Tobacco Display Legislation Introduced in Parliament

Associate Health Minister, Tariana Turia has said that there is a need to get more serious about the risks of smoking and the harms caused by smoking.

Therefore, legislation was today introduced in the parliament in an attempt to discourage smoking by removing displays of tobacco products in dairies and other retail outlets.

She asserted that the Government was quite serious about the reduction of the harms caused by smoking. She said, "It's harder to quit when you walk into a shop and are confronted with the instant temptation of tobacco on display".

She asserted that most of the smokers wish that there was some way which could help them quit smoking. There is a strong link between displays and young people taking up smoking.

Some evidences have shown that tobacco displays prompt impulse purchasing. A time would come when a person would be able to walk into the local corner shop `without being confronted with images of tobacco enticing customers to take up a habit which is unhealthy, addictive, and costly'.

The Health Select Committee will now be asked for a sanction following which the committee will call for public submissions.

R.J. Reynolds Pulls Dissolvable Smokeless Products from Test Markets

It is good news for the communities involved that R.J. Reynolds has decided to stop its initial test-marketing of new, dissolvable smokeless tobacco products – called Camel Sticks, Strips and Orbs – that look, taste and are packaged like candy and are likely to entice children. According to media reports and a letter RJR sent to customers, the company is pulling the products from the test markets of Columbus, Ohio, Indianapolis and Portland, Oregon, where the products have provoked outrage among public officials and the public.
R.J. Reynolds is the producer of Camel cigarettes.

Unfortunately the company told the media that these products have been pulled only for potential redesign and may be test-marketed elsewhere in the future. We call on R.J. Reynolds to permanently pull these products and to stop its insidious marketing of tobacco products in ways that appeal to kids and seek to discourage smokers from quitting and keep them hooked on nicotine.
The Camel dissolvable products appeal to children in that they are easily concealed and colorfully packaged, shaped and flavored to resemble mints or gum. These products also have been marketed as an alternative to cigarettes in the growing number of places where smoking is not allowed, which discourages smokers from quitting and truly protecting their health. One ad for these products states, "Enjoy Anywhere. Anytime. Anyplace."
U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) took swift and laudable action by including a mandate that the Food and Drug Administration review the impact of these products on public health under its new authority to regulate tobacco products. Earlier this year, the FDA wrote to RJR seeking information on consumer perceptions and use of the dissolvable products. In its letter, the FDA stated it "is concerned that children and adolescents may find dissolvable tobacco products particularly appealing, given the brightly colored packaging, candy-like appearance and easily concealable size of many of these products. We are also concerned about the extent to which the high nicotine content and rapid dissolution of dissolvable tobacco products may facilitate initiation of tobacco use, nicotine dependence and addiction in adolescents, and may serve as a mechanism for inadvertent toxicity in children."
The tobacco industry has intensified its marketing of smokeless products as cigarette smoking declines, smoke-free laws cover more Americans and smoking becomes less socially acceptable. According to the latest data from the Federal Trade Commission, smokeless tobacco marketing totaled $354.1 million in 2006, an increase of 53 percent since 2004. While most cigarette brands have stopped advertising in magazines with large youth readerships such as Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone, many smokeless tobacco brands continue to advertise in these publications, most notably R.J. Reynolds' Camel snus. As with cigarettes, the bulk of smokeless tobacco marketing is spent on price discounts that make these products more affordable to youth customers.
Most troubling, the most recent data on youth tobacco use, included in the Monitoring the Future Survey released just last week, shows a significant increase in smokeless tobacco use among high school students. Among 12th graders, 8.5 percent used smokeless tobacco in 2010, a 39 percent increase since 2006. Even more alarming, 15.7 percent of 12th grade boys currently use smokeless tobacco.
The increase in smokeless tobacco use also comes as some smokeless manufacturers have sought to portray their products as a less hazardous alternative to cigarettes. Rather than reducing the number of smokers, the Monitoring the Future survey indicates that the main consequence of current smokeless tobacco products and marketing is to increase the number of youth who use smokeless tobacco. That is bad news for health because smokeless tobacco is far from harmless. Smokeless tobacco use causes oral cancer, cardiovascular disease, gum disease and tooth decay. It has also been linked to cancers of the esophagus, pharynx, larynx, stomach and pancreas.
Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 400,000 deaths per year and costing $96 billion in health care costs. The tobacco companies' flagrant efforts to lure young people to use these deadly and addictive products must finally end.

More graphic images urged

Two health groups called for more graphic images on packs of smokes, hoping to curb more people from lighting up.

Members from the organizations joined Pat Tarbox, husband of the late anti-smoking advocate Barb Tarbox, in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s southeast Calgary riding yesterday morning to push for an update to health warnings on tobacco products.

Warning labels will be on every cigarette brand package no matter if it is Camel cigarettes or Winston cigarettes.

One of the images being pushed for by the Canadian Cancer Society and the Alberta Policy Coalition for Cancer Prevention is a gripping image of Barb Tarbox as the Edmonton native slowly succumbed to lung cancer linked to a longtime smoking addiction. She died in 2003 at the age of 41.

“She would have liked to speak to 500,000 if she could,” Pat Tarbox explained.

He said the process of updating health warnings in the U.S. has been much more fluid and a decision is expected by next June.

Dan Holinda, executive director of the Canadian Cancer Society Alberta division, said the images currently used are outdated and ineffective.

“People have seen them for over a decade,” he said. “We need to change the focus now to tell the truth to Canadians to save their lives.”

No sale of 'gutkha' in plastic pouches from March: SC

Sale of tobacco products like 'gutkha' in plastic pouches will not be allowed in the national capital from March 2011, the Supreme Court ordered today.

An example of very used tobacco products are cigarettes of differenet brand. There can be Pall Mall cigarettes or Lucky Strike cigarettes.

A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly asked the manufacturers to explore and decide by March next year on the alternative material for packaging them.

The judges also directed the Delhi government to conduct a survey on the ill-effects of these products within eight weeks.

The apex court made it clear that after March 1, 2011, plastic packaging of such tobacco products shall not be permitted in the national capital.

The court is considering the validity of Delhi government's notification of January 7, 2009, banning the use of plastic bags in the city.

The Delhi government had banned use of plastic on the ground that it causes environmental pollution.

The association of plastic manufacturers has challenged the judgement of Delhi High Court vide which the ban on the manufacture, distribution and use of plastic bags in the national capital was upheld. UNI

New photos to grace cigarette packages by October 2012

Last Wednesday the FDA unveiled a new set of warning labels for cigarette packaging. The new warning labels are 36 proposed pictures, which will eventually be narrowed down to the nine pictures most effective at stopping smoking. These labels will be required on all cigarettes in the United States by October 2012.

These pictures are not going to be a simple no smoking sign. They are graphic pictures designed to elicit a strong desire to stop smoking in the buyers. Get ready for pictures of dead bodies, children crying, rotting teeth and cancer patients in the last stage of their disease.

I consider myself to be neutral on the smoking/no smoking issue. I don't smoke and have no desire to. I tend to hang around friends that do not smoke as well. I hate walking behind a smoker on campus, and I agree that smokers shouldn't be allowed to huddle around a doorway during the winter time. If cigarettes are so important to you, it won't hurt you to huddle around the corner in the cold for five minutes while you get your fix.

I do, however, have very mixed feelings about the new labels. The FDA and anti-smoking groups claim that they will cause a major decline in smoking by providing a graphic reminder of the consequences involved. The tobacco companies claim that they will have no effect and will only demoralize and stigmatize smokers. I am not sure that I believe either of the groups is correct.

The majority of smokers today know the negative effects of smoking. For whatever reason, they decide to ignore them and continue smoking. These pictures may be shocking for the first month that they are released, but by Christmas time they will be old news. Any smokers who failed to quit will probably be desensitized to them and will only consider them a nuisance.

Meanwhile, non-smokers will be forced to see constant pictures of dead bodies and blackened teeth every time they walk into a gas station, stand near a smoker or just walk down the street. I constantly see empty cigarette packaging all over the ground. Now instead of just having to look at litter, I have to stare at disgusting images all day.

If we are going to do this with cigarettes, why stop there? They might as well put images of extreme drunk driving accidents on alcohol. Let's add pictures of the homeless to lottery tickets to warn about the dangers of gambling addiction.

The new packaging for cigarettes is just a bad idea. Focusing on informing the public with real information rather than scare tactics is the best way to go. Allow adults to make an informed decision or just go ahead and make cigarettes illegal already, but don't flood everyone's eyes with depressing images.

An interactive exhibition in Delhi

School children have launched a campaign to support stronger pictorial health warnings on tobacco products in India at the India International Trade Fair. The campaign kicked off on November 14, which is celebrated as Children's Day.

