Category: News This Week

About 1,000 workers said to have been laid off by Philip Morris Pakistan are taking part in a demonstration outside the company’s warehouse at Ismaila, according to a report in The Nation and another in Right Vision News, which was relayed by the TMA.

The protestors are demanding reinstatement in light of the Peshawar High Court’s August 27 verdict in their favour.

The have vowed not to allow the re-opening of the warehouse until their demands are met.

PMP officials said that the demonstrators were not regular employees but were hired on a seasonal basis at its threshing unit.

The officials said the same policy of seasonal hiring had been used before PMP had acquired Lakson Tobacco Company.

After the acquisition, it said, the seasonal workers had formed the Muttahida Workers Union and demanded that the company regularize their jobs.

The workers said they went to resume their work after the High Court verdict, but that the company had refused to open its gate and called the police to prevent the workers from entering the building.

About 100 French tobacconists have blocked access to the border with Spainin the south-western frontier village of Perthusto protest against a recent price hike on cigarettes and other tobacco products, according to an Agence France Presse story relayed by Tobacco China Online.

The demonstrators set up barricades along a four-kilometer route to denounce a 6.5-10.0 per cent increase in prices introduced this month, saying they were being forced out of business.

One sign set up on the roadblock read: ‘A new network created by the state – tobacco mafia’; while another read: ‘Smuggling = 15,000 cartons per Sunday and destruction of the economy’.

Hordes of French people descend on the village every weekend to cross the border and snap up cheap tobacco and alcohol in Spain.

Gerard Vidal, the head of a local tobacconists’ body, said the difference in prices between those of Spain, where cigarettes sold for as little as €4.25 a pack, and those in France, where the lowest was €6.10, was “catastrophic.”

Access to information about the TFWA (Tax Free World Association) World Exhibition is being made available through an app.

The exhibition is due to be held inCanneson 21-26 October.

Organizers say that by downloading the app it is possible to view the agendas of the exhibition, conference and workshops, and the social program.

The app allows access to the exhibition floor plan, exhibitor lists and stand locations.

And it provides the index of on-site services and facilities.

The app may be downloaded at App Store, App World, or www.tfwa.com.

A new study shows that environmental vapor from electronic cigarettes poses little risk to non-vapers.

An indoor air quality study conducted by CHANGE LLC at the Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science atClarksonUniversityinPotsdam,New York, was published this month in the peer reviewed journal, Inhalation Toxicology.

The study, which was sponsored by the National Vapers’ Club (NVP), a consumer-based electronic cigarette organization, compared the levels of harmful by-products commonly found in cigarette smoke with those found in the vapour of several popular brands of electronic cigarettes.

Most of the harmful compounds found in smoke were not found in the electronic cigarette vapour, and those few compounds that were found were at such minuscule levels that toxicology analysis detected no risk (cancer or non-cancer risk) to public health, the NVP said in a press note issued through PRNewswire.

The note quoted Dr. Michael Siegel, of Boston University School of Public Health, as saying that the study demonstrated that the risks of second-hand vapor from electronic cigarette use were very small in comparison to those associated with second-hand tobacco smoke.

“While second-hand smoke must be eliminated in workplaces and public places, the current data provide no justification for eliminating electronic cigarette use in these places,” Siegel was quoted as saying.

Shock and fear tactics do not encourage young people to quit smoking, according to a B&T Weekly story quoting the results of a study by researchers at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.

And cigarette price increases and restrictions on smoking in public places decrease the desire and intention to quit, the study has found.

But positive campaign strategies, such as the use of opinion leaders, have the strongest impact on the intention to stop smoking, said Dr. Christopher White, of RMIT’sSchoolofEconomics, Finance and Marketing.

“Our analysis showed measures such as smoking restrictions in the workplace and in public places, and ongoing increases to the price of cigarettes, actually significantly weakened the desire to quit,” he said.

“It’s not clear why these measures have this effect, though perhaps they are seen as heavy-handed and are evoking resistance and defiance among young people.”

The RMIT study surveyed 126 smokers aged between 18 and 24 on the impact of a variety of government anti-smoking measures.

A Lebanese MP says that amendments he has proposed to the country’s recently-introduced public-places tobacco smoking ban would be government-revenue positive, according to a story in the Beirut Daily Star.

Antoine Zahra was reported by local media representatives of having told parliament that he had submitted an urgent amendment to Article 5 of the ban after it had become obvious that applying the law was hurting the tourism sector.Lebanon’s economy had suffered enough, he apparently added.

His amendments would allow for the inclusion in public places of smoking sections and international-standard ventilation systems.

But they would bar those under 18 from entering any venue where smoking was allowed.

Zahra’s submission came a day after a number of associations had demanded the government amend the ban, which went into effect last month.

They said the sector had been burdened with heavy losses as a result of the ban.

Meanwhile, Pierre Achkar, head of the Hotels Association, said during a news conference on Tuesday his members were not calling for the cancellation of the smoking ban, but for a law that took their businesses into account.

And the head of the Chambers of Commerce, Mohammad Choucair, asked the government to provide licenses for venues specialized in nargileh.

More than 60 per cent ofFinland’s municipalities have declared themselves free of tobacco smoking, according to a story in the international edition of Helsingin Sanomat.

In tobacco-smoking-free municipalities, smoking is normally banned in all of the premises and outdoor areas, such as parks, that are owned or governed by the local council.

By the end of September, 204 municipalities had reached the decision to become smoking-free, according to the Savuton Kunta (Smoke-Free Municipality) project.

And from the beginning of this month,Helsinki’s eastern neighbour, Sipoo, became tobacco smoking-free.

Hungary’s parliamentary budget committee has proposed that two tobacco tax increases slated for 2013 should be amalgamated and brought forward to this year, according to a story in the Portfolio Online Financial Journal.

However, under the proposals the level of increase would not be as high as had been previously planned.

Quoting an explanation of the amendment proposal published on the parliamentary website, Portfolio said the tax hike was necessary ‘to avoid an excessive increase in consumer prices and mitigate risks of the black market gaining a stronger foothold’.

The changes would enter into effect as of December 1, so they would generate additional revenues for this year’s budget.

Originally, the tax increases were to have been carried out in two phases: on 1 January and May 1, 2013.

The chief executive of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA) has condemned World Health Organization proposals to reduce the area planted to tobacco and withdraw technical and financial support for leaf production, according to a NewsDay story relayed by Tobacco China Online.

Rodney Ambrose said the proposals would negatively affect the tobacco industry and lead to massive job losses.

Ambrose’s intervention came despite the fact thatZimbabweis not a party to WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which will discuss the proposals at a meeting inSeoulon November 12-17.

The FCTC is expected to recommend the ending of financial and technical support to tobacco farmers, the dismantling of organizations connecting growers with governments, the regulation of tobacco growing seasons and the reduction of the area allocated for tobacco farming.

Ambrose said that the regulations, aimed at phasing out tobacco growing, put the jobs of more than 30 million farmers around the world at risk.

And it did so without providing them with any viable alternative crop.

“WHO has consistently refused to listen to tobacco growers in drafting the proposals that directly impactAfrica’s farmers,” he said.

According to the ZTA, the FCTC’s proposals were designed to force tobacco growers out of business by creating artificial restrictions on tobacco supply, while failing to address growing demand for the crop.

“Now is the time for governments to act and oppose these draconian measures,” Ambrose said.

Currently, there is an international online petition aimed at rallying governments worldwide to oppose the measures: http://protectfarmers.tobaccoleaf.org/join.aspx.