Tobacco.org

Tobacco laws not implemented in state  

PANAJI: On the World No Tobacco Day on May 31, the Voluntary Health Association of Goa (VHAG), involved in creating awareness about tobacco control laws, research and documentation of tobacco use in Goa, said that implementation of the law is sorely lacking in the state.

The association has started working on an intense Tobacco/Smoke Free Goa Campaign' in association with Voluntary Health Association of India from May. As part of this campaign, VHAG plans to work on advocacy and awareness in various Panaji schools and colleges on tobacco control by using different types of media.

VHAG has also begun monitoring the implementation of the ban on smoking in public places in Panaji area. The aim is to check whether awareness about the law is prevalent in the community and whether appropriate no smoking' signages are up in every public place. They will also check for any violations.

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Still no warnings on cigarette packs  

The Union health ministry directive that all tobacco products sold in the country carry pictorial warnings from May 31, went almost unimplemented in large parts of Chennai on Sunday.

A few days ago, Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam gave an undertaking to a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal saying the government would make it mandatory for every tobacco company to carry the pictorial warning on cigarette packets from May 31, World No Tobacco Day.

According to the cigarette and tobacco products (packaging and labelling) rules issued by the Union government, all cigarette and tobacco packs should carry pictorial messages and a revised statuory warning, "smoking kills and tobacco causes cancer" on 40% of the principal display area.

"I brought a cigarette packet thinking I would see a gory picture. But there was nothing. When I asked the shop keeper, he was not even aware of the rule," said N Sudarshan of Mylapore.

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Positive response to anti-smoking drive 

About 10,700 inspections were conducted by Dubai Municipality under its anti-smoking campaign, said a senior municipality official.

The civic body had already kicked-off the campaign from its premises on Thursday last week by conducting the carbon monoxide test on its staff and visitors.

As part of the campaign to mark World No Tobacco Day today, the municipality is organising a lecture titled "Impact of Smoking and Ways to Quit" at the Al Twar public library at 5pm.

Reda Salman, director of public heath and safety department, said that the response to the anti-smoking campaign has so far been encouraging. A large number of individuals and institutions have adhered to anti-smoking regulations.

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More people keen on stubbing out, doctor says 

The anti-smoking campaign spearheaded by Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) has drummed up huge public interest, a doctor involved in the drive said.

With the campaign's website (www.notobaccocampaign.com) getting 7,000 hits in two weeks, people are keen on trying to give up the habit.

About 500 smokers have already pledged to join a 30-day Quit and Win programme and the DHCC will offer them support through education and counselling, Dr Aisha Abdullah, Senior Vice President at DHCC, said on Sunday.

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EDITORIAL: Let's Stub It Out Now 

As manufacturers try to divert attention from the ill-effects of the product through advertising, countries are fighting back, making it mandatory that tobacco packages graphically show its dangers. It is here that the policies adopted by countries like the UAE gain importance.

The UAE has banned smoking in public places and is planning an increase in the price of cigarettes, while unifying the tobacco-control policies in the UAE. A six-week long No Tobacco Campaign in the country is seeking to garner a minimum of 10,000 pledges against the use of tobacco.

Effective warnings on tobacco packets, especially with pictures can be a cheap and, at the same time, effective strategy to reduce the attraction of tobacco for those who are not yet addicted and to motivate users to quit. But the question here is, why not ban tobacco, which is a cash crop and the only legal consumer product that can kill when used exactly as the producer intends?

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More than 500 smokers in UAE pledge to give up smoking 

About 500 smokers have pledged to give up smoking for a month and the anti-smoking awareness campaign that started two-weeks ago has garnered huge public interest, a senior doctor said.

Smokers who wish to give up will be monitored after 30 days and their nicotine content in the body checked. Those who successfully quit will win a range of prizes.

The UAE is joining a world-wide effort to stop people from smoking and observing the No Tobacco Day on Sunday and Dubai Healthcare City (DHCC) will offer smokers support through education and counseling, Dr Ayesha Abdullah, senior vice president of DHCC, said.

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Sitting List: KATHLEEN DONOVAN & another vs. PHILIP MORRIS USA, INC. 

Tuesday, June 9th 2009, 9:00 AM - Courtroom One, Second Floor, John Adams Courthouse, One Pemberton Square, Boston . . .

