New Report: "Addicted to Profit"

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Essential Action in conjunction with the San Francisco Tobacco-Free
Coalition has just issued a report on international tobacco issues. Check
out the report on our web site,
<www.essential.org/action/addicted/addicted.html>

Robert Weissman
Essential Information			|   Internet:	rob@essential.org


For Immediate Release                                   November 6, 1998

Contact: 								        
Ross Hammond (tel. 415-695-7492)        
Karen Licavoli (tel. 650-994-5864)
Robert Weissman (tel. 202-387-8030)

BIG TOBACCO THRIVING OVERSEAS SAYS NEW REPORT: AT LEAST 100 MILLION WILL DIE
IN NEXT 30 YEARS
	
	A report released today by the San Francisco Tobacco Free
Coalition and the Ralph Nader-affiliated group Essential Action calls for
immediate steps to be taken to rein in Big Tobacco's overseas expansion.
"Addicted to Profit:  Big Tobacco's Expanding Global Reach" looks at
recent moves by the multinational cigarette companies to locate an
increasing proportion of their operations overseas. The result, the report
argues, is increasing mortality and morbidity rates overseas and the
evisceration of local tobacco control efforts. "Big Tobacco has gone
global to make up for declining sales in the United States," says Ross
Hammond, a San Francisco-based economist and author of the report. The
report can be found on the WorldWide Web at: 

         <http://www.essential.org/action/addicted/addicted.html>

	Recent press reports indicate that the impending settlement
between the states' Attorney Generals and the cigarette companies will
completely ignore international issues. "Big Tobacco must take
responsibility for the death and disease it is causing overseas," says
Karen Licavoli, co-chair of the San Francisco Tobacco Free Coalition and
Associate Executive Director of the American Lung Association of San
Francisco. "It would be irresponsible of the Attorney Generals to let Big
Tobacco off the hook. Any settlement must protect public health both in
the United States and abroad." 

	According to Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Addicted to Profit
"provides the clearest argument to date why national tobacco legislation
must include provisions to prevent these companies from spreading death
and disease in the rest of the world." 

	According to Addicted to Profit: 

-- The number of people who die each year from tobacco-related disease
will rise from the current 3.5 million to 10 million by the year 2025, or
one hundred million people over the next 30 years, with a majority of
those deaths occurring in the Third World and Eastern Europe. 

-- Overseas, Big Tobacco spends millions of dollars to influence
legislation, fight advertising restrictions and try to downplay the health
effects of smoking, just as it does in the United States. 

-- Cigarette companies are among the world's largest advertisers. As more
and more countries adopt restrictions on direct cigarette advertising,
these companies have devised ways to skirt these bans by sponsoring
sporting events and teams, rock concerts and discos, and by putting their
logos on clothing lines, racing boats, backpacks, coffee and even travel
agencies.  They also distribute free samples and promotional items on
college campuses, shopping malls and other places where young people
gather. 

-- The United States is home to two of the world's three largest
multinational cigarette companies, and is the world's largest exporter of
cigarettes. Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds now sell more cigarettes abroad
than they do in the United States.  Philip Morris already makes more
profit selling cigarettes abroad than in the United States. 

-- More and more of these cigarettes are being manufactured overseas. In
1997, for example, only 18 percent of the cigarettes RJ Reynolds sold
overseas were made in the United States. Currently, Philip Morris, RJ
Reynolds and BAT each own or lease plants in at least 50 different
countries spanning all corners of the globe. 

-- Despite their professed concern for the American tobacco farmer, Big
Tobacco has been using use more and more foreign-grown tobacco in both
their U.S. and foreign factories.

-- Each year about a third of all cigarettes entering into international
commerce are illegally smuggled. Evidence from court cases in Canada and
Hong Kong suggests that the cigarette companies are involved in this
smuggling. 

-- Case studies of the tobacco industry in China, Mexico, Vietnam, Russia,
Senegal and South Africa follow the main report.

                                       – 30– 

If you are unable to access the report on the WorldWide Web and/or would
like a complimentary copy, please contact Robert Weissman at Essential
Action: tel. 202-387-8030; e-mail: <rob@essential.org>