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• Market Watch: Cigarette Trade Changing In Central America 

Now, more than ever, Central America is an ever-changing field of opportunities and obstacles. John Parker profiles the region and goes through the numbers market by market.

The combination of rising income, more influence of free trade policies, multinational business connections, and smokers seeking higher quality brands contributed to greater cigarette imports by countries in Central America in 2008. Estimated cigarette imports for countries in Central America in 2008 rose to about 11 bn pieces. That is an estimate for total imports tabulated by adding data for each of the seven countries. The net regional imports would be about half of that because of large shipments to other countries in Central America by Honduras and Guatemala. BAT and subsidiaries account for most of the cigarette output in Central America.

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Secondhand Smoke 

Also called: Environmental tobacco smoke, Passive smoking, Tobacco smoke pollution

You don't have to be a smoker for smoking to harm you. You can also have health problems from breathing in other people's smoke. Secondhand smoke is the combination of smoke that comes from the burning end of a cigarette, cigar or pipe and the smoke exhaled by the smoker. Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 substances that can cause cancer. Health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke include lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory tract infections and heart disease.

There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke. Children, pregnant women, older people and people with heart or breathing problems should be especially careful.

National Cancer Institute

Start Here

* I Mind Very Much If You Smoke(National Cancer Institute)

* Secondhand Smoke: Questions and Answers(National Cancer Institute)

* Secondhand Smoke: What It Means to You(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dept. of Health and Human Services) - PDF

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Vermont Ranks 1st in Overall Health for Third Year in a Row in 20th Anniversary Edition of America's Health Rankings(TM)  

United Health Foundation, the American Public Health Association and Partnership for Prevention today released the 20th Anniversary Edition of America's Health Rankings(TM) showing that Vermont ranks 1st when compared to the health of other states. This is the 3rd year in a row that Vermont has been at the top of the rankings.

"I'm so pleased that Vermont continues to receive national recognition for successfully implementing comprehensive health reforms that incorporate aspects of high quality, coordinated public health and health care - particularly the Vermont Blueprint for Health - along with expanding coverage to the uninsured," said Governor Jim Douglas. "The successes we've realized in Vermont have not come easily - they've required teamwork, compromise and a willingness to address the tough issues surrounding public health care - but they are vital for the people of our state and for all Americans." . . .

Tobacco use and obesity have emerged as the two priorities that threaten the health of the nation, according to the report. Obesity has increased nearly 130 percent since the first edition of America's Health Rankings(TM) was issued 20 years ago.

Vermont ranked among the top states in lowest smoking and obesity rates. Nearly one in five Americans still smoke, and smoking continues to be the leading preventable cause of disease and death in the country. In Vermont, 16.7 percent of the population smoke, compared to 19.8 percent of the nation

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Research and Markets: Tobacco in Sweden  

The Tobacco in Sweden report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Research and Markets: Tobacco in Argentina  

The Tobacco in Argentina report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Research and Markets: Tobacco in Switzerland  

The Tobacco in Switzerland report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Research and Markets: Tobacco in Turkey  

The Tobacco in Turkey report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Research and Markets: Tobacco in Thailand  

Euromonitors Tobacco in Thailand report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2001-2006), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2011 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Research and Markets: In-Depth Company Profiles for Tobacco Companies Ranked in the 2009 Fortune Global 500 List  

This report provides in-depth company profiles for Tobacco companies ranked in the 2009 Fortune Global 500 list. All data is gathered from primary source. Reports are available in easily accessible PDF format and data is consistently presented. Data is regularly tracked and enhanced to ensure data on these high profile companies is accurate and current. This report is an indispensable tool for investors, researchers and analysts wanting to gather the relevant facts on the major companies in of the world. The author concentrates on a small number of high profile companies using tested and trusted research and editorial methodologies.

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• America’s Health Rankings™ Finds Advances in Disease Treatment, but Not Disease Prevention; Preventable Chronic Diseases Threaten Access and Affordability of Medical Care 

Many public health scholars believe that obesity has become equal to, and may overtake tobacco use, as the most significant risk factor for death and disease in the nation. That is in part because, while smoking has declined slightly in the past 20 years and it still exacts extraordinary health consequences on our nation, obesity is on a dangerous, and as yet unchecked, trajectory.

* Smoking -- Biggest Battle of Past 20 Years: Despite focused efforts, nearly one in five Americans still smoke. Over the past year, more than 3 million people have quit smoking, suggesting that interventions such as smoke-free laws, smoking bans, increased cigarette taxes, access to smoking cessation programs and other interventions may have a positive impact. . . .

This year, the Rankings not only provided an annual list of the healthiest and least healthy states, but also determined which states had improved the most over the past 20 years in overall health and how the states compared in their progress against smoking and obesity since 1990.

2009 State Rankings

The 2009 Anniversary Edition shows Vermont as the healthiest state this year. The state has had a steady climb in the Rankings for the past 12 years, moving up from 20th in 1990. Utah climbed from a ranking of fifth to second this year, followed by Massachusetts (3), Hawaii (4) and New Hampshire (5) to round out the Top 5 healthiest states for 2009. For the second year in a row, Utah leads the nation as the state with the lowest prevalence of smoking, and Colorado ranks as the state with the lowest prevalence of obesity. . . .

Over the past 20 years, New York has demonstrated the most improvement in the overall health of its population. This improvement has primarily been driven by a 60 percent reduction in violent crime and significant reductions in infant mortality and smoking rates.

