Tobacco.org

Smokers fuel prediction of steep rise in lung disease 

DUBAI // The prevalence of a progressive and irreversible lung disease is increasing rapidly.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) affects 4 per cent of the Abu Dhabi population, according to a study by UAE University, Zayed Military Hospital and the Emirates Allergy and Respiratory Society (Ears).

Worldwide, the disease, caused mainly by smoking and characterised by severely restricted breathing as a result of lung damage and inflammation, affects between 2 and 9 per cent of the population, placing Abu Dhabi slightly below the average.

However, with smokers making up nearly a quarter of the adult population in the emirate, experts project that the prevalence of COPD could increase to 7 per cent in the next five years.

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• PepsiCo Unions Seek NLRB Help to Combat Company’s $50 Tax on Fat, Smoking  

Teamster union members at PepsiCo (PEP) Inc. in upstate New York are seeking National Labor Relations Board help to fight the company’s health-care policy that charges employees $50 a month when they smoke or have medical issues that may trigger weight gain.

Three International Brotherhood of Teamsters locals, representing about 300 drivers, sales agents and warehouse workers in Binghamton, Latham and Syracuse, complained to the labor board in October. PepsiCo is hindering the union’s effort to shop for a health plan without a “sin tax,” said Ozzie Martucci, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 669.

“We’re against that type of tax, frankly,” Martucci said yesterday in a phone interview. “It feels wrong to tax workers if they are overweight or happen to have diabetes or smoke, and we wanted to look elsewhere for different insurance.”

PepsiCo (PEP) workers can avoid the fee if they join programs to stop smoking or lose weight, said Dave DeCecco, a company spokesman. “These programs enable our associates and their families to live a healthier lifestyle,” he said.

The fee is applied to smokers, as well as to workers who have diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure or asthma, conditions that often lead to being overweight, he said.

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• Smugglers Prosper in Spain’s ‘Perfect Storm’ for Tobacco  

Spanish smokers, squeezed by higher taxes and a deepening recession, are increasingly relying on smugglers to feed their habit.

Illegal imports now account for 7 percent to 8 percent of Spanish cigarette sales, compared with almost nothing a year ago, according to the country’s tobacconists association. In southern provinces such as Cadiz, Seville and Malaga, the proportion is 20 percent.

“Smuggling and fake tobacco, which had been eradicated since 1993, came back strongly last year,” said Jaime Gil- Robles, corporate affairs director at Altadis, the Spanish unit of Imperial Tobacco Group Plc. (IMT)

Smuggling, encouraged by a December 2010 increase in tobacco taxes and a ban on smoking in public places, has eroded both government coffers and company revenues. Spain, which has the European Union’s highest jobless rate, collected 14 percent less tobacco taxes in 2011 than a forecast of 9.05 billion euros ($12 billion), excluding value-added tax, according to Altadis.

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• Proper deterrent missing in black market tobacco battle  

THE STATE imposed fines of €250,000 arising from illegal tobacco sales and smuggling last year, according to Revenue figures.

The annual loss to the exchequer from black market cigarettes is about 1,000 times the amount imposed in fines.

In 2011 a total of 102 convictions for cigarette smuggling led to €136,300 in fines and 31 custodial sentences, 21 of which were suspended. The longest of the 10 sentences which were served was 12 months.

A total of 57 convictions relating to the illegal sale of cigarettes resulted in €115,850 in fines and 14 custodial sentences, seven of which were served, the longest of which was three years, with one year suspended.

Benny Gilsenan of Retailers Against Smuggling, a retailers’ organisation which has 3,000 members across Ireland, said the level of convictions relating to illegal tobacco was “not nearly adequate enough” given that the Revenue Commissioners estimate that the cost to the exchequer in lost revenue through counterfeit cigarette sales stood at €250 million in 2010.

“Considering the level of illegal cigarettes that are being sold throughout the country that is a very small proportion of those who are being caught and fined,” Mr Gilsenan said.

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MOORE: Sustainable development 101: Ban the butt for a greener, cleaner world 

Set aside the costs and consequences of the toxicity of the billions of cigarette filters that have found their way in our rivers, lakes and oceans and consider the clean-up costs in our cities.

One recent assessment of tobacco litter estimated that public litter costs for large U.S. cities range from $3 million to $16 million a year, with tobacco litter comprising between 22 to 36 per cent of the visible litter.

The concept of user-pay or, in this case, polluter-pay should reign but doesn’t. Think tobacco lobby, political gridlock and tax fatigue. And tobacco addicts already pay all sorts of taxes for their nicotine fix while not every single one of uses the great outdoors as their ashtray. Some smokers even chow down on unfiltered cigs. . . .

If you can’t tax cigarette butts – and ensure that part of the tax will cover all clean-up costs – then ban them.

A ban on single-use non-biodegradable cigarette filters would be a form of inexpensive sustainable development: Cut off toxic pollution at the source.

Harsh, you say? We are talking about folks who already hack and who, as a collective, often can’t be bothered smoking within designated areas, seem unable to find their way to outdoor ashtrays provided them and can’t be bothered to pick up their own toxic crap.

