Tobacco.org

• Initiative aims to stub out smoking nationwide 

A coalition of 40 health organisations has launched an initiative to ban smoking in all buildings open to the public across Switzerland.

About half of the country's 26 cantons already have rules regulating smoking in bars and restaurants, but proponents of the campaign say the country's laws are too disjointed and do not go far enough.

"We have a very peculiar situation in Switzerland," Otto Piller, president of the Swiss Lung League, told swissinfo.ch on Monday. "The way it is now, you can have a town that sits on the border between canton Solothurn, which forbids smoking, and canton Aargau, which does not, meaning half the town allows smoking and half does not. It's an impossible situation."

The new law, if passed, would make any room open to the public smoke free, including those in restaurants, bars, schools and hospitals.

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• APA 2009: Nicotine Patches Reduce Agitation in Smokers With Schizophrenia 

Nicotine replacement therapy — specifically 21-mg/day transdermal patches — can decrease agitation and aggressive behavior in hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, according to a randomized controlled trial presented here at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 162nd Annual Meeting.

Investigators found that nicotine patches decreased agitation to levels seen in treatment with parenteral antipsychotics, according to Michael Allen, MD, from University of Colorado–Denver School of Medicine.

"Seventy percent of people with schizophrenia are smokers. And when they go into a hospital, they're forced to quit smoking. As a result, nicotine withdrawal can increase aggressive behavior. Our study shows that nicotine-replacement therapy can make a big difference in decreasing smoking patients' agitation," Dr. Allen said.

In the study, 40 smokers with schizophrenia, age 18 to 65 years, admitted to the psychiatric emergency unit at the Hospital of the University of Geneva, Switzerland, were screened at baseline for agitation with several measures

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• Tabagisme: la population suisse fume de moins en moins [Smoking: the Swiss population smokes less] 

The Swiss population smoke fewer cigarettes. Between 2001 and 2008 the proportion of smokers increased from 33% to 27% in people aged 14 to 65. Other good news: the 14-19 years are less likely to be grilled one. Their share rose from 31% to 23%.

The downward trend is observed in all age groups and in both sexes, welcomes the Federal Office of Public Health (BAG) on the occasion of the publication of a survey conducted at its request by University of Zurich. . . .

These results demonstrate that the Swiss policy on prevention of smoking is on track, continuing FOPH. He cited the increased taxes on tobacco since 2007, campaign, "BRAVO - smoke less, living more in 2006-07 and the introduction of warnings on the packages since 2006.

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Obama’s push on tax havens has the Swiss shivering 

Barack Obama speaks about tax havens – and Switzerland shivers. The days when presidential homilies about more equitable income distribution could be dismissed as moralising in the world’s favourite centre for offshore assets are long over.

Mr Obama’s remarks this week could affect the Swiss in two ways: cracking down on corporate tax ruses may harm Switzerland’s attractiveness as a regional base for US multinationals, such as Philip Morris, General Motors and Dow Chemical, long present there.

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Women smokers get lung cancer earlier than men, says study  

Women are more vulnerable to the deadly side effects of smoking than men, a lung cancer study found.

Research into patients with the disease found women tended to be diagnosed at a younger age than men - even though they had smoked fewer cigarettes.

They were also more likely to develop one of the most common forms of the cancer, researchers said.

It adds to the growing pile of evidence suggesting that women are more vulnerable to the cancer-causing chemicals, or carcinogens, in tobacco than men.

The study looked at 683 lung cancer patients treated at a Swiss clinic between 2000 and 2005.

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• Women More Vulnerable To Tobacco Carcinogens, New Results Show 

ScienceDaily (May 3, 2009) -- Women may be more vulnerable than men to the cancer-causing effects of smoking tobacco, according to new results reported this week at the European Multidisciplinary Conference in Thoracic Oncology (EMCTO), Lugano, Switzerland.

Swiss researchers studied 683 lung cancer patients who were referred to a cancer centre in St Gallen between 2000 and 2005 and found women tended to be younger when they developed the cancer, despite having smoked on average significantly less than men.

"Our findings suggest that women may have an increased susceptibility to tobacco carcinogens," report Dr Martin Frueh and colleagues.