Young school children visited the exhibition at Pragati Maidan for this purpose and get enlightened about the tobacco epidemic that is tightening its noose around lakhs of people in our country. The exhibition is being jointly organised by HRIDAY (Health Related Information & Dissemination Amongst Youth) and Public Health Foundation of India. It is showcasing the best international practices in terms of effective health warnings that are displayed on tobacco products in different countries. Through signature campaigns, opinion polls, 'warning walls' and media advocacy, the exhibition hopes to garner pubic and political support in favour of effective pictorial health warnings that will help save lives today and in the years to come.

"Pictorial warnings on the covers of Indian cigarette packs are not that effective. These should be effective enough to act as a deterrent," said Parul Kashyap, a class IX student of St Mark's School, Janakpuri.

Monica Arora, senior director of HRIDAY, said, "Pictorial health warnings first notified in India in 2006 have faced delays and dilutions time and again. In fact, numerous baseless arguments have been bandied about against the use of gory pictures to inform about the health effects of tobacco use. This exhibition offers people an opportunity to reach out to the policymakers through this groundswell of opinion."

According to KS Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India, "A number of developing countries like Uruguay, Thailand, Malaysia and Mauritius have already taken steps in the right direction by implementing effective pictorial health warnings. It is imperative that the Indian government replaces the current weak and ineffective warnings with stronger ones on December 1, particularly in the wake of the growing burden of tobacco use in the country"


Vandana Shah, who is spearheading the campaign for tobacco-free world for kids in South East Asia, feels that it is high time India takes a leaf out of other countries' that have successfully implemented the campaign against tobacco consumption by using powerful pictures which can dissuade people to use it. She also stressed the need to strengthen advertising laws which should take public interest into account.

More and more schools are getting involved in this campaign against tobacco. "This sort of exhibition helps school children have an idea about the harmful impact of tobacco abuse," said Anupam Ganesh, science teacher at St Mark's School, Janakpuri.

Ukraine requests World Trade Organization to settle tobacco dispute with Armenia

For the first time since Ukraine became World Trade Organization (WTO) member, it has requested that the WTO Dispute Settlement Body establish a panel to settle a dispute with Armenia over less favorableconditions for theimport of Ukrainian tobacco and alcohol than those of national origin.

The request was posted on the WTO's web site.

According to the WTO, Ukraine asks that this request be placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body that will take place on September 21, 2010.

According to Ukraine, it was impossible to resolve the dispute through consultations.

"In case a country refuses from consultations or does not start them, a WTO member that has placed a request for the consultations has the right, under Article 4.3 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes, to immediately request the establishment of a panel to settle a dispute," Andrii Zablotskyi, an associate from the Volkov Koziakov & Partners law firm, told Interfax-Ukraine.

He also said that following examination, the panel issues recommendations to the county which has violated the WTO agreements under which the country should bring its legislation in line with the WTO standards.

On July 20, 2010, Ukraine requested consultations with Armenia regarding Armenia's measures affecting the importation and internal sale of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages.

Ukraine alleged that Armenia's law "On Presumptive Tax for Tobacco Products" of March 24, 2000, levies discriminatory internal taxes on imported tobacco products and is therefore in violation of Article III of the GATT 1994 and paragraph 1.2 of Armenia's Protocol of Accession to the WTO.

Moreover, the law imposes customs duties on such imported tobacco products at a rate of 24%, which is higher than Armenia's WTO bound rate of 15%.

According to the Ukrainian side, for a small number of products, including cigarettes, Armenia imposes a single, fixed charge (the "presumptive tax") which includes both internal taxes such as VAT and excise tax and the applicable customs duty. Armenia applies this so-called "presumptive tax" at the fixed rates of AMD 6,500 ($17.7) per 1,000 imported cigarettes and AMD 4,750 ($12.9) per 1,000 like domestic cigarettes pursuant to Article 3 of the Tobacco Charges Law. "This presumptive tax on cigarettes at the above fixed rates for imported and domestic cigarettes is in violation of Armenia's obligations of providing national treatment to imported products and leads to the imposition of customs duties in excess of Armenia's tariff binding of 15% ad valorem for cigarettes as set forth in Armenia's Schedule of Concessions," Ukraine claims.

As to imported alcoholic beverages, Ukraine alleges that Armenia's law "On Excise Tax" of July 7, 2000, applies higher excise taxes on imported alcoholic beverages than on like domestic products.

Ukraine considers that this is also inconsistent with Armenia's obligations under Article III of the GATT 1994.

Read more: http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/83121/#ixzz16Ckija7H

In Face Of Cigarette Regulation, RHS ETF Worth Watching

The Health and Human Services Department announced today that it will require larger, more prominent health warnings on cigarette packs.

The new labels, which would take effect in 2012, could dissuade cigarette buyers by including graphic images and large type outlining the adverse health effects of smoking. The labels could cover up to half of the front and back of each package.

The news is causing investors to question future cigarette sales, and tobacco shares are traded lower on Wednesday. Shares of Altria (MO), producer of Marlboro cigarettes traded lower by about 1.5%, while Reynolds American (RAI) fell 2.2%, and Lorillard (LO) was off about .6%.

Secondhand Smoke

Too Many Montanans Are Still Exposed to Secondhand Tobacco Smoke

People living in apartment buildings or condominiums with neighbors who smoke
Anyone in an outdoor setting where smoking is permitted
American Indians on reservations where no tribal policies exist or where the Clean Indoor Air Act does not apply

New research, new urgency:
New research on secondhand smoke and the heart shows that there are more severe and immediate health effects than we previously thought.
Secondhand tobacco smoke causes reactions in the heart very quickly. In as few as 30 minutes, secondhand smoke exposure can cause heart attacks for people at risk for heart disease.

Dr. Robert Shepard, Medical Director at New West Health Services in Helena, Montana and a well-known champion of Montana’s Clean Indoor Air Act cites over 50 epidemiology studies that demonstrate the effects of secondhand smoke on the human body.

Shepard has identified specific risks to the heart, which are magnified by secondhand smoke. These risks, in turn, increase the risk of heart attacks in non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke.

Non-smokers, when exposed for 30 minutes to secondhand smoke, have platelets which look exactly like a smoker. They are activated and ready to create a clot. The clot is solid, the artery is too small, and the blood cannot flow; causing a heart attack.

Secondhand smoke also kills the cells lining the artery which control the ability of the artery to dilate and thus heightens the risk of spasms increasing the risk of a heart attack.

The message is loud and clear for those who will listen.

There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

And until we reach the tipping point that protects all of us from secondhand smoke, an estimated 175 Montanans who never smoked will die each year from breathing someone else's tobacco smoke.

Smuggled cigarettes found at Immingham docks

More than one million cigarettes have been found smuggled inside concrete blocks at Immingham docks.

UK Border Agency officials uncovered the haul following checks on lorry freight arriving from the Continent.

Officers used sledgehammers to break open the blocks and discovered the Chinese-made cigarettes.

Andy Lumb, from the UK Border Agency, said: "Cigarettes may be legal but the smuggling of such goods is often linked to serious organised crime."

The UK Border Agency said the lorry had been seized and inquiries were continuing.

Pallone asks World Series teams to ban chewing tobacco

The chairman of the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health asked the heads of the World Series teams on Monday to ban the use of chewing tobacco on the field and in the dugout during this year's World Series, which begins Wednesday

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) made the request in letters to the presidents of the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants. Pallone held a hearing in April to examine the effects on youth of smokeless tobacco use by MLB players.

The most recent survey results, Pallone said, show 15 percent of high-school students are using these products. An analysis by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that in just one game of the 2004 World Series, players were observed on television using smokeless tobacco for a total of more than nine minutes — the equivalent of $6.4 million worth of free advertising.
"The ban of smokeless tobacco while players are in uniform would be a great service to this country and the health of its citizens. Baseball has long been the American pastime, and has provided generations of inspiration for American youth, it is time that MLB continues this tradition of excellence and takes steps towards a healthier American future."

College and minor leagues have already banned chewing tobacco, which has been linked to oral, pancreatic and esophageal cancer.

Tobacco kills one person every 10 seconds

EVERY 10 seconds, one person dies in the world from the use of tobacco, the Friday sermon warned Bruneians yesterday, as it highlighted the dangers of smoking in conjunction with the World No Tobacco Day which fell on Monday.

"Let World No Tobacco Day be a reminder of the bad habit of smoking, and let us take steps together to fight it," said the sermon, reminding Muslims in the country that the risks of tobacco products were not minor but could cause death, not only to the smoker but to others around them.

The sermon lamented that even though people knew full well the stark dangers of smoking, they just brush it aside as they continue using tobacco.

"The teachings of Islam remind its followers not to do anything that can bring about harm to their minds and bodies, and Islam forbids all food and drink that destroy and harm oneself, such as alcohol, pork, illegal use of drugs and cigarettes."

The sermon said that smoking or the use of tobacco products is one of the causes of diseases, such as cancer and diseases of the lungs and heart. It pointed to studies which have shown that the use of tobacco is the cause behind the deaths of four million people every year worldwide.

