Tag: Global

Cellulose market smoking
The global cellulose acetate market is predicted to reach 820.04 thousand tons by 2024, ‘driven by the increasing consumption of cigarettes in developing nations and growth in the textile industry’, according to a press note from Hexa Research issued through PR Newswire.
The ‘growing use of cellulose acetate tow in … cigarettes’ was expected to boost the market for cellulose acetate, the note said.
The Asia Pacific region had dominated the global cellulose acetate market in 2016 with a share of 51.79 percent, and it was expected to maintain its dominance over the forecast period.
The region was projected to continue its dominance due to the prevailing cigarette consumption rate in countries such as Indonesia and China.
At the same time, rising awareness of the ill effects of smoking and growth in demand for electronic cigarettes were expected to slow demand for cellulose acetate tow in North America and Europe.
According to Hexa, cellulose acetate is used in many sectors and applications, such as textiles and apparel, cigarette filters, tapes and labels, photographic films, and extrusion and molding.
But cigarette filters comprise the largest application by segment accounting for about 80 percent of the market in 2016.
The cigarette-filter segment was expected to dominate the market over the forecast period owing to increasing demand for low tar filters worldwide, Hexa estimated.
The research can be browsed at: https://www.hexaresearch.com/research-report/cellulose-acetate-market.
September 5, 2017
Asthma, COPD treatable
Although the number of cases of asthma has increased worldwide since 1990, fewer people are dying from the condition, according to an IrishHealth.com story citing a new Global Burden of Disease study that looked at the impact of the two most common respiratory diseases worldwide, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, between 1990 and 2015.
The study found that while the number of cases of asthma increased by 12 percent during this period, from 318 million in 1990 to 358 million in 2015, the number of deaths from the disease fell during the same period by just more than 26 percent, from 550,000 to 400,000.
Asthma is the world’s most common chronic respiratory disease, followed by COPD. However, while there are twice as many cases of asthma as there are of COPD, the death rate from COPD is eight times higher than the death rate from asthma.
COPD is an umbrella term for chronic lung disorders, including bronchitis and emphysema. It is a progressive, disabling condition caused by a narrowing of the airways.
The study found that the number of cases of COPD increased by 44 percent between 1990 and 2015, while the number of deaths increased by more than 11 percent, from 2.8 million deaths in 1990 to 3.2 million in 2015.
The researchers said that many cases of both conditions continued to be left undiagnosed, misdiagnosed or under-treated, even though both conditions could often be treated or prevented with affordable interventions.
The researchers said the main risk factors for COPD were smoking and air pollution, followed by household air pollution, occupational risk (such as asbestos and diesel fumes), ozone and second-hand smoke.
They said there needed to be more public health interventions to reduce air pollution and further reduce global smoking rates.
Meanwhile, the study said that while the causes of asthma were less clear, they included smoking and asthma-causing allergens experienced in the workplace.
The researchers called for more studies into both conditions and said that both needed clearer definitions.
The full story is at: http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=25882.
August 21, 2017
WHO report published
The recently-appointed director general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said that governments around the world “must waste no time in incorporating all the provisions of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [FCTC] into their national tobacco control programs and policies”.
“They must also clamp down on the illicit tobacco trade, which is exacerbating the global tobacco epidemic and its related health and socioeconomic consequences,” he said in a foreword to the latest WHO report on the global tobacco epidemic, which was published yesterday. “Forty Parties are needed for the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, under the WHO FCTC, to come into force. Currently, only a few more Parties are needed for this important step to occur.”
The protocol, which was promoted by the WHO’s previous director general and which was adopted in November 2012, still has not entered into force. At its heart, it calls for the establishment of a tobacco-products tracking-and-tracing system, but a search for ‘tracking and tracing’ in the 135-page report brought up only one oblique reference, in a passage on tax stamps.
In a press note issued alongside the report, which is said to have been ‘made possible by funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies’, the WHO said its latest report had found that more countries had implemented tobacco control policies, ranging from graphic pack warnings and advertising bans to no-smoking areas, though it wasn’t clear what was meant by ‘more’. ‘About 4.7 billion people – 63 percent of the world’s population – are covered by at least one comprehensive tobacco control measure, which has quadrupled since 2007 when only one billion people and 15 percent of the world’s population were covered,’ the press note said. ‘Strategies to implement such policies have saved millions of people from early death.
