Tobacco.org

• Brazil and tobacco use: a hard nut to crack 

Brazil is pushing to enforce smoking bans and backing nicotine replacement therapies in an attempt to keep chipping away at tobacco-use statistics. Raising the price of cigarettes would also help. Claudia Jurberg reports.

Taxes on tobacco products generated income of around US$ 2.2 billion for the Brazilian government in 2008, but that doesn’t mean the Brazilian government is going easy on the tobacco industry.

For the past two decades, Brazil has been at the forefront of global tobacco control initiatives. Vera da Costa e Silva, a public health specialist who advises the government on tobacco control, is proud to note that Brazil was the first country to ban the use of misleading adjectives such as “light” and “mild” from cigarette packages back in 2001. That move was in line with a law passed a year earlier requiring cigarette manufacturers to include pictorial health warnings covering at least 100% of one of the two main sides of a pack. These warnings often depict people in advanced stages of tobacco-related illness.

As a result of such initiatives, smoking prevalence has come down in the past two decades from 34% of the adult population in 1989 to 15% last year, according to the Brazilian Ministry of Health. But the declining trend has tailed off over the past few years as tobacco companies target new consumers, notably women. Meanwhile, 200 000 Brazilians die every year from tobacco-related diseases, according to the National Cancer Institute (INCA).

One area in which Brazilian tobacco control has faltered is in the enforcement of other key tobacco control measures, such as smoking bans in enclosed public places.

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Tobacco in Brazil 

Declining tobacco volume sales

Volume sales of cigarettes, which account for the majority of tobacco sales, declined in 2008 as a result of increased IPI (federal VAT) tax rates in July 2007. However, cigarettes still managed to record good value growth due to rising unit prices. Although overall sales remain limited, cigars recorded both value and volume growth in 2008, with demand being boosted by the fact that the appreciation of the Brazilian Real resulted in a drop in the price of imported products.

Government authorities close five local cigarette manufacturers

Since 2007, the Federal Revenue & Customs Administration has closed a number of small cigarettes manufacturers due to IPI tax evasion and illegal trading. American Virginia and Sudamax were the first companies to be closed. American Virginia owes taxes of around R$2 billion while Sudamax had its operations shut down after a large Federal Police and Federal Revenue & Customs Administration investigation. The company owned the Paraguayan-based factory Tabacalera Sudan which had been manufacturing cheaper cigarettes which were smuggled into Brazil illegally. In 2008, Alfredo Fantini, Phoenix, and Cibrasa were also closed due to IPI tax evasion.

Philip Morris and Souza Cruz continue to develop new innovative products

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VIDEO: Sao Paulo bans smoking  

A smoking ban has been put in place in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, prohibiting smoking indoors in all public places.

The ban will see smokers only allowed to light up in their homes and in the open air.

Some believe the law is a move in the right direction, while others doubt the new ruling will be respected.

'(I have to) Go outside in the rain, in the middle of the street, because in there (restaurant) it is not allowed to smoke,' said one smoker.

According to local newspapers, the Sao Paulo Governor and former Health Minister Jose Serra made the ruling to protect non-smokers.

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Brazil state slaps ban on smokers 

A smoking ban in bars, restaurants and offices across the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo came into effect on Friday.

The ban outlaws smoking everywhere but in the open air and in private homes.

Sao Paulo governor Jose Serra says most people support the ban and he has pledged that anyone flouting the new law will be fined.

State officials said that about a dozen restaurants and bars had been fined in the first hours of the ban, AP news agency reported.

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• Brazil enforces smoking ban in São Paulo 

A smoking ban comes into force in the Brazilian state of São Paulo on Friday, adding to what has become one of the world’s toughest anti-smoking campaigns.

Brazil was among the first countries in the world to print disturbing images on cigarette packs in an effort to persuade smokers not to light up. The images, in use since 2001, have coincided with a steady fall in the number of smokers in the country, from 34 per cent of the adult population in 1989 to 15 per cent last year, although the part played by the images is hard to gauge.

The ban in São Paulo state is being introduced by governor José Serra, who as health minister was responsible for the nationwide on-pack campaign.