It added that because of the danger posed by tobacco, many countries including Brunei have laws to control the supply, sale, use and advertising of tobacco products.

The sermon emphasised the ban on smoking in public places, such as school and hospitals.

"This is to protect the public who are present in these areas from being exposed to cigarette smoke, apart from making sure our air is clean and nice to breathe for all."

Under the 2005 Tobacco Order, anyone caught smoking in a public place can be fined up to $10,000. Those selling tobacco products without a licence can be fined $10,000, and those selling products without the health warning can be fined up to $20,000 and imprisoned.

"A maximum fine of $10,000 can be imposed on those who sell tobacco products to those under the age of 18," said the sermon.

"This is appropriate because the youth and children are the generation that will continue our efforts to develop and make our country prosperous."

The sermon also warned against the sale of tobacco replacement devices such as "electronic cigarettes".

It said that while these products are better for one's health, their sale in Brunei is prohibited because it is an imitation of a tobacco product and a fine of $10,000 can be imposed if one is caught.

"If we take care of our health, Insya Allah we can avoid suffering from chronic illnesses and we can save money for the country," said the sermon.

"In 2008, the government spent $20.7 million on healthcare. About 51 per cent of that was spent for the treatment of illnesses, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes. This does not take into account treatment for other ailments."

The sermon advised that in the effort to take care of one's health, we should take measures to avoid these diseases.

Public smoking bans effective for youth

Children and teens who live in counties banning smoking in public places have much lower levels of a secondhand smoke biomarker, U.S. researchers found.

Study leader Melanie Dove, who received her doctorate in environmental health at Harvard School of Public Health this year, said the team examined data from the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a cross-sectional survey designed to monitor the health of the U.S. population.

The researchers analyzed the cotinine levels in 11,486 non-smoking children and teens ages 3-19 from 117 counties, both with and without exposure to secondhand smoke in the home.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found children living where smoking is banned at workplaces, colleges and stores had 39 percent lower prevalence of cotinine in their blood -- an indicator of tobacco smoke exposure -- compared to children exposed to secondhand smoke.

"The laws have been shown to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke among adults. Our results show a similar association in children and adolescents not living with a smoker in the home," senior author Gregory Connolly said in a statement.

Children who lived in homes with smokers exhibited little or no benefit from the public smoking bans, the study found.

IW's top 50 manufacturers range from makers of cigarettes

Can a company founded in 1760 still be relevant in 2009? For Lorillard Inc., the answer is yes. If one product has endured the test of time in the United States, it's tobacco. Despite public smoking bans, warning labels and health concerns associated with tobacco products, Lorillard's 2009 performance was strong enough to earn the No. 1 spot on the 2010 IW 50 Best Manufacturing Companies list.
The 250-year-old company spun off by Loews Corp. in 2008 posted revenue of $5.2 billion last year, representing a 24.5% increase over 2008, with a profit margin of 18%. Its flagship brand, Newport, generates more than 90% of the company's sales. Another tobacco company, Philip Morris International Inc., ranked No. 5 on the list. While the company's Marlboro brand continued to do well, its smokeless tobacco brand Copenhagen showed solid growth in 2009.

In putting together IW's eighth annual 50 Best Manufacturing Companies list, IW ranked IW U.S. 500 manufacturers based on financial performance over the past three years in revenue growth, return on equity, profit margin, asset turnover, inventory turnover and return on assets. Securing the No. 2 spot is Western Digital Corp., which is the second-largest hard-disk-drive manufacturer in the world.
Revenues for 2009 were $7.5 billion with a profit margin of 6.3%. Last year, the company expanded its offerings as it entered the enterprise market segment.
The No. 3 spot belongs to high-tech company Apple Inc. In its fiscal 2009 the company grew revenue by 12.5% and realized profits of $5.7 billion. Helping the bottom line were the 20.7 million iPhones sold in 2009.

While tobacco demand is still strong, in 2009 many consumers turned to healthier products, such as natural beverages. Those healthy habits helped Hansen Natural Corp. earn the No. 4 spot on this year's IW 50 list. Hansen, which manufactures natural beverages, grew revenue 11% to $1.1 billion in 2009. The company also acheived a profit margin of 18% and achieved a return on equity of 48% in 2009.
Representing the growing alternative-energy market is First Solar Inc., a manufacturer of photovoltaic modules. Holding the No. 10 rank, the company, with manufacturing facilities in Ohio; Frankfurt, Germany; and Kulim, Malaysia; reported net income of $640.1 million for 2009 with a strong 65.8% revenue growth. As income grew so did capacity, which reached 1,228 megawatts in 2009, an increase from 716 megawatts in 2008.

New Tobacco Regulations to Take Effect

As the first anniversary of the signing of the Tobacco Control Act approaches, several key provisions of the law that gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products are set to take effect.

On June 22, new restrictions that include a ban on terms such as "light," "low" and "mild" in all advertising, packaging and marketing of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products will be enacted, John R. Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society, said during a Thursday afternoon news conference. In addition, packages and advertising of smokeless tobacco products will have new and larger warning labels. A similar rule for cigarettes will take effect in 18 months, Seffrin noted.

Also starting on June 22, tobacco companies will no longer be allowed to sponsor cultural and sporting events, distribute logo clothing, give away free samples or sell cigarettes in packages of less than 20 -- so called "kiddy packs."

At the same time, a nationwide law will prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone under 18, Seffrin added, and selling tobacco products in vending machines will also be banned except in areas restricted to adults.

"The American Cancer Society, along with the broader public health community, fought the tobacco industry for more than a decade to get this historic legislation passed," Seffrin said Thursday.

Tobacco products still account for 20 percent of all deaths in the United States each year. Thirty percent of those deaths (440,000 people) are from cancer, Seffrin said.

"So if we get rid of tobacco, we drop cancer deaths in America by 30 percent," he said.

But the tobacco industry continually recruits new smokers, Seffrin added. Every day, 1,000 children become addicted to tobacco, and almost 4,000 children try their first cigarette, he noted.

This is clear evidence that the tobacco companies continue to target children, Seffrin noted. The industry spends $34 million every day to "addict new young smokers, and keep current smokers from quitting or to mislead the public about the harms of their products," he said.

Seffrin said the new law, which has already banned candy and fruit-flavored tobacco products, will go a long way to curbing these practices.

"Given its track record, the tobacco industry is unlikely to comply willingly and fully with the spirit of the law," Seffrin said. "Indeed, just two months after the law was signed several tobacco companies filed a lawsuit seeking to block several key provisions from taking effect."

There are three categories of restriction on tobacco companies that will become law on June 22, Gregg Haifley, tobacco control advocate and associate director for federal relations at the American Cancer Society, said during the teleconference.

"One category is an effort to get at stopping the deceitful practices of the industry. A second area is to give better information to consumers, and a third area is to address many of the strategies the industry uses to target youth," he said.

The American Heart Association (AHA) said in a statement that it "wholeheartedly supports the FDA's efforts to enforce the law and move swiftly to implement several critical provisions including those taking effect on Tuesday, June 22, the first anniversary of the law."

And, the AHA added, "these new rules will support the association's goals to improve the cardiovascular health of all Americans by the year 2020 and reduce heart disease and stroke death rates linked to tobacco use."

Bill Phelps, a spokesman for tobacco company Philip Morris U.S.A., a division of Altria, said that "it is important to keep in mind that we supported the legislation that gave the FDA this authority."

"For these specific provisions we are in compliance, and our factories have switched over to making compliant packages, and in many cases they are already on store shelves," Phelps added.

Greek inflation at 5.4 pct in May

Greece's statistics agency says inflation in the debt-ridden country stood at 5.4 percent on the year in May, a sharp increase as the government implements austerity measures that include higher taxes on consumer goods.

The jump came after a 4.8 percent gain on the year in April.

The statistics agency's figures released Tuesday show inflation was fueled by spikes in prices on alcohol and tobacco products, which jumped by 16.9 percent compared to May 2009, and a 20.3 percent increase in transportation costs.

The government sharply raised taxes on alcohol, tobacco and fuel this year, as part of a package of austerity measures that released a euro110 billion ($130 billion) package of rescue loans from the International Monetary Fund and other European Union countries that use the euro.

Man dies in flat on fire, cigarette blamed

A small-time film scriptwriter died of suffocation after his bed caught fire in his rented Versova flat in Andheri (West) on Monday morning and police suspect the fire was caused by a cigarette butt he had forgotten to put out.

Noticing smoke coming from the flat, neighbours of scriptwriter Savio Rodriguez (37) opened the door with the help of the house-owner.

Rodriguez was rushed to Cooper Hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Senior inspector Suresh Nalawade of the Versova police station said, “Rodriguez was hailing from Goa and stayed alone in a flat at the third floor of Royal Apartments on Yari Road. He had been staying there for the past six months.”

