Tobacco.org

Ban on cigarillos clears last stage at Senate 

A ban on flavoured tobacco products will come into effect as early as July, as the proposed private member's bill received royal assent Thursday in the Senate.

The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act will mean an immediate ban on advertising flavoured tobacco products in newspapers and magazines.

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Stephen McGinty: Have a cigar – and do Cuba's tobacco rollers a good turn 

AT the Conservative Party conference this week, David Cameron was chastised for taking a sip of champagne at the Spectator bash. . . .

So the image of David Cameron sipping a glass of bubbly at, roughly, £9 a glass is wrong, but few batted an eyelid at the sight of Peter Mandelson, the epitome of New Labour, delivering his speech the previous week, while wearing, as later reported, ...

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Cathage [sic] woman accused of having untaxed cigarettes 

A Carthage woman is accused of having 25 cartons of untaxed cigarettes when she was stopped by police in St. Lawrence County.

State Police say the traffic stop was on State Route 37 in Morristown.

Patricia Norton, 52, is charged with possession of unstamped cigarettes and evading payment of cigarette tax. . . .

The illegal cigarettes included Montagne cigarettes and three cartons of Canadian Blend, police said.

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Cigarette thief: The brand-conscious suspect has been lifting Newport cigarettes from Circle K stores.  

Polk authorities are looking for a man they say stole Newport cigarettes from Circle K stores in the Lakeland area on at least three occasions while wearing the same outfit: white shirt, black shorts and white sneakers.

The most recent incident happened Oct. 5, when a man asked for a carton Newports at the Circle K at 3730 Airport Road, and then took off without paying, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

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VIDEO: Saving Lives with Fire Safe Cigarettes  

Can cigarettes be safe? A new design in the cigarette itself may be able to answer that question. on October first, Wisconsin became the latest state to require retailers to sell "fire safe cigarettes."

You can tell if the pack contains fire safe cigarettes by the markings on the box. FSC stands for fire safe cigarettes. They are designed to snuff themselves out if left unattended. Smokers like Rick Schwantes likes the idea. "I've fallen asleep a couple of times with a lit cigarette, but I woke up in time. I've been lucky, yeah. So you think it's a good idea? Yes I do."

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• Anti-smoking advocates release study results 

A new study was released today on secondhand smoke in Indianapolis. The study measured air quality at ten workplaces in the city.

The group Smoke-Free Indy found the indoor air pollution was 11 times higher in these venues compared to smoke-free establishments.

"It is time to enact a comprehensive public health ordinance that seeks to protect workers in Indianapolis - our patients - from the adverse health effects of secondhand smoke. It is unconscionable especially in this current economy to place our citizens in a position of having to decide between their own health and whether or not to keep their current job," said Dr. Christopher Doehring, St. Francis Hospital.

The results were announced at Crackers Comedy Club, a smoke- free venue. This comes as the City-County Council considers expanding the smoking ban to all work places in Indianapolis.

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Vermilion agency says fine over smoking first in state 

The Vermilion County Health Department says a Hoopeston bar owner is the first in Illinois to be fined for a violation of the state smoking ban.

An administrative law judge upheld the $100 fine in late September against Deano's on Main in Hoopeston for violating the law against indoor smoking in Illinois, according to a release from the county's health department.

The release said a health department worker on a routine inspection last March saw a customer smoking, and that the department had received "multiple complaints from the public" about smoking at the bar. The department issued a violation and fined the bar. The administrative judge upheld that fine.

The Vermilion County department said this is the first successful ruling in the state under the law banning smoking.

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No smoking fallout?  

Butte bar and casino patrons don't appear to be avoiding their favorite watering holes despite the statewide smoking ban.

Jim Dodd Sr. has been a smoker for 30 years and an admitted creature of habit. But the law banning smoking in all bars and casinos, which went into effect Oct. 1, hasn't stopped him from making his regular stops at the Met Tavern, 1375 Harrison Ave.

"You come down here to see your friends and have a good time," he said Monday afternoon as he watched the Colorado Rockies on one of the bar televisions.

When the urge hits him to smoke, he steps outside like everyone else.

"I'm too old to change," the 55-year-old said.

Initial fears that the smoking ban would hurt the tavern and casino businesses so far appear unfounded, according to some.

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Traverse City Commissioners to decide park smoking ban 

The City Commission continues to look at a proposed ordinance that would ban smoking in city parks.

We're told the main reasons for the ban are to prevent unwanted second hand smoke and keep city property free of cigarette butts.

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Federal inmates fight smoking ban 

A group of inmates is challenging a ban on smoking inside and on the property of federal prisons that was implemented in May 2008.

The case is scheduled to go before a Federal Court judge on Wednesday.

Dale Tremblay, who was a pack-a-day smoker before Corrections Canada banned smoking at the Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines institution, north of Montreal, says the ban is unfair.

"You were jonesing after your meals, you always had to do something to get your mind off it," said Tremblay, who was released in August after serving an eight-year sentence. . . .

While inmates at provincial jails in Quebec can still smoke outside the building, smoking is not permitted on the property of federal institutions.

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Blackburn newsagent disappointed at cigarette display ban vote 

It will now be considered by the House of Lords and could mean cigarettes removed from display by 2013.

Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “We are delighted that MPs have voted to protect young people from tobacco marketing.

”Putting tobacco out of sight in shops and removing cigarette vending machines will help reduce the number of young people taking up a lethal addiction: tobacco kills half of all long term users.”

But Blackburn councillor Suleman Khonat, who is national president of the National Federation of retail Newsagents (NFRN), said: “We are very disappointed that tobacco displays are scheduled to be removed from 2013 in small stores.

