02 juillet 2008
Tobacco products and tobacco industry
Commercially available in cured, dried and natural forms, it is often smoked in the form of a cigarettes, cigar or in a stem pipe, water pipe, and hookah.
Tobaccois an product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. Tobacco had already been used in the Americas when European settlers arrived and introduced the practice to Europe, where it became hugely popular. With the arrival of Europeans, tobacco became one of the primary products fueling the colonization of the future American South, long before the creation of the United States. The initial colonial expansion, fueled by the desire to increase tobacco production, was one cause of the first colonial conflicts with Native Americans and became a driving factor for the use of African slave labor.
Many countries set a minimum smoking age, regulating the purchase and use of cigarettes. All methods of tobacco consumption result in varying quantities of nicotine being absorbed into the user's bloodstream. Over time, tolerance and dependence develop. Absorption quantity, frequency, and speed seem to have a direct relationship with how strong a dependence and tolerance, if any, might be created.
The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of buy cigarettes-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any warm, moist environment, which means it is farmed on all continents. Tobacco is a commodity product similar in economic terms to foodstuffs in that the price is set by the fact that crop yields vary depending on local weather conditions. The price varies by specific species grown, the total quantity on the market ready for sale, the area where it was grown, the health of the plants, and other characteristics individual to product quality. Laws around the world now often have some restrictions on smoking but, still 5.5 trillion cigarettes are smoked each year. Taxes are often imposed heavily on tobacco.
The tobacco industry is heavily dominated by giant firms. Due to historical growing areas, many of these companies are concentrated in the southern United States, particularly Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia. Other companies are based around the world. Tobacco advertising is becoming increasingly restricted around the world.
30 juin 2008
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco names Gilchrist
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has named Andrew Gilchrist executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief information officer, effective July 1.
Gilchrist, who has served as senior vice president and chief financial officer since 2006, will replace Donald Lamonds, who is retiring Aug. 1 after 30 years.
Gilchrist joined Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. in 1997 and held a number of management positions there and with the company's former parent company, British American Tobacco. Gilchrist later held executive positions at R.J. Reynolds or its parent company, Reynolds American Inc.
Kirsten Valle
County officials have issued a stop-work order for the luxury condo tower at the EpiCentre, a project already brought to a standstill because of a dispute between the EpiCentre and its residential building's developers.
Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement announced the order Thursday, citing safety reasons. Work on the 50-story 210 Trade building stopped in February, with two floors built, because of a disagreement over technical building-code issues.
The dispute has prompted lawsuits from both affiliates of Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties, which is developing the condo tower, and the Charlotte-based Ghazi Co., which is developing the rest of the EpiCentre, a high-profile mixed-use complex being built at Trade and College streets.
The county's stop-work order, which affects the residential portion of the project only, will remain in place, with decisions on the remaining issues deferred until Sept. 15, according to a news release. Code enforcement Director James Bartl said the order simply keeps developers from starting work again without talking to the county. The building's final certificate of occupancy will not be issued until the code issues are resolved, the release said.
The code enforcement office and Charlotte Fire Department have seen “some evidence over the past 15 days that the owners of the property are considering taking steps to resolve their code issues,” the release said. The county's decision allows those groups to continue to work toward solving the problems, it said. Kirsten Valle
20 juin 2008
Imperial Tobacco Plans to Cut thousand Jobs in Europe
Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, Europe's second-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, plans to cut 2,440 European jobs after buying Altadis SA for 12.6 billion euros ($20 billion) earlier this year.
Six of 58 factories will shut as staff numbers fall by about 6 percent, Imperial said today. The plants slated for closure are located in its hometown of Bristol, England, as well as Spain, France, Germany and Slovakia. The maker of Davidoff cigarettes fell 3.3 percent in London trading as the plan failed to persuade some analysts to lift their savings estimates.
Western European tobacco companies have eliminated jobs as governments restrict smoking and advertisements. Gareth Davis, Imperial's chief executive officer since the company was spun off from Hanson Plc in 1996, has beat cost-savings goals consistently since the cigarette maker bought German rival Reemtsma in 2002 and then cut 4.4 percent of its jobs.
