Tobacco.org

Cigarette sales down  

Cigarette sales continue to decline with the country's main supplier Carreras Limited blaming the drop to the unprecedented increase in the Special Consumption Tax in April.

Cigarettes sales for the July to September period declined well below expectations due to added problems associated with Tropical Storm Gustav and the decline in consumer purchasing power caused by the challenging economic environment.

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BSJ developing cigarette warning labels for region 

THE Bureau of Standards Jamaica (BSJ) is currently developing cigarette warning labels to be adopted as the standard for the Caribbean Community (Caricom) - a move aimed at reducing tobacco consumption in the region.

"Jamaica has been given the challenge of taking the lead on regulating cigarette labelling initially and tobacco in general," Wayne Stewart, chairman of the Labelling Technical Committee explained. "We are hoping to get it out of our hands and back to CROSQ (Caricom Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality) for their final review and we believe that they will likely send it out for further comment. We will be looking at the comments. We will be assessing them as they come back to us."

Stewart said the committees hope to have a final meeting by the end of this month "to look at what needs to be done" before the proposal is sent to CROSQ for approval. Once approved, it will then be submitted to the Counsel for Trade and Economic Development for the final endorsement.

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• Gov't Committed to Legislation to Combat Tobacco Use  

The Government remains committed to the enactment of comprehensive legislation to combat the use and consequences of tobacco products.

This is according to Chief Medical Officer of Health in the Ministry of Health and the Environment, Dr. Sheila Campbell-Forrester, who was speaking at the opening ceremony for the Caribbean Regional Workshop on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) being held at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston from August 12 to 15.

Speaking on behalf of the Minister of Health and the Environment, Rudyard Spencer, Dr. Campbell-Forrester informed that, "we will bring to Parliament a Tobacco Control Legislation that will reflect the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control."

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THOMPSON: BE WELL - Kicking the habit  

Smoking has never been my cup of tea, but some people picked up tobacco smoking during the vulnerable teen years, found it enjoyable and pleasurable at first, but now can't kick the habit because of addiction to the psychoactive agent, nicotine. By the way, smoking will cost you 13 to 15 years of average life expectancy. In fact, the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that tobacco use is the second cause of death globally and is currently responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide. It might not be a bad idea to start thinking about quitting.

Kicking the habit

Smoking cessation, kicking the habit, is a challenging process, but mental health experts say that these days you really don't have to feel alone; you can find support. There is support, for example, in counselling and medication to help you stop smoking. So you want to quit: . . .

Talking about quitting, the Heart Foundation of Jamaica (for The Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control) recently received a grant from the Bloomberg Global Initiative to implement picture-based no-smoking warnings on tobacco products sold in Jamaica and three other Caribbean countries - Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana.

Dawn Williams, a communications officer with this new programme, said that the placing of picture-based warnings on cigarette packages is "simply the reinforcing of a treaty already signed and ratified by Caribbean countries". This treaty is the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

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St Ann fire leaves 19 persons homeless 

FIRE, believed to have been started by a cigarette, destroyed a two-storey tenement house on Main St, St Ann's Bay Friday morning, leaving 19 persons, including eight children, homeless.

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New tax raises cigarette prices 36%  

Smokers will now pay just over 36 per cent more for a pack of cigarettes, according to Carreras Limited, the primary marketer and distributor of cigarettes and tobacco products in Jamaica.

The price increase comes as a result of a new tax package announced by Finance Minister Audley Shaw in his Budget presentation last week.

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Smokers await their fate  

Local smokers will have to wait until tomorrow to find out how much more they will pay for cigarettes.

Smokers now pay between $15 and $20 for each cigarette and between $250 and $400 for each 20-pack of the more popular brands.

But those prices are expected to increase with the changes in the tax structure announced by Finance Minister Audley Shaw last Thursday.

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• $5 more per cigarette  

The island's leading importer of cigarettes, Carreras Limited, yesterday announced that the price of a cigarette will increase to $20, up from $15.

The suggested retail price for a 20-pack of the popular brands Craven 'A' and Matterhorn has been increased to $380, up from $280.

Smokers will have to pay more than $400 for a pack of Dunhill.

