Tobacco.org

Research and Markets: China Is Expected To Lead the Tobacco Industry in the BRIC Nations with a Value of $368,035.4 Million In 2015 

Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/0e511c/tobacco_bric_br) has announced the addition of the "Tobacco - BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Industry Guide" report to their offering.

"Tobacco - BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Industry Guide"

Tobacco - BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Industry Guide is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) Tobacco industry. The report includes easily comparable data on market value, volume, segmentation and market share, plus full five year market forecasts. It examines future problems, innovations and potential growth areas within the market.

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Genetic analyses of smoking initiation, persistence, quantity, and age-at-onset of regular cigarette use in Brazilian families: the Baependi Heart Study 

Background

The purpose of this study was to estimate the genetic influences on the initiation of cigarette smoking, the persistence, quantity and age-at-onset of regular cigarette use in Brazilian families.

Methods

The data set consisted of 1,694 individuals enrolled in the Baependi Heart Study. . . .

Conclusions

Significant heritabilities were observed in smoking phenotypes for both males and females from the Brazilian population. These data add to the literature and are concordant with the notion of significant biological determination in smoking behavior. Samples from the Baependi Heart Study may be valuable for the mapping of genetic loci that modulate this complex biological trait.

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Alliance One and China Tobacco Announce the Creation of a New Joint Venture in Brazil  

Alliance One International, Inc. (NYSE: AOI) today announced that its Brazilian subsidiary Alliance One Brasil Exportadora de Tabacos ("AOB") and China Tabaco Internacional do Brasil ("CTIB") have signed a definitive agreement to form a new joint venture company in Brazil.

Under the agreement, AOB will transfer to the joint venture production contracts with approximately six thousand integrated farmers for the upcoming 2011/2012 crop. The joint venture's administrative and buying functions will operate in a portion of Alliance One's recently expanded facilities in Venancio Aires and tobacco processing will occur in AOB's facility. The joint venture will be owned 51% by CTIB and 49% by AOB.

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Alliance One, China Tobacco To Form New JV In Brazil  

Alliance One International, Inc. (AOI) said Monday that its Brazilian subsidiary Alliance One Brasil Exportadora de Tabacos and China Tabaco Internacional do Brasil have signed a definitive agreement to form a new joint venture company in Brazil.

Under the agreement, Alliance One Brasil will transfer to the joint venture production contracts with about six thousand integrated farmers for the upcoming 2011/2012 crop.

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• BRAZIL: Providing Alternatives for Small-Scale Tobacco Farmers 

The fall in world tobacco consumption, especially in industrialised nations, is a sign of the urgent need for producer countries like Brazil, China, India and the United States to offer their farmers alternatives to growing tobacco.

Tobacco has been grown in Brazil for 120 years, and is important for the trade balance of this South American country.

Tobacco industry statistics for 2011 show that China is the world leader in tobacco production with 2.4 million tonnes, and Brazil is the runner-up, with 867,000 tonnes.

Some 200,000 small-scale family farms, located mainly in the south and northeast of the country, produce 95 percent of Brazil's tobacco.

President Dilma Rousseff signed a tobacco control law Dec. 15 which increases taxes on tobacco, sets minimum prices for cigarettes, bans smoking in all public spaces and enclosed workplaces, and forbids advertising at points of sale.

Brazil, with its 192 million people, may thus become the most populous country to declare itself smoke-free, said the U.S.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. . . .

"Many of the tobacco farmers have already said they would prefer to diversify or switch crops," Andreis said.

The ministry of agricultural development announced that during 2011 it invested six million dollars in technical support and agricultural extension services for approximately 10,000 family farmers who wish to diversify away from growing tobacco.

The funds have been used principally for families in the seven tobacco-growing states: Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia and Paraiba in the northeast, and Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Paraná in the south.

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• Superior Court Turns Down Indemnification Claim of Ex-Smoker Against Souza Cruz  

By unanimous vote (5x0), the 4th Panel of the Superior Justice Tribunal (STJ) rejected on Thursday (12/16/2011) the indemnification claim brought by ex-smoker Maria Aparecida da Silva. The Court heard the special appeal of cigarette manufacturer Souza Cruz and overruled the decision of the lower courts which had awarded over R$ 1 million to the ex-smoker. The judgment yesterday makes it the eighth suit of this nature analyzed by the Superior Court, which has dismissed on merits every one of the indemnification claims brought by smokers, ex-smokers or their relatives.

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Brazil to Become World’s Largest Smoke-Free Country  

The Brazilian government has taken historic action to protect the health of the nation's more than 190 million citizens by enacting a comprehensive tobacco control law. Signed by President Dilma Rousseff today, the new law will make Brazil the largest country in the world to go completely smoke-free, adding momentum to a movement sweeping across Latin America to protect citizens from the deadly toll of tobacco use and secondhand smoke.

The new law requires all enclosed workplaces and public places to be smoke-free, bans tobacco advertising at point of sale, increases tobacco taxes and requires large health warnings on both sides of cigarette packs (current law requires graphic warnings covering the entire back of the pack, but no warning on the front of the pack). The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids joins international health advocates in congratulating Brazil for enacting this life-saving measure into law.

"We applaud President Rousseff and the Brazilian Congress for taking truly historic action to reduce tobacco use and save countless lives," said Matthew L. Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "In doing so, Brazil has set a powerful example for the world and added to Latin America's rapid progress in fighting the tobacco epidemic and standing up to the tobacco industry."