Expectations for today's announcement ``got carried away,'' wrote Jonathan Leinster, an analyst at UBS in London, who repeated his ``sell'' rating on the stock today. He left his savings estimates unchanged and said he's ``not satisfied'' with expense reduction related to the Altadis merger.
Almost half of the job cuts, or 1,060 positions, will take place in France, equating to almost a quarter of Imperial's local payroll. The company stuck to forecasts for expenses of 600 million euros for the reductions and plant closings and annual cost savings of 400 million euros by the year through September 2012.
Shares Retreat
Imperial fell 64 pence to 1,879 pence in London trading. The stock has declined 20 percent in 2008 after rising more than sixfold in the prior eight years.
The cigarette maker will need to negotiate with unions over the job cuts and gain approval from the French and Spanish governments. Plans to reduce payrolls have sparked strikes this year by French workers from hospital staff to employees of newspaper Le Monde.
``They're brutally tearing the company apart,'' Jorge Tome, a representative of Spain's Comisiones Obreras union, said in an e-mailed statement. ``Once again they're showing that the only thing that counts is profit and not a social commitment.''
The takeover of Madrid-based Altadis added about 27,000 employees to Imperial's work force. The Iberian company, which was formed when Spain and France merged their tobacco monopolies in 1999, makes cigarettes under brands including Gauloises and Gitanes and also is the world's largest cigar manufacturer.
Electronic Cigarette Lights Up
They just won’t stop nagging. No matter how
many excuses you come up with, some individuals will still go on and on about
how smoking is dangerous for your health. But people know the risks that come
with cigarettes. Some choose to ignore them while some try to create a healthy
lifestyle for themselves by cutting back or quitting altogether. One new
invention has created the opportunity to making those cutbacks easier.
The SuperSmoker is an electronic cigarette that contains no tobacco whatsoever. It doesn’t need to be lit, there’s no combustion, no tar or real smoke. As an alternative cigarette, the SuperSmoker uses a vaporization chamber and a disposable cartridge that contains a small amount of nicotine. To operate it, all a person has to do is simply inhale as there is no on or off switch.
Since it is an electronic device, it runs on batteries and cartridges. Available in various concentrations of nicotine, each cartridge is equal to 15-20 cigarettes. The product also comes with a battery charger as it has to be charged after one day of regular use.
The electronic cigarette is a great alternative because it’s free of certain health hazards. When you exhale, condensation is released instead of smoke. The cigarette also prevents nicotine poisoning as it has a security system that stops automatically for 30 seconds after 15 inhalations.
Legally used in public areas in the UK, the SuperSmoker is a great alternative to ordinary cigarettes. The device contains no tobacco, helps make sure that you’re not overusing and causes no hazards to the people around you.
04 juin 2008
Feedback: Cigarette Tax Goes Up
Smokers in New York now pay the highest tax on cigarettes in the country.
The latest increase of $1.25 means smokers will be paying a total of $2.75 a pack just in taxes.
The average cost of a pack of smokes is now just under $7 statewide.
In New York City, which has its own cigarette tax, the cost of a pack could soar past $10.
The state health commissioner thinks the increase will convince an estimated 140,000 New Yorkers to stop smoking.
But, Francis Gray of Gray’s Wholesale in Clayton doesn’t think it will make people kick the habit.
He supplies cigarettes to north country retailers.
About 50 percent of his annual business comes from cigarettes.
He says the last time the state increased taxes on a pack of smokes six years ago, his sales dropped 15 to 20 percent.
Now Gray is bracing for the same downturn.
He says the higher tax will just drive smokers toward places that don’t charge the tax: Native American stores and bootleggers.
“We make a few more cents a carton, but the volume goes down. New York state collects more on each carton, but they have fewer cartons to collect it on because all of the illegal cigarettes and the cigarettes from the reservation - they’re collecting zero on,” said Gray.
State officials also say the increase should bring in $265 million a year in additional revenue.
Cigarette taxes already generate more than $1 billion for the state.
Fire-safe cigarettes?
