Category: People

New rules of street-cred
A Macau lawmaker Ella Lei has urged the Government to ban smoking in the city’s main streets, according to a story in The Macau Daily Times.
In a written question to the Government, Lei asked the whether it ‘will consider, in the future, to expand the smoking ban to densely populated outdoor spaces’.
Lei asked if streets near schools, kindergartens and public parks could be made into non-smoking areas.
She asked also whether the government would establish non-smoking streets in some areas.
‘It has become a global trend to expand smoking bans to outdoor public places, especially where children are present,’ Lei wrote.
March 4, 2019
Vaping ‘ordeal’ in Thailand
A French woman who was in Phuket, Thailand, for a family holiday in January found herself in court and later deported, thousands of euro poorer, because of an incident involving a vaping device.
According to a story by Tanyaluk Sakoot for thephuketnews.com, Cecilia Cornu, 31, was caught by police in the resort area of Karon holding an e-cigarette [the picture that accompanied the story seemed to show a heat-not-burn device] on January 30. She had been on a scooter with her fiancée, as her parents and brother followed behind.
Cornu alleged she was stopped by four police officers who snatched the e-cigarette and demanded B40,000 [an allegation that was denied by the police], which she refused to pay.
She was then arrested and taken to Karon Police Station where, she alleged, officers tried to bully her into paying a bribe.
Cornu was charged, her passport confiscated, and a trial date set for February 11. Her return flight was scheduled for the following day.
She posted bail of B100,000 and was released the same day pending trial.
On February 11, Cornu attended Phuket Provincial Court where she was convicted for the offence [presumably of being in possession of a vaping device] and fined B827 (€23).
She was then sent to the Phuket Immigration facility prior to being transferred to Bangkok for deportation.
She said that in Bangkok she spent four days and three nights in a prison cell shared with 60 other women in dire conditions, which included sleeping on a hard, dirty floor with no sheets or mattresses.
Cornu claims the ordeal cost her about €8,000 euros (B286,000) in legal fees and travel expenses.
March 4, 2019
Workers in share-out
Papastratos said yesterday that it would apportion among its workers €1 million in shares in its parent company Philip Morris International, according to a story by Nick Kampouris for The Greek Reporter.
In a statement, Papastratos said it was rewarding its workers for their exceptional performance last year, which had resulted in what was reported as ‘large profits’.
Papastratos noted also that its workers had helped to transform its manufacturing unit into an exclusive production center for IQOS products.
All workers, regardless of their positions, wages or lengths of service, will receive shares worth more than €1,000. Board members will abstain from the share-out, offering their own entitlements to company workers.
Papastratos, which was named Greece’s top employer for 2017, was said by Kampouris to be well-known in Greece for its exceptional relationship with its workers, who often received extra bonuses, benefits and other perks.
March 1, 2019
Enforcing tobacco rules
The Mysuru City administration in the Indian state of Karnataka is aiming to make the city tobacco- and tobacco-smoking-free by ensuring its compliance with the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2003, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.
The authorities aim to enforce strictly COTPA regulations in respect of public transport, educational institutions and public places in general.
The story said that the sale of tobacco products was to be banned within 100 years of educational establishments, and that public venues would have to display prominently ‘no smoking’ signage. It wasn’t clear whether these were new requirements or, more likely, COTPA requirements that were going to be enforced.
In addition, restaurants and bars have been directed to remove designated smoking zones on their premises.
All the administration’s departments and the police were being urged actively to enforce the tobacco control laws.
There was no explanation of why the administration had decided to enforce the COTPA regulations at this time, after, presumably, they had previously not bothered to do so.
It was not stated when the city was scheduled to become tobacco- and tobacco-smoking-free.
March 1, 2019
Few youngsters vaping
Regular vaping among young people remains low in Britain and has plateaued among adults, according to a press note posted on the gov.uk website citing an independent report led by researchers at King’s College London and commissioned by Public Health England (PHE).
