Tobacco.org

Ali Ettefagh at PostGlobal: Profits Trump Health Concerns in Global Tobacco Debate  

But again, I might be too harsh here as there are as many "studies" and papers published in favor of smoking as there are against it. That too is good for business, or so it seems. Somehow the truth falls victim to this health vs. wealth debate. A quick look at the annual reports of the top ten tobacco companies show that sales are growing in the developing world, compensating for the decline in sales in the developed world (and thus tax revenue for those governments). As such, the tobacco debate is always framed as a business discussion. The focus always shifts to the circulation of large sums of money as the centerpiece of the debate rather than to the product itself. Companies from the developing world (Korea, China, Brazil, Pakistan and Turkey) have joined their traditional rivals in a highly profitable public-private enterprise. . . .

Banning smoking in public places is a trend that started in the nations of the developed world. Somehow they discovered their product to be harmful to themselves but absurdly less so to foreigners. . . .

We have similar laws in Iran that ban smoking in public places (restaurants, coffee shops, government offices, etc.), sales to minors and any kind of tobacco advertising. But it has not slowed the growth of the cigarette market. Moreover, it is a business big enough to punch holes in the American policy of trade sanctions against Iran . . .

However, the American sales of agricultural products to Iran are allowed and manufactured cigarettes somehow fit this definition! Lobbyists and big business, take a bow please!

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• Cigarette Mafia Exist in Iran As Well - Official  

Mahmud Abtahi, General Director of Iran Tobacco Company gives information about the cigarette mafia in Iran and interest of American producers to cooperate

- Does the general director of Iran tobacco company smoke?

- No, not at all. He is against smoking and strongly advises those who smoke to quit. Particularly ladies, who follow the new fashion of smoking recently.

- Then how do you fulfil your duties with this belief? Isn't there a contradiction?

- Iran Tobacco Company is a trading company with unlimited possibilities, a lot of money and production and employment opportunities. This is true that I am not a smoker and I am against smoking, but I have the responsibility of developing this company. So I differentiate my personal opinion and professional duties. I know that development of tobacco industry is to the benefit of Iran and can bring a lot of economic-export opportunities to the country. . . .

. In 2005 about 10.9 billion cigarettes were smuggled. In 2006 it decreased to 8.5. For 2008 we have planned to bring it down to 3.73 billion.

- What policies were implemented?

- Iran Tobacco Company is following Majlis decision to make the cigarette import tax lower to bring it in to the legal realm. . . . .

- When we speak of cigarette mafia, we should know that it's a world mafia linked to capitalists and Zionists. The world economy knows three spheres where dirty money exists. First is narcotics, second is weapons and the third is cigarette. This mafia is a world network that does any unclean thing to sell cigarette and get the market. It does not have a conscious. Sure, they also exist in Iran.

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Iranians displeased with 'jokes about genocide'  

Also, more puzzling:

Meantime, head of Iran's Tobacco Company rejected a recent report that the country has had direct cigarette imports from the United States.

"We import cigarettes through multinational firms, not directly from the US," Mahmoud Abtahi said on Saturday.

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Review of U.S. exports to Iran proposed 

A lawmaker will seek a broad review of exports to Iran to see whether exemptions to U.S. trade sanctions are being abused. Cigarettes, bull semen and other goods have gone Iran's way as exports grew during President Bush's time in office.

Rep. David Scott, vice chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism, nonproliferation and trade, said Friday that he will press for a congressional review of sanctions enforcement following an Associated Press investigation that found U.S. exports to Iran rose from about $8 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office, to nearly $150 million last year.

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Hosseini calls U.S. senator allegations “unethical, shameful” 

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said here on Saturday U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s recent allegations against Iran are as “unethical and shameful”

Such remarks only indicate his spiteful thoughts that are used in U.S. foreign policy.

Denouncing these comments, Hosseini expressed regret over such illogical reasoning.

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Iran condemns McCain for cigarette joke  

In a statement quoted by the website of Iran's state Press TV satellite station, Hosseini added:

"We condemn such jokes and believe them to be inappropriate for a U.S. presidential candidate. It is most evident that jokes about genocide will not be tolerated by Iranians or Americans."

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Iran condemns McCain's 'genocidal joke' 

The presumptive Republican presidential candidate made the statements after he was asked about reports that US exports to Iran - a big part of which were cigarettes - had risen tenfold during US President George W. Bush's presidency. He immediately added: "I meant that as a joke."

But Iranian officials were apparently unamused.

"McCain's crude remark on the indiscriminate killing of the Iranian nation not only testifies to his disturbed state of mind, but also to his warmongering approach to foreign policy," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said in a statement Saturday.

"We condemn such jokes and believe them to be inappropriate for a US presidential candidate. It is most evident that jokes about genocide will not be tolerated by Iranians or Americans," he added.

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Iran: McCain cigarette joke, disturbing 

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini has criticized Senator John McCain for joking about killing Iranians with cigarettes.

“McCain's crude remark on the indiscriminate killing of the Iranian nation not only testifies to his disturbed state of mind, but also to his warmongering approach to foreign policy,” said Hosseini in a Saturday statement.

