Tobacco.org

• Revealed: £2bn cost to UK from cigarette smuggling  

At the Ukrainian-Polish border town of Przemysl, the seizure of 4,500 cigarettes hardly solicits a reaction. The border guards know the discovery will barely impact on one of Europe's fastest-growing forms of organised crime.

For criminal gangs from the Mafia to the Triads, cigarette smuggling is the new cash cow, and governments, companies and taxpayers are suffering the consequences.

Europe's growing addiction to cigarette smuggling is burning a £7bn hole in the pockets of governments in western Europe through lost tax revenues, and leaving companies including UK-listed British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Tobacco nursing some £600m in lost sales each year.

While the problem starts in many of the former Soviet-bloc countries and other parts of the developing world, the effects are being felt on streets across the UK.

The illegal import of cigarettes that are either produced in counterfeit factories or legally purchased in low tax jurisdictions and smuggled into Britain is growing by the day and tobacco industry insiders question how it will ever be stopped.

Criminal gangs are using increasingly creative means to flood Britain with smuggled packs of Marlboro, Superkings or Lambert & Butler, or eastern European brands such as Classics or Jin Ling.

This month it emerged that children in the north east of England are being recruited to act as mules on smuggling missions. Seduced by the offer of cut-price air tickets and spending money, teenagers are flying to low-duty countries to fill their suitcases with cigarettes, returning to Britain to pass them on to criminal gangs.

Four schoolgirls aged 15 and 16 who live near Durham narrowly avoided jail after being caught smuggling 200,000 cigarettes into Britain. . . .

As the recession rocks the UK, demand for low-cost cigarettes is growing, driven by the dominant view that this is a victimless crime. However, tobacco industry insiders and customs officials suggest it is anything but. . . .

Cigarette companies have received some of the blame, with critics arguing that the "Big 4" – Philip Morris, Japan Tobacco, BAT and Imperial – over-produce in Ukraine, knowing their products will be smuggled elsewhere. Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco agreed in 2004 to pay a combined $1.65bn (£1bn) to the European Union and member states amid allegations they were involved in smuggling. However, recent signs suggest the cigarette manufacturers are now taking a different approach.

Poland's smuggling problem dates back to 2004 when the country joined the EU, since when the government has been raising tobacco duty levels to meet EU targets – twice this year alone.

However, higher duties in Poland have only heightened the disparity with taxes and tobacco sale prices in neighbouring countries such as Ukraine and Russia. . . .

"Once the line opens, the situation will get worse. Then you will see not only cigarettes but counterfeit handbags, medical products and clothing," he warns.

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• Katowice man taking tobacco makers to task  

A Katowice resident has put the tobacco industry on alert with the filing of a lawsuit this month against Philip Morris Polska and Zakłady Przemysłu Tytoniowego in Radom.

Stanisław Lubicz-Sienicki is seeking zł. 10 million ($2.56 million) in damages from tobacco firms for the death of his mother, who died of lung cancer this summer and smoked Popularne and Marlboro brands of cigarettes, according to press reports.

Despite the slew of cases that have beleaguered Philip Morris and other producers in the United States, the lawsuit here caught Polish tobacco producers by surprise. But lawyers and tobacco makers downplayed the impact of the suit and said Lubicz-Sienicki and, perhaps others, face a steep uphill battle here.

"Frankly, we are surprised that there is such a case in Poland because the fact that smoking is damaging is universally known in our country," said Robert Wyszyński, a legal adviser with Phillip Morris Polska. "Despite the fact that it is universally known, Mr. Lubicz filed a claim."

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• Poland to ban indoor smoking  

Poland will ban smoking in indoor public places and in passenger cars if children are in them, Polish Radio said.

Smoking will be illegal in all enclosed public places nationwide, probably by the end of this year, the report said. . . .

Managers of pubs and clubs will be permitted to decide whether to allow smoking in their establishments if they provide separate non-smoking rooms with "doors that close automatically," the Polish Radio said.

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• Polish hostel fire kills 21 homeless and poor  

A fire swept through a shelter for homeless and poor families in northwest Poland yesterday, killing 21 people and forcing parents to toss children from windows into the arms of rescuers below.

