Switzerland often promotes the fact that it exports its delicious chocolate, or prestigious watches, to the world. Yet there is another Swiss product that is just as successful, but far less vaunted: cigarettes.
In 2016, Switzerland produced 34,6 billion cigarettes – nearly two billion packets. Some 25% were sold on the domestic market. Nearly 75% were exported, providing enough cigarettes for over four million people to smoke a packet a day over the year.
The proportion of exports has been dropping, falling by nearly half since 2011. In terms of revenue, the country is only the world’s 15th largest exporter of cigarettes, coming in far behind the United Arab Emirates, Germany and Poland. Yet it has been a steady business for the Swiss economy.
“Export income generated by tobacco products, totalling CHF561m, is comparable to that of most Swiss commodity exports, such as cheese (CHF578m) or chocolate (CHF785m),” according to a KPMG study published at the end of 2017.
Where are these cigarettes sold? Japan is destination number one. Could this take the form of Japan Tobacco International’s production, which is sent to the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’? When contacted, the firm did not give a specific answer to this question. Morocco and South Africa occupy second and third places on the podium.
Three tobacco giants
Philip Morris International (PMI) has set up its global operational headquarters in Lausanne. In addition, it has a factory in Neuchâtel, where in 2017 it produced over 15 billion cigarettes and heated tobacco units – 15% of the group’s global production, including brands Iqos Heets, Marlboro, Chesterfield and L&M.
Philip Morris Products SA also has its headquarters in Neuchâtel. In 2017 its revenue was CHF29 billion.
In Switzerland, British American Tobacco (BAT) owns offices in Lausanne and a factory in Boncourt, bought from Rothmans in 1999, who had in turn bought it from the Burrus family three years earlier.
At the factory, the brand produces Pall Mall, Gladstone, Dunhill, Lucky Strike, Kent, Winfield, Vogue, Players, Parisienne and Alain Delon. In 2017 its revenue was CHF26 billion.
Japan Tobacco International (JTI) is based in Geneva in a brand-new building. JTI also owns a large factory in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in Dagmersellen, in the canton of Lucerne.
In 2017, the Japanese company produced a total of 10,8 million cigarettes there, under 16 brands. The most widely distributed are Winston, Camel and Natural American Spirit. In 2017 its revenue was CHF18 billion.
In 2017, 2,900 tonnes of Swiss cigarettes were exported to Morocco, the equivalent of some 3,625 billion ‘ciggies’. In corner shops, packets are sold for 33 dirhams (CHF3.50). The most frugal consumers buy individual cigarettes for 2 dirhams each. Packets are certified: they carry a SICPA stamp, the Swiss certification and authentication body.
Until 2003, packets were produced on-site, at the Société Marocaine des Tabacs. Following the death of Hassan II, the Law 46,02 on the manufacture of tobacco was promulgated, liberalising the sector. International companies wasted little time in swooping into the market.
Nowadays, 55% of the cigarettes smoked in Morocco are imported, most from Switzerland and then Turkey. The cigarettes arrive by boat at the port of Tanger Med, or even through ‘Casa’ (Casablanca).
On-site, the people we spoke to assured us that customs officers inspect the goods – they open containers, choose a random carton and then check that the cargo complies with the submitted declaration.
Nevertheless, one of our investigation’s overall observations was that only details related to the payment of taxes are checked – there are no measures to monitor the ingredients of cigarettes or their level of toxicity.
Globally, 80% of smokers live in low-or middle-income countries. The WHO estimates that there are 77 million smokers in Africa, namely 6,5% of the continent’s population. The institution predicts that by 2025, the figure will rise by nearly 40% compared to 2010 – the steepest increase globally.
The number of deaths on the continent will double by 2030 in what the WHO describes as an “epidemic”. For the companies, Morocco appears to be an excellent gateway into these markets: according to a study carried out by the Moroccan Ministry of Health, 13% of smokers in the country are aged 15 and under. And the proportion of girls who smoke is starting to rival that of boys.