Cigarette-related fires are a leading cause of home-fire fatalities in the United States, according to numerous safety groups. Each year 700 to 900 people lose their lives because of fires caused by cigarettes.
A new law in New Jersey, however, may help to bring that number down with the introduction of self-extinguishing cigarettes.
According to New Jersey's Division of Fire Safety, 204 fires were started by the improper use of smoking materials in 2006. The study also says 14 percent of fire fatalities in the state that year were caused by cigarettes.
The new cigarettes, being sold as of June 1, will have extra band of paper around them that puts out the cigarette if it isn't being puffed.
Officials hope the law will prevent fatalities and damage caused by cigarette-related fires. Stores selling non-complying cigarettes could face penalties of up to $250,000.
Smokers say they like the new law but not the new taste. Meanwhile cigarette companies say that the health risks, other than the risk of fire, remain the same.
02 juin 2008
Mobiles and Cigarettes
Mobiles and Cigarettes refers to the many similarities that I have noticed over this time. Many similarities become obvious as one thinks about the comparison. A phone is compared to the collection of individual cigarettes, the pack and also the matches or lighter.
Topics covered include sociology of cigarette use, social shaping of health scares, industrial structure and political influence, advertising, cultural images, gender and age issues etc.
Phones have replaced cigarettes as the thing people fiddle with
* When nervous, waiting for a to meet or hear from someone, or trying not to look out of place
* They are a distraction from loneliness, insecurity, nervousness
They are used to fill time waiting
* smoking or calling when waiting for the bus
We often have to go outside a building or room to use them.
* We cannot get reception, or, as with cigarettes, we are not allow by explicit or implicit rules to use them indoors.
* The little crowd of smokers and phoners is a common sight. However smokers are united by their activity, phoners separated.
They are displayed in public places
* When put on the table in a pub or café they have brand and model status
* They must be near at hand - for the next call or next smoke.
* A group of smokers all get out their cigarettes packs and put them of the table when the sit down. Phoners do the same thing.
They are associated with certain stereotypes
* The socially successful - the peron everyone wants to know.
* E.g. the sophisticated business person/socialite (advertisers preferred)
* E.g. beautiful people having fun
* Actually used by: many people
* The spotty teenager on the bus
They are used in characteristic ways by different people
* Discretely, hidden in hand, back turned
* Elbow stuck out the side - characteristic of overweight lorry drivers, to use a blatant stereotype!
* If you use two at the same time you probably have a problem.
They are lent and borrowed
* Friends think nothing of letting each other make calls or buy cigarettes.
* Except when there are hardly any left.
* One person with a phone or pack is enough for a whole group on an outing.
They are seen as antisocial in many public or social contexts
* They both annoy other people around the user.
* There are social codes about when it is appropriate to use
* Those that control social spaces make rules to restrict anti-social behavior, especially banning use, or restricting to certain areas. See below.
They are highly social
* They are an essential part of flirtation
* They are a point to start conversation
* They are used to note phone numbers
Teenagers want them
* Use them to show off/build identity
* They are often one of the few personal possessions of young people.
* Starting smoking and getting a mobile phone, were/are important boundary markers in growing up
* They make/made up a key part of youth culture.
* They can be subversive.
* They are banned in schools (phones), smoke
* Catch 'em young
Their use is banned in many of the same places because of social interference or technical interference, or danger of fire.
* Theatre
* Hospital
* Railway carriages (smoke, phones)
* Petrol stations
* Parliament
They can cause fires - (phones by explosion)
Actually there is no evidence for this with phones, but that does not put off certain 'licensing authorities' from banning them on these grounds, such as in European filling stations.
They have highly disputed health issues.
