Tobacco.org

• Women smoking less than before 

Only 17 per cent of women in Finland are smokers, according to a recent study. The figure is the lowest since the 1980s. Health officials are pleased that the trend is the same among young women as well. Of those aged 15 to 24, 16 per cent smoke, showing a sharp decline that has continued for three years. Until recently, the rate of smoking among women had long been at 20 per cent. However, the decline in smoking among men has stopped. The proportion of smokers among men has slightly increased from the previous years, and is most striking among younger men. One in four Finnish men smoke on a daily basis.

A clear majority of smokers want to quit. "The problem is not how to persuade smokers that they should quit, but rather to help them do what they want to do", emphasises Pekka Puska, director-general of the National Public Health Institute. According to Puska, one solution would be to impose higher punitive taxes

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• Workers at mines and quarries face highest cancer risk 

People working in mines and quarries have been found to have the greatest cancer risk of all occupational groups. According to the Nordic Occupational Cancer Study, seamen have the second-highest risk, while tobacco industry workers come in third. The study, which is being released on Tuesday, finds that the lowest cancer risk is among farmers and garden workers. . . .

Cancers among ship crews are linked with factors such as the asbestos insulation that was previously used in machine rooms, and occasional exposure to chemicals in cargo. Seamen also frequently suffer from cancers caused by smoking and alcohol, such as cancers of the mouth larynx, liver, and the lungs. Those working in the tobacco industry have been entitled to free cigarettes. Pukkala also notes that the air in cigarette factories has also had large amounts of carcinogenic substances. Restaurant personnel have suffered from having to breathe large amounts of second-hand smoke.

Male journalists frequently have alcohol-related cancers, but they have fewer smoking-related cancers. Women journalists, for their part, have more than double the lung cancer risk of the average woman, apparently resulting from a higher rate of smoking.

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Could Finland snuff out the Lisbon Treaty? 

Those who want to stop the Lisbon Treaty may be in the mood for grasping, not at straws, but snus.

This is what’s known as “moist oral snuff” but is basically chewing tobacco in a sort of tea bag. It seems that Finland is so exercised about a European Union ban on the product that there is a suggestion that they could reject the treaty.

Or at least the Aland Islands' government could reject it. The islands are a semi-autonomous province of Finland . . .

Ships from the Aland Islands want to be able to sell it in Swedish waters. Although the Aland government could vote against the treaty and simply be outside its scope, YLE news reports that Finnish government ministers don’t find this acceptable.

I can’t see the European Commission risking the treaty over the issue, and it looks very much as if the Finns are playing hardball to get concessions, but interesting nonetheless.

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Trial against Tobacco Companies Begins in Helsinki 

Three women suffering from various lung afflictions are each seeking over 100,000 euros in restitution from Amer and British American Tobacco. The women are accusing the companies of misleading advertising, as tobacco companies previously advertised "light" cigarettes as less harmful to health than regular cigarettes. The women smoked these types of cigarettes for years.

Monday opened a court battle, expected to be waged over months, on whether the tobacco companies are liable to pay compensation to the women, who are now in their fifties and ill.

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• Finnish women sue tobacco firms over lung disease  

Three Finnish women with lung disease are claiming 348,000 euros ($527,900) in damages from two tobacco companies in a case that could set a precedent in Europe.

The women, aged 64, 58 and 52, are suing the Nordic unit of British American Tobacco (BAT) and Finland's Amer, which manufactured cigarettes until 2004 under licence from Altria's Philip Morris. . . .

The plaintiffs argue they were not aware of the dangers of smoking when they started in their teenage years, and that the tobacco companies hid and publicly denied that cigarettes cause various diseases, including lung cancer.

Two of the women have had lung cancer and all three have been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Their lawyers also argue that tobacco companies have since the 1970s marketed light cigarettes as a healthier option. . . .

The hearings are expected to last until May with a decision due later in the year.

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Talk About Travel  

Cherry Hill, NJ: On a trip to see several spots in Scandinavia, my husband and I (both non smokers) booked a cheap room - with bunkbeds - on an overnight ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm. It was cheap for a reason. My tall (6'4) husband didn't fit on the bed, and the floor was a smoking floor! Apparently, lots of young college kids go back and forth from Helsinki to Stockholm and party - drink and smoke - all night. We had already purchased our return trip for a few days later in the same cabin class, but a gracious agent allowed us to upgrade to a room with a view, in a nonsmoking area. Oh, that was heaven!

John Deiner: Good for you, CH. Smoking rooms, if you don't smoke, are disgusting. Glad you changed.

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• Smoking legislation has not driven customers away from downtown bars 

Joking apart, Heikki has had to change his habits. He and many others from among the pub’s old regulars now pop in for a quick beer to say hello to friends and acquaintances, and then they head home or go to some other bar that has - unlike Angleterre - arranged itself a stay of execution for smokers. “What I happen to like are beer and a cigarette. I’m not looking for just a beer”, Heikki says.

Restaurant Manager Vessu Juvonen acknowledges that the new law has hit revenue a little, but certainly not as much as 10 per cent. “It is hard to say, as in some months we are showing a plus and in others sales are down. The drop has not been as radical as we initially feared”, he says.

