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• 16th Asian Games to be tobacco-free 

The 16th Asian Games, part of the worldwide Olympic movement and governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), will be “going smokeless” with firm prohibitions on the sale of tobacco products and tobacco sponsorship of the Games.

The Asian Games are the second largest sports event in the world after the Summer Olympic Games.

Governed by the Olympic Council of Asia, the 16th Asian Games follows all mandates of the International Olympic Committee in which Games’ organizers are prohibited from accepting sponsorship of the Games by tobacco manufactures.

Organizers are also prohibited from allowing the sale of cigarettes or tobacco products at any athletic venue.

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• Ban On Cigarette Sponsorship For Sports To Stay 

The ban on cigarette sponsorship for sports activities, especially football, will not be withdrawn by the government, deputy minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Razali Ibrahim told the Dewan Rakyat Thursday.

Razali said there will be no change in the government's commitment to support the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global ban on cigarette companies sponsoring any kind of sports activities under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

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• BAT to continue sponsoring underprivileged students  

BRITISH American Tobacco will continue supporting underprivileged students to attain their goals by providing scholarships for tertiary education, the company said last week.

Speaking at the presentation of two scholarships to two University of Zimbabwe students in Harare, British American Tobacco Zimbabwe Limited board member, Mr Jeremiah Tsodzai, said the company would continue to empower students especially those that were underprivileged.

"We subscribe to the business principle of good corporate conduct which captures how the company strives to manage the business. Business success brings with it an obligation for high standards of behaviour and integrity in everything we do and whatever the company is associated with," Mr Tsodzai said.

BAT Zimbabwe (Holdings) Limited managing director, Mr Lovemore Manatsa said so far 52 students had benefited from the Undergraduate Scholarship Scheme established in 2005.

The scheme is run with the blessing of the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and has drawn participants from various State tertiary institutions and agricultural colleges around the country.

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• HEALTH: Tobacco Companies Have a Field Day in Indonesia 

When it comes to smoking, Indonesia remains the last paradise for a puff in Southeast Asia. Those addicted to cigarettes can openly light up in public places without worrying about tough anti-tobacco penalties found in the rest of the region.

This reality has been shaped by the power of local and multinational tobacco companies on the archipelago of some 224 million people.

At the finals for the recent ‘Mild Live Wanted 2009' countrywide talent contest, in the former colonial city of Bandung, competing musicians belted out their songs from around 3 p.m till midnight.

For Indonesia's small, yet vocal, anti-tobacco activists, these concerts - billed to promote local talent - offered more than music to fill their ears. They were the latest in a string of publicity drives of the powerful multinational tobacco company Philip Morris International (PMI) in the country. . . .

The prospect of more deaths from this ”smoking epidemic” has still to move Jakarta, which is still to sign the world's first public health treaty - the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which has been in force since early 2005.

By contrast, this treaty has been signed by Indonesia's nine neighbours in the region, which include Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. . . .

But in other forms of entertainment, the publicity for tobacco companies are more direct, revealed Kania during a telephone interview from Jakarta. ”There was a film for teenagers last year where one of the actresses, who is still in junior high school, was smoking in scenes.”

Such an effort to glamorise smoking goes to extremes, at times. ”There are so many scenes of people smoking in Indonesian movies where the camera even zooms in to show the cigarette brand,” adds Kania. ”There is no regulation like in other countries.”

It is little wonder why a regional anti-tobacco lobby has described Southeast Asia's largest country as a ”cash cow” for the tobacco industry.

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• Barbados to host meeting on tobacco surveillance and policy development  

Over 50 delegates from across the region are expected to converge in Barbados for the Caribbean Sub-regional Meeting on Tobacco Surveillance and Policy Development, slated for November 16 to 20.

The meeting, a collaborative effort among the Pan-American Health Organisation - Office of Caribbean Program Coordination and the Tobacco Control Team Washington DC; the Office of Smoking and Health - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention USA; and Barbados' Health Ministry, will look at the implementation of Articles 5.3 and 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

Article 5.3 of the FCTC addresses "Protection of Policies from Commercial and Other Vested Interests of the Tobacco Industry", while Article 13 examines "Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship".

The forum will also assess the use of tobacco surveillance data for the development of effective and evidence-based tobacco control policies.

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• Electronic Cigarette Review Website Now Has Free E-Cigarette Trial Offers for Holiday Shoppers 

ElectronicCigarettesReviews.net is an e-cigarette website that reviews various brands of electronic cigarettes. With the start of the Holiday gift shopping season, this website has seen a huge increase in traffic from consumers that want to purchase e-cigarettes as Holiday gifts for someone that is trying to quit smoking. This website is now offering a free trial on two brands of e-cigarettes and Holiday shoppers are quickly snatching up these free e-cigarette trials.

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• Global Voices Status Report 2009: Rebutting the tobacco industry: winning smokefree air (PDF) 

In mid 2009, more than 400 million people are protected by comprehensive smokefree laws. These are the strongest smokefree laws, which do not allow any designated smoking rooms and include only extremely limited exemptions. A further 500 million people are covered by strong smokefree laws. These laws protect most people, most of the time. Overall, close to a billion people in some 44 countries now have local or national regulations protecting them from secondhand smoke in most enclosed public places and workplaces. We expect to see continuing progress in the year ahead, as more and more countries prepare to take action.