* There are government studies
* Corporate denials
* Hidden patents and research
* There is a whole range a device to make them 'safer'
* Companies do not like to advertise 'safer' versions as that implies existing versions are dangerous
* Heavy users and children are most at risk
They are dangerous to use when driving
* One takes ones eyes and mind off the road to initiate use, and to hold them
* They both use the in car power socket
* Arkansas has banned smoking in cars with young children
There are important 'class' issues over use
* Different parts of the population prefer different brands
* Nokia - teen, young, more female
* Ericsson - company people, engineers, boring men
* Motorola - more sophisticated
Smaller versions are
* More feminine (packs of buy cigarettes )
* More discrete
* Are for lighter users (number of cigarettes online, battery size, functions)
Gender differentiating in branding and design
They both are associated with small pictures of popular culture
- Logos, discount cigarettescards
You go to the newsagent/tobacconist to buy them
They have similar industrial characteristics
* The industries both have huge political lobbies
* They contribute lots of revenue to governments though tax
* The industries are both highly regulated
* The industry is made of multinationals
* The growth markets are in the developing world
* In developing countries tobacco and telecoms have often been state enterprises
26 mai 2008
Imperial Tobacco can scent victory overseas
I CAN’T help but wonder what Winston Churchill would have made of the smoking cigarettes ban in the UK.
After all, he was once noted as saying that he treated smoking cigars and drinking alcohol as an absolute sacred right to be taken before, after and if need be, during all meals and in the intervals between them.
But in the 21st century killing yourself slowly with fags has gone out of fashion. The business is just about alive and kicking in the UK and yesterday Imperial Tobacco announced one of the biggest rights issues in the City.
Asking for just under £5bn to repay some of the debt owed for a recent purchase, the owner of Embassy and French heavyweight Gauloises is offering shareholders a 43% discount on Monday’s close.
As smoking in the UK wanes, continental Europeans appear to insist on the obligatory Gitanes, scooter and espresso as part of their lives. Likewise in the emerging economies there seems little support for the anti-smoking lobby. The future then may be rather bright, if not short lived.
Meanwhile the FTSE 100 fell back as one analyst predicted a ten to twenty percent fall in the short term in mining stock. The miners have been fuelling the rally since March and now look expensive. On cue, the sector fell with BHP Billiton leading the way with a fall of 4.4%.
Some other news from the trading rooms suggested that shareholders in Royal Bank of Scotland were selling their holdings to raise cash for the impending rights issue.
A sweet move really as there are lingering worries about the ability of the bank to shore up its balance sheet and concerns over the real value of the sale of its insurance subsidiary.
Happily not everyone has suffered in the last year. For Icap the time has been something of a purple patch with profits up nearly a third.
“Who is Icap?” I hear you mutter.
Well, the company is the world’s largest interdealer broker and transacts over $1 trillion every day.
This would probably pass most private investors by as the firm only deals with counterparties such as banks and others operating in the wholesale market. The company believes the worst is over and still anticipates growth.
20 mai 2008
Imperial Tobacco First-half profit falls; says FY08 performance remains in line with forecast
Imperial Tobacco Group reported that profit for the first half of fiscal 2008 was GBP 240 million, lower than GBP 421 million last year. Profit attributable to equity holders declined to GBP 233 million from GBP 421 million a year ago. Earnings per share fell 44% to 34.5 pence from 62.1 pence last year.
Excluding items, the company's adjusted earnings were GBP 487 million or 72.1 pence per share, higher than GBP 414 million or 61.1 pence per share in 2007.
Pre-tax profit was GBP 326 million, down 42% from last year. Adjusted pre-tax profit climbed 22% year-over-year to GBP 680 million.
Total revenues surged 38% to GBP 8.06 billion from GBP 5.85 billion last year.
cigarettes volumes grew 34% from last year to 121.1 billion, Cigars volume rose 106% to 1.14 billion, and fine cut tobacco volume increased 3% to 11,650 tones.
The cigarettes company noted that the results included the contribution from Altadis since completion of the acquisition on 25 January 2008.
Further, the company said its Board declared an interim dividend of 24.0 pence, up 14% from 21.0 pence in 2007. The dividend will be paid on 8 August 2008 to those shareholders on the register at the close of business on 6 June 2008.
Looking ahead, the company said it expects to achieve annual revenue synergies from the Group's enhanced operating platform and brand and product portfolios.
The company also confirmed that overall anticipated performance of the Group for the financial year 2008 remains in line with its expectations at the time of March trading update.