A resident of the shelter said the fire that destroyed the two-storey building in the town of Kamien Pomorski might have been caused by someone who fell asleep with a lit cigarette.

"Twenty-one people are dead," said Daniel Kowalinski, a spokesman for firefighters at the scene of the blaze.

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• Smuggling cigarettes in Schengen Poland 

I’m standing on the crooked pavement of the square in front of the tatty Terespol railway station. Belarus is only a few kilometers east from here. Against the gloomy backdrop of the townlet buildings a new, nicely smelling white board stands out, complete with the Polish and European Union flags. Soon I’ll know that it is the only wordly feature of this town which has found itself on the way to economic collapse. The Saturday morning silence is broken only by the whistle of the train leaving for Brest and the barking of a homeless mongrel. What’s it like to live here? I ask myself, going 'downtown'. . . .

''The prices have gone up as the customs officers are more difficult to bribe' - smugglers

'Rubbish!' responds assistant superintendent Cezary Grochowski, the spokesperson for the Municipal Police Department in Biała Podlaska, to the boys’ allegations. 'The policemen and border guards go out of their way to dispose of the smugglers, once and for all.' He does admit, however, that individual cases still crop up, but, in his opinion, the times of smuggling are over. . . .

Lean years on the eastern partition had begun long before Poland became part of the Schengen zone. Since the introduction of the Russian embargo on Polish meat, more and more meat plants have collapsed like a house of cards. Both legal and illegal trade with Belarus had flourished until 21 December 2007, so it was possible to make up for the losses. Today, Terespol citizens are fearful of what the future may bring.

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• Smoking ban support 

Some 65% of the public support a ban on smoking in public places, although only a minority believe it will help reduce the number of smokers, a poll by TNS OBOP has found.

Around 70% want smoking banned from restaurants, pubs and cafes, and 60% from work.

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• Can We Trust National Smoking Prevalence Figures? Discrepancies Between Biochemically Assessed and Self-Reported Smoking Rates in Three Countries  

Results: Self-reported cigarette smoking prevalence using the standard methods underestimated true tobacco smoking prevalence by an estimated 2.8% in England, 0.6% in the United States, and 4.4% in Poland. Cotinine concentrations in those misclassified as nonsmokers were indicative of high levels of smoke intake.

Interpretation: Underestimation of smoking prevalence was minimal in the United States but significant in England and Poland. A review of methodologies for assessing tobacco smoking prevalence worldwide is urgently needed. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(4):820-2)

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• Cheap Cigarette Is King 

For tobacco companies 2006 was mainly a year of fighting for buyers of cheap cigarettes. A total of 11 new brands were launched, and prices on some products were cut in the first half of the year. According to tobacco company Philip Morris, more than 77 billion cigarettes were sold in Poland in 2006, 500 million fewer than a year before. The best sellers were cheap brands, accounting for about 82 percent of the market, and pipe tobacco. A survey by consulting company AC Nielsen showed that Polish smokers buy brands such as L&M (about 13 percent of the market), Red&White, Marlboro, Viceroy and Mocne.

The large market share of cheap cigarettes is the result of the excise tax structure in Poland, which encourages manufacturers to offer poorer-quality cigarettes as well as tobacco for making roll-your-owns.

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• Tobacco firms appeal to 'common sense' ($$) 

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• Social inequalities in male mortality, and in male mortality from smoking: indirect estimation from national death rates in England and Wales, Poland, and North America 

Background

There are substantial social inequalities in adult male mortality in many countries. Smoking is often more prevalent among men of lower social class, education, or income. The contribution of smoking to these social inequalities in mortality remains uncertain.

Methods

The contribution of smoking to adult mortality in a population can be estimated indirectly from disease-specific death rates in that population (using absolute lung cancer rates to indicate proportions due to smoking of mortality from certain other diseases). We applied these methods to 1996 death rates at ages 35–69 years in men in three different social strata in four countries, based on a total of 0·6 million deaths. The highest and lowest social strata were based on social class (professional vs unskilled manual) in England and Wales, neighbourhood income (top vs bottom quintile) in urban Canada, and completed years of education (more than vs less than 12 years) in the USA and Poland. . . .

