Tobacco.org

• Secondhand smoke exposure worse for toddlers, obese children 

Toddlers and obese children suffer more than other youth when exposed to secondhand smoke, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2009.

"Secondhand smoke in children is not just bad for respiratory issues, as has been previously described by other researchers," said John Anthony Bauer, Ph.D., the study's senior co-author and principal investigator at Nationwide Children's Hospital & Research Institute at Ohio State University in Columbus. "Our data support the view that cardiovascular effects of secondhand smoke in children are important, particularly for the very young and those who are obese. We had not investigated the impact of obesity in previous studies."

Bauer and colleagues recruited American boys and girls, including 52 toddlers (ages 2 to 5 years) and 107 adolescents (ages 9 to 18 years). The study included black, white and Hispanic children, including obese toddlers and adolescents.

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• Internet Cigarette Sales--an Illegal Rip-off of Our Nation / It's Time for the Feds to Act! (PDF) 

• Intent on determining whether progress has been made in curbing the illegal Internet sale of tobacco products, an American Wholesale Marketers Association (AWMA) researcher selected 27 Internet sites at random and purchased 22 cartons of cigarettes using a Visa card and a prepaid Visa card. Of the 27 random sites selected using the Internet search engine Google, 74% allowed the use of a credit card—Visa, Diners Club, MasterCard, and/or American Express.

• None of the cigarettes purchased carried U.S. state tax stamps, and in no case were taxes collected at the time of purchase.

• The American Wholesale Marketers Association will notify proper state authorities of the purchases and pay the appropriate amount of tax to comply with the law.

• Age verification was virtually nonexistent. Most sites simply had a statement on the home page, or hidden in a disclaimer or under Frequently Asked Questions, stating that a purchaser must be a certain age to buy cigarettes. Some asked for a simple check-off that the buyer was over 18.

• This study clearly demonstrates that efforts to restrict illegal cigarette sales via the Internet are ineffective, that billions of dollars in taxes are going uncollected, and that legitimate sellers of tobacco products in the U.S. face unfair competition from unscrupulous online purveyors who are scoffing at U.S. laws and tax requirements.

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• Organizations Call on U.S. Senate to Pass Legislation Preventing Tax‐Evading Online Cigarette Trafficking (PDF) 

Representatives of law enforcement groups, public health organizations and trade associations today gathered on Capitol Hill to urge the Senate to pass S. 1147, the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 (PACT Act). This legislation will help combat online cigarette sales that have robbed hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues from the states and that undermine state laws that prevent youth access to tobacco products. This bill closes gaps in current federal laws regulating “remote” or “delivery” sales of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products.

These organizations were joined by Sen. Herb Kohl (D‐WI) and Rep. Anthony Weiner (D‐NY), advocates of combating illegal cigarette sales. Numerous stakeholders have worked with Sen. Kohl through the years to pass the PACT Act, which was passed in the House of Representatives this May.

“The PACT Act will strengthen our tobacco laws to ensure that law enforcement has the tools they need to investigate and prosecute cigarette traffickers, said Sen. Kohl. “Each day we delay its passage, terrorists and criminals raise more money, states lose significant amounts of tax revenue, and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the internet.” . . .

Organizations represented at the press conference included the National Association of Convenience Stores, American Wholesale Marketers Association, National Black Police Association and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids. . . .

The American Wholesale Marketers Association also released its latest findings from a study it conducted examining the prevalence of illegal Internet cigarette sales and the cost to the country. In the study AWMA found the cost to states in illegal cigarette sales could be upwards of $5 billion per year, and that with online sales there is almost no age verification at the time of purchase.

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• UF study finds more teens smoke hookah 

Danielle Lee won’t touch a cigarette, but she’ll pass a hookah pipe around a circle of friends any day.

And, according to a recent UF study, an increasing number of middle school- and high school-aged children share Lee’s fondness for the alternative form of tobacco.

The study, presented on Nov. 9 at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting in Philadelphia, found that 11 percent of Florida high school students and 4 percent of Florida middle school students had smoked hookah at least once.

Hookah burns charcoal and tobacco. Air is first drawn through the tobacco and then into the pipe, where it passes through water, which leads many smokers to believe hookah smoking is safer than cigarette or cigar smoking.

Maureen Miller, alcohol and other drug prevention specialist with UF’s GatorWell Health Promotion Services, was quick to point out hookah’s potentially dangerous effects.

“This isn’t harmless,” Miller said of hookah. “There certainly are some serious health concerns here.” The World Health Organization reported a typical 20- to 80-minute hookah session is the equivalent of smoking about 100 cigarettes and can deliver 11 times more carbon monoxide than a cigarette.

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• Coalition Pressures Senate to Pass Cigarette Anti-trafficking Bill  

The illegal sale of tobacco products through the Internet leads to tax evasion and tobacco use by young people, members of Congress and merchants said Tuesday.

