Category: News This Week

Electronic cigarette advocates believe that a proposed bill would make way for tobacco companies to start ‘regulating vapor shops’ in Oklahoma, according to a report by Heather Hope for News 9.

‘Those who’ve kicked the habit with the help of tobacco free electronic cigarettes say they are once again being targeted by “big tobacco”,’ the report said. ‘At issue is a bill that would turn stores that sell e-cigarettes into conventional cigarette vendors and tax them as such.

‘It would make all vapor shops only sell to people over 18 years old. But customers are upset the bill would add another tax on electronic cigarettes.’

The report quoted one electronic cigarette user as saying the bill would set it up so that shops selling electronic cigarettes would have to buy exclusively from tobacco distributors.

And it said that electronic cigarette advocates felt the bill would give way for tobacco companies to start ‘regulating vapor shops’.

“They’re losing customers and they want them back,” Vapor Hut employee, Allison Taylor, was quoted as saying. “So if people are going to buy electronic cigarettes, which they can’t stop, they want them to buy them from the tobacco company.”

The bill, which was passed by the Senate earlier this month, is currently with the House’s Public Health committee.

North American employers are increasingly discriminating against smokers, but some groups, including a non-smokers’ rights association, believe that penalizing smokers is not the right way to go, according to a Canadian Television report.

The report said that an increasing number of businesses, including Ottawa-based Momentous Corp, stipulated ‘non-smokers only’ on their job postings.

“Everyone knows smoking kills you and we prefer to work with very intelligent people who aren’t choosing to kill themselves with every puff,” Rob Hall, Momentous Corp’s president, was quoted as saying.

But he added that this hiring policy had slashed in half the cost of employee health benefits.

Meanwhile, Stewart Harris, a law professor at Appalachian State University, said that smokers cost more money, missed more workdays and had more health problems.

But Arthur Schafer, an ethics consultant for the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the Health Sciences Centre, in Winnipeg, was quoted as saying that the policy of excluding smokers was the wrong approach for employers to take.

“I think most Canadians would recognize that most smokers are addicts and need assistance in breaking their addiction and shouldn’t be excluded as long as they are competent to do the job,” he said.

And Melodie Tilson, director of policy at the Non Smokers’ Rights Association, said not hiring smokers wasn’t going to help them end their addiction.

“Somewhere between two-thirds and three quarters of smokers, at any given time want to quit smoking, and they need help, they don’t need to be penalized,” she said.

Teenagers in Washington state, US, are using tobacco and alcohol at lower rates than in previous years but are feeling more depressed and suicidal, according to a story by Greg Allmain for the Federal Way Mirror quoting findings from the state’s Healthy Youth Survey.

The survey is administered by the Department of Health (DoH) every two years and looks at students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 in more than 1,000 public schools across the state. More than 200,000 students took part in the most recent survey, which was conducted voluntarily and anonymously.

The results of the survey found that cigarette smoking was down in all grades. About 10 per cent of 10th-graders self-reported having smoked a cigarette within the 30 days prior to the survey, a figure that was down by three percentage points on that of the 2010 survey and 15 percentage points down on that of the 1999 survey.

The DoH said that nearly as many young people used hookah pipes as used cigarettes, and about seven per cent indicated they had smoked a cigar during the month prior to the survey.

Philip Morris USA has said it plans to seek further review following yesterday’s decision by the Florida Supreme Court in the Douglas case.

In a 6-1 decision, the court reaffirmed its 2006 ‘Engle’ case ruling that decertified a class action but allowed former class members to file individual lawsuits (the so-called Engle progeny cases) and rely on general findings from the first class action.

The court’s opinion held that the current Engle progeny trial structure did not violate Florida Law and federal due process.

“We are reviewing the court’s decision and considering all of our options,” said Murray Garnick, senior vice president and associate general counsel, Altria Client Services, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris USA.

“We believe that the court ruled incorrectly in allowing individual plaintiffs to use the general findings from the prior Engle case to prove their strict liability and negligence claims without showing that any wrongful conduct actually caused their injuries.”

In the dissent, Justice Canady said that the findings were “too slender [a] reed to support the imposition of liability”.

Justice Canady stated that the majority’s analysis was “exactly backward” and that its reading of the findings was “unreasonable” and “unconvincing” because the findings did not establish “that all of the cigarettes sold by defendants were defective”.

In the Douglas case, $2.5 million has been award to the family of Charlotte Douglas, who died in 2008 of lung cancer at the age of 62, against Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Liggett.