”Independent newsagents truly support the Department of Health’s efforts in reducing smoking overall but this legislation has been ill thought-out and will be ineffective.

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Case Studies 

In 1999, the House of Commons Health Select Committee acquired access to internal documents of the main advertising agencies of the UK tobacco industry as part of their investigation into the conduct of the tobacco industry. A range of documents were obtained including: contact reports between client and agency, client briefs, creative briefs, media briefs, media schedules, advertising budgets and market research reports (their own and others by contracted agencies).

The Centre for Tobacco Control Research at the University of Strathclyde have used the TobaccoPapers.com searchable archive as a tool to analyse these advertising agency documents and to develop a series of five marketing Case Studies. The subjects covered are Discount Brands, Sponsorship, the Low Tar Product Category, Rolling Tobacco and Tobacco Marketing and Young People.

Relevant keywords have been used to search the archive and each Case Study contains many extracts from the resulting internal documents to demonstrate how the UK tobacco industry and their advertising agencies market their products.

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• Tobacco Research Reveals The Packet Racket 

The tobacco industry has side stepped laws banning advertising and promotion by skilfully marketing cigarettes to reel in smokers according to a new Cancer Research UK study* yesterday (Monday).

Between 2003 and 2005 the Tobacco Advertising and Promotions Act (TAPA) outlawed all tobacco advertising. Since then the tobacco industry has invested heavily in their packaging, with cleverly marketed new brand names, colours, sizes, shapes and materials to attract new smokers and help keep existing smokers from switching brands. . . .

The researchers cite the introduction of picture warnings on packs as an example of where they believe pack design has been altered to undermine the anti tobacco images.

In the four months after the graphic pictures were added the tobacco industry went into overdrive adding more new distracting images to packs during that period than for the previous four years.

These measures are all designed to make tobacco appear glamorous and desirable despite more than 114,000 people in the UK dying each year from smoking-related diseases including cancers.

Professor Gerard Hastings , lead researcher based at the Institute for Social Marketing at the University of Stirling, said: "Tobacco packaging is no longer the 'silent salesman' it once was, now it shouts loudly. These screams for attention are used to defy advertising bans and drown out health warnings. The industry will fight tenaciously but the only consistent and effective policy response is generic packaging.

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Tobacco packaging is no longer the 'silent salesman' it once was, now it shouts loudly. These screams for attention are used to defy advertising bans and drown out health warnings. The industry will fight tenaciously but the only consistent and effective policy response is generic packaging.
Professor Gerard Hastings , lead researcher based at the Institute for Social Marketing at the University of Stirling.

JOYCE: No butts about it / Smoking section needed  

The attempt to make San Jose City College a smoke-free campus has thus far been a complete failure.

With lack of enforcement, ashtrays around the school, and students who disagreed with the rule to begin with, it is easy to see why this is happening.

What’s the solution to the problem, you might ask? Well, that’s simple. A smoking section would best satisfy the pack-a-day smokers, health freaks, and everyone in between. . . .

A smoking section would allow the majority of the students to further enjoy their days at San Jose City College. Smokers get to smoke away, non-smokers get to stay away (from the smoke), and everyone in between shouldn’t really care that much.

Every day the “No Smoking” signs are looked past, laughed at, and stand for nothing.

A smoking section should have been the first solution to the problem last year, and its time we correct our mistakes and make this happen for the betterment of the school and its many students.

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Indicative regulatory cost analysis of proposed tobacco retail display ban for convenience store operators in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia (PDF) 

Executive Summary

A retail display ban (RDB) for tobacco products has recently been implemented in New South Wales and is also proposed for implementation in Victoria and Western Australia. Convenience stores will need to make adjustments to their store configuration and to their operating procedures to comply with a RDB. Deloitte has been engaged by the Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) to assist with an analysis of the likely compliance costs associated with a RDB for convenience store operators. This report outlines the approach and the results of the analysis.

The approach we have adopted for undertaking this analysis has been based on the regulatory costing approach used for Regulatory Impact Statements in Victoria. This methodology focuses on assessing the additional economic costs resulting from compliance with a new regulation and, in particular, estimating the additional business activities (primarily measured in time).

The data contained in this report was gathered through 30 face to face interviews with a sample of convenience store operators in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. The sample was drawn from a population of the convenience store operators who are members of the AACS which has membership of 4200 stores1. Convenience stores who were not part of the AACS membership were not included in the interview process, however, given they follow a similar operating model it is reasonable to expect that they will face similar compliance costs. Nationally, there are approximately 14,400 other convenience store style retail outlets who are not members of the AACS2.

Other retailers impacted by the retail display ban, but not included in this study, include supermarkets, specialist tobacconists, duty free operators and other venues selling tobacco such as hotels and clubs. Nationally, there are approximately 12,700 outlets, other than convenience stores, where tobacco products are stocked3.

Major cost categories

Potential cost categories identified during the interviews with convenience store operators were the following:

• one-off costs: store fit-out costs

• recurring costs: increased transaction time, restocking costs, training costs, costs from having a single point of sale, increased shrinkage, workplace safety, change in sales, compliance with different legislation and regulations in different states. Estimates of one-off costs

Compliance with this new legislation is expected to require significant reconfiguring of existing shop layouts. This includes costs associated with fitting new tobacco storage units as well as the refitting of old tobacco display units for the purpose of other displays. It was estimated by surveyed retailers that this refit would cost between $5,000 and $10,000 per store. These estimates are presented for AACS members in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia, and, for illustrative purposes, for AACS members in other states and a national total for AACS members. The breadth of the range is reflective of the different approaches to compliance proposed by interviewees and the differences in existing fit-outs at each site. Estimates for one-off costs fell within this range in all three surveyed states.

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