http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/france.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WCV-4W73H7F-3&_user=10&_coverDate=04%2F30%2F2010&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=66b0d289d5244616b0df0e8b9bcb5bb6 http://tobacco.org/news/297591.html Results Patients with schizophrenia smoked more often compared with controls (73% vs 57%). In contrast, the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy did not differ between the groups of mothers. Indeed, the amount of tobacco used was significantly lower in mothers of patients with schizophrenia vs mothers of nonpsychotic subjects. Conclusion This study did not show any association between prenatal tobacco exposure and further development of schizophrenia. Science Direct florence.thibaut@chu-rouen.fr France Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.medwire-news.md/47/86552/Psychiatry/Prenatal_tobacco_exposure_not_linked_to_later_schizophrenia.html http://tobacco.org/news/297573.html Prenatal tobacco exposure does not increase the risk for schizophrenia in children, French scientists have discovered. Smoking during pregnancy has been associated with cognitive and behavioral disorders in their children. Although the underlying mechanisms are unclear, it has been suggested that alterations in the development of the dopamine systems may be involved. . . . Those with schizophrenia were significantly more likely to be smokers than controls, at 73% versus 57%, although there were no significant differences in the age of onset of smoking and the daily amount of tobacco smoked. Patients were also significantly more likely to use cannabis, at 40.4% versus 27.0%. . . . “Our retrospective observational study did not show any association between prenatal tobacco exposure and further development of schizophrenia,” the researchers say in the journal Comprehensive Psychiatry. MedWire News France Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.queersighted.com/2010/02/24/the-french-anti-smoking-ad/ http://tobacco.org/news/297493.html Thanks to The New York Times for highlighting this story. But even they can't answer this question: why does the dominant person have his jacket on for the guys but off for the girl? . . . Finally, to spare the models unpleasantness, they have the proper end of the cigarette in their mouth, which means the lit end is being pressed into the man's crotch. The ad may not stop young people from smoking, but it will certainly stop older men from dating them. QS France Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.france24.com/en/20100224-child-sex-anti-smoking-ad-sets-french-tongues-wagging http://tobacco.org/news/297492.html Deliberately shocking anti-smoking adverts that compare nicotine addiction to sexual abuse, and which the French government has vowed to ban, sparked a lively debate on Wednesday. . . . One woman who phoned radio station Europe 1 to complain that the advert was not even comprehensible to the age group it aims to help. Her 12-year-old son "didn't understand it at all," she said. In a comment posted on the station's website, another commenter insisted: "The shame is not the ad but letting young people fall into the hands of harmful substances." France 24 France Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1967782,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/297491.html a controversy has erupted over an ad that some feel has gone a step too far: it doesn't just evoke oral sex, but actually simulates it. Worse still, the salacious images are targeting young people in what would otherwise be a laudable campaign -- trying to stop them from smoking. . . . Family groups, women's rights organizations and myriad bloggers have joined members of Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government in objecting to what the secretary of state for family affairs, Nadine Morano, has termed "a public outrage to decency" and vowed to ban. On Wednesday, the Association of French Families also filed an official complaint with the national advertising regulators, accusing the campaign of violating ethics rules. . . . the NSR group says it decided to use an image it believed teenagers would equate with a repulsive, manipulative elder convincing a young person to do his dirty bidding. But the ads are repelling more than just would-be smokers. Those in the tobacco industry, and even the owners of bars, cafes and shops where the posters have appeared, are outraged over the explicit sexual message in the images. Yves Trévilly, a spokesman for the French affiliate of British American Tobacco, lamented that someone working in the cigarette industry "could be compared to a rapist or a pedophile," while France's Confederation of Tobacco Vendors said the ad's intent was "no longer prevention, but uncalled-for provocation." This isn't the first high-profile, intentionally controversial campaign launched by the militant NSR, which late last year released a report showing that French people were increasingly flaunting anti-smoking laws in offices, cafes and trains. But the media fury generated