Archive for April, 2005

Top Story N. 21: Health Casino

April 26, 2005 | Yesmoke

Smokers get ill after spending fortunes

A smoker in New York who buys two packs of cigarettes will pay about nine dollars to the State. If he smokes 730 packs in 12 months, in the year he will pay to the State 3,285 dollars in taxes more than a non-smoker.

RouletteAll over the world high taxes on cigarettes are justified by "the social cost of tobacco". In fact, it causes pathologies that afflict, or will afflict a great number of smokers. For this reason, tobacco leads to enormous medical costs, that are paid by the collectivity.

Tobacco use in the United States entails annual medical costs of more than $75 billion dollars. Who pays? Speaking of social costs, we tend to forget to make the distinction between the countries that guarantee free medical services for everyone, as in Europe, and countries where medical aid is left to the economic possibilities of the individual, as in the USA.

On the other hand, today a New York smoker who gets ill has a hope: to sue Big Tobacco for a multi-million dollar sum that will perhaps one day be paid "post mortem" to his relatives Continue

Posted in All News, Big Tobacco, Health / Science, Notizie dall'azienda, Prices and Top Stories | 1 Comment

Top Story N. 20: The Figure is Insufficient!

April 19, 2005 | Yesmoke

Marlboro's Retail Market Share is More than 22 Billion Dollars per Year

European countries squabbled last week over how to split the 1.25 billion dollars that Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, offered them to settle a dispute over smuggling.

EuroPhilip Morris agreed, on July 9th 2004, to pay this amount in order to have a smuggling case against the US company dropped. Today Marlboro cigarettes, after penetrating the market with years of smuggling, are extremely popular in Italy. The same thing has happened in Spain with Winston cigarettes. Big Tobacco makers have a bright future ahead of them.

The 1,250 million Euro that Philip Morris is supposed to pay to the European Union, in instalments over a 12-year period and interest-free, would correspond to 600 million paid immediately in cash. This sum, that might seem congruous is actually equal to a little more than 3% of Marlboro’s business in a single year; the business would continue into the future without any fine to pay.

But today the European community could put an end to all this. Yesmoke, with a letter sent to Jos’Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, suggests that the organization should check its accounts better with Philip Morris. READ THE LETTER Continue

Posted in All News, Big Tobacco, Contraband, Crime, Lawsuits, Notizie dall'azienda and Top Stories | 0 Comments

Top Story N. 19: A Strange Story of Filters

April 12, 2005 | Yesmoke

Filtrona, Supplier to Philip Morris, First Accepts Then Refuses to Produce for Yesmoke

"... it seems that fragments of acetate and cellulose are released during the drawing. These deposit in the lungs and in the long term, in combination with the condensate, cause alterations of the lung cells. The active carbon filters, too, release carbon particles." This is written on the Yesmoke.ch site.

CAUTIONInformation on cigarettes is allowed, but that on the filters must be " politically correct". This is, in fact, the position of Filtrona SA, the world’s principal filter manufacturer and supplier to Philip Morris and other multi-national cigarette companies.

-- Those who declare certain things to the public cannot buy filters from us -- said Luca Calciolari, head of Filtrona for Italy and Switzerland.

Yesmoke Tobacco, in fact, had selected Filtrona as its new carbon filter supplier for its YESMOKES and for its new BORN TO SMOKE brand. After meetings and technical discussions, at the last moment, here was their refusal.

So after the removal from the market of all the first Yesmokes, distributed experimentally in the shops of Italian Switzerland, because of the "Smoke better" written on the packs, the company now finds itself, unexpectedly, without a filter supplier because of what is written on its web site.

So the distribution of the brands will be delayed. Continue

Posted in All News, Health / Science, Notizie dall'azienda and Top Stories | 0 Comments

Top Story N. 18: Respecting the Rules II

April 4, 2005 | Yesmoke

Switzerland: "Smoke Better" on the Pack, Yesmoke Taken off the Market

It is forbidden to print on cigarette packets "slogans that might give the impression that a certain tobacco product could be less harmful than others". So, the Yesmokes that displayed the catchphrase "Smoke Better", were outlawed. It was a directive of the Canton Laboratory of Bellinzona that ordered the withdrawal from the market of all the packets, which the company itself immediately destroyed.

YESMOKE White Cigarette PacksWe have come a long way in the past few decades on the road of Consumer Protection. "More Doctors Smoke Camels Than Any Other Cigarette", said an R.J. Reynolds slogan of 1946 .... "Philip Morris, a cigarette recognised by eminent medical authorities for its advantages to the nose and throat" - claimed Philip Morris in 1939.

Fortunately in 1950, the US Federal Trade Commission declared slogans to be deceptive. For example, those that said that smoking ... "renews and restores bodily energy". According to the FTC these were "clearly false, there being in tobacco smoke no constituent which could possible create energy".

But although cigarettes have always been food products according to the law, the ingredients of the brands are even today secret both for consumers and for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), that in 2005 is still trying, in vain, to determine with certainty if one brand of cigarettes is more harmful than others. The same is true for other organizations all around the world.

In the meantime, the slogans, from conventional weapons have been transformed into technological and invisible weapons, that take advantage of those who should be safeguarding the public health, and that can make addicts of millions of people at a time... Continue

Posted in All News, Big Tobacco, Health / Science, Notizie dall'azienda and Top Stories | 0 Comments