Tobacco.org

• Anti-Smoking Lawsuit Takes New Turn 

After a 2007 landmark court decision that recognized the cause-and-effect relationship between smoking and cancer, anti-smoking crusaders have been rearranging their focus to address the additives contained in cigarettes. This time, a court is showing renewed interest in the issue amid a growing public awareness over the harmful effects of smoking.

The legal battle dates back to 1999 when a group of lung cancer patients and distraught families filed a damages suit against KT&G, Korea's largest tobacco company by sales volume.

It took the court eight years to reach the conclusion that smoking can cause lung cancer but denied a request for compensation, stating that it couldn't be ruled out that other factors besides smoking had caused their affliction.

Now, the families and victims, supported by a group of lawyers, are changing their tack, claiming that KT&G uses additives to make cigarettes more addictive, and therefore more difficult quit.

For the first time, the presiding judge in the appeal case visited the KT&G factory to conduct an on-site inspection.

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DROLET: Smoking danger revolves around us  

I have recently begun to worry about the state of education in our society. I fear that people are unable or unwilling to learn from what they read or study. Students and adults alike simply read and memorize but do not adjust their behavior or lifestyle according to the new information they are encountering.

People should discard old destructive habits and adjust their behavior given the new information that science has given us. . . .

Now that we know this, my mother has stopped smoking and my father only smokes in places where he can avoid bothering other people.

And that is the beauty of modern society: We know that people get hooked on smoking, and we let them have that choice.

We know that secondhand smoke is dangerous, so to facilitate that problem, society has designated a number of areas for people to smoke.

The idea is that if you don’t want to smoke or breathe secondhand smoke, you simply have to avoid those smoking areas.

The problem is those people who decide that they can smoke anywhere they please. For some reason they feel it is their right to pollute and endanger other people. . . .

They smoke in bathrooms or hallways, taking away non-smokers right to breathe clean air.

We have the information: Smoking and secondhand smoke is very dangerous.

Now all we have to do is get people to learn from this and change the way they behave. That is what intelligent humans do.

Many animals don’t learn; they simply act on impulse, fulfilling their instinctive wants, unaware of the impact of their behavior.

But humans learn, change and evolve.

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Cigarette maker aims high  

Stepping inside the KT&G tobacco manufacturing plant in Yeongju, which is two hours away from Seoul, a countless number of cigarettes is being quickly filtered, sorted and packed by a group of automated state-of-the-art machines, leaving the smell of freshly packed cigarettes hanging in the air.

Although the recent economic downturn and increased awareness of the dangers of smoking have decreased the number of smokers here - from 67.6 percent of the male population in 2000 to 40.4 percent last year - the local tobacco industry is more competitive with foreign cigarette makers than ever.

The Korean government only began allowing imported cigarettes to be sold here in 1988. But support for local brands remained strong even after the import ban was lifted, and it was difficult for foreign tobacco manufacturers including Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco to penetrate the market.

However, times have changed. Although the Korean tobacco market is not seen by foreign firms as fully open in terms of regulations, consumers are more open to purchasing foreign products, allowing foreign companies a bigger market share.

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Plan aims to cut smoking rate 10% 

As part of a tobacco free initiative agreed last week by countries in the Western Pacific region, the Korean government has set a target of reducing the nation's smoking rate by 10 percent over the coming five years, health officials said yesterday. The World Health Organization has helped its member states fighting against the smoking issue by offering five-year plans since 1990. The pact signed last Wednesday is the latest, updated version of a package of six policies to reduce the demand for and consumption of tobacco products.

The package includes: monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; protect people from tobacco smoke; offer help to quit tobacco use; warn about the dangers of tobacco; enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and raise taxes on tobacco.

Under the Regional Action Plan enforced from next year through 2014, the nation's current tobacco use among adults and youths is expected to be reduced by 10 percent from the most recent baseline. More than 60 percent of taxes will be imposed on tobacco, as well.

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Plan aims to cut smoking rate 10% 

As part of an anti-tobacco initiative agreed to last week by countries in the Western Pacific region, the Korean government has set a target of reducing the nation's smoking rate by 10 percent over the coming five years. Tobacco products will see steep tax increases - up to 60 percent - as this has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to combat smoking.

