Tobacco.org

• Smoker decides to grow his own tobacco 

A general contractor who lives in Peninsula, Carey has been a cigarette and cigar smoker most of his adult life.

But when April 1 came and he read that taxes on tobacco products increased, he took action.

Carey went on the Internet and found places where he could purchase tobacco seeds.

Within about a week, he had received 40 types of seeds and his life as a tobacco farmer was planted.

''This project is something of an experiment to identify varieties of tobacco suitable for growing in our climate,'' Carey said.

7,000 plants in ground

The tiny seeds, so small they can hardly be seen, grew into plants by mid-June. And when the ground had warmed up, a group of friends helped him put the plants into the ground -- 7,000 in all.

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• FCTC Article 11 / Tobacco Warning Labels: Evidence and Recommendations from the ITC Project (PDF) 

ARTICLE 11 GUIDELINES

• Labels should appear on both front and back of the package Article 11 of the FCTC states that health warnings on cigarette packages should cover at least 50 percent of

• Labels should be at the TOP of the package the principal display areas (both the front and back) of the

• Labels should be as large as possible (at least 50% of the package) tobacco package, but at a minimum must cover at least 30 percent of the principal display areas. It also requires

• Labels should include full colour pictures that warnings be rotated; large, clear, visible and legible;

• Labels should rotate multiple messages and approved by the competent national authority. Strong international guidelines for Article 11 adopted in November

• Labels should include a range of warnings and messages 2008 during the Third Conference of the Parties recognize

• Labels should include information on harms of tobacco smoke the evidence that effectiveness of health warnings increases with their size and that pictorial warnings have

• Labels should provide advice about cessation a greater impact than text-only warnings. The Guidelines

• Labels should list constituents without numbers

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• HUGHES: You can escape the ciggy siren's song, not its silence 

I have a confession to make. Ten years after giving up smoking I have started the wretched habit again. And it's not just the occasional puff. Rather, it's the full-on 15-a-day craving-led nicotine addiction that I swore blind to rid myself of forever a decade ago.

I kept my promise faithfully for more than 3,600 days so why did I relapse? Why have I gone back to almost kippering myself on a daily basis when just a few weeks ago I found the smell chokingly repugnant?

Quite simply, Beijing seduced me like a sexy siren.

Within one week of stepping off the plane, I tentatively, guiltily accepted the offer of a splendidly-branded Craven A from a colleague after watching him inhale with an almost beatific look of pleasure following a fine meal washed down with plenty of thirst-quenching beer. I must admit when I lit up it felt good. It was as if I had breathed new life into the ghost of my old addiction. . . .

discovering how incredibly cheap they are here. My chosen brand cost 5 yuan. Back home in the UK they are more than 10 times that. Only a serious addict would fork out so much at that price.

Then there is the near ubiquitous tolerance of smoking here. . . .

In London, I didn't smoke at home because I had young children. A smoking ban in bars and restaurants was rigidly enforced. At work you had to leave the office . . .

However, the government, despite receiving mountains of excise revenue from the habit, has been trying to discourage it.

Smoking is banned inside all public buildings in Beijing. Just this week, it was announced the government had raised consumption tax on cigarettes by between 6 and 11 percent both to curb smoking and add revenue to state coffers.

But there has not yet been a seismic shift in society's laissez-faire attitude to smokers and smoking and, until there is, it is a habit that will not be stubbed out.

Now, excuse me, sucker that I am, while I nip out to satisfy my craving.

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• An old familiar lifestyle is gone in a puff  

The new decision by Clark County's subsidized housing agency to ban smoking in some of its properties reflects Washington's successful crusade to drive down cigarette use.

But the heated disputes between smokers and nonsmokers in Richard's building, inflamed by the VHA's action, also reflect an awkward fact about Washington's anti-smoking campaign: it's been relatively unsuccessful among the poor.

Heavy smokers who live in Richard's building, Esther Short Commons on the west side of downtown Vancouver's Esther Short Park, said they'll do as smokers whose buildings go smoke-free have done for decades: move to another place as soon as they can.

But the continuing spread of no-smoking apartments is leaving smokers with a new worry.

Where can you smoke, if not in the projects?

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• ETRC issues rallying cry against proposed tobacco ban 

The duty-free group has urged the industry to contact governments in the final days before talks begin on the World Health Organization illicit trade protocol

The European Travel Retail Council (ETRC) has issued a final rallying call for the duty-free industry to contact governments in the days leading up to the third round of negotiations on the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) protocol on illicit trade that threatens a ban on the sale and import of duty-free tobacco products. ETRC secretary general Keith Spinks asked companies "to make a final round of intensive contacts", particularly in countries "where political engagement has been difficult or where there is still no clear indication from governments on their policy on duty-free sales".

Proposals for the prohibition of duty-free tobacco sales were initially tabled at the second negotiating session in October 2008, but ETRC and other global industry stakeholders have since lobbied the relevant authorities to refute allegations that duty-free sales at airports, on board airlines and in border shops contribute to illicit trade, succeeding in changing the draft text of the protocol to remove an outright ban on tobacco sales to travellers.

Tobacco control activists including the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) have now published their positions in advance of the third round of negotiations calling for the inclusion of a new article specifically to ban duty-free tobacco sales to international travellers, as well as condemning the duty-free trade association's efforts to prevent such a prohibition from being implemented.

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• Developing world faces black market cigarette plague 

A growing global trade in black market cigarettes is killing tens of thousands of people a year, causing massive health problems and costing governments billions of pounds, a hard-hitting report warns today.

A staggering 657 billion cigarettes a year are sold illicitly by organised crime gangs, half of all tobacco sold in some countries is contraband, and £24.6bn in taxes are never paid, it says.

The report makes plain that, contrary to the tobacco industry's claims, cigarette smuggling is much more common and damaging in poorer countries. Inefficient law enforcement, lax border controls and corruption among police and government officials mean smugglers find it easier to move large consignments of stolen or counterfeit cigarettes into countries in the developing world. . . .

The report comes as representatives of governments gather in Geneva to negotiate the first worldwide protocol on illicit trade in tobacco products. Heavily backed by many EU countries, the treaty is expected to lead to co-ordinated global action to try to tackle the problem. Some African administrations are sceptical because they believe it will cost them money to implement, but campaigners say that they will actually make money by ultimately being able to increase the tax on legally sold cigarettes once the black market has been tackled.

The study, part-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been written by Martin Raw of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at Nottingham University, David Merriman of Illinois University in Chicago, Hana Ross of the American Cancer Society and Luk Joossens of the Brussels-based Framework Convention Alliance pro-treaty organisation. It is called "How eliminating the global illict cigarette trade would increase tax revenue and save lives".

"The burden of illicit trade falls mainly on lower-income countries", the study found.

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