Author: Staff Writer

A radio frequency identification (RFID) conference and exhibition is to be held in London on Oct. 25.

According to a press note, RFID Journal LIVE! Europe 2013 will highlight leading companies’ RFID deployments in the region and demonstrate the latest technology available.

The event is due to focus on educating end users about how RFID technology is delivering “real business benefits across the continent.”

“The conference and exhibition will also feature a co-located event, RFID in Europe, connecting European end users, operators, solution providers, universities, research establishments, nongovernment and government organizations, and all other European stakeholders, through the promotion of national projects via an international network,” the note said.

More information is available at www.rfidjournalevents.com/europe.

The inhalation of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid CBD (cannabidiol) significantly mitigates tobacco smokers’ desire for cigarettes, according to a story in The Daily Chronic quoting clinical trial data published online in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Investigators at University College London conducted a double-blind pilot study to assess the impact of the ad-hoc consumption of organic CBD versus a placebo in 24 tobacco-smoking subjects seeking to quit their habit. Participants were randomized to receive either, in the case of half of the subjects, an inhaler containing CBD or, in the case of the others, a placebo for one week.

Trial investigators instructed subjects to use the inhaler when they felt the urge to smoke.

The researchers reported that, over the treatment week and in comparison with usual consumption levels, the placebo-treated smokers showed no differences in the number of cigarettes they smoked. In contrast, those treated with CBD reduced the number of cigarettes smoked by 40 percent during treatment. The participants who used CBD did not report experiencing increased cravings for nicotine during the study’s duration.

“This is the first study, as far as we are aware, to demonstrate the impact of CBD on cigarette smoking…,” the investigators concluded. “These preliminary data, combined with the strong preclinical rationale for use of this compound, suggest CBD to be a potential treatment for nicotine addiction that warrants further exploration.”

Smokers are unlikely to extend their lifespans if they choose to smoke fewer cigarettes but don’t give up altogether, according to a story from the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

This was the conclusion reached by researchers at the universities of Glasgow and Stirling after examining data on more than 5,200 men and women living in the central belt of Scotland who were smoking when first recruited to two studies in the early 1970s.

All of the participants were re-contacted a few years later and asked again about their smoking. Some had stopped altogether (the quitters), some had reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked (the reducers), while others had maintained or increased the level of their smoking (the maintainers).

All deaths were logged between the second screening and 2010.

“The researchers found that, compared to maintainers, the quitters had lower mortality rates, but there was no significant difference between the reducers and the maintainers,” the university reported.

“In one of the two studies, a subgroup of the reducers who had been among the heaviest smokers at the start did show lower mortality rates, but this was not seen in the other study.

“The Scottish findings, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, do not support those of a similar long-term study in Israel, where smoking reduction did appear to reduce mortality rates, but are consistent with larger studies of shorter duration in Denmark and Norway, where it did not.”

Tobacco smoking will be banned in enclosed and some other public places in Jamaica from July 15, according to a piece in The New York Times by Tanya Mohn.

From that date, smoking will be prohibited in enclosed public places, such as workplaces; government buildings; educational institutions; health facilities, including pharmacies; on public transport; at sporting and recreational facilities; and at places of collective use, such as bus stops.

During the next six months, businesses will be required to post signs to alert customers of the bans, which is just as well since smokers who light up in places where smoking is banned could be fined JMD50,000 or thrown into jail for three months.

Jamaica will require also that tobacco products carry big graphic health warnings in addition to the textual ones currently in use.

Anti-smoking activists in Hungary seem set on launching a petition aimed at having a ban imposed on tobacco smoking in public places, according to a story by the All Hungary Media Group.

This follows the approval by the National Election Commission of a petition question that would ask: Do you agree that smoking should be banned in public places?

A referendum will have to be held if at least 200,000 people sign such a petition.

Payne is launching a Facebook campaign to find out what people think about packs that can be re-closed and re-sealed.

The company says that previous research has suggested that a third of consumers would pay more for the convenience of being able to re-seal certain types of packs and that it is keen to understand some of the driving forces behind purchasing decisions.

“As packaging professionals, we recognize the benefits of ‘reclosability’ in terms of portion control, product protection and reduced waste,” said Payne Managing Director Martin Dallas.  “However, consumers can sometimes surprise us with the reasons for the choices they make, and we want to get to the heart of what they consider to be good packaging and why.”

Feedback is being requested through Payne’s Packaging Resolved Facebook page, where the company seeks to engage with consumers to promote the many benefits of good packaging and identify areas where there is room for further improvement.

The company’s initial research into consumer attitudes to packaging has already identified that consumers tend to respond positively to packaging that is fit for purpose, with opening, closing, protecting and informing being some of the main elements of many successful and popular packs.

To take part in the debate, visit the Packaging Resolved Facebook page at www.facebook.com/PackagingResolved.

Bulgarian tobacco producers are planning to stage large-scale demonstrations in the week beginning July 8 to protest at the country’s failure to secure EU funding for the industry during the next multiyear budgetary period.

The chairman of Bulgaria’s association of tobacco producers, Tsvetan Filev, said Bulgaria was the only country that had failed to protect the interests of the people employed in the tobacco sector—some 200,000 in Bulgaria.

The industry, he said, would not benefit from EU subsidies under the Common Agricultural Program 2014-2020, and tobacco was not the only sector in this position, he added.

The protests are to be held outside the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the capital city Sofia, and at other places in the country.

The story indicated that Filev “did not rule out the possibility” that on July 11, representatives of the industry would blockade Bulgaria’s border checkpoints with Turkey and Greece.

The price of electronic cigarettes in Italy could be set to rise sharply as the Italian government considers imposing a tax on these devices, according to a story in The Local quoting a La Stampa report.

A draft bill has been submitted to the Council of Ministers, which, if approved, would see the price of electronic cigarette kits increase to €52-133 from €33-84.

Such increases are likely to have a negative impact on a sector that has created 2,000 specialist shops and 5,000 jobs during the past few years.

Massimiliano Mancini, the president of the National Association of Electronic Smoking (Anafe), reportedly told Il Sole 24 Ore that the move was “nonsense” and would lead to the closure of at least 60-70 percent of the shops and the loss of 3,000 jobs.

A growing number of people have been using electronic cigarettes, generally believed to pose far less risk than traditional cigarettes, to wean themselves from smoking.

Switzerland is behind the rest of Europe in the fight to crack down on smoking, according to a worldradio.ch story.

The story quotes the latest World Health Organization report analyzing the performance of its own MPOWER initiatives, which seek to assist in the country-level implementation of measures to reduce tobacco demand.

Switzerland isn’t fully included in the report because the country’s anti-tobacco measures don’t comply with WHO guidelines.

This should come as no surprise since Switzerland tends generally to take an independent line and has not signed up to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Nevertheless, the report is said to “blame” Switzerland’s federal structure, saying there is little consistency between cantons in implementing anti-tobacco legislation.