Message-ID: <028301be0e5f$42c76b80$28ebfea9@jay98> Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 07:09:49 -1000 From: Jay Hanson <mailto:j@QMAIL.COM> Subject: Addicted to profit To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
From: <mailto:tuandbob@CYBERENET.NET>>> SINCE the first American corporations were chartered in 1776,
>> their lawyers and lobbyists have been sneaking around in our
>> courtrooms and state capitols, reconfiguring the law to better
>> suit their needs.
>
>Diatribes like this have no place in a newsletter like this. This
>newsletter is dedicated to development, not destruction.
>
>The measure described below presents a clear and present danger to every
>doctor, dentist, independent druggist and other locally based professional
>(such as SunFrost) seeking to protect their family from the excessive zeal
>of people like the "we know better than you what's good for you"
>instigators of the measure by becoming a corporation. Insurance
>increases, based on the increased possibility of suit, may prevent new
>businesses from starting in Arcata, and could well be cause for established
>businesses to relocate outside Arcata.
I guess you hadn't heard: ALL businesses present a clear and present danger to every human on the planet. The case in point is the tobacco companies, but ALL corporations destroy our life-support system.
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For Immediate Release November 6, 1998
Contact: Ross Hammond (tel. 415-695-7492) Karen Licavoli (tel. 650-994-5864) Rob 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 Rob Weissman at Essential Action: tel. 202-387-8030; e-mail: <mailto:rob@essential.org>
************************************* * Ross Hammond * * Hammond & Purcell Consulting * * 88 Norwich Street * * San Francisco, CA 94110 * * tel/fax: 1-415-695-7492 (office) * * internet: mailto:margross@igc.org * *************************************
Jay ------------------------- COMING SOON TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU! http://dieoff.com/page1.htm