Fake cigarettes on Facebook

Counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco are being advertised and sold through Facebook, according to a BBC online story.

Counterfeit products are reportedly being sold by people using fake profiles on buy and sell pages for the south-east of England.

Facebook was quoted as saying that content in breach of its commerce policy was always removed, but ‘cut-price’ tobacco and cigarettes are said to be being sold through the social media site’s Marketplace pages.

Undercover reporters were said to have arranged to meet a seller in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and purchased items marketed as Mayfair cigarettes and Amber Leaf rolling tobacco.

When analysed, these products were found to contain double the lead content and a third more cadmium than did genuine products. Both of these are toxic metals that can cause damage to the liver, kidneys and brain.

Jon Griffin, analyst at Kent Scientific Services, was quoted as saying that human beings were not good at getting rid of contaminants.

“So the likelihood is you are going to be taking in more of those contaminant metals and they will remain in your system in organs, in the brain, in other organs in the body and you will not get rid of them,” he said.

“Over a period of time there’s a bigger potential health risk.”