Category: Regulation

  • Pagodas ruled no-smoking

    Pagodas ruled no-smoking

    Myanmar’s Public Health Foundation chairperson, Dr. Than Sein, has said that three pagodas in Mandalay will be declared no-tobacco-smoking zones to protect visitors, according to a story in The Myanmar Times.

    He was speaking last week at a workshop on establishing smoke-free areas.

    “Women and children are among the visitors to the pagodas,” he said. “Pregnant women and parents are also among them and thus we plan to ban it. We plan to make those areas free from cigarette smoke.”

    The three pagodas are the Maha Myat Muni Pagoda, which is a tourist attraction site, the Maha Lawka Marrazein Pagoda, where world-heritage-listed stone inscriptions are located, and the Kyauk Taw Gyi Pagoda.

    Pagoda trustee secretary U Kyaw Kyaw Oo said that signboards would be put up stating ‘gain merit by not smoking or chewing betel quid’.

    “If that method fails, we will start imposing fines,” he said. “Details will be discussed with leading monks.”

    The secretary said that no-smoking areas had been declared in the past, but that enforcement had been weak.

    Than Sein said that in time and in co-operation with the other trustees of the board, the no smoking zone would apply to other pagodas.

  • GFN program complete

    The organizers of the Global Forum on Nicotine (GFN) have said that the program for the 2017 event is complete.

    The GFN is due to be held at the Marriott Centrum Hotel, Warsaw, Poland, on June 15-17.

    The main GFN program, which is scheduled for June 16 and 17, will examine the rapidly developing science in relation to nicotine use and the changing landscape, including policy responses and the influence of different stakeholders in this.

    The program will comprise plenary sessions, symposia, panel discussions and poster presentations – including video posters.

    June 15 is scheduled to include the Michael Russell oration, and satellite and side meetings, including one for consumers organised by the International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations.

    It will include, too, the first International Symposium on Nicotine Technology designed to showcase the latest technological advances in alternative nicotine delivery systems, next generation devices and the science behind them (http://isontech.info/).

    The program is at: https://gfn.net.co/2017/programme-details.

    The speakers and chairpersons are at: https://gfn.net.co/home-2017/bios/.

  • WTO upholds plain packs

    WTO upholds plain packs

    Australia’s standardized tobacco packaging law has been upheld by the World Trade Organization after a five-year legal battle, according to a story by Tom Miles and Martinne Geller for Reuters.

    The Reuters story cited a Bloomberg news report that, in turn, cited ‘two people familiar with the situation’.

    Although the WTO’s ruling is not expected to be made public until July, a ‘confidential draft’ said Australia’s laws were a legitimate public health measure, Bloomberg was said to have reported.

    A spokeswoman for British American declined to comment on the ruling until it was made public, but suggested the complainants would keep fighting.

    “As there is a high likelihood of an appeal by some or all of the parties, it’s important to note that this panel report is not the final word on whether plain packaging is consistent with international law,” she said.

    A spokeswoman for Japan Tobacco also declined to comment on the ruling, but said the fact that the draft had been leaked was disconcerting and a breach of WTO rules.

    “Such breaches completely undermine the integrity of the process, which has not yet run its full course,” she said.

    The Reuters story said that the plodding pace of WTO decision-making prompted Australia, which had the backing of the World Health Organization, to complain that its challengers were deliberately stalling the proceedings, producing a ‘regulatory chilling’ effect on other countries wishing to follow its example.

    Nevertheless, such a ruling from the WTO is likely to be interpreted as giving a green light for other countries to introduce similar laws in respect of tobacco products.

    It could have implications also for other products deemed to cause health problems, such as alcohol, junk food and sugary drinks.

  • Looming health concerns

    Looming health concerns

    The fundamental right to health in the UK will be lost if the government proceeds with its plan not to convert the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights into UK law, as announced in the white paper on the Great Repeal Bill, according to an editorial in the British Medical Journal by Peter Roderick and Allyson M. Pollock

    ‘The value of this charter was shown last year, in both EU and UK courts, when the tobacco industry unsuccessfully challenged the new rules on plain packaging of cigarettes,’ the editorial said.

    ‘One of the industry’s arguments was that the rules violated its rights. Both the EU Court of Justice and the High Court in London used the right to health in article 35 of the charter as a counter weight to that argument.