Smokefree air for all

This rapid progress is delivering smokefree air to people in countries around the globe. Policies are being implemented successfully in a variety of places - in low income nations and more affluent ones, in small localities, major cities, and vast countries. Despite the wide variation in countries covered by smokefree laws, their experiences are very similar. In country after country:

• smokefree laws are good for health

• most people support smokefree laws

• with proper planning and resources, enforcement is straightforward

• hospitality sector profits and jobs remain safe

The message is clearer than ever: smokefree air policies work.

Focus on low and middle income countries

However, there is a long way to go. Despite the rapid progress, more than 85% of the world’s people remain without meaningful protection from secondhand smoke, many of them in the low and middle income countries that will bear the brunt of the global tobacco epidemic. Clear tobacco control policies are urgently needed. Without them, tobacco related illness, disability and death will cost low and middle income countries dearly. Smokefree air laws must be a priority for low and middle income countries. . . .

The tobacco industry’s dirty tricks

The biggest barrier to smokefree air is the multinational tobacco companies who stand to lose billions of dollars if smokefree laws are implemented.

From fake “science” to buying influence, and from scare stories to coverups, tobacco companies continue to devote their considerable wealth to stopping smokefree laws in every region of the world.

This report details the tobacco industry’s tactics to hold back legislation, alongside the positive impact of governments, organizations and individuals who are taking on Big Tobacco, and winning.

In late 2008, world governments agreed to a series of FCTC guidelines based on the recognition that tobacco company interests are fundamentally incompatible with health, welfare or “good causes.”2

These guidelines outline governments’ responsibilities under Article 5.3 of the FCTC on tobacco industry interference. They are expressly designed to stop Big Tobacco’s dirty tricks. The guidelines are essential to winning the battle for smokefree air.

Governments must continue to act, if they are to meet the goal of protecting everyone from secondhand smoke by 2012.

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• Philippine health NGO slams tobacco expo; warns more tobacco-related deaths among Asians  

MANILA -- Members of the Philippine health NGO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) slammed the ongoing conference of the tobacco industry in Bangkok and warned of increase in tobacco-related deaths in Asia as the industry enhances its hold in the Asia Pacific market.

“The tobacco industry is training its guns and armor not for battle but to entice our young children to smoking addiction and lead them to suffer from tobacco-related deaths. Expect the industry to launch more sophisticated marketing and public relation gimmicks to penetrate the Asia Pacific market where governments are starting to implement stricter bans on smoking and tobacco advertising and promotions,” said Dr. Maricar Limpin, FCAP Executive Director. . . .

In the press briefing conducted by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) in Bangkok, FCAP showed to the media Philip Morris Philippines Managing Director Chris Nelson donating check to the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) after the typhoons that have hit the country recently.

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• Tobacco deal with tennis organisation may breach UK and international law 

Six years after the ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship in the UK, a London-based sports body stands accused of breaching the law by promoting a cigarette brand on its website.[1] The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) which represents the world's top male tennis players, is responsible for the sponsorship contracts for the various international tournaments. The next ATP World Tour tournament, which is due to take place in Basel, Switzerland from 31 October to 8 November, is sponsored by Davidoff, a cigarette brand manufactured by Imperial Tobacco. The Swiss indoor tournament is believed to be the only one in the world to be sponsored by a tobacco company.

British-based Imperial Tobacco acquired the Davidoff cigarette brand in 2006 and has exploited the weak law in Switzerland which still allows events to be sponsored by tobacco companies, although tobacco advertising on television is banned. However, the televising of the event means that tobacco advertising will be beamed into the homes of more than one billion people worldwide, [2] contrary to Article 13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which has been signed by 160 countries worldwide. [3]

ASH has written to the ATP urging the organisation to end its ties with the tobacco industry when the current contract comes to an end and is seeking clarification from the Department of Health regarding the possible breach of UK law.

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• Display boxes for cigarettes may be illegal ($$) 

Display boxes showing cigarette packets replaced banners and posters at newspaper stands yesterday, as tobacco advertisements disappeared across Hong Kong in the final phase of the cigarette advertising ban.

But the government said the display boxes could be regarded as advertisements and it would consider prosecution. Both vendors and smokers said the ban would not affect how many cigarette packets they bought or sold.

Tobacco advertisements have been banned in newspapers, magazines, radio, television and public spaces since the 1990s, but newspaper stands and hawkers were exempted until yesterday.

In Causeway Bay, large display boxes equipped with spotlights were observed at almost all newspaper stands. Packets of cigarettes were seen revolving inside the boxes.

Ms Chim, a vendor, said tobacco companies helped her renovate the stand by adding the display boxes, and were still paying her about HK$3,000 a month in "advertising fees", even though her posters and banners had disappeared. But display boxes were not advertisements, she said. "It is not an advertisement if there are no words."

