Category: News This Week

China is planning to open its biggest leaf tobacco storage facility at Yangzonghai, Yunnan, early this year, according to a Tobacco China Online story.

The design of the Yunnan Leaf Tobacco Aging and StorageCenter was said to have been officially reviewed and approved by the Yunnan Tobacco Monopoly Administration and the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration in December.

Once it is running, the new center is expected to have a positive impact on Yunnan’s economy.

Payne is due on Monday to provide the results of a study into consumers’ concerns about packaging.

In giving details of the study during an address to the EU Packaging Summit in Berlin, Martin Dallas, the company’s managing director, will say that functionality is a major part of what consumers consider to be good packaging.

The study found, for instance, that the difficulties encountered in opening different types of packs were of far greater concern to most consumers than were environmental worries about perceived over-packaging.

‘Significantly, 85 per cent of those who took part in the study said they had experienced some frustration with packs,’ a Payne press note said.

‘The research identifies the 10 types of packaging most likely to cause frustration, and also examines attitudes among different age groups.’

The research was carried out on behalf of Payne by JRA Research, which interviewed more than 500 people across the UK. The survey comprised 523 online interviews of 5-10 minutes duration conducted during the week commencing October 29 with a representative sample of the population divided across five age groups and encompassing a 50:50 split of male and female respondents.

Also at the summit, Dallas will unveil Payne’s ‘new market positioning’, Packaging Resolved, which focuses on the company’s ability ‘to provide solutions in four key areas that deliver effective packaging – opening, closing, informing and protecting’.

Government ministers in Scotland are to order a ‘fundamental re-think’ of government efforts to close Scotland’s massive health gap between rich and poor after having conceded that curbs on smoking and drinking are not effective alone, according to a story by Eddie Barnes in The Scotsman.

Barnes quotes from a piece in Scotland on Sunday by the Minister for Public Health, Michael Matheson, which said that while flagship smoking and alcohol laws passed by MSPs (members of the Scottish parliament) in recent years had cut deaths, they would ‘not end the problem’ of health inequalities in Scotland.

His comments were said to have followed a hard-hitting report by Scotland’s chief medical officer, Dr. Harry Burns, which warned that ‘magic bullet’ policies, such as bans on smoking and healthy eating drives, actually widened the gap between rich and poor because affluent people were far more likely than were the poor to respond to them.

The latest figures have shown that Scotland now has a health gap wider than anywhere else in Europe, with the poorest people in the country dying 20 years before the country’s richest.

What Barnes described as the ‘scandal’ of Scotland’s health gap was revealed in Scottish government figures last year. Among men, the 10 per cent living in the most affluent parts of the country can expect to live until the age of 82.0 years, or 13.3 years longer than those in the most deprived parts of the country. For women the equivalent figures are 84.6 years and 67.1.

And the gap in healthy life expectancy is even wider. Men in the richest parts of the country can expect to reach the age of 70.0 before experiencing any serious health problems, while the figure for those in the poorest areas is 47.4 years. The equivalent figures for women are 73.2 years and 51.1 years.

The Indian Ministry of Health has recommended that the government announce steep increases in tobacco-product taxes as part of its 2013 budget, according to an Indian Express story relayed by the TMA.

If the ministry gets its way, tax would be increased so as to account for 70 per cent of the retail price of tobacco products.

A report compiled as part of the Bloomberg Initiative to Reduce Tobacco Use estimates that a 10 per cent increase in the price of cigarettes and bidis could reduce consumption by 9.1 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively.

The report claimed that 18.9 million lives could be saved in India if the government raised bidi taxes from Rs14 to Rs98 per 1,000, and cigarette taxes from Rs659 to Rs3,691 per 1,000.

Depok, a city in the West Java province of Indonesia is due to introduce a regulation that will provide for the imposition of fines of up to Rp50 million ($5,178) on those found to be contravening public-places tobacco smoking bans, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

The Depok administration is currently publicizing the regulation, which will come into force in 2014.

The public smoking ban will cover places of worship, schools, workplaces, healthcare
facilities, children’s activity areas and public transportation.

Fines will be imposed on those over 17 years of age, while children will receive warnings and counseling.

Small cigarette factories in Indonesia are being overwhelmed by an increase in clove prices, which have reached Rp120,000 per kg, according to a story in the Jakarta Post.

The executive director of the Indonesian Cigarette Industries Society Forum, Heri Susianto, said on Monday that small cigarette factories could afford to pay only Rp70,000 per kg; so they were incurring losses and some were facing bankruptcy.

The increase in clove prices has been caused by a fall in production precipitated by heavy rain in the regions where clove plantations are located.

Demand for cloves by cigarette factories is stable.

Given all of the bad press that smoking receives, it might seem something of a contradiction that a book should be published on health and fitness for smokers.

But, according to a Piece of Cake PR release, ‘A Smoker’s Guide to Health and Fitness’ by brother and sister authors, Dr. Tamir Katz and Hila Katz, addresses the ‘total physical and mental health needs of current and former smokers, making it a unique health resource that can improve the lives of tens of millions of people’.

Hila Katz was quoted in the release as saying that she and her brother aimed to give smokers the information and guidance they needed to make positive changes to their lifestyle and health.

‘Ideally all smokers would quit, but if they don’t wish to or find that they can’t there are still things they can do to help reduce the risk of smoking-related illnesses,’ she said.

‘We also believe that in making positive changes in other areas of their life (such as exercise, diet, and stress reduction) they may be more apt to smoke less or quit entirely.’

More information is available at: http://www.smokersfitness.com/

Officials in the Indian state of Kerala have been quick to point out that the Kerala High Court verdict striking down a ban on the sale of chewing tobacco and other smokeless tobacco products (see January 2 story: Court decision something to chew on) does not apply to pan masala and gutkha, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

The ban was based on the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSSA), but Justice A.M. Shaffique, sitting in the Kerala High Court, ruledthat the state and commissioner of food safety had no right to take any action against tobacco or tobacco products because “chew tobacco” was not a food product as defined under the FSSA 2006.

The court found that tobacco and tobacco products were to be manufactured and sold strictly in accordance with the provisions of the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply, and Distribution) Act 2003.

The ruling does not apply, however, to pan masala and gutkha, which, because of their ingredients, do come under the FSSA 2006 and which therefore remain banned.

Fuisz LLC said yesterday that it would launch early this year a new oral lozenge designed to enhance the tobacco satisfaction delivered by electronic cigarettes, according to a PRNewswire story.

The product, which is protected by a patent pending, is designed also to enhance THC absorption from medical marijuana.

‘The extraordinary growth in electronic cigarette consumption at the expense of conventional cigarettes is perceived as [a] large net positive for public health,’ Joseph Fuisz , the managing member of Fuisz, was quoted as saying.

‘However, the e-cigarette industry is still struggling to enhance tobacco satisfaction from what is essentially a buccal delivery product. That means that nicotine absorption is occurring across the oral mucosa in the mouth as opposed to the lung. ‘As a result, the nicotine levels delivered by an e-cigarette are much lower (Cmax) and slower to build (Tmax) than the nicotine levels delivered by a traditional cigarette.

‘Our new oral dosage unit contains a number of agents designed to enhance the speed and level of tobacco satisfaction from the electronic cigarette.

‘Best of all, the product works dramatically.’

Fuisz said that the lozenge contained no tobacco, nicotine or other active drug ingredient.

It would be marketed, he added, under Frisz’ yet-to-be-announced trade name through conventional retail channels.