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** 6 June 2022
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** UK
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** Glasgow sniffer dog tracks down 9,000 'knock-off' cigarettes in city crackdown (#1)
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** International
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** Africa will be the world’s ashtray if big tobacco is able to get its way (#2)
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** British American Tobacco’s Russian exit in spotlight (#3)
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** UK
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** Glasgow sniffer dog tracks down 9,000 'knock-off' cigarettes in city crackdown
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**
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** Thousands of pounds worth of illegal cigarettes and tobacco were seized in a council crackdown on shops in Glasgow.
Glasgow City Council carried out the raids with the help of tobacco sniffer dog, Boo , alongside police officers, HMRC and a team from Trading Standards.
The unit tracked down 9,000 illegal cigarettes and 3.5kg of hand rolling tobacco after carrying out unannounced inspections of four premises across the city earlier this week.
Glasgow City Council tweeted: "Boo the Detection Dog sniffed out counterfeit tobacco in 4 city shops during a joint operation by our Trading Standards team, PoliceScotland, HMRC & @socotss. Boo uncovered 9000 illicit cigarettes and 3.5kg of hand rolling tobacco. Good dog!"
Source: Glasgow Live, 5 June 2022
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** International
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** Africa will be the world’s ashtray if big tobacco is able to get its way
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**
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** Writing for the Guardian, Rachel Kitonyo, regional manager for Australia’s McCabe Centre for Law & Cancer, and Jeffrey Drope, research professor at the University of Illinois Chicago and lead editor of the Tobacco Atlas discuss the state of tobacco consumption in Africa:
Kitonyo and Drope highlight the latest edition of the Tobacco Atlas ([link removed]) , which found a significant drop in global smoking rates for the first time since its inception. However, they warn that these figures mask a push in the African market by big tobacco companies.
Research by Drope and colleagues shows that the decline in smoking in Africa has been small, and adult prevalence increased in 10 of African countries between 1990 and 2019.
Drope and Kitonyo argue that taxation is the most effective method to curtail this trend in Africa, and argue that, not only does increased taxation on tobacco products benefit poorer communities through the multitude of “health, social and economic” advantages of fewer people taking up smoking, but also through the additional income to fund stop-smoking support services.
The authors conclude by reiterating the critical need for the implementation of “established tobacco control measures” to combat big tobacco’s influence in Africa: “Financial and technical aid for tobacco control should be readily available to protect Africa’s one billion people from being the next growth market.”
Source: The Guardian, 2 June 2022
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** British American Tobacco’s Russian exit in spotlight
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** British American Tobacco (BAT) is set to update shareholders on its progress in withdrawing from the Russian market, months after the Kremlin launched an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. Having lingered for a while after the conflict started, BAT announced in March that it would withdraw from Russia.
BAT is looking for a buyer for its business, so any update will be of interest to shareholders.
Shareholders will also be on the lookout for any impacts the company sees from the cost-of-living crisis, although people have been found to keep on buying cigarettes even during an economic downturn.
But while sales might not face much of a hit, the company will still be wary about what it is paying to make its products. Raw material and labour costs have spiked in recent months, and these extra costs could be passed on to consumers.
However, the company is aided by the tax burden on cigarettes. Most of the cost of a packet is tax, so even if BAT does pass all its extra costs to buyers, it will result in a much smaller percentage increase for certain products .
Source: The Scotsman, 5 June 2022
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