According to Carreras, the price increase reflects the sharp hike in the tax on cigarettes announced by Finance Minister Audley Shaw in his recent budget presentation.

Under the new tax structure, the stamp duty, excise duty and ad valorem tax on cigarettes have been eliminated.

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Fees and taxes for guns and cigarettes drastically increase 

And smokers will have to pay more Monday for cigarettes.

On Monday morning Carreras announced that one stick of its Craven "A" cigarette will be sold for $20 up from $15.

The increase is due to a hike in a Special Consumption Tax paid by cigarette importers.

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• Cigarette market under threat - Organised crime unit called in  

Local cigarette retailer Carreras Limited is in a fight to reclaim its market from what highly placed sources say is a thriving underground trade for cigarettes controlled by bosses of organised crime.

Carreras, a listed company that is 51 per cent owned by British American Tobacco (BAT), has been running press advertisements warning consumers of counterfeit Craven A cigarettes on the market, a brand made by its sister operations in the region, and which it has exclusive licence to sell here.

The racketeers undersell Carreras by some $10,000 per case to retailers, Wednesday Business understands. On the weekend, Carreras also began to issue warnings about two other brands, Rothmans and Benson & Hedges over which it also has exclusive rights.

Yesterday, attempts at official comment from Carreras' managing director Michael Bernard failed, but well placed sources say company executives are keeping quiet for security reasons, saying the perpetrators are considered 'dangerous' people.

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Jamaica Cancer Society Launches Anti-Tobacco Poster Competition  

As part of its continued effort to prevent young persons from smoking and getting hooked on other tobacco related vices, the Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS) has launched its Anti-Tobacco Poster Competition for students in Grades 1 to 6.

The aim of the competition is to educate children about the dangers of smoking and tobacco use and also to increase awareness among the nation's youth about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, which includes not smoking.

"Our mission is to eliminate cancer as a major health problem in whatever areas that we know that the disease will be caused by certain lifestyles and we place a lot of emphasis on these areas," Carol Blair, Administrative Director of the JCS told JIS News in an interview.

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Local IAAF member moves to ban smoking at sporting arenas 

DR Herbert Elliott, member of the International Association of Athletics Federations Medical and Anti-doping Commission, has suggested that government bans smoking at all sporting arenas.

Speaking at the weekly luncheon of the Rotary Club of Kingston at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston yesterday, Dr Elliot said such a move would not only serve to protect members of the public from the effects of secondary smoke, but athletes as well.

ELLIOTT... if it's in your body, it's your responsibility to keep it out

"We have a system in sports where if it's in your body, we don't care how it got there, it's your responsibility to keep it out. It's harsh but that is the only way we can operate," he said.

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'Ban smoking in public' 

Dr. Herb Elliott, a member of the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) Medical and Anti-Doping Commission, wants the Jamaican government to ban smoking in public places, especially at sporting events.

"Smoking should be banned from public spaces, from restaurants and bars," Dr. Elliott, told reporters, yesterday, following the Rotary Club of Kingston's weekly meeting at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

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Teens hooked on nicotine 

Some 19 per cent of students between the ages of 13 and 17 who participated in the Global Tobacco Youth Survey (GTYS) in 2006 have indicated their intention to continue smoking.

"What this study found was that almost one-third of students who confessed to having parents who smoke indicated that they intend to smoke in the future while 16 per cent of students whose parents did not smoke say they intended to smoke in the future. So there is a correlation, we feel, between parents who smoke and the projected use of the cigarette in our adolescent population that we studied," revealed Ellen Campbell-Grizzle of the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) at a forum last Thursday.

Dr. Campbell-Grizzle was giving a presentation on 'Tobacco: Impact on Jamaica's Youth' at the NCDA-organised forum at the Eden Gardens Hotel.

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Cigarette Co ordered to pay $2B in taxes 

THE Revenue Court yesterday ruled that the Cigarette Company of Jamaica (CCJ) should pay $2.17 billion in taxes on money the company transferred to its parent, Carreras Group, over the six years to 2002.

In 2004, the commissioner of the Taxpayer Audit and Assessment Department (TAAD), had asserted that the CCJ, now in voluntary liquidation and formerly the subsidiary of Carreras, racked up $5.72 billion in taxes and penalties between 1997 and 2002.

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