Category: News This Week

The First Global Forum on Nicotine is due to be held in Warsaw, Poland, on June 27-28.

Professor Gerry Stimson said that his company, KAC, which will stage the forum, believed the timing was right for such an event, given the fast moving pace of knowledge and understanding around nicotine.

KAC stages public health and addictions conferences, and runs the Nicotine Science and Policy website www.nicotinepolicy.net.

Stimson said the broad idea of the forum was to take further steps to consolidate nicotine – rather than tobacco, cigarettes or tobacco control – as a focus for science and policy. The aim of the meeting would be to bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss the developing science of nicotine, patterns and use and uptake, and policy and regulatory issues.

The Conference would examine the current state of the debate about the use of nicotine across the globe; critically examine the science relating to the safety and use of nicotine; allow politicians, scientists, manufacturers, distributors and consumers to exchange views; and facilitate the development of links to enable on-going dialogue between different sectors.

The forum’s website is due to go live next week.

Tobacco growers in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been asked to comply with flue-cured crop targets so as to ensure good prices at auction, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

The Tobacco Board of India chairman, K. Gopal, said growers should exercise discipline in sticking to the flue-cured quotas of 102 million kg for Karnataka and 172 million kg for Andhra Pradesh.

“It is of the essence that the crop in the principal states should not exceed 270-275 million kg,” he said.

“Then farmers can expect remunerative prices on the floor.

“The trade should also support the farmers,” he added.

Over-production of flue-cured has been endemic in the two states, where farmers are generally financially impoverished and the opportunity to earn extra cash from tobacco is irresistible.

Meanwhile, two more auction platforms are being built in Karnataka and one more in Andhra Pradesh.

The smokers’ group Forest has come out strongly against the UK Labour Party’s plans to ban smoking in cars with children.

“Legislation is completely unnecessary,” said Forest director, Simon Clark.

“Most adult smokers accept that smoking in a car with children present is inconsiderate and the overwhelming majority choose not to.

“Banning smoking in private vehicles is a serious invasion of privacy.

“Education, not legislation, is the way forward.

“Smoking is banned in all enclosed public places, including privately run pubs and clubs.

“Now they want to prohibit smoking in private vehicles.

“What next? A ban on smoking in the home if children are present?”

The Labour Party is currently the main opposition in the UK parliament, for which elections are due to be held in 2015.

The Washington-based US Chamber of Commerce is lobbying against proposals by Ireland’s Department of Health to standardize the design of cigarette packs, according to a story by Tom Lyons for the Irish Times.

In doing so, the powerful lobby group has joined other business interests resisting the proposed change, including employer representative Ibec and the Law Society.

In a letter obtained by the Times, the world’s largest business federation with three million business members said it had ‘deep concerns’ about what it called the ‘proposed destruction of trademark and branding rights in the tobacco sector’.

‘We do not believe this initiative is well founded and we urge it to be reconsidered,’ said Myron A Brilliant, the chamber’s head of international affairs in writing to the Oireachtas [parliamentary] Committee on Health and Children, which is considering the issue.

‘The notion that the Irish Government is contemplating measures that would destroy any industry’s legitimate and legally sanctioned trademark protection and branding causes concern in the US business community and extends into many different sectors of our membership.’

Reynolds American Inc. is due to host a conference call and webcast at 09.00 hours Eastern Time on February 11 following the release of its fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 financial results before the market opens.

Daniel M. Delen, president and CEO, Thomas R. Adams, CFO, and Morris L. Moore, vice president of investor relations, will participate in the conference call and webcast.

The RAI webcast will be available on a listen-only basis at www.reynoldsamerican.com, at which address registration is available and a replay will be made available.

The conference call will be available too on (877) 390-5533 (toll-free) and (678) 894-3969 (international).

The decision by South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) to sue cigarette manufacturers operating in the country has been described by a tobacco industry group as a misguided attempt to solve budget issues, according to a Yonhap News Agency story.

In an English-language statement, the Korea Tobacco Association (KTA) said it was disappointed with the tentative decision by the state-run NHIS to file a suit against tobacco manufacturers.

The suit had ‘little legal merit’ and wasn’t in the best interest of taxpayers, it added.

