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The head of Iran's Tobacco Company says there are 12 million cigarette smokers across the country bringing tobacco turnover to $3 billion.
“Iranians' consumption of cigarettes has been recorded as 61.2 billion cigarettes per year. The numbers shows a 1.2 percent increase compared to the figures of last year,” Mahmoud Abtahi told Mehr News Agency.
Iran's Tobacco Company's latest figure shows tobacco turnover reached 3 billion dollars.
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(Fortune Small Business) -- Want to plunge into the modern American melting pot? Try the offices of Social Smoke, a hookah manufacturer in Arlington, Texas.
Here a silk Persian rug and a piece of Arabic calligraphy, The 99 Names of Allah, share wall space with a signed photo of a Willie Nelson impersonator. There's a Chinese green tea set in the conference room, and Mom's homemade enchiladas are chilling in the fridge. Abrahim Nadimi, director of sales and marketing, is tapping a bobblehead doll of Dwight from the TV show The Office. "Welcome to the 21st century," he says. No kidding.
Social Smoke is growing gangbusters, and its success says a lot about the new international, cross-cultural landscape of American small business. It is run by Abrahim's father, Sayyid Nadimi, 51, who emigrated from Iran before the 1979 revolution, and his U.S.-born sons.
The Nadimis are tapping into America's deepening love affair with an ancient Middle Eastern tradition: hookah smoking. The company makes "authentic" Iranian and Egyptian hookahs in China, having tried and mostly failed to source them in the Middle East. Yet Sayyid is anxiously watching developments in Iran -- and praying the U.S. government will soon let him sell his product back to his homeland. Social Smoke is one of the largest and fastest-growing suppliers in the international hookah market.
About six and a half billion cigarettes are smuggled into Iran per year, the managing director of the Iranian Tobacco Company said here on Tuesday.
The smuggled cigarettes are mostly "fake" and under the brand of "Marlboro", Mahmoud Abtahi said.
Being a neighbor of the biggest drug producer in the world, the Islamic Republic has also suffered the greatest financial and human losses in its efforts to fight drug trafficking, Abtahi added. . . .
Great numbers of Iranian border control officers have died while defending their country against well-armed traffickers. They lost their lives to prevent drugs from poisoning the world.
The Tobacco Atlas estimates that tobacco use kills some six million people each year -- more than a third of whom will die from cancer -- and drains U.S. $500 billion annually from global economies.
Semnan, Iran — A recent study indicates that there is a significant association between cigarette smoking and the development and severity of acne lesions. According to one expert, acne patients who withdraw from cigarette smoking can improve their acne condition.
Whether smoking induces acne remains controversial. However, an increasing number of studies are concluding that cigarette smoking causes a new disease entity called "smoker’s acne."
"It is known that cigarette smoking increases the levels of carbon monoxide within the body, which in turn stimulates the sebaceous glands to produce excessive amounts of sebum.
"This increased production of sebum will inevitably clog the hair follicles, which in turn will cause the erythematous papular and nodular lesions commonly seen in acne patients.
"This increased and continual production of sebum will likely lead to a worsening of the acne condition," says Mohammad Nassaji-Zavareh, M.D., of the department of infectious diseases, Fatemieh Hospital, Semnan University of Medical Sciences, Semnan, Iran.
Smoking in Tehran Municipality’s public places is banned, Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf announced here on Sunday.
In a statement issued on the occasion of the World No-Tobacco Day, Tehran Mayor warned of the increase in rate of habitual smokers aged between 13 and 15 in the country.
World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on May 31, and this years’ theme is "Tobacco Health Warnings" in a bid to make people aware of the health risks of tobacco use and convincing them to quit and finally reduce over 5 million yearly deaths from tobacco related health problems, the mayor said.
On physical, psychological, cultural, and financial devastating effects smoking has on the society, Qalibaf said that tobacco is responsible for 90% of lung cancers and “is the major cause of heart diseases.”
More than 31 million of the country’s total population are second-hand smokers, head of research center of Iran Anti-Tobacco Association (IATA) said here on Sunday.
Referring to the recent statistics from the Iranian Health Ministry and the World Health organization (WHO), Ali Abdollahinia said, “Over 45% of Iranians are exposed to passive smoking.”
Based on the figures, more than 10 million of Iranians are smokers, who light up over 58 billion cigarettes yearly.
Iran's cafe owners have demanded for hookah rights, Iran's satellite Press TV reported on Wednesday.
"Dozens of cafe owners have staged a demonstration in front of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) to protest against a ban on their activities" to sell hookah to their customers, the report said.
The demonstrators, who were from the Iran's central city of Isfahan, said that their cafes had been closed by authorities despite an official order by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that they could be reopened.
"Police and health authorities in Isfahan are preventing us from doing our jobs despite a presidential order," a demonstrator was quoted by Press TV as saying.
Reportedly, last year, Iran's police forced the cafes around the country to quit selling hookah which was circulated as a part of social health crackdown.
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.
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.
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).
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
Iran has allowed water pipes to reappear in tea houses, whose owners complained a recent ban on health grounds was putting them out of business, press reports said on Tuesday.
"Tea houses with a business permit can offer water pipes to their costumers," the interior ministry said in directive to police published in the Tehran Emrouz newspaper.
However it said that only plain tobacco would be allowed in water pipes and popular fruit flavours like strawberry and apple would remain banned due to "health risks".
Around 100 Iranian teahouse owners staged a rally on Sunday in protest at a ban on water pipes which they said has put their businesses in jeopardy, the state news agency IRNA reported.
"The protesters gathered in front of their union offices in Tehran and urged the authorities to help them with their financial problems after the ban on water pipes," IRNA said, quoting a teahouse union leader.
"As the water pipe accounts for more than 90 percent of income in this business, the ban in recent weeks has made many shops only semi-active," said the union leader, identified only by his last name of Alaee.
Iran is enforcing a long-standing law banning smoking in public places. As well as cigarette smoking, the authorities are also cracking down on the use of water pipes, known in Iran as "ghalian" and in other Arab countries as "shisha."
The authorities have shut down about 20 coffee shops in the capital for offering water pipes, Alaee added.
As of Saturday, Iran will implement a strict smoking ban in all public places, Teheran media reported.
According to the new law, smoking is prohibited in all public organizations, hotels, restaurants, tea houses and coffee shops.
Police has been ordered to decisively confront all restaurant owners nationwide with a warning first, then temporary closing and, in case of repetition, permanent closing of their enterprise.
Also forbidden is the offering and smoking of the traditional Persian water-pipe which is a must in Iranian tea houses.
Iran's Foreign Ministry said Sunday it would consider allowing the wife of an American man who vanished in Iran earlier this year to visit the Islamic country to search for him.
''The request has not officially been relayed to us yet. If it is conveyed, we will review it,'' ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.
On Thursday, Christine Levinson, the wife of missing former FBI agent Robert Levinson said she was planning to travel to Iran in search of her husband even though she was advised by the State Department not to travel to the country because of the risk. . . .
Robert Levinson was last seen March 8 on Kish Island, a resort off the southern coast of Iran, where he had gone to seek information on cigarette smuggling for a client of his security firm, R.A. Levinson & Associates, based in Coral Springs, Fla.