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The Guardia Civil in Tenerife have arrested 12 men who formed an organized gang who smuggled fake cigarettes into the Canary Islands. The cigarettes, made in China, were found to contain a high proportion of rabbit excrement which padded out the tobacco. The cigarettes were sold in bars and shops mainly in the south of the island.
Operaci�n Chester is the largest counterfeit tobacco operation this year in Spain. One and a half million packets of false cigarettes with a street value of almost five million euros were seized. It is not known how many false packets have been sold but the value is expected to be millions of euros.
The operation started after the Guardia Civil started to receive a series of complaints from smokers about "terrible" cigarettes. . . .
The false cigarettes were made in China before being shipped to Spain via the UAE. Apart from the rabbit excrement, they also contained dangerously high levels of nicotine, CO2 and heavy metals.
Amongst the arrested was a corrupt customs officer who allowed the shipments into the Canary Islands.
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More than £1 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes filled with rabbit droppings instead of tobacco have been confiscated by customs officials in Spain.
The fake cigarettes - due to be sold on the black market as famous brands - were discovered after British holidaymakers in the Canary Islands smelled a rat whenever they lit up. . . .
"They not only smell bad but the toxic chemicals they give off are pure poison," explained a customs official.
There are many wonderful things about Spain, but smoking is not one of them. It would seem that just about every Spaniard smokes, either on a regular basis or socially, and it is not possible to go out at night without coming home reeking of cigarettes, so much so it often takes two showers to get the stench out of your hair. It's fine if you, too, are a smoker, but what if you value the quality of the air that you let into your lungs? . . .
Spain has significantly improved their smoking habits since the passing of a law on January 1, 2006 . . .
But all this is about to change. On January 1, 2010, Spain will finally join its fellow tobacco-loving neighbors, France and Italy, in a ban on smoking in all public buildings. While it has already been forbidden to smoke in airports, hospitals, schools, and public transportation for some time now, come New Years Day, it will also no longer be legal to hold a caña (mini beer) in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Well, at least not indoors...
This may not seem like such a momentous event to an American, as many states in the U.S. have been smoke free for more than a decade, but this new law is about to revolutionize Spanish culture. . . .
What is certain, though, is that the air will be safer for everyone, especially for all non-smokers who have been forced to inhale so much second hand smoke just to hang out with their friends!
The TBF (Technology-based Firm) Almeria Albaida Recursos Naturales y Medioambiente, S.A. (Spain), and the Cajamar Foundation participate in the national project for Research and Development of Ethanol for Automotive Applications (I+DEA). The purpose of this team of experts relies in the study and testing of the feasibility of two crops adapted to extreme environmental conditions - prickly-pears and tobacco tree - for the production of bio‑ethanol in semiarid areas where there is no competition for the use of raw materials for food purposes or for farmland.
In particular, the tasks of the Almeria scientists are embodied in the sub-project of Energy crops for use in current technologies for bio-ethanol production, focusing on research of bio-ethanol production alternatives in semiarid areas. There, the experts are involved in the research and testing of the feasibility of the prickly-pear (Opuntia ficus indica) and the tobacco tree (Nicotiana glauca). These two species are perfectly adapted to conditions of extreme water shortage and at the same time these plants have high energy biomass due to the fermentation process of their organic matter.
We showed that alveolar macrophages clear NTHI infections by adhesion, phagocytosis, and phagolysosomal processing of the pathogen. Bacterial uptake requires host actin polymerization, the integrity of plasma membrane lipid rafts, and activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling cascade. Parallel to bacterial clearance, macrophages secrete tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) upon NTHI infection. In contrast, exposure to cigarette smoke extract (CSE) impaired alveolar macrophage phagocytosis, although NTHI-induced TNF- secretion was not abrogated. Mechanistically, our data showed that CSE reduced PI3K signaling activation triggered by NTHI. Treatment of CSE-exposed cells with the glucocorticoid dexamethasone reduced the amount of TNF- secreted upon NTHI infection but did not compensate for CSE-dependent phagocytic impairment. The deleterious effect of cigarette smoke was observed in macrophage cell lines and in human alveolar macrophages obtained from smokers and from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Exposure to cigarette smoke might weaken immune cells' ability to remove bacterial infections from the lungs, specifically nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI), a pathogen often associated with respiratory infections and the progression of respiratory disease, says a new study.
