Dangers lurking in fake cigarettes

Fake cigarette brands being sold on London streets contain dangerously high levels of tar and nicotine, the Evening Standard has found.

Experts today warned the number of illegal cigarettes being sold across the capital was skyrocketing - and described the counterfeits as " virtually unsmokeable".

Alison Sandford, of anti-tobacco campaign group Action on Smoking and Health, said: "This is a growing problem. People really have no idea what they are smoking. With counterfeit products there are no rules."

Our reporter bought cigarettes on streets in Kilburn, Holloway and Chinatown known for the trade in illicit tobacco. The products were sent to a laboratory where they were analysed for levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide. The results reveal all those offered at reduced prices were counterfeit and had illegal levels of at least two of the three substances.

The European Union limits are 10mg of tar, 10mg of carbon monoxide and 1mg of nicotine per cigarette. A packet of fake "Marlboro Gold King Size" contained 12.8mg of tar - more than twice the figure on the packet.

After hearing the results, Dr Charmaine Griffiths of the British Heart Foundation said: "Smoking three to six cigarettes a day doubles the chance

of suffering a heart attack. Smoking illegal cigarettes, packed with double the toxins, is likely to increase that risk."

Experts put the illicit tobacco boom down to crime gangs importing and selling them. Paul Gerrard, the head of Customs and Excise's counterfeit cigarette team, said: "This is about organised crime. These are the same individuals that 10 years ago were importing heroin." He warned people were being fooled into believing many fake brands were real ones imported from the Continent. A recent survey found only one in five smokers realise most cheap cigarettes were fake brands.

"The fake cigarettes contain high levels of chemicals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium," he said. "This is because the tobacco is of a much lower grade. It's the stuff the proper manufacturers don't want. It's also because counterfeits are often made in very unhygienic conditions: a lot of the time the tobacco is literally swept up off the floor."

Customs and Excise says up to 85 per cent of the cheap cigarettes sold on London streets are fake. Most are smuggled into Britain from China and the Far East, and eastern Europe and Russia, by gangs which are thought to make ?1 billion a year profit from the trade.

Customs officers seize an average of one million fake cigarettes a day nationwide.