The company said its Board now believes that the Group will be able to generate annual operating efficiencies of approximately 300 million euros by the end of the financial year 2010, rising to approximately 400 million euros by the end of the financial year 2012.
The Board also believes that annual net revenue synergies of approximately 60 million euros will be generated by the end of the financial year 2011.
16 mai 2008
Asian-American communities especially hurt by tobacco
According to the World Health Organization, tobacco use is the number one preventable cause of death on planet earth. Over 5 million people die thanks to tobacco worldwide. In America, smoking kills over 1000 people a day. And here in our most health-conscious state, California, over 40,000 people die from their addiction to nicotine every year. 
Smoking hurts everyone and helps no one, but the numbers tell a depressing story in Asian-American communities in particular. Research has shown that the numbers of deaths due to cancer is rising faster in Asian Americans than in any other ethnic group. In addition, lung cancer rates are 18 percent higher among Southeast Asian men than for Caucasians. And Asian American and Pacific Islander females are actually the only racial, ethnic or gender group in the nation for which cancer is the leading cause of death. In 2005, 1 out of 5 Asian American males smoked. Here in California, 36 percent of Korean American men and 32 percent of Vietnamese American men smoke Marlboro cigarettes. Among Marlboro cigarettes smokers in California and Hawaii, Native Hawaiians and other Polynesians are more susceptible to and have higher incidence rates of lung cancer (263.9/100,000) than Whites, Japanese Americans, and Latinos. The numbers don’t tell the story of the pain that these grim numbers symbolize for our families and friends.
The emotional trauma that this health crisis has caused is difficult to fully comprehend. But the financial costs, on the other hand, are easily quantifiable. In a time of growing state budget deficits and new strains on our health care system, it is easy to see that the treatment of smoking-related diseases creates significant costs in the health system and society-at-large. The Governor estimates that smoking results in $8.6 billion in direct medical costs and $7.3billion from lost productivity due to illness and premature death, thanks to smoking.
Any rational plan to reduce health care costs will try to prevent children from becoming the smokers that will need such costly health care. But we must not forget those that currently smoke. We must to everything in our power to give smokers the tools they need to quit. That means requiring comprehensive insurance coverage to help people quit. Specifically: coverage for evidence-based and linguistically-appropriate counseling services and Food and Drug Administration-approved medications.
12 mai 2008
Kentucky tobacco payments could hit $359M by 2010
Kentucky can expect to receive nearly $359 million in the next three years from a national tobacco settlement that has helped fund projects from horticultural production to water and sewer infrastructure.
An estimated $117.5 million from the 1998 settlement agreement is expected to be sent to the state this fiscal year, with about $115 million already received, legislative staff told the General Assembly's Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee on Thursday in Frankfort.
The amount is more than the approximately $103 million the state received from settlement in 2006.
According to a news release from the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission, Kentucky should receive an estimated $120 million in 2009 and $121.6 million in 2010. The actual payments depend on the amount of Marlboro cigarettes sold by tobacco companies, inflation, payments to states that were not part of the national settlement and market share.
Under a Master Settlement Agreement, Marlboro cigarettes manufacturers are required to make annual payments to states to help compensate them for billions of dollars in health care costs associated with treating tobacco-related diseases.
06 mai 2008
Smokin' new fashion trend: colored cigarettes?
Look closely at what a model in a fashion magazine is smoking: a green cigarette to go with her neon yellow jacket.
Fashionably hued discount cigarettes?
Oh, goodie. Lung cancer now comes in colors!
Next thing you know, Heidi Montag will launch a line of zebra-stripe cigarettes online.
How do we stop this nightmare?
Maybe we should all contact Nat Sherman, the NYC tobacconist who launched a spring line of pastel green, blue, pink and lemon yellow smokes called Fantasia Lights, sure to appeal to trend-conscious young women.
Here's an idea; buy them for someone you really don't like.
29 avril 2008
Celebrity Smoking of Cigarettes.
There's absolutely no doubt that celebrities have an impact on the rest of us and there's a hot debate currently on whether the influence that fame brings should also demand a certain amount of responsibility.
