Category: People

Smoke-free future possible
Philip Morris Singapore (PMS) said recently that about three million smokers had switched to its IQOS device, according to a story on The Online Citizen, which Wikipedia describes, in part, as a community blogging platform involved in political activism in Singapore.
The company, an affiliate of Philip Morris International said that more than 232,000 smokers converted to IQOS globally in July 2017 alone.
‘The number of smokers who switched to IQOS to date is equivalent to about five times the number of people who smoke in Singapore,’ the story said. ‘This proves that a smoke-free future is a concrete possibility.’
Lawrence Chew, general manager of PMS, was quoted as saying the company’s ambition was that all the people who would otherwise continue smoking switch to scientifically-substantiated smoke-free alternatives as soon as possible.
“But we cannot achieve this mammoth task alone,” he said. “All stakeholders of the industry have a role to play. We are encouraged by the growing number of experts and governments that are taking steps to support the role that science and innovation can have for public health, and hope Singapore will too.”
The story said that, recently, the UK, the US and New Zealand had joined a growing number of countries who recognized the need to review the evidence of the potential benefits of smoke-free products for public health, and announced steps to leverage their potential in their plans for a future without smoke.
August 25, 2017
Trying to quit in Scotland
The number of people trying to quit smoking cigarettes has risen by 15 percent in a year in Glasgow, Scotland, according to a story by Caroline Wilson for the Evening Times.
Wilson said new figures suggested the city was making inroads into some key health challenges.
She quoted Glasgow’s director of public health, Dr. Linda de Caestecker, as saying smoking cessation services were now seeing “unprecedented numbers” of people trying to quit.
At the same time, NHS [National Health Service] Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s weight management service had seen a five percent rise in referrals in the past year, while the number of people accessing a service that supported those with an alcohol dependence had increased to more than 5,200.
“Health and wellbeing can be improved not just through medical interventions,” said de Caestecker.
“By offering people access to a range of support services such as money advice, physical activity, weight management support, smoking cessation advice and alcohol interventions, we can ensure people maximise their health and wellbeing.
“Doctors, nurses and therapists in our acute hospitals are routinely identifying patients and their families who are at risk of poverty or inequality and by working with community colleagues and third sector organisations providing families and individuals with the knowledge of where and how to access any additional support they need.”
The board has seen a 79 percent increase in referrals for physical activity support with a large number referred from oncology, cardiac, respiratory and stroke services.
Figures show there has been a 12 percent drop in smokers in Glasgow since Scotland introduced a ban on lighting up in public places.
The smoking incidence has fallen from 37.5 percent to 25 percent, according to figures released by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde last year on the 10-year anniversary of a ban on smoking in public places.
August 25, 2017
Groups exploited
People with mental health conditions (depression, ADHD for example) and substance use disorders are estimated to account for 40 percent of the cigarettes smoked in the US, according to a press note issued by the Truth Initiative.
Meanwhile, it says that 38 percent of military smokers start after enlisting.
‘The much higher than average prevalence of tobacco use among these two groups is not a coincidence,’ the press note said. ‘For decades, the tobacco industry has exploited these, and many other populations, including African-Americans, low-income communities and LGBTQ individuals, to sell its products.
‘While the industry positions this as targeting and consumer choice, the facts reveal a darker pattern of exploitation.’
Truth, which the note described as one of the largest and most effective youth smoking prevention campaigns, is reportedly teaming up with correspondents Ryan Duffy and Kaj Larsen on a new, documentary-styled campaign that will premiere on August 27 during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.
The campaign aims to engage, motivate and activate young people to end ‘this history of exploitation and finish tobacco for good’.
Titled Business or Exploitation?, the campaign is said to expose the tobacco industry’s exploitation of individuals with mental health conditions and members of the military, with startling facts, such as:
- Big Tobacco has given away free cigarettes to psychiatric facilities.
- In the past, a major tobacco company saw the military as an attractive marketing opportunity because of its young adult servicemen that the company described as ‘classic downscale smoker’, ‘less educated’, ‘part of the wrong crowd’, ‘in trouble with authorities’ and having ‘limited job prospects’.
“The tobacco industry makes $37 billion a year selling cigarettes to people with mental illness,” said Robin Koval, CEO and president of the Truth Initiative. “This is a prime example of how the industry sees certain populations solely as business opportunities and exploits individuals with mental health conditions and members of the military. The consequences of these targeting practices are horrendous, killing more than 540,000 people each year, hindering the recovery of those battling mental health conditions and putting the health and safety of our military service men and women at risk. It’s simply shameful.”
