Author: Staff Writer

In a bid to quit smoking, a man in Turkey’s Kütahya province has taken to wearing a locked wire cage on his head, according to a Hurriyet story.

The shape of the cage seems to resemble that of a small diving helmet or goldfish bowl. It has locks on two sides.

İbrahim Yücel, who is trying to quit his 26-year habit of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, locks the cage around his head and gives the keys to his wife and daughter when he leaves home each day.

The wire mesh is such that while he can see, he cannot smoke.

Presumably, he cannot eat or drink; so the device might get taken up by those fighting obesity.

And it could find a place in the world of fashion—at least on the grunge side.

Vapers are due to take to the streets of Brussels to protest proposals that could emasculate electronic cigarettes sold within the EU.

Many people from across the tobacco divide believe that electronic cigarettes pose little risk to the users of these products.

And they believe that electronic cigarettes comprise one of the most potent products when it comes to weaning smokers from traditional tobacco products.

Toward the end of last year, the European Commission put forward its proposals for revising the Tobacco Products Directive, and as part of those proposals it suggested that electronic cigarettes exceeding a certain threshold of nicotine should come under medicinal products legislation.

Vapers from across Europe are due to meet in Brussels on July 10 to protest peacefully against the proposal to categorize electronic cigarettes as medicines.

“They will meet up in Place Luxembourg (subject to the appropriate permissions, which have been applied for) at 12:30 local time to prepare for a startling and memorable demonstration of what classifying e-cigs as medicines will actually mean—the continued early deaths of up to 2,000 smokers every day of every year,” said a note posted at Vapourtrails.tv: http://forum.vapourtrails.tv/showthread.php?tid=484.

At 13:00, the note said, each vaper will burst one or more black balloons, each one signifying the life of a smoker who, had she been allowed to switch to electronic cigarettes by choice and desire, would have reached her full life span, but, because of the classification of electronic cigarettes as medicines, died early, as a smoker.

The organizers are hoping to be joined by some members of the European Parliament.

Fiji’s Ministry of Health is calling on members of the public to help make Fiji a smoke-free country, according to a story at The Fiji Times Online.

The head of the Tobacco Control Unit, Aminiasi Tavui, said recently that in causing serious health problems, the consumption of tobacco products imposed an enormous burden on the health-care system.

Tavui admitted that Fiji, a small country with fewer than 900,000 people, was struggling with the burden of death and diseases caused by tobacco use.

If parents were to ensure a healthier and brighter future for their children, he added, everybody had to redouble their efforts to eliminate tobacco.

Philip Morris International today welcomed the decision by a World Bank arbitration tribunal to hear a claim that Uruguay violated multiple provisions of its bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with Switzerland.

“In order to attract foreign investment, Uruguay signed more than twenty BITs under which it made firm commitments to respect intellectual property rights and the rule of law,” said a note posted on PMI’s website. “At issue in this case are extreme and unnecessary restrictions imposed on the sale and packaging of tobacco products that conflict with Uruguay’s obligations under the treaty.”

“This ruling holds Uruguay accountable to its international obligations, accountability the country sought to avoid in domestic courts and again before this tribunal,” said PMI spokesperson Julie Soderlund.

“The measures unjustifiably restrict legitimate businesses from selling their products and using their trademarks while increasing incentives for black-market cigarettes, which already amount to a quarter of all tobacco products consumed in the country.

“We look forward to a full and independent assessment of these arbitrary and unnecessary regulations.”

PMI’s note is at: http://investors.pmi.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=146476&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1835071&highlight=

Japan Tobacco Inc. said today that it was expanding the distribution of Camel Black Box (10 mg tar) and Camel White Box (6 mg) in Japan.

These products, which are currently on sale in more than 20 countries, most of them in Europe, were launched in selected retail stores across Japan, excluding Okinawa, in the middle of January.

Now, in response to positive feedback, they are to be made available in all outlets in Tokyo and Kanagawa, as well as in the selected outlets where the products are already on sale.

The two products are said to offer a distinctive American-blend smoke and to be packed in stylish, curved packs.

Tests on the hair of mummies from the town of San Pedro de Atacama in Chile have indicated that the people in the surrounding region had a nicotine habit spanning from at least 100 BC to AD 1450, according to a story on LiveScience.com.

This finding rebuts the popular view that the group living in this region smoked tobacco for just a short time before moving on to hallucinogens.

Research has apparently shown too that nicotine consumption occurred on a societywide basis, irrespective of social status and wealth.

Zimbabwe’s 2013 flue-cured tobacco auction marketing season will close on July 5, according to a story in the Zimbabwe Herald quoting the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB).

Final deliveries will be accepted on July 4.

By the time it closes, the auction season will have run for 99 days, down from 145 days in 2012.

Shortening the auction season in this way is seen as a positive development, though, at the beginning of the auctions, the TIMB’s chief executive, Dr. Andrew Matibiri, indicated that, with Boka Tobacco Floors, Premier Tobacco Floors and Tobacco Sales Floor all operating, the season might have been reduced to 75 days.

Meanwhile, the flue-cured clean-up auction is due to be held on Aug. 6 and might be extended, depending on the volume of deliveries.

A researcher at the Centre for Tobacco Control Research at Stirling University in Scotland has incorporated into a cigarette pack a verbal health warning that is parroted every time the pack is opened, according to a piece in The Drum.

The research was apparently funded by Cancer Research UK in an effort to harness the “marketing tools of the tobacco industry” to help smokers quit.

“The tobacco industry buys a great deal of creative expertise to market its addictive and lethal products to new consumers, mainly young people,” ASH’s Sheila Duffy was quoted as saying in welcoming the development.

Meanwhile, Crawford Moodie said people thought his invention was annoying, “but that is a really good way to capture attention,” he added.

Perhaps, but not if too many people react in the same way as did the only person to have commented on the story by the time that TR read the piece by John Glenday.

Despite the anti-tobacco efforts of the World Health Organization, the Malawi government says tobacco will remain the country’s key strategic crop for years to come, according to a MaraviPost.com story.

The story quoted Agriculture and Food Security Minister Peter Mwanza, speaking at the opening of the 25th Annual Congress of the Tobacco Association of Malawi in Lilongwe.

Mwanza assured farmers that the government intended to support and sustain the industry for the betterment of the country’s economy.

Malawi was at one point the 12th biggest producer of leaf tobacco and the seventh biggest exporter of tobacco.

Mwanza spoke also, however, of some of the challenges faced by the industry, which included flaws in grower registration and the existence of unscrupulous associations that exploited farmers.

Tobacco control measures enacted in 41 countries between 2007 and 2010 will prevent about 7.4 million premature deaths by 2050, according to a HealthDay story quoting the results of a study published on June 30 in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization.

A team of researchers led by David Levy, a professor of oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia, USA, was said to have used a modeling exercise to predict the number of lives that would be saved.

“It’s a spectacular finding that by implementing these simple tobacco control policies, governments can save so many lives,” said Levy.

The measures the countries implemented included protecting people from tobacco smoke; offering smokers help to quit; warning people about the dangers of tobacco; banning tobacco ads, promotion and sponsorship; and raising taxes on tobacco.

“In addition to some 7.4 million lives saved, the tobacco control policies we examined can lead to other health benefits, such as fewer adverse birth outcomes related to maternal smoking, including low birth weight, and reduced health-care costs and less loss of productivity due to less smoking-related disease,” Levy added.