SJC-10409 KATHLEEN DONOVAN & another vs. PHILIP MORRIS USA, INC.

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• SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT for the Commonwealth Case Docket: KATHLEEN DONOVAN & another vs. PHILIP MORRIS USA, INC. SJC-10409 

FUTURE CALENDAR

Tuesday, June 9th 2009, 9:00 AM

Courtroom One, Second Floor, John Adams Courthouse, One Pemberton Square, Boston . . .

03/05/2009 #1.1 Does the plaintiffs' suit for medical monitoring, based on the subclinical effects of exposure to cigarette smoke and increased risk of lung cancer, state a cognizable cliam and/or permit a remedy under Massachusetts state law? If the plaintiffs have successfully stated a claim or claims, has the statute or limitations governing those claims expired?

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Major drive launched against smoking 

Health authorities are targeting children and women in a new anti-smoking campaign launched on World No Tobacco Day on Sunday, acknowledging the growing numbers of smokers among these segments of society.

Dubai Health Authority (DHA), in partnership with the Islamic Affairs Department and other government agencies, along with private partners, launched the anti-smoking campaign at Rashid School for Boys.

The campaign is divided in four phases: public awareness through government clinics, holding seminars and referrals at schools, at malls and organisations, and finally, approaching women. . . . .

Imams are being recruited to spread the word on the hazards of smoking, receiving training from medical professionals as part of Dubai's anti-smoking campaign.

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) launched the year-long campaign on World No Tobacco Day on Sunday, to roll out in four phases dealing with the community, schools, shopping malls, organisations and supermarkets, and women.

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• Campaign Aims for Tobacco-free Dubai 

The Dubai Health Authority launched an extensive anti-tobacco campaign on Sunday, targeting women and children in particular, and announced an awareness programme to be conducted in five phases till May 31 next year.

Starting this week, the campaign will also target worshippers through the Friday sermon, according to Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Kalban, the authority's Acting Director of Primary Health Care.

The awareness programme, launched to mark the World No Tobacco Day, follows recommendations by the World Health Organisation, including six policy statements against tobacco outlined in the global health body's mPower project.

Entitled Tobacco-free Dubai -- Together for a Society Free from Smoking, the campaign will begin the first phase by training physicians, raising awareness and inviting volunteers for the phases to follow.

The second phase of the campaign will start in September and will target students from G7-12 through lectures and campaigns to raise awareness.

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Packing a pictorial punch 

Is there something different with your pack of cigarettes today? Did you notice anything that might make you want to throw it away? If you did, even if you did not succumb to the thought, history of sorts has been made. If your pack contained a pictorial warning, then the anti-tobacco lobby's hard work has actually kicked in.

Even if the warnings are in place, the anti-tobacco lobby only considers it a beginning. The pictures they wanted on the packs and the size of display have been diluted. A skull and crossbones image which was originally proposed as part of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, has also not found a place in the legislation. . . .

In the Report on Tobacco Control in India, the authors point out that the direct cost of both smoking and non-smoking tobacco products, excluding the cost of accessories such as match sticks, lighters, chillums, ashtrays, etc. to the consumers is quite large, most often between two and three per cent of the total private final consumption expenditure, and between four and six per cent of the amount spent on food. The Tobacco Atlas indicates that the direct costs to the economy attributable to tobacco use in India, where over 1,00,000 hectares is devoted to growing tobacco is US $7,200 million. In addition, there are indirect costs from productivity loss caused by tobacco-related illness or premature death and loss of earnings.

Dr. Ramadoss says, "The total worth of the tobacco industry in India is estimated to be Rs. 35 crore. Guess how much the Indian government spends to treat tobacco-related ailments? Rs. 36 crore!" Responding to an oft-repeated question from the tobacco lobby about the fate of the farmers involved in tobacco cultivation, he said last year, a sum of Rs. 750 crore was approved for the National Medicinal Plant Mission. Tobacco crops could be replaced by medicinal plants as they require the same soil and irrigation requirements and supplemented with alternate cropping of cash crops.

