A coalition of business organizations, the Business Renaissance Group (BRG), has called on Nigeria’s government to review recently-announced increases in excise duties on locally produced tobacco products, and wines and spirits, according to a story in The Vanguard.
The federal government announced on March 11 that the duty increases would be spread over the next three years, with the first going into effect on June 4.
The BRG is said to have demanded that the federal government revert to the previous taxes or come up with a compromise based on input from ‘critical stakeholders’.
A new approach was needed that would impact positively on the government, the industry and the general population, and ultimately provide further growth and development for the country.
Briefing journalist in Abuja, the chairman of the BRG, Mazi Omeife Omeife, said increasing excise duties was counterproductive in respect of the government’s job-creation policy. Such increases were going to lead to job losses and the further impoverishment of ordinary Nigerians.
The BRG has said that it will seek judicial redress if the government does not respond within 30 days.
Category: People
New taxes opposed
Grading system questioned
Malawi’s leaf-tobacco grading system should be improved to favor growers, according to a story in the Nyasa Times quoting the chair of the Parliament’s Agricultural Committee, Chidanti Malunga.
The committee has asked the Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) to change its tobacco classification system because, in its view, the current system does not favor tobacco growers.
During a committee visit to the Kanengo Auction Floors on the weekend, Malunga said better prices depended on improving the tobacco classification system, which currently left a lot to be desired.
The Kanengo floors have been hit by low tobacco prices since President Peter Mutharika opened them last week. This is despite estimated production being well below perceived demand.
The story quoted the CEO of the Tobacco Association of Malawi, Mathews Zulu, as saying that low production did not ensure good prices.
Zulu said good prices depended on the production of ‘better leaf’ and improvements in grading.Licenses suspended
In Singapore, the tobacco licenses of 10 retailers have been suspended for six months after they were caught selling cigarettes to customers under 18 years of age, according to a Channel NewsAsia story quoting a Health Sciences Authority (HSA) press note.
‘These 10 sellers did not ask for any identification to check the buyers’ age[s],’ the note said. ‘They had claimed that they were busy or that the minors looked older than they were.’
Under the Tobacco (Control of Advertisements and Sale) Act, any business caught selling tobacco products to those under the age of 18 faces a fine of up to S$5,000 for the first offence and up to S$10,000 for the second or subsequent offences.
In addition, the business’ tobacco retail license will be suspended for six months for the first offence and revoked for a second offence. Retailers found selling tobacco products to minors in school uniform or to those below 12 years of age have their tobacco retail licenses revoked at the first offence.
From 2015 to date, 68 tobacco retail licenses have been suspended and 10 have been revoked, HSA said.The price of Brexit
One of the negative impacts for the UK economy of leaving the EU will fall on the UK cigarette market, which is now completely reliant on cigarette imports from Europe, according to GlobalData.
‘Without a home supplied product any tariffs applied to imported goods between the UK and EU as a result of Brexit will see massive cigarette retail price increases for UK consumers, leading to volume declines of as much as 21 percent by 2021,’ said GlobalData, which describes itself as a ‘data and analytics company’.
‘The average pack price (20s) is likely to increase by more than £3, from £9.60 to £12.74 based on estimates from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The OECD calculations assume that the UK will introduce tariffs of 70 percent on cigarette imports in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) guidelines.
William Grimwade, consumer analyst at GlobalData said the UK’s top six sources for imported cigarettes were all in the EU: Poland, Germany, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania and the Netherlands. “The volume of cigarette imports will likely increase anyway over the next few years as stores of domestically produced cigarettes run out,” he said. “We forecast that the impact of Brexit will see UK cigarette volume sales fall by as much as a fifth by 2021.”
In its note, GlobalData said the decline could be even more significant if the UK Government took further action on public health concerns by forcing prices up even further.
