http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/businessgeneral.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.sltrib.com/ci_9277205 http://tobacco.org/news/265359.html Fifteen Dan's and Macey's grocery stores no longer will sell tobacco products starting June 1, joining three other Utah supermarkets that have stopped selling cigarettes, company officials said on Thursday. The stores, located from Logan to Utah County, join the two Dick's Markets in Centerville and Bountiful and a Ream's store in Provo that stopped tobacco sales in the mid-1990s. Dave Wirthlin, president of Dick's Market, Dan's and Macey's, said the decision to stop selling tobacco products came from health concerns for employees and shoppers, which far outweigh financial impacts from lost sales. "The long-term health effects of smoking on communities don't come close to any monetary gain from selling these products," said Wirthlin. "And it's inconsistent with our focus on a healthy lifestyle and family-first orientation that makes our stores unique." Salt Lake Tribune dawn@sltrib.com (Dawn House The Salt Lake Tribune) Fri, 16 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=c454b342-29a3-4f2f-bad4-ad3b981d8a1f http://tobacco.org/news/265358.html Two of Utah’s major grocery stores will no longer sell tobacco products. The owner of the stores says that the change is to help promote healthy living. Tobacco products will officially be taken off the shelves of Macey’s and Dan’s Food Stores on June 1st. President Dave Wirthlin says that they are very happy about the move and want to promote fresh products and good health. “Tobacco is the only product that even when used as directed, causes harm to the user and the people in the near vicinity,” said Wirthlin. KUTV CBS 2 /mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=40372@kutv.dayport.com (Reported by: Cristina Flores) Fri, 16 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/tue/may13h15.htm http://tobacco.org/news/265349.html Senior officials from the Ministry of Health yesterday held a briefing session for retailers and sundry shop vendors on the Tobacco Act 2005 and Regulations 2007. Chairing the briefing session was the Acting Director General of Health Services Dr Hjh Kalsom Abd Latif. On hand to present the briefing to attendees was Dr Hj Zulhilmi POKHP Dato Seri Setia Hj Abdullah, Senior Medical Officer, in his capacity as the Head of the Tobacco Control Unit. During the session, retailers and vendors were briefed on the regulations of selling cigarettes. . . . Contents of the Tobacco Act comprise of six main sections - Preliminary, Control of Tobacco Products, Advertising Control, Smoking in Specified Areas and Vehicles, Enforcement and General. Meanwhile, Regulation of Tobacco contains the Tobacco Regulations (Offences Composition) 2007, Tobacco Regulations (Exporters Licensing, Wholesalers and Sundry Shop Vendors) 2007, Tobacco Notice (Prohibition at Allocated Areas) 2007 and Tobacco Regulations (Labelling) 2007. Borneo Bulletin brupress@brunet.bn (Lyna Mohamad) Brunei Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7397454.stm http://tobacco.org/news/265346.html The supermarket chain Budgens has installed face recognition cameras in one of its stores to stop children buying alcohol and cigarettes. It is thought to be the first time a UK retailer has used the technology to identify underage customers. The scheme is being piloted at an unnamed branch of Budgens in London. If the system recognises someone who has previously been unable to prove they are 18, a signal alerts the cashier who will refuse to serve them. BBC Online UK Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotia/1055774.html http://tobacco.org/news/265335.html Bob Gee will have his day in court. The Kentville tobacconist, who has been defying provincial law on displaying cigarettes, was charged Tuesday with improper display and storage of tobacco products. Mr. Gee, owner of Mader's Tobacco Store, is the first to be charged under the province's new laws prohibiting the display of cigarettes. He was ordered last February to comply with the regulations governing tobacco vendors or be charged under the Tobacco Access Act. At the time, he was given 30 days to comply. "I was sort of expecting it, but I was hoping they would change the regulations so I could do my job," Mr. Gee, 63, said in an interview. . . . While he removed his store window displays, as required under the law, he refused to abide by the new regulations passed last December requiring him to remove all in-store displays. He was also ordered at that time to stop selling other items in his tobacco shop, including newspapers, gum, chocolate, soft drinks and other products. Under the act, tobacconists are permitted to sell tobacco and tobacco-related products only. He has not complied with that order either Halifax Chronicle Herald gdelaney@herald.ca (GORDON DELANEY Valley Bureau) Canada Wed, 14 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f798b8f9-0213-47c4-81af-dfa3e158f357 http://tobacco.org/news/265333.html Quebec's anti-tobacco troopers have quietly been instructed to wink at their own law when the next big deadline in the provincial war on smoking dawns May 31. A provincial health official conceded Thursday tobacco stores won't face immediate fines if they haven't squirrelled their supplies of smokes out of the sight of every single customer by the original target date. Corner-store owners have quietly been granted an unspecified amount of extra breathing time before they'll start to get dinged with fines that could range from $300 to $2,000 for a first offence. Montreal Gazette mailto:ariga@thegazette.canwest.com Canada Thu, 15 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1026911 http://tobacco.org/news/265284.html A tobacco vendor in Mattawa has lost the right to sell cigarettes for six months after being convicted of repeat tobacco sales to minors, according to the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit. The two convictions against the owner of Mick's Gas Bar, 720 John St., were registered Sept. 8, 2005 and Aug. 23, 2007, and resulted from charges laid by one of the health unit's tobacco enforcement officers. North Bay Nugget /Account/Profile.aspx?un=gandefaulkner@sympatico.ca Canada Wed, 14 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article3925375.ece http://tobacco.org/news/265268.html The chief executive of Enterprise Inns, Britain's second-biggest pub company, said today that trading conditions in the past six months had been the worst he could remember. Ted Tuppen, who founded the tenanted pub group in 1991, said that the smoking ban, the consumer spending downturn and