Tobacco.org

Cigarette smuggling from Africa rising 

Geneva customs officials are finding more and more smugglers bringing cigarettes from Africa.

Geneva regional customs director Jerome Coquoz said yesterday a number of passengers from Senegal have been found carrying between 100 and 300 cartons of cigarettes in luggage.

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Swiss see hike in Africa tobacco smuggling  

Swizerland has seen a large-scale hike in cigarette-smuggling from Africa where prices are 10 times cheaper, a senior customs official said Wednesday.

A number of passengers arriving from Senegal have been found to be carrying 100 to 300 cartons of cigarettes in their luggage, Geneva regional customs director Jerome Coquoz told reporters.

"A carton is sold in Senegal for the equivalent of 7.5 Swiss francs (6.2 euros or 8.1 dollars) while it is worth 76 Swiss francs in Switzerland," he said.

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VIDEO: E-cigarettes—quitter's best friend or new health hazard? 

Electronic cigarettes can't legally be marketed as a tool to quit smoking--and no studies have been conducted to prove their effectiveness against nicotine addiction--but that's why 95% of e-cigarette users smoke them. The ones sold in Switzerland are nicotine-free, so what do they contain? ABE, the Consumer Show clears the air:

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Smoking, Not HIV, Causes Higher Lung Cancer Risk In People With HIV  

Results from a recent Swiss study indicate that the higher risk of developing lung cancer in people with HIV compared to the general population arises from heavy smoking, not HIV infection.

Based on the results, the study authors recommended implementing strategies to reduce smoking, and therefore lung cancer risk, in HIV-positive adults.

The study authors also speculated that links between lung cancer and HIV or immune deficiency in previous studies were caused by overrepresentation of people with advanced HIV infections in lung cancer studies or accidental inclusion of cancers known to be caused by infectious diseases, such as Kaposi’s sarcoma of the lung.

According to the study authors, previous research has shown that people with HIV are at about a two- to seven-fold increased risk for lung cancer compared to people without HIV (see related AIDS Beacon news). However, scientists are uncertain whether this higher risk arises from HIV or from lifestyle factors, such as a greater rate of smoking in people with HIV.

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Lung cancer in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study: role of smoking, immunodeficiency and pulmonary infection 

conclusion: Lung cancer in the SHCS does not seem to be clearly associated with immunodeficiency or AIDS-related pulmonary disease, but seems to be attributable to heavy smoking.

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• HIV & AIDS Information :: Smoking, not immunodeficiency or lung disease, increases lung cancer risk for patients with HIV 

Cigarette smoking is the single most important risk factor for lung cancer in patients with HIV, Swiss investigators report in the online edition of the British Journal of Cancer.

Smoking was associated with a 14-fold increase in the risk of the malignancy. Unlike some other studies, the Swiss found no evidence that either a low CD4 cell count or a history of AIDS-defining lung disease were associated with lung cancer.

The study also showed the benefits of stopping smoking. The risk of lung cancer was significantly lower for former smokers compared to current smokers.

“Focusing on ways to help to quit smoking would be effective in reducing lung cancer,” comment the investigators.

Lung cancer is one of the more common non-AIDS-defining cancers seen in patients with HIV. This could be because a large proportion of HIV-positive patients are smokers and studies have shown a consistent relationship between smoking and lung cancer risk for HIV-positive individuals.

However, some research has found a relationship between the malignancy and immune deficiency. In addition, other studies have shown that patients with a history of AIDS-defining pulmonary disease are also at greater risk of lung cancer. Importantly, the associations identified in these studies remained significant after controlling for smoking status.

Given this confusion, investigators from the Swiss HIV Cohort designed a case-controlled study to better identify the factors associated with an increased risk of lung cancer in their patients.

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Woman dies in Geneva hospital fire 

A woman who suffered severe burns in a fire at Geneva University Hospital on Monday night has died in hospital. . . .

Investigators now believe the fire may have been caused by a cigarette, which was found by the woman's bed.

