Tuesday, October 23, 2012

What is the most ethical tobacco company or cigarette brand?


  • I believe American Spirit purport to be made from 100% organic tobacco with no chemical additives. The purpose of many of the additives in cigarettes is to affect the body in various ways so as to make it more susceptible to nicotine. Choosing not to put them in is either an ethical choice or a clever marketing ploy.
    Seth, Edinburgh, Scotland
  • How can any tobacco company be ethical? They target children worldwide as the next generation of smokers, expand sales in developing countries with less stringent advertising regulations and lower public awareness) are desperate to induce even more women into smoking by associating cigarettes with "caring /feel-good" factors. And from an economic perspective (which seems to be the only thing that counts these days), our increasingly ageing populations simply cannot afford to lose their expensively educated young people so prematurely.
    Sheila Kirby, Esbjerg, Denmark
  • I back what Vince says. People have many ideas of what "ethical" is, and it changes over time. The American Indian peace pipe has a different ethical tone to it than the much-maligned Marlboro co. To me, there's a good side and bad side to all things, and since all things are connected, we all have links to something "unethical". Eg: computers run off electricity, which is generally sourced from a mix of fossil fuels, nuclear and renewables, produced by various companies for mixed motives, operated by many different people, who have a much better chance of getting to know each other (and themselves) if they can access the internet and have these discussions. Peace (& yes, I smoke, but not 100% of my time is spent smoking!)
    René Thomas, Huddersfield, UK
  • I am a Mohawk living on a reservation in NY, USA. People here do make cigarettes but we encourage young people not to smoke and leave that to a decision made by adults. I do not apologize for my people trying to survive by making a legal product. Also, a company here exports cigarettes to the UK called 1st-nation. These are made with ethically sourced tobacco from Malawi benfitting the underpaid farmers there, and employs Mohawk Natives living on our reservation. I believe these are the first ever Ethically Sourced cigarette. Thanks
    Andre, Akwesasne New York, USA
  • 1st-nation have recently launched in the UK and are probably the closest thing to Fairtrade that we are going to get. They voluntarily pay the farmers a premium and also invest in agricultural diversity for these farmers. The various Fairtrade organisations have illogically refused to provide support to tobacco products, so 1st-nation is working with local Malawi farming authorities to set their own ethical standards. Additionally, the brand is priced similarly to other mainstream brands.
    Pritesh Mody, London UK
  • Tobacco producers started adding a pesticide to their crops in the 1950's. Cancer was never linked to tobacco previous to this pesticide being added to the crop. Is organic tobacco the answer for those who choose to smoke?
    Andrew, South Shields England