Tobacco.org

• Three in 10 Chinese Adults Smoke 

Three in 10 Chinese said they smoke regularly (25%) or occasionally (5%), according to Gallup surveys conducted shortly after China's ban on smoking in public places took effect last May. This translates to roughly 320 million adults -- or more than the entire population of the United States -- and underscores the potential health crisis China faces as it tries to reduce an estimated 1 million smoking-related deaths each year in its country.

Recent studies show that about 3,000 Chinese are dying each day from smoking-related diseases, and that the number could rise to 8,000 per day by 2050. Chinese men's smoking habits place their health disproportionately at risk. Gallup surveys find about 6 in 10 Chinese men say they smoke at least occasionally, while 3% of Chinese women say they do.

Smoking Widespread Across Much of Asia

China may account for one-third of the world's smokers, but its smoking rate ranks second in Asia. Indonesians are the most likely in the region to say they smoke at least occasionally. . . .

The ubiquity of smoking throughout China's culture, coupled with the country's financial stake in the tobacco industry as the world's largest tobacco producers and consumers, fuel doubts among health experts and the media about the potential effectiveness of the nearly year-old ban. Persuading hundreds of millions of Chinese smokers to quit and preventing young Chinese from picking up the habit will likely require public education, time, and compliance with existing bans.

The World Health Organization (WHO) rates China's compliance with bans on various types of advertising of tobacco a 5 out of 10, where 0 is "low compliance."

Jump to full article »

Research and Markets: China Tobacco Product Industry, 2011  

Knowledge is power. If you want to invest in, import into/from, partner with, or compete against any of the companies in this field, then China tobacco product Industry, 2011 is required reading.

China tobacco product Industry, 2011 is valuable for anyone who wants to invest in the tobacco product industry, to get Chinese investments; to import into China or export from China, to build factories and take advantage of lower costs in China, to partner with one of the key Chinese corporations, to get market shares as China is boosting its domestic needs; to forecast the future of the world economy as China is leading the way; or to compete in the segment.

The report provides in-depth analysis and detailed insight into the tobacco product industry, market drivers, key enterprises and their strategies, as well as technologies and investment status, risks and trends.

Jump to full article »

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.

Jump to full article »

China Kangtai Cactus’s New Technique Improves Taste of Cactus Cigarette  

China Kangtai Cactus Biotech Inc. (OTCBB: CKGT), a vertically integrated grower, developer, manufacturer and marketer of a variety of cactus-based products in China, announced today that it has developed a new technique to apply to its cactus-based cigarette product.

The company has successfully developed a new production technique for its popular cactus-based cigarette in order to further improve quality and taste and made it even more appealing for smokers. The company is adding ten percent more of its proprietary cactus material along with additional Chinese herbs to make the cigarettes less harmful.

An additional improvement in paper process technology and an improved mix of ingredients will contribute to improved quality and smell. A new filter will also reduce the amount of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide that is inhaled.

Jump to full article »

China Kangtai Cactus's New Technique Improves Taste of Cactus Cigarette 

China Kangtai Cactus Biotech Inc. /quotes/zigman/388451 CKGT 0.00% , a vertically integrated grower, developer, manufacturer and marketer of a variety of cactus-based products in China, announced today that it has developed a new technique to apply to its cactus-based cigarette product.

The company has successfully developed a new production technique for its popular cactus-based cigarette in order to further improve quality and taste and made it even more appealing for smokers. The company is adding ten percent more of its proprietary cactus material along with additional Chinese herbs to make the cigarettes less harmful.

An additional improvement in paper process technology and an improved mix of ingredients will contribute to improved quality and smell. A new filter will also reduce the amount of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide that is inhaled.

China Kangtai CEO Jinjiang Wang said, "Cactus-based cigarettes are an exciting innovation in the Asian cigarette market. Our cactus-based cigarette already has been widely accepted by Chinese consumers. Research shows there are over 350 million cigarette smokers in China alone. To increase our penetration of this market, we are improving the taste of our product in a way that makes it even closer to the regular cigarette taste that smokers enjoy. The technology we are using represents a further breakthrough for our company and we expect our cigarette products to become even more popular among cigarette smokers."

