12:32pm Wednesday 10th March 2010
By Gareth Lewis
BRITISH American Tobacco is investing £23m into its Southampton base in a bid to develop a “safe” cigarette.
On national No Smoking Day, the Daily Echo can reveal that the company now employs more people in the city than when it made billions of cigarettes a year.
It means Southampton is now home to one of the world’s leading smoking research centres, which is currently examining 40 different varieties of safer cigarettes.
Bosses say they are committed to the city long-term.
But critics have described the work being done at the plant as “tinkering” and say it will still leave a product that causes serious health problems.
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