Category: News This Week

Japan Tobacco International on Friday received Top Employer Europe 2013 certification during an awards ceremony held at the Park Plaza hotel in London.

According to a note posted on the JTI website, 10 JTI offices were recognized for their excellence in human resources management by the CRF (Corporate Research Foundation) Institute. The offices are in Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and the UK.

“Hiring the best talents and investing in people development are the cornerstones of JTI’s human resources approach”, says Ilona Alonso, human resources vice president for JTI’s Western Europe Region.

“This recognition, combined with our recent Employee Engagement Survey results, give us the confidence that we are doing things right.”

Meanwhile, Mark Phillips, human resources vice president for the Central Europe region, said there was a strong sense of common purpose at JTI, where more than 91 per cent of employees worldwide supported the company’s goals, objectives and values, and 94 per cent were willing to make extra efforts to help JTI succeed.

“The Top Employer award is yet another reason for our employees to be proud of working for JTI,” Phillips added.

Members of the European Parliament are asking for their own inquiry into the resignation in October of the former European Commissioner for health and consumer affairs, John Dalli, shortly before the Commission unveiled its proposed revisions to the Tobacco Products Directive, according to a story by Dave Keating for the European Voice.

On March 20, political group leaders were shown declassified sections of a report by the EU investigative arm, OLAF, into the circumstances that led up to the resignation.

But because so much information is said still to be missing, Green group president, Rebecca Harms, has asked that a special committee be set up to look into the issue.

The committee would look not only at the circumstances surrounding Dalli’s resignation, but also at the role of tobacco lobbying in EU decision-making.

The leaders of the other political groups will take a decision next month on whether to set up the committee.

The European Ombudsman has already launched an investigation into Dalli’s resignation and, as part of that investigation, has asked the Commission to hand over all files relating to his departure.

Last month, the ombudsman launched a separate investigation into so-called ‘revolving door’ lobbying at the Commission whereby former Commission employees lobby on behalf of the private sector.

Meanwhile, as reported here, Japan Tobacco International said on February 13 that it welcomed a proposal by some members of the European Parliament for a special inquiry into tobacco lobbying at the Commission.

“Open and transparent lobbying activities to inform elected officials and civil servants over policy decision-making clearly serve the public interest,” said Thierry Lebeaux, head of EU affairs at JTI.

Nigeria’s House of Representatives yesterday unanimously passed the second reading of an anti-smoking bill that includes provisions to prohibit smoking in public places, according to a story in the Premium Times relayed by the TMA.

If passed, the bill would ban too the sale of tobacco products to minors and regulate tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorships.

The house speaker referred the measure to the committees on health and justice for further input.

Customs officials in Victoria, Australia, have said that Melbourne is becoming the new hot spot for the arrival of undeclared cigarettes and loose tobacco from Asia and Europe, according to a story in the Herald Sun relayed by the TMA.

Shipments to Melbourne were becoming more frequent and the shippers were using increasingly sophisticated techniques to hide the contraband, Graham Krishof, the regional director of customs for Victoria, was quoted as saying.

The story said that in 2012, A$64.8 million worth of illicit tobacco products were found in containers in Melbourne, though it was not clear on what basis this figure was calculated.

Illicit cigarettes are said to sell for ‘almost half the price’ of licit products.

The World Health Organization has expressed concern that the Philippines could be encouraging smoking by hosting one of the ‘world’s biggest tobacco trade shows’, according to an Agence France Presse story quoting a health official.

The WHO had written to President Benigno Aquino citing the country’s treaty [Framework Convention on Tobacco Control] pledge to ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, the WHO senior health adviser, Eigil Sorensen, was quoted as saying.

“If there is a government endorsement, it might be seen as a mixed signal,” he said.

The ProTobEx Asia industry event, which was not open to the public, started in Manila on Wednesday and ended today.

The editorial board of the New York Times said yesterday that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest tobacco control effort, to ban open displays of tobacco products in stores while still allowing their advertising, ‘is worth a try, though ‘[i]t is hard to know whether hiding the products would really work to discourage smoking’, according to a TMA relay of part of the editorial.

The editorial said Mayor Bloomberg’s hope was that keeping tobacco products out of sight would prevent young people from picking up tobacco use.

The ‘worth a try’ editorial stance, though seemingly admirable, seems to leave the paper vulnerable to supporting anybody professing a doctrine based on sufficiently plausible hokum.

Researchers in the US have invented the first tobacco smoke sensor capable of recording second-hand smoke data in real time, according to a story in Medical Xpress quoting the Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal.

The sensor is said to be able to detect, too, ‘third-hand’ smoke, ‘or nicotine off-gassing from clothing, furniture, car seats and other material’.

The researchers, at Dartmouth   College, New Hampshire, expect soon to convert what is currently a prototype smaller than a cellphone into a wearable, affordable and reusable device.

The prototype is said to have proved successful in laboratory tests, while clinical studies will start in the summer.

‘The device would be more accurate and less expensive than current second-hand smoke sensors, which provide only an average exposure in a limited area over several days or weeks,’ the Medical Xpress story said.

The rebranding of Mild Seven to Mevius, currently being carried out around the world, was announced yesterday by JT International Korea, according to a story in the Korea Joongang Daily.

“Since Mild Seven is mainly sold in Asia, we changed the name in order to capture markets such as Europe and the United States,” said Park Pyung-kee, the company’s general manager, during a press conference in Seoul.

The name Mild Seven would seem to run foul of legislation in some countries that ban the use of descriptors such as ‘light’ and ‘mild’.

In any case, the Joongang Daily story made the point that the name change would make little difference to sales of Mild Seven/Mevius in Korea because of government proposals to increase steeply the tax on cigarettes – perhaps from about WON2,500 per pack to WON5,000 per pack over time – and because of boycotts aimed at Japanese goods.

In the meantime, the price of Mevius will remain the same as that of Mild Seven: WON2,700 per pack.

Sadi Bruegger, regional communications director at JTI Korea, said the company understood that tax increases had to be imposed in order to reduce smoking in Korea. “However, what we wish for is a transparent, predictable and moderate increase that will not disrupt the market,” Bruegger added.

Responding to the question of boycotts of Japanese products, the JTI Korea communications manager, Christie Kang, said sales had hardly been affected. “Korean consumers are mature enough to consider quality and service over political issues when it comes to spending,” Kang said.

The US government has abandoned its attempts to require cigarette manufacturers to include on their products the big graphic warnings designed by the Food and Drug Administration, according to a number of news reports.

The FDA introduced its graphic warning requirement in 2011, but some of the country’s cigarette manufacturers successfully sued on the grounds that the warnings violated the companies’ First Amendment rights.

The FDA said yesterday that it would look into new rules consistent with the Tobacco Control Act, the 2009 law that requires the agency to find ways to reduce the annual death toll attributed to tobacco use.

But it did not indicate how long it might take to introduce new warnings.