Tobacco.org

• Altria Taking Snus Nationwide  

Cigarette maker Altria Group Inc. said Thursday that it plans to expand its Marlboro Snus smokeless tobacco nationwide by the end of March as it looks to shore up its business as American smoke fewer cigarettes.

The Richmond-based owner of Philip Morris USA, which makes the top-selling Marlboro brand, began testing the product in select markets in 2007. Snus (pronounced "snoose") are teabag-like pouches that users stick between their cheek and gum.

As tax increases, health concerns, smoking bans and social stigma continue cutting demand for cigarettes, Altria and other tobacco companies are seeking growth in cigarette alternatives - such as cigars, snuff and chewing tobacco - to keep customers.

In a presentation at a consumer analyst conference on Thursday, Altria's Chief Executive Michael E. Szymanczyk said a significant number of consumers now switch between tobacco categories and use different kinds of tobacco products but offered no figures.

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Pressure groups want higher tobacco tax  

The National Council Against Smoking (NCAS) has urged finance minister Pravin Gordhan to review tobacco tax rates in South Africa.

Gordhan announced that cigarette tax would increase by R1,24 per pack.

The group accused government of sticking to a policy which kept tobacco taxes low in favour of tobacco companies at the detriment of public health and government revenues.

The group said South Africa's tax rates on tobacco were among the lowest in the world. "Since 1997 government set the cigarette tax rate at 50% of retail price and gradually increased it to 52% in 2002," the NCAS said in a statement. It has remained at 52% since

According to the NCAS smokers in Ireland would part with R93 for a packet of 20 cigarettes which makes up 79% of the retail price. They said the average tax incidence in the 27 member states of the European Union was 78%.

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FLEENOR: Georgia Tobacco Tax Favors High-Income Counties 

The flood of new, detailed data on public finance in usable formats continues to change what's possible when analyzing public policy. Data on personal consumption of products can be combined with tax and spending data to reveal enlightening patterns. Tobacco is often at the forefront of this type of analysis because health-related studies track its consumption carefully and because taxes on it are generally high and well documented.

Consider Georgia's cigarette excise. The Georgia Department of Human Resources divides the state into 18 public health districts and publishes data on the rate of smoking in each. Since cigarette tax revenue goes into the general fund, providing benefits to residents in the same proportions as other general fund money, we can safely conclude that the cigarette tax transfers funds from areas with high smoking rates to those with low smoking rates. . . .

Cigarette taxes are one of those areas of tax policy where there is a great divide between what the public favors and what tax economists generally see as sound tax policy. Cigarette taxes tend to reduce economic welfare and harm tax equity across several dimensions. They are horizontally inequitable because within income groups only some—i.e. smokers—are required to pay a tax that funds general government services. There are vertically inequitable—or regressive—because they place a much higher burden on low-income smokers than they do on high-income smokers. Moreover, in Georgia, they tend to shift income from low- to relatively high-income areas.

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Tobacco tax hike 'not enough' 

The government squandered another opportunity to encourage smokers to quit and to raise revenues, the National Council Against Smoking said on Wednesday.

Council spokesperson Dr Yussuf Saloojee said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's budget increase of R1.24 more on a packet of 20 cigarettes was no surprise.

"[The] finance minister has obdurately stuck to a policy which keeps tobacco taxes low and so favours the tobacco companies at the expense of public health and government revenues," he said.

He said tax on tobacco products in South Africa was the lowest in the world.

The government has since 1997 set the cigarette tax rate at 50% of retail price, which increased marginally to 52% in 2002," he said.

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• What Do Children Do in Tobacco Farms?  

In a new finding, Plan, one of the largest children's development organizations, released a report stating that an estimated 78,000 children in Malawi are working in the tobacco estates — a finding that completely contradicts laws governing child protection.

Founded over 70 years ago, Plan is one of the oldest and largest children's development organizations in the world. It works in 48 developing countries across Africa, Asia, and the Americas to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty.

The Malawi Constitution section 23 says,

Children are entitled to be protected from economic exploitation or any treatment, work, or punishment that is, or is likely to be hazardous; interfere with their education or harmful to their health or to their physical or mental or spiritual or social development.

The report, Hard Work, Long Hours and Little Pay, claims that the number of children working in the tobacco estates "could be much higher."

Minister of Labor Yunus Mussa and the Tobacco Association of Malawi (TAMA) officials' — a governmental organization — told journalists at a press briefing in Lilongwe that the report was not true. . . .

The report explains that it was the children themselves who chose to work. This happens out of their strong sense of responsibility toward their families, particularly those living with aging grandparents — ill or disabled parents

Plan Malawi also found out that symptoms of green tobacco sickness were widely reported though none of the children linked these symptoms to the tobacco they handled. . . .

Following the report, Washington-based International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) reported that it was happy to have Malawi tobacco on the watch list for child labor.

ILRF's campaign director, Tim Newman, said in an e-mail interview to IslamOnline.net that they recommended to the US government to include tobacco from Malawi on the US watch list of products that are produced through child labor or indenture labor.

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• Press Release: How Healthy Is Your County? New County Health Rankings Give First County-by-County Snapshot of Health in Each State 

The County Health Rankings--the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in all 50 states--were released today by the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at a briefing in Washington, D.C and on www.countyhealthrankings.org. The 50 state reports help public health and community leaders, policy-makers, consumers and others to see how healthy their county is, compare it with others within their state and find ways to improve the health of their community.

Each county is ranked within the state on how healthy people are and how long they live. They also are ranked on key factors that affect health such as: smoking, obesity, binge drinking, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty. . . .

Poorly ranked counties often had multiple challenges to overcome, including:

* Two- and three-fold higher rates of premature death, often from preventable conditions.

