Tobacco.org

• Itching to stop smoking? Scientists may know why 

Belgian researchers studying the effect of nicotine in mice found that it activates a molecular pathway in membranes in the skin, nose and mouth known to play a role in inflammation.

This may explain why nicotine patches and other nicotine replacement therapies can make people itch, they said in a study published in Nature, and could help in developing treatments to help people quit smoking with fewer irritating side effects. . . .

Until now, scientists had thought that irritation from nicotine patches and other nicotine treatments came from stimulation of nerve receptors that convey painful stimuli from the skin and the linings of the nose and mouth.

But Karel Talavera of the Leuven Catholic University in Belgium found that in mice, nicotine also directly activates TRPA1, a pathway or channel in cells known to convey information about irritating substances and inflammatory pain.

They also found that mice lacking TRPA1 showed no irritation when nicotine was put into their noses.

"The identification of TRPA1 as a nicotine target ... may facilitate the development of smoking cessation therapies with less adverse effects," the researchers wrote.

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• Attempt To Silence Freedom Of Speech In The Heart Of The EU 

The 1st international conference against prohibition which was scheduled for the 27/28th January in the EU parliament, Brussels, was blocked on the 15th January following a letter to the EU president from the anti smoking organisation, The Smokefree Partnership.

The conference had gathered a great deal of interest and support due to the fact that eminent scientists from around the world, including some from within tobacco control, were attending to give speeches regarding the passive smoke fraud.

Fortunately the organisers of the event, TICAP, anticipated underhand tactics by the anti smoking industry to prevent the conference from happening, and a contingency within a separate venue right opposite the EU parliament has now been put into place. All scientists and other participants along with live satellite links for those unable to attend in person are available in the alternate building.

In the letter that resulted in the EU venue being withdrawn Florence Berteletti Kemp, Director of the Smoke Free Partnership, falsely claims a commercial interest for financial sponsors of the conference offering no factual evidence to back up her allegation. She also states that - the event goes 'against all of Parliament's adopted reports and the European Community's legislation and commitments on this topic', and that 'it violates the spirit of the International Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.'

This is clearly a demand to prevent the freedom of speech of some of the most highly recognised scientists in the field; a demand that was upheld by the EU Bureau and hidden from the parliamentary sponsor of the conference, Godfrey Bloom MEP. . . .

In an unprecedented move, the EU Bureau cancelled the conference with no record on their meeting agenda and without communication or right of reply to the sponsoring MEP, who was left to discover the truth by rumours almost a week later. These astonishingly undemocratic revelations were based upon unsubstantiated false claims and a demand that no debate should be allowed, and were submitted by an anti smoking group opposed to the content of the event.

For decades the anti smoking industry has grossly perverted science for their own ideology; it comes as no surprise to us whatsoever that they are now perverting democracy and freedom in the very heart of the EU.

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• Tobacco farmers burn crops in protest at EU subsidy cut  

Thousands of raucous tobacco farmers from across Europe mounted a demonstration in the EU capital on Wednesday (19 November), setting alight a bonfire of tobacco leaves outside the European Council building in protest at changes to EU subsidies.

Claiming a crowd of 10,000 tobacco growers and workers from processing factories, organisers had called the day of action in Brussels to coincide with a meeting of EU agriculture ministers on the Common Agricultural Policy "health check."

The farmers and workers say the proposed cut of half their subsidies from 2010 will result in massive job losses across the industry.

The protesters demanded that existing subsidies, which link the money to production volumes, be extended to 2013 to give them more time to adjust to EU agricultural sector reforms and said they were hoping for a favourable decision from the agriculture ministers meeting today.

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• Thousands Of Tobacco Workers Protest Against EU Subsidy Cuts 

Almost 10,000 tobacco and farm workers descended on Brussels Wednesday to protest against plans to cut back their subsidies from the European Union.

The demonstrators, many from Italy, France and Poland, gathered outside the European Council building, as the E.U.'s 27 farm ministers met inside to discuss the agriculture budget.

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• Belgians buy 750 million fewer cigarettes  

Sales in cigarettes were down by 12 percent or 750 million cigarettes during the first half of 2008.

This is the first significant drop in cigarette sales in Belgium.

There has also been a decrease in tobacco sales. Nearly 3,400 tonnes of tobacco were sold during the first six months of 2008. Tobacco sales are down 8.5 percent in comparison with 2007.

