Author: Staff Writer

  • International anti-tobacco conference to be staged in tobacco country

    India, the third largest producer of tobacco, is due to host an international anti-tobacco conference in Delhi later this year.

    The International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century: The Endgame for Tobacco will take place on September 10–13.

    “The conference is a call for collective resolution to fight tobacco through global cohesion and integration of tobacco control into broader health and development agendas for the achievement of our common health and development goals,” said professor K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, speaking on behalf of the organizing committee.

    “With India making concerted efforts towards ending the tobacco epidemic, by banning [some forms of] smokeless tobacco and introducing strict tobacco control laws, we recognize this as an opportune time for hosting a confluence of multi-sector stakeholders to evaluate current global strategies to fight tobacco and develop a way forward collaboratively.

    “The premise for choosing the theme “The Endgame for Tobacco” was that while tobacco control has been identified as key determinant in the global public health agenda, there is a need to mobilize tobacco control measures in addressing the larger development agenda. It is imperative that tobacco control efforts be stepped up, at pace with progressive, ground-breaking and radical international measures moving towards a tobacco-free society …”

  • Hungary moves from open market to monopoly to zeropoly

    Smokers in some Hungarian villages will not have local access to cigarettes after a new law allowing only state-licensed tobacconists to sell cigarettes comes into effect in May, according to an MTI-EcoNews story quoting the opposition Socialist lawmaker, Csaba Toth.

    As was reported here on April 3, the country’s parliament adopted legislation in September last year for the establishment of a state monopoly of the retail sale of tobacco products on July 1, 2013.

    The National Tobacco Trade Non-profit, which is overseeing the establishment of the monopoly, said that 15,633 applications for the retail sale of tobacco had been submitted by the February 22 deadline stipulated in the initial tender.

    No applications were submitted in the case of 1,417 villages, however; so new tenders have been invited.

    But since the winners of the new round of tenders would be announced only on April 23, said Toth, there would not be enough time for the shops to open on May 1, the deadline after which only licensed tobacconists may sell cigarettes.

    This would encourage black market trading and result in a drop in excise tax revenues, he added.

  • Fewer smokers, more snuffers in Norway

    Norway’s smoking tobacco tax revenue last year, at NOK7.3 billion, was down by NOK170 million on that of 2011 and down by NOK750 million on that of 2009, according to an Esmerk Norwegian News story.

    The decline was attributed to the fall that has occurred in the number of daily smokers, which, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Health, now accounts for 16 percent of the population, down from 21 percent in 2009.

    But as the number of smokers has been falling, the number of smokeless tobacco users has been rising: from 6 percent in 2009 to 9 percent last year.

  • Davidoff to establish subsidiary in Austria

    The Switzerland-based cigar producer, Oettinger Davidoff Group, will be represented in Austria by its own subsidiary beginning in May, Davidoff of Geneva Austria GmbH, according to an APA Economic News Service story.

    Austria is the 10th biggest market for the group, which is said to have a presence in 150 countries and to employ 3,700 people around the world.

  • Tabacalera makes a comeback

    The Imperial Tobacco group has restored the Tabacalera name for its new premium cigar division in Spain, according to a Cinco Dias story.

    The move was said to be in line with Imperial’s strategy of reorganising some of its legal entities in Spain.

    The reorganisation process was said to have been started last year.

  • Manila FDA will not register e-cigarettes

    The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it will not register e-cigarettes, as health products as these devices are against the intent of the country’s tobacco regulation law, according to a story on MB.com.ph, a Minilan news website.

    In an advisory, FDA acting Director General Kenneth Hartigan-Go said e-cigarettes are “contrary to the intent and provisions of Republic Act No. 9211, otherwise known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003.”

    He said the law aims to protect the youth from nicotine addiction and chronic respiratory ailments including cancer that are caused by inhalation of highly toxic substances found in tobacco and cigarettes. “Wittingly or unwittingly, the electronic cigarette promotes smoking among children and the youth. It makes them less fearful of hazards and risks of smoking. It is opposed to the DOH health goal to stop cigarette smoking and tobacco use,” he said, adding that the FDA has not registered any e-cigarette products and will not register these as health products under the FDA Act of 2009.

  • Fiji running out of places for smokers to smoke

    Smoking in Fiji restaurants will be illegal as of July 1st, and a $1,000 fine will be carried if any one business breaches the new law, which was implemented under the Tobacco Control Regulation of 2012. Graphical warnings on cigarette packets will also be printed as of July, according to a story by the Fiji Broadcasting Company.