    ‘Mr Justice Green made the strongest judicial statement yet in the UK on this critical point: [Tobacco regulations] are health measures. This is an area of legislative activity to which immense importance is attached and legislatures and decision makers are habitually accorded a wide margin of appreciation. Health is recognized as a fundamental right. Article 35 of the Fundamental Charter identifies access to health care as a fundamental right but also [original emphasis] makes a statement as to the weight to be attached to this right, namely “high.”‘

    The editorial said that the government’s proposal not to maintain the fundamental rights charter meant that after Brexit it would not be possible for a UK judge to use article 35 or other charter rights when interpreting UK laws that had derived from the EU. ‘These include laws to protect public health such as on pesticide residues in food, health and safety at work, management and disposal of hazardous substances, regulation of medicinal products, and air and water quality,’ it said. ‘The change will considerably weaken the ability of judges in future to uphold the law if it is challenged by industry in the courts.’

    The editorial is at: http://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2013.

  • US vapor bill introduced

    US vapor bill introduced

    Duncan Hunter, a member of the US House of Representatives, has introduced the Cigarette Smoking Reduction and Electronic Vapor Alternatives Act that, if passed, would amend the Food and Drug Administration’s deeming regulations by separating vapor products from tobacco products, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune relayed by the TMA.

    In addition, the act would formally incorporate the concept of ‘harm reduction’ into the FDA’s mission by requiring the agency to support nicotine-delivery products.

    And while the FDA would still have regulatory authority over the industry, provisions such as pre-market tobacco applications, modified risk assessments and qualification systems would be replaced with the American E-Liquid Manufacturing Standards Association requirements.

    Hunter was quoted as saying that by introducing these standards the bill would make vaping safer. He said that under the proposals e-liquids, atomizers and coils would all have standards.

    The vapor industry has argued that the current FDA certifications would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per individual product, putting small and medium-sized vaping companies out of business.

    Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, said that though he liked the bill’s intent, the Cole-Bishop amendment, which would exempt nearly all existing vaping products from the FDA’s deeming rules, was a better option.

  • Plain packs persuasive

    Plain packs persuasive

    Standardized cigarette packaging could persuade 300,000 people in the UK to quit smoking, according to a story in The Guardian citing a review by scientists at the independent health research organization Cochrane.

    The 300,000 estimate is based on the experience in Australia, the first country to introduce standardized packaging, being repeated in the UK.

    Standardised cigarette packaging will be compulsory in the UK from May20.

    The Guardian story said that the review of the impact of standardized packaging ‘around the world’ had found that it does affect the behaviour of smokers.

    ‘The Cochrane reviewers found 51 studies that looked at standardized packaging and its impact on smokers, but only one country had implemented the rule fully at the time,’ the Guardian story said. ‘Australia brought in plain packs in 2012.

    ‘Analysing the evidence from Australia, the team found a reduction in smoking of 0.5 percent up to one year after the policy was introduced. According to the Australian government, that translates to 100,000 people no longer smoking. The decline was attributable specifically to plain packaging, after taking into account the continuing drop in the numbers of smokers caused by other tobacco control measures.’

    Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce of the Cochrane tobacco addiction group at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences said: “We are not able to say for sure what the impact would be in the UK, but if the same magnitude of decrease was seen in the UK as was observed in Australia, this would translate to roughly 300,000 fewer smokers following the implementation of standardized packaging.”

    The full story is at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/27/plain-cigarette-packaging-could-drive-300000-britons-to-quit-smoking.

  • Graphic health warnings

    Graphic health warnings

    Laos’ Ministry of Health has said that, as of May 1, all domestic and imported cigarette packs must carry graphic health warnings ‘covering 75 percent of the packaging’, according to a Xinhua News Agency report.

    “If we find violations of this regulation, the violators will be warned, have their products seized, fined or have their business license suspended,” Phat Keungsaneth, head of the Secretariat to the National Tobacco Control Committee, said yesterday.

    “We expect that in three months, cigarette products circulated in the market that are yet to be labeled with health warnings will disappear and [be] replaced with those with pictorial warnings affixed on the packaging.”

    Phat said other countries that had signed the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control had introduced such warnings.

    The move would promote public awareness of health hazards and the menace of smoking cigarettes and inhaling second-hand smoke.