Reusable cigarette holders were good enough for Audrey Hepburn ( as Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s), they should be good enough for that smoky-smelling lot.

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• Smoking and Oral Health in Dentate Adults aged 18–64 [FREE FULL TEXT] 

Key findings

Data from the National Health Interview Survey, 2008

* Current smokers (16%) were twice as likely as former smokers (8%) and four times as likely as never smokers (4%) to have poor oral health status.

* Current smokers (35%) were almost one and one-half times as likely as former smokers (24%) and more than two times as likely as never smokers (16%) to have had three or more oral health problems.

* Current smokers (19%) were about twice as likely as former smokers (9%) and never smokers (10%) to have not had a dental visit in more than 5 years or have never had one.

* Cost was the reason that most adults with an oral health problem did not see a dentist in the past 6 months; 56% of current smokers, 36% of former smokers, and 35% of never smokers could not afford treatment or did not have insurance.

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Four years later, Surfside Beach adjusts to smoking ban 

North Myrtle Beach City Council is scheduled to take a final vote Monday on an ordinance that would ban smoking in public buildings. If it passes, North Myrtle Beach would not be the first Grand Strand community to ban smoking.

Surfside Beach did it in 2008. Surfside Beach town leaders and some business owners like it, while others say it has cost them a lot of business and money. But all seem to agree that it would be better if every town in the area offered the same level playing field.

At the Surfside Bowling Center, Monday was a busy day for league bowling. The bowling alley's manager said business in the lounge hasn't been nearly as good as it used to be, before the town enacted its indoor smoking ban.

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• State Economy to Get Big Jolt with Proposed New Tax on Cigarettes, Study Finds  

A new UCSF analysis has found that a state ballot initiative to increase the cigarette tax would create about 12,000 jobs and nearly $2 billion in new economic activity in California.

The study found that the new tax would have a significant effect on the state’s overall economy because Californians would smoke less and spend their money in other ways.

The initiative, the California Cancer Research Act (CCRA), is on the statewide June 5 ballot. If the measure is approved, state cigarette taxes would rise by $1 a pack, generating an estimated $855 million a year for anti-smoking education programs, medical research, and tobacco law enforcement.

“The primary impact to the California economy, besides the effect on health care, is that people will smoke less and send less money out of state,’’ said study author Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, a professor of medicine at UCSF and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education based at UCSF.

Currently, approximately 80 percent of money spent on tobacco products is exported to out-of-state tobacco manufacturers and farmers. No tobacco is grown in California and no cigarettes are manufactured here.

Under the legislation, 60 percent of funds generated by the new tax would go to cancer research and to address other tobacco-related diseases, 20 percent toward tobacco cessation and prevention programs, and 15 percent toward facilities and equipment for health services and research. The remainder would go to law enforcement to reduce cigarette smuggling and tobacco tax evasion, and to administer the tax.

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Burnley tops league for smoking-related illness in England  

MORE people in Burnley are admitted to hospital with smoking-related illnesses than anywhere else in England.

The town also has the highest rate of oral cancer cases in the country, according to a new report.

Shocking figures reveal the estimated cost of smoking to Burnley taxpayers to be £34m. a year with smokers spending around £38.5m. on tobacco products.

The number of smoking-attributable hospital admissions in Burnley between 2009 and 2010 was 2,538.6, in comparison to a national average of 1,417.2.

There are estimated to be 21,800 smokers in Burnley with the cost of output lost from early deaths in Burnley £10.1m. The estimated cost of lost productivity from smoking breaks is £7.2m.

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EDITORIAL: The price of a smoke 

It is a moot point if raising the price of tobacco products will stop smokers from risking their health.

For addicts the past rise in the price has never been a deterrent even though one would accept that logic calls for a rethink seeing as how a person is paying that much more to damage his or her health. The 200 per cent heft in the tax across the GCC that has now on the verge of being implemented may well have the required impact and even if it does sober up a 10th of the smoking population to stubbing out their habit it will have been worth it.

Despite the desire to stop thousands succumb to the pleasure of the cigarette and then feel guilty about it. A tangible price hike like this goes well beyond the cosmetic and can hit the average budget thereby calling for a change in lifestyle. . . .

In the end it is the individual who has to decide whether the expense is worth the flirtation with danger. By the token it is also necessary to clarify the myths that surround smoking. All smoking is bad. No smoking device is safer than the other. There is no such thing as not inhaling.

And only one in a thousand smokers can control their intake at two or three sticks a day. For the rest giving up is a temporary thing beaten only by the tiny span of cutting down.

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Rapid urbanization as well as cultural habits explain Gulf states' rise in heart disease prevalence 

While the rapid improvement in socio-economic conditions is thought responsible for the high rates of cardiovascular disease in the Gulf states, deep-rooted cultural factors also play a part. "We're sitting on a time bomb," says Professor Hani Najm, Vice-President of the Saudi Heart Association, whose annual conference begins Friday 27 January. "We will see a lot of heart disease over the next 15 to 20 years. Already, services are saturated. We now have to direct our resources to the primary prevention of risk factors throughout the entire Middle East." . . .