‘A recent global study on tobacco consumption suggests global price rises of 50 percent could save more than 60 million lives, and so international opinion is likely to support further cigarette price rises,’ the note said. ‘This means that the UK Gov’t is unlikely to take any action to mitigate against Brexit-induced price rises on cigarettes.’
Grimwade said that the return of duty-free tobacco sales to travellers between the UK and the EU would likely coincide with a large reduction in the number of cigarettes they could bring back to the UK. “The new limit is expected to be somewhere around 200 cigarettes instead of the current 800, which will make it even more difficult for UK consumers to find cheaper supplies of cigarettes,” he said.Empathy replacing enmity
New, documentary-style public service announcements (PSAs) for Tobacco Free Florida (US) are said to take a ‘refreshingly respectful approach to encouraging smokers to quit,’ according to a story by David Griner for Ad Week.
Instead of extreme scare tactics, the PSAs, by the Alma advertising agency, acknowledge that smokers are often fully aware of the dangers and costs of smoking and that they’re struggling to make the right choice.
They know smoking is dangerous. They know it’s expensive. They know it makes them a bad influence on their children. And they know they need to quit.
The PSAs are said to be aimed at Florida’s rural communities, where, the agency says, smoking rates are 33 percent higher than they are in the rest of the state.
The real-life vignettes introduce smokers – most often working parents under daily financial stress – who admit they’re tired of the physical and financial toll of smoking.
The campaign is based on Alma research into both its target audience and the tactics that might change their behaviors.
Angela Rodriguez, Alma’s vice president of strategic planning and insights, said that ethnographic research last year had indicated that quitting was driven by the hopes smokers had for themselves and their children.
“These aspirations showed that cessation is about bigger, longer-term dreams more than about being scared or lectured into the right decision,” she was quoted as saying.
“We also learned that those same scare tactic approaches don’t always connect.”
The full story is at: http://www.adweek.com/creativity/these-incredibly-crafted-anti-smoking-ads-drop-the-fear-tactics-in-favor-of-empathy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Adfreak+(Adfreak)Smoke screen
The smokers’ lobby group Forest has said that attempts to reduce the amount of smoking on television and in films would be a ‘gross attack on artistic freedom’ and a ‘worrying attempt to rewrite history’.
According to a submission to the UK’s Select Committee on Science and Technology, ASH and the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies say that smoking on television and in films encourages children to start smoking.
But Simon Clark (pictured), director of Forest, said that films and television should reflect the world as it was and is, not as prohibitionists would like it to be.
“Directors must be allowed to portray characters as they see fit, not according to regulations imposed on them by government and unelected NGOs,” he said.
“Many Oscar-listed films that contain smoking, like ‘Darkest Hour’, are set in a period of history when a large majority of adults smoked. Even today one in six adults smoke.
“Prohibiting or excessively restricting the depiction of smoking would be a gross attack on artistic freedom and a worrying attempt to rewrite history.”
Clark said it was ludicrous to suggest there was a causal link between smoking on screen and children taking up smoking.
“To put this in perspective, smoking rates among young people in the UK are at their lowest ever level,” he said.
“The anti-smoking industry is manufacturing a sense of alarm that is out of all proportion to reality.”Snus ban ‘valid’
The smokers’ lobby group Forest has criticized the opinion of a leading advisor to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) after he deemed the EU ban on the sale of snus to be “valid”.
According to the ECJ’s Advocate General, Saugmandsgaard Øe, the EU legislature “did not exceed the limits of its discretion in concluding that lifting the prohibition on the placing on the market of tobacco for oral use could result in an overall increase in the harmful effects of tobacco within the EU”.
Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said that maintaining an EU-wide ban on snus discriminated against adults who were looking for a safer means of consuming nicotine.
“Tobacco is legal and adults should have the right to purchase a range of products, some of which are less harmful than others,” he said.
“The evidence suggests that snus is not risk free but it’s significantly safer than combustible cigarettes.
“To deny consumers the choice of switching to an alternative, reduced-risk product defies logic or common sense.”