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It is not an advertisement if there are no words.
Ms Chim, a vendor who said tobacco companies helped her renovate her stand by adding display boxes, and were still paying her about HK$3,000 a month in "advertising fees"--even though her posters and banners had been taken down as Hong Kong's final phase of its advertising ban took effect.

• Federer fires up anti-smoking emotions  

As Roger Federer sets out to win his fourth consecutive Swiss Indoors title in Basel, a debate has reignited over tobacco sponsorship in sport.

The tournament, which has been sponsored by Swiss luxury brand Davidoff since 1994 and starts on Monday, is one of the last in the world to be sponsored by a tobacco company – and health campaigners aren't happy.

"First of all, linking sport and tobacco is utterly perverse," Jürg Hurter, president of Pro Aere, Switzerland's largest organisation against passive smoking, told swissinfo.ch.

"Second, the tobacco industry – who aren't idiots – try to get around tobacco promotion laws by sponsoring sporting events or by branding various products."

Pascal Diethelm, director of the anti-smoking group OxyRomandie, said last year "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff".

"At the end of the match the young ball boys and ball girls received a medal from Roger Federer in recognition of having served the cause of Davidoff so well. Each medal bore the Davidoff logo in order to make sure that these potential smokers would know which cigarette brand to choose," he said. . . .

"This discussion is like the Loch Ness monster – it comes back every year!" Jürg Vogel, a member of the Swiss Indoors organising committee, told swissinfo.ch.

"Davidoff sells not only tobacco but also perfumes and other accessories. I think you have to see the whole picture.

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• Doctor presses the case against tobacco scholarships 

A San Luis Obispo doctor is continuing to speak out against Cal Poly for allowing students to accept scholarships from the smokeless tobacco industry as prize awards in collegiate rodeo events.

University officials say Cal Poly has no basis to deny students scholarship funds from a legal source, and university officials note that no tobacco-related advertising is allowed at school events under a campus policy. Five years ago, Cal Poly officials supported creating a fund that could be an alternative to tobacco-industry scholarships, but that idea was rejected by tobacco opponents.

Stephen L. Hansen, a physician and representative of the county Tobacco Control Coalition, said he's outraged that the chewing tobacco industry lures students to a cancer-causing product through scholarships

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• Tobacco sponsorship of tennis tournament goes ahead because of weak Swiss legislation, says campaigning group  

A Swiss antismoking campaign group is concerned that weak legislation in the country is being exploited by Imperial Tobacco to sponsor a tennis tournament and promote its brand of cigarettes and other products. The company is the fourth largest tobacco company in the world.

Switzerland is a sanctuary for the tobacco industry, said Pascal Diethelm, director of the antismoking group OxyRomandie, ahead of the Davidoff Swiss indoor tournament, which starts on 31 October as part of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour 500. The tournament, which is one of the last tobacco sponsored tennis events in the world, is being used by the company to intensively advertise its Davidoff brand, on court hoardings and the uniforms of line judges and ball girls and boys, said Mr Diethelm.

The last time the tournament was held in Basel in 2008, the "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff," he said.

He added, "At the end of the match the young ball boys and ball girls received a medal from Roger Federer in recognition of having served the cause of Davidoff so well. Each medal bore the Davidoff logo in order to make sure that these potential future smokers will know which cigarette brand to choose when they start smoking."

OxyRomandie is appealing to the federal tribunal, Switzerland’s supreme court, against a ruling from the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television that Swiss television is allowed to show the tournament even though Swiss law bans tobacco advertising on television.

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The Good Life—that is the art of living. A culture of its own that revolves around taking time, perceiving the world with all the senses in order to experience the fine nuances of pleasure.
Davidoff's "The Good Life" campaign. The Davidoff Swiss indoor tennis tournament is under fire.

• Grassroots Activists Congratulate Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association for Ending Tobacco Sponsorship  

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) announced last week that the US Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC), which recently merged with Altria Group, will not renew their national sponsorship agreement with the PRCA after 2009.

"We applaud the PRCA for ending tobacco sponsorship of its rodeos," said Andrea Craig Dodge, director of the Buck Tobacco Sponsorship Project. "Tobacco marketing including sampling booths, scoreboards, banners, and ads give young rodeo audience members the message that using tobacco is part of being an adult cowboy or rodeo fan."

For several years, a number of tobacco control advocates and community members have called for an end to tobacco sponsorship of rodeos. "Rodeo has been around since the 1800's - long before tobacco sponsorship of rodeos began in 1986," said "Cowboy Ted" Hallisey, director of Cowboy Ted's Foundation for Kids. "Without big tobacco, rodeos will move into mainstream sports because they will be more comfortable for children and families to attend," he said.

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• Guangzhou To Ban Tobacco Sales To Vulnerable Groups  

Guangzhou has prepared a tobacco control regulation which is pending approval by the city's National People's Congress standing committee.

The new regulation lists ten areas including hospitals, kindergartens, schools, and buses as tobacco-free areas and states that people smoking in these areas will be fined CNY50 and those who sell tobacco products to vulnerable groups such as teenagers and pregnant women will be fined CNY1,000. . . .

In addition, the regulation forbids tobacco manufacturers and sellers to send tobacco products as gifts

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