Category: People

Something to chew on
About 5,000 transport-service workers in Mumbai, India, have quit using chewing tobacco by switching to another, tobacco-free chewing product, according to a story in the latest issue of the BBM Bommidala Group newsletter.
The story said that more than 5,500 Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) employees had been found to be regular tobacco users, 90 percent of them chewing tobacco users.
The employees were mostly drivers and conductors.
BEST’s medical doctors reportedly switched the small boxes these drivers and conductors used to carry their mixtures of tobacco, areca nut and slaked lime for canisters containing a mixture of fennel seeds, cinnamon, carom seeds, clove and rice powder.
The replacement mixture was said to be devoid of the health risks associated with tobacco.
The result was that ‘nearly all’ of the drivers and conductors quit their chewing tobacco mixtures and, presumably, continued with the new mixture.
Doctors associated with the project said the new mixture worked because it mimicked the typical chewing-tobacco experiences of rubbing the ingredients in the palm of the hand and holding them in the mouth for long periods.
There was no mention of how, specifically, nicotine addiction was addressed; or, indeed, whether nicotine addiction was ever a factor.
The Ministry of Health is said to be seeking to replicate the experience nation-wide.
February 26, 2019
Lying about vaping
If there is one thing of which the tobacco industry is painfully aware, it is that once public trust is lost, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to gain it back.
And yet, even with the example of the tobacco industry being up there in lights, it’s not unusual to see other industries and businesses handling the truth of their activities carelessly.
But one area of human endeavor must surely be immune to such shenanigans: public health.
Or is it? Writing on his blog, a US public health expert yesterday said that he was pained to have to report that the Pennsylvania Department of Health was urging parents to lie to their children about electronic cigarettes in order to dissuade them from vaping. ‘In addition, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is lying to the public about the dangers of e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes as well,’ said Dr. Michael Siegel (pictured), who is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health.
‘The Pennsylvania Department of Health put out a tweet that read: “E-cigarettes, e-cigs, e-hookahs, mods, vape pens or vapes — whatever you call them, they are NOT safer than other tobacco products”.’
Siegel points out that telling the truth is a critical component of the public health code of ethics. ‘It is important not only because it is unethical to lie, but also because we greatly risk losing credibility and the public’s trust if we are found to be lying,’ he said.
He then goes on to say that it is not true that e-cigarettes are as dangerous as tobacco cigarettes, or that vaping is as dangerous as smoking.
And he ends his piece with some simple truths: ‘The rest of the story is that lying to kids isn’t justified even if it did prevent them from vaping. But it is doing just the opposite, as kids see through the lies and in some ways, it makes vaping more attractive.’
February 26, 2019
Life is taxing
Increasing the excise tax on cigarettes by more than 70 percent to P60 a pack would ‘help’ 3.2 million Filipinos quit smoking, cutting cigarette consumption nationwide by 17 percent, according to a story in The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoting the Department of Finance (DOF).
The excise increase has been proposed in a bill sponsored by Sen. Manny Pacquiao.
In a statement issued yesterday, the DOF said Senate Bill No. 1599 included also its joint proposal with the Department of Health (DOH) to increase tobacco excise by nine percent annually following the initial increase.
At present, the unitary cigarette excise tax stands at P35 per pack, following a scheduled hike in July 2018 under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.
The DOF quoted Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua as saying that joint simulations of the DOF, the DOH, and the World Health Organization had shown that revenues could start to fall if the excise tax were increased above P73 per pack.
Because of this, Pacquiao’s proposal at P60 a pack was expected to be ‘beneficial because it would prompt the youth, the poor and other price-sensitive cigarette users to stop smoking,’ Chua said.
The DOF quoted Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as saying that the Pacquiao bill would prevent about 713,000 deaths and would prompt 3.2 million adults to quit smoking.
February 26, 2019
Tobacco shortfall
Tobacco users’ risk of developing three major types of cancer – lung, larynx and oral – is 109 percent higher than that of non-users, according to a story in The Daily Star citing the results of a recent study.
The Star story went on to say that tobacco users’ risk of developing seven life-threating diseases, including stroke, heart-disease and tuberculosis, was 57 percent higher than that of non-users.
And it said the economic loss caused by the health hazards created by both tobacco usage and second-hand smoke was about Tk305.7 billion (US$3.6 billion) per year.