Snus is banned in all EU member states except Sweden, and, according to a report in The Local, snus producer Swedish Match failed in a 2004 attempt to challenge the rules restricting sales and exports of the product. It had since launched a challenge against UK laws preventing the sale of tobacco for oral use, which are in line with the EU’s 2014 Tobacco Products Directive, arguing that the EU legislature had failed since the earlier ruling to ‘take into account development in scientific knowledge’. The High Court of Justice for England and Wales subsequently asked the ECJ to judge whether the prohibition of the product was valid.
In a note posted on its website, Swedish Match said that though the Advocate General had found that the use of snus was less hazardous than smoking cigarettes, he did not recommend the ECJ to find the EU snus ban invalid.
‘In the opinion, the Advocate General gives the EU legislature a very broad discretion in areas which involve political, economic and social choices,’ the note said. ‘He states that in his opinion it is not the task of the Court to assess the scientific evidence submitted in the case but rather recommends that the Court leave such assessments to the EU legislature.’
“We are disappointed with the opinion and hope that the Court will come to a different conclusion in its final ruling,” Marie-Louise Heiman, general counsel at Swedish Match, was quoted as saying. “The reasoning behind the Advocate General’s opinion would severely limit the Court’s assessment of EU legislation. With this reasoning, almost any product could be banned in the EU without a meaningful judicial review.”
The final ruling is expected toward the end of the second quarter or in the third quarter of this year.Stirring the pot
China is suffering a rapidly-increasing incidence of lung cancer among non-tobacco-smoking women, according to a story on Ecns.cn edited by Mo Hong’e.
The story cited a report by the China Cancer Center as saying these lung cancer cases were the result of non-tobacco-smoking women being exposed to second-hand-tobacco smoke and cooking-oil fumes.
The report, which compiled data from China’s 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, suggested that lung cancer was the most frequently occurring malignancy in the country.
Meanwhile, Liang Chaoyang, vice director of the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Beijing’s China Japan Friendship Hospital, said cooking methods, second- or third-hand smoke and environmental pollution were behind the rise of lung cancer among women.
Liang said also that more than 700 million women and children in China had long been exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke both at home and in public spaces, making China the worst place in the world for second-hand tobacco smoke.
About 55 percent of women aged over 15 were exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke at home on a daily basis.
The story said that some cancer experts had claimed that putting someone else in the way of second-hand tobacco smoke was not only selfish and immoral, but also equated to committing slow murder.
Professor Zhi Xiuyi of the Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Center at the Capital Medical University blamed Chinese cooking methods, such as stir-frying and deep-frying, as a main risk factor in the higher incidence of lung cancer among women.
“They stay in the kitchen for longer periods than men, putting themselves in the path of toxic components, and consequently face a higher risk of lung cancer,” said Zhi
Research led by Zhou Caicun at Shanghai’s Tongji University School of Medicine found cooking oil temperatures directly affected the amounts of fumes created.Seeking room for smokers
The Czech Constitutional Court is scheduled to rule next week on a draft amendment to the country’s public-places smoking ban that took effect in May last year, according to a CTK National News Wire story relayed by the TMA.
The amendment, proposed by MP Marek Benda of the Civic Democrats would allow hotels and other businesses to create separate smoking areas with their own ventilation systems.
The court chairman and judge rapporteur Pavel Rychetsky has examined the amendment and the court has published the terms of announcement of its decision on its official website.
Despite Prime Minister Andrej Babis rejecting the draft amendment, the Chamber of Deputies or the lower house of Parliament is expected to debate the proposal.
Radio Prague reported in February that eighty-six deputies from eight parties in the Czech Republic’s lower house had put their signatures to Benda’s proposal to loosen the ban on tobacco smoking in public places.
The report noted that as well as proposing the creation within these venues of separate smoking areas, the amendment proposed allowing the owners of bars with an area of 80 square meters or smaller to decide whether to allow smoking or not.