    British American Tobacco corporate manager Rajeshwar Singh says the law has serious implications on their business.

    “It has implications on our business because there is no exemption we have to comply, and in order to comply we need to change the packaging label of the product, and as a result of that, there is cost associated to that.”

    Also under the Tobacco Control Regulations 2012 – any workplace where the public has access also becomes a no-smoking area. This includes stairways, passageways, entrances and the foyer.

    Bus stations, Internet shops and even water transports – meaning boats also are smoke-free zones starting in July.

  • FBI sting smokes out fake Marlboro men

    For more than a year, the system worked flawlessly. Containers of counterfeit cigarettes shipped from China to the ports of Newark, N.J., and New York City moved easily through customs and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security without inspection.

    From the docks, the cigarettes, falsely labeled as Marlboros and Marlboro Lights, made their way to a nondescript warehouse in South Jersey, where they were readied for the final leg of their trip, the sunny skies of California. The transport crew, responsible for smoothing the way through Homeland Security and making sure the cigarettes – nearly 2.3 million packs – got to California safely was none other than the FBI, accordibng to as story in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

    The elaborate logistics operation was part of a sting to stem the flow of contraband cigarettes into the United States, according to court documents filed this week in U.S. District Court in Camden.

    FBI undercover agents were paid “handling fees” of as much as $55,000 per shipment to deliver the cigarettes to four men in California. Three of the men were indicted in the case. The fourth was named in an earlier complaint but not in the indictment.

    The fake Marlboros typically sell for half-price on the street. A bargain, perhaps, for smokers, but not for the State of California, said V. Grady O’Malley, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the case, because it lost 87 cents a pack in taxes, or about $2 million, according to legal documents.

    “Were the defendants New Jersey residents and we arrested [them] here, the New Jersey tax loss would have been over $4 million,” O’Malley said. Cigarette taxes in New Jersey are about $2 a pack, he said.

  • Preliminary figures: JT’s financial-year cigarette volumes up 7.2 percent

    Japan Tobacco Inc’s domestic cigarette sales volume during March, at 9.7 billion, was down by 3.6 percent on its March 2012 volume, 10.1 billion, which itself was down by 3 percent on that of March 2011, according to preliminary figures issued by the company.

    Volume during the 12 months, April 2012-March 2013, at 116.2 billion, was up by 7.2 per cent on its April 2011-March 2012 volume, 108.4 billion, which was down by 19.5 per cent on that of April 2010-March 2011.

    JT’s market share stood at 60 percent in March, at 59.6 percent during April 2012-March 2013, and at 54.9 percent for the full year to the end of March 2012.

    JT has suffered huge domestic volume swings in recent times because of an unprecedented, mainly tax-driven price hike on October 1, 2010, and the massive disruption caused to the company’s manufacturing and distribution operations following the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011.

    JT’s domestic cigarette revenue during March, at ¥53.4 billion, was down by 4 percent on its March 2012 revenue, ¥55.6 billion, which was down by 3.4 percent on that of March 2011.

    Revenue during April 2012-March 2013, at ¥639.5 billion, was up by 7.2 percent on its revenue during April 2011-March 2012, ¥596.6 billion, which was down by 3.3 percent on that of April 2010-March 2011.

  • Smoking decline slowed in Canada

    Decades of anti-smoking campaigns whittled Canada’s smoking population from about 50 percent in 1965 to less than 20 percent in 2011, but the rate of decline has slowed in recent years and five million Canadians still smoke, according to a Conference Board of Canada report Profile of Tobacco Smokers in Canada.

    “It appears that, as the saying goes, the low-hanging fruit has been picked,” said Louis Thériault, director, health economics for the Canadian Alliance for Sustainable Health Care, which conducted the research. “Further reductions in smoking will need to target the segments of our population where the smoking rate is still high – lower-income Canadians, in some blue-collar occupations and in industries such as construction.

    “Most smokers work, so one of the best opportunities to help smokers break the habit is through smoking cessation programs in the workplace,” he added.

    The study found that in 2011, 13.7 percent of Canadians smoked on a daily basis and another 3.6 percent were occasional smokers.

    Almost 20 pe cent of Canadian men and 15 percent of Canadian women smoke. But 42.5 percent of Canadians in 2011 had never smoked a cigarette.