Iran: American cigarettes laced with pig’s blood and radiation

Here’s a novel anti-smoking campaign out of Tehran: An Iranian official says cigarettes smuggled into Iran have been tainted with pig blood and nuclear material as part of a Western conspiracy. The semiofficial Mehr news agency quotes Mohammad Reza Madani from the Society for Fighting Smoking as saying contraband Marlboros have been contaminated with pig ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images
HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images
HASSAN AMMAR/AFP/Getty Images

Here's a novel anti-smoking campaign out of Tehran:

Here’s a novel anti-smoking campaign out of Tehran:

An Iranian official says cigarettes smuggled into Iran have been tainted with pig blood and nuclear material as part of a Western conspiracy.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency quotes Mohammad Reza Madani from the Society for Fighting Smoking as saying contraband Marlboros have been contaminated with pig hemoglobin and unspecified nuclear material.

Madani claims Philip Morris International, which sells Marlboro outside the U.S., is "led by Zionists" and deliberately exports tainted cigarettes.

Cigarettes are one of the top legal U.S. exports to Iran, a trade worth that was worth almost $158 million worth during the years of the Bush administration. So technically, yes, U.S. companies are profiting off Iranians’ deadly addiction. The pig’s blood seems like it would be a bit superfluous. 

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tag: Iran

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