Category: News This Week

Smokeless tobacco manufacturers inIndiahave joined hands to launch a nation-wide media campaign to tell people that the ban on their products is unfair and is the ‘doing of the powerful cigarette lobby’, according to a Times of India story relayed by the TMA.

The campaign features newspaper advertisements that contest the ban on gutkha and pan masala, stating that these products contain less tobacco and cancer causing substances than cigarettes contain.

Fourteen states have so far banned the manufacture, distribution and sale of gutkha and pan masala containing tobacco.

The bans have been brought in under the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, which bans all ‘food products’ with tobacco or nicotine.

There are no state bans on loose tobacco or smoking tobacco products.

In a story published last month, The Times of India quoted tobacco analysts as saying that the bans on various oral tobacco-containing products, such as gutkha, were likely to be positive for cigarette companies.

The bans come at a time when efforts in many countries are being aimed at trying to get smokers who won’t quit their habit to change instead to smokeless products.

Russia’s Coalition of Kiosk Owners (CKO) said yesterday that it would submit a 165,000-signature petition to President Vladimir Putin this week to ask him to halt pending bans on the sales of cigarettes and beer from kiosks, according to a story by Roland Oliphant for The Moscow Times.

A law banning the sale of beer from kiosks has already been passed and now the Health and Social Development Ministry is seeking to ban retail outlets with a floor area of less than 50 square meters from selling tobacco products.

The CKO, formed in April to fight the legislation, claims that such measures would put small businesses out of business while not preventing drinking or smoking.

“Of course, we need to fight smoking,” said CKO leader, Vladen Maximov.

“But this law would strike small business owners without having any impact on smokers.”

“In St.   Petersburg, where by law there are no kiosks, statistics show no discernible impact on rates of smoking,” Maximov added.

A fourth tobacco manufacturer is to seek listing on the Indonesian Stock Exchange, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

PT Wismilak Inti Makmur, a manufacturer of clove cigarettes and premium cigars, says it will hold an initial public offering (IPO) later this year.

Wismilak would be the fourth cigarette firm listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, after Gudang Garam, Sampoerna and Bentoel.

Wismilak’s corporate secretary, Surjanto Yasaputera, said the company had appointed PT OSK Nusadana Securities and PT Mandiri Sekuritas as underwriters for the IPO, in which Wismilak would sell a maximum of 30 per cent of its shares.

Surjanto did not say how much the firm expected to generate from the IPO nor an intended range for share prices.

Nevertheless, Trust Securities analyst, Reza Priyambada, said he doubted Wismilak’s IPO would generate the funds expected considering the bleak prospects for the tobacco industry.

Teams from two factories in Spain have won places in the final of an Imperial Tobacco competition to test the company’s manufacturing employees on their safety, quality, environmental and product know-how.

More than 2,000 employees from 43 of Imperial’s factories worldwide have been competing in the Global Safety Pin contest, the grand final of which will be held at the company’s Kiev factory in April.

A team from Imperial’s Cantabria factory won the cigar division semi-final, which was held in the Dominican Republic, and a team from Cádiz won the Western Europe semi-final in the UK.

A further five semi-finals will be staged between now and November with the next being held at the company’s Tarnowo factory in Poland later this month for its Central Europe and USA factories.

A qualifying round involved around 300 teams taking part in an online quiz and presenting their ideas to improve operational efficiency to a panel of experts.

“The aim of this competition is to improve operational excellence as well as enjoy ourselves by sharing our knowledge and expertise,” said director of operations, Rainer Eberlein.

The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) has warned against full implementation of the world Health Organization’s recommendations on tobacco control, according to a story in the Nairobi Star.

The WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is aimed, directly or indirectly, at reducing tobacco growing, and KAM’s CEO, Betty Maina, said that such proposals should be given an airing because tobacco production in Kenya was an important economic activity.

Speaking at a recent forum on tobacco production, Maina said the tobacco industry had played a key role in job creation and that any plan aimed at controlling its sale and distribution should be restrained, and administered according to individual country laws.

The FCTC has been pushing for a gradual migration of farmers out of tobacco and KAM fears that such a move will increase the poverty levels in Kenya and other African countries, including Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania.

Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR), a proponent of the ‘quit or die’ approach to smoking cessation, is misleading the public about the hazards of electronic cigarettes, according to Elaine Keller, president of The Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA).

In a press note released through PR Newswire, CASAA said that a recent ANR press release had falsely claimed that there was ‘a lack of independent peer-reviewed scientific evidence demonstrating the safety or efficacy’ of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation.

‘FDA-approved nicotine patches, gum, lozenges, nasal sprays, and oral inhalers are referred to as Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products, but all these products are aimed at reducing the daily intake of nicotine to zero, and all have a 93 per cent mid-year failure rate,’ the CASAA press note said.