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Bloomberg Initiative Update: Brazil Goes Smoke-Free 

"Today the Brazilian government has taken historic action to protect the health of nearly 190 million citizens by enacting a comprehensive tobacco control law. Since the Bloomberg Initiative began five-years ago 21 countries have passed laws that allow their citizens to breathe air free from harmful tobacco smoke and move toward a healthier future. We welcome Brazil to this group of countries, and Bloomberg Philanthropies will continue to work with our partners to ensure more citizens in more countries around the world will breathe more freely."

Dr. Kelly Henning, who leads public health initiatives for Bloomberg Philanthropies, had this to say:

"We congratulate President Dilma Rousseff and the Brazilian government for signing into law today a number of measures that will protect Brazil's citizens from the deadly harms of tobacco use. Most notably, the law prohibits smoking in all enclosed public places, including workplaces, making Brazil the most populated country in the world to enact a comprehensive smoke-free law. In addition, the law bans tobacco advertising at the point-of-sale and increases the tax on tobacco products. This action will prevent countless premature deaths in Brazil. Bloomberg Philanthropies is honored to have had the opportunity to support the excellent work of the Brazilian Ministry of Health through our international partners and country-based organizations."

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• Brazil bans smoking in public places nationwide 

President Dilma Rousseff on Thursday signed a law banning smoking in all enclosed public spaces in Brazil.

The new text will make Brazil, which has a population of more than 191 million, the largest country in the world to go smoke-free.

It amends a 1996 law which allowed smoking in specially designated, ventilated areas.

New norms must be regulated by Congress to set the values of fines that will punish violators, the official Agencia Brasil said.

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The last days of Socrates: Brazil mourns a football legend  

Brazilians are mourning the death of legendary soccer player and political activist Socrates, who died Sunday of septic shock due to an intestinal infection.

Socrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, 57, was buried in his hometown of Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, according to Brazil's official Agencia Brasil.

Socrates had suffered bouts of gastrointestinal bleeding caused by cirrhosis of the liver. He had admitted to addictions to alcohol and cigarettes, Agencia Brasil said.

"It was during his third hospitalization that he confronted his addiction to alcohol and cigarettes, adding that he had 'won' another chance to recover from his complications," the agency reported.

A qualified doctor, renowned intellectual and an outspoken, pro-democracy fighter during Brazil's brutal military dictatorship, Socrates had defied many stereotypes.

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Playing the Game of His, and Our, Dreams - NYTimes.com 

Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira, as he was christened, had lived his life too much to the full. He was a player, a captain, a qualified doctor of medicine, a thinker, a political activist, a raconteur and, something he knew from the outset, too heavy a drinker and smoker.

Those of us who have spent long nights in his company might still taste the cachaça and smell the nicotine. They worried us, but not him. He used to say that alcohol was his partner, not his addiction. He could cut down on the cigarettes, he believed, when necessary.

Dr. Sócrates was as wrong about those diagnoses as he was right about the art of living and playing.

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• Brazil Widens War on Tobacco  

The Brazilian government is a presidential signature away from passing a law that would not only ban smoking in enclosed public places nationwide, but also extend restrictions more than previously thought.

But the new law would increase restrictions making it illegal to light up in smoking rooms, or in airports and bars, ban cigarette advertisements everywhere cigarettes are sold, and increase taxes on cigarettes by up to 300%.

Although some legislators fought the bill, the Ministry of Health and supporters of the government did not back down. “We cannot support any kind of amendment to stop our continuous agenda to restrict cigarettes”, said a speaker for the ministry.

The new federal law is based on states legislation already in effect in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Paraná.

According to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics), Brazil has over 30 million smokers. The number of smokers in the country has fallen 45% in the last 20 years.

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• Brazil bans smoking in enclosed public places  

- The Brazilian Congress has passed a bill banning smoking in enclosed public places nationwide.

Smoking bans are already in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other big cities.

The new law goes one step further. It makes illegal designated smoking rooms in airports and bars that exist even in those places with a ban already in place.

It also raises taxes on tobacco products and is forcing a minimum price on the products, increasing costs for consumers by up to 55 percent within four years.

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Lula has cancer  

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been diagnosed with a malignant form of throat cancer, throwing doubt over the political future of one of the nation’s biggest powerbrokers.

Mr Lula da Silva, who stepped down in December as the country’s most popular president ever, was admitted to São Paulo’s Sirio Libanes Hospital with a tumour in the larynx and will undergo chemotherapy.

The firebrand former unionist with a famously gruff voice was quoted last year as saying he was quitting smoking after 50 years. He reportedly enjoyed cigarillos, or small cigars.

“The patient is well and should undergo treatment on an outpatient basis,” the hospital said in a statement on Saturday.

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• Effects of prenatal smoking on infant neurodevelopment may be worse than feared: study 

In one of the largest studies of its kind to date, researchers have found that babies born to mothers who smoke while pregnant face substantial delays in early neurological development, and the effects may be stronger than researchers had previously thought.

According to the study, published in the Journal of Human Capital, smoking may cause as much as a 40 percentage point increase in the probability of being at risk of developmental problems in babies between 3 and 24 months old. The effects were strongest among children from poor families, the research found.

"This study underscores the dangers of prenatal smoking," said George Wehby, a professor at the University of Iowa's College of Public Health and the study's lead author. "We hope it also highlights the need for continued efforts to discourage expectant mothers from smoking."

Study subjects were recruited from health clinics in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. In all, nearly 1,600 children were included, making this one of the largest studies of prenatal smoking and neurodevelopment. . . .

"Given the importance of early child health and neurodevelopment for future wellbeing, targeted interventions to reduce prenatal smoking may result in significant improvements in child development and long-run human capital," Wehby said.

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