Category: People

  • Vaping nicotine legally

    Vaping nicotine legally

    The Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association has issued useful guidelines about how tobacco smokers in Australia can become nicotine vapers – legally.
    In a note posted on its website, the Association starts by stating that vaping nicotine is a less harmful and less costly alternative for adult smokers who are unable to quit.
    Smokers who switched to vaping felt much better, saved money and were exposed to far fewer chemicals than they were when they smoked, it said.
    Most of those who switched needed to use e-liquids containing nicotine, at least initially.
    And it was legal to vape with nicotine in Australia if smokers followed the rules below:

    • ‘Obtain a nicotine prescription from your doctor or other medical service.
    • ‘Order nicotine liquid from a trustworthy international website or an approved Australian compounding pharmacy
    • ‘If importing nicotine liquid, make sure you meet the requirements of the TGA [Therapeutic Goods Administration] Personal Importation Scheme.’
  • Peddling cessation

    Peddling cessation

    The children of parents who have made written promises to quit smoking have received bicycles as part of a campaign carried out by the municipality in Turkey’s southern province of Kilis, according to a Hurriyet Daily News story.
    Nine thousand five hundred bicycles had been distributed so far and a further 5,500 were due to be distributed, Mayor Hasan Kara said during a ceremony on December 24.
    In addressing a group of children, however, he laid down three conditions that had to be met before they could enjoy the official largess.
    The first condition involved making mothers, fathers, grandmothers or grandfathers quit smoking, while the other two involved school performances.
    The mayor advised the children to use bicycle lanes in the city and said he hoped they would enjoy the upcoming winter break.

  • Big Zimbabwe crop

    Big Zimbabwe crop

    Zimbabwe is expecting flue-cured tobacco deliveries to exceed 250 million kg in 2019, according to a Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation story.
    In 2018, flue-cured tobacco deliveries reached a record high of 252 million kg and, whereas the 2017-18 season saw 103,000 farmers register to grow tobacco, the current season has seen 166,000 growers registered.
    The 61 percent increase in growers is not expected to be reflected in the level of production, however, because the increase in registrations is thought to be largely to do with administrative changes.
    The increase in registrations has been influenced by the need for growers to obtain individual numbers so that they benefit from the introduction of foreign currency incentives.
    Changes to the way that payments are made to growers have made it difficult for the them to share money after selling their crops because they are no longer paid cash. The money is now being deposited in bank accounts or paid through EcoCash.
    Tobacco production has been on the increase during the past because of the way the market has been organized and the recent introduction of an input scheme by the government.

  • Turning to exports

    Turning to exports

    The Philippines’ leaf-tobacco industry is putting on a brave face despite Government plans to discourage consumption – and fund the health sector – by raising the excise tax on tobacco products, according to a Business World story.
    While high excise tax rates had a big impact on production figures and livelihoods, they would not kill the industry, said Robert L. Seares, administrator of the National Tobacco Administration. “As long as there is market demand for quality tobacco, our farmers will still continue to produce tobacco,” he said.
    “In terms of profitability, tobacco production is not yet a sunset industry.”
    Seares said that the Philippines’ industry was now focused on achieving a higher volume of exports based on the quality tobacco, particularly Burley, that local farmers could produce.
    “Tobacco leaf production in the Philippines has been reduced to only 48 million kg in 2017 from 65 million kg five years earlier. Our five-year data (2013-2017) shows that the number of tobacco farmers and area planted to tobacco plunged by 40 percent to 34,465, and 43 percent to 22,704 ha, respectively,” Seares said.
    The excise tax rate on cigarettes has been going up and tobacco production has been going down since the passage of the Sin Tax Reform Law in 2012.
    And with another proposed increase in excise, tobacco growers are faced with a serious threat of losing their primary source of income.

  • 2016 law dusted off

    2016 law dusted off

    The Gambia’s 2016 National Tobacco Control Act will be implemented from next month, according to a story in The Point quoting an official at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MHSW).
    The newspaper reported that concerns had been rising because of the delay in the implementation of the Act, which was passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by former President, Yahya Jammeh.
    The Act is meant, in part, to impact the demand and supply of tobacco and tobacco-related products, and incorporate provisions of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
    But since the Act became law, little has been done to enforce its provisions.
    After passing the Act in 2016, legislators recommended that the MHSW should conduct a three-months nationwide public familiarization campaign so that people would be aware of its provisions. But the campaign stalled because of a political impasse that occurred immediately after the 2016 Presidential elections.
    The implementation of the Act was also hit by the campaign’s being inadequately resourced and a change of ministers at the MHSW.
    Meanwhile, Omar Badjie, an official with the MHSW, told The Point that his Ministry was working closely with the Ministry of Justice to finalize the ‘commencement order for the full implementation’ of the Act to take place. This process was due to be completed before the end of December.
    Badjie said that ‘full implementation of the Act’ would ‘commence across the country’ by January.
    He said also that the MHSW and its partners had been conducting a familiarization campaign for the past few months and that the campaign would continue. “Government is fully committed to the implementation of the Tobacco Control Act 2016,” Badjie said.