The World Health Organization has helped member states fighting against the smoking issue by suggesting five-year plans.

The pact signed last Wednesday contains the updated version of a 2008 package of policies to reduce the demand for and consumption of tobacco products.

The package includes: monitor tobacco use and prevention policies; protect people from tobacco smoke; offer help to quit smoking; warn about the dangers of tobacco; enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and raise taxes on tobacco.

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• Stricter Regulation on Cigarettes Sought 

The tobacco business is likely to face stricter regulations in the near future ― regulated in terms of "public health" and banned from using words like "mild" or "light" on cigarette packs.

According to local media, Rep. Jeon Hae-sook of the main opposition Democratic Party is scheduled to propose a revision bill to the National Health Promotion Act.

It focuses on scrapping the Tobacco Business Act, which currently regulates the tobacco business.

The revision is aimed at putting it under the full control of the National Health Promotion Act.

"Globally, the concern over people's health is growing. The Tobacco Business Act is against the global trend, in that the tobacco business should be controlled in terms of people's health instead of promoting it as a business to collect taxes," the lawmaker said.

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SUNG-SOO: [Viewpoint] Legal clarity lost in the smoke  

In Korea, the court ruled in 2007 that cigarettes were faulty products, and that even if cigarettes contain nicotine, which might be addictive, the addictiveness is not so great that it makes quitting with one’s free will impossible. The court decided that the correlation between smoking and lung cancer was not enough to confirm an independent causal relationship between the two.

The astronomical compensation in the U.S. case can largely be credited to the unique judicial system and culture of the United States.

Unlike Korea, courts in the United States award punitive damages, which punish the wrongdoers by ordering them to provide compensation in excess of the actual damage.

In calculating punitive damages in these cases, the court takes into account not only the damage caused to the plaintiff but also the potential risk that all smokers may develop cancer and the health hazards to non-smokers.

Therefore, it is possible that this method of calculation goes against the principle of fair compensation for damages and the constitutionally defined ban on excessive punishment.

However, we should not overlook the fact that there had been considerable friction between regional courts and the Supreme Court of the United States until the Oregon State Supreme Court decided to award compensation for punitive damages. . . .

In contrast, in Korea, Germany, France and Japan trials are decided by professional judges, and an evidence-based approach is valued above all.

It would be difficult for countries with this kind of “continental” legal system to embrace punitive damages, born in the unique social and cultural climate of the United States.

More fundamentally, we do not have a national consensus to introduce the concept of punitive damages.

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Tobacco Imports Surge 396-Fold Over 10 Years 

South Korea's cigarette imports surged over the past 10 years amid steady demand for foreign brand products, the Korea Customs Service said Tuesday.

South Korea imported 11,478 tons of tobacco products last year, compared with 29 tons in 1998. This marked a 396-fold gain over the past decade.

Tobacco imports were worth $77.5 million, compared with $220,000 a decade ago.

Cigarette imports have been growing fast since 2000 on increasing demand for foreign brands. South Korea brought in a total of 1,410 tons of foreign tobacco products in 2002 and it surged to 6,857 tons the following year. . . .

By country, cigarettes produced in the Philippines amounted to 4,448 tons, making up 77.6 percent of the total import during the first half of this year. Malaysia ranked second with an 8.1 percent share, followed by France and Japan with 6.7 percent and 6.6 percent, respectively.

Most of them carry brands of high-profile multinational tobacco companies based in the United States and Europe.

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Smoking rate increases among men 

A government survey yesterday showed the smoking rate for male adults has begun to rise in recent months.

According to the survey released by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, the male smoking rate was 41.4 percent during the six months of the year, up 0.7 percent from the same period last year.

The number of smokers had been falling since 2005 when the government signed the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and started to launch non-smoking campaigns.

After toughened measures were taken on smoking, the adult smoking rate steadily decreased from 57.8 percent in 2004 to 52.3 percent in 2005, 44.1 percent in 2006 and 42 percent in 2007. But the figure hovered above the 40 percent range recently and started to increase from the second half of last year.

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Male Smoking Rate Edges Upward 

The male smoking rate edged up in the first half of the year despite the government’s policies to regulate smoking.

