Tobacco.org

New drive aims to help 11,000 smokers stub out their habit  

MORE than 11,000 smokers in the Lothians will be given extra help to quit in the next two years under fresh plans.

Targets issued by NHS Scotland have shown that, if successful, it would help reduce the number of smokers in the area by eight per cent by 2011 – a significant dent in statistics.

The local health board has already made considerable progress in coaxing some of the 140,000 Lothians smokers away from cigarettes.

But the Scottish Government wants more to be done, particularly among teenagers and pregnant women.

In order to provide the help NHS Lothian will have to find 11,000 smokers who are already one month into the quitting process. Experts deem this a key time where many lapse back into the habit unless provided with more support, such as cessation classes and one-to-one help.

More training has already been organised for community pharmacy staff to help cessation projects, while more staff have been taken on with the objective of reducing smoking.

Jump to full article »

• Regulatory assessment of brand changes in the commercial tobacco product market 

Product regulators cannot discount the potential of ongoing commercial brand revisions to alter product use and effects of established brands--whether intentionally or unintentionally--and thereby increase the potential for public harm.. Any system of evaluation adopted by regulators must include the ability to monitor brands within the commercial market; further, until such a system has been set in place, regulations should restrict all brand changes within the commercial market. Once a system for evaluation is successfully implemented, regulators should seek to identify and reverse potentially harmful brand changes, including those which attract children, enhance addiction, or support measurable increases in exposure.

Jump to full article »

Emergency department-initiated tobacco control: a randomised controlled trial in an inner-city university hospital  

Objectives: Emergency department (ED) patients show high smoking rates. We investigated the effects of ED-initiated tobacco control (ETC) on the 7-days abstinence at 12 months.

Methods: Randomised-controlled intention-to-treat trial (Trials Registry no.: ISRCTN41527831) in 1,044 patients in an urban ED. ETC consisted of on-site counselling plus up to 4 telephone booster sessions. Controls received usual care. Analysis was by logistic regression. . . .

Conclusions: ETC, in the form of on-site counselling with up to 4 telephone booster sessions, showed no overall effect on tobacco abstinence after 12 month. A non-significant trend for a better performance of ETC in more motivated smokers was observed.

WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS:

Although there is evidence that the smoking prevalence of emergency department patients exceeds the smoking prevalence in the population and a joint statement of US Emergency Medicine Organizations encourages administrators to implement tobacco control services, the effectiveness of such services is still unclear.

In a randomised controlled trial in more than 1000 emergency department patients with a median smoking intensity of 15 cigarettes per day, emergency department-initiated tobacco control (ETC) showed a non-significant overall effect on 7-days-abstinence at 12 month. Unmotivated smokers do not seem to profit from ETC while, in ambivalent and motivated smokers, a non-significant clinical effect of ETC was observed.

Jump to full article »

Ready, Fire!, Aim. How Bill C-32 is a Perfect Example of Government Mismanagement 

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's May 26th announcement that the Conservative Government would make good on an electoral promise to ban flavours in tobacco products, has proven to be the perfect example of the current government's gross mismanagement of a very important public health file.

As the government journeys dangerously closer towards formalizing Bill C-32 (An Act to Amend the Tobacco Act) into law, Casa Cubana is once again calling on all Parliamentarians and the media to consider the very serious implications of legislating any issue on a premise of fear, not fact - hate, not health. The current market environments in our country are such that Bill C-32 will only come to destroy thousands of legitimate Canadian businesses and jobs, while further fueling the criminal networks involved in tobacco, drugs and weapons trafficking. There is only a "perceived" health benefit to banning flavoured tobacco products in Canada, says Luc Martial (in charge of government affairs with Casa Cubana and formerly with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, the Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, the National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health, and the Tobacco Control Programme at Health Canada). Bill C-32 is perilously leveraged on this misguided perception and our country will in the end only come to be hurt by the government's gross negligence on this file, says Mr. Martial.