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• Tobacco workers top Swiss wage poll  

The average Swiss earned a gross monthly wage of 5,979 francs (4,982 euros, $6,490) last year, official figures published on Monday showed.

Senior employees in the tobacco industry were among the most handsomely paid, earning an average 46,315 francs a month, according to the Federal Statistical Office.

Next up were pharmaceutical executives

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Swiss Tobacco Packaging Printer relies on H.C. Moog Innovation 

As part of the global Amcor Group, with headquarters in Australia, Amcor Tobacco Packaging, Switzerland has made the decision to invest in a 1-TBR-compact press made by the company H.C. Moog, which will be operational in their Innovation Centre in Rickenbach from the end of 2011. Amcor decided to purchase the new machine as it allows them to offer their customers the option to produce mock-ups and do short runs with excellent print quality, in a cost effective way.

Some time ago Amcor started thinking about purchasing this machine, which optimizes costs and delivers an impressive gravure quality: since late autumn 2010 the H.C. Moog technology centre in Miehlen, Germany has had a 1-TBR-compact operating to allow Amcor to test the technology. In particular, Amcor has used it to produce mock-ups and prototypes for their clients in the tobacco industry, allowing their customers to test ideas and approve new designs faster and with more accuracy.

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• Cigarette warnings pack less of a punch 

Photos of cancerous lungs and other nasty results of smoking are not as good a deterrent as they used to be.

That is according to a study carried out by the Federal Office of Public Health.

A cohort of 10,000 smokers between the ages of 14 and 65 were questioned.

It turns out only 26 percent of them said they ever paid attention to these warnings, over 10 percent less than five years ago.

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Nazi-looted painting found in Swiss museum 

A painting looted from a Berlin Jewish family by Nazis has been found by US authorities at the Kunsthaus museum in Zurich, museum officials said Tuesday.

Confirming a report by local media, the museum said that the painting was an 1887 portrait called Madame La Suire by Swiss painter Albert von Keller, who was popular in Berlin and Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century.

The painting was acquired by the Sommerguths, a rich Jewish couple from Berlin who had a substantial collection of 106 paintings, including Renaissance masterpieces as well as works by Camille Pissaro.

But after the Nazis came to power in Germany, they were forced to give up the collection, which was sold during an auction in 1939.

Alfred Sommerguth, who acquired his fortune as co-director of the German tobacco manufacturer Loeser & Wolff, managed to flee to Cuba in 1941 at the age of 82, before reaching New York where he died a destitute in 1950.

His wife Gertrude died four years later.

The painting was found by chance, during an exhibition on von Keller organised by the Zurich museum.

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• Tobacco ruling has a financial side 

Basic compulsory insurance, which currently does not reimburse any anti-tobacco medication, will have to pay up. The health office made its decision on August 9. Criteria have yet to be fixed.

“This ruling is historical because it gives prevention the right place,” Jean-Charles Rielle, a doctor at the Information Centre for Tobacco Addiction Prevention in Geneva (CIPRET), told public radio on August 9.

Rielle, also a parliamentarian, welcomed the “financial boost” for smokers who want to give up.

On August 4 the Federal Court underlined that alcohol and heroin addiction could be considered an illness and that “under certain conditions” so could dependence on nicotine. In this case, insurance companies would have to reimburse medicines to treat smoking addiction.

The court partially agreed with drug maker Pfizer which wanted its Champix (or Chantrix) medication included in the list of medicines reimbursed by basic insurance. . . .

“A smoker is addicted to tobacco which makes him lose his free will and can considerably shorten his life,” he said. In addition, there is “the real problem of passive tobacco addiction”.

Economic side

The health office must now decide when smoking addiction can be considered an illness through the treatment needed. Then it must pronounce on the second fundamental factor: the economic side of the treatment.

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Exposure to tobacco smoke before and after a partial smoking ban in prison: indoors air quality measures  

Although exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) is reportedly high in prison, few studies have measured this in the prison environment, and none have done so in Europe. We measured two indicators of SHS exposure (particulate matter PM10 and nicotine) in fixed locations before (2009) and after (2010) introduction of a partial smoking ban in a Swiss prison. . . .

