Decrease in Cigarette Consumption, Adult Smokers

Sharp increases in total adult consumption of pipe tobacco (used for roll-your-own cigarettes) and cigarette-like cigars since 2008 have offset declines in total cigarette consumption, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although total cigarette consumption continued an 11-year downward trend with a 2.5 percent decline from 2010 to 2011, dramatic increases in use of non-cigarette smoked tobacco products have slowed the long decline in overall consumption of smoked tobacco products.

Tobacco Businesses, Youth Smokers

Though some retailers abide by the rules when it comes to selling tobacco products to underage residents, there are unfortunately some who still try to get by not follow state law. While many clerks already have other materials available to them, it was reported many are still unsure about WV State Code 16-9A-2 prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minor youth and still, at times, get confused when checking birth dates on IDs. Due to high personnel turnover, many retailers have to train employees on a regular basis. This was also the reason for the development and distibution of the See Red? Retailer Education materials.

Warning on Cigarettes Packs

Cigarette packets in India are all set to carry new anti-tobacco pictorial warning from Thailand. The new pictorial warning, which is faceless, will be notified by the Ministry of Health as a replacement for the controversial old one that bore the image of English footballer John Terry. The Government of Thailand, which owns the copyright for the said warning, has permitted India to use these on cigarette products being marketed in India.

Anti-Smoking Regulations Stricter

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved on Monday the Health Ministry’s proposal to severely restrict the advertising and marketing of tobacco products. If approved as law, the legislation will constitute a major boost to the effort to minimize smoking and a considerable change to the advertising sector in Israel. The proposals have been vigorously opposed by the tobacco lobby. Under the new proposal, which is aimed at reducing the “attractiveness” of cancer-causing goods, tobacco products may not be advertised in newspapers and on the Internet, although advertising in tobacco shops may continue.

University of California Plans to Ban Tobacco Use

The University of California system announced last week that it will completely ban tobacco products, including cigarettes and chewing tobacco, on all 10 of its campuses. More than 500 colleges and universities around the country ban smoking in some fashion. But the degree of these bans vary, and few have gone as far as the University of California system. Marquette’s smoking policy states that people on university property cannot smoke best quality Capital cigarettes indoors or within 25 feet of university buildings. There are no listed consequences for violating the rule. University of California President Mark Yudof sent out a letter to campus chancellors last week, making the news public. “As a national leader in healthcare and environmental practices, the University of California is ready to demonstrate leadership in reducing tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke,” Yudof wrote. “Offering a smoke-free environment will contribute positively to health and well-being of all U.C. students, faculty, stuff, and our patients and visitors.”

Dublin Council Discussed Smoking Law

After years of going after cigarette smoke, Dublin is setting its sights on the source. Tuesday, the City Council will begin discussing laws that could make Dublin one of the toughest cities in the Bay Area on smoking tax free Sobranie cigarettes and tobacco products. Council members are scheduled to begin the process to establish a minimum distance future tobacco retailers can be from places where children are present and a licensing fee for all tobacco retailers. It could be months before the council votes on an ordinance. "We are trying to do what we can to limit tobacco exposure to kids," said Dublin Mayor Tim Sbranti, who will be in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday at a mayors' conference. "These (types) of ordinances will help with that."

Youngsters in Sussex Buy Cigarettes

One in eight young people in Sussex are being hoodwinked by cigarette packaging. Just over 12% of 16-25 year-olds surveyed for the British Heart Foundation (BHF) believed one branded cigarette pack was less harmful than another based on the packet design alone. However all cigarettes contain harmful toxins, tar, and carbon monoxide. The report is published ahead of a government consultation on whether Britain should adopt plain packaging for tobacco products. One in six said they'd consider the pack design when deciding which cigarettes to buy while one in nine said they'd choose a brand because it was considered cool. Most of those surveyed, 88%, thought plain packs were less attractive than branded packs - showing how plain packaging could make a significant difference in deterring young smokers. A ban on selling cigarettes from vending machines came into force in October.

