Lawyers asserted that the suit is based on a completely bogus theory that several companies plotted in the 1950s to unanimously hold back information from Ontario smokers regarding the harmful and addictive ingredients in cigarettes. The lawyers of the two companies have alleged that there is no evidence or proof of a plot ever taken place.

A total of 14 tobacco companies were sued by Ontario in September 2009 seeking health-care costs related to smoking in past and present. The province claims that these corporations are to be held accountable for billions of dollars as they misrepresented the risks of smoking and did not take sufficient steps to reduce the effects and marketed cigarettes towards children and teens.

A lawyers of British American Tobacco has written that “If it is allowed to stand… jurisdiction can be assumed over any defendant, anywhere in the world, regardless of that defendant’s lack of connection to the facts alleged or to the jurisdiction, simply by asserting bald and vaguely articulated claims that the defendant engaged in an undefined conspiracy that ultimately resulted in harm in Ontario.” It said that “such an approach cannot be correct and is inconsistent with the principles of certainly, order, fairness, and properly restrained jurisdiction.”

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The findings, released by the World Health Organisation on Tuesday, are from a tobacco survey conducted in China in 2010 by the centers for disease control and prevention in China, the United States and the WHO.

Around 100,000 people die from exposure to second-hand smoke in China each year, in addition to an estimated 1 million people who die from direct tobacco consumption.

Women in rural areas of China were more affected, with almost 3 in every 4 exposed to second-hand smoke at home, compared to just over half in urban areas.

“There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Creating 100 percent smoke-free environments is the only way to protect people from the harmful effects of second-hand tobacco smoke,” said Michael O’Leary, WHO representative in China.

“Tobacco use and second-hand smoke exposure in reproductive-aged women can cause adverse reproductive health outcomes, such as pregnancy complications, fetal growth restriction, preterm delivery, stillbirths, and infant death.”

About a quarter of China’s 1.3 billion people are smokers, or about as many people as there are in the United States. But the country is gradually becoming more aware of this public health problem.

The Ministry of Health warned in May that more than 3 million Chinese would die of smoking-related illnesses annually by 2050 if nothing is done to curb this habit.

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John Seffrin, chief executive of the American Cancer Society, issued this warning while speaking at a high-level forum of the world’s 100 leading cancer experts gathered in the Swiss resort of Lugano.

They said governments must do far more than they have done to control the global tobacco industry, either by raising cigarette prices dramatically, outlawing tobacco marketing or by taxing the multinational profits of the big cigarette firms.

According to scientists, smoking kills more than half of all smokers, mostly from cancer, and yet despite it being the single biggest avoidable risk of premature death, there are about 30 million new smokers a year.

They said that if the current trends continue – with cigarette companies targeting the non-smoking populations of the developing world – then hundreds of millions of people will be dying of cancer in the second half of this century.

Some of the experts attending the World Oncology Forum went further by calling for an outright ban on cigarettes and for the tobacco industry to be treated as a terrorist movement for the way it targets new markets with a product that it knows to be deadly when used as intended.

“We have a major global industry producing a product that is lethal to at least half the people who use it. It will kill, if current trends continue, a billion people this century,” the Independentquoted Dr Seffrin as saying.

“It killed 100 million in the last century and we thought that was outrageous, but this will be the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world, bar none. It all could be avoided if we could prevent the terroristic tactics of the tobacco industry in marketing its products to children.

“There is a purposeful intent to market a product that they know full well will harm their customers and over time will kill more than half of them. The industry needs to be reined in and regulated,” he said.

Worldwide, tobacco causes about 22 percent of cancer deaths each year, killing some 1.7 million people, with almost 1 million of them dying from lung cancer. Yet the numbers of new smokers among the young is rising faster than the numbers giving up.

The latest study into the health effects of smoking, which was published in The Lancet and involved 1.3 million women, showed that tobacco is even more dangerous than previously supposed but the benefits of giving up smoking are greater than expected.

Sir Richard Peto of Oxford University, a co-author of the Million Women study who worked closely with Sir Richard Doll, is also the scientist who first calculated how many people this century will die from tobacco-induced cancers.

