Category: People

  • Call for tobacco-duty freeze

    Call for tobacco-duty freeze

    There is little public support in the UK for a further increase in tobacco duty, according to the results of a new poll announced yesterday.

    The survey, conducted by Populus for the smokers’ group Forest, found that 76 percent of adults think the current level of tax – more than 80 percent on an average pack of cigarettes – is either about right (44 percent) or too high (32 percent). Twenty-four percent think it’s too low.

    Sixty-eight percent said that buying illicit tobacco was an “understandable” response to the soaring cost of tobacco purchased legally. Twenty-two percent found it “not understandable”.

    “Tobacco duty in the UK is exceptionally high compared to most other EU countries,” said the director of Forest, Simon Clark, ahead of the autumn budget due to be brought down on November 22.

    “Another tax hike will discriminate against the less well-off and those who are just about managing.

    “It will also encourage more smokers to buy tobacco on the black market because there isn’t the stigma associated with other illicit transactions.

    “We urge the Chancellor to give smokers a break, take public opinion into account and freeze tobacco duty at the current levels.”

  • Smoking rate down, but high

    Smoking rate down, but high

    The smoking rate among South Korean men aged 19 and older has fallen in recent years, but the rate remains high, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

    Citing data from Statistics Korea, the Herald reported that the smoking rate among this group was 39.1 percent in 2016, down from 43.3 percent in 2014. There was no data on the smoking rate in 2015.

    Separate data compiled by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development put the smoking rate of South Korean men aged 15 and older at 31 percent in 2015, the highest among the 15 OECD countries surveyed.

    Japan came in second with 30 percent, followed by Italy with 25 percent.

    In 2015, South Korea increased the price of cigarettes by 80 percent, from 2,500 won ($2.25) per pack to 4,500 won.

    And the South Korean government in 2016 brought in a requirement that tobacco companies included graphic warnings on the upper part of cigarette packs.

  • Best Malawi season for JTI

    Best Malawi season for JTI

    Fries Vanneste

    JTI Leaf Malawi (JTILM) says that the 2016-2017 season was the most successful for the company since it entered the Malawi market in 2009, according to a Malawi Voice story.

    MD Fries Vanneste said that during the 2016-2017 season, JTILM had recorded a contract market share of 31 percent against an average of 17-18 percent in previous years.

    He said that while the overall national crop volume had been down by 54 percent, JTILM had managed to deliver “all of its committed volumes”, which he described as “a milestone for the company”.

    He said the season’s outcome had shown how close collaboration between farmers, leaf technicians and grower associations, combined with the company’s ongoing support for growers was bearing fruit.

    JTI’s contract farmers had been “very receptive” to the company’s Grower Incentive program called Mlimi Wozitsata (model farmer), which was launched in June 2017. There had been clear improvements in both the quality and yield of the growers’ tobacco.

    Vanneste said also that the better quality and higher yield had had a direct and positive impact on the growers’ revenues and profitability.

    All of JTILM’s growers had paid off their financing loans this year,” Vanneste said.

    JTI is currently working on having its Integrated Production System (IPS) recognized in Malawi’s legislation.

    Vanneste said that Malawi’s Tobacco Control Act had been last amended in the 1970s, an era when sustainability, traceability or contract growing were not high on the agenda.

    An updated tobacco act, he said, could provide an improved legal framework that supported IPS implementation, protecting the interests of the farmers as well as JTILM’s investments. It could eventually create greater stability for the future of tobacco farming in Malawi overall.

    Meanwhile, Vanneste said that by investing more than US$2 million in its factory during the past two years, JTILM had reduced its energy consumption by 53 percent, by enough to light an additional 1,365 households.

  • Trials on track for 2018

    Trials on track for 2018

    Swiss Rail is due to experiment with smoking restrictions at some of its train stations in response to customer complaints about second-hand smoke and cigarette butts on platforms impacting on their comfort, according to a story in Le News.

    The experiments are due to be run next year at five or six stations.

    According to a document obtained by the newspaper NZZ, under the experiment, smoking will be banned at Basel, Nyon and Zurich Stadelhofen stations, while smoking zones will be trialled at Bellinzone, and special smoking lounges tested at Neuchâtel.

    The problem of discarded cigarette butts will be monitored across the stations.

    The company says that no decisions have been taken, and emphasised that no decision on a blanket ban at all stations had been made.

    It seems that any change will occur from the end of next year.

    The experiment is due to be announced officially on November 21.

  • Child labor dispute

    Child labor dispute

    A row has broken out between the Eliminating Child Labour in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ELCT) and the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) over the foundation’s activities.

    In a press note issued on Monday, the ELCT alleged that public assertions made by the FCA concerning the ECLT foundation in its online article ILO amongst last UN Agencies accepting money from ‘Big Tobacco’ were ‘false and devoid of up-to-date evidence’.