“The neighbours could not even enter inside for some time as the smoke was very thick. They saw Savio lying on a couch in the hall. His bed was completely burnt and he had suffered some burn injuries on his hands and face. We suspect that he died because of suffocation as burn injuries found on his body were not severe,” said a police officer of the Versova police station.

The Future of the Tobacco Industry

The tobacco industry and its products (primarily cigarettes) has caused the premature deaths of over 13 million people in the United States since the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report which concluded that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer. Those health professionals, who are familiar with these statistics, and with the great lengths the industry has gone to to try to cover them up, have little sympathy for the industry’s current decline in the U.S. Many want nothing more than the annihilation of the tobacco industry. This is all the more understandable for those people who have seen patients and loved ones suffer and die from a smoking-caused illness. Some may feel that the tobacco industry and those in it do not deserve to continue to make money from such a deadly business.

It is quite appropriate that the emotions evoked by these aspects of the tobacco industry inspire many public health professionals to strive harder to oppose everything the tobacco industry does. However, these emotions may also cause some in public health to take their eye off the ultimate goal, which is the reduction of tobacco-caused harm. It is an unfortunate fact that the tobacco industry is not only a legal business; it is a very profitable one that has existed and gained in power and influence since the very birth of the United States.

Through that history and those massive financial resources the tobacco industry has been able to have enormous influence on elected and appointed public officials, continuing to this day. In addition, the dramatic increase in both federal and state cigarette taxes over the past 15 years has led to a situation in which the states have become dependent on those taxes as a source of revenue to balance their budgets. Recently total state revenues from tobacco taxes have been in the region of $20 billion per year.

Meanwhile, tobacco companies have a duty to maximize profits for shareholders. They are not going to stop selling cigarettes just because it would be good for public health.

This situation is part of the reason why I believe the best strategy for public health is one that forces/encourages the tobacco industry to morph from an industry that predominantly sells products that cause the premature deaths of half of its consumers (cigarettes), to one that sells products that do not cause lung cancer or respiratory diseases at all.

I believe the most practical way for this to happen is for tobacco companies to switch their focus away from cigarettes and towards other less harmful tobacco products such as smokeless snus tobacco. This is more realistic than total annihilation of the industry, partly because it would allow the companies to remain in business as tobacco companies, and for governments to continue to tax these products in order to balance their budgets.

Contraband Smokes ( and mirrors) in Canada

As if the RCMP in Canada doesn't have their hands full these days between busting marijuana "Grow-Ops" in BC and protecting politicians to the tune of almost $1 Billion dollars at the upcoming G8 & G20 Summits...now they have to wage a war on "contraband" tobacco too!I feel something is amiss in the CBC article I've attached to this story. There seems to be no mention in the article of the part First Nations play in the illegal tabacco game.

Is this intentional on the part of CBC? Are they being too politically correct in not mentioning the flow of "untaxed" tabacco from First Nation reserves into the marketplace?Aside from the health issues, both the tabacco industry AND Government are missing out on billions in lost revenue. Well...perhaps not the industry per se...but the small retailer suffers a great deal from loss of sales. Many convenience stores are being forced to close due to the unrestricted flow of illicit tabacco. BUT..this is a monster the Government itself created by granting tax free tabacco to First Nations people on their reserves. The inherent poverty on many of these reserves have lead to the present profitabilty for natives to use their status for fiscal gain. Who could blame them?Please read the attached CBC article I have posted in conjunction with the information below....

Why is there no mention of First Nations in the mainstream media article?Contraband cigarettes becoming a national normPaul McLaughlin TorontoNo question, I was slightly nervous. After all, I was about to commit a criminal act. "Got any cheap smokes?" I asked a scruffy guy sitting in a grungy coffee shop on Toronto's Queen Street. I approached him after watching him brazenly counting a large wad of cash in a place that seemed filled with lost and desperate souls."How much do you want," he asked, nonchalantly."One pack."

Figure. Plastic baggies of 200 cigarettes, often without health warnings, can be purchased in most major cities for as little as $8-$10. Photo by: CMAJ "Three bucks," he said, a bit more than a third of what a pack of 20 cigarettes would have cost me in a store. He fished the untaxed contraband out of an inside pocket in his dirty raincoat.The entire brief transaction was conducted in plain view of the coffee shop staff and about 20 customers. Neither the buyer nor I made any effort to camouflage what we were doing.Called DK's, the cellophane-wrapped red package had "Manufactured by King Enterprises, LLC Akwesasne Mohawk Territory" embossed on one side and a health warning from the US Surgeon General on the other.King Enterprises, located on the US side of the Akwesasne Reserve (which straddles Ontario, Quebec and New York state), is licensed by the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council to sell cigarettes in the US domestic market only.

Its license specifically states "exclusive of Canada."Although cheaper than a latte at Starbucks, my deal was no bargain compared with the one Cynthia Callard, the executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, obtained on a recent trip to the Tyendinaga Reserve, near Belleville, Ont. "We bought 200 cigarettes [the equivalent of 10 small packages], in a plastic baggie, for $8, as opposed to about $80 in a store."It's clearly become extremely easy to buy contraband tobacco on the streets of Canada's major cities. The coffee shop where I shopped was just 4 blocks from the Eaton Centre, in an area known for drugs and prostitution. I was directed to the dealer by way of a simple inquiry on the street.There's also no doubt it's become a nation-wide phenomenon. RCMP customs and excise unit Sargeant Jim Power says contraband tobacco sales have surged in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In November 2005, an extensive police operation dismantled a sizable cigarette contraband ring operating mainly in Quebec and Western Canada. Large quantities of tobacco and manufacturing equipment were seized during 80 raids that took place in Vancouver, Calgary, Hamilton, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Montréal. A 2006 study by Imperial Tobacco — Tobacco Product Illicit Trade Phenomena — found that approximately 1 in 4 cigarettes smoked in Ontario and Quebec were illegal.In late April (at press deadline), a coalition of 70 organizations launched a campaign to convince various levels of government to implement a crackdown on contraband tobacco, including stiff measures designed to curb the production and sale of cheap cigarettes on native reserves (see page 1569).Inexpensive cigarettes can be readily obtained by all and sundry on First Nations' territory, although, lawfully, only residents of the reserve and status Indians are entitled to purchase them. Occasionally, cigarettes available on reserves are professionally packaged and contain standard health warnings. But usually they come in clear plastic bags."Since 2001, we have seen a 1700% increase in the number of tobacco products the RCMP has seized," says Superintendent Joe Oliver, director of the RCMP's customs and excise program, who's been investigating smuggling since the early 90s. "In 2001, we seized around 29000 cartons. Last year, we seized 502000."Although law enforcement agencies are primarily concerned about tobacco smuggling from a criminal perspective, particularly the involvement of organized crime, they're also concerned about the potential health impacts from access to inexpensive cigarettes, says Power.

Yet, whether contraband cigarettes might be more dangerous, because of the potential inclusion of unknown substances (Box 1), is almost a non sequitur to the experts. Smoking any kind of cigarettes, contraband or otherwise, is hazardous, Callard says.The unchecked expansion of contraband cigarette sales has meant an economic windfall for smoke shops on First Nation reserves such as Kahnawake, Six Nations, and Tyendinaga Reserves. $6 contraband cigarettes
It is a commercial strip unique in Canada. On a short stretch of highway crossing this Mohawk reserve, one smoke shack after another beckons with signs advertising the low price of $6 for a plastic baggie holding 200 cigarettes.

Some shops opt for such native-inspired names as Wigwam and Bear's Claw; Another Dam Cigarette Store pokes fun at the proliferation of the businesses. Even the computer store offers a daily special on cigarettes.

The unchecked expansion of contraband cigarette sales has meant an economic windfall for this community of 9,000, just across the St. Lawrence River from Montreal. An RCMP report published last week said there were 125 known contraband smoke shops in Kahnawake in 2006 -- more than anywhere else in Canada -- with new locations opening all the time.

Shop owners can be seen driving Mercedes and Cadillac Escalades, and the Grand Chief boasts cigarette sales have eliminated unemployment. Nationally, the illegal trade is worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, according to the RCMP.

But the business comes with a significant cost. The cut-rate cigarettes make smoking affordable for children both on and off the reserve. The head of Imperial Tobacco Canada cited evidence last week that as many as 70% of the cigarette butts found in some Quebec schoolyards are illegal. Governments are losing out on $1.6-billion a year in taxes. And even Kahnawake Grand Chief Mike Delisle, while defending the Mohawks' right to sell tax-free tobacco, acknowledges that the lure of easy money has attracted organized crime to his community. "The infiltration now of outside influence and forces and organized crime -- gangsterism as they call it --it really can't be denied," Chief Delisle said in an interview.

The Mohawk police force, known as the Peacekeepers, are seeking out these elements "to have them disposed of from our community," he said.