The secret is that non-smoking citizens have also found the pleasures of sitting in the pub.

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• Ban on smoking has already cut pub sales by 10% 

The new law on smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants, which was introduced in June of last year, has led to a clear decline in bar sales. HOK-Elanto, which owns and operates more than 100 bars and restaurants in the Greater Helsinki area, reports that income from bar sales since last July has been consistently around 10 per cent down on the equivalent monthly figures in 2006.

A similar picture is drawn by other publicans and restaurateurs in the region who were interviewed by Helsingin Sanomat. . . .

Heinonen states by contrast that sales of food have increased in the chain’s eateries. "If the new legislation has caused this, then it has had a positive impact."

"When one looks at customer behaviour patterns, then this [the introduction of the law last June] has been an important change in Finnish restaurant history", comments Heinonen. He nevertheless is confident that people will find their way back to restaurants and bars. "The Finns are not going to stop drinking."

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Young people overall now smoke and drink less 

Efforts made at the beginning of the decade to improve the health of young people seem to be paying off. Fresh research shows that young people experiment with smoking or take up the habit at an older age. Abstinence from alcoholic drink has increased among 12-16 year-olds and inebriation has dropped among 18-year-olds.

The trends were recorded from a survey conducted in 2007 of 5,840 young people aged 12-18.

The replies to the survey indicate that experimenting with smoking has declined among all young age groups. Smoking and tobacco products no longer have the same significance attached to them for young people than for the previous generation.

Smoking is less conspicuous and there is a greater understanding of the health risks it involves, and so it is less of a symbol of adulthood.

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Minister of Health and Social Services wants to see price hike for cigarettes 

Minister of Health and Social Services Paula Risikko (National Coalition Party) believes it is necessary to raise the price of a pack of cigarettes in order to discourage smoking. Risikko is in favour of including an increase in the excise duty levied on cigarettes in next year’s budget proposals.

"According to research studies, increasing the price of tobacco products is the most effective way of reducing smoking in the population, particularly among the young and the less well-educated", declared Risikko in the opening address to a "Smokeless Finland 2040" seminar in Helsinki arranged by the Finnish network of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.

A working party from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is currently preparing a proposal for the increasing of duty on cigarettes and tobacco.

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Smoking Ban Cuts Bar Earnings 

A ban on smoking has cut sales in bars and pubs, according to new sector survey. The Association of Travel and Restaurant Services says that income for pubs has dropped more than predicted. Smoking was prohibited in bars and restaurants as of the 1st of June of this year. The law allows setting up a special smoking room with separate a ventilation system. Drinking, eating, serving and entertainment such as games are prohibited in the smoking booth.

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EU fines Ã…land over smokeless tobacco 

The European Union is imposing a fine on the semi-autonomous Ã…land Islands for violating the European Union ban on the sale of smokeless tobacco. The European Commission decided on Tuesday to impose a significant fine on the province. In May of last year the Commission noted that the practice violates EU legislation, and the total of the fine grows with each day that Ã…land fails to comply. The sum now stands at more than two million euros.

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EU Seeks Fine Against Finland for Allowing Oral Tobacco Sales 

European Union regulators asked an EU court to fine Finland 2 million euros ($2.9 million) for allowing the sale of oral tobacco in defiance of a ban on the product.

The European Commission, which enforces EU law in the 27- nation bloc, said Finland has flouted a decision by the EU's highest court to force a local government to comply with anti-oral tobacco legislation. A local law currently would allow ships registered on the Aland Islands, an autonomous Swedish-speaking archipelago in the Baltic Sea, to sell oral tobacco known as snus once they are outside Finnish territorial waters.

``The commission has no tolerance for allowing the placing on the market of that product,'' European Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said in a statement today.

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• Commission refers Finland to the European Court of Justice a second time over tobacco for oral use  

The European Commission has today decided to refer Finland to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for a second time for failing to comply with an earlier judgement by the European Court of Justice on 18 May 2006 concerning tobacco for oral use in the �land Islands. The Court's judgment in this case (C-343/05) confirmed Finland's failure to comply with Article 8 of Directive 2001/37/EC on the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products, which prohibits the placing of tobacco for oral use on the market. The Commission will ask the Court to condemn Finland to pay a lump sum and, if Finland fails to comply before the judgment, a daily penalty. Tobacco is the single largest cause of avoidable death in the European Union, accounting for over 650.000 deaths each year. It is estimated that 25% of all cancer deaths and 15% of all deaths in the Union could be attributed to smoking. Tobacco for oral use contains particularly large quantities of carcinogenic substances.

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EU takes Finland to court again for not banning chewing tobacco 

he European Commission said Tuesday it will take Finland to court again -- and ask for it to pay a €2 million (US$2.8 million) penalty, plus daily fines -- for failing to ban chewing tobacco in the Swedish-speaking Aland Islands.

European regulators said all oral tobacco -- whether chewing tobacco or snus -- is dangerous because it contains "particularly large quantities" of cancer-causing chemicals.

Only Sweden has an exemption to an EU ban on the smokeless tobacco called snus that is usually stuck under the upper lip. In 2004, the Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice upheld a ban on the substance, ruling that the dangers of snus merited its being outlawed.

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