‘In contrast, a growing body of scientific evidence is showing that providing smokers with a low-risk alternative such as electronic cigarettes is a much more effective way than nicotine-abstinence to achieve abstinence from smoking.

‘BMC Public Health, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, published the results of an Italian pilot study that monitored modifications in smoking habits of 40 smokers not interested in quitting smoking.

‘The researchers observed a 50 per cent reduction of smoking in 32.5 per cent of subjects and an 80 per cent reduction in 12.5 per cent of subjects.

‘But they were astonished to discover that at the end of the six-month study, 22.5 per cent of these unwilling-to-quit subjects had completely stopped smoking.

‘Among smokers that want to quit, the results are even more remarkable.’

CASAA cited also the peer-reviewed American Journal of Public Health that had published the results of an online survey of first-time buyers of a particular brand of e-cigarette. The six-month smoking abstinence rate was 31 per cent among this group, it said.

The full text is at: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/americans-for-nonsmokers-rights-shamelessly-promotes-continued-smoking-makes-false-claims-about-hazards-of-electronic-cigarettes-172180501.html.

Spain’s proposed budget includes a measure to reduce further the tobacco allowances for certain categories of people arriving from Gibraltar, according to a story by Brian Reyes for the Gibraltar Chronicle.
The budget, which is still to be debated and approved by parliament, would cut the number of cigarettes that frontier workers and residents of the Campo de Gibraltar of Spain can carry into Spain during any given month by over half.

The limit on the quantity of cigarettes that could be carried into Spain from Gibraltar by people living within a radius of 15 km of the border had already been reduced from three cartons a month to one carton a month.

Now, it is proposed, the limit should be further reduced to four packs a month.

The Spanish government reportedly said the move was necessary to tackle a rise in the ‘abuse’ of existing tobacco allowances by ‘frontier residents and frontier workers’ leaving Gibraltar.

There was no mention of how reducing the legal allowance by one pack a month would tackle the abuse of the existing system.

British American Tobacco p.l.c. has maintained its position as industry leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.

According to a company press note, the company achieved an overall score of 88 per cent to remain on both the World and Europe indexes for an 11th year in a row.

‘The Dow Jones Indexes have earned an enviable reputation for the robust nature of their analysis, assessing more than 1,500 sustainability-driven global companies for their economic, environmental and social performance,’ the note said.

‘A detailed assessment of companies’ performance covers both general and industry specific criteria including: brand management; energy consumption; raw materials sourcing; and talent attraction and retention.

‘British American Tobacco was one of only 340 – less than a quarter of those assessed – who made the final cut. Such was the company’s high level of performance, it achieved best industry scores in 13 of the 20 categories.

‘It also scored a maximum 100 per cent rating in six key categories:

* Risk and Crisis Management;
* Combatting Smuggling;
* Environmental Policy/Management System;
* Fuels for Tobacco Curing;
* Human Capital Development;
* Responsible Marketing Policies.

‘In addition, the company achieved a best score of 93 per cent in the new Supply Chain Management category.’

“This is a genuinely fantastic result for the company and one that every single one of our employees should take great pride in,” said BAT’s international sustainability manager, Jennie Galbraith.

“British American Tobacco was the first tobacco company included on the index eleven years ago and we have been included each year since. This highlights that our employees across the group have consistently met the high standards required of a sustainable international business.”

Dow Jones publishes one sustainability index and three sub indexes; with the index covering the world and the three sub indexes covering Europe, Asia and North America.

All are based on the co-operation between Dow Jones Indexes and the Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) Group.

The Irish Cancer Society and the Irish Heart Foundation want the tax on cigarettes to be increased from 79 per cent to 90 per cent, according to an Irish Times story relayed by the TMA.

In a submission to the Department of Finance, the organizations claimed that the tax increase would generate €150 million a year, money that could be used to help pay for smoking-related health costs and smoking cessation programs.

They dismissed industry claims that higher prices would fuel smuggling, but called for the improved targeting of smuggling and increased spending on prevention measures.

The groups propose that the price of cigarettes increases by five per cent a year over the rate of inflation.

And they recommend the creation of a new regulatory agency called OfSmoke, which would regulate prices and be funded by a fee on manufacturers.

Finlandseems to be wrestling with the question of how to ban tobacco flavors on the grounds that they make cigarettes more risky than they would otherwise be without implying that the resulting unflavored cigarettes carry a reduced risk.

A recent Esmerk Finnish News story quoted the Finnish National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health as saying that tobacco additives were used to make smoking more attractive by reducing the bitter taste and softening the irritating smoke. And it said that these additives might be dangerous.

The director general ofFinland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare, Pekka Puska, considers the use of these additives unethical and he is ready to restrict their use.

However, he is apparently keen to avoid introducing more bureaucracy at a time when smoking continues to decrease inFinland.

And he wants to avoid the suggestion that restricting the use of additives would make smoking less of a health risk.