Kahnawake smoke shops aren't worried about tough enforcement talk
That apparently is not enough for the RCMP and federal Public Security Minister Stockwell Day, who have announced a new push to stop the trade in illicit cigarettes. The Minister singled out Kahnawake as well as the Six Nations and Tyendinaga reserves in Ontario as particular hot spots. In the smoke shops of Kahnawake last week, nobody was too worried about the tough talk from Ottawa.

"It's none of Quebec's business or Canada's business. We don't bother them," said one seller, who insisted on anonymity. "They're supposed to stay in their canoe and we stay in ours, and we don't cross over." Like others in the trade, he predicted that any enforcement action by outside police would end badly. "There's no tension right now, but if there is, there are going to be funerals on both sides, off the reserve and on the reserve."

The 1990 Oka crisis, which left one provincial police officer dead at nearby Kanesatake and prompted a lengthy Mohawk blockade of the Mercier Bridge next to Kahnawake, is never far from authorities' minds when considering how to tackle crime here.

Two years before Oka, an RCMP raid on Kahnawake tobacco vendors led to 17 arrests and the seizure of $450,000 worth of tobacco products. It also triggered a 29-hour armed standoff when, in retaliation, Mohawks blocked highways through Kahnawake.

Since those clashes, the cigarette trade has been left to grow unfettered. Cuts in federal and provincial tobacco taxes in 1994 temporarily reduced demand for contraband, but it has surged back as taxes returned to previous levels.

Contraband cigarette sales have topped 50 million cartons per year
In 2006, the RCMP seized a record 456,333 cartons across Canada. That was a 16-fold increase from 2001, but still a tiny fraction of last year's estimated illegal trade of 50 million cartons. Some of the cigarettes are being produced in facilities on Kahnawake, but the RCMP says most come from illicit manufacturers on the U. S. side of the Akwesasne Mohawk reserve, which straddles the borders of Ontario, Quebec and New York State.

"These cigarettes come from different manufacturing operations, ranging from small ad hoc operations to fully equipped manufacturing plants involving serious organized crime groups," the RCMP's Contraband Tobacco Enforcement Strategy says. It adds that an estimated 105 organized-crime groups are known to be involved in the illegal tobacco trade nationwide and notes "a growing disregard for the law and escalating violence within the contraband tobacco trade."

Federal and provincial governments have no business trying to regulate native tabacco sales
John Stacey, the owner of Kahnawake Tobacco Manufacturing, said the federal and provincial governments have no business trying to regulate the native tobacco trade, even if almost all his customers are non-natives. "Everything we do, they want their cut, and they want us to ask permission. That's not the rules over here."

Mr. Stacey has carved out a niche among the scores of other Kahnawake smoke shacks by hiring employees who speak French, the mother tongue of most customers.

He portrays the Mohawk tobacco trade as deeply rooted and integral to the Mohawk identity. "Indians and tobacco are like oil and Arabs," he said. "To us the plant is sacred." He also cautions against police intervention: "Maybe they should think twice before coming in. We're ready to defend our right."

Mr. Delisle, the Grand Chief, recognizes that something needs to be done to control the current tobacco free-for-all. At the moment, anybody on the reserve can open a smoke shack and sell cigarettes.

Rules, he said, would have to be set and enforced by the aboriginals themselves. He talked of creating a Mohawk regulatory body to patrol the industry and said he is in contact with other aboriginal communities about co-ordinating efforts.

"If [outside governments] have identified now for 25 years that the majority of the problem rests in First Nations territory, why can't they formally understand that the majority of the answers must rest in First Nations territory as well?" he asked.

Garagiola, Who Quit, Warns About Chewing Tobacco

Joe Garagiola has been to too many funerals. Some of them were for friends who chewed tobacco, the way Garagiola used to do.Now Garagiola has been given the gift of time. He intends to use it to speak out against the habit of chewing tobacco.

“I tell these guys, ‘You may not like what I say, but with lung cancer you die of lung cancer,’ ” Garagiola said the other day, with the zeal of a convert. “With oral cancer, you die one piece at a time. They operate on your neck, they operate on your jaw, they operate on your throat.”Garagiola is one of America’s gifted talkers — starting in bullpens and dugouts, moving on to broadcasting games, then doing game shows, the “Today” show.

He is still talking. Last month he traveled to a Congressional hearing to speak against smokeless tobacco. The trip itself was a gesture of courage, because he was recovering from brain surgery for what he calls a nonmalignant ailment, which he said was not linked to the tobacco habit he beat 50 years ago. Garagiola received great news. After a CAT scan six months after surgery, doctors told him he was clear. He took a deep breath and celebrated by doing what he does best.

Speaking about the lobbyists for new smokeless products, he said: “They tell you it’s a safe alternative, but my answer is, Hey, don’t jump out the 50th floor, jump out the 25th floor. You got 25 floors on your side. The results are going to be the same.”

At 84, he still sounds like the exuberant kid catcher who batted .316 in the 1946 World Series. He doesn’t like to admit he could play — it’s bad for his bench-warmer image.

While Garagiola was with the Cardinals in the late ’40s, he picked up the habit of chewing from teammates, many of them rural and Southern. (Young white males are the highest users today — 15 percent.)

Garagiola remembers the day he stopped chewing, in the late ’50s, after his baseball career ended. His youngest child, Gina, came home from grade school and asked if he was going to die from cancer because of tobacco.

“I said, ‘That’s it,’ and I put it aside,” he said. “It was difficult, but I quit.”

He became an activist, going around to training camps with Bill Tuttle, a former outfielder whose jaw was being chipped away by operations for cancer. Tuttle, who had learned to chew from older players, died in 1998 at age 69.

There were successes. When Curt Schilling was with the Phillies, Garagiola walked him to the free clubhouse exam by telling endless Yogi Berra stories. Garagiola describes the stricken look on Schilling, who soon had a precancerous lesion removed and has given credit to Garagiola for helping to save his life.

In mid-April, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing, led by its chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California.

Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said smokeless tobacco could cause oral cancer and pancreatic cancer and had been linked to fatal heart attacks. He also said the product was highly addictive.

Baseball officials agree that smokeless tobacco is dangerous, but they cannot address the issue until collective bargaining for the next contract, after the 2011 season. Some players assert they have the right to chew.

“We’d like to discourage players from using smokeless tobacco,” Michael Weiner, the new head of the union, said in a recent interview, adding he had “no doubt of the effects to habitual users.”

Rob Manfred, an executive vice president of Major League Baseball, noted that baseball provides oral exams and literature about the danger of smokeless tobacco.

Baseball does not permit smokeless tobacco in the minor leagues, but Garagiola, who has been around clubhouses since he was 15, knows all the tricks.

“Kids, they’re smart, they put sunflower seeds in front, dip in the back or whatever, and they’ll spit so the tobacco cop doesn’t get you,” he said. “And when they come to the big leagues, the first thing they do is put a dip in their mouth.”

Garagiola talked about a star pitcher he saw on television recently, coming out of a game: “They’re praising him for being a gamer and he sits on the bench and what’s the first thing he does? He takes out some tobacco.”

At least baseball could stop players from sticking that familiar circular tin in their hip pocket, Garagiola said. He said he told a baseball official: “Arnold Palmer always walked on the green and flipped a cigarette. Why wouldn’t you let a guy walk up to home plate and flip a cigarette when he got to the batter’s box? You don’t allow that.”

Garagiola told about the funeral in 1998 for a high school coach, Bob Leslie, who died of oral cancer at 31. As he delivered the eulogy, Garagiola noticed his friend’s widow “holding this baby and I’m thinking, He’s not going to see her go to school, he’s not going to see her get married.”

His voice quavered, momentarily. Then he resumed. Joe Garagiola still has something to say.

Ban smoking in cars to save children, say doctors

Smoking should be banned in all cars to save children from the health dangers caused by passive inhalation, says a report from the Royal College of Physicians. Doctors are calling for urgent action after figures revealed passive smoking triggers 22,000 cases of asthma and wheezing in children every year.

Around 9,500 hospital admissions among children are linked to the effects of secondhand smoke inside and outside the family home, says the report, which analysed existing research.Forty babies die from sudden infant death syndrome every year caused by passive smoking – one in five of all such deaths.

At least two million children are exposed to secondhand smoke in the home along with ‘avoidable’ health risks, says the report.Professor John Britton, chairman of the Royal College’s tobacco advisory group, said legislation to ban smoking in the home would be unenforceable.

But society’s views about the ‘ acceptability’ of smoking must be changed and the easiest way to do this is a blanket ban in cars and vans, he said.

This would be simpler to police than the current situation which expects enforcement officers to differentiate between business vehicles, where smoking is banned, and those owned privately.
Professor Britton said: ‘We would recommend a ban on smoking in all vehicles.’
pugh.In addition the ban on smoking in enclosed spaces should be extended to parks, playgrounds and other areas where children congregate, he went on.

Richard Ashcroft, a professor of bioethics at Queen Mary, University of London – who contributed to the report – said even parked drivers who never have child passengers should get out of their cars before lighting up.

