The Cancer Society has called on the West Indian Tobacco Company (WITCO) to close its doors if it was serious about being a part of the solution to the problems caused by smoking. The society made that comment in response to an article in the T&T Business Guardian on August 2 in which Witco's managing director, Jean Pierre du Coudray, said the company doubled its profits between 2007 and 2012 despite challenges in the regional economy, internationally high prices and anti-smoking lobby. The release sent to the T&T Guardian said: "The Trinidad and Tobago Cancer Society has only one piece of advice for Witco: If they want to be part of the solution to the problems caused by smoking, they should close their doors for good. "And, indeed, as the global trend towards tobacco control legislation continues, the company should prepare itself for the end. "This is the response of the society to the appalling statements made by Witco's managing director, Jean Pierre du Coudray, in the Trinidad Guardian newspaper geared at boosting investor confidence in the company. "Du Coudray trumpeted Witco's profits with no regard for the death, disease and suffering the company's cigarettes cause every year to the people of Trinidad and Tobago."
The society said Witco likened its products to normal consumer items, such as coffee, cheese or milk, but "cigarettes are designed to deliver nicotine to get people addicted to the drug and then slowly kill." The release predicts the end of the tobacco industry given global trends but charges that under T&T's framework convention on tobacco control, "it is against tobacco-control policy for the society or any agency involved in tobacco control to talk with the tobacco industry about its activities." It said the only reason Witco had sustained economic growth was because local authorities failed to take action against the company's marketing and promotional activities. Witco, the release said, maintained its advertising was there to keep its brand and message in the view of minors. The society's chairman, Dr George Laquis, said it had asked the Ministry of Health and the police to investigate the ways in which Witco was breaking the law and said the society would not give up until the tobacco industry complied with the Tobacco Control Act.