Conclusions

The partial smoking ban was followed by a decrease in nicotine concentrations in ambient air. These improvements can be attributed to the introduction of the smoking ban since no other policy change occurred during this period. Although this shows that concentrations of SHS decreased significantly, protection was still incomplete and further action is necessary to improve indoor air quality.

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• La Philip Morris contra Uruguay. [Philip Morris against Uruguay.] 

Geneva. Switzerland.

Waves produces the complaint of Philip Morris International against Uruguay for the anti-snuff. Bernard Borel, Member of the Canton of Vaud, presented on Tuesday March 15 legislative initiative. It proposes to amend the bilateral Swiss-Uruguay excluding snuff protection of investments. Bernard Borel, 58, is a renowned pediatrician, head of department of a hospital in the Canton of Vaud. He has taken several mandates for the World Health Organization in Vietnam, China, Malawi and Egypt, among others. Strait connoisseur of Latin America, a continent he visits regularly, since 2003 the cantonal parliament representing a coalition of progressive parties. Interview.

Question: What is the focus of its legislative proposal?

Bernard Borel: This consists of inviting the Federal Assembly (national legislature) to amend the bilateral agreements to protect investments, excluding the same products that threaten the health of the population. This change could be made to the request of one of the signatories. Insisting that the first amendment should be implemented in the bilateral Swiss-Uruguay. . . .

BB: I look at the situation from another angle, a much more global world would say. Far from being limited to a simple trade dispute, the confrontation between Philip Morris and Uruguay already has a significant international impact that gives me strength to move forward in what I feel righteous.

The last conference of the signatories to the Framework Convention of Snuff Control (FCTC) of WHO, in November last year, issued a final statement can be considered as active support to the South American country to the MNC. And there representing 170 participating countries. On the other hand, as deputy and citizen, I note that the Supreme Court of Uruguay ratified the validity of the anti-snuff the Government of that country. I can not be oblivious to what Uruguayans themselves and the international community say about this unfair lawsuit by a big transnational against a small country of barely 3 million and half people. + (PE)

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Villiger Courts Cigar Snobs From Switzerland to Gain Approval From Smokers  

Heinrich Villiger, chairman of Villiger Soehne AG, talks with Bloomberg's Jennifer Freedman about the cigar maker's biggest markets in Europe and the outlook for new rules on advertising and packaging. (Source: Bloomberg)

Joseph Barras, like most cigar connoisseurs, prefers handmade premium brands, leaving Switzerland’s Villiger Soehne AG battling an image built on 9- cent cigarillos.

“It’s either a good cigar or no cigar for me,” Barras said as he left the Davidoff tobacco shop in Geneva clutching a box of Puro d’Oro Sublimes. Villiger isn’t “what I consider a really good cigar,” said the 52-year-old financial consultant who refers to himself as a “cigar snob.”

Villiger, founded in 1888 in Pfeffikon, wants to compete in Europe against Imperial Tobacco Group Plc (IMT) and Swedish Match AB (SWMA), which dominate the $2 billion market for higher-margin premium cigars. While spending on luxury brands such as Montecristo and Romeo y Julieta has grown with the economic pickup in countries led by Germany, Swiss-made cigars, unlike Patek Philippe watches and Lindt & Spruengli AG (LISN) chocolate, are viewed as second rate. . . .

“If you’re selling mass-market cigars, having a respected premium offering brings a halo effect, some added credibility,” said Jonathan Fell, an analyst at Deutsche Bank AG in London. “It enhances a company’s reputation among both consumers and retailers.”

While Villiger has cigars with goose-quill mouthpieces and others designed to fit a Swiss soldier’s ammunition belt, the only handmade cigar bearing the company’s name is the 1888. Introduced two years ago to bolster the company’s presence in the premium market, 1888 joins brands such as La Meridiana, La Libertad and Bock that are made for Villiger in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras.

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