    “These efforts will help the government inspect and prevent smuggled cigarettes and promote health protection among the general public, especially from non-communicable diseases,” Phat reportedly told the Lao News Agency.

  • Smoking ban concessions

    Smoking ban concessions

    Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is considering expanding the number of exemptions that would be allowed to proposed regulations restricting tobacco smoking in restaurants, according to a story in the Mainichi Daily News.

    The move marks a shift for the ministry that has been brought about by a backlash from some Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers.

    The ministry had earlier said it could not comply with requests for further exemptions to its public-places, smoking-ban proposal because Japan would rank second to bottom on a four-tier World Health Organization scale even under the current proposal.

    However, the ministry, with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in mind, has prioritized passing legislation during the current Diet session.

    In addition, it is believed that some officials within the government and ruling political parties wanted to avoid the topic becoming an issue during the Tokyo Metropolitan government election scheduled for this summer.

  • Heart attacks fall in Calgary

    ambulance photoThe rate of cardiac arrests in the Canadian city of Calgary fell following the introduction of public-places tobacco smoking bans a decade ago, according to a story in the Calgary Sun citing provincial health care data.

    But opinions differ on whether it can be said that this fall was caused by the bans.

    A prohibition on smoking in public places went into effect in the city on January 1 2007, and was extended province-wide the following year.

    Emergency department visits due to heart attacks in the city of Calgary went from 154.8 per 100,000 people in 2006 to 79 in 2007, a 49 percent drop. And the number of such visits fell to 44.4 by 2015, a total drop of 71 percent in nine years.

    In the province of Alberta, the number of heart attacks per 100,000 dropped 11 percent from 222.3 in 2006 to 198.6 the following year, and then to 142.6 in 2015, an overall drop of 36 percent.

    Alberta Health and Wellness said it was not clear what could be credited with the fall in  emergency department visits due to heart attacks. Exercise and diet patterns might have played a hand, as could the shrinking number of smokers.

    According to the Canadian Cancer Society, smoking rates in Alberta fell from 23 percent in 2003 to 18 percent in 2015. “We cannot be sure whether decreases since 2008 are caused by the introduction of smoking bans in public places,” the society said.

    But anti-smoking activist Les Hagen, who was said to be with the group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said there was little doubt the smoking bans had played a role bigger than that of any other lifestyle changes.

  • Smoking bans an Olympic effort

    Tokyo photo
    Photo by osamukaneko

    Ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has drafted a set of measures calling for a tobacco smoking ban on the premises of public facilities such as schools and hospitals, and imposing penalties on violators, according to a story in the Japan Times. However, differences of opinion between opponents and proponents of the measures within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is casting a pall over the measures’ prospects.

    The Times said that the crux of the issue lay in the contradictory policies that the government had pursued by trying to secure tobacco sales as a major source of tax revenue while simultaneously seeking smoking restrictions to protect public health. ‘What the government has been doing is tantamount to hitting the accelerator and the brakes at the same time,’ the Times story pointed out.

    The health ministry’s proposed measures would create three types of areas where smoking would be restricted or prohibited, with a proprietor violating the rules subject to a maximum fine of ¥500,000.

    The most strict rules would be applied to such facilities as medical institutions, elementary, junior-high and high schools, and child welfare centers, where smoking would be completely banned.

    Indoor smoking would be prohibited in such public venues as government offices, universities and sports facilities, and creation of smoking rooms would not be allowed in these places.

    In areas where indoor smoking would be banned ‘in principle’, such as restaurants and hotels, proprietors would have the freedom to create smoking rooms.

    The health ministry’s plans were compiled as a necessary step to prepare for the 2020 Games, but an outline of a draft of the measures released in October came under fire from industries that would be affected by the measures.

    “Owners of restaurants, coffee shops and bars fear that the new rules could force them out of business,” said Toshio Omori, head of a national confederation of trade organizations in food, beverage and other services.

    And Tadao Kikuchi, chairman of the Japan Food Service Association, said association members already provided customers with choices by designating smoking and non-smoking areas. The proposed rules, Kikuchi said “run counter to the diversity of the food and beverage industry and customers’ ability to choose what they like”.

    Some opponents of the measures have said that since they are being brought in because of the 2020 Games, they should be limited to Tokyo.

    The full story is at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2017/04/23/commentary/japan-commentary/poverty-politics-tobacco-policy/#.WPyqwLsrK2w.