Casa Cubana testified before the Standing Committee on Health last Thursday and brought these issues (e.g. lack of research and consultation) to the forefront. We were quite surprised by the lack of interest among Committee Members,

Jump to full article »

Federal Government About To Legislate a Lie into Law 

Bill C-32, An Act to Amend the Tobacco Act, is currently being debated and will likely pass Second Reading in the House of Commons shortly. By all indications, further to the discussion led in the House yesterday, it would appear that the Bill will likely find little obstacle within Parliament and effectively become law by the end of June. When this happens, thousands of legitimate Canadian businesses and jobs will be destroyed. As a result, Casa Cubana is immediately seeking a federal government bail-out. This bail-out sought, however is not one which will cost Canadians, but rather benefit them - by asking government not for money, but rather honesty, integrity and accountability.

While private sector stakeholders like Casa Cubana will continue to try to properly educate and inform politicians on the issue, we remain quite discouraged at the obvious notion that several politicians have since demonstrated through their support of this Bill (yesterday) a gross lack of knowledge about these products and understanding of effective tobacco control policy, says Luc Martial (in charge of government affairs with Casa Cubana and formerly with the Non-Smokers' Rights Association, the Canadian Council on Smoking and Health, the National Clearinghouse on Tobacco and Health, and the Tobacco Control Programme at Health Canada).

While Casa Cubana has not lost complete hope that common sense may still one day prevail in the House of Commons, it is at this time being forced to consider its broader legal options. Should the bail-out sought not be forthcoming, Casa Cubana will be considering seeking legal advice on the possibility of bringing legal action against some politicians and anti-tobacco groups for libel and defamation. Through an orchestrated hate and misinformation campaign against an otherwise legitimate and legal Canadian company, these individuals and organizations will have since secured unjustified proposed legislation that will have a direct and devastating financial impact on thousands of legitimate Canadian business owners across the country. Casa Cubana now challenges these outspoken politicians to effectively step outside the secured, absolute-privileged parameters of the House of Commons and reiterate the offensive statements and unsupported allegations they have since made (yesterday) about these products and the companies that manufacture and distribute them.

Casa Cubana will also consider seeking a legal opinion on a possible anti-trust legal action against the government, which through Bill C-32, is effectively proposing to arbitrarily ban our legitimate tobacco products in favor of those manufactured and distributed by our competitors. In this sense, the government's Bill, if it were to become law, would knowingly and simply just shift Casa Cubana's legal tobacco sales to (1) criminal groups

Jump to full article »

Indonesia's Pangestu Says U.S. Tobacco Bill Is Unfair: Video  

Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu talks with Bloomberg's Haslinda Amin about Indonesia's reaction to U.S. legislation that may ban clove-favored cigarettes.

Jump to full article »

VIDEO: HUH!!! - "We don't smoke this Crap - we just sell it" 

These are the people that cigarettes was designed for: the "young, poor, black, the stupid" -R.J. reynolds

Jump to full article »

Smoking laws difficult to enforce, official says 

After six months of public outreach, the city's anti-smoking restrictions could benefit from some adjustments, city officials said Tuesday.

Eliminating the warning given to violators and requiring signs in smoking prohibited areas were among early recommendations to the City Council Tuesday in order to assist the implementation of the relatively new law, which has started to show some cracks as city officials attempt to enforce it.

Enforcing the new rules, which prohibit smoking on nearly all publicly accessible land in Glendale, among multifamily housing complexes and city visitors has also been challenge, Neighborhood Services Administrator Sam Engel said, as the city gets closer to the hard-enforcement phase of the ordinance.

"City Council and staff knew at the time of adoption this effort would not be accomplished overnight and it would involve significant public outreach to effect a community behavioral change that would mark this program's success in the long haul," Engel said.

The City Council in October voted to prohibit lighting up on all city property, including parks, in common areas of apartment complexes, outdoor dining areas that can't meet strict separation requirements and nearly all publicly accessible private property, such as the Marketplace and Americana at Brand.

Jump to full article »

Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI) to Webcast Presentation at J.P. Morgan Global Tobacco Conference 

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE/Euronext Paris: PM) will host a live audio webcast of its presentation at the J.P. Morgan Global Tobacco Conference in London at www.pmintl.com on June 26, 2009, at approximately 9:25 a.m. London Time (4:25 a.m. ET).