  • Topical warning

    Topical warning

    New graphic health warnings are expected to start to appear on cigarette packs in South Korea next month, according to a story in The Korea Times.
    They are due to appear also on heat-not-burn products.
    The 12 new images are said to show smokers suffering from ailments such as lung cancer, oral cancer, laryngeal cancer, heart attack and stroke, while carrying warnings about everything from tooth discoloration to premature death.
    South Korea first required graphic warnings on tobacco products in 2016 – warnings that take up at least 30 percent of the top of both of the main faces of cigarette packs.
    The warnings are supposed to be changed every two years.
    The smoking rate among South Korean men aged 19 and older was 20.3 percent in 2018, down from 20.8 percent in 2016, according to government data.
    Separate data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) put the smoking rate of South Korean men aged 15 and older at 31 percent in 2015, the highest among 15 OECD countries surveyed. Japan came in second with 30 percent, followed by Italy with 25 percent.

  • Listening out for smoking

    Listening out for smoking

    Malaysia’s Health Ministry has urged members of the public to act as its ‘eyes and ears’ when its tobacco-smoking ban at all restaurants and eateries is enforced nationwide from January 1.
    Deputy Health Minister Dr. Lee Boon Chye said the public could lodge their complaints directly to the ministry via its telephone hotline.
    “During this enforcement period, it’s important that this is not done just by the ministry but also with the co-operation of the public,” Lee was quoted as saying.
    “The government is widening the scope of non-smoking zones not just to bring down the numbers of smokers but to also protect the rights of those who do not smoke so that they will not be exposed to second-hand smoke …,” he said.
    Lee said the Ministry’s enforcement drive during the first six months would focus on educating the public and restaurant owners to make them aware of the ban.
    However, he added, this did not mean that smokers should regard the ban lightly.
    “After six months, there will be patrols to check on the smoking ban and the public can call the ministry hotline if they see people breaking the law,” he said.
    Asked if the 5,000-strong enforcement team was enough to enforce the ban, Lee said the ministry would strategize the deployment of its officers nationwide.
    He said stern enforcement would be enforced after six months via regular patrols and with the help of the public.
    Although the law is described as banning smoking, restaurant operators can designate smoking zones within their premises, though they must be built three meters away from dining area.

  • Vaping is not smoking

    Vaping is not smoking

    There are no national regulations governing the use of electronic cigarettes in China, though increasing numbers of smokers are turning to these devices, according to a Xinhua News Agency story quoting a China Daily report.
    The Beijing Tobacco Control Association has reportedly received a growing number of reports and complaints about e-cigarettes being used in public places.
    But existing control regulations in the capital city cover only the use in public places of traditional, combustible tobacco products. So while law enforcement officers can impose fines on those who smoke combustible cigarettes in public places, they are powerless to act against those who use e-cigarettes.
    Yang Jie, a researcher at the Tobacco Control Office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, was quoted as saying that e-cigarettes were not considered to be either drugs or electronic products, which created a dilemma in respect of effective supervision.
    The China Daily report quoted a World Health Organization official in China as saying there was a risk of unintended health consequences from exposure to electronic nicotine delivery systems, due to the high nicotine concentration in the e-liquids of some of them.
    And it reported Zhang Jianshu, president of the Association, as saying that his Association believed that many e-cigarettes were harmful to smokers and others, and that it would promote the inclusion of such devices in tobacco control law enforcement.

  • Better health from smoking

    Better health from smoking

    ‘Various civil society groups and other vulnerable sectors’ in the Philippines have appealed to the Senate to ensure the passage of the Universal Health Care (UHC) law that would pave the way for higher tobacco taxes next year, according to a story in The Manila Bulletin.
    In a joint statement, the anti-tobacco-use groups asked the Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman Senator Sonny Angara to start hearing the bills filed by Senators Manny Pacquiao and JV Ejercito.
    “All we want for Christmas is a commitment that the funding gap of the UHC law shall be addressed through higher tobacco tax rates to be passed by our lawmakers as this has been proven to be a successful health and revenue measure,” said New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) president Emer Rojas.
    Meanwhile, Jorge Banal, past president of the Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines (FSCAP) for the National Capital Region (NCR) and Quezon City, said the proposed measure would help further curb smoking in the country, especially among young people and the elderly. “The tobacco tax proposals can help save at least one million Filipinos from the dangers of tobacco smoking,” said Banal.
    And Caloocan PWD Zone Association (CPWDZA) president Nilo delos Reyes, said that having higher tobacco tax rates would mean a better funding source for UHC.
    “The UHC is very promising,” said delos Reyes. “It, however, will need sufficient funding, which the tobacco tax revenue can provide, in order to attain its goal to provide better healthcare for all.

  • Time to register

    Time to register

    Abstracts for oral presentations at the 2019 Global Forum on Nicotine should be submitted by February 10, while those for poster presentation should be submitted by March 31, the organizers have advised.
    Abstracts should be submitted online at: https://gfn.net.co/2019/programme/gfn19-programme-and-abstracts.
    The conference, whose theme is, It’s time to talk about nicotine, will be held at the Marriott Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, on June 13-15.
    It is due to include plenary sessions, symposia, panel discussions, poster presentations, and satellite sessions.
    In an earlier announcement, the organizers said the program committee would use selected abstracts to construct themed sessions.
    Authors, they said, would be informed if their abstracts had been accepted before the posting of the near-final program by April 22.
    Meanwhile, participants have until December 31 to register for the 2019 conference at the same fee as they paid for attending the 2018 conference.