This would not be a ’significant reduction’ in their liberties, he argued. However, Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, said: ‘We wouldn’t encourage people to smoke around children but adults should be allowed to use their common sense.

‘These proposals go way beyond what is acceptable in a free society.’Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said it had already demanded a ban on smoking in cars with children travelling in them.

A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘By increasing the level of awareness of the harmfulness of secondhand smoke, we will encourage people to voluntarily make their homes and cars smoke free.’

Why do people smoke?

Smoke addiction has been working like an epidemic across the world and has been increasing for the last one decade. Efforts have been and are still being put in to control it but all in vain. From celebrities to common mass, everybody has been "seeking refuge" in the act of smoking.

It seems it gives your mind and body strength enough to fight with sleep, hunger and also psychological barriers. There are several people and organizations who have been the trying to spread awareness regarding the baselessness of these notions but the number of smokers are rising steadily in spite of knowing that smoke causes lung cancer and various other heart and lung diseases. There are different reasons that have given a strong base to these false notions and we would find out why people smoke to overcome problems whose root and solutions both lie elsewhere and smoking cannot resolve them even one iota.

Why do people smoke for the first time?

* There are very few people who start smoking after they cross their teen age, so it is evident that it starts off as one of those activities which teenagers do either to explore something new and experimental or under peer pressure. They start it so that they can gain conformity in the group of fiends and are not cast away on the periphery. Teenagers also start it since they look at it as s sign of growing up or a part of adult behavior as they might have observed their parents doing it and find it normal. So imitation of adult behavior can also be one of the reasons of people smoking.

* Once these people start smoking it becomes an addiction and then quitting it becomes a major problem. The flashy ad that the cigarette manufacturers flaunt all over the media does not attract most of these smokers. In fact it is not even the taste that matters for them it is the psychological satisfaction that they get out of smoking that prevents them from quitting this habit. Let us have a look at the different ways it influences people psychologically.

o Some people say that smoking provides them a way to take a break from work therefore they perceive it as an excuse to be free and take a break.

o Some people say that they feel care free and not burdened by responsibilities when they are smoking which relieves them from most of the anxieties. What actually happens is when an individual; smokes the effect of nicotine remains for approximately ten to fifteen minutes after which they start feeling tired and stressed because of the nicotine, so they again feel like smoking and this continues. So it comes clear that perceptions associated with smoking are mostly conditioned and none of them actually have a strong ground.

o Smoking can also be a result of oral fixation which starts right form the time when we are born. Infants start it with suckling and then when they are weaned they start thumb sucking and if you remember most of our friends or in fact some of us in school had the habit of chewing our pencils and pens and as we grow up we get fixated to cigarettes.

o Modern psychology says that if we promise a reward for a person or ourselves, the efficiency and productivity increases. So people who smoke promise themselves a smoke, which is quick as well as rewarding for them.

o Most people who smoke also say that they feel accompanied when they have cigarette in their hands, which can again be explained psychologically. Say suppose you have taken a break but there isn’t a friend who can keep you company, what happens is you have time and energy but nothing to do so a smoke makes you feel occupied and accompanied.

So what we are fighting against is not cigarettes but our own minds which makes us believe that it is impossible for us to quit smoking but if you can be a little strong and stern, you can quit it. You can conquer your own mind, can’t you?

Should the FDA Regulate Tobacco? Health Freedom Advocate Says Criminalizing Cigarettes is a Mistake

The U.S. Congress has just voted to categorize tobacco as a drug, handing the FDA regulatory authority to control the advertising, marketing and sales of cigarettes. This hilarious move, if approved by the Senate and signed by the President, would put the FDA in the position of approving the sale of a "drug" that the entire medical community openly admits kills millions of people. According to the CDC, tobacco kills 438,000 people each year in the United States alone (1). Now, thanks to the U.S. Congress, the FDA could soon be the government office responsible for allowing these 438,000 deaths each year!

Think about it: Right now, FDA-approved drugs kill around 100,000 Americans a year, and that's if you believe the conservative figures from the American Medical Association (the real numbers are at least double that). Add tobacco deaths to that list, and you come to the startling realization that if tobacco is considered an FDA-approved "drug," then FDA-approved drugs will kill well over half a million Americans each year! (538,000 fatalities a year due to FDA-approved drugs, using government statistics.)

Graphic warning on cigarette packs ordered

THE DEPARTMENT of Health (DoH) on Monday gave tobacco companies 90 days to comply with an administrative order requiring the printing of graphic warning on cigarette packs to show the ills of smoking.In a press conference in Taguig City, Health Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral said Administrative Order 13, issued last May 12, is effective immediately with administrative sanctions facing violators to include seizure and product recall.

She said the department has drawn up eight designs of picture warnings which are being reproduced for distribution to tobacco companies. The pictures that would be printed on the side of the government warning against smoking show acquired ailments such as cancer.

Ms. Cabral said tobacco companies have the option to either bear the labeling cost or reflect it through higher retail prices.

“We’d love for these companies to pass on the costs of labeling to consumers. It would serve as an additional deterrent to stop them from buying these goods,” she added.

She noted that taxes from tobacco products reach P30 billion a year, but this pales in comparison to health expenses for smoking-related diseases and ailments worth at least P200 billion.

"Smoking is a right of a person. But so is the right to information to know what are the hazards of this vice,” the Health secretary said.

Senate Passes Pathetic Tobacco Control Bill

There's no other word to describe it: The U.S. Senate's tobacco control bill is pathetic. It bans candy cigarettes and fruit-flavored cigarettes, but doesn't even require cigarette companies to disclose the cigarette ingredients they use until nearly a year-and-a-half later. The bill bans the use of the word "light" from cigarette packages, but even the tobacco companies admit this will make virtually no difference, as smokers have grown accustomed to buying cigarettes labeled with color codes that indicate a "light" designation.

And perhaps most importantly, this bill now puts the FDA in the position of approving the marketing and consumption of a product that directly promotes heart disease, strokes and cancer. The FDA, in other words, will now lend its stamp of approval to a product that openly kills people.

Tobacco as an FDA-approved drug?
If the FDA has any ethics whatsoever, it must ban tobacco products outright. For how can theFood and Drug Administration approve the marketing and selling of a deadly carcinogenic product when, at the same time, it bans cherry growers from describing the everyday health benefits of cherries?

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for approving the marketing and distribution of both foods and drugs. Cigarettes are obviously not foods or dietary supplements, and since tobacco is inhaled for its pharmacological effects, that clearly putscigarettes in the drugs category. So if this bill becomes law, it will force the FDA to declare tobacco to be a drug.

So if tobacco is a drug, then where are the safety tests required for drug approval? The FDA assaults fruit and herb companies on a daily basis, threatening them with being shut down for selling "unapproved drugs," and yet now the FDA is about to be put in the position of approving an admittedly deadly product that has no health benefits whatsoever while contributing to serious degenerative disease!

Interestingly, this position is not at all unusual for the FDA. The agency has already granted approval to thousands of toxic chemicals that openly harm human health -- pharmaceuticals. FDA-approved drugs, after all, kill over 100,000 Americans each year. If the FDA's portfolio of drugs includes tobacco, that number will rise to well over half a million Americans killed each year by FDA-approved drugs!

Furthermore, it would make laughable any claim by the FDA that it is working to "protect the public." As the agency approving the marketing, sale and consumption of a product that inarguably kills over 400,000 people a year, the FDA would cement its position as a peddler of poison.

What's in a Cigarette? FDA to Study Ingredients

The Food and Drug Administration is working to lift the smokescreen clouding the ingredients used in cigarettes and other tobacco products.

In June, tobacco companies must tell the FDA their formulas for the first time, just as drugmakers have for decades. Manufacturers also will have to turn over any studies they've done on the effects of the ingredients.

It's an early step for an agency just starting to flex muscles granted by a new law that took effect last June that gives it broad power to regulate tobacco far beyond the warnings now on packs, short of banning it outright.

Companies have long acknowledged using cocoa, coffee, menthol and other additives to make tobacco taste better. The new information will help the FDA determine which ingredients might also make tobacco more harmful or addictive. It will also use the data to develop standards for tobacco products and could ban some ingredients or combinations.

"Tobacco products today are really the only human-consumed product that we don't know what's in them," Lawrence R. Deyton, the director of the Food and Drug Administration's new Center for Tobacco Products and a physician, told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

While the FDA must keep much of the data confidential under trade-secret laws, it will publish a list of harmful and potentially harmful ingredients by June 2011. Under the law, it must be listed by quantity in each brand.

Some tobacco companies have voluntarily listed product ingredients online in recent years but never with the specificity they must give the FDA, said Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

For example, Altria Group Inc., based in Richmond and the parent company of the nation's largest tobacco maker, Philip Morris USA, has posted general ingredients on its Web site since at least 1999.

Cigarette makers say their products include contain tobacco, water, sugar and flavorings, along with chemicals like diammonium phosphate, a chemical used to improve burn rate and taste, and ammonium hydroxide, used to improve the taste.

