Category: News This Week

Electronic cigarette vapers have called for the EU to drop plans to regulate these products in the way recommended by the European Commission, according to a story in The Sunday Times.

One of the Tobacco Product Directive revisions that the Commission has recommended would see a limit placed on the nicotine content of electronic cigarettes that had not been authorized as medicinal products.

Such authorization would require the owners of these products to put them through lengthy and expensive clinical trials.

An online community of former smokers who now use electronic cigarettes has petitioned members of the European Parliament for support.

The group wants vaping and the electronic cigarette industry to be distinguished from smoking and the tobacco industry.

“We’ve been studying a proposed EU tobacco directive and giving feedback to the HSE [Health and Safety Executive],” The Times quoted Shane Dowling, a vaper from Newmarket-on-Fergus, County Clare, Ireland, as saying.

“We see e-cigs as a safer alternative to tobacco. We are worried that EU legislation will reduce nicotine in these products and if that happens they might not work so well.”

The directive, due to take effect in 2014, is to be discussed during Ireland’s presidency of the EU, which runs through the first half of this year.

The Department of Health said Ireland intended to use the chair of the European Council to pursue measures to reduce the prevalence of smoking, particularly among young people.

// Laos has joined the ranks of Asean nations that have set up a fund to control tobacco usage, according to a story in the Bangkok Post.

Dr. Prakit Vathesatogkit, the secretary general of the International Network of Health Promotion Foundations, said on Wednesday that the Lao cabinet had established a tobacco control fund that would receive a contribution of two per cent of tobacco companies’ profits and the revenue from a Kip200 per pack price increase.

Prakit said Laos was the fifth Asean member to establish such a fund after Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam.

But similar funds have been set up in other Asian countries: South Korea, Mongolia and Taiwan.

Tobacco control funds are said rarely to be used to cover other government expenditure.

Smokers who quit before they reach the age of 35 erase the entire decade of lost life expectancy that is risked by smokers who continue with their habit, according to a story in The Washington Post quoting a ‘landmark study’.

Smokers who quit between the ages of 35 and 44 get back nine of those 10 years; those who quit between the ages of 45 and 54 get back six years; while those who quit between the ages of 55 and 64 get back four years.

The study was led by Prabhat Jha, an epidemiologist at the Center for Global Health Research in Toronto and published online on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study linked surveys of 217,000 adults collected for the US National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2004 to cause-of-death records in the National Death Index.

The Washington Post said the message was that it was never too late to quit [or perhaps that it was never too early to quit], though it quoted Jha as saying that younger smokers should not be lulled into thinking they could smoke until they were 40 and then stop without consequences.

This was because the risks of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases lingered for years after stubbing out the last butt.

Most of the gains in life expectancy came because the twin risks of heart disease and stroke quickly dropped after smoking ended.

Imperial Tobacco says that it is due to hold its Annual General Meeting and issue an Interim Management Statement on January 30.

A new PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) billboard going up in Richmond, Virginia, US, equates eating meat with smoking in an effort to get more people to become vegans, according to a WWBT NBC12 report.

The group announced on Wednesday that it was erecting the billboard, which shows a toddler smoking a cigar next to the words ‘You wouldn’t let your child smoke. Like smoking, eating meat increases the risk of heart disease and cancer. Go vegan!’

“We all know how important it is to set a good example for our kids, and that means choosing habits – such as eating vegan meals – that will steer them toward a healthier life,” says PETA executive vice president, Tracy Reiman.

“PETA’s billboard will remind Virginians that, just as we should put down the cigarettes, we should also put down the drumsticks and pick up fiber-rich, heart-healthy plant-based foods instead.”

Indonesia’s Health Minister, Nafsiah Mboi, has urged the media to take a greater role in the fight against tobacco by reducing cigarette advertisements, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

Speaking during an editors’ forum in Jakarta yesterday, Nafsiah said that the media could prevent tobacco use, particularly among young people, by limiting such advertisements.

“Tobacco advertisements, including the ones in mass media, influence people to smoke,” said Nafsiah. “For the sake of the next generation, we urge you to limit it.”