Regulate Sales of Electronic Cigarettes, Boston News

Boston city officials are stepping up efforts to regulate electronic cigarettes that deliver nicotine and individual cigars that have become popular with people looking for cheaper alternatives to discount Cigaronne cigarettes. E-cigarettes are battery-powered plastic and metal devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge, creating vapor that users inhale. The Boston Public Health Commission on Thursday approved a proposal to immediately treat e-cigarettes like tobacco products. That includes requiring retailers to obtain permits to sell them, banning their use in the workplace and restricting their use to adults. The board also approved banning the sale of single-sale cigars by requiring that they be sold in their original manufacturer packaging of at least four. The rule becomes effective at the end of January. The board also doubled fines for retailers that violate tobacco control regulations.

Tobacco-Flavoured Lies

'Safety" might not be the first word to describe a tobacco product that threatens to turn children as young as 11 into nicotine fiends. But as The National reported last week, Chaini Khaini smokeless tobacco pouches are no ordinary product. Logon to chainikhaini.com and the claims begin: "It is a medically proven fact that [Chaini Khaini] is much less harmful than smoking," the makers boast. "Safety, from the harm of smoking and chewing tobacco." Claims such as these are purely deceptive, as the company proceeds to admit that any use of tobacco is "injurious to health". A more truthful depiction is seen in recent requirements forcing tobacco companies' advertising in the UAE and elsewhere to show rotting teeth, diseased lungs and other gruesome photos. Chaini Khaini flavoured tobacco is an example of the underage tobacco use that is an obvious problem in society. Police say children are sucking down the tobacco "like sweets". And it is far too common to see teenagers smoking cigarettes as well.

Anti-Tobacco Movement

Medical doctors and others opposing the manufacture and sale of discount Dunhill Cigarettes will launch a civic group today to press government officials and lawmakers for the ban on what they believe are ``cancer-causing and highly-addictive’’ products. The organization will stage a public signature-collecting campaign and file a petition with the Constitutional Court to have tobacco products banned from being made and sold here. Park Jae-gahb, professor of College of Medicine at Seoul National University, is leading the anti-cigarette movement. ``We set up the Clean Air & Good Health Society in 2009 to create a world without cigarettes. It is more like a friendly society, not a well-organized civic organization,” Park said. “To more effectively pursue our goals, we have decided to launch a full-scale organization, tentatively named ``Movement Headquarters against Production & Sale of Tobacco in Korea.’’

Make Smoking Illegal in the U.S.

The head of Philip Morris states that Esse cigarettes are addictive and harmful. Many former smokers say that kicking the nicotine habit is more difficult than stopping such illegal drugs as cocaine and heroine. So, why not make tobacco products illegal?

The largest tobacco company in the United States, Philip Morris, an Altria company, admits that its products are harmful and addictive. So, why not make them illegal?

Specifically, the May 15, 2011 iTwire story “Cigarette chief is butt of criticism” discusses comments made by Louis Camilleri, the CEO of Philip Morris.

Reynolds American Sold a Part of Its Company Based in Denmark

Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) said that it has reached an agreement to sell Lane Ltd. to Scandinavian Tobacco Group A/S (STG), a global company based in Denmark. Under terms of the transaction, STG has agreed to pay $205 million in cash for Lane.

The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2011, pending anti-trust review and approval.

Cigarette Makers and Tobacco Retailers Plan to Block Rule Requiring Graphic Smoking Warnings

