Author: Staff Writer

Two Bulgarian MPs tabled on September 28 a bill of amendments to the Health Act that would repeal the country’s ban on tobacco smoking in indoor public spaces and certain outdoor areas, according to a Sofia Globe story.

The ban went into effect on June 1.

The bill’s authors, Kiril Goumnerov and Stoyan Ivanov, who are not affiliated to any parliamentary group, said they wanted a return to the regulatory position that existed before the introduction of the ban whereby all establishments bigger than 70 square meters had to have separate smoking and non-smoking areas, while smaller establishments had the choice of being either fully-smoking or non-smoking.

Under the bill, night clubs would be smoking establishments, regardless of their size, but they would not be allowed to give entry to underage customers.

If the bill were to pass, the MPs plan to follow it up with another set of amendments that would increase taxes on smoking establishments while lowering them for non-smoking ones.

They also want it written into law that all tobacco and cigarette excise duties are spent on health care.

Karnataka’s flue cured prices touched Rs140 per kg, a record high, on the first day of auctions, according to a story in The Hindu published on Friday.

“This is an all-time high in the history of tobacco auctions in Karnataka,” the chairman of the Tobacco Board, G. Kamala Vardhana Rao, was quoted as saying. “The main reason is strong global demand for tobacco grown in light soil.”

“In Andhra Pradesh, a similar trend is prevailing – strong demand and prices firming up – for crop grown in light soil.”

But the high prices in Karnataka were due also to the fact that the area planted to tobacco, at 94,000 ha, was down by more than 11 per cent on that of the previous season.

In all, 288 bales or 34,358 kg of tobacco was offered at Karnataka’s 11 auction platforms during the first day of sales, and all of it was sold – for an average price of Rs139.49 per kg.”

Japan Tobacco International is expected to ask theUK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to refund a £50.3 million fine imposed on Gallaher following allegations that it was involved in a price-fixing cartel, according to an Electronic Telegraph story.

In 2010, the OFT fined a number of tobacco companies and retailers a total of £225 million for ‘unlawful practices’ and inflating the prices of cigarettes.

Gallaher, which was bought by JTI in 2007, was among several of the accused companies that chose to pay the fines to avoid a costly and lengthy legal process.

But six of the companies, including Imperial Tobacco, Asda, and the Co-operative Group, chose to appeal against the penalty.

This challenge was successful when, last year, the OFT’s ruling against the six companies was quashed by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

Earlier this year, Martin McColl, a chain of neighbourhood convenience stores, secured a £2.6 million refund from the OFT, despite not having appealed against the ruling itself, and JTI is said to be considering the situation carefully.

Tobacco growers belonging to the Philippine Tobacco Growers Association (PTGA) are urging President Aquino not to agree to proposed guidelines of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

PTGA vice president, Asuncion M. Lopez, said the proposed guidelines that had been recommended for adoption by the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the FCTC would “devastate” the livelihoods of tobacco farmers.

The fifth session of the CoP is due to be held atSeoul,South   Korea, starting on November 12.

“Bureaucrats with no real farming experience are actually trying to mandate the seasons when tobacco can and cannot be grown,” said Lopez during the media launch of the ‘Save our Farms’ campaign, which was held in Manilaon Tuesday.

The campaign is being spearheaded by theAsiachapter of the International Tobacco Growers’ Association (ITGA).

Lopez, who is also a spokesperson for the ITGA, said the proposed guidelines, relating to Articles 17 and 18 of the FCTC, represented a real threat for tobacco- producing communities,” said Lopez, who is also a spokesperson for the ITGA.

The PTGA estimates that about 2.7 million people depend on the local tobacco industry.

Chinais expected this year to approve imports of tobacco from the Brazilian states of Santa Catarina and Paraná, according to a Macau Hub story relayed by Tobacco China Online.

The director of the Vegetable Hygiene Department of the Brazilian Ministry for Agriculture, Livestock and Supplies, Cósam Coutinho, said on Wednesday that the exports were expected to be approved by Chinese health and hygiene authorities.

At a meeting of the Tobacco Sector Chamber held in Brasilia, Coutinho said that the results of laboratory tests on the tobacco in the two states were similar to those of tobacco produced in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which already exports to China.

“China is interested in the tobacco leaves from the southern region of Brazil, and so the states of Santa Catarina and Paraná are expected to be authorised to export tobacco following a visit by a mission of the Chinese health authorities due to take place this year,” he said.

It was announced at the end of August that an agreement had been signed that would provide for the export of leaf tobacco from the Brazilian states of Alagoas and Bahia toChina.

The agreement, which followed official recognition that Alagoas and Bahia were free from the fungus that causes blue mould disease in tobacco, was said to make way for the annual export of US$200 million of leaf tobacco and the creation of 50,000 jobs inBahia.