The NHIS’ board decided on Friday to file a damages suit against KT&G and other tobacco companies seeking up to WON333 billion.

But the Ministry of Health and Welfare opposes the suit and warned that, based on overseas experiences, the NHIS’ chances of winning were low.

It warned too that the cost of the action could be a financial burden to the NHIS.

No decision has been made on when the suit will be filed, but an NHIS official has said that it will be done “as soon as possible”.

In its statement, the KTA noted that the NHIS was ignoring a government directive on how public corporations should not file lawsuits unless the reasons for such suits and the amounts claimed are made clear in advance.

“Litigation against a lawful and highly taxed industry is a reckless attempt to solve NHIS’ budget problems by forcing smokers to pay more than their fair share in health care costs,” Brian Kim, the KTA’s chairman, was quoted as saying.

“Instead of reaching further into the pockets of smokers and exposing Korean taxpayers to years of costly litigation, the NHIS should learn from the failure of similar attempts by other governments and focus on finding a real solution to their budget woes.”

The Jordanian government is coming under fire for planning to enforce fully, by the end of this year, an anti-tobacco law passed in 2008, according to an Associated Press report published in The Tampa Tribune, Florida, US.

Enforcement would see the government this year revoke the licenses of all 6,000 coffee shops that serve shisha.

Business owners and smokers are criticizing the push, saying it goes against the culture of a country.

“We are caught between a rock and a hard place whereby the government is trying to force a closure of our businesses,” Mazen Alsaleh, who owns 14 coffee and hookah shops around the country, was quoted as saying.

“I am not defending the hookah or smoking, but we must defend our investments.”

But Health Minister Ali Hyasat, who is spearheading the effort to enforce the smoking ban, said the measure was meant to “save lives, not businesses”.

Hyasat said that smoking was costing lives and more than $1 billion annually in health care programs to treat smokers.

Enforcement started in 2009 with shopping malls and Amman’s QueenAliaInternationalAirport first enacting the smoking ban. They were followed by fast food restaurants.

The law bans smoking in hospitals, schools, cinemas, libraries, museums, government buildings, public transportation and other places to be determined by the health minister.

It prohibits, too, sales of tobacco products to those under the age of 18.

Ethiopia has passed an anti-tobacco law that includes a ban on ‘smoking in public’, according to a Diretube.com story.

The country’s house of representatives has issued a proclamation that would see the imposition of the ban on tobacco smoking in public places, the raising of cigarette prices through the imposition of ‘enormous taxes’, the inclusion on packs of health warnings, and a ban on the advertising and promotion of tobacco products.

It was not stated in the story when the new regulations would be enforced or by how much cigarette taxes would be increased.

The Indian government has decided to sell its 11.3 per cent share in ITC, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

The government is also selling its shares in Axis Bank (23.58 per cent) and L&T (8.27 per cent).

British American Tobacco, which has about a 30 per cent stake in ITC, reportedly said it was unlikely that it would increase its holding in ITC when the government shares were offered.

“We don’t have any plans to purchase more shares in ITC at this time,” a BAT spokesman was quoted as saying.

South Korea’s National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) has said it will file a damages suit against KT&G and other tobacco companies seeking up to WON333 billion, according to a story in The Korea Times.

The decision to go ahead with the claim was made at an NHIS board meeting on Friday, when 11 members voted to proceed and two voted against.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare opposes the suit and requested on Thursday that the NHIS not make any decision at the board meeting.

The ministry sent an official document to the NHIS saying that it understood the purpose of the suit, but warning that, based on overseas experiences, the NHIS’ chances of winning were low.

It warned too that the cost of the action could be a financial burden to the NHIS.

The board members agreed to leave the decision on the timing of the suit to NHIS president Kim Jong-dae, but an NHIS official was quoted as saying that it would be filed “as soon as possible”.

“All cigarette companies operational in Korea could be defendants,” the official said.

The amount to be claimed was based on the costs that the service had incurred in treating small-cell and squamous carcinoma, which a court has ruled are caused by smoking.

The agency has said too that it will work with lawmakers to table a bill aimed at forcing cigarette companies to pay a certain amount towards the treatment costs of patients suffering from smoking-related diseases.