Jump to full article »

City Councilman Proposes Ban of Smokeless Tobacco 

Three years after banning smoking in Philadelphia, city council will now look at the related question of whether to ban smokeless tobacco.

City councilman Jim Kenney is proposing an outright ban in Philadelphia on all smokeless tobaccos, including snuff, chewing tobacco and dipping tobacco:

"With the popularity of baseball and a lot of other sports, our kids are putting this stuff in their cheeks, and creating a lot of the same problems if they were smoking cigarettes, and additional problems relative to their gum and teeth health."

Jump to full article »

NH considers 45-cent cigarette tax increase  

Smokers have a clear message they want to send to lawmakers about upping the cigarette tax: Don't do it.

The Legislature is considering raising New Hampshire's cigarette tax by 45 cents a pack to help patch a $650 million revenue gap. If the bill passes, New Hampshire's tax would be $1.78 per pack.

New Hampshire would remain the cheapest state in New England to buy cigarettes even if lawmakers pass the 45-cent increase, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

But the gap would certainly be narrowed, especially for people who travel to the Granite State to buy their smokes.

A special House-Senate committee agreed to the 45-cent increase Wednesday.

Jump to full article »

EDITORIAL: Feds are tackling tobacco  

We've long held the position that whether one wants to smoke or not is an individual choice. But young people do not have the maturity or life experience yet to make an informed choice to start a habit that may well lead to serious health consequences later in life.

In fact, it's been 45 years since the surgeon general first warned that tobacco can cause lung cancer. Millions of Americans have chosen to take up smoking or continue smoking despite that possible death sentence.

Although this legislation gives the FDA more power than it ever has had over tobacco, the choice of whether to smoke or not remains with individual adults. Some of them undoubtedly will continue to light up -- and that's still their prerogative to do so.

Jump to full article »

Smoking Advertising a Success On Women, Children: Survey 

The number of women taking up smoking increased by more than 300 percent between 2001 and 2004, data released by the Indonesian Women Without Tobacco, or WITT, on Thursday shows.

Nita Yudi, the head of WITT, said that the number of female smokers shot up from 1.3 million women in 2001 to 4.5 million in 2004 and had continued climbing since, though she could not provide any more recent data.

"This stark reality causes great concern as our country ranks third in the world after China and India as the largest smoking country," she said.

She said that smoking advertisements were to blame for the increasing number of female smokers. Glamorous, fashionable models shown smoking in advertisements persuaded women to take up the habit, she said.

Jump to full article »

• Indonesia May Complain to WTO About U.S. Tobacco Legislation 

Indonesia, the largest maker of clove cigarettes, may complain to the World Trade Organization about U.S. legislation that gives regulators expanded powers to regulate tobacco products, including possible bans on flavors made from the tropical spice.

“We’ll be having consultations,” Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “If we feel that this is treated discriminately, we’ll of course take it to the normal processes in the WTO.”

The legislation, which was approved by the House of Representatives and Senate earlier this month, offers a concession on menthol, the most popular flavored cigarette in the U.S. Pangestu’s comments reiterate Indonesian objections made last month.

“We feel this is discriminating against cloves because menthol is not considered,” Pangestu said today from Jakarta

Jump to full article »

Images plus text work best to put people off smoking  

Health warnings on cigarette packs that combine strong pictures with written warnings are most effective in motivating smokers to quit smoking and deterring those who have never smoked or who have quit. The warnings should cover at least half of the packet and be part of a mass media campaign.

This is the conclusion of a report from the German World Health Organization tobacco control centre in Heidelberg, which presents the results of 20 international studies as evidence for combined warnings.

Unlike 30 countries worldwide, among which in Europe are the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Romania, Latvia, and Belgium, Germany has not yet introduced combined warnings; there cigarette packs just carry mandatory text warnings about the health risks of smoking.

However, Sabine Bätzing, the German commissioner on drug misuse, announced in an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt on 31 May that combined warnings will be introduced next year when examples of combined warnings from the European Union have been tested.

Jump to full article »