Is it true that celebrities really desist from endorsing cigarettes of all hues? Is it because they are conscious of their social responsibilities? Pictures of celebrities smoking appear glamorous and civilized, regardless of the context of the scene in a movie and thus it strikes a cord with teens. They are shown at parties with a cigarette which pushes young people to emulate them. The brands they smoke, Marlboro cigarettes , Camel, Winston, Virginia Slims, Salem etc, become a point of campus discussion.
Could it be that the stars themselves have been influenced by the glamour that was once associated with cigarettes? Perhaps if you spend long enough in the fantasy world of film you start to believe in the celluloid image. Just like Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Boulevard' you lose touch with reality.
After all, it's not so long ago that everybody who was somebody in Hollywood smoked and was proud of it. cigarettes smoking was glamorous and sophisticated. Just think of the iconic image of Audrey Hepburn in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' as Holly Golightly posing elegantly with her long cigarette holder, upswept chignon and little black dress.
What's not so elegant of course is the way Audrey Hepburn succumbed to the smoking habit herself. Ignoring her mother's 'beauty tip' to: "keep to six cigarettes a day only", Hepburn managed two or three packs at her worst times - even smoking in her nun's habit on the set of 'The Nun's Story' and chain smoking her way through 'My Fair Lady'. Unsurprisingly, she suffered from asthma for most of her life and died of cancer at only 63 - looking frail and old for her years. Not the kind of ending we like to imagine for the sublime Holly Golightly.
There's no doubt that the very nature of the movie business has caused many a celebrity to start treading the nicotine path. Smoking is as common in movies today as it was back in the 1950's although overall smoking in the population at large has reduced. Could it be that a cigarette has become the film prop of choice for actors looking for an easy way to inhabit another skin?
For some celebrities - tired of the constant criticism and the ciggy shots splashed across the tabloids - a kind of smoking defiance has crept in. As Gwyneth Paltrow once said, "I smoke and I'm not going to stop!" Paltrow - famous for getting through a pack of Camel Lights a day in her teens and twenties - has only very recently quit smoking. Perhaps she started to wonder how her fine, fair skin and ethereal beauty would cope with the collagen depletion in her fourties and fifties.
Some celebrities keep going with the smoking habit whatever the consequences and even if it impacts on their relationships. It's well known that smoking was a bone of contention between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston during their marriage. Brad Pitt is on record as saying how much he hated his ex-wife's chain smoking. His disapproval didn't cut much ice with Jennifer though - as recent paparazzi photos show. You have to ask why one of the worlds most loved and naturally attractive women would do this to themselves?
Similarly, iconic top model Kate Moss is regularly photographed with her cigarettes, a lighter and a mobile phone as her only fashion accessory. As a supreme super model its probably not surprising that Moss still manages to appear effortlessly elegant and beautiful however she's photographed - at least for now. She certainly shows no signs of wanting to quit smoking any time soon. Perhaps like so many in her world - she associates smoking with thinness. Or perhaps, for her, it's the least troubling of her addictions.
When celebrities do chose to quit its fascinating that the reasons given are so often not about looks. Catherine Zeta-Jones for instance, quit smoking - so she said - because she didn't want her children to start asking questions. Not as you might have thought - because beauty is her personal trademark and smoking would kick-start skin aging and undermine her potential to earn huge sums of money.
Whatever the reasons celebrities have for smoking or for deciding to quit - the truth about skin damage and smoking very rarely features as a major factor in the debate. Well - we think it should. So our advice to all you celebrity smokers out there - carry on smoking if you want but don't expect your fickle public not to notice the effect on your looks. And when you hit a deluded middle age you may still be able to say, like Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Boulevard': "I'm ready for my close-up now Mr de Mille" - but only if it's filmed in heavy soft-focus, expertly back-lit and then extensively re-touched afterwards.
Tax hike on cigarettes 'could curb smoking'
The Federal
Government's top adviser on preventative health, Dr Rob Moodie, says increasing
the tax on tobacco would be a very effective way to curb smoking.