In Europe there is an inverse trend. Over the past 20 years, tobacco sales have fallen by 38% thanks to preventative campaigns and price increases. That is why producers are increasingly pushing their new “reduced-risk products”, which supposedly provide consumers with nicotine without the harmful effects of tobacco.
Nevertheless, the newspaper Le Temps recently noted for Philip Morris that “despite the significant resources mobilised, Iqos still only represents 6% of the group’s production volume and 12% of its revenue”.
By waiting for Iqos and other gadgets that enable you to “smoke without smoking” to bring in real revenue – a situation that may never materialise – Philip Morris International and its competitors have to continue to sell cigarettes. On a massive scale!
Emerging markets are an attractive target, simply because their governments lack the resources to implement proactive health policies, leaving the companies’ path clear.
Intense lobbying
Producers use very aggressive advertising campaigns to attract their new and young customers and to promote their cigarettes. In July 2017, British newspaper The Guardian revealed that in Kenya and Uganda, British American Tobacco is seeking to prevent the government from taking preventative measures against tobacco.
In Kenya, KETCA, an alliance of NGOs in favour of regulating tobacco, has filed a complaint; the affair is currently in the hands of the Supreme Court.
In Togo, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, the same producer resorted to official letters to explain that plain packaging had not contributed to a drop in sales.
In rich countries, including Switzerland, producers’ rhetoric is exactly the opposite – they have started denouncing the harmful effects of tobacco. To convince the public of its good intentions, Philip Morris International even helped to launch the Foundation for a SmokeFree World, by committing to invest $80m annually for a period of 12 years.
The WHO denounces this significant semantic discrepancy: “Evidence shows that measures such as taxing tobacco, graphic warning pictures, a full ban on advertising and promotion of, patronage for and help to stop smoking, all serve to reduce demand for tobacco products. “If Philip Morris International was truly committed to a smokefree world, it would support such measures. Yet it opposes them. It engages in widespread lobbying and initiates lengthy and costly legal procedures against evidence-based anti-smoking policies.”
The WHO cited the example of arbitration between Philip Morris International and the Uruguayan government within the framework of the bilateral trade agreement between Switzerland and Uruguay. The tobacco giant spent $24m on opposing the introduction of health warnings on cigarette packets in a country that has fewer than four million inhabitants. After a six-year legal battle, it lost.
In Morocco, a law has indeed been adopted to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. However, a researcher at a specialist laboratory and an expert from Société Marocaine des Tabacs (both of whom requested to remain anonymous) say it is not applied. Preventative programmes in schools are a rarity and run by organisations with very small budgets.
As for the cigarettes themselves, there is no regulation pertaining to their ingredients. In 2012, Morocco passed a law akin to European legislation, limiting the permissible levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. However, the decree implementing it was never promulgated and there is no laboratory to check the levels of these substances.
As there is no smoke without fire, we wanted to find out more about the content of cigarettes produced in Switzerland but sold in Morocco. We used an approach that is as far as we are aware entirely innovative, undertaking a comparative study of the sulphur, nicotine and carbon monoxide content of cigarettes smoked in Europe and Morocco.
It is not a simple task because there is no publicly available data on the matter. Admittedly, levels of substances are sometimes provided on the packaging, but it is unclear whether the levels are respected by producers.
The ultimate question is whether Swiss cigarettes smoked in Morocco are the same as those sold in newsagents in Cointrin or in France. The only way to know for sure is to analyse samples.
We were informed by Adrian Kay, the spokesperson of the Federal Office of Public Health (OFSP) that Switzerland has no “laboratory suitably equipped to carry out this task”. Yet, we did manage to find a laboratory able to undertake such an analysis: the Institute for Work and Health (IST) in Lausanne, a subsidiary of the CHUV (the Lausanne university hospital) which is part of the WTO’s network of certified laboratories. To respond to our request, Gregory Plateel, head of laboratories, and analyst Nicolas Concha-Lozano had to build their own smoking machine. The method they use is practically ‘hand-made’: three containers to hold the cigarettes, a pump for inhalation and a jar where part of the smoke is concentrated.
Nothing is left to chance – the machine is controlled by a computer which extracts 35ml samples over two seconds every minute.