August 25, 2017
Altria announces dividend
The Altria Group said yesterday that its Board of Directors had voted to increase Altria’s regular quarterly dividend by 8.2 percent to $0.66 per common share versus the previous rate of $0.61 per common share.
The quarterly dividend is payable on October 10 to shareholders of record as of September 15. The ex-dividend date is September 14.
‘The new annualized dividend rate is $2.64 per common share, representing a yield of 4.1 percent based on Altria’s closing stock price of $63.69 on August 18, 2017,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.
‘Today’s dividend increase reflects Altria’s intention to return a large amount of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and is consistent with Altria’s dividend pay-out ratio target of approximately 80 percent of its adjusted diluted earnings per share.
‘Altria has increased its dividend 51 times in the past 48 years.’
August 25, 2017
HNB tax hike closer
Multinational tobacco companies are decrying what they see as South Korea’s policy inconsistency as lawmakers are poised to pass a revised bill to hike taxes on heat-not-burn (HNB) devices, according to a story in The Korea Times.
Philip Morris International Korea and British American Tobacco Korea said they had launched these smokeless cigarette devices in Korea believing that tax rates and other regulatory standards would remain unchanged for a considerable time.
PMI Korea began selling IQOS in May while BAT Korea introduced Glo this month. Twenty-piece packs of the devices’ consumable items, HEETs in the case of IQOS and Neostiks in the case of Glo, are currently priced at 4,300 won ($3.77).
A pack of 20 traditional tobacco cigarettes retails for 4,500 won.
The two companies argue that the National Assembly’s move to raise excise taxes levied on a pack of 20 HNB sticks from the current 126 won to 594 won is unfair and makes it difficult for them to do business in Korea. Smokers pay a 594 won excise tax when they buy a pack of traditional tobacco cigarettes.
They argue that consuming HNB sticks is less risky than is consuming traditional cigarettes; so it is not fair to impose the same level of taxes on both.
On Tuesday, the National Assembly Strategy and Finance Subcommittee passed a bill revision to increase the excise tax on HNB sticks to 594 won. And both ruling and opposition parties are expected to approve the revision in a plenary session later this month. The change would then go into effect in September.
The lawmakers are also considering a consumption tax and a health-promotion fee for HNB products, which would force PMI and BAT to raise the prices of HEETs and Neostiks to as high as 6,000 won a pack.
August 24, 2017
PMI supports FDA proposal
The chief executive of Philip Morris International has said he is “extremely encouraged” by the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent proposal to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes and nudge smokers toward less harmful alternatives such as e-cigarettes, according to a story by Toni Clarke for Reuters.
The FDA’s announcement was “one of the best articulated positions in many years”, Andre Calantzopoulos was quoted as saying during an interview on Monday.
Calantzopoulos challenged the view of some tobacco control experts that the industry would fight the FDA’s proposal, in court if needed.
He said that lowering nicotine levels was only one part of the proposed policy. The agency had acted also to make life easier for e-cigarette manufacturers.
“I don’t think the issue requires litigation or anything of this nature,” Calantzopoulos said.
“It requires dialogue in order to see what the feasibility is, and most importantly, how all these measures are phased in.”
Clarke’s piece is at: http://www.euronews.com/2017/08/22/philip-morris-international-ceo-cheers-us-fda-tobacco-proposal.
August 23, 2017
FDA urged to ban menthol
Eight US senators have urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban sales of menthol cigarettes, according to a MassLive.com story relayed by the TMA.
In a letter to the FDA, the senators urged the agency to ‘act on the substantial scientific data’ available by exercising its authority under the Tobacco Control Act to prohibit menthol-cigarette sales.
The lawmakers praised the FDA for its work on discouraging youth smoking and raising public awareness of its harms.
But they said menthol cigarettes were a ‘starter product for youth’ and that they posed ‘a public health risk above that seen with non-menthol cigarettes’.
‘Continued delay on this issue will only further worsen this public health crisis, as a new generation of smokers are initiated and become addicted to menthol cigarettes …,’ the senators said.
‘We urge the FDA to use its authority to expediently remove menthol as a flavor additive.’
August 23, 2017
Malawi average ‘good’
Malawi’s 2017 leaf-tobacco grower-prices have been described as ‘good’ by the Tobacco Control Commission’s (TCC) CEO David Luka, according to a story by Grace Phiri for The Nation.