This is good news for Belgians' health but bad news for the treasury as they will lose out on VAT and duty worth EUR 35 million.

The Health Ministry identifies several factors that triggered the fall in sales: legislation banning smoking in restaurants and public places and 2007's price rise.

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• EU Tobacco Ban Meets Its Swedish Match  

BRUSSELS -- Christopher Fjellner, a member of the European Parliament, says he won't apologize for breaking the law.

From his Brussels office, the Swedish lawmaker sells a Scandinavian chewing tobacco called snus (it rhymes with moose). The European Union banned snus sales in 1992 amid concerns about oral cancer and other health problems. But Mr. Fjellner says snus is safer than smoking and can help nicotine addicts reduce the risk of cancer.

Mr. Fjellner's act of civil disobedience comes at a sensitive time for EU policymakers. The bloc is toughening its stance on tobacco use and weighing a broad ban on smoking in public places by 2009. . . .

The European Commission is studying whether to lift its 1992 ban on snus sales. A decision is expected later this month. People familiar with the review say the commission is unlikely to overturn the ban, but might modify rules to allow more snus sales.

Using snus is legal throughout the EU, but the pouched tobacco can be sold only in Sweden . . .

"We've got nicotine replacement therapy and that, in the majority of cases, does jolly well," said Alexander Macara, former chairman of the British Medical Association and an expert on public health and addiction. "The medical evidence in favor of snus is ambiguous, not definitive."

Pharmaceutical companies, heavily invested in the multibillion-dollar market for stop-smoking products, are lobbying the commission to maintain the ban on snus sales. . . .

British American Tobacco PLC describes snus as a "harm reduction" product. It started selling snus under its Lucky Strike and Peter Stuyvesant brands in Sweden and South Africa over two years ago.

"The tide is in favor of the EU ban being lifted," said Catherine Armstrong, a BAT spokeswoman in London. . . .

"I hope someone comes to arrest me, just to let people know how stupid the EU regulation is," Mr. Fjellner said, his upper lip bulging slightly.

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• Less-harmful cigarette invented 

according to Belgian scientists. They say they have succeeded in producing a safer substance for an alternative cigarette.

The new cigarettes cause no harmful effects to passive smokers, say the researchers at the Catholic University Louvain. The alternative cigarettes contain 70 percent less nicotine than normal ones.

The smoke caused by these new cigarettes contains no toxic substances for the smoker or his environment, but give the smoker the feeling and taste of regular cigarettes. They are also much cheaper to make than traditional cigarettes.

The new discovery will be presented on Friday.

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• Lower turnover because of smoking ban 

The smoking ban that has been in effect since the beginning of this year has had mainly a negative impact on restaurants and cafes near the border with the Netherlands.

Businesses in municipalities like Maaseik are seeing more and more customers cross the border to the Netherlands where smoking is still allowed in the hospitality sector.

Restaurants in the Belgian part of this border region saw their turnover decrease by 25 percent during the first three months of this year.

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• Belgium can now picture the worst from smoking 

Buying a pack of cigarettes in Belgium these days can be enough to scare you to death. Since November, smokers in this rain-swept country of 10 million people have been confronted with graphic warnings on their cigarette packs, and they are not for the fainthearted. One shows a man with a swollen red tumor protruding from his neck. "Smoking can lead to a slow and painful death," reads a note underneath. Other pictures the Belgian government plans to rotate over the next three years show toothless gums, blackened lungs and open heart surgery. So far, Belgium is the only European country to force manufacturers to slap gross pictures onto cigarette packs. But Britain, Latvia, Portugal and Romania intend to follow Brussels' example, according to the European Commission, the European Union's executive body. EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, who hopes to see the spread of such graphic warnings, argues they not only provide relevant health information "but also are likely to reduce tobacco use in the population."

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• Shocking pictures help turn tide against tobacco  

An exhibit on the "power of communication against tobacco" in Brussels highlighted the gory images that now appear on many nations' campaigns in a ferocious drive to combat smoking around the world.

Two pitch-black lungs adorned the badge that a Belgian school planned to oblige stigmatised student smokers to wear. A nationwide protest led to the campaign being called off this week, but the plan underscored how smokers are on the defensive. . . .

Arguing that a picture paints a thousand words, EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said others should follow the lead of Belgium, which in November became the first EU nation to put shocking pictures on cigarette packs.

"This would strengthen the impact of the new health warnings and play a valuable role in alienating and de-normalising smoking throughout Europe," Mr Kyprianou said.

