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The result was Bill C-32, officially titled The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act -- a misnomer if ever there was one. Today, a year later, what Mr. Harper's Conservatives have delivered instead is an over-the-top law that threatens a global trade war and another bonanza for Canada's already out-of-control contraband cigarette market.
The trade-war potential gathered momentum earlier this month when, according to Inside US Trade, the United States joined Argentina, Mexico, Switzerland, the European Union and other nations in opposition to Ottawa's new anti-bubble-gum tobacco law. At a meeting in Geneva, the nations said Canada's law would restrict trade in regular tobacco products to the benefit of Canadian tobacco producers.
The more immediate impact of the law, however, is a ban on the sale in Canada of virtually all brands of U.S. cigarettes. Guess where that leads? The logical result of a ban on legal imports of Marlboros and Winstons is new demand for illegal supplies through the burgeoning Native-dominated contraband market, a tax-evading multi-billion-dollar industry that already accounts for between 33% to 50% of the Canadian cigarette market. . . .
While this may look like another case of unintended consequences run amok, it more likely is part of deliberate scheming by Health Canada officials and others who are consciously using fruit-flavoured smokes to create a global tobacco trade bomb against the U.S. and tobacco industries in Europe, South America and Asia. . . .
Still, Bill C-32 became law, even though Senator Segal abstained over the trade issue. As a result, Mr. Harper's opportunistic election gimmick, aimed at curbing the use of flavoured tobacco to children, will do nothing to protect children. By further enhancing the power and scope of the contraband market, it will only increase the supply of illegal cigarettes, a prime source of tobacco to the young. At the same time, the government has launched a protectionist scheme that threatens a trade conflict.
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Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) In their October briefing, ASH in the United Kingdom has released a favorable position on electronic cigarettes which is nearly 180 degrees to the position ASH in the United States has taken.
ASH's UK Position on E-cigarettes
"ASH supports a harm reduction approach to tobacco, that is, we recognize that whilst efforts to help people stop smoking should remain a priority, many people either do not wish to stop smoking or find it very hard to do so. For this group, we believe that products should be made available that deliver nicotine in a safe way, without the harmful components found in tobacco. Most of the diseases associated with smoking are caused by inhaling smoke which contains thousands of toxic chemicals. By contrast, nicotine is relatively safe. Therefore, e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine without the harmful toxins found in tobacco smoke, are likely to be a safer alternative to smoking. In addition, e-cigarettes reduce secondhand smoke exposure since they do not produce smoke."
Kyle Newton of eCigarettesChoice.com is elated at the release. "This is the second piece of good news for the E cigarette industry this week. The first was Governor Schwarzenegger's refusal to ban E cigarettes in California. It is a David vs. Goliath battle for us against organizations that are well-funded by companies who stand to lose a huge market share to the E cigarette."
On the other side of the big pond, ASH, USA has hammered the electronic cigarette industry unmercifully in its public claims against the product. But throughout this entire finger pointing, they have failed to produce any scientific research which tested the electronic cigarette and could trump the positive data "real" tobacco researchers have published.
FDAImports.com reports: the U.S. government is a house divided. While some government officials are fighting for greater restrictions on the sale of tobacco products, others are fighting to prevent any more restrictions and balking at the restrictions that other nations have implemented on tobacco sales. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing?
On November 6, FDA posted a special update on its web site, highlighting what its Center for Tobacco Products has done to implement the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. On the list was the statutory ban on cigarettes containing certain characterizing flavors (other than menthol) that went into effect on September 22, 2009. FDA stated that it is also exploring options for regulating both menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco products other than cigarettes, in efforts to reduce smoking in America; particularly youth smoking. FDA also established mechanisms for the public to report information about possible violations of the law, and has issued Warning Letters to firms who appear to be in violation of the ban.
