Category: News This Week

The prevalence of smoking among young Germans dropped from 27.5 per cent in 2001 to 12.0 per cent last year, according to stories in The Local.de and the International Business Times quoting a study by the FederalCenter for Health Education.

The study found, too, that last year 71.7 per cent of young people – those aged between 12 and 17 – had never tried a cigarette, up from 40.5 per cent in 2001.

The average age at which youngsters start smoking rose from 13.6 years to 14.4 years during the same period.

Among the 18-to-25 years age-group, the percentage of smokers dropped from 44.5 per cent in 2001 to 35.2 per cent last year.

The Council of the European Union has agreed with the Commission that a new Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) should include a ban on menthol cigarettes.

On Friday, the Council agreed a general approach to a revised draft TPD aimed at making tobacco products less attractive by strengthening the rules on how they can be manufactured, presented and sold.

The agreement, which was reached on the basis of a compromise proposal from the Irish presidency, includes:

* A ban on the use of cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco with characterising flavors such as fruit, chocolate or menthol, and on those products containing additives that increase addictiveness and toxicity. The Council said that this initiative was ‘to make sure that tobacco products taste and smell like tobacco products’.

* An obligation for combined picture and text health warnings to cover 65 per cent of the front and the back of packs of smoking-tobacco products.

* A ban of any misleading labelling (such as ‘natural’ or ‘organic’). [Since misleading labelling would be covered by other regulations; this item presumably bans such descriptors in respect of tobacco – even though they might be factually correct – on the grounds that consumers might misinterpret them as meaning ‘more healthy’.]

* The extension of the scope of the directive to:

+ novel tobacco products (products that are placed on the market after the entry into force of the directive) which would require a prior notification before being placed on the market;

+ nicotine containing products (such as electronic cigarettes); these products would be allowed on the market below a certain nicotine threshold provided they featured health warnings; above this threshold such products would be allowed only if authorised as medicinal products (e.g. nicotine replacement therapies);

+ herbal products for smoking which would have to carry health warnings.

* Introduction of a tracking and tracing system, together with safety features in order to strengthen the fight against the illicit trade and falsified products;

* Member states may decide to ban cross-border distance sales of tobacco products;

* Member states may introduce more stringent rules on additives or on packaging of tobacco products (such as plain-packaging), subject to certain conditions (such as notification to the Commission).

The Council said that its general approach would enable the incoming Lithuanian presidency to engage in discussions with the European Parliament on the TPD.

Meanwhile, the committee for environment, public health and food safety of the European Parliament, the lead committee in respect of the TPD, is expected to vote on the draft amendments in July.

The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture (AGRI) has rejected the European Commission’s proposals to ban menthol and slim cigarettes in the EU as part of a revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) put forward at the end of last year, according to a Europolitics story.

In a non-binding opinion adopted with 36 votes in favour, four against and two abstentions, MEPs argued that the new TPD rules should not lead to the decline of the tobacco growing sector in the EU because there was no direct link between tobacco cultivation and the number of smokers.

AGRI’s opinion will now be submitted to the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, the lead committee on the TPD, which will vote on the draft report on July 10.

Meanwhile, Europolitics reported too that the committees on Legal Affairs (JURI) and on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) had also rejected the Commission’s proposals to ban the use of menthol and slim cigarettes.

In addition, the JURI committee spoke in favour of prolonging the phase-in period for the entry into force of the new directive, and the ITRE spoke against introducing plain packaging – proposed by the Commission as an optional provision.

And, according to a Bulgarian News Agency story, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee is also opposing the ban on the production and sale of menthol and slim cigarettes.

Parliament’s plenary session is scheduled to vote on the TPD revisions during the first half of September.

AucklandUniversity is carrying out a study into the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes as a quit-smoking aid, according to a TVNZ story.

More than 650 people are participating in the study comparing electronic cigarettes with the commonly-used nicotine patch.

Participant, Luis Paraha, who was said to have twice previously tried to quit, believes she has cracked the problem by combining exercise with electronic cigarettes.

“I just used the e-cigarette and then three weeks later, that was it – stopped,” she told ONE News.

University of Auckland researcher, Chris Bullen, said bodies such as the World Health Organization were asking what to do about the devices, but no-one had the answers because no-one had done a study until now.

The Philippines’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is said to have questioned how electronic cigarettes have gone on sale to the public without clearance from the agency, according to a Cebu City Sun Star story.