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• Puffing pupils put on display 

A Belgian school is to let pupils smoke - but only if they stand in a cage and wear a graphic badge.

The badge shows an X-ray image of a pair of lungs, blackened by smoking, reports De Morgen.

The new rule will be introduced for pupils over the age of 16 at the Vesalius Institute in Ostende in February.

Assistant-director Claudine Lesaffre said: "We do a lot to promote a healthy lifestyle in our school. . . .

"By wearing the badge, students expresses it is by their own free will they are damaging their health. If this won't help, I don't know what to do anymore."

But the students seem more concerned about having to smoke in a cage than wearing the badge.

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By wearing the badge, students expresses it is by their own free will they are damaging their health. If this won't help, I don't know what to do anymore.
Claudine Lesaffre, Assistant-director of the Vesalius Institute in Ostende, Belgium, on the Belgian school's new rule to let pupils smoke - but only if they stand in a cage and wear a badge illustrating smoking damage to the body.

• Tobacco picture warnings:a picture paints a thousand words 

Speaking ahead of the opening of a photo exhibition on pictorial warnings on tobacco products in Brussels, European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said : 'As the old saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words. Pictorial warnings on tobacco products help smokers to visualise the nature of tobacco-related disease. I urge all Member States to make use of the picture warnings and help to 'de-normalise' smoking throughout Europe.'

The exhibition, 'The Power of Communications Against Tobacco', takes place at the Solvay Library in Brussels' Park Leopold, and has been inaugurated yesterday by Commissioner Kyprianou and Jules Maaten MEP. The exhibition showcases tobacco picture warnings from the EU Directive on Tobacco Products as well as from countries including Belgium, Canada, Brazil, Thailand and Australia.

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• Belgian Smokers Face Corpse, Tumor Images on Cigarette Packs 

Emmanuelle Mockel, a 17-year-old Belgian medical student, can't breathe as well as she used to after five years of smoking, and the possibility of cancer has crossed her mind. Pictures of cancer-related diseases on cigarette packs may help her think about it more.

Starting in October, cigarettes sold in Belgium began to carry pictures of sick people, death and symbolic depictions of impotence. Within three years, Belgium's Federal Public Service for Public Health wants the packages to begin carrying photos of tumors, diseased lungs and decaying teeth.

``It's very horrific to look at that,'' Mockel said. ``I've been coughing all the time and I think of that.''

Belgium is the first country in Western Europe to insist on pictorial warnings . . .

Tobacco is the single largest cause of avoidable death in the European Union, killing more than half a million people a year, according to the European Commission, which has published a library of photos that governments can choose to require on tobacco packs.

The images being used this year include a corpse in a morgue, a man being revived from a heart attack, a lung-cancer patient unable to breathe on his own, and a couple in bed looking away from each because they can't have sex. A shriveled apple warns of aging skin. Still, the pictures don't shock everyone.

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• Disgusting Photos: Belgium Wants to Shock Smokers out of their Habit  

Belgium is aiming to use shocking images to persuade smokers to give up once and for all. By June 2007, all cigarette packets will have to include the disturbing images of tumors, heart operations or teeth falling out.

Even though most smokers know deep down that their habit is bad for them, it still seems difficult to persuade many of them to kick the habit. However, Belgium wants to tackle the problem head on. The Belgian government has decided that from now on all cigarette packets that are sold in the country must include a shocking image of the consequences of smoking.

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• "Leave smokers in peace, please" 

In Belgium, a new anti-tobacco law comes into force on 1 January.

Smoking will be prohibited in restaurants and pubs where food is served.

Restaurants will have the possibility of making a separate room available for smokers.

Hennie Heyndrickx of Tabaknatie claims that smokers should be left alone. "Smoking has not been a problem for 100 years. Why the sudden change?"

As from January, Tabaknatie will be looking for restaurants or pubs who find a way of allowing people to smoke despite the new law.

They will be put on the website of Tabaknatie as a way of promoting them.

Mr Heyndrickx rejects the idea of separate smoking rooms in restaurants. "That's no fun at all, it's like eating in prison."

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That's no fun at all, it's like eating in prison.
Hennie Heyndrickx of Tabaknatie, the world's biggest company for leaf tobacco warehousing and logistics, on separate smoking rooms in Belgium's restaurants. Mr. Heyndrickx aims to launch a campaign to promote smoking in restaurants.