“We condemn such jokes and believe them to be inappropriate for a US presidential candidate. It is most evident that jokes about genocide will not be tolerated by Iranians or Americans,” he added.

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Tehran slams McCain for saying cigarettes could be used to kill Iranians 

Iran on Saturday condemned remarks by U.S. presidential candidate John McCain who said one way of killing Iranians was to export cigarettes to Iran, the country's official news agency IRNA reported.

"We condemn such remarks as ugly and immoral, especially for someone who intends to lead a country claiming civilization," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Husseini said.

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Caution: Can Iran cigarette jokes be dangerous to McCain's political health?  

"Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” McCain responded. He quickly followed up: “I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn’t had a cigarette in 28 years.”

After his wife corrected him –- it’s actually been 29 years since the veteran's last smoke -- McCain said he’d like to look into the Iran export issue more thoroughly and might have a better answer later.

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• McCain jokes about killing Iranians with cigarettes 

U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who once sang in jest about bombing Iran, on Tuesday reacted to a report of rising U.S. cigarette exports to the country by saying it may be "a way of killing 'em."

McCain, known for acerbic comments and for sometimes firing verbally from the hip, was responding to a report that U.S. exports to Iran rose tenfold during President George W. Bush's term in office despite hostility between the two states.

A rise in cigarette sales was a big part of that, according to an Associated Press analysis of seven years of U.S. trade figures. . . .

"Maybe that's a way of killing 'em," McCain said to reporters during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh. "I meant that as a joke, as a person who hasn't had a cigarette in 28 years, 29 years," he added, laughing.

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• Cigarette sales in GCC down 12% due to smoking ban  

Ban on smoking in public places and selling tobacco to people under 20 have cut sales of cigarettes in the GCC by 12 per cent, according to industry experts.

Total sales across the region are about 60 billion cigarettes a year and Saudi Arabia is the largest market with an annual total of 12 billion. Small- and medium-sized tobacco manufacturers expect their business volume to decline further due to increased taxes and restrictions in regional markets.

But global giants such as British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International (PMI), which dominate the market, recorded an increased sales in the first quarter of 2008 mainly due to higher turnover in East Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Eema).

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• How easy we welcome our death 

Tobacco is the only addictive substance readily, cheaply, and legally available to Iranians from all walks of life, Hassan Azaripur of the Iranian Health Ministry’s Committee on Tobacco Control told the Mehr News Agency on the second day of Iran’s No Tobacco Week (May 25-31).

Unfortunately, there is an increase in the number of smokers aged between 16 and 25 in Iran, and 9 million of the country’s 70 million people smoke regularly, he lamented.

Some 25 percent of Iranians over the age of 15 are in danger of becoming smokers, Azaripur noted, adding, “14.1 percent of the country’s smokers are between 13 and 15 years old.” . . .

Unfortunately, the developing world is slow in taking measures in response to health threats like industrial pollution and bad diets, and we see the same thing in regard to smoking.

And in our country, the Iranian Anti-Tobacco Association (IATA), with the cooperation of the National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NRITLD), organizes No Tobacco Week each year from May 24 to 31.

The IATA organized a number programs for the anti-smoking week . . .

In addition, many people in Iran and the rest of the world are still unaware of the danger of passive smoking, but concerted efforts to convince people that smoking is harmful to their family members could help to reduce smoking or even encourage people to quit.

And since today is World No Tobacco Day, hopefully some smokers will be encouraged to take the first step in kicking the habit

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Coral Springs woman holds out hope for husband missing in Iran  

For 30 years Christine Levinson took care of the house and seven children while her husband, Robert, went off to perform secret work for the FBI and then as a private investigator. She didn't ask what he was hunting; he didn't tell her.

Today Christine Levinson, 57, is doing the tracking.

Since Robert Levinson, 59, disappeared March 9, 2007, from a Persian Gulf island off Iran, his wife has traveled the world demanding action. In December she flew to Tehran to pass out fliers in Farsi with her husband's photo and ask for help. In February she hired an attorney there to file paperwork urging the government to start an official investigation. . . .

Today she is flying to Washington, D.C., to get an update from FBI and State Department officials on their joint investigation. And on Sunday, the eve of her husband's 60th birthday, her family is holding a "hope rally" at 1 p.m. in the Wings Plus restaurant in Coral Springs to mark one year since his disappearance.

Family, friends and supporters will sign petitions urging the Iranian president to investigate.

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No Answers From Iran on US Man's Fate  

The wife of a missing former FBI agent said Tuesday she hired a lawyer in Iran to try to persuade authorities there to investigate her husband's disappearance almost a year ago.

Christine Levinson said she has received no information on the location of Robert Levinson, who turns 60 on Monday. He was last seen March 8 on the Iranian island of Kish, where he had gone to seek information on cigarette smuggling for a client of his security firm. . . .

"He had a lot of clients in the tobacco industry, but he was subcontractor."

On Sunday, the Levinsons will stage a rally to mark the first anniversary of his disappearance.

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