NTHI has been found to cause invasive diseases such as meningitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, and bronchitis.
It is also the pathogen most frequently isolated in the respiratory tract of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic bronchitis.
Alveolar macrophages are part of the lungs'' innate defense system and they play an essential role in the clearance of bacterial infections.
The research team has found that cigarette smoke may disrupt the capability of alveolar macrophages to clear NTHI from the lungs. . . .
The study appears in journal Infection and Immunity.
Exposure to radon gas in homes is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking, according to a study carried out by researchers from the University of Cantabria and the Babes-Bolyai University in Romania. The team has studied data on exposure to this element in a uranium mining area in Transylvania and in an area of granite in Torrelodones, Madrid.
Numerous studies worldwide have shown that radon, a natural radioactive gas that seeps into homes in some regions, is the second leading factor (after smoking) in causing people to develop lung cancer. This has now also been confirmed by a study carried out in Torrelodones, Madrid, and Stei, in Romania, by researchers from the University of Cantabria and the Romanian Babes-Bolyai University, and which has been published recently in the journal Science of the Total Environment.
Spending half a year in Europe has been a patchwork quilt of unfamiliar obstacles that I have had to bravely overcome. For instance, I have learned to successfully navigate public transportation, converse in various tongues and adapt to diverse eating practices (dinner at 10 anyone?), to name the most obvious examples. The only cultural nuance to which I find it impossible to adapt is the miasma of second-hand smoke that seems to haunt me wherever I go.
Ah, Spain, land of plenty. Plenty of food, fun, culture and, unfortunately, cigarettes. Not to pick on the place - after all, I am more than fond of the country - but Spaniards have a real smoking problem. And despite the more-than-eye-catching warnings printed on all cigarette cartons sold, many Spaniards, like Americans, prefer to overlook the anti-tobacco propaganda and search for a lighter instead.
My trouble with smoking in Spain began this summer in Barcelona . . .
As an observer in a foreign land, I am the ultimate pushover. Trying to absorb as much culture as possible, it is difficult, if not imprudent for me to impose my own staunch anti-tobacco values on those who offer me hospitality. But at what point am I sacrificing my own health and security for the sake of a new experience?
Which brings me back to Dallas, where I have often heard complaints from students who feel suffocated by smokers taking a break outside Fondren or Hyer between classes. Do we have a right to demand healthier breathing? Then again, don't smokers have a right to relax in the same places as everyone else?
For better or for worse, I have never observed anyone brave enough to ask a friend or even a stranger to stop smoking. Is it for fear of bringing offense, or am I the only one holding my breath when I pass a smoldering cigarette? While I'm not sure that I will build up the courage to ask my señora to put out her Virginia Slims anytime soon, I hope that at least back home someone will.
Tobacco in Spain to 2013
This databook provides key data and information on the tobacco market in Spain. This report is a comprehensive resource for market, category and segment level data including value, volume, distribution share and company & brand share. This report also provides expenditure and consumption data for the historic and forecast periods.
Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology have studied the impact of the law banning smoking in public places such as bars and restaurants on those working in these places. The results are positive - 5% of waiters have stopped smoking, and the number of cigarettes smoked by those who still smoke has fallen by almost 9%.
On 1 January 2006, a smoking ban came into force in public places in Spain. More than three years later, these health measures against tobacco smoking have borne fruit. A new study led by researchers from the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) has shown that the proportion of smokers strongly addicted to nicotine has halved as a result of the law.
All the effects observed during this research study, which is published this month in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, have been "significantly reduced" among waiters in bars where smoking has been completely banned than among those who work in places with smoking areas, or where there are no restrictions in place. "Changing the partial ban on tobacco consumption in bars and restaurants for a total ban would have beneficial effects on the health of all the workers in this sector", Esteve Fern�ndez, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the ICO, tells SINC.