The Coalition to Stop Contraband Tobacco urged the Senate to pass a bill that would address the issue. The bill is scheduled for a vote Thursday by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Each day we delay its passage, terrorists and criminals raise more money, states lose significant amounts of tax revenue, and kids have easy access to tobacco products sold over the Internet," said Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., who sponsored the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act.

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• VIDEO: A smoke-free Lebanon: Reality or pipedream?  

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

* Lebanon has one of the highest smoking rates in the world, according to WHO

* No minimum age to buy cigarettes; 65 percent of 13-15 year old boys smoke

* Anti-smoking guru Dr G Saade says patients with smoking-related diseases getting younger

* Lebanese unlikely to give up the weed easily as they associate smoking with freedom . . .

In restaurants and cafes, on the streets, in the airport and even in elevators, Lebanese delight in lighting up. The World Health Organization (WHO) says Lebanon has one of the highest smoking rates in the world.

"We are a tobacco-friendly society," says cardiologist Dr. Georges Saade, a former WHO official who now heads the Tobacco Control Project at Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health.

Dr. Saade is a committed anti-smoking campaigner and for years he's fought an uphill battle for funding to increase awareness of the risks of smoking.

The ministry estimates that if attitudes towards smoking don't change, this small nation of four million will experience at least 3,000 tobacco-related deaths each year.

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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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• Tobacco poison surrounds child workers  

The children pick through mountainous piles of waste tobacco and sweep it up with their bare hands into giant bags in the hope of scraping a living. From behind a veil of dust, they stare back at us with bloodshot eyes.

As the wind gathers in a fading dusk, infant siblings strapped to their mothers' backs wail amid swirling, noxious clouds of tobacco.

Beyond them, a parched maize plantation stretches into the distance towards the factory buildings of Alliance One, the world's largest tobacco processor and the source of up to 30% of the premium tobacco enjoyed by Britain's 13m smokers.

A Sunday Times investigation in the southern African state of Malawi has uncovered an environmental travesty that is being inflicted by the tobacco industry on some of the continent's poorest people.Downstream from the tobacco processing plants that dominate the outskirts of Lilongwe, the Malawian capital, rivers run yellow and green from industrial outflow -- water used for bathing by villagers who have no other option.

Even more alarming, however, is that in a community already plagued by Aids, cholera, malnutrition and one of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, toxic tobacco waste is being dumped by contractors in open landfill sites where hundreds of children are picking through the remnants. . . .

This weekend a spokesman for the American-owned Alliance One said the company would build a wall round the landfill site to keep out children. He said: "We believe that we meet all environmental and other regulatory requirements in Malawi, but we are happy to work further with local authorities to further safeguard children from exposure at the municipal disposal site."

Few benefits from the tobacco industry filter down to Malawi's poor tobacco farmers who eke out a hopeless existence on less than 80p a day.

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• New smokeless tobacco products in test markets  

In a Louisville, Ky., Holiday Inn, Brown and Williamson researchers brainstormed novel ways to sell tobacco.

It was 1992, and the goal was to find "socially acceptable" ways to use it, according to one of the company's internal research and development documents. It needed to be smokeless, spitless, and not produce an odor. It needed to be fire safe, readily available and not subject to federal regulations.

Their ideas ran the gamut: tobacco pills and lotion, beverages and toothpicks. They even considered a tobacco-derived salted snack and perfume or aftershave.

Nearly two decades later, the tobacco industry's answers are showing up in test markets around the country. Utah health officials say they expect to see them rolled out across the country, and in the state, before long.

That's why they are warning consumers now: The new products look like candy and come packaged in slick, colorful containers. And they may be especially appealing to children.

"You don't look at that (the packaging) and think 'evil,'" said David Neville, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Health's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program. "You look at it and think, 'That's cute.' "

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the manufacturer of Camel and 10 other brands, says it is only gathering input from consumers in its lead markets: Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Ore. and Indianapolis, Ind. It's unsure when -- or even if -- these new kinds of smokeless tobacco will take root as products, said spokesman David Howard. . . .

Camel's Orb -- small, brown-colored pellets -- could be easily mistaken for a Tic Tac. A 1-year-old who weighs about 23 pounds could suffer from severe toxicity or death if he or she ate as few as 10.

"It doesn't look quite as shiny or appealing," said Ellie Brownstein, a University Hospital pediatrician, "but how many kids go rifling through their mom's purse for a mint?"

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• VIDEO: Cigarette vending machines banned 

A ban on cigarette vending machines is set to become law across the UK, after it cleared its final Commons hurdle on Tuesday night.

MPs approved Lords amendments to the Health Bill, following the surprise agreement in the Commons to the proposal from Labour former minister Ian McCartney last month.

Health Minister Gillian Merron said it was hoped the ban would dissuade young people from smoking, as these were the "new recruits the tobacco industry needs to replace those who die".

