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Pennsylvania Department of Health Offers Resources to Help Smokers Quit During 

The Department of Health is offering support to help Pennsylvania smokers give up tobacco for good during the 34th annual Great American Smokeout on Nov. 19.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just reported cigarette smoking among adults increased for the first time in 15 years. Approximately 46 million adults still smoke and about two million are Pennsylvanians," said Health Secretary Everette James. "While quitting can be difficult, we are asking smokers to use the Smokeout on Nov. 19 as an opportunity to take the first step toward a healthier lifestyle."

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Issues:`Growing number of students smoking' 

A survey has found about 13 percent of first-time smokers in the country are junior high school students. Muhammad Syahril Mansyur, from the Surakarta Health Agency's respiratory illness division, said Thursday the finding showed an alarming growth rate of Indonesian smokers. The agency conducted the survey in five major cities across the country, including Surakarta in Central Java. . . .

The Indonesian anti-tobacco campaign has reportedly been deemed as ineffective as the government refuses to sign the international convention on tobacco control

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• With aid, Mass. poor cut smoking  

Lower income Massachusetts smokers have dramatically abandoned their habit amid a major state campaign that vigorously promotes and pays for tobacco addiction treatment, according to a report scheduled to be released this morning.

Smoking rates among the poor plummeted 26 percent in the first two years of the ongoing state program, a striking result that is already drawing national attention to the effort. Officials targeted a population that historically had the highest smoking rates in Massachusetts.

The study, issued by the Department of Public Health, found early indications that the tobacco cessation efforts - aimed at patients enrolled in the state’s medical insurance for the poor, MassHealth - are reaping immediate health benefits.

Once patients began receiving counseling and medications to help snuff out their habits, they made fewer trips to emergency rooms because of wheezing bouts of asthma, and there was a trend toward fewer life-threatening heart attacks.

The stop-smoking initiative, which covers virtually all the costs of cessation counseling and drugs, was ordered by the Legislature as part of the landmark health care overhaul in 2006 with a dual purpose: saving lives and money. National health leaders plan to point to the Massachusetts experiment to bolster efforts to expand tobacco cessation services as part of federal health care legislation.

“These findings are extraordinary - they have major public health implications as Congress is debating health care reform,’’ said Matthew Myers . . .

The expectation, based on the experience of other states and health plans, was that 5 to 10 percent of MassHealth patients who smoked might seek help in the first couple of years, Keithly said.

Instead, from July 2006 to May of this year, about 75,000 patients had used the services - two of every five MassHealth smokers.

“We wondered if this population would be interested in cessation,’’ said Dr. Nancy Rigotti, director of the Tobacco Research and Treatment Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “It turns out they were interested - they just couldn’t afford it.’’

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Tobacco advertisements could be banned in Kyrgyzstan 

The Kyrgyz parliamentary committee on social policy has approved the government's proposal to fully ban tobacco advertisements in the mass media, the parliament press service told Interfax. Kyrgyz Health Minister Marat Mambetov told the committee that "a full ban on all forms of advertising in the mass media reduces the social attractiveness of smoking and reduces the consumption of tobacco products, especially among young people."

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Psychologists Welcome Tobacco Curbs In New Health Act 

The British Psychological Society welcomes the passage of measures protecting young people from harm caused by tobacco into law in the Health Act 2009.

The President of the Society, Sue Gardner, says: "We regard the protection of children and young people from smoking as an extremely high priority. All the available evidence suggests that the earlier young people start to smoke the more difficult they will find it to quit."

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• CORCORAN: Ottawa's fruit-flavoured tobacco bomb 

The result was Bill C-32, officially titled The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act -- a misnomer if ever there was one. Today, a year later, what Mr. Harper's Conservatives have delivered instead is an over-the-top law that threatens a global trade war and another bonanza for Canada's already out-of-control contraband cigarette market.

The trade-war potential gathered momentum earlier this month when, according to Inside US Trade, the United States joined Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, the European Union and other nations in opposition to Ottawa's new anti-bubble-gum tobacco law. At a meeting in Geneva, the nations said Canada's law would restrict trade in regular tobacco products to the benefit of Canadian tobacco producers.

The more immediate impact of the law, however, is a ban on the sale in Canada of virtually all brands of U.S. cigarettes. Guess where that leads? The logical result of a ban on legal imports of Marlboros and Winstons is new demand for illegal supplies through the burgeoning Native-dominated contraband market, a tax-evading multi-billion-dollar industry that already accounts for between 33% to 50% of the Canadian cigarette market. . . .