Conclusion

In these populations, most, but not all, of the substantial social inequalities in adult male mortality during the 1990s were due to the effects of smoking. Widespread cessation of smoking could eventually halve the absolute differences between these social strata in the risk of premature death. Back to top

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• Baltic gangs ‘smuggling cigarettes into Ireland’ 

CRIMINAL gangs from the Baltic states are operating a highly organised cigarette smuggling operation into Ireland, according to the Revenue Commissioners.

The emergence of the trafficking route is directly responsible for a massive jump in the number of cigarette seizures last year. . . .

He said most of the smuggling is done in suitcases, and an unknown amount of consignments were getting through. Customs believe the cigarettes are being sold to people from the Baltic states, through their own shops.

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• Poles would support smoking ban 

As the ban on smoking in public places slowly spreads throughout Europe, a survey suggests that Poles are fed up with inhaling second hand smoke and would support restrictions.

A just released survey suggests that a large majority of Poles want to see a complete ban on smoking in public places. Eleven years ago Poland banned smoking in hospitals, schools, financial institutions , railway stations and airports. The non-smoking law permits smoking in designated areas in public institutions. bz has more

Institutions like Polish Radio have designated smoking area for those who can’t kick the habit ten years ago. At times the second-hand smoke that engulfs the room is so thick you can cut it with a knife. . . .

Professor Witold Zatonski from the Institute of Oncology believes that lawmakers should make amendments to the law, banning smoking in public places altogether. “In Polish bars or discos there are many Polish young people working everyday and they are involuntarily forced to inhale secondhand smoke,” he said.

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• Stubbing out Communist habits 

It is possible, though he would deny it, to view Witold Zatonski, a 61-year-old Warsaw professor of oncology, and Poland's most celebrated antitobacco campaigner, as a Polish hero in the romantic tradition. Except his arena is not politics, but public health. . . .

Above all, there has been a reduction, against all predictions, of the number of smokers. In the case of men, an astonishing fall from about 70% of the population to about 38%, roughly the same rate as France. Among women it has gone down from 30% to 26%.

Zatonski was arguably a central figure in this. True, he has heavily promoted the importance of a good diet, but smoking has been his main enemy. By the 1990s he was director of Poland's health promotion foundation, and determined to take on both big tobacco and Poland's accumulated bad habits.

Since Poland lacked a tradition of lawsuits that has often been the instrument of campaigners in the USA, he chose the legislative route. He lobbied heavily for Poland's first antitobacco bill in 1995 . . .

However, he places the credit for these changes firmly on Poland's new political system. Several of Poland's neighbours that are now in the EU have had similar good public-health improvements, although not as impressive on the particular issue of tobacco control as Poland: female smoking in those countries is growing, whereas in Poland it is level. The bigger contrast with Russia's well-known public-health catastrophe-- lifespans for men down to 50 years--has given Zatonski himself the theory that it is less the efforts of one individual than the institution of democracy that has improved Poland's public health

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• Cigarette smugglers to target enlarged EU 

Germany is bracing for an flood of smuggled cigarettes when its neighbour Poland enters the European Union and border customs controls disappear on May 1.

The threat of tobacco may seem minor compared with dire warnings of arms, nuclear material and human trafficking, but the price differentials spell vast profits for organised crime and huge losses for existing EU members.

The federal customs crime agency reckons Germany loses about one billion euros (670 million pounds) in lost tobacco tax per year because of this trade and believes that could rise to 1.5 billion euros after Europe's expansion. . . .

When Germany's border searches end, they believe the illegal trade from Poland will increase rapidly.

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• Poland marks new frontier for illegal cigarette trade 

"That's the first time they've caught me this month and I've been through the border five times," he says with a shrug.

It is the cost of doing business along Poland's 200km northern border with the Russian outpost of Kaliningrad.

With Poland entering the European Union in May, cigarette smuggling is more than a Polish problem. The EU's border will become Poland's northern and eastern border. Once someone or something is smuggled into Poland, there will be little to stop them getting all the way to Spain.

And, despite EU money to improve border controls, the trade is unlikely to abate with unemployment rampant on both sides of the frontier.

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