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BAT Philippines and Imperial Tobacco Group have selected Gawad Kalinga (GK) to channel their CSR activities as it is a high profile community organisation of international repute. Both BAT and Imperial are into building houses for the poor since this activity will go a long way in a country with many impoverished communities and pounded […]

UNDP has released its official position on non-partnership with the tobacco industry. UNDP’s exclusionary criteria applied to industries that “Manufacture, sale or distribution of tobacco or tobacco products”. The official document is now available online:policy on partnerships [see page 14] This is an important step forward for another UN agency, besides the WHO, to make public its exclusion

The 2015 Philippine Trust Index survey results show that tobacco, alcohol, advertising and public relations are the least trusted industries in the country’s business sector. The 4th Philippine Trust Index is released by Engage, a newly launched public affairs and government relations group, and covered 1,620 respondents from various socioeconomic, educational and demographic backgrounds. This is no surprise. That is why

Recently there was a little fire inside a Malindo aircraft during its domestic flight into Kuala Lumpur when the e-cigarette a passenger was carrying exploded on his lap. Yes, it was spontaneous combustion. The passenger was injured and a doctor on board the flight attended to the passenger’s injuries. One would expect the manufacturer of

Tobacco companies continue to conduct fake CSR activities as a tactic to undermine the ban on tobacco advertising, promotions and sponsorship. To circumvent the ban, in most cases they use their own foundations to fund, conduct and advertise these activities. ASEAN Region Snapshot: PMI spent USD8.4million in 2009 in the ASEAN region, which peaked to

Tobacco control advocates have begun the countdown for the tobacco industry in the Philippines to apply pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs starting 5 November. The tobacco industry is notorious for its non-compliance and delay in implementation of PHW. A joint statement was issued by HealthJustice, New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) and SEATCA,

Korea’s KT&G is set to be the world’s No.5 transnational tobacco company. KT&G’s overseas sales of cigarettes this year are expected to overtake its domestic sales, partly because of increased exports and a huge decline in domestic sales following an 80 percent increase in cigarette prices. It’s now selling more than 500 billion sticks overseas. 

  The Speaker of the House from the Indonesian Parliament led a delegation of parliamentarians recently to the US and had several meetings at their Embassy in Washington DC. Present at one of these meetings with the ASEAN Business Council at the Indonesian Embassy last Thursday, 10 September was Philip Morris. The meeting with the

No, CSI does not stand for ‘crime scene investigation’- in this case, it is ‘corporate social investment’. BAT knows its corporate image is taking a beating by calling its handouts as ‘CSR’ (corporate social responsibility) since ‘tobacco’ and ‘responsibility’ can never go together, and the WHO FCTC calls for a ban on all tobacco industry

The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) is filing a suit against e-cigarette manufacturers in California. CEH, a health watchdog, says tests it had conducted on popular brands of e-cigarettes showed the majority contained cancer-causing chemicals formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. CEH found that nearly 90% of the companies had at least one brand that produced high levels of one or both of the