While this may look like another case of unintended consequences run amok, it more likely is part of deliberate scheming by Health Canada officials and others who are consciously using fruit-flavoured smokes to create a global tobacco trade bomb against the U.S. and tobacco industries in Europe, South America and Asia. . . .

Still, Bill C-32 became law, even though Senator Segal abstained over the trade issue. As a result, Mr. Harper's opportunistic election gimmick, aimed at curbing the use of flavoured tobacco to children, will do nothing to protect children. By further enhancing the power and scope of the contraband market, it will only increase the supply of illegal cigarettes, a prime source of tobacco to the young. At the same time, the government has launched a protectionist scheme that threatens a trade conflict.

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UP IN SMOKE  

Faced with strong opposition to the draconian measures contained in the Tobacco Control Bill, Government yesterday relaxed some of the prohibitions and rolled back some of the harsher penalties.

Health Minister Jerry Narace in winding up in debate in the Senate yesterday said he was backing down with regret and that it bothered him to have to concede on some of the points.

He said the domestic worker was being put at risk as the children in the homes, in conceding that home could not be defined as a workplace, except where it is used for the purpose of 'manufacture, distribution and trade' of tobacco products.

He said the amendments came in the interest of getting the legislation passed.

Government also removed the ban on sale of single cigarettes which would be affected small vendors and the low income smoker.

It also slashed the penalties-for a number of offences-prohibition on sales by minors, on public displays of tobacco products and on the sales of tobacco products in certain places.

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EDITORIAL: Tighten laws on tobacco and public smoking 

It is a pity that when many developed countries have tightened laws to make smoking unacceptable or illegal in public places, in developing countries it is the reverse.

In the last 40 years, according to the ACS, smoking rates have fallen in rich countries like the United States, Britain and Japan but have been rising in most of the developing world. Statistics show that smoking will kill six million people worldwide as early as 2010 and 72% of those will be from low and middle-income countries. Uganda is a poor country whose health sector is grossly inadequate. . . .

According to the Uganda Heart Institute, respiratory diseases and lung cancer will be Uganda's leading killer by 2020.

Lung cancer is closely associated with smoking and is on the increase because anti-smoking laws are very weak or non-existent in poor countries. In 2004, the then environment minister Kahinda Otafiire imposed a smoking ban in all public places. However, since the public places were not gazetted, its enforcement became problematic. Clearly, there is need to discourage smoking.

The starting point is to help tobacco growers switch to alternative crops. The law on public smoking must be vigorously enforced and non-smoking areas clearly demarcated. Cigarettes should be sold in packets and not as individual sticks to make its cost prohibitive.

Churches, mosques and schools should play a role in sensitising people about the danger of smoking. With concerted effort, the deadly menace of smoking can be tackled.

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FDA Exercises New Authority to Regulate Tobacco Products, But Some Limits Remain ($$) 

With great fanfare, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 22 announced a ban on certain flavored cigarettes that, the agency says, are aimed at enticing children to smoke.

"Almost 90% of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers, and these flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD, at a press conference announcing the ban.

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Newton aldermen snuff out tobacco in pharmacies  

The Board of Aldermen approved a ban forbidding pharmacies from selling tobacco products in the city by a wide margin Monday night. The measure passed without discussion.

In an 18-3 vote, members approved the ban, which supporters said was intended to prevent those in the public health business from selling cigarettes and other tobacco items.

Aldermen Bill Brandel, Amy Sangiolo and Jay Harney cast the only nay votes against the ban.

Supporters of the proposal said at a previous meeting that pharmacies should not sell cigarettes because they also sell medicine -- including medication for people trying to quit smoking.

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FDAImports.com Reports: FDA Bans Flavored Cigarettes While U.S. Opposes Canadian Ban on Flavored Cigarettes at WTO 

FDAImports.com reports: the U.S. government is a house divided. While some government officials are fighting for greater restrictions on the sale of tobacco products, others are fighting to prevent any more restrictions and balking at the restrictions that other nations have implemented on tobacco sales. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?

On November 6, FDA posted a special update on its web site, highlighting what its Center for Tobacco Products has done to implement the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. On the list was the statutory ban on cigarettes containing certain characterizing flavors (other than menthol) that went into effect on September 22, 2009. FDA stated that it is also exploring options for regulating both menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes, in efforts to reduce smoking in America; particularly youth smoking. FDA also established mechanisms for the public to report information about possible violations of the law, and has issued Warning Letters to firms who appear to be in violation of the ban.

Meanwhile, at a World Trade Organization meeting last week, U.S. members joined Mexico and 5 other countries in the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade in opposing Canada's ban on flavored tobacco products. These members voiced concerns that the ban was too restrictive, since it bans all tobacco products with even one of the listed additives, and that it would impact various countries' exports. U.S. Senator Jim Benning (R-KY) is using political means to pressure President Obama to fight the Canadian law -- by placing a hold on the nomination of Miriam Shapiro to be deputy trade representative.

