Tobacco.org

• Debate swirls over smoking in Air Force homes  

Some Air Force base housing residents in the Pacific say they wish their commands would offer them the option of smoke-free housing.

Others — smokers and nonsmokers alike — believe the military shouldn’t have any say in whether people can smoke in the privacy of their personal, albeit government-provided, home.

The issue came up at a Yokota Air Base town hall meeting earlier this year after residents there learned that Misawa Air Base would ban smoking in its family housing apartment towers starting May 1. During the meeting, several residents said they have neighbors’ cigarette smoke flowing into their homes and asked if the base could ban smoking in the towers.

Misawa officials said they instituted the ban because they weren’t in compliance with an Air Force instruction that states "the rights of the nonsmokers will prevail." They’ve since added other types of housing units to the ban and set the goal of making the majority of housing smoke-free as units undergo renovations.

The instruction, titled "Tobacco Use in the Air Force," gives commanders the authority to "designate areas or buildings in dormitories or family housing smoke-free when there is a common air-handling unit for multiple individuals or families ... to ensure a healthy and safe environment for all residents."

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• Superfood Soy Linked To Reduction In Smoker's Lung Damage Risk 

People who eat lots of soy products have better lung function and are less likely to develop the smoking-associated lung disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). A new study has shown that consumption of a wide variety of soy products can be associated with a reduction in the risk of COPD and other respiratory symptoms.

Dr. Fumi Hirayama and Professor Andy Lee from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, worked with a team of respiratory physicians to poll 300 patients with COPD from six Japanese hospitals and 340 age-matched control subjects from the same areas as the patients about their soy intake. Dr. Hirayama said, "Soy consumption was found to be positively correlated with lung function and inversely associated with the risk of COPD. It has been suggested that flavonoids from soy foods act as an anti-inflammatory agent in the lung, and can protect against tobacco carcinogens for smokers. However, further research is needed to understand the underlying biological mechanism".

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Soy consumption and risk of COPD and respiratory symptoms: a case-control study in Japan 

To investigate the relationship between soy consumption, COPD risk and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, a case-control study was conducted in Japan. . . .

Conclusions

Increasing soy consumption was associated with a decreased risk of COPD and breathlessness.

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Japan Tobacco plans price hike  

Japan Tobacco Inc, the world's third-largest tobacco firm, said it is likely to hike its domestic cigarette prices within the next three years to secure a profit amid a steadily shrinking market.

Like other developed nations, Japan's smoking population has been declining due to growing health awareness, hitting Japan Tobacco, a former state monoply which controls 65 percent of the domestic cigarette market.

There has been growing speculation that Japan Tobacco would hike its cigarette prices for the first time since July 2006 after it set a target of keeping its core profit from its domestic tobacco business steady for the three years through to March 2012.

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AUDIO: The Leonard Lopate Show: David Sedaris (June 02, 2009) 

David Sedaris on his collection of 22 essays on his favored topics: death, compulsion, unwanted sexual advances and corporal decay. It's called When You Are Engulfed in Flames.

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Japan opposition wants tobacco tax hike 

Japan's largest opposition party plans to hike tobacco taxes with the goal of halving the nation's number of smokers if it wins the next election, the deputy head of the party's tax team said on Wednesday.

"One of the big challenges is how to reduce the number of smokers and the tax system can be used for that purpose," Motohisa Furukawa, vice chair of the Democratic Party's tax committee, told Reuters.

"As long as it curbs smoking, our thinking is that it is OK even if tax revenue falls as a result."

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JT Smokers Style commercial #3 

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• Taspo FAIL - Japanese Reject Scarlet Letter of Smoking 

We've written before about Taspo, the RFID-chipped ID card that allows "of age" (20 or older) smokers to get their smokes through any of the nations 420,000 tobacco vending machines. Mostly the campaign has been a disaster for folks who own vending machines, a boom for convenience stores (where you don't need the cards), and and a burden for smokers who just want to buy a pack without registering themselves with Big Brother. . . .