Concord Store Robbed Twice In 1 Month

Concord has been robbed twice in the past month.Police said the West Street Market in Concord was robbed on March 8 and again over the weekend.Just before 8 p.m. Saturday, a robber entered the market and pointed a handgun at the clerk, police said. The robber demanded money and Marlboro cigarettes, police said.

Investigators said they believe the same man robbed the store both times.Store co-owner Sandy Mayurikaben said she was on the phone talking to her husband when the robber entered and demanded she hang up the phone.

"He said, 'I know you have some money under the counter,' and he said, 'I know you have some money here,' then I gave him that," Mayurikaben said.The man also demanded a carton of Marlboro cigarettes, and once he had those, he ran out of the store and is believed to have fled on foot.

Monday morning, Mayurikaben was back behind the counter but still a little nervous.
"I'm a little shaken, but I'm OK," she said.Concord police released surveillance video of the robbery."This is the second robbery at this store in less than a month," said Sgt. John Thomas. "We had a previous one on March 8 occurring under similar circumstances, possibly the same individual."

Mayurikaben has no doubts that it was the same man, and she said she hopes that police will be able to catch the man before he comes back again.The robber was described as a white man in his 20s, approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 150 to 160 pounds. He was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt pulled up over his head and what appeared to be dark, women's sunglasses.

Poland is frontline in EU battle with tobacco smugglers

The chocolate-brown labrador plunges into the car, scratching wildly, before a customs officer sets to work with a screwdriver and torch.

Minutes later, the officer wrenches apart an underfloor cache, pulls out a carton wrapped in black plastic and cuts it open to reveal 10 packets of cigarettes.

Bezledy is a Polish border crossing with Russia's Baltic territory of Kaliningrad.

It is also on the front line in a battle against contraband cigarettes, which experts say now account for around 13 percent of sales in the European Union.

"We stop around five or a maximum 10 percent of vehicles," said watch commander Mariusz Kuzia.

"Above all it's based on risk analysis. For example, a person's travel history. We have systems that log licence plates. We're good psychologists, spotting nervous behaviour. And we also look out for changes to a vehicle's construction," Kuzia explained.

"But it's also a matter of the officer's gut instinct -- or the dog's," he added.

Otherwise law-abiding smokers may see buying illicit cigarettes as a "victimless crime" amid ever-increasing taxes, or even fair game against mighty tobacco firms.

But experts estimate the underground trade cost European Union governments around 8.0 billion euros (10.5 billion dollars) in lost taxes last year.

The smugglers' wiles seem boundless.

Searching cars and trucks, officers at Bezledy and other posts have found cigarettes stashed under false floors, in coffee jars, boxes of biscuits, footballs, loaves of bread and even a consignment of tripe.

At the end of 2008, in a drive to stifle peddling by border dwellers, the number of cigarettes an individual can import into Poland was slashed from 200 to 40.

The smuggler at Bezledy, who said his name was Dariusz, claimed he was trying to get by in an area where unemployment is around 40 percent.

"I don't have any option. I've got a wife and two kids. I had an accident 10 years ago, so my hand's disabled. If this didn't pay off, I wouldn't be doing it," he said.

Dariusz, 34, acknowledged dozens of smuggling runs. He faced a 200-zloty (50-euro, 64-dollar) fine for his latest botched attempt.

Penalties are based on quantity, reaching 2,600 zloty for 630 packs. Larger-scale traffickers risk three years in prison for fraud.

Dariusz's load was just 40 packets, or 800 cigarettes.

But that is a minute tip of a gigantic iceberg.

Experts estimate that 75 billion cigarettes are now smuggled into the EU each year, mostly via Russia and Ukraine, with all but three percent slipping under customs' radar.

For smugglers, the trade makes business sense.

Costing the equivalent of around 50 euro cents a packet in Kaliningrad, contraband branded cigarettes sell for at least 1.50 euros in Poland and almost four in Germany. Over-the-counter prices are around 2.50 euros in Poland and five in Germany.

Overall, a gang's return on investment is 375 percent, according to tobacco industry estimates.

"Small-scale smugglers used to do this here for food and rent money, but now it's controlled by organised criminal gangs," said Ryszard Chudy, deputy customs director for northern Poland.

"The cigarettes smuggled in are gathered together and then shifted around the country and the rest of the EU by the crime syndicates," he said.

In 2009 officers at Bezledy seized almost 24 million cigarettes, which have either been destroyed or remain stacked in a high-security warehouse as evidence in pending court cases.

Nationwide, the haul was around 800 million cigarettes -- out of a total 15-20 billion estimated have been smuggled in.

"We're in a race against the traffickers," said Chudy.

Tobacco firms have in the past faced criticism for allegedly failing to take contraband seriously.

"Tobacco transnationals have benefited from -- and even been complicit in -- illicit trade in tobacco," said Gigi Kellett of the US-based watchdog group Corporate Accountability International.

"Illicit trade can open up new markets for brands ... and addict new customers with lower-priced tobacco products that have evaded taxes," she added.

Leading firms, however, are feeling the pinch, losing an estimated 700 million euros last year in Europe from illicit trading, and have created intelligence arms to tackle the threat.

"We consider it a serious crime. It hurts government revenues. But it also hurts our business. It's not a level playing field," said a senior British American Tobacco investigator, speaking anonymously due to the confidential nature of his work.

Little consensus on initiative to legalize pot

Talk about murky.

The economic impact, the potential social and legal landscape, even the split between the pro and con sides in the squabble over the initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California - they're all about as clear as smoke from a bong.

Most medicinal-marijuana advocates think it would be just fine if good-time tokers joined their legal crowd. Others worry it might ruin the purity of using pot as medicine.

Some associated with law enforcement think it's time to treat weed like liquor and give up trying to tamp down the trade. More think this approach will just lead to a dangerous explosion of potheads on the roads and at work.

There are illegal-weed growers who are afraid they'll lose their livelihood, and others who think business will boom. A few politicians, including Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who is floating his own legalization bill in the Legislature, are backing the measure. Many, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the major candidates to replace him, oppose it.

And then there is the money issue - the biggest elephant in a smoky room of elephants.

Proponents of the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 say taxing pot could inject $1.4 billion a year in taxes and fees into a state general fund that badly needs the money. The annual California pot output, according to the state Board of Equalization, is estimated to be worth $14 billion, making it the state's biggest cash crop - and if marijuana is legalized, the figure could billow much higher, advocates say.

Opponents counter that the figure is a pipe dream, because even if the measure passes, pot use will still be illegal under U.S. law - so anyone reporting income will be vulnerable to federal prosecution.

About the only thing both sides can agree on is that if the measure passes, nobody knows exactly how it will play out.

It would be the most sweeping decriminalization of the use and sale of marijuana in America.
Attitudes changed

"It's hard to imagine how the discussion of legalizing marijuana would have even gotten off the ground if not for the state budget crisis," said Robert MacCoun, a UC Berkeley law professor who specializes in drug policy.

He noted that opposition to legalization in California polled at around 80 percent until voters authorized pot in 1996 for medical use. By the early 2000s, those in favor of legalization were polling above 40 percent. Last year, with the state deep in budgetary crisis, a Field Poll cracked the halfway mark and put support in California at 56 percent.

Clearly, the desire to aim a new fire hose of cash at the state's $20 billion deficit is making the taxation of pot more attractive than ever, MacCoun said. But just as significant, most of the momentum to legalize pot comes from younger people.

A KPIX-TV poll by Survey USA, released April 21, found that three-fourths of respondents 18 to 34 years old supported legalization. Part of that is probably attributable to a more relaxed attitude toward pot after its legalization for medical use, MacCoun said, but equally important is that the younger generation is more accustomed than even their Baby Boomer parents to being around people who use marijuana - and to using it themselves.

UC Davis law Professor Vikram Amar, another expert on marijuana policy, summed up the explanation for legalization being taken seriously in succinct, nonbudgetary terms:

"A lot of people like pot now," he said. "And a lot of other people don't care about pot."
Money issue

Amar believes that because cannabis will still be illegal under federal law, "the state can't possibly make as much money in taxes as some people estimate. It can't raise the money unless people report the income, and if you do that you are serving yourself up to the feds, and you could go to jail for a long time."

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in October that the federal government would not pursue medical marijuana operations and users if they are following state law, but he has not said how his office would react to passage of the California initiative.

Skeptics of legal marijuana's economic benefits for California such as Amar have some unlikely allies - people involved in the illegal trade. Some of them say the crop is worth a fortune now, but if it is legalized, pot will be easier to get and prices might plummet, along with tax revenue.

Still, the more common sentiment among those in the cultivation trade, both legal and illegal - particularly growers in boutique-heavy Mendocino County - is that they are itching for legalization so they can turn their weed vistas into a dope-tourism draw akin to Napa Valley.
Medical pot backers weary

Most purveyors of medicinal herb have cautiously backed the initiative, but many are concerned that that health-conscious medical approach they've been emphasizing will be diffused.