Introduction: A smoke-free law went into effect in Spain on 1 January 2006, affecting all enclosed workplaces except hospitality venues, where only partial bans were implemented. The objective was to evaluate the impact of the law among hospitality workers who smoke. . . .
Results: Among 118 smokers, six (5.1%) quit smoking. Among the 112 remaining smokers, the mean number of cigarettes smoked decreased by 8.9% after the ban (from 17.9 to 16.3 cigarettes/day, p < .01). The proportion of workers with a high nicotine dependence (FTND score >6) was reduced by half after the ban (19.5% vs. 9.7%, p = .03). Salivary cotinine decreased by 4.4% after the ban (geometric mean 104.3 vs. 99.7 ng/ml, p = .02). No meaningful differences were found in quit rates and the FTND scores according to type of regulation.
Discussion: The Spanish smoking law has had beneficial effects (reduction in number of cigarettes smoked, cotinine levels, and FTND score) among hospitality workers who smoke.
All the effects observed during this research study, which is published this month in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, have been "significantly reduced" among waiters in bars where smoking has been completely banned than among those who work in places with smoking areas, or where there are no restrictions in place. "Changing the partial ban on tobacco consumption in bars and restaurants for a total ban would have beneficial effects on the health of all the workers in this sector", Esteve Fernández, one of the authors of the study and a researcher at the ICO, tells SINC.
The challenge resonates the theme of this year's congress: prevention. In an opening session, ESC president Roberto Ferrari, MD, of the University of Ferrara in Italy, said that preventing heart disease is essential because it has become a costly, long-term disease. . . .
Sir Richard Peto, an epidemiologist at Oxford University in England and a participant in the press conference, addressed the issue of smoking. He said smoking should not be overshadowed by other risk factors for heart disease.
"If you want to kill yourself with smoking you must start early and you must continue," Peto said. If patients do both, they "have a 50% chance of success."
He cited data from the U.K.'s Million Women Study that showed the risk of vascular and all-cause mortality both decrease if a patient stops smoking, and that it continues to decrease the longer the patient stays away from cigarettes.
"Stopping smoking works," Peto said.
Cannon agreed that "for smokers, [quitting] is the single best thing you can do for your health." He pointed to recent data on smoking bans that have shown a 40% reduction in heart attack in the years following the ban.
SALES of roll-your-own tobacco have rocketed so far this year, with an increase of around 60 per cent seen across Spain.
This is partly thought to be due to people's perception that loose tobacco is less harmful than cigarettes, but mainly because it is cheaper.
Others say roll-your-own cigarettes are less habit-forming, since people are less likely to smoke them if they have to spend time making them up rather than simply reaching automatically for a cigarette from a packet.
Although a pouch of tobacco, together with the rolling papers and filters required, can cost 4.50 euros, it contains enough to make 60 cigarettes, compared to a packet of 20 ready-made cigarettes at an average of three euros. . . .
Roll-your-own tobacco now represents 15 per cent of all sales, with the rest being cigarettes in packets.
This trend is more popular amongst the young, and mainly men, although a significant number of female smokers have now switched to tobacco and rolling papers.
When Spain toughened anti-smoking legislation in 2006, the measure was hailed as an important step forward in the battle against addiction in the country formerly known as a "smokers' paradise."Three and half years later, however, smoke is again floating in bars, restaurants, and even some places of work, prompting the government to consider stricter legislation.
The current law bans smoking at work and in public places such as hospitals, schools or shopping centres.
Owners of bars or restaurants measuring less than 100 square metres, however, may allow smoking. . . .
The anti-smoking law is not applied fully in some regions. Those do not carry out inspections, do not apply sanctions, or have watered the law down with their own decrees, according to press reports.
The 2006 law has been "beneficial," but it has "gaps" and is not clear enough, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said.
The positive effects of the law could be observed in 2006, when the number of heart attacks went down by about 10 per cent.
One million Spaniards are estimated to have stopped smoking since the law entered into force.