UK: BAT ''Confident'' Of Tobacco Business Despite Health Hazards Of Product

Source from:  Ventures  03/27/2013

British American Tobacco (BAT), which is listed on the JSE and London stock exchanges, is confident in the future of the tobacco business, CEO Nicandro Durante said on Monday.
 
Durante, writing in the company's latest annual report, said the company also believed that constructing a portfolio of next-generation creations along its main tobacco business would deliver to the company significant new opportunities in the future.
 
Durante made this statement at a time when the dangers of smoking have been highlighted more than never before.
 
In recent years, there has been a plethora of campaigns aimed at discouraging people from smoking. Anti-tobacco campaigners have re-iterated calls that smokers in their 30s and 40s were five times more likely to have a heart attack than non-smokers.
 
They have said smoking contributes to coronary artery disease, increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke. According to these campaigners, tobacco does huge damage to the lungs and massively increases the risk of lung cancer.
 
Smoking also increases the risk of other cancers such as oral, uterine, liver, kidney, bladder, stomach and cervical cancer.
 
And the company seems to be supporting all the efforts aimed at reducing the terrible impact of tobacco on the health of many people all across the globe.
 
"We support regulation backed by robust evidence showing that it will help achieve the objective of reducing the impact of tobacco use on public health," Durante wrote in the annual report.
 
"Measures such as excessive excise increases, retail display bans and plain packaging do more to disrupt orderly markets and little to further their intended aims. In fact they play into the hands of criminals by creating ideal conditions for the counterfeiters and smugglers to thrive." Enditem