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BAT Battles Billion Pounds Lawsuits
Individuals who realise the damage tobacco production has constituted to their health, whether they are active smokers or not, are leading the legal battles against tobacco companies, the British American Tobacco (BAT) 2023 Annual Report shows.
256 cases, amounting to 83% of the total 308 cases filed against BAT subsidiaries globally in 2023, were filed by or on behalf of individuals.
In Nigeria, none of the six lawsuits was an Individual Smoking and Health Case.
Instead, the 6 cases were filed by the federal government and 5 Nigerian states of Kano, Oyo, Lagos, Ogun, and Gombe, collectively demanding N10.6 trillion from the BAT Subsidiary in Nigeria to cover healthcare expenses associated with smoking-related diseases.
British American Tobacco (BAT), a multinational company, produces and sells cigarettes, tobacco, and other nicotine products.
These lawsuits were instituted at different times, notably in 2007, 2008 and 2017.
In Oyo State, on November 13, 2015, and February 24, 2017, BAT challenged the jurisdictional issues in the Court of Appeal, leading to the setting aside of the writ of summons.
This legal and regulatory action will likely present substantial financial risks for BAT. However, these risks are nothing compared to the huge risks its products pose to public health and the general economy.
Globally, tobacco use places a huge health burden on individuals, communities, and healthcare systems alike.
An estimated 8.7 million deaths are attributed to direct tobacco use yearly, 1.2 million of which are a result of environmental exposure to tobacco smoke.
Tobacco use varies in prevalence across different regions. It comes in the form of smoked or smokeless tobacco, cigarettes, shisha and others.
The prevalence rate of tobacco use in Nigeria has generally decreased in the last two decades.
In Nigeria, Tobacco use among men saw a significant fall from 15.2% in 2000 to 6.2% in 2020. For women, it decreased from 1.7% to 0.5% in the same period.
While the level of decline in tobacco use in Nigeria is noteworthy, its continued use remains a significant concern for both the health of individuals and the country’s economy.
Tobacco use is a lifestyle choice that often leads to adverse health conditions in users. Its use has been associated with different diseases, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and many other non-communicable diseases.
In 2019, Nigeria recorded an estimated 2.7 million tobacco-attributable diseases. The highest disease incidence in this period is chronic lower respiratory disease, followed by tuberculosis, cardiovascular diseases, and variants of cancer.
Besides the health risks that tobacco use/smoking poses to users, they also incur huge economic losses in terms of lost productivity, costs of treatment and overall burden on the health sector. According to the Tobacco Control Data Initiative, 15 non-communicable diseases were associated with tobacco use in 2019. This accounts for N24.4 million in direct health costs.