    ‘Specifically, the ECLT Foundation notes that the FCA has failed to provide any credible, independently-corroborated evidence to support their assertion that, “Reports have repeatedly claimed that ECLT’s work aims to keep farmers dependent on aid from the tobacco industry to avoid them abandoning the sector(sic),”’ the ELCT said in its press note. ‘ECLT strongly rejects this false accusation, which is lacking evidence and solely supported by references from unnamed third parties.

    ‘In addition, the separate assertion that, as an independent Swiss Foundation, “ECLT allows the tobacco industry to promote a positive public image while continuing the practices that cause labour exploitation in the first place”, is both insulting to the work that the Foundation has carried out since 2000, and again, is untrue.

    ‘Having reached over 650,000 children and families in tobacco-growing communities since 2011 alone, working in partnership to find collaborative solutions for the systemic causes of child labour, the ECLT Foundation stands by the results of its work…

    ‘In this debate, the stakes for millions of children and their families are high, and the subsequent decision has significant potential to directly impact the realisation of their human and legal rights, including to escape poverty and other forms of exploitation and to secure decent conditions in which to work and live with dignity.

    ‘The ECLT Foundation, therefore, shares the FCA’s view that eliminating child labour is “of utmost importance and a goal that must be pursued”.

    ‘For the tens of thousands of children and families who are benefiting from ECLT interventions and public-private partnerships working to help keep children in school and out of fields, it is imperative that the debate regarding collaboration towards eliminating child labour remain fair, fact-based and focused on the needs of the rights holders. Statements made by any actor, including the FCA, must be either truthful, or immediately retracted.

    ‘The ECLT Foundation remains committed to encouraging a public debate that is open, transparent, and accountable to the children and their families, who are ultimately impacted by this and other key international decisions.’

  • Report backs e-cigarettes

    Report backs e-cigarettes

    A group made up of members of the UK’s lower and upper houses of parliament have today urged the government to build upon Public Health England’s (PHE) ‘Stoptober’ anti-smoking campaign, which was the first of its kind to encourage the use of vaping as a means to quit smoking.

    In its report, The State of the Vaping Nation, the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on E-Cigarettes has called on the government and public health bodies to sustain and capitalise on the level of public engagement with vaping seen during Stoptober by launching a continuous program to keep promoting and accurately communicating the positive public health evidence for vaping.

    Meanwhile, following the PHE campaign, which emerged from the government’s commitment in its recently published Tobacco Control Plan to back the promotion of the positive public health opportunity of vaping, the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), the largest trade body representing the sector, has reported that its members have experienced significant increases in sales during Stoptober.

    ‘In particular, the APPG has seen evidence from the UKVIA that there has been a considerable rise in starter-kit sales this Stoptober, suggesting a significant increase in those smokers trying vaping for the first time, according to a press note issued on behalf of the APPG

    ‘Watford-based Vape Club, the UK’s largest online vape e-liquid shop and JAC Vapour, a leading retailer, wholesaler and producer of vaping products, have experienced increases in starter kit sales by 37 percent and 65 percent year on year respectively.

    ‘Edinburgh based Vaporized, the UK’s largest vape retail chain, added three more stores to its now 106 store portfolio and experienced a 40 percent year on year rise in sales this October.’

    Mark Pawsey MP, chairman of the APPG, was quoted as saying that the positive public health message regarding vaping had up to now been failing to get across to the UK’s remaining 7.6 million smokers.

    “The Public Health England campaign was a welcome change and has had an obvious effect, but it needs to be sustained, not just a one off.

    “That’s why today we are calling upon the government to ensure such campaigns become the norm, not an exception, so that the UK can fully exploit the public health potential of vaping.

    “Without these campaigns the current mixed messages surrounding vaping will continue and create a confusing picture.”

    The report says that currently 20 percent of people correctly identify that vaping is ‘a lot less harmful’ than is smoking, down from 31 percent in 2015.

    In addition, the number of adults who believe that vaping is ‘as harmful’, or ‘more harmful’ than smoking has risen from seven percent in 2013 to 26 percent in 2017.

    “We are concerned that aspects of the [EU] Tobacco Products Directive work against helping people to stop smoking by making life for vapers more difficult … and by preventing positive messages being shared among those who have been frightened off vaping by a hostile propaganda war,” said Louise Ross, Stop Smoking Service Manager for Leicester City Council, the first Stop Smoking Service to go e-cigarette friendly.

    The parliamentarians believe misinformation is actively preventing smokers from making the decision to switch to vaping. The number of UK vapers increased by four percent from 2016 to 2017.

  • Non-smoking breaks

    Non-smoking breaks

    The marketing firm Piala, which is based in Tokyo, Japan, is giving its non-smoking employees an extra six days of paid holidays a year after they complained that they were working more than workers who took time off for cigarette breaks, according to a story in the Telegraph relayed by the TMA.

