Tobacco.org

• Gallaher 'smuggling' claim  

GALLAHER faces fresh accusations of colluding with Customs to mislead parliament about alleged complicity in tobacco smuggling, according to legal papers that will be lodged in court this week.

The claim is one of three cases dogging the British firm and threatens to derail the £7.5 billion takeover bid by Japan Tobacco International, which Gallaher’s board has recommended to shareholders.

The legal action, to be filed in Cyprus, is part of a dispute between Gallaher and its former distributor in the Middle East, Tlais Enterprises Ltd (TEL), based in Limassol.

However, TEL, run by Lebanese businessman Abu Hameed Tlais, is now bringing Revenue & Customs into the conflict, claiming £250m in damages for breach of contract.

The inclusion of a government agency in the legal dispute could delay the takeover, given that behind the latest writ is an allegation that financial mismanagement by Customs was covered up.

At issue is an agreement between the three parties, which senior Customs officials authorised in December 2002 and hailed as a breakthrough in their fight to control smuggling into Britain of Gallaher’s key brands — Sovereign and Dorchester. The so-called “tripartite agreement” gave Customs the ability to monitor the activities of a major distributor for the first time.

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EU official urges Cypriots to stop smoking 

An European Union health commissioner launched a second part of an anti-smoking campaign in Nicosia on Friday, urging Cypriots to stop smoking.

EU Commissioner responsible for Health and Consumer Protection Markos Kyprianou launched the campaign titled "Help - For a Life Without Tobacco" at Eleftheria square in central Nicosia.

"I hope that through this campaign, Cypriots, who have a high standard of education, will manage to reduce smoking since nearly 45 percent of the population of Cyprus are smokers," Kyprianou told reporters, warning Cypriots of the negative impact of smoking.

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• Kyprianou back home to deliver anti-smoking message  

“CYPRUS is one of the worst countries in the EU when it comes to smoking levels.”

That was the verdict of EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou, who was yesterday in Nicosia’s Eleftheria Square as part of the EU’s anti-smoking campaign, HELP - For a Life Without Tobacco.

“More worrying is the fact that smoking is still part of the culture here on the island and is considered normal,” he said.

“We must educate young people that smoking is neither cool nor clever.” . . .

“Healthcare costs caused by smoking top €100 billion per year in Europe and smoking has become the main preventable killer of our time, which kills 650,000 people in the EU every year. The HELP campaign has been very successful so far in getting the message across that smokers can get help to quit, and warning young people of the risks of passive smoking and addiction. With this carbon monoxide campaign, the HELP campaign is stepping up a gear to promote a life without tobacco.”

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Cancer Incidence in Four Member Countries (Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, and Jordan) of the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC) Compared with US SEER 

In 1996, the Ministers of Health of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Cyprus, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) signed an agreement to establish the Middle East Cancer Consortium (MECC). Turkey joined the Consortium in 2004. This is the first comprehensive publication of the MECC Cancer Registration Project. The monograph presents information about cancer incidence for populations in Cyprus, Egypt (Gharbiah Region), Israel (Jews and Arabs), and Jordan for the period 1996-2001. The MECC findings are compared with those from the US Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program.

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• Israel can kick the smoking habit 

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If Israel makes it a priority, it "can make smoking history" by reducing the top public health problem in the country to negligible levels, said a US expert on Monday.

Prof. Gregory Connolly, a tobacco control expert at the Harvard School of Public Health in Israel to advise the Health Ministry's Healthy Israel 2020 project on preventing disease and promoting good health, was a guest at a special two-day conference of anti-smoking experts at Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, organized under the auspices of the ministry and sponsored in part by the US Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute. . . .

Connolly told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Monday that implementation of similar recommendations in the state of Massachusetts is expected to save some 120,000 lives.

He added that the Israeli government must set a date by which it would scrupulously enforce existing no-smoking laws. In Dublin, he noted, there is a hefty fine against violators, while it is a relative pittance of only NIS 310 in Israel. He called on raising the tobacco tax . . .

A special meeting in Cyprus last week of anti-tobacco experts from Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Israel and others - which was sponsored by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute - overcame political boundaries in their opposition to smoking. The participants learned that hookah (water pipe) smoking, which originated in Arab countries, has spread throughout the Western world, including Israel, and poses much more danger to health than conventional cigarettes

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• At least one in ten deaths in Cyprus caused by smoking: report 

More than one in ten deaths in Cyprus each year were caused by smoking, local press reported on Thursday.

The result was achieved by the Cyprus International Institute for the Environment and Public Health in association with the Harvard School of Public Health after a six-month study on smoking in Cyprus.

According to the statistics published in the report, 13 percent of the deceased or 650 deaths in Cyprus every year are smoking- related, which is six times greater than the deaths in road accidents.