The study, which involved 10,000 families from all districts of the country, was conducted between July 2017 and April 2018 by the Bangladesh Cancer Society in association with Dhaka University, the American Cancer Society and Cancer Research UK.
The findings of the study, Economic Cost of Tobacco Use in Bangladesh: A Health Cost Approach, were unveiled at a conference at the Dhaka Club on February 23.
More than seven million people over the age of 30 are said to suffer from various diseases related to tobacco use.
The productivity of such people is said to be reduced; they are said to spend a substantial amount of money on treatment and to cause the government’s health-sector spending to rise.
The idea that tobacco made a significant contribution to the country’s economy was ‘only a misconception,’ the study said.
The government received TK22.8 billion during the 2017-2018 fiscal year as revenue from the tobacco sector, it said, but the economic loss caused by tobacco use and second-hand smoke was Tk30.6 billion. The latter figure was said not to have taken into effect the environmental hazards caused by tobacco cultivation and smoking.
To close the gap between income and costs, and to make Bangladesh a tobacco-free country by 2040, the study suggested that Government increased the price of tobacco products by imposing higher tax.
February 25, 2019
Olympic effort on smoking
The Tokyo Organizing Committee of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic games intends to impose a tobacco smoking ban at all indoor and outdoor games venues, according to a story in The Japan Times citing The Yomiuri Shimbun.
Quoting unnamed sources, the Times said it would be the first time that such a measure had been taken at a Summer Olympic Games.
In 2017, the committee announced plans to ban smoking within buildings used for the games. However, at that time, it was still studying a ban on smoking outside the buildings because there had been smoking areas on the premises of the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
According to the sources, the Tokyo committee’s move not to allow smoking areas within the sites of the two games would be line with the wishes of the International Olympic Committee, which promotes smoke-free games.
At the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in 2018, a total smoking ban was imposed on venue sites, but cigarette butts ended up being scattered around entrances. So the Tokyo committee will discuss with local governments, including the Tokyo metropolitan government, what measures will have to be taken.
February 25, 2019
Malawi volume increased
A preliminary report by Malawi’s Tobacco Control Commission (TCC) suggests that this year’s tobacco crop volume, at about 206 million kg, is broadly similar to that of last season, 202 million kg, according to a story in The Maravi Post.
The TCC is due to undertake a second crop survey from February 25 to March 3, and the results of this survey will be used to determine the opening dates for the marketing season.
Speaking in the capital Lilongwe on Tuesday, TCC CEO Kayisi Sadala attributed this year’s increased tobacco volume to last year’s ‘good marketing season’, though Sadala did not say for whom it was good.
And it was noticeable that though the 2018 marketing season was described as good, there was no mention of grower prices, which a Reuters piece in October had said were down by 16.5 percent on those of 2017.
So it would be valid to speculate that the increased volume could be down to a whole range of factors from the weather to poor prices last season having persuaded growers that the only way to increase their incomes was through volumes.
Last month, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World said that a 2016 study had found that only 25 percent of Malawian tobacco farmers were content with the prices they received in 2014, and that about 41 percent of all tobacco farmers had considered switching to alternative crops or livelihoods.
And it seems unlikely that grower sentiment would have changed greatly because the Foundation said also that farm-gate prices of tobacco in Malawi had fallen by 54 percent between 2012 and 2016.
Even given a ‘good marketing season’ in 2017, grower prices are likely to be below those of 2012.
One factor that would tend to indicate that the 2019 season is unlikely to be a good one for growers is that, according to the story, the volume this season is 35 percent up on the 152 million kg that buyers had demanded.
February 22, 2019
Playing the percentages
The Zimbabwe Tobacco Association president Rodney Ambrose has dismissed reports that his organization has rejected the 30 percent foreign exchange retention threshold announced by the Central Bank governor John Mangudya during the presentation of his Monetary Policy Statement on Wednesday, according to a Pindula News story.
An earlier Pindula News report had indicated that the Association’s members had held a meeting on Wednesday night to map the way forward following the position taken by Mangudya.
The report further claimed that tobacco growers had threatened to withhold their crops.
Writing to Pindula News on Thursday, Ambrose said that at no time had it been indicated to any reporter that tobacco growers would withhold their crop if the 30 percent figure was not reviewed.
Also, he said, no meeting of tobacco growers had taken place yet to discuss the matter.
