobacco supports ­evidence-based public health regulations and "transparent" consultation processes is like peering into an alternate universe (Letters, 16 January). Our paper, which he refers to and is publicly available at PLoS Medicine, shows that BAT reshaped EU policymaking procedures to expressly prevent such regulation and did so by recruiting a series of more credible partners to front its campaign and obscure its involvement (Tobacco corporations lobby to hamper passing of EU health laws, say academics, 12 January). It does not, as Proctor misleadingly claims, outline who should be allowed to voice an opinion to policymakers.

Our study is just the latest contribution to a giant mosaic of evidence that demonstrates the tobacco industry has consistently attempted to manipulate science and policy, which has left the industry's reputation as a credible partner in policymaking in tatters. Proctor's letter should therefore be seen as another attempt by BAT to regain its seat at the policy table to stymie any regulatory intervention that could ­genuinely reduce tobacco use.

Dr Anna Gilmore, Dr Gary Fooks, Dr Katherine Smith University of Bath, Dr Jeff Collin University of Edinburgh

• It is ironic that, in response to the paper showing how BAT, working behind the scenes, shaped the framework to prevent effective health regulation of secondhand smoke and tobacco advertising, BAT's chief scientist protests that the company supports transparency. BAT, like the rest of the industry, is anything but transparent. Indeed, last year, US courts of appeal upheld a massive verdict that the major cigarette companies, including BAT, created an illegal racketeering "enterprise" to defraud the public. Most important, the courts found that the racketeering activities were continuing and likely to continue in the future.

The PLoS paper shows the corrosive effect that the tobacco companies have not only on health, but also on the very process of governance.

Stanton Glantz
Professor of medicine, University of California San Francisco

• Milton Friedman once wrote: "Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their shareholders as possible." Lung cancer, the world's leading cause of cancer death thanks to tobacco industry marketing, was a rare disease just 80 years ago. Chris Proctor's Orwellian talk of being an active "stakeholder" in future regulation is nothing more than his company's bidding to ensure that any form of regulation which has the slightest chance of further reducing demand will be quietly eviscerated.

Professor Simon Chapman
School of public health, Sydney University

Source: The Guardian, 20 January 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/4HkMo3