To guarantee that the machine was correctly calibrated, they started by testing a control cigarette “1R6F”. The control was an unbranded special sample for research laboratories provided by the University of Kentucky.
Once the cigarette has been ‘smoked’ by the machine, the smoke and filter was analysed to record the rates of full particles of nicotine and carbon monoxide.
A single cigarette is clearly not representative, therefore to obtain reliable data they used samples taken from three separate packets and calculated the average of the three values. It took the researchers several weeks to complete the process.
Double standard
Gregory Plateel and Nicolas Concha-Lozano analysed no fewer than 30 packets of cigarettes from Morocco, France and Switzerland, which we provided to them in September. Their methodology was aligned with ISO standards which serve as a point of reference for all researchers who undertake such tests. In Switzerland and Europe, the authorities introduced the standard 10-1-10, which sets the maximum levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide that cigarettes sold on the Swiss or European market can contain, namely 10mg of tar, 1mg of nicotine and 10mg of carbon monoxide.
The standard served as a reference point for the analysis of our samples.
The results are clear: the cigarettes produced on Swiss soil and sold in Morocco are much stronger, more addictive and more toxic than those sold in Switzerland or France.
The results reveal a double standard – Moroccans smoke cigarettes that are more harmful than those smoked by Europeans.
For each substance tested, nearly all cigarettes produced in Switzerland and consumed in Morocco contained levels higher than that found in Swiss and French cigarettes.
A sample from a Winston cigarette, for example, contains over 16,31 milligrammes of full particles per cigarette, in contrast to 10,5 for Winston Classics bought in Lausanne.
In terms of levels of nicotine, the difference between the cigarettes sold in Morocco and Switzerland is particularly striking: according to IST’s results there are 1,28 miligrammes per cigarette for ‘Swissmade’ Camels sold in Morocco, in comparison to barely 0,75 miligrammes in Camel Filters sold in Switzerland.
In terms of carbon monoxide, which reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood, the level also differs greatly between Winston Blues smoked in Morocco (9,62 miligrammes per cigarette) and Switzerland (5.45 miligrammes).
Despite the reassuring name, smoking Camel Lights in Casablanca means consuming cigarettes that are more harmful than the Camel Filters in Lausanne.
There are however worse results.
In some cases, the content levels recorded by the Swiss scientists are higher than those stated by the brands on their packaging.
This was most notable for the nicotine content of Moroccan cigarettes: Winstons contain nearly 1,5 milligrammes of nicotine, while the level stated on the packet is 1 milligramme. According to Ivan Berlin, toxicologist in Paris and Lausanne and an internationally renowned expert in this area, a single higher dose of nicotine increases addiction: “When we talk of greater dependence, we’re talking about the difficulty of saying no, and thus greater toxicity”,
Jacques Cornuz is the director of the outpatient clinic at the University of Lausanne, an epidemiologist and tobacco specialist who led the Federal Commission for the Prevention of Smoking (CFPT) from 2007 to 2014. Presented with our results, he did not beat around the bush, stating: “One could legitimately say that we are moving from a 20 to a 40-tonne truck”.
Producers’ responses
Japan Tobacco International, the producer of Winston and Camel cigarettes, gave the following clarification in response to our questions: “All products linked to tobacco are associated with health risks.” Therefore, “no standardised methodology can reproduce consumers’ true consumption habits”.
The firm thus considers the results imprecise. Moreover, “no one can say that one cigarette is less toxic than another in terms of matters such as taste”. Why are cigarettes sold in Morocco stronger than others? The firm does not comment on this question.
The press office at Philip Morris International states that: “Consumers around the world have different preferences. Tobacco is selected on the basis of these preferences according to the specific mixes and grades of leaves required to maintain consistency in the characteristics of each brand, like Marlboro Rouge.”
Why do Marlboros sold in Morocco contain more tar than those smoked in Switzerland? “We advise against focusing solely on tar content” the producer replies. There is scientific consensus that ‘tar’ is not a precise indicator of the risk or damage, and communicating ‘tar’ levels is misleading for consumers.
