Tobacco.org

Yes, you can love your tobacco...till death  

Prof Paluri Murti, an expert on oral cancer, recently delivered a lecture titled "I Love Tobacco. Is it Harmful to my Mouth?"

The answer, he said, is yes.

In an interview with the Express, Murti said that 90 per cent of oral cancer victims develop it because of tobacco use.

The Indian-born professor of oral pathology is the director of the University of the West Indies' Dental School, and was part of a renowned group of international researchers who pioneered research in India on oral cancer and pre-cancerous lesions in relation to tobacco usage. . . .

Smokers in this country puff over half a billion cigarettes every year, ranking Trinidad and Tobago as one of the top tobacco consumers worldwide.

And joining the over quarter million adults who light up on average five times a day are thousands of schoolchildren between 13 and 15.

A Global Youth Tobacco Survey in 2004 ranked T&T as having the fourth highest smoking prevalence in the age group. About 40 per cent of young people are also exposed to second-hand smoke, called passive smoking at home.

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WITCO knocks 'radical' Tobacco Bill  

Local cigarette manufacturer West Indian Tobacco Company (WITCO) has given the tobacco legislation the thumbs down, even though amendments have been recommended by the Select Committee of the Senate.

Jean-Pierre du Coudray, WITCO's managing director, said the Bill was anything "but sensible and balanced" and not at all "workable".

Du Coudray also said that some of the measures in the legislation were just "too radical" and will likely be met with some resistance from some consumers.

"For example, there is a part in the Bill that put a total ban on the display of cigarettes, even though cigarettes are a legal product. There is also another part in the Bill where they are proposing to ban the ten-pack cigarettes and offer only 20-pack cigarettes," he said during a telephone interview.

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The Tobacco Control Bill, 2008 

AN ACT to prevent tobacco use by young people; enhance public awareness of the hazards of tobacco use and ensure that consumers are provided with information to make more fully informed decisions about using tobacco; protect individuals from exposure to tobacco smoke; prohibit or restrict promotional practices; prevent illegal conduct, including but not limited to smuggling; provide for regulation of tobacco products to mitigate against the harmful effects of tobacco; provide for sufficient regulatory flexibility to respond to new technological and scientific innovations and findings and to changes in consumer behaviours; create a national co-ordinating institution for tobacco control and provide for other related matters and purposes.

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Comment on the Tobacco Control Bill  

Special Select Committee of the Senate - The Tobacco Control Bill, 2008

The above-named Committee was appointed on November 18, 2008 to consider and report to the Senate on the Tobacco Control Bill, 2008. The Members of the Committee are: Mrs. Hazel Manning (Chairman), Mr. Jerry Narace, Dr. Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde, Ms. Cindy Devika Sharma and Ms. Dana Seetahal, SC.

The text of the Bill is available in all public libraries and on this website:

The Tobacco Control Bill, 2008.

Members of the public are invited to make submissions on the Bill

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• Public opinion wanted on tobacco bill 

Members of the public, both smokers and non-smokers alike, are being called upon by the Senate's Select Committee to offer submissions on the Tobacco Control Bill 2008, a newspaper advertisement stated yesterday.

The controversial bill seeks to impose a penalty of $10,000 for anyone found smoking or even holding a lighted cigarette in a public place, including pool halls, bars and clubs.

On November 18, when Health Minister Jerry Narace piloted the bill in the Upper House, he said the legislation was long overdue and quoted a number of studies and statistics which highlighted the dangers of smoking.

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• $10,000 penalty for smoking in public 

A pack of du Maurier - $14. A loose du Maurier - $1.50.

Getting caught smoking one in a public place could cost you $10,000. That is if the Government has its way in the Senate tomorrow, when Health Minister Jerry Narace is expected to present the Tobacco Control Bill 2008.

The bill is aimed at protecting persons from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in all public places.

Apart from office buildings, educational and health institutions, the bill also includes public transportation terminals, bars, clubs and pool halls as banned areas.

And anyone who smokes in these places once the bill becomes law is liable, on summary conviction, to a fine of $10,000. The bill requires a three-fifths majority to be passed in the Senate.

In response to the bill, managing director of the West Indian Tobacco Company, Jean-Pierre du Coudray, said his company respected the Government's role in bringing legislation to reduce the negative impact of tobacco on public health.

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• New bill proposes more protection for non-smokers 

A bill that intends to "assert the rights of non-smokers over that of smokers", ban the sale of tobacco products to minors and prohibit the employment of minors to sell or handle such products is now before the Senate.

The new bill, which is called The Tobacco Control Bill, 2008, requires a special majority vote of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, since it is inconsistent with sections four and five of the Constitution.

Both sections define and govern the rights and freedoms of all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. . . .

The bill was introduced to the Senate on April 22, where it is to be debated first before being introduced to the Lower House.

It is to be piloted by Health Minister Jerry Narace and is meant to implement the requirements contained in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which this country signed on August 27, 2003 and ratified on August 19, 2004. . . .

Clause eight says all persons "shall have the right to be free from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in all public places, including workplaces, places of collective use and on public conveyances".

