Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
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.
Jump to full article »
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.”
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.
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.
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.
An hour and a half after hearing testimony, a Canadian Senate panel in Ottawa last week approved an anti-smoking bill that Kentucky burley tobacco growers fear may be bad for their business.
The bill, known as "The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act," passed the Senate Social Affairs, Science and Technology Committee on a voice vote and without amendments. It now awaits final action in the Canadian Senate.
The measure is intended to ban flavored tobacco products in Canada, but burley growers are worried that the bill will end the export of American burley to Canada.
Burley is one of three kinds of tobacco mixed together with additives for blended tobacco. Some Kentucky lawmakers, led by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, have written to American and Canadian officials that because the pending bill in the Canadian Parliament prohibits many of the additives used in blended tobacco, the measure effectively bans burley.
With 85 percent of U.S. burley exported, the implications of the Canadian action and possible similar actions by other nations are enormous, the Kentuckians warned.
TORONTO -- At first glance, it looks like cigarettes have disappeared from Canadian stores.
There are no advertisements or signs for cigarettes in retail outlets in most of the nation's provinces. And the behind-the-counter racks of various cigarette brands, so familiar in the United States, are nowhere to be seen.
While cigarettes are still sold, they have largely disappeared from view -- an effort by the nation's provincial governments to discourage smoking among young people and help adults quit.
"The principle is indeed out of sight, out of mind," said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society.
Canada's move to hide cigarettes at their point of sale is being watched closely by U.S. anti-tobacco advocates as a potential weapon in the just-starting federal regulation of tobacco products.
"In convenience stores in the United States, we are bombarded with tobacco branding images," said Paul Billings, vice president for national policy and advocacy at the American Lung Association in Washington. "These measures to reduce the attractiveness and reduce the availability of tobacco products do have a positive impact on reducing tobacco use."
The new anti-smoking law passed by the U.S. Congress this year gives the federal Food and Drug Administration the authority to minimize tobacco-marketing tools that may affect consumption of the product, particularly by youths . . .
Health Canada's annual Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey shows that the nation's smoking rate for the most at-risk group, those 15 to 24 years old, has dropped from 29 percent in 2000 to 21 percent in 2008.
Perley said it is difficult to pinpoint the impact of any one anti-smoking measure, but studies will be done on the effectiveness of the retail display bans.
Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo has kept Cuban products out of the U.S. — but hasn't prevented companies from using the communist island's brand names.
As the U.S. and Cuba consider better ties, such trademark issues would have be settled before any easing of the embargo. The fight between Bacardi and the Cuban government for the Havana Club name already has played out in the U.S. courts and Congress for more than a decade — and is now before Spain's high court. . . .
The thought of competing with Cuba is already keeping executives at Swedish Match North America up nights. The Richmond, Virginia-based company owns General Cigar Inc., which has sold Dominican Republic-made Cohiba cigars in the U.S. since 1997.
"It's not the brand that's going to make the difference, it's whether it's Cuban or not," said Gerry Roerty, the company's vice president and general counsel. And smokers are willing to pay a premium for Cuban, he said.
Cohiba was founded in Cuba to make cigars for Castro and visiting dignitaries. Today it is the flagship of 27 premium brands produced by Habanos, equally owned by the government and Madrid-based Altadis SA, which was acquired last year by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group PLC.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates seems to agree.
"He knows that the situation they are confronting is stressful enough as it is," said his press secretary, Geoff Morrell. "I don't think he is interested in adding to the stress levels by taking away one of the few outlets they may have to relieve stress."
He said Gates is not planning any ban, but is reviewing the study by the Institute of Medicine, which provides independent advice to policymakers, health professionals and the public, to see if steps can be taken toward having a smoke-free force some day.
U.S. military personnel and veterans interviewed by The Associated Press had strong opinions about life in the military without cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.
Some said it would cut medical costs and make the force healthier, while eliminating smoking breaks would increase productivity. Others said it would dampen morale and reduce recruitment to the all-volunteer military.
Nearly all, however, said it was impractical and probably would never happen.
"It's an outrage," said Staff Sgt. Joe Dunn, 32. "I've been smoking for about 15 years and being forced to stop -- not on my own terms -- is something I'd have a hard time dealing with." . . .
"They've been talking about this for over 10 years now. Nothing has ever happened," said Fink, a Navy veteran and employee at the VA hospital in Nashville. A ban would drive people out of the military, he said, and "the military can't afford to lose anyone."
In conclusion, in studies carried out in the United States and Sweden we detected an association between use of smokeless tobacco products and risk of fatal myocardial infarction and fatal stroke, which is not readily explained by chance. Confounding and other sources of bias, however, cannot be completely excluded on the basis of available data, although we found no strong evidence for their effect. If the association is real, its public health and clinical implications might be substantial, despite the fact that the magnitude of the excess risk is small. Future research should aim to clarify the mechanisms of effect of smokeless tobacco products on deaths from cardiovascular disease and to elucidate whether a similar effect is present for non-fatal myocardial infarction and non-fatal stroke.
What is already known on this topic Smokeless tobacco products are widely used in many populations An association with risk of cardiovascular disease is plausible
What this study adds This systematic review and meta-analysis provided evidence for an association between use of smokeless products and risk of fatal myocardial infarction and stroke . . .