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Electronic Smoking Device Fires Up a Debate on Its Health Value 

Some companies are pitching e-cigarettes simply as less harmful alternatives to smoking, saying that smokers who can't quit might be better off "vaping" one of their products. Other companies, though, are selling their e-cigarettes as smoking cessation tools, claims that have not been backed up by any science.

Regardless, the relatively new devices - available online, at truck stops and at malls - are drawing fire, mostly from groups such as the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, and from scientists who say they fear the products may pose unknown dangers, even if they're not from the known carcinogens in cigarette smoke.

Some have called on the Food and Drug Administration to ban them immediately. The FDA says e-cigarettes are "unapproved drug-device combinations," and, in the past two months, has detained 17 shipments from China at the border and sent them back. "We don't know its safety profile," said spokeswoman Karen Riley.

Despite the recent FDA actions, the industry says more than 100,000 e-cigarettes have been sold in the United States, and the number grows every day. . . .

William T. Godschall, executive director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, said he finds the debate about e-cigarettes to be counterproductive. He agreed that clinical trials have not been conducted, but finds it odd that a government that can't seem to regulate cigarettes - which are known to cause cancer - is upset over a much less hazardous product.

"These e-cigarettes are at least 99.9 percent less deadly than cigarettes," he said.

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• Editorial - A Rogue Industry  

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld major elements of a 2006 lower court decision that found big tobacco companies guilty of racketeering and fraud as part of a prolonged campaign to deceive and addict the public. That 1,742-page opinion, rendered by Judge Gladys Kessler, laid out in painstaking detail how the tobacco companies made false statements and suppressed evidence to deny or play down the addictive qualities and the adverse health effects of smoking. . . .

The House has already voted to give the F.D.A. power to regulate tobacco. Senators, who are getting ready to vote on similar legislation, now have fair warning, if they needed any more, that this is a rogue industry. It can't be trusted to behave responsibly or even adhere to agreements it has signed. It is time to grant the F.D.A. the power to regulate the content and marketing of tobacco products.

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VENKATESH: Picture Saves a Thousand Bud? 

Given the alarming rise in statistics WHO strengthens its defenses in the fight against tobacco with newer and in your face mechanisims.

The World’s biggest public smoking ban came into effect from the 2nd of October 2008. It came as a boon for non smokers, especially children, in public places and a blessing in disguise for smokers. Thanks to the then Minister of Health Anbumani Ramadoss. Well like most other rules and regulations in the country the definitions of the ban were and are obscure, and most citizen suspect that it’s left that way for a reason. . . .

The smoking Ban in India and particularly in our city has been effective in certain respects especially in regards to restaurants, pubs and bars, where it is being enforced to a large extent. But, as for smoking in ‘Public’ spaces or places which was initially flouted today is almost a forgotten story. As for railway stations and bus stations in the city the right to clean air has been upheld but that same will not hold true for a lot of other places. “Tobacco Kills and you know it! So, why do you still go about smoking? Tobacco like guns have been designed to kill and they are doing a pretty good job, by getting you addicted! Tobacco Advertising kills you further more, by making you think you are doing a cool job!” says Ankit Poddar.

Then there is this issue of stretches of pavements outside corporate establishments, restaurants, bars and pubs being littered with an incredible amount of cigarette butts

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Nothing stops the smoke 

with proposed tobacco control measures - health warnings, raised taxes and regulations on sales, there seems to be no reduction in tobacco use among the people.

According to a recent National Family Health Survey, 46.5 percent of males and 13.8 percent of females in the country are regular tobacco users.

Sale of tobacco From October 2008, and smoking at public places, workplaces or at restaurants were banned. But this too did not bring down the sale of tobacco in the city. Praful Lal, Corporate Affairs Head, JT International India, city based cigratte manufacturing and distributing unit, said, “We have been doing well and there is no variation in the sales. Yes, during October- November 2008 when smoking ban was imposed initially there was a bit dip in the market, but it has taken up now and is as usual”. . . .

Of late more people in the age group of 25-28 years are being adversely affected by the use of tobacco, says KSS Bhatt, Director, Clinical Cardiology, Manipal Heart Institute . “Almost every day we get one or two tobacco related cases.

Two months back we had two BPO employees of 25-26 years, chain smokers.

We had to conduct angioplasty and open up the blood vessel” he added.

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