Dr Enriqueta Felip from Val d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, conference co-chair, notes that the results support a growing awareness that smoking presents greater risks to women than men. . . .

On the positive side, other research presented at the conference suggests that women tend to do better than men after surgery to remove lung tumors.

Irish researchers led by Dr Bassel Al-Alao studied 640 patients whose non-small-cell lung cancer was surgically removed over a 10-year period, 239 of whom were women.

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Lung cancer risk higher to women smokers  

Women who smoke are more likely than male smokers to develop lung cancer, research suggests. It also finds that female smokers are more likely to be diagnosed with the disease at an earlier age and have a greater risk of getting adenocarcinoma, a common form of lung cancer. The findings are significant because those studied had smoked far less than men over their lifetimes.

"Our findings suggest women may have an increased susceptibility to tobacco carcinogens. They are alarming because they show that women, despite smoking less than men, get lung cancer at an earlier age," said Dr Martin Frueh, a medical oncologist, who led the study of 683 lung cancer patients in St Gallen, Switzerland. The researchers also found that female non-smokers were more likely to develop the disease than their male counterparts.

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Product Scientist – Cigarette Component Development (Paper) : Neuchatel, Switzerland 

Employer: Philip Morris International (PMI) Website: http://www.pmintl.com Location: Neuchatel, Switzerland . . .

The successful applicant will join the Cigarette Component Development Team within the Product Development Department whose objective is to manage and maintain current product portfolio, as well as to develop innovative new products.

Specifically, your main accountabilities will be:

• Identify, explore and evaluate existing or emerging technologies and materials.

• Participate in the development of new papers for the cigarette

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Tobacco Molecular Geneticist : Neuchatel, Switzerland 

THE POSITION

You will join the program of Tobacco Plant Research within the Applied Research Department. Our aim is to improve tobacco leaf properties by reducing potentially harmful constituents and to maximize the desirable aroma and taste properties. You will contribute to the execution of mapping programs for traits of business relevance. Your main role will be to participate in the planning and execute projects devoted to quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping; to plan and assist in the realization of candidate gene and synteny based approaches for the clarification of the molecular basis of traits of business interest; to participate in the design of marker assisted breeding.

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• Switzerland's stinky city  

There has to be some reason why it's impossible to find anywhere to dine, drink or even enjoy a concert without going home stinking of cigarette or cigar smoke.

Coming out of Zurich airport to the hotel shuttle buses, the first thing that hits you is cigarette smoke. And throughout an entire trip, it keeps on hitting you. . . .

For Zurich is almost like last man standing when it comes to banning smoking.

Restaurants, bars, taxis, hotel lobbies are all muggy. We were unable to find a restaurant that even had a no-smoking area. . . .

For companies, the failure of Zurich - and other cities that are out of line with the increasingly global approach to smoking - there is a compliance hazard. How long is it before an employee claims that he cannot go to a city where he is forced to sit in smoke to eat or socialise with clients because it is a health hazard and covered by health and safety at work provisions?

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• Tobacco Case: Swiss Govt Protests FG's Service 

Government of Switzerland has protested the mode of service of court processes in the N130 billion tobacco suit filed by the Federal Government against British American Tobacco Nigeria Limited, and a Swiss-based cigarette company, Philip Morris International.

Philip Morris was joined in the suit as the fifth defendant.

The Federal Government is yet to effect service on the company since last year when the case was filed.

Justice Adamu Umar of a federal high court sitting in Abuja, had ordered that service be effected on the fifth defendant through a substituted means and that the court processes be published in a national daily in Switzerland.

But counsel to BATN, Mr Dapo Adeosun, told the court that the Swiss government, through a letter to the Ministry of Justice in Abuja, protested the mode of service.

At the last adjourned date, the Federal Government accused Philip Morris of evading service in the suit it filed against British American Tobacco Nigeria Limited and four other companies over production and marketing of tobacco products in the country.

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• Smoking Out the Smugglers  

It is an illicit global trade in the hundreds of billions of dollars that affects the health of millions.

It's not heroin or cocaine, but tobacco smuggling. Countries have tried to combat it for years. Now negotiators for 150 countries are working to forge a global agreement that should give some muscle to those efforts. And it will mean having tobacco companies shoulder more of the burden.