* High smoking rates that lead to cancer, heart disease, bronchitis and emphysema. . . .

In addition, the Rankings show sharp health disparities even in counties located right next to each other. For example, someone living in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which ranked highest in the state for overall health, has a better shot at staying healthy than a resident of nearby Delaware County, which ranked 36th out of 67 and has higher rates of smoking, adult obesity and violent crime, and higher numbers of children living in poverty.

"These Rankings demonstrate that health happens where we live, learn, work and play. And much of what influences how healthy we are and how long we live happens outside the doctor's office,"

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County Health Rankings Launches at National Event in Washington, D.C.  

Join national, state, and local health leaders for the release of the County Health Rankings, a first-of-its-kind collection of 50 reports - one per state - that ranks all counties within each state on their overall health.

A collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, the Rankings show how counties measure up within each state in terms of how healthy people are, how long they live, and how important factors affect their health, such as tobacco use, obesity, access to healthcare, education, community safety, and air quality.

The County Health Rankings is a new standard for public health and community leaders to use in identifying gaps and developing solutions to improve the health of their communities. This is the first release of what will be an annual snapshot of county-by-county health within each state.

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County Health Rankings: National Comparisons  

The County Health Rankings identify the healthiest and least healthy counties within every state in the nation. When you compare the 50 healthiest counties (one from every state), with the 50 least healthy counties, some striking trends emerge: . . .

* Smoking rates: People living in the least healthy counties are much more likely to smoke--over 26%, compared to only 16% in the healthiest counties.

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County-By-County Report Sizes Up Americans' Health 

A new ranking of nearly every county in the nation shows significant disparities in the overall health of residents, depending on where they live.

Researchers from University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation used data on premature deaths, self-reports about health and factors such as smoking rates, obesity, teen births, the percentage of children in poverty and number of liquor stores vs. grocery stores to rank more than 3,000 counties nationwide against others in their state.

Researchers then chose each state's healthiest county and compared it to each state's unhealthiest county. Among the findings:

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Report compares health county-by-county  

For the first time, a new report reveals how counties across America stack up when it comes to health.

Today, whether you live in Malibu or Atlanta, you can learn if your community is holding its own in health. "County Health Rankings: Mobilizing Action Toward Community Health," a health report card for almost every one of the nation's more than 3,000 counties, is being released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin's Population Health Institute.

"This is a complicated story about what makes a community healthy and another not so healthy," says report author Pat Remington, the associate dean for public health at the University of Wisconsin.

For example, researchers point to cities reputed for their top-quality medical centers -- Baltimore and Philadelphia-- that ranked near the bottom in their respective states.

"Social, economic and health habits may be at play there," says James Marks, senior vice president and director of the foundation's health group. . . .

The report ranks each county in two ways: "Health Outcomes" and "Health Factors." Health outcomes are derived from a county's disease and death rates.

The health factors rating is more complex, culled from sources that keep tabs on obesity rates, tobacco use and alcohol consumption. . . .

"The 'Health Outcomes' rank is about where they are now. The 'Health Factors' rank is about where they are going -- predictors of health," Marks says.

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Study Ranks N. C. Counties By Health 

Harnett and Johnston counties find themselves in the middle of the pack when it comes to health while Sampson County is a good deal lower, according to a survey conducted by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The institute compiled data to determine the health of counties in each of the 50 U.S. states. . . .

Harnett County

The report determined 27 percent of adults in Harnett County smoked . . .

Johnston County

In Johnston County, 25 percent of adults smoked . . .

Sampson County had 26 percent of adults smoking . . .

Across North Carolina, 9 percent of children were born with a low birthweight, 23 percent of adults smoked and 29 percent were obese.

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Ford Extends His Deadline, Officially (Updated) 

Today, in some of the harshest rhetoric to date, Ford issued an open letter than slammed the junior senator.

He made no apologies for his Wall Street roots and reiterated his demand that Gillibrand release her taxes from the years she spent defending tobacco giant Philip Morris as a private attorney in the 1990's. . . .

UPDATE: Gillibrand spokesman Glen Caplin responded:

"Harold Ford called for transparency of Wall street bonuses, and now refuses to be transparent about his own taxpayer-backed bonus. And when Harold Ford was a Tennessee Congressman, he failed to post his official daily schedule, personal financial disclosure, and earmark requests online.

"The facts are that as a Tennessee Congressman Ford voted to protect big tobacco interests, while Kirsten Gillibrand votes for public health and against big tobacco 100% of the time."

Also, a reader requested that I post the entire text of Ford's open letter, so here it is: . . .

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EDITORIAL: N.Y. can’t have it both ways on tobacco taxes  

New Yorkers are used to getting nickel-and-dimed to death from their state government. In fact, it has become the state's favored way to create more revenue. . . .

And while Paterson is ready to jack the tax on a pack of smokes by a buck, funds for tobacco-cessation programs in the state are being cut. That's hypocrisy.

Adding another dollar of taxes onto each pack isn't going to expand the ranks of former smokers. If you can't quit when the price is a jaw-dropping $7 or $8, what's another buck? Maybe that's what Paterson is betting on as well.

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Man injured in fire at north-side apartment complex 

A 51-year-old man who was smoking while using a home oxygen tank suffered life-threatening injuries in a fire at a north-side apartment Wednesday evening, authorities said.

The fire was reported at 5;19 p.m. at the Fox Point Apartments in the 3700 block of North Campbell Avenue near East Prince Road, said Capt. Tricia Tracy, a Tucson Fire Department spokeswoman. . . .

Fire investigators attributed the cause of the fire to the man smoking while using his oxygen tank, he said.

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