The Government is
set to reap $2 billion in extra revenue after it increased the tax on the
sweet, ready-mixed alcoholic drinks which it says are responsible for a significant
rise in binge drinking, particularly amongst young Australian women.
Dr Moodie, chairman
of the National Preventative Health Task Force and professor of global health
at Melbourne University
"One of the
major successes, I guess, in Australia
"It's now time
we did increase the cost of cigarettes, [which are] after all, the major killer
in Australia
"We know that
if for example we added an extra 2.5 cents to every cigarette stick, that would
across the board drop consumption by nearly 3 per cent.
"It's a major
contribution to public health."
Dr Moodie says that
increasing tax on cigarettes could be instituted relatively rapidly.
But a recent study
published in the American Journal of Public Health questioned the effectiveness
of price increases to cut consumption, and raised concerns about the burden
placed on poorer smokers.
Dr Moodie says
funding for quit smoking programs would address these concerns.
"Certainly the
work that Quit Victoria have been doing on this, still shows that there is a
very close relationship between price and consumption," Dr Moodie said.
He says money raised
by this increased tax, suggested at the recent 2020 summit, should go towards a
national preventative health agency.
25 avril 2008
China-tobacco joint venture set up in Pyongyang
PYONGYANG -- With four million euros (6.36 million U.S. dollars) of investment, a cigarettes and tobacco joint venture by China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) was setup here Wednesday.
The joint venture, Pyongyang Paeksan Tobacco Ltd., a fruit of the increasing China-DPRK friendship and economic cooperation, would meet the needs of the DPRK people, DPRK's Vice Minister of Light Industry Cho Chong Ung said.
Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Liu Xiaoming said cooperation with DPRK enterprises will benefit the people of both countries and the Chinese government will continue to support its enterprises to "go abroad."
23 avril 2008
Suit on Light Cigarettes Is Thrown Out
In a legal victory for the tobacco industry, a federal appeals court on Thursday threw out an $800 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of smokers who said they were misled that light cigarettes were safer than regular ones.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers had wanted to represent potentially millions of people across the country who had smoked light cigarettes, but the court found that it was impossible to tell why smokers chose light cigarettes, so the group could not be treated as a class.
Instead, smokers will have to sue individually.
“Individualized proof is needed to overcome the possibility that a member of the purported class purchased lights for some other reason than the belief that lights were a healthier alternative,” the ruling said.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit means that individuals can still pursue lawsuits against cigarettes makers, but they cannot be grouped together as a class.
Stocks of big tobacco companies were little changed by news of the ruling, which was not entirely unexpected. Shares of the Altria Group, which owns Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro cigarettes, were up 2 cents, to $22.06, in mid-afternoon trading Thursday in New York. Stock in Reynolds American, whose R. J. Reynolds Tobacco unit markets the Camel brand, were up 14 cents, to $59.85.
The court decision was a setback for lawyers who thought that the ruling approving the class, issued by Federal District Judge Jack B. Weinstein in Brooklyn in September 2006, could have opened a new avenue for litigation against the tobacco industry, exposing cigarette companies to potentially large damages.
Judge Weinstein’s ruling in the case was the first time a so-called “lights” case received class-action certification in federal court. A number of such lawsuits have been filed in state and federal courts around the country, so far with little success for plaintiffs.
Nearly a dozen such cases across the county are currently held up, awaiting a United States Supreme Court decision in a Maine case involving light cigarettes. The issue in those cases involves federal “pre-emption,” the question of whether the fact that the Federal Trade Commission allowed marketing of cigarettes as “light” bars legal action against tobacco companies on that count.
Unlike most tobacco lawsuits, the Brooklyn case did not contend that smokers were injured but instead that they had been subjected to a fraud since 1971, when Philip Morris began selling Marlboro Lights, the first light cigarette.
Even though the appeals court ruling was generally expected, analysts still viewed the decision as a victory for the tobacco industry. Theodore M. Grossman, the lawyer who argued the case in July before the appeals court on behalf of tobacco companies, said the ruling should have implications in other similar class-action cases across the country involving light cigarettes.