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Statewide Tobacco Compliance Checks 

As part of the Nebraska comprehensive tobacco cessation and merchant education process the state checks to see if youth under 18 can buy tobacco products. Below is a table showing the rate of sales to minors since 1995. Nebraska has dropped below 20 percent sales rate to minors in checks conducted by the Nebraska State Patrol and local Peace Officers. The goal is to have a violation rate across the state of less than 10 percent.

Checks are conducted throughout the year and summarized into regional and statewide rates. . . .

During the first three quarters of 2009 the Cooperating Individuals ( individuals between 15 and 17 years of age), and peace officers conducted compliance checks at nearly 800 retailers in the state. The table below summarizes the results of the compliance checks and the 104 retailers who sold to the cooperating individual. Compliance checks used for this study are conducted in a strict statewide random sampling procedure. Your local community coalition may be working to conduct checks, and retailer education in your community.

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• The Geography of Smoking  

One in five Americans continue to smoke cigarettes, according to a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The smoking rate varies from low of 9.2 percent in Utah to a high of 26.6 percent in West Virginia. The map below, from the Wall Street Journal, shows the smoking rate by state.

The data are interesting and they allow us to look at the extent to which smoking is associated with all sorts of things, from more obvious ones like cancer and heart disease to the economic and demographic characteristics of states with higher or lower levels of smoking and even the relationship between smoking and happiness. With a helpful analytical assist from my colleague Charlotta Mellander, we decided to take a quick look. We ran some simple correlations and scatter-plots between state smoking rates and these factors. As usual, we point out that correlation does not imply causality, but simply points to associations between variables. Still, a number of interesting things stand out.

It will come as little surprise that states with higher levels of smoking have significantly higher rates of death from cancer, heart disease, and cerebrovascular diseases like hypertension. There is a significant correlation between state smoking rates and death rates from cancer (.75), heart disease (.67), and cerebrovascular disease (.59). . . .

Smoking is negatively associated with state happiness (with a correlation of -44.71). Since these correlations only reflect associations between variables and not causality, it's hard to say whether this reflects the fact that happier people smoke less or unhappier ones smoke more, or that both smoking and happiness levels reflect something else. . . .

That said, smoking rate is associated with concentrations of artists, musicians, and entertainers. Contrary to the stereotypical image of cigarette-puffing bohemians or hipsters, smoking is less prevalent in states with more of these artistic types: The correlation is negative (-.450), and about the same as for education.

Lastly, smoking is negatively correlated with larger concentrations of gays and lesbians, as well as immigrants

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Survey suggests decline in smoking has 'hit a wall'  

Cigarette smoking rose slightly in 2008 for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials' hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent.

A little under 21 percent of Americans were current cigarette smokers, according to a 2008 national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's up slightly from the year before, when 19.8 percent said they were smoking. It also is the first increase in adult smoking since 1994, experts noted.

The increase was so small, it could be just a blip, so health officials and experts say smoking prevalence is flat, not rising. But they are unhappy.

"Clearly, we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," said Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization.

There's a general perception that smoking is a dying public health danger. Feeding that perception are indoor smoking laws, higher cigarette taxes and Congress's recent decision to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.

But health officials believe gains have been undermined by cuts in state tobacco control campaigns. Also, the tobacco industry has been discounting cigarettes to offset tax increases and keep smokes affordable, Willmore said, citing tobacco industry sales data.

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Cigarette Taxes and Smuggling: Executive Summary 

States usually cite two major reasons for hiking their cigarette taxes: to decrease smoking, and to increase state tax revenue. Although these two goals can conflict, the "inelastic" nature of the cigarette market often allows policymakers to achieve both aims at once, with modest smoking reductions accompanying net increases in tax revenue.

This outcome may become increasingly difficult to achieve, however. Many states have raised their cigarette taxes significantly in recent years. These increases have likely furthered the growth of two types of cigarette smuggling: "casual" smuggling, in which individual consumers save money by buying their cigarettes in low-tax states or countries, and "commercial" smuggling, in which larger-scale operators buy cigarettes in bulk in a low-tax area and sell them tax-free in high-tax areas. This smuggling undermines both the revenue and health goals of higher cigarette taxes, while producing unintended consequences for individual states and American society as a whole. In this study, the authors consider cigarette smuggling from two angles. First, they employ a statistical model to estimate the degree to which cigarette smuggling occurs in 47 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Second, they review the historical experiences of three states - Michigan, New Jersey and California - known to have problems with cigarette smuggling. . . .

The authors' review of Michigan's, New Jersey's and California's cigarette smuggling experiences suggest that cigarette smugglers can realize large profits: tens of thousands of dollars for a single vanload of cigarettes, and hundreds of thousands of dollars for a single truckload. These sums represent a loss in estimated tax revenues to a state's treasury, but they have produced other unintended consequences, including a variety of crimes:

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Cigarette Taxes and Smuggling: A Statistical Analysis and Historical Review  

In this study, the authors consider cigarette smuggling from two angles. First, they employ a statistical model to estimate the degree to which cigarette smuggling occurs in 47 of the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Second, they review the historical experiences of three states -- Michigan, New Jersey and California -- known to have problems with cigarette smuggling. The author's findings suggest that state policymakers should reassess the value of cigarette taxes as a revenue and public health tool.

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