Category: News This Week

A proposal to ban special smokers’ lounges and bars has been thrown out by Swiss voters in a nationwide ballot, according to a story by Urs Geiser for Swissinfo.

The government welcomed Sunday’s result but vowed to continue anti-smoking efforts.

Two out of three voters rejected an initiative by the Lung League aimed at reducing the exposure of staff to second-hand smoke.

The proposal, supported by health organisations and centre-left parties, sought to tighten current minimum legislation which bans smoking in restaurants but allows cantonal authorities to grant exceptions.

Eighteen of Switzerland’s 26 cantons impose restrictions on tobacco smoking, while eight, mainly in the French-speaking part of the country, have imposed outright bans.

Interior Minister, Alain Berset, said protection against second-hand smoke remained high on the agenda of the government despite voters’ rejection of stricter nationwide legislation.

“Today’s ‘No’ is not a ‘No’ to second-hand smoke,” he told a news conference. Voters were just not willing to amend the law, less than three years after parliament agreed a compromise, he added.

The Scottish government is being urged to review its tobacco smoking ban in indoor, public places in the light of new developments in ventilation and clean air technology, according to a story by Scott MacNab for The Scotsman.

The lobby group, Freedom to ChooseScotland, is petitioning members of the Scottish Parliament, raising questions about the impact of second-hand smoke and pointing to growing calls for an end to bans inScotlandand the rest ofGreat   Britain.

The pro-freedom group says that European air quality standards on indoor spaces back up the case for ending the ban, which was introduced in 2006.

The group says these guidelines do not suggest good practice involves a ban on tobacco smoking.

Tobacco smoke is recognised as a pollutant, along with others, but ventilation requirements are set out to deal with these.

The Scottish Licensed Trade Association warned last year that 800 pubs have closed inScotlandsince the ban and has called for it to be relaxed.

The petition is at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/GettingInvolved/Petitions/reviewofsmokingban.

A study conducted by an environmental group has found that second-hand smoke is the single biggest source of indoor air pollution in certain public buildings in Beijing, according to a China Daily story relayed by Tobacco China Online.

The Daerwen Nature Quest Agency is said to have surveyed 43 restaurants, bars and Internet cafés in Beijing during the past six months and to have found that the concentration of small particles in the air was significantly higher than the World Health Organization’s maximum recommended levels.

Small particles from tobacco smoke made up 90 per cent of the pollutants measured during the survey, said Wang Qiuxia, the group’s project manager.

Li Qiang, a researcher with the National Office of Tobacco Control, said the airborne fine particles were very harmful to the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Australia’s tobacco tax revenue during the financial year to the end of June, at A$5.45 billion, was down by 5.9 per cent on the A$5.79 billion that the treasury had estimated in the May budget, according to an Australian Associated Press story relayed by the TMA.

Finance Minister, Penny Wong, said the federal government’s anti-smoking measures were likely to have caused the revenue decline.

“The government’s campaign is the right thing to do and it may well be having an effect,” Wong added.

The government increased cigarette tax by 25 percent in April 2010.

British American TobaccoRomaniaannounced on Thursday that it will spend about €40 million on expanding its manufacturing facility atPloiesti, according to an Economic Daily story relayed by the TMA.

The company says that the changes will boost the plant’s production capacity by 20 per cent.

BATRomaniawill spend €25 million on construction, which is expected to be finished in February, and €15 million on new equipment.

The story said that of the total equipment spend, €4 million would be used to buy machinery to produce cigarette packs in a special format for the Greek and Cypriot export markets.

Concerns expressed inBulgariaearlier this week about a proposal to ban the production of oriental tobacco within the EU have proved to be unfounded, according to a Novinite story.

The misunderstanding arose apparently because oriental tobacco is an aromatic tobacco and the European Commission is known to be considering proposing revisions to the EU’s tobacco products directive that would see a ban on the addition of certain aromatic ingredients – basically flavors.

The Bulgarian MEP, Maria Gabriel, who is a member of the Agriculture Committee, said the alarm in Bulgaria was caused by worries that oriental tobacco would included in the group of the so-called aroma ingredients, such as menthol and cherry, which would most likely be banned as part of the tobacco directive revisions.

It is to be seen, however, whether these concerns will disappear. Yesterday, Bulgarian National Radio quoted Frederic Vincent, spokesperson for the European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, as saying that ‘currently’ the Commission was not planning to examine the ‘issue’ of oriental tobacco.

Government data show that significant amounts of tobacco are being smuggled out of Cambodiaeach year, according to a story in The Phnom Penh Post quoting health and economics experts.

A national tobacco survey from 2011 showed that more tobacco was produced in Cambodia than was consumed there, and much of the difference came from smuggling rather than legal exports, said the World Health Organization’s tobacco economics unit head, Dr. Ayda Yurekli, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday.

The data from the tobacco survey was not made available at the conference because it is said to be confidential.

Yurekli and representatives of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance called on Cambodiaand its low-tobacco-tax neighbours, including Laos, to increase tobacco taxes by more than 10 per cent so as to have a significant impact on public health.

“As the taxes increase, there may be incentive not to smuggle tobacco out,” Yurekli said.

The Chief Minister of the Indian state of Kerala, Oommen Chandy, has asked his counterpart in Karnataka, CM Jagadish Shettar, to ban the sale of smokeless tobacco, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.

The Kerala government outlawed the production and distribution of products such as gutkha and pan masala in May, creating an attractive opportunity for traders from the neighboring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, the Delhi State Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, has imposed a blanket ban on chewing tobacco products, making the state the 12^th to do so in recent times.

The ban covers the manufacture, transportation, storage, display, sale and purchase of chewable forms of tobacco such as gutkha, pan masala, khaini and zarda.

Violations of the ban can lead to a seven year prison term and an Rs100,000 fine.

Apart fromDelhiand Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Gujurat, Rajasthan andPunjabhave implemented bans on chewing tobacco.

Altria said yesterday that its tobacco operating companies were conducting a non-partisan voter education and awareness campaign for adult tobacco consumers; as they had done in past election cycles.

‘Philip Morris USA, U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company and John Middleton will reach out to adult consumers stressing the importance of voting and encouraging them to make their voices heard on November 6th,’ the company said in a note posted on its website. ‘These efforts are designed to help adult consumers register to vote and participate in the fall elections.

‘Adult consumers can go to www.tobaccorights.com/vote, which includes information about the voter registration process, polling locations and candidates for state and federal offices.’