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On April 13th 2011, the Civil Court of Rome declared inadmissible the class action submitted by the Codacons, Italy’s main consumer association, against British American Tobacco Italia, in favor of the smokers of BAT’s MS, Pall Mall and Lucky Strike cigarettes. On the 30th of January 2012 the Court of Appeals also turned down the petition.
According to the Codacons, BAT was using chemical cocktails to increase the nicotine addiction effects of its products. Therefore, 3.5 million hypothetical smokers of its brands should be awarded 3,000 euro each, for a total of 10.5 billion euro.
The class action of the Codacons was, no doubt, just an awkward show whose outcome was a foregone conclusion (just consider the fact that the smokers are not identifiable). But the move did point out a real problem: no one is allowed to know the characteristics or the dosages of the substances added to the cigarettes sold in tobacco shops, and the Italian Justice system hasn’t the guts to do anything about it. Read more »
After the bans on smoking in the open air already introduced in many countries, it is Iceland’s turn. The Reykjavik Parliament is considering banning cigarettes from shops and allowing their sale only in pharmacies. People over 20 years old could soon be the only persons authorized to buy a packet of cigarettes, but only if they have a doctor’s prescription. 
Advertising is not only the Marlboro cowboy.
Forbidden in the United States, in the European Union and in most of the third world countries because they favor the brand loyalty of teen-agers, in Italy the half-price, 10-cigarette packs have resisted until today, in spite of the repeated requests of the health authorities - the Istituto Superiore della Sanità - for their abolition.
It is said that it takes advantage of some sort of trionic filter and a new way of preparing the tobacco…
In the late 1700s, physician Edward Jenner injected a young boy with cowpox to test his hypothesis that those who were infected with that disease never contracted the vastly more serious smallpox. A few weeks later, Jenner gave the boy a dose of smallpox. Fortunately for the boy, it worked, and Jenner is known as a hero and a pioneer in vaccination.
