Tobacco.org

• LN: Austria takes tough stance on cigarette imports 

Austrian customs officials have started imposing tough fines on persons bringing Czech cigarettes to Austria and in addition they confiscate all the non-permitted cigarettes they find, the daily Lidove noviny wrote Tuesday.

Czechs taking out more than one carton of Czech cigarettes while travelling for holiday to Croatia via Austria could be severely punished because the Austrian customs officials have started imposing tough fines on all drivers who violate "the tobacco law" while crossing the Austrian border, the paper says.

Under the law, passed shortly before the Czech Republic joined the Schengen area without border checks last December, one person can only take out 200 pieces of cigarettes with the Czech-language health warning message while travelling from the Czech Republic to Austria.

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• BAT Splits European Business Into Western and Eastern Units 

British American Tobacco Plc, the maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes, said it's splitting its European business into western and eastern units.

Jean-Marc Levy will be responsible for western Europe and David Fell for eastern Europe, the London-based company said today in a Regulatory News Service statement. They are replacing Ben Stevens, who previously managed the entire European division and has become chief financial officer.

Eastern European consumers are increasingly switching to brands of companies such as BAT and Philip Morris International.

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"No smoking" Lamp is Lit 

The Marriott and Westin chain seem to have started the anti-smoking fervor. But entire cities such as Chicago and Washington followed, along with more than 100 other municipalities that also enacted smoke-free laws.

Marriott banned smoking last year in all its 400,000 guest rooms, as well as restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public spaces and work areas.

But the chain went even farther. Marriott provides free anti-smoking packages to all its employees and their dependents who participate in a medical plan. The chain in partnership with the American Cancer Society also offers 24-hour "quitline" telephone counseling and two eight-week non-prescription nicotine replacement therapy treatments each year.

You might think the smoking policy there was based on the bottom line but Marriott says that is not the case.

"We weren't focused on ROI. It was more of 'This is the right thing to do for our guests and associates,'" says Karen Graham, Marriott's manager of health plans. . . .

Not all hotels are adopting non-smoking laws.

"Representatives from InterContinental Hotels Group, Hilton and Hyatt said they have no plans to eliminate smoking rooms throughout their chains, though these rooms represent as little as one percent of inventory," reported The New York Times a few weeks ago.

So if you want to smoke, here's a RX: go to Eastern Europe. The Romanian Tourist Office at its site points out that recent legislation banned smoking everywhere such as planes, buses and some trains. "Luxury hotels have designated no-smoking floors," the Romanian Tourist Office says.

But so what? The site admits that it looks like all adults in Romania smoke. "But smokers here, in common with many Eastern European countries," have little respect for non-smokers."

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[S]mokers here, in common with many Eastern European countries, have little respect for non-smokers.
Romanian Tourist Office, on its website.

Cheap cigarettes fuel heavy smoking 

Plane-loads of cheap cigarettes flown in from Eastern Europe are fuelling heavy smoking among Ireland's Polish community.

Integration Minister Conor Lenihan insisted a huge difference in price was partially to blame for Polish migrants smoking more than Irish people.

The Research Institute for A Tobacco Free Society agreed

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Cigarette smugglers intercepted  

A LATVIAN gang smuggling cigarettes to the Irish black market was intercepted by Customs officials at Dublin airport yesterday.

The officials seized 112,000 cigarettes as they targeted passengers disembarking from a flight into Dublin from Riga.

The operation is one of a series of strikes carried out by the Customs against Irish and Eastern European gangs

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• Cigarette smuggling costs exchequer €100m 

A big increase in cigarette smuggling from eastern Europe and former Soviet republics will cost the exchequer more than €100 million in lost taxes this year.

New figures obtained by The Sunday Business Post show that seizures of smuggled tobacco product have risen by more than 40 per cent since last year. More than 74 million cigarettes are expected to be seized by the end of the year, compared to 52.3 million last year.

A spokesman for the Revenue Commissioners said that cigarette smuggling was a ‘‘major contributory factor’’ to the anticipated loss to the exchequer.

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• East European immigrants with cancer 'could swamp the NHS'  

The Health Service could be "overwhelmed" by cancer sufferers from Eastern Europe, a leading doctor has warned.

There are almost twice as many smokers in Poland and neighbouring countries than the UK, which means they have far higher rates of lung and other cancers.

It comes as a new documents showd the bill for treating health 'tourists' amounts to at least £62 million a year.

It says NHS trusts are ignoring guidelines aimed at preventing foreign patients abusing the NHS, a document said. . . .

Recent data suggests up to half of all Polish men smoke. Lung cancer kills more men in Eastern Europe than any other form of the disease. In the UK, on the other hand, more men die of prostate cancer.

The NHS's Cancer Plan is based on needs identified in 2000.

Dr Collingridge said it may have to be drastically rewritten to take into account the different needs of Eastern European patients.

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Smoking ban sends Imperial on foreign mission  

Imperial Tobacco is looking to spread its wings into high-growth markets in eastern Europe and the US as fewer consumers in the UK and Germany buy cigarettes.

The world's fourth-largest cigarette company has continued to grow market share in its core markets as more customers turn to its budget brands Lambert & Butler, Richmond and Windsor Blue. Yet, with the smoking ban set to come into effect in England next summer, Imperial is looking at its growth options in new regions. The company hopes to capitalise on its premium brands such as Davidoff and West as it increases its presence in countries such as Russia.