Jump to full article »

• PHILIP MORRIS USA INC, Plaintiff, vs. ZHILIN JIANG, et a!., Defendants. (PDF) 

Defendants have not responded to Plaintiffs Application for Preliminary Injunction, nor made any filing in this case, nor have Defendants appeared in this matter either individually or through counsel. UPON CONSIDERATION of the Motion, the pertinent portions of the Record, and being otherwise fully advised in the premises, the Court enters the following Order.

I. BACKGROUND1

Plaintiff Philip Morris USA is the registered owner of numerous trademarks used in connection with the manufacture and distribution of cigarettes. Among these trademarks are trademarks associated with United States Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") No. 68,502, registered on April 14, 1908, and USPTO No. 938,510, registered on July 25, 1972 (collectively, "Philip Morris USA Marks"). Defendants are unknown individuals, residing in the People's Republic of China ("PRC") . . .

Recently Plaintiff became aware of the potential sale of counterfeit versions of Plaintiff's products by Defendants. This is alleged to have been accomplished by Defendants through the operation of commercial Internet websites operating under domain names such as marlborocigarette.biz, marlboro-gold.biz, and marlborowholesale.com.2 In response to Defendants' alleged trademark infringement, Plaintiff retained Investigative Consultants, a licensed private investigative firm, to investigate the sale of counterfeit versions of Plaintiff's products by Defendants. . . .

5. The domain name Registrars for the Subject Domain Names are directed, to the extent it is not already done, to transfer to Plaintiff's counsel, for deposit with this Court, domain name certificates for the Subject Domain Names;

6. The Registrars and the top-level domain (TLD) Registries for the Subject Domain Names, upon receipt of this Preliminary Injunction shall, to the extent it is not already done, cause to be changed or change the registrar of record for the Subject Domain Names . . .

Plaintiff may continue to enter the Subject Domain Names into Google's Webmaster Tools and cancel any redirection of the domains that have been entered there by Defendants which redirect traffic to the counterfeit operations to a new domain name and thereby evade the provisions of this Order; . . .

9. Upon receipt of notice of this Order, Western Union Financial Services, Inc. ("Western Union") shall divert and/or continue diverting all money transfers sent by United States consumers to: (1) Zhilin Jiang in Putian, China, with the date of birth and identification number provided by the recipient of MTCN 455-906-9491; (2) Haidong Huang in Putian, China, with the date of birth and identification number provided by the recipient of MTCN 853673-9729; and (3) Haidong Huang in Putian, China, with the date of birth and identification number provided by the recipient of MTCN 9464580813, and continue to hold such transfers until it receives further direction from the Court;4

10. In the event any money transfers are diverted in accordance with Paragraph 9 of this Order, Western Union shall be permitted to inform consumers who may contact Western Union about the transfers that the transfers are being held pursuant to a Court Order in Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Jiang

Jump to full article »

• Xu Bing on His Plans to Light a Giant Cigarette at the Aldrich Museum, Even Though He Doesn't Smoke 

At the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Chinese artist Xu Bing is showing some highly addictive work. His installation, called “Tobacco Project,” uses the eponymous poisonous leaf as its muse and medium, turning the material into maps, books, and printed poems that confront the omnipresent ills of a nicotine-dependent culture.

At the exhibition’s opening this coming Sunday, January 29, Xu will light a 42-foot-long cigarette for his piece “Traveling Down the River.” The sculpture will slowly burn on top of a replica of a famous Chinese scroll painting by Song dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan, commenting on the relentless spread of smoking across China: studies have shown that the country has the largest number of smoking-related deaths in the world, yet two thirds of Chinese people think smoking does little or no harm to their health.

In this Q&A, BLOUIN ARTINFO asked Xu Bing what made him choose tobacco as a medium, and what cigarettes mean to him. He also explained his own personal history with tobacco. . . .

l issues.