by the oral-sex ads means the anti-smoking group has already accomplished what it set out to do -- create a whole lot of buzz -- even if Morano's ban is quickly put into place. TIME Magazine France Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7301977/Anti-smoking-advert-with-sexual-innuendo-shocks-French.html http://tobacco.org/news/297434.html An anti-smoking advertisement showing teenagers in a pose suggesting fellatio with a cigarette has caused an uproar in France, with critics arguing it is offensive and suggests a false analogy between oral sex and smoking. Electronic Telegraph France Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/world/europe/24france.html http://tobacco.org/news/297433.html A new French antismoking advertisement aimed at the young that plays off a pornographic stereotype has gotten more attention than even its creators intended, and critics suggest that it offends common decency and creates a false analogy between oral sex and smoking. France has banned smoking in cafes, bars and restaurants. But smoking is still increasing among the young in France, according to the French Office for the Prevention of Smoking, prompting an antitobacco organization called Droits des Non-fumeurs, or Nonsmokers' Rights, to create the ad. The slogan is bland enough: "To smoke is to be a slave to tobacco." But it accompanies photographs of an older man, his torso seen from the side, pushing down on the head of a teenage girl with a cigarette in her mouth. Her eyes are at belt level, glancing upward fearfully. The cigarette appears to emerge from the adult's trousers. Two other ads show young men in the same position as the girl, though the adult is wearing a suit jacket and a watch. Marco de la Fuente, vice president of BDDP & Fils, the advertising firm that created the campaign, said the ads were not designed either "to please or to shock people, but to change, to put back into the news a topic we don't talk about enough, which threatens young people." . . . The president of Droits des Non-fumeurs, Gérard Audureau, said the campaign was started after being viewed favorably by high school students. For 18 years, he said, "we did it gently, on the health aspect, with deteriorated lungs, but young people feel invincible, immortal." The newspaper Le Parisien quoted him as saying: "Using sex is a way to get their attention. And if it's necessary to shock, let's shock." New York Times France Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=ayZmyBdgJp0s http://tobacco.org/news/296290.html Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of West and JPS cigarettes, said sales this fiscal year are meeting its expectations as the French and U.K. markets expand. France consumed 55 billion cigarettes in 2009, 3 percent more than the prior year, while the U.K. duty-paid cigarette market expanded 1 percent to 45.5 billion, the Bristol, England- based company said today in a Regulatory News Service statement . . . The company said today it reached a “framework agreement” for its U.S. cigar business to cooperate with China Tobacco Chuanyu Industrial Corp., without giving any further details. Bloomberg News tmulier@bloomberg.net (Tom Mulier) China UK France Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201001/20100130/article_427338.htm http://tobacco.org/news/296220.html What is happening in France has occurred on the other health-conscious side of the Atlantic. The scene of a cigarette dangling from the lips of actress Marlene Dietrich harks back to the days of swinging Hollywood in the 1930s. While there still are many smokers in the US, smoking as a cultural practice has more or less become quaint, old-fashioned and no longer so glamorous as was perceived earlier, according to Allan M. Brandt. In his book "The Cigarette Century," Brandt traces the ups and downs of the US cigarette industry. As a novelty in the early 1990s, cigarettes weren't the favorite of salesmen, for smoking them was then seen as "dirty and indulgent." However, society's perception of cigarettes quickly shifted to the contrary after the smoking fad spread among soldiers during World War I. . . . While smoking in much of the more health-conscious West is on the wane, it is a grave issue in China, where roughly one in four people lights up -- Chinese smokers now top 350 million. The fact that the industry is a money-spinner and big employer has so far insulated it from serious measures to discourage smoking. The cigarette and cigarette smoke have so permeated Chinese culture that eliminating the noxious fumes would require not only stricter laws and law enforcement but also a sweeping cultural change. In China, packs of cigarettes are presented as gifts during festivals and at wedding banquets; offering a cigarette is often the best way to ingratiate oneself with strangers. If cigarettes remain an integral part of China's social fabric, this nation too will be going up in smoke in its "Cigarette Century." Shanghai Daily China France Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.mia.com.mk/default.aspx?vId=71020881&lId=2&pmId=505 