Going by purely anecdotal evidence and personal experience, even the heaviest smokers want nothing to do with the card. For most, however, it's not a privacy issue, but one of pride: They don't want an official "smoking license", complete with a picture of themselves, to buy something that is their choice. In order to protect a small minority (teenagers) the rest of society must bear the burden of Taspo.

If tobacco makers are actually interested in selling their products and not just submitting to what will surely become complete regulation, they would be embracing vending machines with facial recognition, rather than making their customers file with the authorities. Of course, facial recognition doesn't always work, but it's a relatively non-invasive way to solve a problem that isn't such a big deal to begin with.

In the meantime, convenience stores should beware: Increased sales in your sector mean that you're next on the chopping block. Expect a full-on Taspo reader integrated into cash registers in no time.

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• DAVIES: Smoking Manners Campaign in Japan 

With an increased focus on smoking related issues throughout the world - placing public pressure on tobacco companies, including falling revenue from the sale of cigarettes - Japan Tobacco has chosen to adopt a smoking manners campaign as a means of building its public profile and image of corporate responsibility. . . .

As one wanders through the streets of Japan the signs that one encounters are intriguing. Pasted mostly on the side of cigarette bins - street corner fixtures where smokers can conveniently butt-out – they utilize stick figure cartoons and short phrases to hit home the message.

What is unusual is the tense. In the English language didactic messages are usually presented in the third person. These messages are presented in the first person.

It is as if one is witnessing a miniature film noir world, in which a Humphrey Bogart type character is making comments as he smokes his way through everyday life. Perhaps this is intentional on the part of JT – whatever - it makes for fine reading:

‘In summertime, the arms that pass near my lit cigarette are bare.'

‘I threw my cigarette butt into the drain. That is to say, I hid it in the drain.'

‘I moved to avoid him. But my smoke didn't.

‘A person was waving at me. He was waving away my smoke.'

Incorporating little stick characters, diagrams, very large cigarettes, and all manner of statements and philosophical questions, the signs are a visual delight. My favorites are the ones that anthropomorphize cigarettes, giving them human qualities:

Inhaled. Burned. Thrown away. If it were anything but a cigarette, it would surely be crying. . . .

Examples of manners signs: http://www.conbinibento.com/photos/index.php?gallery=./Smoking%20Manners

Real photos of manners signs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlietyack/sets/ 72057594078351752/

Japan Tobacco website covering the manners campaign http://www.jt.com/investors/media/press_releases/ 2008/05/appendix20080521_01_02.html

Manners Add for TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28Ytg3IogDg

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In summertime, the arms that pass near my lit cigarette are bare.
Posters used in Japan's smoking manners campaign are examined. No extra cost for the poetry.

• Japan Tobacco Profit to Fall on Smoking Decline, Currency Moves  

Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-largest publicly traded cigarette maker, forecast profit will fall 19 percent this year as fewer people smoke in its home market and currency movements hurt its international earnings.

Net income is forecast to be 100 billion yen ($1 billion) in the 12 months ending March 2010 from 123.4 billion yen last year, the company said in a statement to Tokyo’s stock exchange today. That compares with the 163 billion yen median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The maker of Camel and Mild Seven cigarettes is losing sales in Japan as the smoking rate falls and authorities introduce tighter tobacco controls. Earnings from surging overseas cigarette sales, helped by the 2007 takeover of U.K.- based Gallaher Group Plc, are being blunted by the strengthening of the yen against other currencies. . . .

Overseas tobacco revenue rose 18 percent to 3.12 trillion yen in the year to December on higher sales of Winston and Camel cigarettes in counties including Russia, Italy and Spain.

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Japan Tobacco ($$) 

The position of JT, the third-biggest producer by market capitalisation, is doubly curious. It is in a traditionally defensive sector and cannot be accused of plying big-ticket items to cash-strapped consumers. Japan, its biggest market, has one of the lowest unemployment rates and at $3 for a pack of 20 it hardly behoves salarymen to stub out their cigarettes. Yet there are good reasons to spurn the weed. The £7.5bn acquisition of the UK’s Gallaher in 2006 gave access to new markets but carries hefty goodwill amortisation; $910m-worth last year. This is partly why net income for the year to end-March almost halved, to $1.3bn. Assuming debt-burdened Japan gets round to hiking tobacco taxes at some point (not as of now on the agenda) that will further scythe the bottom line. Regulation burns another hole. New rules on vending machine sales helped drag sales volumes down nearly 5 per cent in Japan last year, while promotions aimed at countering that impact sliced 11 per cent off ebitda.