It was not clear why the minister was appealing to the media rather than proposing further regulations.

Government regulations already restrict tobacco advertising. While tobacco companies may still advertise their products in outdoor places, for instance, the advertisements may not exceed 72 square meters in size.

Television stations are allowed to air cigarette advertisements, but only after 21.30 hours and before 05.00 hours.

And the print media are not allowed to place tobacco advertisements on their front pages.

Japan Tobacco Inc is aiming to make Mevius the number one global premium cigarette brand.

At the moment, it is probably fair to say that the name Mevius is not well known around the world, but it is guaranteed a considerable level of success because it is the new name of Mild Seven, one of the JT Group’s Global Flagship Brands.

The Mild Seven name is due to be changed to Mevius on the Japanese market from early next month and JT has promised that it will ‘continue to offer further added value and satisfaction to consumers by actively increasing investment to enhance its brand equity…’

No changes are being made to the flavor and aroma of non-menthol Mild Seven on its journey to becoming Mevius, but packs have been redesigned and a clicklock pack is being introduced in respect of 10-piece boxes.

And the two Mild Seven menthol product types, Aqua and Impact, will be merged into a new 100 per cent natural menthol product type, ‘’Mevius Premium Menthol’.

The TFWA (Tax Free World Association) says that its Asia Pacific Conference & Exhibition 2013 is set to be the largest such show ever staged in Singapore.

The week-long show is due to open on 12 May.

‘Exhibitor numbers have already exceeded 2012 levels with more than 7,500 m² of exhibition space booked,’ TFWA said in a press note.

The Suntec Centre venue, which is said to have been completely renovated, is set to host 50 new exhibitors, along with many regulars.

TFWA said that details of the conference and workshops would be released soon at tfwa.com.

In the meantime, ‘China’s century: The fast pace of change in China duty free & travel retail’, is due to be held at the Beijing Hotel on March 5-7.

Organised jointly by the TFWA and APTRA (Asia Pacific Travel Retail Association), the event is due to bring together ‘a wealth of international and local expertise, including some of the most influential figures in Chinese duty free and travel retail’.

More information about the conference program is at: http://www.tfwa.com/duty_free/Programme.233.0.html

The authors of ‘Ending addiction for good: The groundbreaking, holistic, evidence-based way to transform your life’ are offering a free download from January 23 to 27, according to a PRNewswire press note.

They are said to be hoping to spread the word about this addiction treatment program that has ‘already helped hundreds of addicts to achieve long-term recovery and thrive’.

The press note says that almost everyone these days is touched by addiction and that the book offers a ‘cutting-edge protocol’ for ending addictions to: drugs, alcohol, prescription painkillers, smoking, gambling, sex and pornography.

The methods outlined in the book are said to work also in treating conditions such as: depression, eating disorders, anxiety and sleep disorders.

In Ending Addiction for Good, Richard Taite and Constance Scharff, PhD, both former addicts, champion the Stages of Change model created by psychologist Dr. James Prochaska.

Tourists in China have complained that the souvenir Beijing brand cigarettes they have been buying in the Dashilan area’s tourist shops are fakes, according to a Global Times story.

Whether or not they are fakes is a moot point given that while the brand used to be made by the Beijing Cigarette Factory (BCF), production was stopped in 2009.

Certainly it seems that they are not quite what they claim to be because packs list BCF as the manufacturer and, as one unnamed BCF employee pointed out, it was unlikely that 3- or 4-year-old cigarettes would still be available.

Whatever the situation is, packs of Beijing cigarettes are openly on sale in many stores in Dashilan, Xicheng district, for Yuan10-23 per pack.

An unnamed employee from the Xicheng District Tobacco Monopoly Administration said they had received several complaints from tourists who had called their hotline.

“The Dashilan area is difficult to manage, because of its mobile population,” she was quoted as saying. “We’ll investigate, and the store owners will be prosecuted and fined if the case is confirmed.

“Based on previous cases, the source of the cigarettes might be from outside the city.”