COUNTERFEIT cigarettes that contain more than three times the usual levels of arsenic and can cause vomiting and abnormal heart rhythms are flooding into Britain.

More than a million such cigarettes are seized by Customs and Excise officers every day, smuggled from China and Eastern Europe.

Gangs are believed to make millions of pounds each year from the trade. Counterfeit cigarettes are sold for half the price of legitimate brands, the profits going towards guns and drugs. Legitimate brands copied by the gangs include B&H, Lambert and Butler, Marlboro, Dunhill, and Embassy No 1.

Ed Stephens, a geoscientist at the University of St Andrews, has discovered that fakes contain high levels of a cancer-causing toxic metal picked up from the soil the tobacco is grown in.

He said: “There is hardly a better way of delivering some carcinogens to the lungs than smoking tobacco grown in contaminated environments. Our investigation into UK tobacco products found that counterfeit cigarettes are substantially contaminated with toxic elements such as arsenic and lead compared with genuine brands.”

He presented his report at Downing Street yesterday.

A Customs spokesman said: “Studies have shown that these fake cigarettes can cause nausea and vomiting, abnormal heart rhythms, damage to blood vessels and increase the risk of bladder, liver and prostate cancer among others.”

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