The nation’s three big tobacco companies, and trade associations representing hundreds of New York City bodegas and convenience stores, are challenging the city’s latest salvo in the antismoking wars: graphic images of diseased brains, lungs and teeth that are posted where Marlboro, Eva, Red & White cigarettes are sold.
The tobacco companies — Philip Morris, Lorillard and R. J. Reynolds — joined with the New York State Association of Convenience Stores and retailers in filing a federal lawsuit against the city in an effort to remove the gruesome placards from about 11,500 establishments. Since late last year, the city has required the retailers to post them within three inches of cash registers or in each place where tobacco products are displayed.
The suit, filed on Wednesday in United States District Court in Manhattan, contends that the placard rule infringes on the federal government’s authority to regulate cigarette advertising and warnings and violates the First Amendment rights of store owners who disagree with their message, and that the placards are so disgusting that they hurt business by discouraging people from buying not only cigarettes but also more-wholesome merchandise like milk and sandwiches.
“This is not the city taking out a billboard, which it would have every right to do,” Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer who is representing the convenience stores, said Friday. “What it doesn’t have the right to do is to force other people to adopt its expression.”
The suit also complains that because of heavy restrictions on cigarette advertising, advertising space near the cash register is one of the last places where companies can promote their brands.
By putting ugly posters there instead, the suit says, the city is blocking tobacco companies from communicating with consumers, depriving retailers of coveted advertising revenue and pushing restrictions on tobacco-related speech “past the constitutional tipping point.”
In a statement, the city’s health department said that putting warnings where cigarettes were sold was one of the most effective ways to deter people from smoking and to discourage a new generation of smokers. “By trying to suppress this educational campaign,” the statement said, “the tobacco industry is signaling its desire to keep kids in the dark.”
The city has spent $80,000 to print and distribute the signs in the eight months since the law was adopted. They are based on research that shows pictures are much more effective at conveying the hazards of smoking than written text, according to the health department.
The suit received a mixed reception on Friday at the Corner News convenience store at 40th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.
Maria Roman, 35, a customer-service representative, barely glanced at the poster of a bloody tooth, stuck to the cash register, as she paid for a package of candy. To her, she said, the poster seemed perfectly factual. “It’s the truth,” she said, shrugging. “It’s just a visualization of what’s actually happening.”
John Pae, 58, a chef, said he generally resented government intrusions into his life but was even angrier about high cigarette taxes and a proposed soda tax, because they affected his wallet.
He said that he had called the city’s 311 hotline to help him quit smoking about two and a half months ago, but that the nicotine patches the city provided were so cheap that they had to be held on with duct tape. He has since bought patches at a drugstore.
“Everything pushed me to quit — taxes, getting older, the effect on my health,” Mr. Pae said. But he conceded that the city’s 311 smoking-cessation program, which he saw advertised on television, “made it easier.”
A clerk at the store, Saiful Islam, said a photograph on the cash register, of a diseased tooth, was so upsetting that some customers had switched from buying cigarettes to buying candy or gum. Many of them were spending as much on soda, candy and lottery tickets as they had on cigarettes, he said, so the store had not lost business.
He said the taxes that had pushed the price of a pack of cigarettes to $10 were worse for business than the posters, because they led people to buy cigarettes on the black market — which he said thrived on the sidewalk right outside the store.

8% Girls Under 15 Consume Tobacco

In India, 8.3% of girls in the 13-15 age groups consume some form of tobacco, according to the first Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) report. Experts say that the data is indicative of the trend of an increasing number of women using discount cigarettes like Winston, Marlboro, Kent etc.

In an attempt to accurately ascertain the use of tobacco products in the country, the Union health ministry along with WHO has conducted the first Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS).

"Regarding the use of tobacco in the country we just have National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data. This is the first survey in the country which will accurately tell us about the use of tobacco in different socio-economic strata," Dr Jagdish Kaur, chief medical officer of DGHS in the ministry of health, said.

Under the GATS project, 72,000 people were surveyed in 29 states. "With the help of WHO, we collected data. This time we used a special handheld device which was connected to out masterserver. So, all data collection was directly uploaded to the server. This helped us in expediting the data collection process," Dr Kaur said. The project was sanctioned by the ministry last year with an objective of identifying areas where tobacco use is high. "We had a set of 75 questions. Once the report is compiled, we will have a lot of information based on several parameters," Dr Kaur said.

As for tobacco use among women in India, experts say that there has definitely been a rise in the cases. Women comprise nearly 20% of the world's more than 1 billion smokers. "The global report on tobacco use is indicative of the increase in the use of tobacco among women in India. It is a percentage by which it has gone up," Vineet Gill, national programme officer of Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO India, said.

The vast majority of women who consume tobacco use smokeless tobacco (gutka, paan masala with tobacco, mishri, gul) and it varies considerably across states with prevalence rates ranging from 1% and 60%. The GATS report is likely to be released in June this year.