Category: News This Week

A suggestion that the US Food and Drug Administration should require ‘nicotine content’ to be below addictive levels might reduce the number of addicted smokers in the long term, but it would be detrimental to smokers in the short term, according to Dr. Gilbert Ross, of the American Council on Science and Health.

The suggestion was apparently put forward by Richard Daynard, a NortheasternUniversity law professor and president of its Public Health Advocacy Institute, writing in the New York Times.

Daynard said the FDA would be well within its authority under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act to require nicotine content to be below addictive levels.

He also proposed that cities and states adopt a proposal called the ‘Smokefree Generation’, in which no one born in or after 2000 could ever be sold cigarettes legally.

“It’s hard to imagine too many parents objecting, and it would easy for retailers to enforce,” Daynard wrote.

“In the United States, it would provide a useful focus for state and local public health officials to do something game-changing, rather than sitting on the sidelines waiting for Washington to act.”

The goal of these proposals, neither of which is completely new, would be a nation with a smoking rate of under 10 per cent, or about half of what it is in the US today.

Ross described the proposals as intriguing, but said that there would be a major short-term detriment to lowering nicotine levels. “If you look at the long term, five or 10 years out, maybe you’d have fewer addicted smokers,” he said. “But in the short term, it would unquestionably increase the toxic effects of smoking. Smokers would take more puffs and inhale more deeply to get that addictive nicotine.”

Nevertheless, Ross said that Daynard’s proposals were worth considering and should not be dismissed out of hand.

In a sign perhaps that battle lines are finally being drawn between traditional and electronic cigarettes, INCIG UK is today launching two premium-range electronic cigarette starter kits ‘to promote’ no smoking day.

According to a press note issued through PRNewswire, INCIG claims to be the ‘most affordable alternative to cigarette smoking in the UK…’.

Its products are said to be available in three tobacco flavors and four other flavors that include menthol and vanilla.

The electronic cigarette company, blu eCigs, is sponsoring the Electric Lounge at the SXSW Music Festival in Austin, Texas, which is due to take place on March 14 -16, according to a PRNewswire press note.

The company said that it had revamped the venue inside and out, ‘bringing in diverse artists, leading sound providers and unsurpassed lighting for concertgoers’.

‘The Electric Lounge will also provide a unique experience for concert fans to enjoy device charging stations, lounge areas, a VIP bar and an interactive social media photo booth,’ the press note said.

‘Blu eCigs will be onsite providing adult smokers with the opportunity to sample blu disposable products in their choice of Classic Tobacco or Magnificent Menthol flavors.’

Malawi tobacco growers were pleased on Monday with the opening of the 2013 tobacco marketing season as prices, buoyed by the weakening of the kwacha, looked good, according to a story by Dumbani Mzale for the Malawi Nation Online.

In early sales, Burley fetched from US$0.90 per kg (K360) to US$2.30 (K880) per kg.

Most tobacco growers at the Lilongwe Auction Floors were excited at these prices and pleaded with tobacco merchants to maintain them for the rest of the marketing season.

Most of the tobacco delivered during the early part of the auction season will comprise lower leaf, which is generally of lower quality than the rest of the tobacco.

President Joyce Banda, who officially opened the marketing season after touring the auction floors, described this year’s crop as being almost twice as big as last year’s – very small – harvest, and of good quality.

She said there had been continuous dialogue between herself, government representatives and all stakeholders in the tobacco industry, resulting in a broad ownership of the reforms that had been introduced, including the Integrated Production System.

Talk of price increases has done wonders for cigarette sales in South Korea.

According to a story by Yoo-jin Lee and Sun-ah Kim for the Maeil Business Newspaper, sales have risen rapidly at the country’s large-scale discount stores and convenience stores since the possibility of prices rises was first raised on Wednesday last week.

This is perhaps not surprising. Korean smokers are unused to tax increases – the most recent one was in 2005 – and the Ministry of Health and Welfare is on record as saying that the retail price of cigarettes should climb to WON5,000 – from WON2,500.

Cigarette sales at large-scale stores had gone from contraction to abrupt growth, the story said.

They had jumped by 30 per cent at Lotte Mart since Wednesday of last week.

Sales at Lotte Mart reached their highest level in 2008 and then shrank by 11.3 per cent in 2009, 8.7 per cent in 2010, 15.7 per cent in 2011 and 15.6 per cent in 2012.

People living in townhouses, condominiums and other attached units would be prohibited from tobacco smoking indoors under a ban proposed by a California state lawmaker, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The ban is said to comprise the most sweeping anti-tobacco-smoking legislative proposal in the US.

The law would ban tobacco smoking inside any multi-unit residence – apartment, condominium, duplex or townhouse.

But outdoor smoking would be permitted in designated areas at least 20 feet away from housing units.

And single-family detached homes would not be included because they don’t share walls or ventilation systems.

Marijuana smoking is not addressed by the proposed bill.

The rationale for the bill is that when neighbors light up, the smoke filters through ventilation systems, pipes, walls and ceilings, electrical sockets and even cracks in plaster.

“Home is where you should have the right to breathe clean air,” said Assemblyman, Marc Levine, who introduced the bill, AB746, and who noted that a third of Californians lived in multi-unit complexes.

Two lung specialists have launched a website listing the names and jobs of people it says work for the tobacco industry lobby in the Netherlands, according to a DutchNews.nl story.

The list includes health minister, Edith Schippers, described as the ‘minister of tobacco employers’, as well as several other prominent politicians.

Schippers, an ex-smoker, relaxed the ban on smoking in small bars and cafés following a court ruling, and reduced funding for anti-smoking measures.

She has since handed over responsibility for smoking policy to her deputy.

The website is the initiative of a foundation set up to stop youngsters picking up the smoking habit. The foundation, Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd, operates under the slogan: ‘smoking kills, government do something’.

The two doctors argue that information about the dangers of smoking does not help as long as the tobacco lobby remains active behind the scenes.

Christian Democrat senator, Hans Hillen, listed on the site as a former tobacco industry adviser, was quoted as saying he was neutral about smoking and accused the makers of the website of ‘hypocritical fanaticism’.

An initiative funded by Imperial Tobacco’s local business has seen the clearance of more than 120 tonnes of rubbish from a neighbourhood in the capital of Gabon.

A lack of municipal waste collections together with fly-tipping had been creating a hygiene problem; so the company stepped in to help support the community near its factory in Libreville.

It did this by asking the firm that removes commercial waste from the Imperial factory to widen its services to cover the local area, too.

As a result more than 45 tonnes of rubbish was cleared in an initial two-day purge and, since last October, more than 25 tonnes have been removed each month.

“This improvement in hygiene and general living conditions is an example of the support our company can bring to the community,” said Jacques Landrieau, general manager Gabon.

Philip Morris International is due to host a live audio webcast at www.pmi.com of its presentation to the Consumer Analyst Group of Europe (CAGE) conference in London, UK. The presentation will start about 10.15 hours local time on March 18.

The webcast, which will be in listen-only mode, will provide audio of the presentation and Q&A session by Jacek Olczak, CFO.

An archived copy of the webcast will be available at www.pmi.com until 17.00 hours Eastern Time (US) on April 16.

Presentation slides and the script will also be available at the same address.