“This season has run smoothly with no market interruptions as well as low rejection rates averaging between 10 and 20 percent,” Luka was quoted as saying.
“Again, prices were good this season as on average the leaf fetched $2.00 (K1,466) per kg against last year’s $1.50 (K1,099) per kg,” he said.
However, while this year’s average price might have been up on that of last season, which was poor; there seems to be a question mark over what were the prices in 2017 and 2016. The story seems to give the grower revenue for 2017 as US$212 earned from the sale of 124 million kg, which would suggest an average price of US$1.71 per kg. And the 2016 revenue on the sale of 194 million kg is given as US$275 million, which suggests an average price of US$1.42 per kg.
The average price of US$2.00 per kg cannot be explained as being the average price for one of the tobacco types because the story gave the various averages as: US$1.36 for dark fired tobacco, US$1.80 for Burley, and US$2.92 for flue-cured.
Even at US$2.00 per kg, the average price was down on that of 2013, for instance, when it stood at US$2.11 per kg, according to an APA News Agency story.
August 23, 2017
Times changing in Japan
The Neighborhood Second-Hand Smoke Victims Society (NSSVS), which is based in Yokohama, Japan, is seeking national or local requirements that, in the case of a complaint about a person smoking on her balcony, landlords and building managers would be obligated to rectify the situation, according to a piece by Casey Baseel on RocketNews24.
Baseel said that while Japan was often referred to as a smoker’s paradise, times were changing, leading to discussions about placing new limits on when and where Japanese smokers could light up.
As part of that discussion, the NSSVS had been formed in the late spring with the aim of protecting people from the dangers and discomfort of passive smoke in and around their homes.
Recently the NSSVS had taken aim at the demographic referred to as ‘firefly’ smokers – smokers who get their name from their custom of going out onto their apartment or condominium balconies to smoke, where the tips of their cigarettes are said to resemble the luminescent insects.
Unless firefly smokers lived on the top floor of their buildings, their smoke naturally rose towards the tenants who lived directly above them.
In the past, Baseel said, this was largely a situation for which the only recourse was to say nothing could be done. But with smoking rates dropping and greater awareness of the health risks associated with second-hand smoke, people who were unhappy about a firefly smoker living below them had become more vocal.
The NSSVS accepts that firefly smokers are indulging their habit while standing on their own property and that making firefly smoking illegal would be difficult. ‘However, it is seeking national or local requirements that, in the case of a complaint about a firefly smoker, landlords and building managers be obligated to take some action to rectify the situation,’ Baseel said.
Baseel’s piece is at: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/08/22/japanese-organization-wants-stricter-regulations-against-people-smoking-on-their-own-balconies/
August 22, 2017
Smoke-free in Kashmir
The government of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) has achieved a major success against tobacco with the Ladakh region’s Leh district having been declared a tobacco-free zone, according to a story by Samaan Lateef for the Chandigarh Tribune.
With the aim of making Kashmir a smoke-free region, the Directorate of Health Services Kashmir (DHSK) under the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) started an anti-tobacco campaign in Leh early this year.
“Due to mass awareness and meetings with civil society members, religious and women[’s] groups, we have been successful in making Leh a tobacco-free zone,” Dr. Rehana Kousar, who is in-charge of the NTCP, Kashmir, reportedly told The Tribune.
However, Kousar said a major success was achieved because of the involvement of women in the anti-tobacco campaign. “The Women’s Alliance is a strong lobby for social change in Leh and its members made the difference in making the region free of tobacco,” she said.
The department had conducted more than 30 awareness camps in schools to ensure the campaign had a long-term impact on Leh society, Kousar said.
And she added that tobacco vendors had been ‘sanitized to stop the sale of tobacco, particularly to minors and around schools’.
According to official data, the incidence of tobacco use in J&K is 26.6 percent, a figure that is said to include cigarette smokers (12.0 percent) and bidi smokers (3.8 percent).
Of the total tobacco users, 41.6 percent are men and 10.3 percent are women.
The average age at the daily initiation of tobacco use is 17.3 years.
Spurred on by the success in Leh, the health department is all set to replicate the campaign in other districts.
DHSK director Dr Saleem-ur Rehman said the anti-tobacco campaign would cover other areas for which public support was needed. “It is not only assignment and motivation of enforcement agencies, but ensuring public awareness and political will to ensure [a] tobacco-free Kashmir,” Rehman said.
August 21, 2017