    Hirotaka Matsushima, a Piala spokesman, said one of the company’s non-smoking staff had put a message in a suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems.

  • Farmers seek protection

    Farmers seek protection

    The Indonesian Tobacco Farmers Association (APTI) has urged the government to control leaf-tobacco imports so as to protect local farmers, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

    During a meeting between APTI members from nine provinces and President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo yesterday, the farmer representatives called on the president to allow cigarette companies to import tobacco only if they had absorbed the tobacco produced by local farmers.

    “If a company buys a small amount of local tobacco, it has to get only a small import quota,” APTI chairman Agus Parmuji said after the meeting. “If a company buys a large amount of local tobacco, the government can give a larger quota. But it should be no more than 20 percent of its total consumption.”

    According to APTI data, leaf imports stood at about 28,000 tons in 2003, but they rose to 90,000 tons in 2010 and to 150,000 tons in 2012, which was about 72.5 percent of local consumption.

    The increase in imported tobacco had resulted in a lower absorption of local tobacco and a decline in prices, Agus said.

    Local tobacco production had reached 247,000 tons annually with prices varying from Rp45,000 (US$3.31) per kg to Rp350,000 per kg, depending on the quality.

    Agriculture Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman said that he would discuss the matter with the Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita.

    “Actually, we talked to cigarette companies last month and they agreed to buy local tobacco at [a] good … price,” he said.

  • Enough is enough

    Enough is enough

    The people of the UK are overwhelmingly opposed to a ban on smoking at home, according to a new poll published yesterday.

    The survey, conducted by Populus for the smokers’ group Forest, found that 76 percent of adults were in favor of people being allowed to smoke in their own homes, while 20 percent were against.

    The online poll of 2,101 adults was commissioned after anti-smoking campaigners called for a debate about smoking in the home. “As a nation, I think we need to have a debate on why we currently think it acceptable to expose non-smokers, including children, to second-hand tobacco smoke within indoor spaces,” Dr. Sean Semple, an academic at Aberdeen University, told the Sunday Times Scotland earlier this month. “I think that debate needs to include smoking in the home.”

    The Times reported also that the chief executive of the anti-smoking group ASH Scotland was seeking a meeting with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations to discuss the possibility of a smoking ban.

    In May, it was reported that council housing tenants in England could be banned from smoking in their own homes under new rules being considered by some councils. “Housing associations and councils are looking at smoke-free housing buildings,” Professor John Middleton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, told the Times. “Where children are involved I think there is a real case for it.”

    But Simon Clark (pictured), director of Forest, said the poll was a reminder that most people didn’t support an extreme anti-smoking agenda.

    “The public understands that punishing adults for smoking in their own home would represent a gross invasion of privacy,” he said.

    “They know too that a ban could only be enforced if neighbours and family members were encouraged to report one another. For most people that’s a deeply disturbing prospect.”

    Clark dismissed claims that anti-smoking groups did not support a ban on smoking at home.

    “I’ve no doubt at all that one of the long-term goals of the tobacco control industry is a ban on smoking in the home, starting with social housing,” he said.

    “Prohibition is part of their DNA. The only way they can hope to achieve their ambition of a smoke free world is to persecute smokers into submission.”

  • Call for smoke-free homes

    Call for smoke-free homes

    In the UAE, 8.5 percent of those 12 to 14 years of age are smokers, according to a story in The National citing UAE University figures.

    The story did not say how smokers were defined.

    A study by the university that was presented at the International Society of Addiction Medicine conference in Abu Dhabi on Friday, was said to have shown that children in the UAE were ‘inhaling their first hit of tobacco aged nine or younger’.

    This had prompted calls for households to become smoke-free, though it wasn’t clear from the story who was making these calls.

    “We should focus on tobacco use at a young age,” said Dr. Syed Shah, an associate professor at the university’s Institute of Public Health. “Otherwise it will be too late.”

    His study looked at 1,186 Arab pupils between the ages of 12 and 18, of which 51.4 percent were Emirati. More than a fifth of boys smoked shisha and 21.9 percent smoked cigarettes.

    Meanwhile, a study of female students at Zayed University by the university found similar results in respect of underage smoking. In the anonymous survey, a ‘significant number’ of the 552 respondents were said to have tried their first cigarette or shisha at age nine or younger.

    “There is a high prevalence now for shisha smoking and I think the most alarming aspect of this is the early onset,” said Dr. Heba Barazi, an assistant professor at Zayed University’s College of Natural and Health Sciences.

    This early onset was consistent with the findings of a World Health Organization survey that was done between 13 and 15 years ago, she said. In other words, little had changed. “In ten years they knew this and nothing has been done about that,” she added.