Why did you choose cigarettes as the dominant medium for the show?

In 1999 I visited Duke University to give a lecture. When I entered Durham I was immediately aware of the scent of tobacco in the air. Friends explained to me that the Duke family was built on a tobacco fortune, and thus Durham had come to be called “Tobacco City.” Moreover, because the Duke University School of Medicine excelled in treating cancer, Durham has also come to be known as the “City of Medicine.” A multifaceted connection exists there between tobacco and cultural history. . . .

Since the initial show at Duke, I went on to expand the show to the Shanghai Gallery of Art in 2004 — there is a deep historical connection between Shanghai and Durham as a result of the tobacco trade that flourished at the beginning of the 20th century — and then to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond in 2011, where collectors Carolyn Hsu-Balcer — whose family has a long-standing connection to tobacco — and her husband, René Balcer, encouraged me to pursue the history of tobacco in Richmond. The Aldrich contemporary art museum in Ridgefield will be the project’s only venue in the New York area. . . .

When I treat tobacco as a material and come into close contact with it, I realize that it should not be the object of further subjective judgment. It has already taken on the burden of too much social significance. I don't want my work to function as little more than a contribution to the body of tobacco-related propaganda. There is no reason for me to spend my energy saying something that everyone already knows. By viewing tobacco as something neutral, by returning to its innate qualities, I am simply engaging the material in a discussion, in an exchange. If the material is approached with a sense of moral or ethical judgment, then its true aspect will never be visible.

Jump to full article »

• Yunnan’s tobacco boom: Poisonous gift  

IN 1643 Fang Yizhi, a Chinese scholar, wrote that smoking tobacco for too long would “blacken the lungs” and lead to death. The then-emperor, Chongzhen, didn’t bother with warning labels. He outlawed growing and smoking the leaf. Violators were to be beheaded. (As it happens, a year later, the Ming dynasty and Chongzhen were both dead, neither from blackened lungs.) . . .

China’s tobacco industry is both owned and regulated by the government. It makes and sells more than two-fifths of the world’s cigarettes—2.4 trillion in 2011, 3% more than in 2010. The government says the industry took in profits and tax receipts of 753 billion yuan ($119 billion) in 2011, an annual increase of over a fifth. Production, sales and tax receipts are likely to increase for years to come.

As a signatory to a World Health Organisation tobacco-control treaty, China is, rather awkwardly in the face of these projections, meant to reduce smoking. The country has more than 300m smokers, close to a third of the global total. Cigarettes are still the currency of masculinity, especially in rural China, and more than half of Chinese men smoke. About 1m Chinese die each year from smoking-related illnesses.

More explicit warning labels would help.

Jump to full article »

Prevalence of cardiovascular disease and risk factors in a rural district of Beijing, China: a population-based survey of 58,308 residents 

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global disease burden. Although stroke was thought to be more prevalent than coronary heart disease (CHD) in Chinese, the epidemic pattern might have been changed in some rural areas nowadays. This study was to estimate up-to-date prevalence of CVD and its risk factors in rural communities of Fangshan District, Beijing, China. . . .

Conclusions

High prevalence of CVD and probably changed epidemic pattern in rural communities of Beijing, together with the prevalent cardiovascular risk factors and population aging, might cause public health challenges in rural Chinese population.

Jump to full article »

• China tobacco industry pays 753b yuan in taxes in '11  

China's tobacco industry paid 752.96 billion yuan ($119 billion) in taxes in 2011, up 22.5 percent year-on-year, an official said Wednesday.

Also, the industry handed over 600.12 billion yuan in profits to the government last year, representing a 22.8-percent rise from one year earlier, Jiang Chengkang, head of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, said at a national work conference.

Jiang said the tobacco industry is turning greener.