Meanwhile, at a World Trade Organization meeting last week, U.S. members joined Mexico and 5 other countries in the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade in opposing Canada's ban on flavored tobacco products. These members voiced concerns that the ban was too restrictive, since it bans all tobacco products with even one of the listed additives, and that it would impact various countries' exports. U.S. Senator Jim Benning (R-KY) is using political means to pressure President Obama to fight the Canadian law -- by placing a hold on the nomination of Miriam Shapiro to be deputy trade representative.
The Canadian government has enacted a law that could endanger the entire burley tobacco industry. U.S. tobacco growers need President Barack Obama and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to ensure that the Canadians honor their trade obligations and that other countries do not follow Canada’s lead in banning American blend cigarettes.
The Canadian government’s hypocrisy on trade is startling. Less than a month after Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited Washington to lecture President Obama about the dangers of “Buy American” laws, his government passed a “Buy Canada” tobacco ban that violates Canada’s World Trade Organization (WTO) responsibilities.
The legislation, C-32, was intended to ban candy-flavored tobacco products, a worthy goal that U.S. burley growers share.
Unfortunately, C-32 morphed into an overreaching piece of legislation that prohibits the manufacture or sale of blended cigarettes that contain burley tobacco. This outcome is especially troublesome because American blend cigarettes are not candy-flavored in any way. . . .
At a time when so many sectors of the American economy are suffering, it is wrong for the burley tobacco industry to fall victim to an overreaching foreign law that violates the standards of free and fair trade. It is incumbent on USTR to send a strong message to Canada and other countries that banning blended cigarettes that contain burley tobacco is unacceptable and unnecessary to achieve the goal of reducing youth smoking.
-- Quarles is president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association
Burned by the recent US ban on kretek cigarettes, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said government officials would soon meet with their US counterparts in an effort to alleviate smoldering tension over the issue.
Kretek cigarettes were banned by the US Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 21 on the grounds that their sweet flavor encouraged young people to take up smoking.
“We will arrange a meeting and will be having consultations to seek a fair solution to this matter,” Mari told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.
The discussions, Mari said, are a preliminary response, but if no solution is found, then “at the end, it will be taken to the World Trade Organization.”
Mari said previously that the ban was highly detrimental to this country’s clove farmers and was in breach of WTO rules. . . .
Kretek International is apparently not going to take the issue lying down and is now seeking a declaratory ruling from the US District Court in Washington that its cigars are not cigarettes and can therefore be freely sold.
In its petition, it accused the FDA of “deliberately obfuscating” the definition of cigarette,” adding that “If a product is a cigar, it is not a cigarette, and vice versa.”
美国疾病控制和预防中心15日公布评估报告称，室内禁烟可以有效降低吸烟者以及吸二手烟者患心脏病的风险。
Philip Morris International joined with U.S. tobacco industry groups on Thursday to ask President Barack Obama's administration to challenge Canada's new law banning flavored cigarettes and small cigars.
Their request comes even as the administration takes its own steps to ban candy, clove and other flavored cigarettes.
"Canada's ban on blended cigarettes violates its WTO (World Trade Organization) obligations and could impose serious economic hardship on U.S. growers of burley tobacco," Roger Quarles, president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative Association, said in a statement.
"We are asking USTR (U.S. Trade Representative) to review our arguments and to take a strong stand for U.S. burley growers and American jobs," he said.
Philip Morris, which markets its tobacco products in approximately 160 countries, joined the burley growers and several other tobacco associations in asking USTR to press Canada on the issue at a WTO meeting on "technical" trade barriers next week in Geneva.
The American College of Chest Physicians has elected Dr Kalpalatha K Guntupalli, the only woman president of the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin, as its first Asian American woman president.
Hyderabad-born Guntupalli is currently tenured full professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, considered one of the top 10 medical schools in the US, and also chief of pulmonary/critical care and sleep division at BCM.
She will be inaugurated as the new president of the 75-year-old ACCP Nov 1 in San Diego.
With 2010 declared 'Year of Lung' by the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, Guntupalli hopes the AACP will take on a leadership role in "contributing to celebrate lung health around the globe". . . .