According an earlier story in The Standard, failure by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to make a commitment about how tobacco growers would be paid during the forthcoming marketing season had caused uncertainty in the industry.
Industry players had argued that the recent enthusiasm among farmers for growing tobacco was likely to be reduced if payments for tobacco were made in local currency or with a foreign-currency proportion that would not cover the costs of inputs priced in foreign currency.
Stakeholders in the tobacco industry were said to have met with senior officials at the RBZ to discuss the currency concerns ahead of the presentation of the central bank’s monetary policy statement (MPS), but with no immediate success.
At that time, the Federation for Farmers’ Union president Charles Chabikwa said his personal view was that tobacco farmers wanted more than 20 percent and, if possible, 100 percent payments in foreign currency.
Last year, tobacco growers were reportedly paid 50 percent in foreign currency.
February 22, 2019
Studies have basic errors
A cardiologist and tobacco-harm-reduction researcher has said that widely-reported studies claiming to show that electronic-cigarette use is associated with an increased risk of heart disease are misleading, according to a story by Diane Caruana at vapingpost.com.
“They do not prove an increased risk and of course they do not prove that no such risk exists,” Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos (pictured) was quoted as saying. “They simply cannot address the question of whether e-cigarettes increase the risk for heart disease or not.”
Caruana’s story said that a recently-published study and conference abstract released earlier this month had concluded that daily e-cigarette use, adjusted for smoking conventional cigarettes as well as other risk factors, was associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction.
Media coverage of the conference abstract had stated that E-cigarettes linked to higher risk of stroke, heart attack, diseased arteries.
But Farsalinos responded to these claims by saying that both conclusions were wrong and constituted epidemiological malpractice and misinformation.
Farsalinos said the claims were based on cross-sectional studies, which provided information about whether participants had heart disease and if they used e-cigarettes, but no information about whether the participants initiated e-cigarette use before or after the development of the disease, or for how long. So the participants could have started vaping following a heart disease diagnosis in order to quit smoking and improve their health.
Farsalinos said he was confident that both the authors of the published study and the American Heart Association, which released the press statement for the conference abstract, must be aware that statements about “increased risk” were wrong.
February 22, 2019
Quitting made easier
Electronic cigarettes will not be offered as an aid to help UAE smokers quit their habit until the full health impact of these devices is determined, according to a story in thenational.ae.
This week the Government’s product regulator said that vaping products could be sold legally from mid-April, overturning the current ban.
New regulations are being introduced to ensure product standards are maintained and to help the authorities stamp out the black market in these devices.
But government doctors said the country would not go as far as some nations in promoting the devices to smokers who wanted to quit but who had failed to do so using other methods.
Dr. Mohammad El Disouky, who is in charge of Dubai Health Authority’s smoking cessation clinic, said more long-term research was needed.
“Consumers will now have full details of the chemicals contained in the products and information on how to use them,” he said.
“From a public health perspective, this is a good move as people who are using these products will know they have been legally distributed under supervision from the authorities.
“That will guarantee their content and will restrict what materials some companies are using.
“But legalising and regulating e-cigarettes does not mean they can be offered as a quitting aid for tobacco smokers.”
February 22, 2019
Market forces in action
Luxembourg seems to be bucking the trend. According to a story at delano.lu, cigarette sales last year, at more than three billion, were up by 5.86 percent on those of the previous year.
These figures were provided by Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna, who was responding to a parliamentary question posed by deputy Mars Di Bartolomeo about the sales evolution of cigarettes and other tobacco products in the grand duchy.
He further asked for a comparison of sales with neighbouring countries during the past decade, specifically noting that cigarette sales in France had dropped by more than nine percent following a “sharp rise” in prices of more than €1 a pack.
According to the figures provided in Gramegna’s reply, the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes in Luxembourg is €4.20, a price that did not changed between 2017 and 2018, though it had been increased from €3.20 in 2010.
In France in 2018, a 20-piece cigarette pack retailed at €7.60, providing a price differential of 80.95 percent between France and Luxembourg.
Also in 2018, pack prices in Belgium and Germany were €5.50 and €4.53, respectively, providing price differentials of 30.95 percent and 7.86 percent respectively.
The story said that these figures implied that at least part of the increase of cigarette sales in Luxembourg might have been due to cross-border sales.
The minister was quoted as saying that “the fight against tobacco addiction will be carried on”.
February 21, 2019