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• Taxpayer Subsidies for US Films with Tobacco Imagery 

Forty-one US states and several countries compete for big-budget Hollywood film projects by offering valuable public subsidies. In 2008, states offered an estimated total of $1.4 billion to motion picture producers. On average, individual states now cover 24 percent of production costs for commercial feature films. Because an estimated 1.3 million current adolescent smokers in the US were recruited to smoke by tobacco imagery in films about 400,000 of whom will ultimately die from tobacco-induced diseases, this report estimates the size of recent public subsidies for youth-rated (G/PG/PG-13) films with tobacco imagery. It explores making tobacco imagery a determinant factor in eligibility for public film subsidies so that these awards no longer work in contradiction to public health. A survey of the 147 films released to US theaters in 2008, each among the top ten box office earners in at least one week, finds two-thirds of US-developed, youthrated film projects with tobacco imagery were filmed in the US, a rate typical of all films released by US studios over the past decade. Filmed in a dozen states now offering subsidies, these 35 movies contributed 71 percent of the 11.4 billion tobacco impressions delivered to US theater audiences by youth-rated films in 2008.

Based on this film sample and on film industry production cost data, states awarded an estimated $830 million in public subsidies to films with tobacco, including $500 million to youth-rated films with tobacco. For comparison, the states budgeted $719 million for all tobacco control in 2009. More than half of states subsidizing films (22/41), including New York and California, spend or earmark more money for commercial film subsidies than for anti-tobacco programs. An estimated 60 percent ($830 million/$1.4 billion) of state film subsidies go to smoking films.

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• Study Says State Film Subsidies Underwrite Tobacco-Friendly Movies 

A new report takes aim at state movie production subsidies for supporting films that depict smoking. Health researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, estimate that 60 percent of the $1.4 billion that states offered in 2008 to attract Hollywood filming went to movies with tobacco imagery.

The researchers tabulated that states gave about $500 million to “youth-rated” movies (PG and PG-13) and about $330 million R-rated movies. Combined, that is more than the 41 states that offer subsidies spend on antitobacco health programs, according to Stanton Glantz, an author of the report and a U.C.S.F. professor of medicine.

“These film subsidies undermine their own antitobacco programs,” Mr. Glantz said. The full report, released Tuesday and funded by the American Legacy Foundation, is available here.

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• Industry dodges ad bans by pushing smokes online 

The tobacco industry is using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to promote its products and persuade people to become smokers, a study revealed yesterday.

"The ban on advertising does not mean the tobacco industry has stopped advertising its products," said Becky Freeman of Australia's University of Sydney, who conducted the study.

She presented her findings in Bangkok at a threeday regional training workshop held by Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

Freeman said most tobacco companies were interested in viral marketing (using preexisting social networks to increase brand recognition) to persuade or influence audiences to pass products on to others.

A million people had visited video clips on YouTube reviewing cigarettes, she said, and thousands more had become fans of the products on Facebook. "The Internet has made it easier to engage consumers by allowing them to contribute directly to marketing campaigns and brand development," she said.

The use of social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, podcasts and RSS would be one of the main topics up for discussion at Tabinfo Asia 2009 . . .

Another marketing device was the use of product and pack designs - such as colourful and glowinthe dark packs - to entice specific groups.

"For example, we found cigarette packs designed like lipsticks or wallets - a new way to lure more and more women to become smokers," she said. . . .

A group of 650 people, including teenagers, led by Action on Smoking and its alliances, will today demonstrate against the Tabinfo Asia 2009 at Impact Arena.

"This is a nightmare for our people," SEATCA's director Bungon Ritthiphakdee said

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• Cigarette Packaging Influences Teens to Buy and Try  

Even before adolescents try smoking, they have preconceived ideas about what smoking is like. They often glean these images from the appeal of a cigarette pack. Colors, images, logos and font sizes all play a part in increasing teens’ susceptibility to future tobacco use.

“We found that when branding is progressively removed from a cigarette pack, adolescents not only perceive the packs to be less attractive, they associate the brand with people who have less favorable attributes. They also assume the cigarettes have a more negative taste,” said study co-author Melanie Wakefield, Ph.D.

Wakefield is director of the Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer of the Cancer Council Victoria. The study appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

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• Underage smoking 'should be illegal' 

Underage smoking should be an offence like underage drinking, says the peak body for corner stores and petrol stations.

The Australasian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) is calling on government to make it illegal for under 18s to smoke, handing police the power to issue fines or court attendance notices.

AACS executive director Sheryle Moon, says existing youth anti-smoking measures place a "disproportionate burden on retailers".

"Where is the deterrent to make our kids stub out?" Ms Moon said in a statement.

"We believe it is high time that the responsibility for youth smoking is shared and our young people are given a reason to think twice before sparking up.

"We agree convenience stores have a key role to play in limiting minors access to cigarettes, but we can only do so much."

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