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$3M fine for illegal tobacco sales 

BUSINESS PERSONS selling tobacco products without a licence will face a fine of TT$3 million and five years in jail while persons smoking in public places will have to pay a fine of TT$10,000. These were some of the tough measures outlined in the Tobacco Control Bill 2008 which was laid in the Senate.

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Move to prevent sale of cigarettes to minors 

CHAIRMAN of the West Indian Tobacco company Anthony E Phillip has called for a change in the legislation regarding the sale of cigarettes to minors.

Responding to a stakeholder's enquiry as to what the company was doing to prevent the sale of cigarettes to children under the age of 18, Phillip stated that the company had long been against the practice and had been lobbying for laws to be put in place to prohibit the sale of cigarettes to minors.

"We hope that a change in legislation will be swift," said Phillip at the company's annual general meeting at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port of Spain, on Thursday.

Phillip added that the company had started the "Can't vote, Don't smoke" advertising campaign within the last year and also stopping advertising in media that may be available to children.

"We recognise that we are in controversial industry but we don't encourage the sale of cigarettes to minors," said Phillip.

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• $157m WITCO profit as tobacco laws loom 

Despite rising prices and several public health warnings, smokers still spent thousands of dollars on cigarettes within the last 12 months.

The West Indian Tobacco Company has reported a record profit of $157 million for the company's last financial year, which ended on December 31 2007.

An advertisement published in yesterday's newspapers displayed the company's profit earnings for the last year. . . .

And while most smokers the Express questioned said they still smoke the same amount they did when they just started, some admitted that in spite of the much talked about health risks, their daily cigarette quota had grown with time. . . .

However, yesterday, Health Minister Jerry Narace said the Government had taken up the fight against cigarette addiction and will be doing its share of work to help decrease the number of smokers and the amount of cigarettes used in Trinidad and Tobago.

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• New tobacco-related legislation coming soon 

LOCAL cigarette manufacturer West Indian Tobacco Company (Witco) has expressed support of greater regulations for the industry and is ready to meet with the Minister of Health to discuss new tobacco-related legislation. This in light of Health Minister Jerry Narace's announcement in Parliament on Monday that the government plans ban smoking in public places and ban the sale of, advertisement and promotion of tobacco to children.

Witco managing director Jean-Pierre du Coudray told the Express yesterday that the company has for many years been regulating itself according to international standards when it comes to the sale, advertisement or promotion of tobacco products to people under the age of 18 years.

He added that while it is still within the law to advertise cigarettes via television, radio, newspapers, billboards, Witco has accepted its responsibility to the public and has ceased this sort marketing.

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Doctor: Stop the smoking, drinking 

ABOUT 95 per cent of patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer locally were smokers, Dr Wendell Dwarika said yesterday.

He was speaking to the Express at the fifth Annual Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) workshop at the Normandie Hotel, St Ann's.

Dwarika, president of the ENT Society, was the organiser of the course, which was geared towards educating general practitioners about medical conditions affecting their patients.

Thirty-one doctors from across the country attended the workshop yesterday morning

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Price hike for Witco cigarettes 

Smokers paid higher cigarette prices when they went to buy their favourite brands yesterday.

A West Indian Tobacco Company Ltd advertisement published in yesterday's newspapers displayed the company's new price list.

The ad noted that the company's Dunhill, du Maurier, Broadway and Pall Mall brands were affected by the increase.

Dunhill has replaced Benson and Hedges.

Compared to the June 18 price structure the new list showed the cost of all full packs being raised by $1 and half packs by 50 cents except for the Pall Mall full flavour half pack which was not affected. . . .

Du Coudray said: "There was a double digit increase in the cost of tobacco leaves. We know there are cheaper leaves available but we could not compromise the high quality consumers have grown to expect from Witco."

He added there was also a "global increase in the cost of plastics and resins, which directly affected the cost of packaging cigarettes".

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• Surgeon general inks sailors' cigarette packs for vow to quit 

PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD - The encounter this week was opportune.

The man whose warning label graces every cigarette pack in the United States paid a visit to a U.S. Navy hospital with 700 military personnel and civilians on board, among them more than a few addicted smokers.

As Rear Adm. Kenneth Moritsugu, the acting surgeon general, toured the USNS Comfort in this southern Caribbean capitol, he found himself autographing sailors' cigarette packs as keepsakes -- with a hitch.

In exchange, the nation's top doctor made them pledge to kick the habit.

On the spot.

"This may well be the motivation they need," Moritsugu said in a shipboard interview . . .

The impromptu initiative was unwittingly started Thursday by an at-times wisecracking sailor aboard the boat, Petty Officer 3rd Class Tyler Jones, who works as a Navy journalist and who has smoked since college.

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THE LAST PACK. 07/20/07.
Rear Adm. Kenneth Moritsugu, US acting surgeon general, autographed cigarette packs for sailors on a hospital ship in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, but at a price--a pledge to quit. Cigarettes are still sold on the ship.

PM warns: Cigarette, alcohol prices will rise 

Further increases in the duties on alcohol and cigarettes will be imposed if the ruling People's National Movement wins the upcoming general election, Prime Minister Patrick Manning disclosed yesterday.

He said his administration believed it was one way to deal with the increase in non-communicable diseases in the country.

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