The report is said to be the first in a new set of three, commissioned by PHE under the Government’s Tobacco Control Plan for England. ‘It looks specifically at the use of e-cigarettes rather than health impacts, which will be the subject of a future report,’ the note said.
‘The findings show that while experimentation with e-cigarettes among young people has increased in recent years, regular use remains low. Only 1.7 percent of under-18s use e-cigarettes weekly or more, and the vast majority of those also smoke. Among young people who have never smoked, only 0.2 percent use e-cigarettes regularly.’
The note went on to say that regular e-cigarette use among adults had plateaued over recent years, and remained largely confined to smokers and ex-smokers, with ‘quitting smoking’ the main motivation for adult vapers.
Professor John Newton, Health Improvement Director at Public Health England, was quoted as saying that, in contrast to recent media reports in the US, Britain was not seeing a surge in e-cigarette use among young people.
“While more young people are experimenting with e-cigarettes, the crucial point is that regular use remains low and is very low indeed among those who have never smoked,” he said.
“We will keep a close watch on young people’s vaping and smoking habits to ensure we stay on track to achieve our ambition of a smoke-free generation.”
The note said that, despite e-cigarettes now being the most popular quit aid, just over a third of smokers had never tried one. And only four percent of quit attempts through Stop Smoking Services in England were made using e-cigarettes, despite this being an effective approach.
The report recommended that Stop Smoking Services should do more to encourage smokers that want to quit with the help of an e-cigarette.
February 28, 2019
New finance director for BAT
Tadeu Marroco, who is currently British American Tobacco’s director, group transformation, is to succeed Ben Stevens as finance director.
After 30 years with the company, Stevens is due to step down as finance director and retire from the company’s board on August 5.
Before his appointment on August 5, Tadeu will be appointed deputy finance director with effect from March 1, in addition to his current role.
Tadeu joined BAT in Brazil 26 years ago.
February 28, 2019
Concerns over environment
From the moment its seeds go into the ground to the moment its dried and shredded leaves are set alight by the world’s 1.1 billion smokers, tobacco leaves a trail of untold destruction, according to a story at dw.com.
Researchers from Imperial College London are said to have found that the industry’s annual carbon footprint is almost twice that of Wales.
“If we continue to grow tobacco crops to meet the demand, we’ll have huge environmental degradation,” Vinayak Prasad, head of the World Health Organization’s tobacco control program in Geneva was said to have told DW.
The story said that growing and curing tobacco accounted for more than 75 percent of tobacco’s carbon footprint.
But it required plenty of land, water and energy; as well as pesticides and fertilizers that polluted nearby rivers and groundwater, and degraded the soil.
The story conceded that the tobacco industry was a minor offender compared to the big names of global deforestation, such as the palm oil and soybean industries, but it went on to quote Sonja von Eichborn, director of the anti-tobacco non-governmental organization Unfairtobacco, as saying it “has a great impact at the local level, for instance in Tanzania”.
There, she said, tobacco was responsible for up to six percent of annual deforestation, a figure that looked set to increase.
In Pakistan, meanwhile, the WHO says plantations [presumably tobacco plantations] already account for almost 27 percent of yearly deforestation.
February 28, 2019
Slaying the ’50’ myth
In introducing a news story concerning untruths that had been told about vaping, TR yesterday made a reference to the X-Files’ mantra: The truth is out there.
It seems that that reference wasn’t as flippant as it might have appeared to have been. A recent account of misinformation about smokeless tobacco seems to travel deeper into X-Files territory.
Writing on his tobacco truth blog on February 19, Brad Rodu (pictured), who is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Louisville (UoL) warned that smokeless tobacco users were in for harassment ‘this week’: ‘the 30th iteration of the annual Through With Chew orgy of smokeless tobacco misinformation’. (Rodu’s fully-referenced account is here.)
Rodu, who holds an endowed chair in tobacco harm reduction research and is a member of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at UofL, gave as an example a tweet from the US Department of Defense @ucanquit2 account on February 11: “Smokeless tobacco users are 50x more likely to get cheek, gum & mouth cancer than nonusers”.