Anti-smoking activists inTaiwanyesterday blasted government bodies for sending lawmakers cigarettes as Mid-Autumn Festival gifts, according to a story in The China Post.

The Tung Foundation said it was ‘absurd’ that the Transportation Ministry’s liaison officials to the legislature were using tax-payers’ money to buy lawmakers harmful gifts for the upcoming festival.

Transportation Minister, Mao Chi-kuo, said he had known nothing about the gifts until he read about them in the news.

He agreed that the cigarettes were improper gifts and said he had already instructed everybody in his department to avoid offering such gifts in the future.

The foundation said the gift blunder clearly showed that the government had not taken anti-smoking policy seriously.

The property manager of the tallest all-residential tower inVancouver,Canada, Ken Armstrong says he receives as many as 20 complaints a month from residents upset about second-hand smoke; of those, about five or six usually relate to marijuana smoke.

But this problem should dissipate soon. According to a story by Mike Hager for the Vancouver Sun, about 70 strata members of the 42-storey, 237-unit Melville building voted to fine residents caught smoking, while about nine opposed the bylaw.

Strata president, Renu Bakshi, said that, once the bylaw was approved by the city, any resident caught smoking in the building would be given a warning. And on each subsequent time they were caught they could be fined $200, which would go towards the strata’s funds.

“Most of the population does not smoke,” said Bakshi. “Every citizen has a right to clean air, especially in their home. The two biggest complaints in condo living are cigarette smoke and noise, both of which penetrate numerous units. We have a right to fresh air and we have a right to live in peace in our homes.”

Teenagers who start smoking are fooling themselves if they think they can easily quit, according to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur story relayed by Tobacco China Online.

A study, the story said, had concluded that smoking just two cigarettes a day was enough to hook 13-to-17-year-olds on nicotine.

The study, which was apparently carried out by the University of California, was said to have found that the brains of adolescents who smoked as little as two cigarettes a day responded with as much pleasure to images of smoking as did the brains of ‘heavily addicted’ adult smokers.

The story gave advice from addiction counsellor, Matthias Brockstedt, on how parents should try to dissuade young people from smoking.

Tobacco-product names are being modified in Australia ahead of the December 1 imposition of plain packaging, according to a story by medical editor, Cathy O’Leary, for The West Australian.

From the beginning of December, all Australian tobacco products must be sold in packs designed at the behest of the government to look ugly. All brand names will appear in the same size and font.

Among the reported name changes, Winfield’s Optimum Night cigarettes are being called Crush Blue, while Dunhill’s Fine Cut is becoming Fine Cut Burgundy

An anti-smoking campaigner has accused tobacco companies of “sexing up” their product names to make them more appealing. Australian Council on Smoking and Health president, Professor Mike Daube, said tobacco manufacturers were introducing dozens of extended brand “descriptors” to meet the December 1 deadline.

Daube said too that there seemed to be a move to menthol branding on products, which he believed was because menthol made the taste of cigarettes smoother and more palatable, particularly to younger smokers.

Manufacturers say the new names will help retailers find the right product faster for their customers.

A tobacco company is warning that alcohol and other products could soon be subjected to the same advertising and packaging restrictions currently in force or pending in respect of tobacco products inAustralia, according to a Scoop story.

Imperial Tobacco New Zealand says reports fromAustraliaindicate that it is already seeing the flow-on effects of passing its tobacco-products plain packaging legislation.

The company’s market manager, Paul Warham, says theNew South Walesparliament is now debating a bill that would ban alcohol advertising.

This, along with a push by Australian health advocates for plain labelling on wine bottles and a ban on snack food advertising, should be troubling Kiwi trade mark owners.

“The writing is on the wall for many non-tobacco products if regulation continues to escalate,” Warham said. “We may well see alcohol and other products – such as snack foods – treated like tobacco on both sides of the Tasman.

// // “The situation with alcohol regulation now is reminiscent of what started happening to the tobacco industry inNew Zealand andAustralia 30 years ago – only now with alcohol, things are actually moving faster than they did with tobacco products.

“First there are concerns flagged about the impact the product has on society, which we’re already seeing inNew Zealand. Then come calls for restrictions of some kind to be imposed, and we’re seeing that here too. And then comes legislation that enforces increasingly punitive controls, including advertising restrictions and increased taxes and, eventually, proposals for plain packaging.”

Warham said tobacco-products retail display bans and the proposed imposition of plain packaging inNew Zealandwere the thin end of a wedge that would increasingly affect other consumer products. Now that the regulation floodgates were open, many products currently enjoyed by many people would be at risk.

“If the recent history of the tobacco industry is anything to go by, it’s just a matter of time before consumers see more and more restrictions in place on products they use every day,” he added. “It would very naïve of people to believe that the current push for over-regulation and restrictions on smokers’ freedoms will only impact tobacco products in the future.”