Tobacco.org

Scientists find first proof of potent tobacco use among ancient Mayan people  

Capital Region researchers confirmed that one of our bad habits is as old as the ancient Mayan civilization.

Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman of the University at Albany and Dmitri Zagorevski of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute studied scrapings from more than 50 Mayan vessels and found evidence of a potent tobacco in one tiny, 1,300-year-old container.

The discovery represents the oldest physical evidence of tobacco use.

"In a lot of ways it's similar to the consumption of alcohol," Loughmiller-Newman said. "Humans have indulged in stimulants and depressants for many, many centuries. That's a phenomenal continuation of human behavior. We enjoy these little treats in their numerous forms and have for a very long time."

For ancient Mayans, tobacco was a godlike plant that had a soul and wielded the force of lightning and thunder, said Kevin Groark, an anthropologist and Mayan expert. It provided spiritual protection and healing properties, and Mayan shamans used tobacco enemas to invoke powerful visions.

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• Illegal cigarette business takes off in Mexico  

The illegal cigarette business is growing rapidly and now accounts for about 10 percent of the total tobacco market in Mexico, gaining eight percentage points in the past year, the Alliance Against Illegal Products, or ACPI, said.

"More than 100 illegal brands appeared on the market against the 30 detected in 2010," ACPI spokesman Gerardo Velazquez said.

The number of packs of illegal cigarettes sold last year rose to "40 million, against the 200 million estimated by the end of 2011," Velazquez said.

"Overregulation" has had negative effects on the tobacco market in Mexico, which has between 10 million and 11 million smokers, the ACPI spokesman said.

The organization criticized the effects of the Special Tax on Production and Services, or IEPS, which was approved a year ago and raised the price of a pack of cigarettes by 7 pesos ($0.52).

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Research and Markets: Cigarettes in Mexico - Forecasts to 2015 

In 2010 a new excise tax of Mx$0.1 per cigarette of 0.75g came into effect, which led to an Mx$2 increase in the cigarette pack. The legislation demanding the printing of graphic images on cigarette packs also finally came into effect.

The Cigarettes in Mexico report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data 2006-2010, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2015 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Research and Markets: Smoking Tobacco in Mexico  

Tradition for RYO and pipe smoking tobacco is even smaller than that for cigars and only a very few people in Mexico consume it. Pipe smokers are seen as people who actually know about tobacco: its characteristics, the process of selecting, mixing and preparing it, the diverse types of pipe etc, so, pipe smokers are considered more educated smokers.

The Smoking Tobacco in Mexico report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data 2006-2010, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2015 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Smoking Tobacco in Mexico - Market Report - new market report published 

Tradition for RYO and pipe smoking tobacco is even smaller than that for cigars and only a very few people in Mexico consume it. Pipe smokers are seen as people who actually know about tobacco: its characteristics, the process of selecting, mixing and preparing it, the diverse types of pipe etc, so, pipe smokers are considered more educated smokers. However, since it is a lot harder to inhale the pipe´s smoke, and since the taste tends to more bitter and the smoke denser, most cigarette...

The Smoking Tobacco in Mexico report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data 2006-2010, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2015 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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World Richest Man Carlos Slim Takes $8 Billion Hit As US Economy Takes Down Mexico Holdings  

The sudden downturn has had a direct effect on Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, who lost about $8 billion this week."The Mexican billionaire’s stock portfolio, measured in U.S. dollars, has dropped about 11 percent since July 29, before today, and is valued at about $63 billion," according to Bloomberg. That compares with a 7.1 percent slide in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index."

Mexico's peso dropped 2.5 percent against the dollar and the country's Benchmark IPC index fell 7.4 percent.

Slim's Empire

Earlier this week, Slim surprised many by offering to purchase the remaining 40% of Telmex, the cornerstone of his América Móvil (AMX) empire, for $6.5 billion.

The news came as a surprise as it was thought that Slim was keen to grab a foothold on the broadcast market, despite numerous setbacks -- such as the denial of a license from Mexican authorities, apparently keen to keep rival broadcasters on side before presidential elections in 2012. Analysts expected the tender to only come to fruition once its pay-TV permit had been confirmed.

Slim has fallen foul of anti-competition legislation in Venezuela, including a record $1 billion fine for alleged monopolistic practices.

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Cuban cigars tempt U.S. shoppers to Mexico 

Walking through the streets of Mexican border towns like Reynosa or Nuevo Progreso, tourists can find a treat that is not allowed in the United States.

Blowing a cloud of smoke, U.S. tourist Marco Ramirez said he doesn't know much about cigars, but he sure enjoyed having a cold beer and a fat Cohiba Cuban cigar during his visit to Nuevo Progreso.