Her particular passion is in the field of tobacco control programmes, and over the years she has developed anti-tobacco material in seven languages besides anti-tobacco cartoons for children, inspiring more than 2,00,000 children in India to spread the message about the acute dangers of smoking and tobacco chewing.
An educational CD titled 'Evils of Tobacco', developed specifically for South Asia and containing a 12-minute video documentary and 186-video augmented power-point slides for medical professionals, has been translated into Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu and Gujarati and is in use in dental schools, elementary and high schools all over India and the US.
Talk's of a black market are already underway on many forums and social sites across the internet as the decision draws near on the fate of the e cigarette in a federal court. Other than a few special interest groups that are funded by big pharmaceutical companies putting pressure on the FDA to act against them, the general public and health officials are singing praises over the e cigarette.
Almost without fail, news articles that attacks the e cigarette has comment areas that are filled with doctors and scientist, along with multitudes of the population showing evidence of the need, want and support for this amazing new product that most ex smokers are calling a "lifesaver".
Since the FDA was exposed on the faulty testing procedures during their preliminary test on the e cigarette, and using personnel on the advisory board that have clear conflicts of interest concerning the e cigarette industry, the general pubic is already showing signs of looking for other means to get the e cigarette and claiming that they will not use tobacco or what they refer to as "worthless" smoking cessation products by the same pharmaceutical companies that are funding the special interest fight against them.
Smoking cigarettes can lead to the development of rheumatic diseases and make them harder to treat, according to three new studies presented this week at the 2009 annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology in Philadelphia.
The first study focused on what happens when people with rheumatoid arthritis light up while being treated for the disease.
Researchers looked at the medical records of 1,756 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients in Sweden, determined their smoking history or lack thereof and then looked at their response to methotrexate or anti-TNF therapy - two common RA treatments. . . .
Mark Fisher, MD, MPH, a rheumatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston says he found this the most impressive study of the three. "There aren't any studies that show smoking has an effect on response to methotrexate and it was a really well done study. So for those reasons I think it's significant," Dr. Fisher says.
A second study found that smoking is associated with organ damage and disease activity in people with systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect the skin, joints, kidneys, lungs, nervous system and other organs.
（华盛顿综合讯）美国医学院发表报告指出，在公共场合以及工作场所禁止人们吸烟，大幅度减少烟客和非烟客心脏病发作的次数。
The Canadian government is being targeted in a new U.S. advertising campaign that alleges Ottawa's latest anti-smoking law violates international trade agreements by discriminating against U.S. cigarette imports.
In newspaper ads that will run next week in two widely read Capitol Hill newspapers, Kentucky's burley-tobacco growers say they've been side-swiped by legislation that bans candy-flavoured products marketed to youth.
Burley tobacco is air-cured tobacco used primarily for cigarette production. Its growth is centred in Kentucky.
The farmers also are preparing a World Trade Organization complaint that contends provisions in Bill
C-32, which received royal assent Oct. 8, unfairly outlaws the sale in Canada of U.S.-style cigarettes blended with burley.
Canada has banned the manufacture, importation and sale of most flavored cigarettes and small cigars, which have been slammed as little more than an enticement to get children to start smoking.
The law, which came into effect on Thursday, was backed by both government and opposition lawmakers. It also bans tobacco advertising in newspapers and magazines, closing a loophole that had allowed ads in publications that claimed they were read only by adults.
Anti-smoking groups said fruit-flavored cigarettes were marketed like candy to lure young smokers, but the industry complained the law was too broad and would unfairly restrict importation of U.S.-grown burley tobacco.
Lawmakers in U.S. tobacco-growing states have complained the law will cost U.S. jobs, and a U.S. Senator has been blocking the appointment of a White House trade official in a bid to make the Obama administration put pressure on Canada.
From his kitchen table in England, Jack Basharan is helping thousands of American smokers avoid paying U.S. taxes on tobacco.
Jack's mail order, grow your own tobacco business has blossomed since April, when the American government raised tobacco taxes to more than a dollar per pack of cigarettes. Jack's revenue shot up more than 10,000 dollars.