“We have about 30 million new smokers a year in the world. On present patterns, most of them are not going to stop, and if they don’t stop, and if half of them die from it, then that means more than 10 million a year will die – that’s 100 million a decade in the second half of the century,” Professor Peto said.

“So this century we’re going to see something like a billion deaths from smoking if we carry on as we are. In Europe we have about 1.3 million premature deaths per year now, of which about 0.3 million are deaths by tobacco. There’s nothing else as big as that.

“If you put all causes together, you wouldn’t get a total that’s half of that caused by tobacco, and tobacco kills more people by cancer than other diseases. Smoking is still the most important cause of cancer… If you smoke a few cigarettes a day, it will be the most dangerous thing you do,” he added

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Li, set to succeed Wen Jiabao as premier early next year, could boost his reputation as a populist leader and deflect criticism from rivals if his younger brother, Li Keming, is transferred from his position as deputy director at China’s State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, Cheng Li, a Brookings senior fellow, wrote in a report. He said Li Keming’s prominent role in the agency that runs the world’s biggest tobacco company may have set back efforts to control tobacco in the country.

Public opinion in China is becoming more important on social issues including health, environmental protection and food safety, Brookings’s Li said today. China has more than 300 million smokers, and at least 1.2 million die from smoking- related diseases each year, a figure set to rise to 2 million a year by 2020, according to the report, released two weeks before China begins a once-a-decade leadership transition.

“In all these areas, I think leaders should set examples,” Brookings’s Li said in an interview. “Particularly now that many countries, including Russia and India, are paying more attention to public health issues.”

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A packet of Winfield Blues is no longer the colour its name would suggest – instead a sickly looking olive green sets the ailing backdrop for photos of health-plagued smokers in various states of decay.

The new packets, which use the same font for any brand or type of cigarette, will be the only legal packaging available from December onwards.

Free Choice Tobacconist owner Robert Anderson said his Hooper Centre store had already sold most of its old, colourful stock.

If any old packets are still in circulation when December arrives, representatives from tobacco companies will buy them back from stockists.

He believed smokers would not take the decision lightly.

“I think the new packets are obscene, but that’s what the government wants,” he said.

“If they think it’s going to stop people from smoking cigarettes, they’ve got another think coming.

“It’s the worst thing they could do if they want the votes of the smoking public . . . another nail in the government’s coffin.”

Mr Anderson said he was not worried about any negative impact on his business.

He said it would only help sales of certain smoking accessories.

“The general public feeling is that it’s a fair dinkum joke,” he said.

“I think the sale of cigarette cases (to cover the disturbing images) will really come to the fore.”

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The tobacco directive is at the center of a cash-for-influence probe by the EU’s anti-fraud office which resulted in former Health Commissioner John Dalli stepping down last week. Mr. Dalli has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

“We will come with the draft revision of the directive in the coming weeks,” Mr. Bailly said. “The Commission will make this proposal. No doubt about that. So really the political commitment is there,” he added.

Any proposal would then have to go to member states and the European Parliament.

In a press conference in Brussels, in which he said he would take legal action against the Commission over what he called his ouster, Mr. Dalli repeated his concern that the directive would be blocked now that he has resigned.

He has also said that the directive was twice delayed internally by Commission officials.

Mr. Bailly declined to comment on who had delayed internal discussions, adding that the process would move ahead once a new commissioner had been appointed to replace Mr. Dalli.

Malta has put forward foreign minister Tonio Borg as a replacement. But he may not be confirmed for some weeks since there must be a hearing with the European Parliament before he is appointed.

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A 1999 settlement banned tobacco companies from advertising outdoors or at stadiums but there’s another grey zone where the definition of an ad remains fuzzy — smartphone apps. According to the latest research from Australia, apps are loosely regulated, sold worldwide, and increasingly popular—all appealing features for cigarette makers. They’re even open to kids.

In their report, published in the journal Tobacco Control, researchers at the University of Sydney searched the Apple and Android app stores with keywords like “smoke,” “cigarette,” and “tobacco,” to see how many promotional apps they could find. They tallied up anything that looked to be pro-smoking — apps showing branded images or info about where to buy tobacco products — even if the product claimed to be an aid for quitting. The final count? More than 100 different mobile-phone applications that appear to promote smoking.