The director of the FDA, Dr. Kenneth Go, was quoted as asking how, since electronic cigarettes did not pass through the agency, they had entered the country with “all sorts of positive health benefits” being claimed for them.

However, Go seemed to answer his own question when he said that the FDA could not block the sale of electronic cigarettes because of a temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court on the FDA’s authority to regulate tobacco and its by-products.

The TRO was issued in a favor of the Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI).

Go said that if the TRO were lifted, the FDA would have the authority to regulate electronic cigarettes.

The Russian Ministry of Finance plans to raise tobacco tax by about 50 per cent to bring it closer to European levels, according to an RT Business story quoting Izvestia.

The World Health Organization has suggested Russia needs a seven-fold increase in tobacco tax by 2020.

According to draft legislation, the excise duty on filter cigarettes will be raised from 550 roubles to 820 roubles per thousand cigarettes.

In recent months the Palestinian Authority (PA) has begun clamping down on tobacco farmers who package and sell hand-rolled cigarettes around the villages, accusing them of being involved in the illicit trade, according to a story by Noah Browning for Reuters.

The PA has even begun arresting some workers.

‘While the government maintains that building a modern economy depends on the rule of law, its critics say the moves to stamp out black market trading is another example of the state-in-waiting’s failure to implement policies that protect jobs and help pull Palestinians out of poverty,’ Browning wrote.

“We’ve triumphed over joblessness,” farmer Mohammed Amarnih, 65, was quoted as saying, before adding that tobacco cultivation had brought unemployment in several local villages down to nearly zero.

“The government has given us no alternative to this work, so [this is the only way] we can live a normal life in dignity,” he said.

Browning’s story is at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/20/us-palestinians-tobacco-idUSBRE95J06H20130620.

The Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control would like to see ‘governments’ follow Australia’s lead by introducing plain packaging for cigarettes, according to a blog posted by Richard Deschamps on the CJAD website.

The coalition’s Flory Doucas was quoted as saying that the brand name should be written on the bottom of the pack in a plain font with no colors; so that “it looks like the deadly product that it is”.

Doucas would like to see, too, bans on all new tobacco products, though it was not clear whether she meant new types of tobacco products, new versions of existing product categories or both.

The call for action follows the publication by Statistics Canada of data indicating that Quebec’s smoking prevalence has remained stable since 2005; the year before smoking was banned in the province’s bars and restaurants.

Quebec’s smoking prevalence stands at 23.8 per cent while the Canada-wide prevalence is 20 per cent.

The EU faces fierce opposition from Kentucky’s Republican Senator, Mitch McConnell, over its efforts to amend its Tobacco Products Directive, according to a Dow Jones story.

In a sharply worded letter, the Senate minority leader has warned the EU its proposed restrictions on tobacco marketing would violate international trade rules and harm trade relations with the US.

Along with three other senators from tobacco states, McConnell pointedly reminded the EU that his legislative body would pass judgment on any US trade accord with Brussels.

The letter, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, said the four senators had serious concerns about the tobacco proposal and its impact on trans-Atlantic trade relations. As the Senate considered the potential US-EU free trade agreement, the tobacco proposal called into question the EU’s ability to deliver on regulatory commitments to the US that it would have to make under the agreement, they added.

A spokesman for Tonio Borg, the EU health commissioner, denied trade relations would be hurt.

And replying to the senators, the EU ambassador in Washington, Joao Vale de Almeida, said the proposed measures were consistent with the EU’s international commitments. And this was expected to be the case in respect of the EU’s future engagement in the US-EU trade pact.

The New Zealand government has said that it will continue to fund the quit-smoking drug Champix even though a major New   Zealand study has shown that the drug might be linked to depression and even suicide, according to a story by Brook Sabin for TV3.

The government, which has spent almost $35 million subsidising Champix for 100,000 people, believes that the drug’s benefits outweigh the risks.

However, health officials have told the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, to make the risks of taking the drug clearer in the fine print.

A major study that 3 News obtained under the Official Information Act monitored almost 13,000 Champix users, with the youngest being just 14 years of age.

The study was said to have found 710 psychiatric events with a possible link to Champix, including 250 related to sleep disorders, 154 related to depression and 80 related to anxiety. Six people committed suicide, with four of the cases potentially linked to Champix.

Pfizer told 3 News that an overseas trial had found no evidence of increased psychiatric problems.