"I do support the measure, but I am still afraid this could lead to an explosion of cannabis shops and different levels of regulation everywhere, with some counties being taken by surprise," said Steve DeAngelo, director of the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, the nation's biggest medical marijuana dispensary, with 46,000 clients. "I believe adults should be able to use something as safe as cannabis - but it should done responsibly."
Expansion in growth seen

The basics of the proposition are that it would legalize the possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana for personal, recreational use by anybody 21 or older. Each person could also grow weed for personal use as long as it was confined to a 5-by-5-foot space.

But the application of the six-page law could lead to significant pot growth and sales from one end of the state to the other.

Local jurisdictions would be allowed to set their own regulations under the proposed law, and that could mean anything from cities or counties keeping the recreational ban in place to the spread of large farms and the sales of dope, packaged like cigarettes in sprightly boxes, in corner stores on every block.

"My personal favorite is selling in coffee shops," said initiative creator Richard Lee, 47, who founded Oaksterdam University, the pot-trade school in Oakland. "But if a city or county wants to put it in a liquor store or a grocery store, that's their choice.

"I'm a believer in the free market," he said. "If you have a good product, it will sell."

The groundwork for such sales has already been set in cities such as San Francisco and Oakland, where medical-marijuana dispensaries had rocky, sloppily run starts but have generally settled in as part of the landscape.

The picture is less rosy in Los Angeles, whose 500 dispensaries are the most numerous of any city in the country. Continual police raids and wrangling over nuisance ordinances and complaints suggest that a further proliferation of sellers might prove challenging.

Another fear among some growers and users at a recent forum on the initiative in Ukiah (Mendocino) was that big companies might come in and supplant the little growers with plantations. But noted cannabis-advocacy attorney Omar Figueroa of Sebastopol said that was unlikely because they would be vulnerable to federal prosecution.

Bill Phelps, spokesman for Philip Morris - the nation's No. 1 cigarette-maker - said the company was not taking a position on the initiative, but cautioned against anyone taking seriously rumors of big corporations going for the pot trade.
Most police oppose measure

Most in law enforcement are predictably unimpressed with legalization.

John Lovell, lobbyist for the California Peace Officers' Association and several other law enforcement groups that oppose the initiative, said the measure could bring an escalation of addicts and be "a job killer."

"Under this initiative, you will be able to come to work high on marijuana, and in fact you might even be able to sell it at work if you have a local permit," Lovell said. "You will see many California businesses move out of state if they can, because they will face increased costs and insurance from this. It could be devastating, costing the state money instead of bringing money in."

Some in law enforcement, such as retired Orange County Judge James Gray and former San Jose police narcotics Detective Russ Jones, are pushing for the initiative, likening the current situation to Prohibition.

Gray said he is conservative and has never smoked pot. But he has written for years that marijuana could more effectively be controlled through regulation and treatment programs, rather than police and jails.

"It is really clear that what we're doing with marijuana in our state and country simply is not working," he said.

But backers like Gray are anomalies, Lovell maintained.

"I think most people know that if this law passes, this state will have gone to pot," he said. "They will vote accordingly."
Changed political climate

Poppycock with overblown fears, said Aaron Smith, California policy director of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Under the proposed law, driving and working regulations will be enforced the same way they are for drunkenness, he said. He downplays any notion of the state teeming with potheads, and said he doubts the weed trade will be dampened by fear of the feds, noting that the medical pot trade already generates $100 million annually in local and state tax revenue.

The last time an initiative to legalize pot outright was put before California voters, in 1972, it was trounced. But since then has come the 1996 initiative that legalized medicinal marijuana, and with it the rise of medical pot dispensaries and businesses all over the state.

With 13 other states having followed California's lead in legalizing medicinal marijuana, Smith said, this state is finally primed and positioned to lead the way in ending pot prohibition.

"It's clear to me we have the support," he said. "Victory is just a matter of getting those supporters out to vote in November.

"Some adjustments will have to be made after it passes, but it will all work out."

Flavored tobacco pellets are an insidious ploy to attract new smokers.

Put this near the top of the list of new products the world can do without, thank you: flavored tobacco pellets that can easily be mistaken for breath mints, deliver a nicotine kick and are way too likely to appeal to kids.

The dissolvable pellets are called Camel Orbs, and they're rightly drawing the round condemnation of some of the nation's leading public health voices, including Pediatrics, the journal of the American Pediatrics Association; the Harvard School of Public Health; and the federal Food and Drug Administration.

They're finely ground tobacco mixed in with mint or cinnamon flavoring, and critics say they look too much like the popular breath mints called Tic Tacs for comfort, a claim R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. disputes.

The smokeless tobacco pellets, which dissolve in the mouth, are being marketed by Reynolds to counter increasing societal restrictions on traditional tobacco delivery devices such as cigarettes. Several smokeless tobacco products are being similarly marketed.

Camel Orbs are the subject of a study and critical editorial in Pediatrics, published last week. The lead researcher on the study, Gregory N. Connolly, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, doesn't pull any punches: “Nicotine is a highly addictive drug, and to make it look like a piece of candy is recklessly playing with the health of children,” he told The New York Times.

One of the things that makes such products cause for alarm among public health professionals is the well-documented path that leads people to become habitual smokers. Statistically, those who take up the habit in their teen years are far more likely to turn into habitual smokers as adults. Typically, this group also has a more difficult time kicking the habit later in life.

Critics fear these products could one day achieve a niche among young people similar to the one enjoyed by smokeless tobacco products known as snuff or chew, which are typically tucked into the cheek and deliver a powerful jolt of nicotine to the user.

We share that fear. So we won't pull our punches, either. We think this product is built to put young people on the road to smoking. It's insidious and serves no useful purpose. It doesn't deserve a place on store shelves.

Philip Morris Funds Tobacco Tax Ad Campaign

Philip Morris has launched an advertising campaign asking New York to collect cigarette taxes from Native American stores, Indian Country Today reports. The tobacco company took out full-page ads in newspapers in Albany, Buffalo, Syracuse and other north central New York cities during the first part of April.



The ads, which state “Albany Lets Billions Slip through Its Fingers. Tax Dollars We Need for Vital Services Go Uncollected,” are designed to pressure the state to start collecting cigarette taxes from Indian reservation tobacco sales. “The state loses revenue. Retailers lose sales. Their employees could even lose jobs. And it adds to the burden on hardworking taxpayers,” the ad reads.



However, Native American officials and business leaders believe the ads are part of an effort to make the tribes collect state taxes. “There is nothing altruistic about Philip Morris,” said James Ransom, one of the chiefs of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe. “Their primary mission is to sell cigarettes and eliminate the competition. They will do whatever they have to do to do that and they know that tribes are the competition. They have little respect for the sovereignty of tribes because we represent a threat to their bottom line.”



Along with the ad is a Web site, which is run by Altria Client Services and the New York Association of Convenience Stores.



The ads and Web site are part of a long-running battle with Indian nations over cigarette taxes. New York state claims millions of dollars has been lost because tribes do not collect cigarette taxes, while the nations dispute that they should even collect such taxes.

Smoking ban in public places reduces smoke exposure and heart attacks

A new study indicates that policies that ban or restrict smoking in public reduce exposure to secondhand smoke and reduces heart attacks. Restriction of smoking area helps non smokers to avoid being exposed to tobacco smoke and the health consequences



Illinois banned smoking in the workplace two years ago, making it one of the states where people can go out into public without having to breathe second hand tobacco smokes, which has health risks.


A review published in the April, 2010 issue of The Cochrane Library states that countries and states that have polices restricting public smoking have less exposure to secondhand smoke. These areas also have a reduction in the number of people who have heart attacks and an improvement in other health indicators.


"Taken together, the benefits for workers and the reduction of hospital-related morbidity are impressive," says Professor Cecily Kelleher, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Population Science at University College Dublin, Ireland.


Countries around the world are introducing polices that restrict where people can some. Policies were implemented largely because of findings that tobacco smoke is the second major cause of death in the world. Smoking is currently responsible for the death of about one in ten adults, according the the World Health Organization (WHO).


The state of Illinois banned smoking in the workplace, including restaurants and bars, effective in 2008, to protect people from the health hazards of second hand smoke.


Smoking is a complex personal and social activity, so researchers stated that there is an ongoing need to monitor the effect of non-smoking legislation to see if it is benefiting people. The recent research indicates that banning smoking does help to prevent health problems, including heart attacks.
"The balance of evidence suggests that legislative smoking bans have achieved their primary objective of reducing exposure to secondhand smoke. The impact on active smoking is not yet conclusively demonstrated," says Professor Kelleher in a press release dated April 13, 2010.


A team of researchers used data from 50 different studies that followed 50 different situations where smoking bans had been implemented. People often react negatively to any restrictive rules, but researchers found that once the smoking bans were in place people approved of them.