According to a Bloomberg News story, PM USA faces about 4,800 post-Engle cases and R.J. Reynolds 5,750.

A background report on the Engle cases by J.B. Harris is on The Florida Bar Journal at: http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNJournal01.nsf/d59e2cf27607c0cf85256ad1005ba53f/a0b86fb25b4e9cca85257aa6004b58d1!OpenDocument

Despite Thailand’s unrelenting efforts to curb smoking, the number of Thai smokers has risen by half a million to 13 million during the past four years, according to a Modernine TV report quoting Health Department director general, Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk.

The Health Department on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Thai Health Professional Alliance against Tobacco jointly to promote hospitals and health centres as smoke free zones.

A new portrait of young Australians shows they are better educated and smoking less than they were, but it shows also that they are increasingly overweight, using illicit drugs and drinking at risky levels, according to a story by Rachel Browne for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Public health pioneer, Fiona Stanley, described the report, The Wellbeing of Young Australians, as a ”wake-up call” for the nation.

The report, which was due to be released by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth in Canberra today, compares how Australia ranks against other developed countries in respect of young people.

Young Australians, it says, rank in the top third of OECD countries in tertiary qualifications, low smoking rates and community participation.

But they are only in the middle band when it comes to teen pregnancy, dental decay, overweight and obesity, youth suicide and cannabis use.

And Australia is in the bottom third of countries when it comes to child abuse deaths, infant mortality, preschool participation and income equality.

The European Public Health & Agriculture Consortium (EPHAC) has said that it is disappointed by the European Parliament’s approval of subsidies coupled to tobacco production.

‘Tobacco should not have a place in the 2014-2020 EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP),’ it said.

‘With this move, the European Parliament wants to inject taxpayer’s money into a toxic crop that causes nearly 700,000 annual deaths in the EU.

‘Today’s [March 13] vote did very little to fix all that is wrong with the EU agricultural policy and the crucial role it should play in protecting people’s health.’

The requirement that a death’s-head symbol has to appear on all cigarette packs sold in Bahrain could cost Bahrain Duty Free (BDF) 20 per cent of its profit this year, according to a Gulf Daily News story.

BDF is currently not able to sell duty free cigarettes at the airport because international tobacco companies are refusing to supply them if the death’s-head has to be on their products, said company chairman Farouk Yousuf Almoayyed.

Bahrain is the only Gulf Co-operation Council country that requires the death’s-head to be included on duty free cigarettes, he added.

Speaking outside the BDF annual meeting being held at the Gulf Hotel, he said cuts at Gulf Air and the closure of Bahrain Air would also hit business.

Japan Tobacco Inc’s domestic cigarette sales volume during February, at 8.6 billion, was down by 3.2 per cent on its February 2012 volume, 8.9 billion, which itself was increased by 0.3 per cent on that of February 2011, according to preliminary figures issued by the company today.

Volume during the 11 months, April 2012-February 2013, at 106.5 billion, was up by 8.3 per cent on its April 2011-February 2012 volume, 98.3 billion, which was down by 20.8 per cent on that of April 2010-February 2011.

JT’s market share stood at 60.0 per cent in February, at 59.5 per cent during April 2012-February 2013, and at 54.9 for the full year to the end of March 2012.

JT has suffered huge domestic 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 February, at ¥47.3 billion, was down by 3.8 per cent on its February 2012 revenue, ¥49.2 billion, which was up by 0.2 per cent on that of February 2011.

Revenue during April 2012-February 2013, at ¥586.0 billion, was up by 8.3 per cent on its revenue during April 2011-February 2012, ¥540.9 billion, which was down by 3.3 per cent on that of April 2010-February 2011.

Imperial Tobacco’s business in Poland has been named one of the country’s best employers for the third year in a row.

The Top Employers Certificate is awarded to those organisations that demonstrate best practice.

It is presented on the basis of a detailed survey of HR policies and practice at a number of leading businesses in Poland, which is carried out by external HR management consultant, the CRF Institute.

The award was accepted by Anna Dębicka-Rasiak, HR director, commercial division, and Anna Chudzichowska, HR manager, operations division.

“We’re especially proud that in the last year we’ve demonstrated further improvements in employee benefits and working conditions as well as training and development,” said Dębicka-Rasiak.

“For employees this is recognition of our continuous improvement to look after our people and strengthen our corporate culture,” added Chudzichowska.