According to a survey by the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, the male smoking rate rose to 41.1 percent from 40.9 percent six months ago.

``Increased stress due to the economic slump is partially attributable for the rise in the male smoking rate. But a lack of effectiveness of polices for non-smoking seems to be the main reason,’’ a ministry official said.

The female smoking rate fell to 3.6 percent from the 4.1 percent recorded in the second half of last year. The overall rate including men and women fell to 22.1 percent from 22.3 percent. The survey was conducted on 3,000 adult male and females in June.

The most frequent reason given for smoking was ``habit,'' given by 59 percent of respondents, followed by ``stress,'' with 33 percent.

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• Philip Morris Korea Stretches Out Helping Hands to the Needy 

This is the first of a four-part series highlighting corporate social responsibility activities of Korea's big four tobacco makers. _ ED.

In the aftermath of the currency crisis in 1998, the Korean Council of Food Support (KCFS) was formed to provide impoverished people with surplus food and groceries.

It took little time for the KCFS to realize that it needed refrigerator trucks to collect and distribute surplus food but the not-for-profit private entity struggled to secure the expensive items.

The KCFS knocked on the doors of many homegrown companies to no avail. The help finally came from an unexpected outfit _ foreign tobacco producer Philip Morris, famous for its flagship product Marlboro.

``Back then, no firms were ready to donate the expensive freezer trucks because the economic slump was so severe, with the sole exception of Philip Morris Korea,'' KCFS Secretary General Lee Yun-hyeong said. . . .

Indeed, such a mantra was shown in April when the company had a press conference to mark its 20th anniversary in Korea.

``Philip Morris Korea supports comprehensive and strict regulation of tobacco. Given the hazardous nature of smoking, it supports the government's strong enforcement of regulation in all steps from production, taxation, to marketing, sales and consumption,'' it said in a press release at the time.

Philip Morris Korea also uses a much bigger warning on smoking than required when it promotes its products in journals.

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• 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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• PHOTOS: Anti-smoking body painting 

A performer poses during a photo call for a body painting event, which is part of a government-sponsored anti-smoking campaign, in Seoul June 14, 2009.

A performer breaks off cigarettes as he poses for photographs during a photo call for a body painting event, part of a government-sponsored anti-smoking campaign in Seoul, June 14, 2009.

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Neonatal Hair Nicotine Levels and Fetal Exposure to Paternal Smoking at Home  

The authors investigated fetal exposure to paternal smoking at home during pregnancy. Korean families were included as trios of fathers, mothers, and neonates identified in 2005-2007. Sixty-three trios were finally enrolled in this study after exclusion of those in which the mother was a smoker or was regularly exposed to ETS at places other than the home. Nicotine and cotinine concentrations in hair were measured by using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to determine long-term exposure to ETS. The difference between neonatal nicotine concentrations in the smoker and nonsmoker groups was not statistically significant. However, in the indoor-smoker group, neonatal nicotine concentrations were significantly higher than in the outdoor and nonsmoker groups (P < 0.05). Furthermore, neonatal nicotine concentrations in the outdoor-smoker group were not different from those in the nonsmoker group. These findings indicate that paternal smoking inside the home leads to significant fetal and maternal exposure to ETS and may subsequently affect fetal health. Conversely, findings show that paternal smoking outside the home prevents the mother and her fetus from being exposed to ETS.

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• Cigarettes Replace Incense for Roh 

At memorial services, people sometimes offer up items which the deceased liked, or wanted to have, during their life. In the late former President Roh Moo-hyun's case, it was a cigarette.

Some mourners gingerly lit up a cigarette and offered it to the late President at memorial altars in his hometown in southeastern Bongha Village and other locations across the nation.

Their offerings of lit cigarettes instead of laying flowers or burning incense were prompted by the news that Roh asked for a smoke from a security guard before killing himself. . . . Mourners are apparently feeling sorry for him because he couldn't smoke at the last moment of his life.

Roh used to be a heavy smoker, going through more than two packs of cigarettes a day. He quit smoking in October 2001, but about a year later, began to smoke again as his approval rate for the presidential candidacy was only around 10 percent.

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