Meanwhile, towards the end of March, Reuters reported that Austria’s lower house of parliament had voted to scrap an impending ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.
The vote was a win for the coalition government and came despite opposition from health campaigners and opposition parties.
At present, large restaurants in Austria are required to provide separate smoking and non-smoking areas, but the rules are reportedly not rigidly implemented. Smaller restaurants need not have a separate area if the owner agrees to allow smoking on the premises.
Now that parliament has approved the bill, it has to be passed by the upper house and signed by the president. It is widely expected to pass in the upper house and to be signed into law.History in the making
A panel event in London, England, yesterday proved the adage that prediction is difficult – especially about the future.
The event, which was staged by the New Statesman magazine in association with Philip Morris International and chaired by Anna Hodgekiss, a freelance health/medical journalist and media consultant, set out to address the question: How long until smoking is history [in England]?
But given that all of the panellists – and possibly most of the 70 guests drawn from the ranks of parliament, the tobacco and cigarette industry, public health, public affairs, think tanks and professional services – seemed to support a harm-reduction rather than a quit-or-die policy, the debate turned largely on how smokers could be encouraged to switch to lower-risk products, such as vapor devices and oral tobacco products.
Nevertheless, Nick Fitzpatrick, an economist and consultant with Frontier Economics, which last year produced a report for PMI entitled: Working towards a smoke-free England, presented some of the findings from that report, one of which had it that the UK government would meet its smoke-free target of reducing the prevalence of smoking in England to five percent by 2040 given the continuation of current taxation policies and regulatory interventions. Fitzpatrick added that the target could be met by 2029 if a number of criteria were fulfilled, including increasing rapidly the number of smokers switching to smoke-free alternatives, such as e-cigarettes.
But these predictions were less important than the debate that they stirred – a debate that PMI has been encouraging since 2016 and one that, while based on an English experience, had universal echoes.
The panellists seemed to agree that there were too many unknowns to predict with any accuracy when smoking might end in England, But there was general agreement that vapor products had made a major step in the direction of encouraging smokers to quit and that they could make a further contribution given that they were the subject of sensible taxation policies that reflected their health impact, sensible, relevant regulation that was not simply moved over from tobacco regulation, and product improvement and innovation.
It would be necessary also to ensure that lower-risk messages were communicated to both smokers and the health care professionals who advised them, many of whom were still reluctant to talk with smokers about using vapor devices, even when those smokers had exhausted other methods of quitting.
The debate threw up the question of what it meant for smoking to be eliminated, and the idea that elimination would have been achieved once the smoking prevalence had been reduced to five percent was questioned. Panellist Mark Littlewood, the director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, pointed out that a five percent threshold, more widely applied, would mean that heroin was not used in the UK. Littlewood pointed out also that the rate of success in encouraging people to quit would be governed in part by a law of diminishing returns as the number of people still smoking was boiled down to a hard core of smokers.
One complicating factor in getting smokers to move to vapor devices was seen as the fact that smokers have different needs. Sarah Jakes, the chair of the New Nicotine Alliance and one of the panellists, told the event that she had switched to a vapor device even though it had not been her intention to do so. She was a smoker who decided to try e-cigarettes so that she could vape while in her car, but she had found that she liked the device to the point where she switched over completely. Littlewood, on the other hand, admitted that he had been unable to find a satisfactory substitute, and while he found heat-not-burn products better than e-cigarettes, he kept drifting back to traditional cigarettes. And another panellist, Dr. Roger Henderson, a general practitioner and smoking cessation expert, in a chilling intervention, told how some diabetics would choose smoking over their legs.
One interesting side issue had to do with the sympathy demonstrated for smokers who did not want to quit or could not quit. Although Henderson was passionate in his opposition to smoking and just as passionate in his support for harm reduction, he believes that in the end a smoker has to decide for herself what she does. If a smoker fully understood the risks she was taking and if she knew what cessation help was available to her but still decided to keep smoking, it was not for other people to tell her how to live her life.