‘However, the tobacco industry continues to hamper government efforts to fully implement life- and cost-saving interventions…’.
The press note went on to say that FCTC strategies to support the implementation of tobacco-demand reduction-measures, such as the “MPOWER” measures, had, during the past decade, saved millions of people from early death and hundreds of billions of dollars. ‘MPOWER,’ the note said, ‘was established in 2008 to promote government action on six tobacco control strategies in-line with the WHO FCTC to:
- monitor tobacco use and prevention policies;
- protect people from tobacco smoke;
- offer help to quit tobacco use;
- warn people about the dangers of tobacco;
- enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship; [and]
- raise taxes on tobacco.’
The WHO press note is at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/tobacco-report/en/.
The report is at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/255874/1/9789241512824-eng.pdf.
July 20, 2017
Tobacco’s ‘myriad’ impacts
The World Health Organization is set on drawing attention to the ways in which tobacco growth, production and consumption impact human development.
At present, much of what is known about the risks of tobacco concerns the direct impact, in terms of morbidity and mortality, of first-hand and second-hand smoke on people’s health, the WHO says in the executive summary of its new report, Tobacco and its impact: an overview.
‘What we have yet to do as a public health community is draw attention to the myriad other ways in which tobacco growth, production and consumption impact human development,’ the summary said.
‘Understanding the environmental impact of tobacco is important for several reasons. These include the fact that it allows us to gauge some of the risks caused by tobacco production which are currently excluded from estimates of tobacco mortality (such as poor air quality and pesticide use), and its impact more broadly on development – including economic stability, food security, and gender equality.
‘The Sustainable Development Goals show that health cannot be considered in isolation from a host of other factors, of which the environment is one.
‘Recognizing the harmful impact of tobacco in terms of indoor pollution and on biodiversity turns tobacco from an issue of individual well-being to one of global well-being.
‘It also means that tobacco can no longer be categorized simply as a health threat – it is a threat to human development as a whole.
‘This issue requires a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach and engagement.’
The summary said the overview assembled existing evidence on the ways in which tobacco affected human well-being from an environmental perspective – i.e. the indirect social and economic damage caused by the cultivation, production, distribution, consumption, and waste generated by tobacco products.
‘It uses a life cycle analysis to track tobacco use across the full process of cultivation, production and consumption: from cradle to grave – or perhaps more appropriately, to the many graves of its users,’ the summary said.
‘In doing so it draws attention to gaps in the scientific evidence – particularly where the only data available are those currently self-reported by the tobacco companies themselves – and indicates where objective research could hold the greatest benefits to improving understanding of the relationship between tobacco and the environment.
‘Its purpose is to mobilize governments, policymakers, researchers and the global community, including relevant UN agencies, to address some of the challenges identified, and to amplify advocacy efforts beyond health by showing how deep the roots of tobacco really extend.’
The report is at: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/255574/1/9789241512497-eng.pdf?ua=1&utm_source=TMA+Publications&utm_campaign=5c6f2cc53d-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_05_31&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f85a4ca640-5c6f2cc53d-88343737.
June 1, 2017
CORESTA reporting
The CORESTA Secretariat has given details of the documents that it has published and the projects that it has launched since March.
The following documents have been published and can be downloaded from the CORESTA website at www.coresta.org under the Documents section.