The company established a manufacturing plant in Turkey last year and has taken a 1.5 per cent market share in the world's sixth biggest cigarette market.

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UPDATE 3-Gallaher H1 profits rise, sees improving H2 

British tobacco company Gallaher Group Plc (GLH.L: ) posted a 4 percent rise in first-half profits on Wednesday and forecast an improving second half, but its shares slipped as its growth fell short of its rivals.

The company, whose cigarette brands include Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut and Mayfair in Britain, said its problem areas in Europe such as Austria, Spain and Poland should improve in the second half as competitive pressure eases and stability returns.

"Looking ahead those areas that showed profits down are now showing improvements and we expect to hit our expectations for the year," said Chief Executive Nigel Northridge in a conference call after the results.

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Gallaher calls recovery in problem markets in second half 

Gallaher Group PLC's chief executive Nigel Northridge said a recovery is in progress in the tobacco group's four problem markets, which have seen a downturn caused chiefly by fierce price competition, hurting profits this year.

Western Europe's fourth-biggest tobacco maker has suffered in Austria, Spain, Poland and Sweden in the last year, as a combination of government tax hikes and price fights among low-cost brands hit profits and skewed market shares.

This year analysts have penciled in adjusted earnings per share growth of only 3-4 pct for the maker of Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut and Mayfair cigarettes. The group has a long term target of high single digits.

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Profits up as Gallaher looks east 

Gallaher, Britain's second-largest tobacco company, said its profits rose 15% in the first half of the year as it sold more cigarettes in central and eastern Europe.

The group, which makes brands such as Silk Cut and Benson & Hedges, said total sales were up 2.1% to £4.03bn for the six months of the year to June 30, sending pre-tax profits up to £259m from £225m during the same period last year.

Gallaher has been expanding into central and eastern Europe to make up for the decline in smoking in western Europe caused by increased taxes on cigarettes and bans on smoking in public places. In Europe sales were up 2% and in the former Soviet Union they were up 19%.

"Gallaher made good progress in the first half of the year, in spite of challenging conditions created by additional taxation and increased price competition in some European markets," the company said.

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Gallaher 1st-Half Profit Gains 17% on Eastern Europe (Update3) 

Gallaher Group Plc, the maker of Benson & Hedges cigarettes in Europe, said first-half profit rose 17 percent as the company sold more tobacco in eastern Europe and former Soviet countries.

Net income increased to 185 million pounds ($350 million), or 28.1 pence a share, from 158 million pounds, or 24.2 pence, a year earlier, the Weybridge, England-based company said today in a statement. Profit was expected to be 181 million pounds, according to the median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

European tobacco makers have sought to expand beyond western Europe, where smoking bans, rising prices and health warnings are curbing consumption. Gallaher has boosted market share in nations such as Russia and Kazakhstan, and bought Liggett-Ducat Ltd., Russia's No. 1 cigarette maker, in 2000.

Former Soviet nations were ``once again the star performer for Gallaher,''

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Gallaher Says First-Half Profit Up 

Gallaher Group PLC, Britain's second-largest tobacco company, said first-half profit rose 17 percent as the company benefited from rising sales in eastern Europe.

Net income rose to 185 million pounds (US$351.5 million; euro273.9 million), from 158 million pounds in the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement. Sales rose 2.1 percent to 4.03 billion pounds (US$7.66 billion; euro5.97 billion).

Gallaher, which makes brands such as Mayfair and Silk Cut in Britain, has been expanding into eastern Europe to maintain sales growth as western European governments increase taxes on cigarettes, impose bans on smoking in bars and restaurants and more people give up the habit.

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Tough west Europe to cap Gallaher profit rise 

Tobacco company Gallaher is set to post a 4 percent rise in half-year profits in the week ahead as growth in the former Soviet Union offsets tough trading in other European markets, analysts said on Friday.

Gallaher (GLH.L), whose cigarette brands include Benson & Hedges, Silk Cut and Mayfair, warned in late June of tough markets in Austria, Poland and Spain while a Swedish tax rise in January led to stocking up in late 2005 and poor growth in early 2006.

The world's fifth-largest cigarette group is expanding into the former Soviet Union, which provides 10 percent of group profits but over half of volumes. It hopes the move will offset the effects of mature European markets like Britain, Ireland, Sweden and Austria which account for around 70 percent of profits.

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• Cytisine for Smoking Cessation: A Literature Review and a Meta-analysis 

Cytisine is an agonist of nicotinic receptors; in particular, it binds strongly with 42 nicotinic receptors. Cytisine has been used to treat tobacco dependence for 40 years in Eastern Europe. The objective of this study was to review the literature on the effect of cytisine on smoking cessation. . . .

Research conducted during the past 40 years suggests that cytisine is effective for smoking cessation. Thus, an apparently effective smoking cessation drug that has been used for decades in Germany and Eastern European countries remained unnoticed in other countries. Most of the articles reviewed herein were never cited in the English-language literature. Despite the existence of 3 placebo-controlled trials, recent reviews of the efficacy of smoking cessation drugs omitted cytisine2, 14-15 and little research on cytisine has been conducted in recent years.

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