Meanwhile, smoking consumed the country`s nearly 8 percent of health care costs every year.

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• Tobacco giant 'aided smuggling' 

ONE of Britain's biggest tobacco firms, Gallaher, has been accused by a key distributor of "permitting" the illegal smuggling of its cigarettes.

The distributor, Ptolomeous Tlais, who sold Gallaher's products throughout the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia, claims the company set up a trading "environment" conducive to illegal activity. The Cypriot-based businessman also alleges in papers lodged at the High Court that a senior Gallaher executive encouraged him to smuggle products.

Gallaher strongly denies the claims and states Tlais is responsible for the massive smuggling of its products which has deprived the British exchequer of hundreds of millions in lost duties over the past few years.

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BAT Cyprus plans to shut down local operations 

British American Tobacco, Cyprus, one of the oldest tobacco industries on the island, has announced plans to shut down its factory in Nicosia and lay off its 200 or so workers.

A company announcement justified the closure decision on the drastic fall of production, due to a 50% fall in exports.

Managing Director Soteris Constantinou said that negotiations are already underway with the labour groups to ensure the smooth end of the operations.

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Warning on fake cigarettes 

BRITISH American Tobacco Cyprus (BAT) has warned that fake brand-cigarettes are circulating in the Cypriot marketplace, most of which are copies of well-known international brands. In a statement published in yesterday's Politis newspaper, BAT said the products are being made illegally abroad and they do not have the quality that consumers are accustomed to. They are being imported illegally to Cyprus without the payment of duty.

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British Amer Tobacco Sells Trademarks To Gallaher 

British American Tobacco said Friday that it has sold to Gallaher the Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut trademarks in Malta and Cyprus (North and South), and the Silk Cut trademark in Lithuania for a cash sum of GBP70 million.

The transactions are in accordance with contracts of 1993 and 1994 in which Gallaher agreed to acquire these trademarks in European Union states. The recent accession of Malta, Cyprus and Lithuania necessitated Friday's sale.

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Half of late teens tried alcohol and smoking 

OVER half of pupils in high school aged between 15 and 17 have tried alcohol, while 47 per cent have tried smoking cigarettes at least once, according to an Education Ministry report.

The Educational Psychology Service asked 915 lyceum school pupils from across Cyprus to answer a number of questions on illegal and unhealthy substances during the academic year 2003-2004.

According to yesterday's Phileleftheros, a sample of the results was included in an annual report released by the Education Ministry. . . .

A total of 47.1 per cent tried cigarettes, while one in six of those who'd tried smoking, confessed to smoking on a daily basis.

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Three held over smuggled cigarettes 

THREE foreign men were yesterday remanded in custody for two days by a Limassol court in connection with the possession of 31 cartons of cigarettes bought in the occupied north.

The men, an Egyptian and two Syrians, were initially arrested on suspicion of drugs possession, but police did not find any illicit substances. . . .

Papageorgiou said they were purchased in the occupied north, which made them illegal.

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Cyprus urged to ratify anti-smoking treaty soon 

Commenting on the FCTC's entry into force Markos Kyprianou, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, said yesterday: "The EU played a leading role in negotiating the FCTC. We now need to play a leading role in implementing it.

"This, of course, means ensuring all Member States ratify in time for the EU to field a 'full team' at the first Conference of the Parties of the FCTC in February 2006. "But it also means continuing to lead by example. I want to see more EU countries follow the example of Ireland, Italy and Malta and ban smoking in public places. I would like to see hard-hitting picture warnings introduced Europe-wide in the next few years."

Cyprus has signed but not yet ratified the Convention, neither has Greece.

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Health Commissioner backs tougher ban on smoking 

The EU's Health Commissioner has said he would like to see tougher restrictions on smoking across Europe, but also confessed he lacked the powers to introduce them.

Cypriot Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou said he "completely backed" bans on smoking in all enclosed public places as enforced in Ireland and Italy, according to Agence France Presse.

Speaking to journalists during a visit to Cyprus on Friday (4 February), Mr Kyprianou suggested that it was "a question of protecting the non-smokers whom, however strange it may seem, make up a very large majority in the member states".

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Time to stop smoking , Tassos… 

CYPRUS' EU Health Commissioner Marcos Kyprianou said yesterday he had encouraged President Tassos Papadopoulos to quite smoking during discussions between the two men on EU issues affecting Cyprus.

Prior to his first official visit to the island, which began yesterday, Kyprianou had said he would press for stricter implementation of the national anti-smoking law.

After his meeting with Papadopoulos yesterday, Kyprianou said there was a very high percentage of smokers in Cyprus and that the potential for a huge increase in smoking-related illnesses in the future was worrying.

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