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FDA Bans Flavored Cigarettes While U.S. Opposes Canadian Ban on Flavored Cigarettes at WTO 

FDAImports.com reports: the U.S. government is a house divided. While some government officials are fighting for greater restrictions on the sale of tobacco products, others are fighting to prevent any more restrictions and balking at the restrictions that other nations have implemented on tobacco sales. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?

On November 6, FDA posted a special update on its web site, highlighting what its Center for Tobacco Products has done to implement the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. On the list was the statutory ban on cigarettes containing certain characterizing flavors (other than menthol) that went into effect on September 22, 2009. FDA stated that it is also exploring options for regulating both menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes, in efforts to reduce smoking in America; particularly youth smoking. FDA also established mechanisms for the public to report information about possible violations of the law, and has issued Warning Letters to firms who appear to be in violation of the ban.

Meanwhile, at a World Trade Organization meeting last week, U.S. members joined Mexico and 5 other countries in the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade in opposing Canada's ban on flavored tobacco products. These members voiced concerns that the ban was too restrictive, since it bans all tobacco products with even one of the listed additives, and that it would impact various countries' exports. U.S. Senator Jim Benning (R-KY) is using political means to pressure President Obama to fight the Canadian law -- by placing a hold on the nomination of Miriam Shapiro to be deputy trade representative.

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Funding anti-tobacco programs saves us in the long run  

The 2008 Independent Evaluation report of the New York State Tobacco Control Program was recently released, and the news is good.

Our tobacco control program in New York is working, and working well. Both youth and adult smoking rates are declining significantly faster than the rates for the U.S. as a whole.

The smoking rates in Putnam, Orange, Westchester and Rockland counties are at or significantly under the national smoking rate.

Support for the Clean Indoor Air Act is continuing to grow every year, and anti-tobacco attitudes are increasing. Even though our programs are funded at one-third of the funding levels that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for the size of our state, these programs are having an effect. This saves lives and saves us money. Continued program funding cuts will jeopardize the gains we are already seeing.

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Solons warn BIR vs tax stamps on sin products 

LEGISLATORS on Tuesday warned the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) against signing the P18-billion revenue-stamp contract with a leading global provider of security ink and solutions for the authentication of bank notes, value documents and products, saying the proposal could trigger the imposition of additional taxes on the public.

At the hearing of the House ways and means committee on Tuesday, legislators also questioned the contract cost that increased from P13 billion to P18 billion in a matter of three years since the proposal was first submitted to the BIR.

Sicpa Products Security SA Director Hans Schwab blamed inflation for the P5 billion cost adjustment from 2006 to 2009.

Liberal Party Rep. Liwayway Vinzons-Chato of Camarines Sur aired strong misgivings about Sicpa’s claim that the revenue-stamp technology they are offering would address “illicit” cigarette trade that has cost the government several billions of pesos in unrealized revenues.

Chato recalled that during her term as internal-revenue commissioner, she sent a team of experts to the United States to study the fuson stamp system as a means of determining taxes on cigarette products.

“The group did not recommend the attachment of fuson on stamps because there was no clear indication as to increase in collection in taxes and so-called leakages,” Chato said.

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QUARLES: Administration must confront Canada on burley tobacco ban 

The Canadian government has enacted a law that could endanger the entire burley tobacco industry. U.S. tobacco growers need President Barack Obama and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to ensure that the Canadians honor their trade obligations and that other countries do not follow Canada’s lead in banning American blend cigarettes.

The Canadian government’s hypocrisy on trade is startling. Less than a month after Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Washington to lecture President Obama about the dangers of “Buy American” laws, his government passed a “Buy Canada” tobacco ban that violates Canada’s World Trade Organization (WTO) responsibilities.

The legislation, C-32, was intended to ban candy-flavored tobacco products, a worthy goal that U.S. burley growers share.

Unfortunately, C-32 morphed into an overreaching piece of legislation that prohibits the manufacture or sale of blended cigarettes that contain burley tobacco. This outcome is especially troublesome because American blend cigarettes are not candy-flavored in any way. . . .

At a time when so many sectors of the American economy are suffering, it is wrong for the burley tobacco industry to fall victim to an overreaching foreign law that violates the standards of free and fair trade. It is incumbent on USTR to send a strong message to Canada and other countries that banning blended cigarettes that contain burley tobacco is unacceptable and unnecessary to achieve the goal of reducing youth smoking.

-- Quarles is president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association

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