Jump to full article »

• Cigarette Sharing and Gifting in Rural China: A Focus Group Study 

Results: In rural China, individual cigarettes are primarily shared as a mechanism to convey respect and intimacy. Packs of cigarettes are given primarily due to their convenience as well as being well liked by both smokers and nonsmokers. Sharing individual cigarettes by both peers and older relations contributed to individuals beginning to smoke. Sharing cigarettes among friends was also a major hindrance to smoking cessation.

Conclusions: Gifting and sharing cigarettes significantly contribute to smoking in rural China. Future tobacco control efforts should discourage both these activities to reduce tobacco usage. Tobacco control measures should also aim to inform adults about the health consequences of giving cigarettes to adolescents. Similarly, more information on the benefits of smoking cessation should be provided to China’s rural elderly population. This information could lead to increased community support of cessation efforts and ultimately result in reductions in smoking in rural China.

Jump to full article »

Restaurants obeying no-smoking law 

OVER 95 percent of local restaurants covered by the city's anti-smoking law have set up smoking and non-smoking areas or ban smoking completely, while the rest are out of compliance and still must separate smokers and non-smokers, officials said yesterday.

Shanghai has 8,622 medium or large eateries, which are larger than 150 square meters or have more than 75 seats. They are required to set up proper smoking and non-smoking areas or make themselves entirely tobacco-free.

Jump to full article »

Leaf prices to rise sharply in China  

The government of China's Hunan Province is to increase its leaf tobacco purchase prices by an average of 20 per cent this year, in line with a decision by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration covering tobacco growing throughout China.

Last year, the purchase price was said to be about US$2.78 per kg, which was up by more than 19 per cent on that of the previous year.

Also in line with an STMA decision, Hunan will increase subsidies for local tobacco growers, according to a story by Tobacco China Online.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco rules  

China's anti-smoking lobby is fuming over the recent appointment to the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) of a scientist who works for the tobacco industry.

They say the appointment of Xie Jianping, 52, to the CAE is another example of how well connected and influential the government-owned cigarette industry is in China.

Xie is the deputy director of Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Center, which is funded by the State-owned China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC).

The anti-smoking lobby contends that Xie's research is aimed at promoting the cigarette habit, not protecting the health of citizens. . . .

A number of members of the CAE have defended their vote for Xie's inclusion as a member. They've been quoted in other media but are no longer taking interview requests or are unreachable. . . .

The controversy over Xie's election has not only raised the ire of people and organizations trying to get some of the 300 million smokers to butt out completely. It's raised serious issues relating to the criteria used to elect new members to China's prestigious science academies.

"Xie's election reflects a system that needs improving," Wang Longde told the China Youth Daily. A former Deputy Health Minister, who is also a member of the CAE but belongs to another of the Academy's nine departments, Wang says the voting process requires greater transparency.

"In many cases we have professionals from one field voting for professionals in another," said Wang.

Jump to full article »

Chinese Academy of Engineering Honors a Tobacco Researcher 

Last month, the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) promoted a scientist to its ranks after his fourth attempt to enter the hallowed body. Not big news, perhaps, except the researcher in question, Xie Jianping, 52, happens to work for the state-owned tobacco industry. Even in a country wreathed in cigarette smoke — last year’s nationwide ban on smoking in many public spaces is routinely ignored — the appointment has caused a small furor.

On Jan. 4, the Global Times, a feisty broadsheet, ran a story saying that the appointment of a man who is vice president of a local tobacco-research institute funded by the government monopoly China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC) “is another example of how well connected and influential the government-owned cigarette industry is in China.” Xie’s research centers on adding traditional Chinese herbs to cigarettes to reduce tar content — even though numerous international studies have shown that low-tar cigarettes are plenty harmful. He serves as the chief editor of Tobacco Science & Technology and boasts 23 patents and four copyrights to his name, according to the website of the Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute, where he works.

It’s not clear how Xie’s research relates to engineering, although the CAE apparently honors some scientists who are not engineers. On its website, the CAE says its fellows are selected for their “due contribution to social progress” and that they must have “excellent moral character.”

Jump to full article »