Shares in British American Tobacco are among the biggest losers on the London stock market after news of a $4m (£2.7m) anti-smoking fighting fund.
Shares in the London-based tobacco company dropped nearly 3% to £36.90, making them the second-biggest faller on the FTSE 100 index this morning. BAT had gained after Wednesday’s budget which froze cigarette duty.
The fund, which is designed to help governments around the world in legal battles against the tobacco industry, has been set up by Bloomberg Philanthropies, founded by the former mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is also contributing to the anti-smoking fund.
The tobacco industry has been mounting legal challenges to new measures such as graphic health warnings on cigarette packs or plain packaging in countries including Australia and Uruguay. Smoking is in decline in more affluent countries where smoking has been banned in public places, and the industry is fighting back – particularly in developing countries.
Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organisation, said at the 16h world conference on tobacco or health in Abu Dhabi: “Governments wishing to protect their citizens through larger pictorial warnings on cigarette packs or by introducing plain packaging are being intimidated by industry’s threats of lengthy and costly litigation. This is an effort to deprive governments of their sovereign right to legislate in the public interest. We will push back hard.”
Smoking killed 10 million people in the last century, a number that is forecast to rise to 1 billion deaths this century.