And now there is further evidence that the cultural heritage of the Middle East may present yet another growing risk factor in the region's battle against heart disease. The waterpipe - also know as the hookah or shisha - is now said to be used by up to 34% of Middle Eastern adolescents. Despite a perception that the risk of the waterpipe may be less than those of cigarettes, a recent report suggests that its "harmful effects are similar to those of cigarettes", and that the waterpipe may offer "a bridge" to cigarette smoking.(1) The greatest prevalence of use - with up to 34% reported - is currently among adolescents and women.

A recent study from the Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE), the region's largest, found that 38% of patients registered were cigarette smokers and 4.4% waterpipe smokers.(2) The study, which included 6,701 consecutive acute coronary patients in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, found that the waterpipe smokers were older than the cigarette smokers and more likely to be female.

However, despite the relatively low rate of waterpipe smoking among the patients in this registry study, other studies report more widespread use throughout the region, and especially among the younger age groups. A study from 2004 found that 22% of men in two villages of Egypt reported current or past use of waterpipes, and the habit is increasingly evident even among student communities in the USA, Canada and Germany.

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As NMB considers smoking ban, cities with limits say they're doing fine  

North Myrtle Beach could be a step closer to being smoke-free, at least in public, after Monday’s City Council meeting.

Meanwhile, locations that have already passed similar limits say the move has done little to harm business, although many urge for a larger statewide ban rather than piecemeal municipal rules.

The North Myrtle Beach council is expected to take its final vote on the city’s proposed public smoking ordinance Monday night.

A close majority of the council gave its initial approval Jan. 23 to the ordinance that would limit smoking in indoor public places. The rule is similar to ones adopted by Surfside Beach and Greenville. Atlantic Beach has also passed a nonsmoking ordinance.

Myrtle Beach is not having any discussion on the subject at this time, city spokesman Mark Kruea said.

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FISCHER: Guest Viewpoint: Smoking is a burden on health care  

I would like to address online comments made in response to the Dec. 24 letter to the editor titled "Tobacco prevention funds pay off in time."

A common misconception is that smoking pays for "kiddy health care." "Kiddy health care" is what some people call the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) . . .

In contrast to the $2.2 billion that the state received from tobacco in 2010, that same year $8.2 billion was spent in New York to cover health care costs directly caused by smoking, with $5.4 billion coming from the Medicaid program. If smoking ceased and we no longer used Medicaid money to treat smoking-related diseases, New York would have $3.2 billion more to fund "kiddy health care," not the other way around.

The current budget of the New York State Tobacco Control Program is $41.4 million. This represents less than half of what the program received four years ago. Although New York has raised $10.5 billion in tobacco revenue over the past six years, less than 4 percent has been spent on tobacco control programs. . . .

The key message is that tobacco use not only takes a terrible toll on the health of our family and friends, it also costs taxpayers a large amount of money. Each household in New York has a tax burden of $884 per year in state and federal taxes from smoking-caused government expenditures — a fact too often forgotten when people think only of the revenue that tobacco provides.

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Twitter is harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, study finds  

Tweeting or checking emails may be harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, according to researchers who tried to measure how well people could resist their desires.

They even claim that while sleep and sex may be stronger urges, people are more likely to give in to longings or cravings to use social and other media.

A team headed by Wilhelm Hofmann of Chicago University's Booth Business School say their experiment, using BlackBerrys, to gauge the willpower of 205 people aged between 18 and 85 in and around the German city of Würtzburg is the first to monitor such responses "in the wild" outside a laboratory.

The results will soon be published in the journal Psychological Science. . . .

"With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs – long-term as well as monetary – and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still 'steal' a lot of people's time.".

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FISCHER: Guest Viewpoint: Smoking is a burden on health care  

I would like to address online comments made in response to the Dec. 24 letter to the editor titled "Tobacco prevention funds pay off in time."

A common misconception is that smoking pays for "kiddy health care." "Kiddy health care" is what some people call the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which is a federally administered program that provides matching funds to cover uninsured children in families with incomes that are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.

Taxes received by New York from the sale of tobacco and money paid by the tobacco companies to 46 states as outlined in the Master Settlement Agreement — commonly known as tobacco settlement money — are put in the state's general fund and used along with money from many other sources to run the state government.

Although these two sources of tobacco-generated revenue totaled $2.2 billion for the state in 2010, they don't begin to cover the cost to treat people with smoking-related illnesses. In contrast to the $2.2 billion that the state received from tobacco in 2010, that same year $8.2 billion was spent in New York to cover health care costs directly caused by smoking, with $5.4 billion coming from the Medicaid program. If smoking ceased and we no longer used Medicaid money to treat smoking-related diseases, New York would have $3.2 billion more to fund "kiddy health care," not the other way around. . . .

The key message is that tobacco use not only takes a terrible toll on the health of our family and friends, it also costs taxpayers a large amount of money. Each household in New York has a tax burden of $884 per year in state and federal taxes from smoking-caused government expenditures — a fact too often forgotten when people think only of the revenue that tobacco provides.

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