Executive Director, Smokefree Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, PA USA 15218
Send response to journal:
Re: Smokeless tobacco is far less hazardous alternative to cigarettes
If the attributable risk estimates for fatal stroke and heart disease found by this study are correct, the overall mortality risk from using smokeless tobacco products would be 4%- 5% of those from cigarette smoking, or 95%-96% lower risk.
As such, this study confirms the findings by Rodu and Godshall http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/3/1/37 that cigarette smokers can sharply reduce their mortality risks by switching to smokeless tobacco products.
Unfortunately, the authors of this study failed to acknowledge that smokeless tobacco users face significantly fewer mortality risks for stroke and MI (and overall mortality) than cigarette smokers.
Research just published on bmj.com reports that people who use smokeless tobacco products like snus (a moist powder tobacco product) have a slightly higher risk of having a fatal heart attack or stroke.
Over the last couple of decades, there has been an increase in the number of people in Europe and North America using smokeless tobacco. Most new users are aged under 40. According to the study, since these products are being promoted as 'safer' alternatives to smoking cigarettes, the number of individuals using them is expected to increase.
Dr Paolo Boffetta at International Agency for Research on Cancer in France led the research team. They examined the results of 11 studies carried out in Sweden and North America on the use of smokeless tobacco products and the risk of developing or dying from a heart attack or stroke.
In order to reduce partiality, variations in study plan and features were considered.
The shelves of the Army and Air Force Exchange and Defense Commissary Agency outlets in Vicenza and Aviano are largely bare of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco — with only a few brands left in most locations.
The shortage is caused by a lack of tobacco shipments from Italian ports, officials said.
Previously, Italian carabinieri had escorted the shipments to Vicenza, Aviano and Camp Darby, AAFES-Europe spokesman Lt. Col. Wayne Marotto said. But they’re no longer doing that, and AAFES is working with various agencies to come up with a solution.
Until a solution is found, the tobacco will stay where it is.
Since AAFES supplies DECA with tobacco in northern Italy, they’re both affected.
Faced with budget shortages and limited personnel, the carabinieri have decided they don’t need to provide such escorts any more, said Col. Daniele Benvenuti, head of the Gruppo Carabinieri Southern European Task Force based in Vicenza.
Benvenuti said escorting cigarette shipments is not seen as a high priority, given all the missions they have to accomplish.
“We are a military police force. The escorting of cigarettes is not a military function. It never should have been,”
We are a military police force. The escorting of cigarettes is not a military function. It never should have been.Col. Daniele Benvenuti, head of the Gruppo Carabinieri Southern European Task Force, which has stopped escorting cigarette shipments from Italian ports to US military bases.
New Zealand researchers are clashing with US health officials over a new anti-smoking aid, after a world-first trial was run by Auckland University. . . .
"They're not going to die from an e-cigarette," says Dr Murray Laugesen. "But they could die tomorrow from a heart attack due to their smoking."
The FDA, which regulates medical products in the US, isn't so sure. It says its tests found cancer-causing chemicals in e-cigarettes and wants them banned from sale until more studies are done.
"What's remarkable actually is the lack of evidence that these products are any better than standard smoking cessation treatments, and secondly the inadequate testing for their toxins," says Dr Michael Thun, American Cancer Society.
Auckland University has run the first ever trial of the e-cigarettes. It looked at withdrawal symptoms after using one compared to a nicotine inhaler and a regular cigarette.
Researchers can't reveal the results until they are published in a medical journal, but they told 3 News the FDA is getting unnecessarily alarmed over one ingredient - propalene glycol.
As President Barack Obama moves to ease restrictions on trade with Cuba, cigar lovers are savoring the prospect of legally lighting up a smoke that has long required a black- market connection and a willingness to flout the law. . . .
The possible end to the 47-year-old embargo on Cuba trade has intensified a legal and lobbying fight between cigar makers Swedish Match AB of Stockholm and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc of Bristol, England. Each wants exclusive rights to sell Cuban-made brands in the U.S., the world’s largest market for premium cigars.
Swedish Match sells cigars in the U.S. made in Honduras and the Dominican Republic under Cuban brand names. It bought the brands from families that fled Cuba after Fidel Castro seized their cigar companies in the 1960s. Imperial distributes Cuban- made cigars under many of the same names to the rest of the world through an agreement with the Cuban government monopoly, Cubatabaco.
“Before serious commerce resumes, this is going to have to be resolved,” said Robert Muse, a Washington lawyer who advises clients on Cuba-related issues.
It began as an attempt to get candy-flavoured cigarillos out of the hands of kids, but U.S. tobacco growers said a pending Canadian law would ban imports of virtually all U.S. tobacco products.
The U.S. industry has warned that the bill, now before a parliamentary health committee, would violate World Trade Organization rules by unfairly targeting most U.S. tobacco imports.
Makers of "American-blend cigarettes" typically use flavourings to remove or disguise the harsh taste of the tobacco varieties grown in several U.S. states, including Kentucky and Tennessee.
Canadian cigarettes, on the other hand, use mainly Virginia tobacco, which doesn't include flavouring.
The Canadian legislation, Bill C-32, has attracted the ire of key members of the U.S. Congress, as well as both the U.S. and Canadian chambers of commerce.