Rodu responded to what he referred to as ‘this blatant fabrication’ with a Tweet of his own on February 15: “Your 50 claim is a complete fabrication by a staffer @theNCI…” His Tweet referenced the science behind his claims.
After his Tweet was liked by 24 people and retweeted by 13, Rodu reported ‘a strange chain of events’. The Twitter accounts of many of the above were suspended.
The affected individuals pleaded with @TwitterSupport to make amends and, on February 16, Rodu also asked for a correction: “To @TwitterSupport, Pls restore me/others. I am a scientist, 25 years published in this field. My tweet was professional and credible. In 2010 @CarlBialik at @WSJ investigated ‘50’ number and reported it was a fabrication used by @AmericanCancer, others http://tinyurl.com/y6a7ox8a”.
Rodu said that the Twitter-account suspensions were likely to have resulted from a complaint by an authoritative anti-tobacco figure or agency.
Finally, on February 22, Rodu said, Jacob Sullum authored an article on the Reason Hit and Run Blog, ‘Did Twitter Punish Criticism of Government Propaganda About Smokeless Tobacco’ and, a few hours later, affected users reported that their accounts were returned to normal functioning.
The truth is out there. But so are lies.
February 27, 2019
Covering all the bases
Philip Morris last night held a UK launch party for its latest range of IQOS heated tobacco and vaping products.
The launch was held in the basement of the ME on the Strand, London, and the party at the hotel’s Radio Rooftop Bar.
Participants were given the opportunity of listening to a presentation by Dr. Moira Gilchrist, PhD, vice president of scientific and public communications at Philip Morris International about harm reduction and the part that PMI was playing in it by developing products that were underpinned by robust science and research.
IQOS products were displayed and there were static presentations explaining, for instance, the timeline of product development from Accord to IQOS, and why it was that health problems stemmed from the inhalation of the products of tobacco combustion. One such presentation was headed, The Smoking Problem.
In a press note, PM Ltd (UK and Ireland) said that the three new smoke-free IQOS devices were the company’s most advanced to date and had been designed to make it easy for smokers to switch away from cigarettes completely. According to PM Ltd’s MD, Peter Nixon, the new products have been specifically designed to give every one of the UK’s 7.4 million smokers a way to stop “burning tobacco”. “We are confident that our new IQOS range provides the solutions needed to help all UK smokers move away from cigarettes,” he said.
One of the devices presented at the launch was the IQOS3, which was described as the latest version of the heated tobacco device featuring a longer battery life, faster charging and a more ergonomic design.
The IQOS MULTI was described as a new, more compact heated tobacco device that had been designed to provide a different experience to PM’s other devices. With IQOS MULTI, consumers could use 10 back-to-back tobacco sticks before needing to charge the device.
IQOS MESH, for which the UK is its first market, was said to be a premium vaping product that used a replaceable pod containing nicotine liquid. ‘It uses a unique “mesh” rather than the traditional “coil and wick” to offer a more consistent vaping experience,’ PM said. ‘There are seven different flavored pods.’
February 27, 2019
Breathing difficulty
Pregnant women should be breath-tested during antenatal visits to check whether they are smoking, according to a story by Paul Cullen for The Irish Times quoting the findings of a new study.
The study, conducted among women attending the Coombe hospital in Dublin, Ireland, found that women who hid their smoking habit missed out on vital monitoring of their pregnancies and ended up having more problems as a result.
It found a ‘substantial number’ of women with high carbon monoxide levels – an indicator of smoking – had not declared their tobacco use.
An increased level of breath carbon monoxide (BCO) was said to have been associated with lower birth weight of babies and an increased risk of adverse pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.
The authors, with the Coombe and University College Dublin, said this finding strengthened the case for universal BCO screening at the first antenatal visit.
A high reading should result in referral of the woman to smoking cessation services and close monitoring of the baby, they said.
February 27, 2019