rising costs had combined to ensure "the worst six months the industry has probably ever experienced". Times Of London UK Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121071528440489671.html?mod=googlenews_wsj http://tobacco.org/news/265244.html The spinoff of Altria Group Inc.'s international cigarette arm -- Philip Morris International, valued at $113 billion -- is causing angst in the London offices of Wall Street investment banks, particularly Morgan Stanley, that failed to land advisory roles. Being one of the few firms to miss out on such a large deal hurts a bank's ambitions in the annual merger rankings known as league tables, especially in a year when big merger deals are few and far between. . . . Seven investment banks got credit for separating Philip Morris International, whose operations center is in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was a massive share distribution that handed Philip Morris International stock to Altria shareholders on a one-for-one basis on March 28. They are: Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Centerview Partners LLC, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Credit Suisse Group. Morgan Stanley's failure to land an advisory role on the deal is a major setback for its quest to remain the No. 1 M&A adviser in Europe The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition Wed, 14 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://consumerist.com/5008741/hey-burger-king-this-cigarette-lighter-makes-a-less+than+ideal-kids-meal-toy http://tobacco.org/news/265229.html A South Bend, Indiana family is a little ticked off after finding a cigarette lighter in their child's Burger King kid's meal, says WSJV. The Consumerist commenting+5008741.5664200@consumerist.com (Meg Marco) Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/BillSteigerwald/2008/05/09/taking_out_the_junk_interview_with_steven_milloy http://tobacco.org/news/265226.html When Al Gore and his global warming alarmists take over, one of the first citizens they'll slap in a prison and charge with crimes against the (green) state will be Steven J. Milloy, founder and publisher of the popular Web site JunkScience.com. For 12 years, JunkScience.com has worked to debunk the bad science that has been used to advance the harmful or merely silly political and social agendas of environmentalists that have led to things such as bans on DDT and incandescent light bulbs. Milloy is a self-described libertarian whose other unforgivable crimes include working for Fox News Channel and associating with think tanks that accept oil and/or tobacco money. He visited Pittsburgh Thursday to appear at an Alcoa stockholders meeting. I talked to him by cell phone as he drove back to his home near Washington, D.C. . . . Q: Why should we believe anything you say, if indeed you are supported by energy and tobacco companies? A: I’ll just turn that around on you: Why should we believe anything the environmentalists say? They have been proven time and time again to be wrong. Their actions have resulted in documentable harm to people. They have political as well as financial interests. Town Hall Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/12/biometric-vending-machines http://tobacco.org/news/265204.html JAPANESE SCHOOL KIDS could soon be wishing they could swap their baby faces for a few wrinkles or liver spots, because a company has just come up with a new biometric vending machine to prevent minors from buying cigarettes. . . . Last month we reported that Japan’s 'Tobacco Institute' had decided that, by July 2008, all Japanese smokers would have to carry a Taspo (tobacco passport), to prove their age. The cards would work in much the same way as a debit card, being able to offer proof of age and pay for the cigarettes at the same time. But, says Hajime Yamamoto, spokesman for Fujitaka, with new biometric machines "the problem of minors borrowing (identification) cards to purchase cigarettes could be avoided". He also reckoned that the machine got the age right about 90 per cent of the time, which is relatively high. If the machine was unsure, the customer would be asked to insert a driving license for additional proof. The Inquirer Japan Mon, 12 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/13/japan.health http://tobacco.org/news/265203.html Teenage smokers in Japan could soon be taking their last illicit puffs thanks to the introduction of cigarette-vending machines that can spot underage customers just by looking at them. The machines are equipped with a digital camera that can compare users' facial characteristics with a database of more than 100,000 people. Their ability to spot sagging skin, wrinkles around the eyes and other signs of maturity means underage smokers - in Japan anyone under 20 - will have to look elsewhere for their nicotine fix. Though the machines have yet to be approved amid doubts about their accuracy, their maker, Fujitaka, believes they will be indispensable to attempts to cut smoking rates among teenagers. The Guardian reader@guardian.co.uk (Justin McCurry in Tokyo) Japan Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080512/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_wrinkle_smoking_1 http://tobacco.org/news/265148.html Cigarette vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow's feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke. The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20 and as the country's 570,000 tobacco vending machines prepare for a July regulation requiring them to ensure buyers are not underage, a company has developed a system to identify age by studying facial features. By having the customer look into a digital camera attached to the machine, Fujitaka Co's system will compare facial characteristics, such as wrinkles surrounding the eyes, bone structure and skin sags, to the facial data of over 100,000 people, Hajime Yamamoto, a company spokesman said. Reuters Japan Mon, 12 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/05/12/story4.html?ana=from_rss http://tobacco.org/news/265130.html A plan to increase Ohio's employment base is starting with a round of job cuts. Northlich, a Cincinnati-based advertising agency that for six years worked on Ohio's anti-smoking campaigns, cut 27 employees at its Columbus and Cincinnati offices after the state abolished the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation. The workers were casualties of the state's plan to use $230 million of the foundation's $270 million endowment for Gov. Ted Strickland's stimulus package that's designed to create 57,000 jobs. Business First of Columbus Fri, 09 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT