Author: Staff Writer

Two new research projects are to look at how to address ‘the problem of menthol use in Minnesota’.

According to a PRNewswire story, the ClearWay Minnesota (CWM) board of directors has approved two new research grants totalling $360,628 that will fund studies at the University of Minnesota and the Public Health Law Center examining menthol cigarettes in Minnesota.

“We know menthol cigarettes increase smoking initiation among youth, make it harder for smokers to break free of addiction, and are disproportionately marketed to ethnic minorities,” said CWM CEO, David Willoughby.

“These new studies will help identify ways to address the problem of menthol use in Minnesota.”

Another grant, also for a menthol-focused research project, was approved by the board in November.

Japan Tobacco Inc’s domestic cigarette sales volume during December, at 10.3 billion, was down by 4.5 per cent on its December 2011 volume, 10.8 billion, which itself was increased by 10.4 per cent on that of December 2010, according to preliminary figures issued by the company today.

Volume during the nine months, April-December, at 89.4 billion, was up by 10.5 per cent on its April-December 2011 volume, 80.9 billion, which was down by 24.3 per cent on that of April-December 2010.

JT’s market share stood at 60.1 per cent in December, at 59.6 per cent during April-December 2012, and at 54.9 for the full year to the end of March 2012.

JT has suffered huge 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 December, at ¥56.6 billion, was down by 4.6 per cent on its December 2011 revenue, ¥59.3 billion, which was up by 9.8 per cent on that of December 2010.

Revenue during April-December, at ¥492.0 billion, was up by 10.6 per cent on its revenue during April-December 2011, ¥444.7 billion, which was down by 4.0 per cent on that of April-December 2010.

The Imperial Tobacco Group has announced that its group marketing director, Roberto Funari, will leave the business on January 30.

Funari joined Imperial in 2010 and has been responsible for the strategic development of the group’s brand and product portfolio worldwide.

His successor is being recruited externally, a process that is said to be well underway.

“I’d like to thank Roberto for the contribution he’s made to the success of our sales growth strategy,” said chief executive, Alison Cooper.

“He leaves group marketing in a strong position and the team will continue their focus on building consumer insights and developing innovations to drive the long-term growth of our total tobacco brands.”

The latest American Lung Association (ALA) ‘State of Tobacco Control Report’ lambasts both the tobacco industry and tobacco control.

The annual report is said to track ‘progress’ on key tobacco control policies at the federal and state level, assigning grades based on whether laws are adequately protecting citizens from the ‘enormous toll tobacco use takes on lives and the economy’.

“We are faced with a deep-pocketed, ever-evolving tobacco industry that’s determined to maintain its market share at the expense of our kids and current smokers,” said Paul G. Billings, ALA senior vice president for advocacy and education. “State and federal policymakers must battle a changing Big Tobacco and step up to fund programs and enact policies proven to reduce tobacco use.”

In a press note issued through PRNewswire, the ALA said, in part, that the federal government’s progress on tobacco control during the past several years had nearly ground to a halt in 2012.

‘Most notably, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) failed to exercise its oversight authority allowing for the proliferation of a new generation of tobacco products aimed at hooking youth smokers,’ the note said.

‘State governments continued their years of inaction by again failing to invest income from tobacco taxes and tobacco settlement payments into programs proven to keep youth off tobacco and help current smokers quit. According to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report, if states begin to invest in tobacco prevention programs, youth tobacco use could be cut in half in just six years.

‘Smoking costs the American public almost $200 billion every year in healthcare costs and lost productivity and wages – a staggering bill that the country can ill afford.’

The ALA said that despite receiving $25.7 billion in tobacco settlement payments and tobacco taxes in 2012, more than 40 states had received an F for not investing even half of what is recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in proven tobacco prevention programs.

‘States and the federal government have also failed to raise taxes on tobacco products other than cigarettes. This led to a surge in the consumption of certain cheaper tobacco products, including flavored cigars that are popular among already vulnerable populations – youth, low income communities, Hispanics and LGBT.’

Later, the press note quoted from preliminary data from a report by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, called ‘Big Tobacco Wins Tax Battles’, to make the point that the tobacco industry was hard at work making campaign contributions to candidates for political office and bankrolling efforts aimed at defeating ballot initiatives.

‘Candidates for state office during the 2011-2012 election cycle accepted $53.4 million and the industry spent a whopping $46 million to defeat Proposition 29, which would have increased California’s cigarette tax by $1.00 per pack,’ the note said. ‘In addition, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the tobacco industry contributed over $3.7 million to candidates for federal office.’

Fumus Electronic Cigarettes, a UK-based supplier of electronic cigarettes, is commissioning research into some of the issues surrounding these relatively-new products.

According to a Journalism.co.uk story, Fumus has asked TeessideUniversity, Middlesbrough, to undertake two research projects for which it is now looking for volunteers nationally.

The first research project is seeking 100 or more adult smokers who want to quit smoking tobacco and who are prepared to use electronic cigarettes as an aid to achieving that goal.

The second research project is centred on smoking in the workplace. For this research the university is looking for employers who are prepared to allow their employees who smoke to use electronic cigarettes in the workplace.

This second research project will try to measure whether allowing the use of electronic cigarettes and, therefore, cutting out smoke breaks, leads to any improvement in a company’s productivity and/or to relations between smokers and non smokers.

Fumus spokesperson, Jim Gillespie, said that his company had been selling electronic cigarettes in the UK since 2009 and had received many e-mails and testimonials from customers thanking Fumus for helping them to quit smoking.

“The UK government is investigating the use of e-cigs this year, so we felt it was appropriate to commission some independent research that we can share with government, to hopefully assist them in making an informed decision on the use of e-cigs in the UK,” said Gillespie.

Analysts in South   Korea are predicting that the incoming Park Geun-hye government will raise cigarette taxes to fund social welfare programs, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

This prediction is being made despite the fact that the Ministry of Strategy and Finance has denied that policymakers are poised to raise cigarette prices or create a new tax on these products.

One analyst apparently supported the idea that cigarette taxes would be increased by pointing to the results of government research that estimates it would raise an extra WON2.67 trillion if the price per pack were raised by Won500, and an additional WON4.46 trillion if the price were increased by WON1,000 per pack.

Last year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said that it wanted to see the price of a pack of cigarettes increased to WON5,000, double the current average price.

In the light of the fact that some health ministry officials raised the possibility of a number of increases over time, some analysts expect an increase of WON500 this year and WON1,000 increases in each of 2014 and 2015.

Korea, with a 44.3 per cent smoking incidence, is said to have the second-highest smoking rate among the countries of the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development.

Greece is first, with 46.3 percent, Turkey third with 43.8 per cent and Japan fourth with 38.9 per cent.

The implementation of graphic warnings on cigarette packs, which was enforced in the middle of last year, has had a minimal effect on smokers in Saudi Arabia, according to a story in Arab News quoting a Ministry of Health official.

The story provided no figures to support the idea that the incidence of smoking had not been dented by the introduction of the warnings.

But it said that, according to figures from 2010, out of the country’s 25 million people, six million were smokers, a figure that included 600,000 women and 772,000 teenagers.

Saudi Arabia was said to have the second highest number of female smokers in the Arab Gulf region.

The UK government could raise an additional £500 million a year from tobacco products if it capped the price and profits that tobacco manufacturers could charge and make, according to a feasibility study published by Tobacco Control.

The additional revenue, which would be acquired without increasing prices to consumers, would be sufficient, the authors of the study say, to fund twice over the UK’s tobacco smuggling control measures and smoking cessation services in England.

The study envisages the setting up of a regulator similar to those that are supposed to control the prices of energy charged by private utility companies. The regulator would be called ‘OfSmoke’.