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JT to Acquire Brazilian Leaf Tobacco Suppliers 

Japan Tobacco Inc. said Wednesday it will acquire all outstanding shares in Brazilian leaf tobacco suppliers Kannenberg & Cia. Ltda. and Kannenberg, Barker, Hail & Cotton Tabacos Ltda.

The acquisitions, due to be completed in October, are part of JT's efforts to secure stable sources in three of the world's major leaf tobacco suppliers -- Africa, the United States and Brazil, the company said.

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Evaluation of the Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Testosterone Levels in Adult Men  

Introduction. Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent among men. Many studies have evaluated the effect of cigarette smoking on levels of male reproductive hormones; however, the findings still remain controversial. . . .

Conclusion. In this study, smokers and nonsmokers had similar mean values of androgens, gonadotropins and SHBG. However, it is necessary to standardize pack-years of smoking in order to elucidate the influence of cigarette smoking on sex hormone levels, as well as to minimize differences among studies and to confirm our results.

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• Smuggling Made Easy 

Last September, Guaíra made headlines across Brazil when 15 people were murdered at a makeshift riverside warehouse. The killings were the result of a vendetta among drug smugglers and, officials here say, they weren’t all that unusual. Just 150 miles north from the notorious Tri-Border Area, where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet, Guaíra is today a major weapons and drugs corridor in the region. But no product, police say, is more widely smuggled through this city, and more profitable to smugglers, than Paraguayan cigarettes.

Dozens of motor boats crammed with tobacco cross the Paraná River daily from the neighboring Paraguayan city of Salto del Guairá. The smugglers feed an illicit trade that injects billions of cigarettes into Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and other large Brazilian cities, where the cheap, untaxed Paraguayan sticks account for 20 percent of the entire cigarette market. Guaíra sits at the heart of this trade, a strategic gateway and a place where many residents — up to half its population, locals say — rely directly or indirectly on smuggling for their livelihood. A few reap millions from the illicit trade. Guaíra’s most famous criminal son, Roque Fabiano Silveira, made a fortune and a name, trafficking Paraguayan cigarettes thousands of miles away. . . .

The tale of Roque Silveira is emblematic of the criminal nature and global reach of the teeming Paraguayan cigarette industry, one that experts and law enforcement officials say is, largely, set up for and devoted to transnational smuggling. Fifteen years ago cigarette manufacturing was minimal in Paraguay, one of South America’s poorest countries and a place notorious for corruption and trading in counterfeit goods. Today Paraguay, a landlocked, California-sized country, ranks among the world’s top producers of contraband cigarettes, responsible for 10 percent of the world’s contraband tobacco, experts estimate.

Paraguay’s factories churned out 68 billion cigarettes in 2006

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Research and Markets: In 2013, the Tobacco Market is Forecast to Have a Value of $138 Billion, with a CAGR of 10% over the 2008-2013 Period 

Research and Markets(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/14729e/tobacco_top_5_em) has announced the addition of the "Tobacco - Top 5 Emerging Markets Industry Guide" report to their offering.

The Tobacco - Top 5 Emerging Markets Industry Guide is an essential resource for top-level data and analysis covering the Tobacco industry in each of the Top 5 Emerging markets (Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa). 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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• São Paulo: Anti-Smoking Bill Approved 

São Paulo's Legislative Assembly approved, last Tuesday (7th), the anti-smoking bill proposed by governor José Serra (PSDB), that prohibits smoking in enclosed spaces in the state of São Paulo. An amendment by deputy Paulo Alexandre Barbosa (PSDB) was also approved, that delays the bill from entering law for 90 days. During this 90 day period the bill will be regularised, in terms of fines and punishment. Serra has 10 days to sanction the bill.

Essentially all enclosed public areas will be affected, for example:

Night Clubs Restaurants

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• Assembleia aprova projeto de lei antifumo em São Paulo [Assembly approves law project antitobacco in São Paulo] 

Eighteen members of the house of representatives had voted against and 69 in favor of the project.