It’s doubtful all the promos come straight from tobacco companies. The researchers, however, believe that some may. Speaking to Bloomberg earlier this week, author Nasser BinDhim said he finds it “suspicious” that smoking apps are typically released by developers who work under nicknames rather than business names, unlike in other industries. TIME selected five of the most creative pro-smoking apps described in the study, so you can judge for yourself:

1) myAshtray

Most apps identified by the Sydney researchers were tools to simulate or mimic the act of smoking. In this one, users click on the screen to drop ash into the virtual ashtray.

Although the app’s download page claims it can be used to help to quit smoking, BinDhim and colleagues felt the messages that users receive when they drop ash into the ashtray might actually encourage smoking behavior. One such message: “Would be even better with a beer in your hand!” The scientists also say there is no evidence that simulated smoking can prevent cigarette cravings.

2) Cigarettes

This app for Android gives tar and nicotine specs, photos of packaging, and a list of global availability for major cigarette brands from all over the world. Helpful, perhaps, if you’re visiting Estonia and trying to figure out which smokes to buy.

Don’t underestimate how global the market for smartphone apps has become. Today there are more than 6 billion mobile phones worldwide and while most of those are not smartphones, the number of smartphone users continues to rise. In rich countries, like the U.S., the U.K, and Australia, more than one third of mobile phones are already app-ready, according to the new study.

3) Puff Puff Pass

In this cartoon game, players click on a character to make the virtual person smoke. You win points for passing the cigarette (or the pipe, or the cigar — you choose) quickly between characters in a designated order.

There’s strong evidence that smoking in movies can encourage kids to smoke more. A cartoon game with lots of smoking may have the same effect.

4) Cigarette Battery Widget

This app uses a cigarette icon to show you how much battery power remains on your smartphone. It’s simple and requires very little engagement from users. But it can still be a constant reminder of cigarettes, and smoking. So far, this app has been downloaded more than 50,000 times.

5) CRA — Cigar Rights of America

Cigar Rights of America is an advocacy group that will petition various local, state, and federal governments to “protect the freedoms of cigar enthusiasts,” according to the group’s website. This app lets users stream audio and video related to cigar regulation, and gives updates on news, events, and ways to get involved with the group.

Given this latest research on the number of smoking promotions now available in app stores, it may not be long before CRA finds itself with a new legal battle to address: the rights of the virtual cigar smoker.

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Proposed new restrictions in Russia — modeled after laws in Western countries that coincided with a drop in smoking rates — would limit cigarette advertising and public smoking in Russia, and more than double excise taxes on cigarretes. A Wall Street Journal article on the Kremlin’s campaign details Russia’s cigarette problem, which costs 400,000 lives and $48.1 billion every year.

The international smoking data is mapped out above. It’s a fascinating bit of comparative data, with some potentially surprising pieces of information:

• The highest rates are all in Eastern Europe. The one Eastern European exception is Romania, which had similarly bleak numbers until it enacted tough anti-smoking laws in 1997.

• The biggest smokers outside of Eastern Europe are South Koreans, Kazakhs, and Japanese, in that order. China’s smoking rate still lags behind Korea’s and Japan’s (1,711 cigarettes per person in China versus 1,958 in Korea and 1,841 in Japan), but China is the world’s largest overall consumer of cigarettes. As the country urbanizes and develops, don’t be shocked if they rise in the rankings.

• A 1998 study of Russian smoking habits found a direct correlation between cigarette and alcohol consumption rates and a direct correlation between smoking and exposure to “Western influences,” such as Western tobacco companies marketing cigarettes as symbols of a “glamorous Western lifestyle.”

• Americans rank right in the middle. The U.S. is ranked 34th in the available data, with about a thousand cigarettes consumed per person per year. We’re about tied with the Israelis, the Australians and the Irish.

• In this data set, poorer countries tend to be healthier. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have some of the lowest smoking rates in the world. Indians smoke only 96 cigarettes per year per person. Ethiopians only 46. If Americans smoked like that, cigarette companies would collapse overnight, but health-care costs would drop dramatically as well; direct health-care costs related to smoking in the United States are estimated at $96 billion per year.

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