“One of the central points of the opinion was that the reasons that people bought light cigarettes were highly individual and that this kind of case can’t be resolved in a class context,” Mr. Grossman, a partner at Jones Day, said.
The lead plaintiffs lawyer could not be reached for comment by mid-afternoon Thursday. But one lawyer who represented plaintiffs in the case, Gerson Smoger of Oakland, Calif., said he could not yet answer the question of whether the group would appeal.
The Supreme Court rarely reviews cases involving class certification, however, and Mr. Grossman said, “I don’t see anything in this opinion that would provide a basis for certification to the Supreme Court.”
In a note to investors, a Goldman Sachs tobacco industry analyst, Judy Hong, said that the ruling “should continue to increase investors’ confidence about the legal environment and allow the cigarette companies to have more balance-sheet flexibility.”
Besides Philip Morris and R. J. Reynolds, the tobacco companies that market light cigarettes include the Lowe Corporation’s Lorillard Tobacco unit, whose brands include Newport.
18 avril 2008
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16 avril 2008
Tobacco sales down in Germany
Number of tobacco sold in Germany for the first quarter of 2008 continued to go down according to the Federal Statistical Office on Wednesday.
Some 22 million cigarettes were taxed, 8.7 percent fewer than the same three-month period in 2007. That year the number of cigarettes sold had already gone down by 2.1 percent. Total tobacco sales reached €5.7 billion, an overall reduction of 8.2 percent.
These numbers don't necessarily correspond to reduced cigarettes consumption, though, because Destasis estimates about one-fifth of cigarettes are smuggled into the country, and therefore not taxed.
In contrast to cigarette figures, pipe tobacco sales were up by three times as much as the previous year, though the category makes up only a small portion of of total tobacco sales.
Cigar and cigarillo sales were down 35.9 percent.
Most German states instituted a public smoking ban at the beginning of 2008, though Destatis did not directly connect this to its tobacco sales figures.
11 avril 2008
Imperial Tobacco Canada reaffirms its youth smoking prevention commitment
MONTREAL, - Imperial Tobacco Canada reaffirmed its
position that, as a responsible tobacco company, it does not target minors
through direct or indirect marketing.
"This position is fundamental to how we run our business," said Benjamin
Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada. "It is stated in black
and white in our business principles and is lived by every one of Imperial
Tobacco Canada's employees."
Imperial Tobacco Canada's marketing practices are aimed at encouraging
adult smokers to choose our brands over those of our competition. The Company
complies with all Canadian regulations (as well as with British American
Tobacco International Tobacco Products Marketing Standards which are a set of
voluntary standards accepted by British American Tobacco group companies).
Imperial Tobacco Canada does not produce or sell cigarillos or flavored
cigarettes, except mentholated products.
"The bottom line is kids should not be smoking. Governments, retailers
and tobacco industry need to work together to address this issue and implement
practical solutions," said Mr. Kemball.
"However, all the goodwill in the world will not do any good if the
illegal tobacco trade is left unchecked. Canadian children have easy access to
cigarettes at pocket money prices. We can be sure that the criminals who
traffic in illegal tobacco are not asking for proof of age," concluded
Mr. Kemball.
A recent study conducted by the Arcus Group showed that 30 percent of the
11,267 cigarette butts collected from 105 sites in Quebec and Ontario were
found to be "illegal".
08 avril 2008
Cigarette price hike 'leads to more intense smoking'
Increasing the cost of cigarettes may actually force smokers to smoke more intensely, an international researcher says.
Francesca Cornaglia from the University of London will speak at the Australian National University in Canberra today to challenge several policies aimed at reducing the harm associated with smoking.
Dr Cornaglia has measured cigarette exposure by examining the level of a by-product of nicotine, called coniine, found in saliva.
She says smokers may buy fewer cigarettes when the price goes up, but they inhale more deeply or smoke more of the cigarette to ensure nicotine levels in the body remain constant.
"When that happens, the filter doesn't really work for the second half of the cigarette as good as it does for the first half because it has already absorbed tar and substances," she said.
"So the second half of the cigarettes actually gets filtered less properly than the first half."