Project forbids tobacco in ' enclosures coletivos' and creates free environments. . . .

The cigarette will be completely forbidden in bars, restaurants and in the workstations. It will not be possible not even to use fumódromos. The smokers will not be able to smoke in any closed or partially closed environment that is of collective use, and do not matter if the space is public or private.

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Brazil: Overview  

Brazil is among the top exporters of tobacco in the world providing 465,981 metric tons of tobacco leaf each year to smokers around the world. 27.8% of males and 14% of females are smokers. 96,705 million cigarettes are produced in the country every year. Tobacco companies in the country heavily and successfully target female smokers who comprise 54% of all new smokers.

Brazil ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on November 3, 2005. It is recognized as having among the strongest and most compelling tobacco product labeling standards in the world.

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• Souza Cruz Drops on Possible Tax Increase, Smoke Ban (Update1)  

Souza Cruz SA, Brazil’s biggest tobacco company, fell for the first time in a week after a report said the federal government may raise cigarette taxes and Sao Paulo State approved a law banning smoking indoors.

Souza Cruz, a British American Tobacco Plc subsidiary, slid 4.9 percent to 44.10 reais in Sao Paulo trading.

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Ethnic Tobacco, Brazilian firm ink pact  

The Indian tobacco sector has an export revenue turnover target of $700 million during the current fiscal against last year’s export of $503 million.

Indian Tobacco Board Chairman J Suresh Babu, on the sidelines of signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Ethnic Tobacco India Ltd (Guntur) and KBH&C Portugal of Brazil today, said that till the end of December 2008 export revenue from tobacco had reached $540 million.

The competitive remunerative price was hiked from Rs47 per kg to Rs89 per kg in Andhra Pradesh while in Karnataka it is Rs112 per kg, Suresh Babu told the media after signing the MoU.

He said that during the last financial year the industry exported 270 million kg of tobacco with 172 million kg alone from Andhra Pradesh.

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• Sao Paulo State Court of Appeals Vacates the Largest Award Against Cigarette Manufacturers in Brazil 

The 7th Civil Chamber of the Court of Appeals of the State of Sao Paulo vacated yesterday, by unanimous vote, the judgment of the court of 1st instance that had found in favor of the indemnification claim brought by the Association for the Defense of the Health of Smokers ("ADESF") against the Brazilian cigarette manufacturers Souza Cruz (a subsidiary of British American Tobacco) and Philip Morris Brasil (a subsidiary of Philip Morris International). The Court of Appeals granted the appeals of the manufactures on grounds that the lower civil court decision had violated the constitutional principle of due process of law since it had failed to extend to the manufacturers the opportunity of producing any evidence, including expert evidence that had already been ordered by the Court of Appeals itself.

This case, which is the first lawsuit of this nature filed in Brazil, began with the filing of a class action at the 19th Civil Court of Sao Paulo in July of 1995. The Plaintiff is ADESF, an association initially created by three attorneys and a doctor, 14 days prior to the filing of said lawsuit, which, without a verifiable list of associate members, seeks to represent all smokers in Brazil. The entity is also linked to several anti-tobacco organizations and maintains a broad network of attorneys throughout the country for the sole purpose of filing lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers, trying to import into Brazil the so-called "compensation industry." . . .

All class actions of this type that have already been judged conclusively by Brazilian Courts ended without the intended liability of the manufacturers. It is also important to note that the subject matter of these class actions is identical to that of hundreds of individual actions already dismissed conclusively throughout the country. Just the Sao Paulo State Court of Appeals alone has already rendered more than 30 rulings rejecting this type of product liability claim. In all tobacco-related class actions and individual lawsuits with conclusive rulings already rendered by the Brazilian Courts, the indemnification claims have been rejected.

The main reasoning of the Brazilian Courts for rejecting this type of claim is: consumers have free will to decide (or not) to smoke, since the decision to consume the product or not is a question of free choice, the widespread public knowledge of the diseases associated with cigarette consumption and the absence of defect in the product because it is a product of inherent risk, the manufacture, distribution and sale of which in Brazil is authorized and subject to severe regulations by the State.

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