Under proposals for an international agreement being considered, cigarette makers would be required to disclose the identities of the providers of the raw materials like tobacco and paper. The companies would also have to identify which wholesalers are buying their products. Companies that refuse to reveal the information could be barred from making or selling cigarettes.

These measures, advocates say, will allow government investigators to penetrate the delivery chain, which is said to be dominated by organized crime in some countries.

"When the government seizes smuggled Marlboro cigarettes, in many countries, customs officials send the cigarettes to Philip Morris International to verify that the cigarettes are counterfeit," said Kathryn Mulvey, international policy director of antitobacco campaigner, Corporate Accountability International.

"This is like a police officer calling a known drug dealer to ask if the shipment of cocaine waiting in the dock belongs to him. If the cigarettes are authentic, the tobacco giant could be in big trouble, so there are strong incentives for the corporation to determine they are counterfeit," she said from Geneva, where she was monitoring the negotiations.

Among the steps being weighed in Geneva is requiring cigarette makers to track their cigarettes . . .

Despite its status as one the globe's top smuggling destinations, the United States won't have a definitive say in the international antismuggling efforts because it has not signed onto the 2005 global treaty.

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International pact sought on cigarette smuggling  

Delegates from more than 150 countries met on Monday to push for a wide-ranging pact to curb the booming trade in cigarette smuggling.

The week-long conference in Geneva is being held under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which estimates 5 million people die each year from diseases related to smoking.

"Illicit trade in tobacco products contributes to the rise in tobacco consumption and poses a serious threat to health," the WHO said.

By making cigarettes available at prices two to three times lower than in the shops, smugglers threaten to undermine global efforts to reduce smoking and save lives, WHO officials say.

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• Tobacco Underground | Overview 

Yet, despite the exposés, the lawsuits, and the settlements, the massive trade in contraband tobacco continues unabated. Indeed, with profits rivaling those of narcotics, and relatively light penalties, the business is fast reinventing itself. Once dominated by Western multinational companies, cigarette smuggling has expanded with new players, new routes, and new techniques. Today, this underground industry ranges from Chinese counterfeiters that mimic Marlboro holograms to perfection, to Russian-owned factories that mass produce brands made exclusively to be smuggled into Western Europe. In Canada, the involvement of an array of criminal gangs and Indian tribes pushed seizures of contraband tobacco up 16-fold between 2001 and 2006. "The big companies know that to some extent the golden period of smuggling is gone," observes Belgium-based sociologist Luk Joossens, a World Health Organization expert on tobacco smuggling and co-author of the 1995 study that first alerted the world that billions of exported cigarettes had gotten lost in transit. "You have still the normal small-scale smuggling, but you also have counterfeit production, illicit manufacturing. . . and a lot of small companies that are involved. So the whole area of illicit trade has become much more complex." Joossens also said that while Big Tobacco's participation in cigarette smuggling in Western Europe and North America has largely been curtailed, the situation remains murky in Africa and other developing areas of the world.

This week smuggling experts, customs officials, and diplomats from nearly 160 countries are gathering in Geneva, Switzerland, to push for what has eluded governments for decades: a global crackdown on the black market in tobacco.

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• Intergovernmental Body To Negotiate A Protocol On Illicit Trade In Tobacco Products 

Six hundred delegates from more than 150 countries are expected in Geneva next week to negotiate the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) protocol aimed at counteracting the illegal trade in tobacco products. Illicit trade in tobacco contributes to the rise in tobacco consumption and poses a serious threat to health. Based on recent estimates, tobacco would kill more than 5 million people this year, which is greater than the combined deaths due to TB, AIDS and malaria.

Illicit tobacco trade also contributes to the rise of organized crime, tobacco smuggling, illicit manufacturing and counterfeiting. Every year, it has been estimated that US $ 50 billion in tax revenue is lost for governments.

For journalists: Journalists are welcome to observe the opening of the session and all the public discussions from the press balcony. Closed sessions are restricted and therefore not open to the media. It is anticipated that much of the sessions will be open. Video cameramen and photographers may work from the floor but must leave promptly once the meeting is called to order.

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