Tobacco.org

• Fighting big tobacco ($$) 

In a rare challenge to one of the mainland's most powerful institutions, a scholar has proposed the scrapping of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration and allowing private companies to compete on an equal basis in this lucrative sector. Zou Fangbin, an economics professor at the Guangdong University of Business Studies, says the monopoly discriminates against smokers and tobacco farmers, gives excessive wages and benefits to STMA officials, and encourages corruption and smuggling.

Established in January 1984, the STMA is one of the two biggest cigarette producers in the world, with Altria - the parent company of Philip Morris - in terms of sales revenue. . . .

One of the best-known anti-tobacco campaigners in the mainland is Yang Gonghuan, deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the Ministry of Health.

"The issue is not the monopoly but the separation of the government from the tobacco producers, as demanded by the World Health Organisation," she said.

"How can someone supervise an industry in which he has a financial stake?"

She referred to article five, section three of the WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which Beijing has signed: it took effect on January 1. . . .

In its latest report on tobacco, published on May 31, Dr Yang's centre said the STMA was not implementing regulations set out by WHO convention.

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• Tobacco industry experts weigh in on the new law 

• The FDA's tobacco road 

Tobacco is simply not like the drugs, medical devices and foods the FDA regulates: There are no demonstrable health benefits to tobacco against which the FDA can weigh the risks that go along with its use. In fact, some in Congress argued the FDA has no place in trying to merely limit the damage caused by a product that causes only addiction and harm. By giving its blessing to the sale of some tobacco products and denying others, they argue, the FDA may lead consumers (perhaps those who haven't had contact with the outside world for the last 44 years) to think those products are safe.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the author and champion of the FDA-tobacco bill, acknowledges that this is an unusual role for the FDA. But short of tobacco prohibition -- which, he says, "isn't going to work" -- the FDA is the only agency equipped to limit and reduce the damage that tobacco use does to the nation's health, and stem the recruitment of new smokers among the nation's youth.

"The FDA is the exact agency that should have that authority -- it's a scientific organization with regulatory powers," Waxman said in an interview.

Here are some of the bill's principal provisions, and the FDA's plans for carrying out its new mandate. . . .

Another of the FDA's most intriguing new powers is the right to demand of tobacco companies details of research they have conducted on the contents and health effects of existing and future products --and, potentially, to release those findings to the public.

That is likely to bring American consumers further details about the estimated 60 carcinogens and 4,000 toxic substances found in tobacco products or created when they're smoked.

It is also likely to bring to light tobacco-sponsored marketing and scientific research on smokers' motivations and behavior, and their propensity to addiction, and what ingredients or advertising messages can enhance that propensity.

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• Last-minute reprieve for offices ahead of Greek smoking ban 

Greece's health minister Friday announced last- minute exemptions for some offices and casinos, ahead of a public smoking ban to due come into force next week. The Greeks are considered one of the last bastions of smoking in the EU, and the proposed ban has already run into considerable opposition.

Initially, minister Dimitris Avramopoulos had said authorities will enforce without exception smoking restrictions in public places, including offices, restaurants and bars as of July 1.

But with less than a week to go Avramopoulos announced eleventh- hour exceptions regarding offices and casinos.

All offices employing more than 50 people will have the right to maintain designated smoking rooms.

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• Hookah lounges serve up culture, controversy  

Sky is apparently the first hookah lounge in Fairfield County and one of two in the region that opened this month. Trying to brew a new, culturally diverse pastime, the lounges unintentionally stoked up controversy and confusion among local and state officials who are mulling where they fit in with the state ban on smoking in public places.

The confusion is evident in the reactions of Fairfield and Milford's health departments -- both of which initially told the lounges not to serve food or alcohol on the premises but didn't bar them from opening. Fairfield approved the opening after an inspection.

Milford's department forced The Olive Tree Hookah Lounge to close June 19, about two weeks after it opened in a small shopping plaza on Bridgeport Avenue, citing state law and city ordinance.

However, the department rescinded that order on Friday, following an appeal by Olive Tree owner Sammer Karout and his attorney. . . .

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office wasn't consulted regarding the lounges and he'd been unaware of them until contacted by a reporter last week.

They seem "problematic" under state law, but he'd need to know all the details to know whether they're within legal boundaries, he said, adding that the smoking ban is typically enforced by local police.

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