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Japan Tobacco Profit to Fall 12% on Domestic Decline (Update3)  

Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's third-largest traded cigarette maker, forecast a 12 percent drop in profit this fiscal year as it expects domestic sales will decline.

Net income may fall to 186 billion yen ($1.56 billion) in 2007, while sales may increase 2.5 percent to 4.89 trillion yen, Japan Tobacco said in a filing to the Tokyo Stock Exchange today.

The Tokyo-based company completed on April 18 its purchase of Gallaher Group Plc, the maker of Benson & Hedges cigarettes in Europe, for 7.5 billion pounds ($15 billion). The earnings forecast for 2007 announced today does not include figures from Gallaher.

Domestic cigarette sales are in decline due to Japan's shrinking population and an upswing in health consciousness. A tax rise on cigarettes instituted in July also discouraged sales.

Japan Tobacco expects sales at home, which account for 70 percent of all revenue, will decrease 0.5 percent in the current year. In contrast, overseas sales will rise 13 percent to 1.1 trillion yen.

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• Boy, 10, buys cigarettes after vending machine camera identifies him as adult  

A 10-year-old boy in Kyoto was able to purchase cigarettes from a vending machine equipped with face identification technology, it has been found.

Kyoto Prefectural Police conducted an experiment with the cooperation of the boy, who had bought cigarettes from a vending machine this February. Neither the Ministry of Finance, which had approved the use of such machines in lieu of those that read Taspo I.C. cards stored with personal identification information, nor the manufacturer of face identification vending machines have heard of other instances in which elementary school children have been misidentified as adults.

According to police, the boy confessed that he had purchased cigarettes from a vending machine when he was questioned by his father . . .

The boy stood on the frame of his bicycle to move closer to the camera installed in the machine, pressed the "confirm" button, and was identified as an adult.

Face identification vending machines determine a person's approximate age from the size of their eyes and mouth and their bone structure.

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Oat extract may cut cigarette cravings: Pilot study 

A standardised oat extract may reduce cravings for smoking and offer would-be quitters an alternative to the patches and gums, suggests research from Japan.

A daily supplement of an oats herb extract was found to reduce tobacco consumption from about 20 to fewer than nine cigarettes per day, according to results of a pilot study published in the journal Pharmacometrics.

The ingredient, extracted from an ancient type of wild oats, was developed by Frutarom and is being marketed under the name Neuravena.

“Although further studies are needed, we think that Neuravena extract has potential as a novel food ingredient that can effectively aid smoking cessation,” wrote the researchers, led by Fumitaka Fujii from ASK Intercity Company, the Japanese distributor of the ingredient. . . .

Source: Pharmacometrics Volume 75, Issue 3/4, Pages 47-53 “Pilot Study of the Standardized Oats Herb Extract for Smoking Reduction” Authors: F. Fujii, T. Hashimoto, N. Suzuki, R. Suzuki, K. Mohri

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• Misawa bans smoking in dorms, some apartments 

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan — Misawa officials will ban smoking in all dormitories and family housing apartment towers on May 1.

And if an additional proposal is approved by the 35th Fighter Wing leadership, some other types of housing also will be designated "smoke-free," according to housing officials.

Wing Vice commander Col. RC Craig said the focus has been "strictly in compliance" with regulations and there is "not a goal to reduce smoking" at Misawa.

"Those who choose to continue smoking will have ample opportunity to do so," he said.

Smokers in affected housing will be required to use designated, neighborhood smoking areas, officials said. Some areas are the required 50 feet from the nearest buildings, but factors such as wind direction mean others will be placed farther away. People living in Tower 220, for example, will have to walk about 660 feet to the nearest smoking area. Some areas will be covered, converted bus stops, but others will be exposed to the elements.

Craig said that when preparing for an inspection late last year, officials discovered that Misawa was not in compliance with an Air Force instruction on tobacco use.

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