Tobacco sales soar in developing countries

Rising tobacco sales in less developed countries such as Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, China, and countries of the former Soviet Union are boosting the profits of BAT Industries. The company sold 499 billion cigarettes world wide during the first nine months of this year, increasing its profits from tobacco sales by 34% to pounds sterling1.2bn compared with the same period last year.

Richard Peto, ICRF professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at the University of Oxford, warned that Asia and Latin America were “sitting on …