Author: Staff Writer

Each cigarette sold in Malaysia could be printed with a health warning under proposals being considered by the country’s Health Ministry.

In addition, cigarette pack health warnings could be increased in size, according to a story in The Star.

Under the proposed amendments to the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004, the ministry is proposing to have every cigarette imprinted with the words ‘Smoking is hazardous to health’; a message that currently appears on packs.

The proposals call also for an increase in the size of pictorial health warnings from at least 40 per cent to at least 50 per cent of each pack.

Meanwhile, according to Health Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, maximum cigarette tar and nicotine delivery levels are to be reduced in June from 20 mg to 15 mg and from 1.5 mg to 1.3 mg respectively.

He said the tobacco industry would be given another two to three years to cut the tar delivery level from 15 mg to 10 mg and the nicotine delivery level from 1.3 mg to 1.0 mg.

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease is donating US$400,000 over two years to the city administration of Palembang, Indonesia, in an attempt to control the consumption of cigarettes there, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

The authorities in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatra province, have issued a city ordinance prohibiting tobacco smoking in indoor public places, workplaces, places of worship, places where children are active, education and health establishments, and on public transport.
With the financial aid, the city administration is required to put up no-smoking stickers across the zones in which smoking is not allowed and to discourage the provision of ashtrays and special smoking rooms.

Implementation of the ordinance might take some time, however.

Palembang Health Agency head, Gema Asiani, said the agency was still struggling to disseminate information about the ordinance, which, anyway, was backed only by the threat of reprimands.

Bommidala Enterprises, part of the BBM Bommidala Group, has been recognized for its exports from India of both cigarettes and cut rag.

Each year, the Tobacco Board of India, as part of its Formation Day celebrations, awards certificates of excellence and medals to tobacco growers; cigarette manufacturers; exporters of unmanufactured tobacco, cut tobacco and tobacco products; and tobacco dealers and traders.

The awards for 2012, announced this month, recognized Bommidala Enterprises as India’s second-ranked exporter of cut tobacco and its third-ranked exporter of cigarettes.

This was the sixth consecutive year for which the group, which has interests in unmanufactured tobacco, cigarettes, cut rag and duty-free goods, had received certificates of excellence in the cut rag and cigarette categories.

An Ontario company is asking smokers to stop throwing out their stubbed-out cigarette butts and instead send them in for recycling so they can be turned into useful products, according to a Canadian Television report.

The butts sent to Terracycle are said to be treated with gamma rays to remove the toxins before the various components of the butts are turned into usable products.

The tobacco is composted, the ash is used in fertilizer and the filters are turned into plastic pellets for use in the production of industrial plastic products.

A company spokesperson, Jay Reyes, said the products made from the recycled butts were toxin-free.

Transparency, public health and tobacco control NGOs have written to EU Commission President, José Barroso, to complain about Commission officials having undisclosed meetings with tobacco lobbyists in violation of UN rules, according to a story in the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEU).

The undisclosed meetings were said to be particularly controversial in the context of the resignation, ‘under unclear and contested circumstances’, of John Dalli from his position as European Commissioner responsible for health and consumer affairs.

There was said to be growing discontent with the Commission’s handling of the case, including its refusal to answer key questions about what had happened in respect of Dalli.
The letter, a joint initiative of the Alliance for Lobby Transparency and Ethics Regulation, Corporate Accountability International, European Public Health Alliance and the Smoke-Free Partnership.

The NGOs call upon Barroso to ensure that the European Commission, as a whole, properly implements Article 5.3 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

This should include, they said, listing the meetings it has with tobacco industry lobbyists, and publishing the minutes of those meetings online.

Investors in Imperial Tobacco have raised questions over planned changes to its executive compensation structure, according to a story in the Electronic Telegraph.

Discussions on the proposals, which could allow the board to change the amount directors get in share options and awards without recourse to investors, were understood to be continuing.

A spokesman for Manifest, one of three shareholder bodies concerned about the proposals, said there were no individual participation limits associated with the plan. “Until there’s a binding vote on remuneration policy for shareholders [coming into force in 2014], there’s therefore no shareholder say on the participation limits, which means technically the company can set policy on individual participation where it likes until then,” he added.

Pirc, another shareholder body, was said also to be concerned about the long term incentive plan (LTIP). It said some of the plan’s earnings-per-share targets were not challenging enough.

A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco said that the intended limit of the LTIP awards would be 200 per cent of annual salary for the chief executive, and 150 per cent for the finance director. Alison Cooper, the chief executive, is said to have received a package of £2.69 million for the year to September 2012.

The full story is at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/leisure/9813574/Imperial-Tobacco-faces-investor-revolt-over-bonus-revamp.html.

The Altria Group is due to host a live audio webcast at www.altria.com starting at 0.900 hours Eastern Time on January 31 to discuss its 2012 fourth-quarter and full-year business results.

The results will be issued by means of a press release about 07.00 hours on the same day.

During the webcast, chairman and CEO, Marty Barrington, and executive vice president and CFO, Howard Willard, will discuss the results and answer questions from the investment community and news media.

Pre-event registration at www.altria.com is necessary for accessing the webcast, which will be in listen-only mode.

An archived copy of the webcast will be available at the same website.

Tax payments by China’s tobacco companies last year, at Yuan864.9 billion (US$137.7 billion), were up by 15.7 per cent on those of 2011, according to a Xinhua Newswire story.

In addition the industry provided the government with profits, which, at Yuan716.6 billion (US$114.1), were increased by 19 per cent on those of 2011.

In announcing these figures at a national work conference, Jiang Chengkang, head of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, said too that the tobacco industry was turning greener.

Energy consumption per Yuan10,000 of value-added output fell by 14.8 per cent year on year to 25.3 kg of standard coal in 2012.

And the industry’s total chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide emissions decreased by 3.7 per cent and 10.9 per cent respectively.

Most Russians do not support the government’s move to impose a complete ban on tobacco smoking in public places and believe its emphasis should be on helping smokers quit, according to an RT TV/TV Novosti story.

An anti-smoking bill is due to be tabled for its second reading at the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, on January 25.

According to a survey conducted by the LevadaCenter in November, the results of which were published yesterday, only between 18 and 31 per cent of respondents supported an outright tobacco smoking ban in workplaces, airports, restaurants, bars and hotels.

Up to 75 per cent believe public smoking should be restricted to specially designated areas.

About 55 per cent of respondents said the government should focus more on informing smokers about how to quit their habit.

And only 20 per cent said higher prices, taxes and fines were effective anti-smoking measures.

The Duma passed the anti-smoking bill at its first reading last month, but since then Russian lawmakers have proposed adding further restrictions to the bill, in particular to a ban on work-place smoking rooms and on showing cigarettes on television and in films.

Tobacco prices at the auction sales in the Indian state of Karnataka have hit a high of Rs152 per kg, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

By the end of the 75^th day of sales, growers had sold more than 44 million kg of leaf at an average price of Rs121.45 per kg.

Bright grade leaf, which is generally preferred by the major tobacco companies, is fetching about Rs140.91 per kg, up from about Rs118 per kg last year.