- Report “Joint Experiment Technical Study (JETS) Final Report 16/1 Dithiocarbamates in Tobacco” (2017-04-06)
- Method No. 85 “Tobacco – Determination of the Content of Total alkaloids as Nicotine – Continuous-Flow Analysis Method using KSCN/DCIC” (2017-04-06)
- Report “9th Proficiency Test (2016) for Physical Parameters of Cigarettes and Filters” (2017-04-24)
- Guide No. 19 “Responsible Use of Crop Protection Agents (CPAs) in Tobacco Leaf Production” (2017-04-24)
- Report “11th Round Robin Test for Multi-Capillary Pressure Drop Calibration Standards (2016)” (2017-04-27)
- Report “4th Round Robin Test for Multi-Capillary Ventilation Calibration Standards (2015/2016)”
In addition, the following new projects were launched. (A full list of active projects is available on the CORESTA website at www.coresta.org under the Study Groups/Active Projects section)
- Project 140: TAG TF – Tobacco Alkaloid Genetics Scientific Literature Review
- Project 142: EVAP SG – Presentation at ENDS2017 event in London, June 2017
- Project 143: PSMST SG – Guide on Sulfuryl Fluoride – An Alternate Fumigant
- Project 144: PSMST SG – Narcosis Position Paper
- Project 145: PSMST SG – Yellow Residue Position Paper
- Project 147: TTPA SG / Board – CORESTA comments on FDA standard for NNN in Smokeless Tobacco Products
- Project 148: CSM SG – Guide on Smoke Collection of Handmade Long Filler Cigars.
Meanwhile, CORESTA has advised that its April 2017 Newsletter is available for download from its website’s home page.
May 11, 2017
Losing the packaging fight
The Intellectual Property (IP) sector is fighting a losing battle against standardized packaging, according to 93 percent of readers who responded to a World Intellectual Property Review (WIPR) survey.
In a note posted on its website, WIPR said that last week it had noted that: ‘The UK Supreme Court refused to allow an appeal from the tobacco industry, in a final domestic decision on plain packaging’. It had then asked: ‘Is the IP sector fighting a losing battle against standardized packaging?’
One reader replied that health policy would trump IP interests on the issue of tobacco standardized packaging, while another reader claimed that the tobacco industry, rather than the IP sector, was losing the battle.
‘This is excellent news,’ one respondent said. ‘Public health considerations should always trump private profit considerations. Even if there is the slightest chance that plain packaging reduces rates of smoking and the inevitable resulting deaths, then it should absolutely be mandatory.’
The WIPR story is at: http://www.worldipreview.com/news/wipr-survey-ip-sector-fighting-losing-battle-against-plain-packaging-13857
April 26, 2017
Smoking deaths on the rise
The number of deaths attributed to smoking during 2015, at more than 6.4 million, was 4.7 percent up on that of 1990, according to a story in the Korea Herald, citing a Global Burden of Disease report.
The increase was said to be down to the rise in the world’s smoking population.
More than 930 million people were said to have smoked daily during 2015, seven percent more than in 1990, when 870 million were said to be daily smokers.
Smoking was said to cause one in 10 deaths worldwide, with half of those deaths occurring in four countries: China, India, the US and Russia.
China, India, the US, Russia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Japan, Brazil and Germany are said to account for two-thirds of global tobacco use.
April 24, 2017
Children bequeathed lethal environments
Photo by Zaskoda
The World Health Organization says that more than one in four deaths of children under five years of age are attributable to unhealthy environments.
In a press note issued today about two new reports, the WHO said the five main causes of death in children under five years of age were linked to the environment.
‘Every year, environmental risks – such as indoor and outdoor air pollution, second-hand smoke, unsafe water, lack of sanitation, and inadequate hygiene – take the lives of 1.7 million children under five years,’ the press note said, citing the reports.
‘The first report, Inheriting a Sustainable World: Atlas on Children’s Health and the Environment reveals that a large portion of the most common causes of death among children aged one month to five years – diarrhoea, malaria and pneumonia – are preventable by interventions known to reduce environmental risks, such as access to safe water and clean cooking fuels.
‘A companion report, Don’t pollute my future! The impact of the environment on children’s health, provides a comprehensive overview of the environment’s impact on children’s health, illustrating the scale of the challenge. Every year:
- 570,000 children under five years die from respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, attributable to indoor and outdoor air pollution, and second-hand smoke.
- 361,000 children under five years die due to diarrhoea, as a result of poor access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene.
- 270,000 children die during their first month of life from conditions, including prematurity, which could be prevented through access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene in health facilities as well as reducing air pollution.
- 200,000 deaths of children under five years from malaria could be prevented through environmental actions, such as reducing breeding sites of mosquitoes or covering drinking-water storage.
- 200,000 children under five years die from unintentional injuries attributable to the environment, such as poisoning, falls, and drowning.
There was no mention in the press note about the effects of poverty on small children.
March 6, 2017