"This is a nice little vacation," Ramirez said. "I'm having a good time, and I get to try new things."

When asked about the cigar, Ramirez said he had never been attracted to them, but he felt the lure of trying something he can't get back home in Atlanta.

Satisfying that curiosity is the reason Ramon Valles has a few boxes of Cuban cigars in a small wooden cabinet in a little stand on the main street of Nuevo Progreso. The stand also holds serapes, hats and other tourist souvenirs.

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The Monday Interview - World’s richest man stays down to earth 

Over the past three months, his Mexican mobile phone operator Telcel has been fined $1bn for “monopolistic practices”, the government has thwarted his attempts to enter the pay-TV market and rivals have chipped away at his core business.

Yet, despite the pressure from regulators and competitors, the 71-year-old appears remarkably calm when we meet at the head office of Inbursa, his Mexican bank. The room is hung with canvases showing pastoral scenes, a window looks out on to a drab urban landscape, while a bookshelf covering one wall is crowded with Spanish classics, biographies of great financiers such as Bernard Baruch, and a row of dog-eared volumes of baseball statistics, one of his passions.

Yet even as others are trying to shrink his vast wealth, Mr Slim is pondering how to put it to best use when he is gone. “Read this,” he says, pulling out a well-thumbed edition of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, that staple of student spirituality. He points to a line on page 487: “You give but little when you give of your possessions.” . . .

1982 As Mexican banks crumble and suffer nationalisation following a plunge in the oil price and rise in global interest rates, Mr Slim goes on a shopping spree, buying a hotel chain; Reynolds Aluminio, a tyre company; Sanborns, the department store; and a 40 per cent stake in the Mexican subsidiary of British American Tobacco.

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• ENVIRONMENT DAY: Radioactive Oil, Fertilisers and Tobacco  

A total of 2.5 billion packs of cigarettes are smoked every year in this country of 112 million people, where 11 million smokers consume an average of 5.4 cigarettes a day, according to the 2010 report "The Economics of Tobacco and Tobacco Taxation in Mexico" by U.S. and Mexican health experts.

Smoking claims the lives of between 25,000 and 60,000 Mexicans a year.

"The major tobacco manufacturers discovered that polonium was part of tobacco and tobacco smoke more than 40 years ago and attempted, but failed, to remove this radioactive substance from their products," says "Waking a Sleeping Giant: The Tobacco Industry's Response to the Polonium-210 Issue", published by the American Journal of Public Health in September 2008.

The U.S. scientific researchers Monique Muggli, Jon Ebbert, Channing Robertson and Richard Hurt concluded that "Internal tobacco industry documents reveal that the companies suppressed publication of their own internal research to avoid heightening the public's awareness of radioactivity in cigarettes."

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Smoking claims 53,000 lives annually in Mexico 

Smoking claims 53,000 lives annually, or one person every 10 minutes, in Mexico, Health Minister Jose Angel Cordoba said on Tuesday, the World No Tobacco Day.

In Mexico, the average smoker first tries cigarettes at the age of 13, and more than 13 million people smoke.

"Our young people begin smoking at age 13, and they lose 15 years from their healthy lives because smoking contains 40 carcinogenic substances," Cordoba said during a ceremony at the Mexican president's residence.

"Half of smokers will die of a tobacco related illness and will damage all those exposed to second-hand smoke." he said.

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VIDEO: In Mexico, Tobacco Fields Disappearing 

In Mexico, the tobacco fields are disappearing and workers like Otoniel Rivera are struggling to find a way to support their families. Despite this decline the tobacco industry is still playing the farm card in its attempts to thwart regulation from the Mexican Congress.

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• Mexican tobacco growers: Economically shunned by industry, still used as lobbyists 

As the global fight over smokers moves from the United States and other countries where tobacco consumption is on the decline, Big Tobacco has drawn a line around developing nations that account for an increasingly important share of their revenues. And, from Jakarta in Indonesia to Mexico City, farmers have been reliable street-level lobbyists in the industry’s fight against smoking limits. Farmers say they’re defending their jobs, even though experts insist that the buying habits of multinational companies have more impact on the fortunes of growers than anti-tobacco rules designed by the World Health Organization and public health officials who seek to shrink the human and fiscal costs of tobacco-related disease.

Between 2005 and 2030, 135.1 million people will have died worldwide in developing nations because of smoking-related illness, according to the World Lung Foundation. Tobacco consumption is the globe’s leading preventable cause of death.

In Mexico “the anti-tobacco campaigns didn’t hit farmers as hard as the companies’ global strategies have,” said Javier Castellón, a senator representing western Mexico’s Nayarit state, a swath of humid terrain once known as the Gold Coast because of the value of its tobacco crops.