The UK’s tobacco industry, the authors said, was very profitable, with the largest player, Imperial Tobacco, accounting for more than 44 per cent of the tobacco market in 2010, and enjoying a profit margin of 67 per cent (net revenue of £911 million; operating profits of £614 million). The other major players, Japan Tobacco International, represented by its Gallaher subsidiary; Phillip Morris International; and British American Tobacco, were said also to enjoy ‘healthy’ profits.

‘Taking the RPI-X price cap regulation system, which is widely used in the utilities sector, as a model, companies would be able to charge a price high enough for them to make enough profit to cover their legitimate costs and still make a small return,’ Tobacco Control said in a press note.

‘To come up with an appropriate level of profitability for tobacco companies, the authors used the profit margins of European firms operating internationally in highly competitive consumer staples markets. These were between 12 per cent (best case) and 20 per cent (worst case scenario) before deduction of taxes, interest, etc.

‘They then looked at the operating costs of UK regulators for services, such as water supply and the rail network, to calculate the equivalent costs for the tobacco regulator – “OfSmoke” – and came up with estimates of between £15 million (best case) and £45 million (worst case scenario) for both 2009 and 2010.

‘Lastly, they took account of deductions for corporation tax – 28 per cent of profits in 2009/10 – to cover the costs of regulation.

‘In the final analysis, their calculations indicated a total fall in industry profits of £664.7 million and £617 million respectively in 2009 and 2010, for the worst case scenario, and of £834.2 million and £782.5 million respectively for the best case.

‘After taking account of regulatory costs, this would leave scope to raise the proportion of revenue the government receives in taxes from tobacco sales by between £433.6 million (worst case) and £585.7 million (best case scenario) every year – without affecting the price consumers pay, say the authors.’

The number of girls and young women who smoke may be higher than the authorities on mainland China recognize, according to a story by Alice Yan for the South China Morning Post quoting the findings of a Shanghai-based health research team.

According to a two-year study led by Ma Jin of the ShanghaiJiaoTongUniversity’s school of public health, up to 14 per cent of girls and young women on the mainland could be smokers, a much higher rate of smoking than was estimated in an earlier government study.

The China Tobacco Control Blueprint (2012-2015), issued by seven state ministries and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration last year, put the number of mainland teenagers who smoke at 11.5 per cent. It said 3.6 per cent of female teenagers smoked, while 18.4 per cent of male teenagers smoked.

The two lots of results are not directly comparable, however, since the Blueprint figures refer to teenagers and the Shanghai University’s figures were based on a survey involving 11,104 students 12-20 years old (referred to as girls and boys), and their parents from five city districts of Shanghai.

The university study, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Shanghai’s municipal government, and published in The Lancet medical journal last month, reported also that the number of adult women smokers on the mainland reported by the authorities could be a third lower than the actual figure.

Ma said his survey gave a more accurate picture of mainland tobacco-use than did a study led by State University of New York Professor, Gary Giovino, published in the same journal in August.

According to Giovino’s study, which analyzed tobacco use in 16 countries, more than half of men on mainland China over the age of 15 smoked. The figure was only two per cent for women. The study estimated the mainland had 301 million smokers. The results from his study matched estimates of the mainland authorities.

Ma said Giovino’s study used a self-report method which was regarded as reliable in some Western countries, but which “severely” underestimated the true number of smokers on the mainland.

“Young students, especially girls, and adult women tend to cover up their identities as smokers because of pressure from society, which generally regards smoking as bad behaviour for students and women,” he said.

Imperial Tobacco’s Spanish operation has again been recognised as one of the best companies to work for in Spain.

Altadis was one of around 50 businesses to achieve a Top Employers España 2012-13 award, which was made by the CRF Institute, an independent organisation that champions best practice in business.

The latest award builds on Altadis’ Top Employers award in 2011.

Businesses were scored on a range of issues such as benefits, training and development plans, career initiatives, working conditions and corporate culture.

“This is genuine acknowledgement of the continuous improvements and positive transformation taking place to make Altadis a great place to work, such as the focus on our values and leadership development,” said Gert Schrijver, HR director Spain.

“I’m delighted that we’ve earned this recognition for a second time and proud that our people feel so happy to work here.”