In Mexico City protests in recent years, farmers have been vocal and proud to stand up for their business, even if some who attended the marches said they'd received stipends for doing so.

In interviews with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, farmers in Nayarit state recalled getting about $20 a day and restaurant and hotel stipends for trips to the nation’s capital. "Many of the ‘farmers’ there were not ,” said one grower, who asked that his name not be used because he fears economic reprisal from tobacco companies.

Similar relationships between farmers and Big Tobacco are repeated in country after country throughout the developing world — where the industry is seeing impressive revenue growth. British American Tobacco said last year that “some two-thirds of our revenue comes from developing markets.”

One of the industry’s strongest political avatars in developing nations has been the International Tobacco Growers Association [4] (ITGA). It works in Mexico through local farmers associations. And around the world, ITGA activities mirror those of grower groups here. . . .

To find their economic advantage in the global marketplace, Mexico’s tobacco men now rely on the industry’s demand for their services in two countries. In Mexico, when called upon, they’ll rally on behalf of low cigarette taxes and the rights of smokers. In the United States, they help bring in multinational crops from the farms of others.

The companies “always end up winning lots of money, and the farmers, they stay always the same,” Federico Langarica said.

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ONG condena cabildeo de tabacaleras 

The tobacco industry tries to confuse public opinion and lobby congressmen and senators to encourage a change of position on its support for tax increases snuff, denounced the InterAmerican Heart Foundation Mexico ( FIC).

And in recent days has appeared a number of deployed sponsored by British American Tobacco (BAT) in the arguments adduced against the increasing price of a pack of cigarettes, as this measure has led to increased product " pirated and contraband.

BAT part of the message was: "As we anticipated, in just 3 months appeared more than 100 brands of contraband that do not meet the minimum requirements of the Act, and its price, under 25 pesos (about $ 2) per packet of 20 cigarettes, we doubt its "legality"

Thus, the FIC and the National Alliance and Control Snuff (BREATH) condemns the business elite, represented mainly by BAT and Philip Morris began very early in 2011 to pressure lawmakers to roll back the tax achieved pack of cigarettes.

Both organizations seek to invalidate the justifiación of farmers and emphasize that the World Bank (WB) has shown that levels of smuggling snuff are not related to the level of taxes to snuff.

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• Empresas tabacaleras presionan al Legislativo para echar atrás el impuesto logrado 

As we anticipated in late 2010, the tobacco industry in Mexico, represented mainly by British American Tobacco (BAT) and Phillip Morris, began very early in 2011 to pressure lawmakers to roll back the tax achieved the pack of cigarettes.

The tobacco industry tries to confuse public opinion and lobby congressmen and senators to encourage a change of opinion and position on its support for tax increases on snuff and the snuff serious consequences on health of Mexicans.

Appeared recently made a series of sponsored by BAT in the arguments adduced against the increasing price of a pack of cigarettes. . . .

For his part, Juan Nunez Guadarrama, BREATH coordinator, said "it is important not to lose sight of the press conferences, press releases and deployed by the tobacco industry, objectivity and support on which they base their claims. Be critical and ask about their sources of information, studies and evidence on which to develop support its analysis and projections. "

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• Health care alliance for tobacco dependence treatment launches training in Mexico 

Global Bridges, a healthcare alliance for tobacco dependence treatment based at Mayo Clinic, and its regional partner, the InterAmerican Heart Foundation (IAHF) in Dallas, Texas, announced today the first of a series of training courses for health care providers in Latin America on how to successfully treat tobacco users.

The initial training, developed in collaboration with several regional and global expert groups and scheduled for April 28 as part of the National Congress of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery in Puebla, Mexico, will engage 50 clinicians. Gustavo Zabert, M.D., a pulmonologist, who is the regional director for Global Bridges, developed and will teach the eight-hour course along with international experts in treatment of tobacco dependence Carlos Jiménez Ruiz, M.D., Ph.D., of Spain and Raúl Sansores, M.D., of Mexico.

"Tobacco usage is difficult to measure in Latin America. But rates are at least as high as 42.1 percent for men in Chile, and 32.5 percent for women in Bolivia. By offering this training, we are making a step towards addressing the tobacco epidemic," says Dr. Zabert, who also holds leadership positions in the Latin American Thoracic Society and the Latin American Coalition for Tobacco Dependence Treatment.

Global Bridges -- a collaboration among Mayo Clinic's School for Continuous Professional Development and Nicotine Dependence Center, the American Cancer Society and the University of Arizona -- was established in 2010 as a worldwide, science-based initiative to help health care providers unite to treat tobacco use and dependence while advocating for effective tobacco control policies. During

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