http://tobacco.org/news/296045.html Premiere of documentary film "Tobacco Girl" of Biljana Garvanlieva will be held Wednesday at the International Festival of Audiovisual Programs (FIPA) in French town Biarritz. . . . The story focuses on a 14-year-old girl Mumine, who grows tobacco together with her parents. They are part of the Juruk community in Macedonia, Turkish people that came to Southern Europe 600 years ago, populating the country's mountainous areas. MIA-Macedonian Information Agency France Macedonia Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1949817,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/294622.html According to a report released on Dec. 17 by an anti-smoking group, the initial obeisance of French smokers has now given way to people increasingly flaunting the law by lighting up indoors. The Non-Smokers' Rights (NSR) association says it has collected data and evidence showing that the ban on smoking in the workplace is currently being violated far more than it was when the law came into effect in 2007. Studies show that complaints by people of exposure to second-hand smoke at work, which dropped from nearly 43% in 2006 to just 9% the following year, has now gone back up to 21%, according to NSR. The reason? Widespread government enforcement of the law never materialized as expected, leaving employers and workers less worried about being fined nearly $200 per infraction. Some employees now light up at their desks or by the coffee machine instead of joining their shivering colleagues outside, and many bosses turn a blind eye to it. . . . And it's not just happening at work. NSR says non-enforcement is giving defiant smokers the courage to light up in other public areas. Some smokers now routinely puff away in bars or cafés and self-policing owners and managers are often hesitant to tell them to stop out of fear they'll anger paying clients. Worse still, NSR says, are the enclosed terraces proliferating outside cafes . . . Anecdotal evidence also abounds that French smokers are pushing back in ways that they previously didn't dare. On some French train lines -- all of which are officially non-smoking -- smokers frequently take over certain cars, thus far escaping punishment. Butts are also turning up in greater numbers in Paris' Metro. . . . Not yet, perhaps. But one look at the countless smokers bundled up outside offices in Paris suggests that the transgressors are still a relatively rare exception to the rule. TIME Magazine France Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091214005717&newsLang=en http://tobacco.org/news/294211.html On the demand side, exporters and strategic planners focusing on beverages and tobacco in France face a number of questions. Which countries are supplying beverages and tobacco to France? How important is France compared to others in terms of the entire global and regional market? How much do the imports of beverages and tobacco vary from one country of origin to another in France? On the supply side, France also exports beverages and tobacco. Which countries receive the most exports from France? How are these exports concentrated across buyers? What is the value of these exports and which countries are the largest buyers? This report was created for strategic planners, international marketing executives and import/export managers who are concerned with the market for beverages and tobacco in France. With the globalization of this market, managers can no longer be contented with a local view. Nor can managers be contented with out-of-date statistics which appear several years after the fact. I have developed a methodology, based on macroeconomic and trade models, to estimate the market for beverages and tobacco for those countries serving France via exports, or supplying from France via imports. It does so for the current year based on a variety of key historical indicators and econometric models. Business Wire press@researchandmarkets.com France Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/smokers-paradise-french-turn-to-belgium-for-cheap-cigarettes-1831120.html http://tobacco.org/news/293436.html Afew years ago, Adinkerke was a forgotten, dilapidated village of red-brick houses, just inside the Belgian border with France. In the past four years, however, it has been transformed into a glittering mini-Las Vegas: a village full of garish signs reading "Smokey River", "Eurobaccy", "Tobacco Alley", "Smugglers' Corner", and "Coronation Street Tobacco Shop". The village stands less than a mile from the long ribbon of dunes and beaches, stretching north of Dunkirk, from which the British Army was evacuated 69 years ago. The opening this month of yet another tobacco shop in the village - a garish cigarette supermarket called Real Tobacco XL - has ignited a new Battle of Dunkirk: a potentially noxious legal row between France and Belgium over the rights of EU citizens to dodge national anti-smoking policies by crossing European borders to buy cheap fags. . . . "For three or four years, we have had to watch them [the Belgians] opening more shops selling cheap cigarettes, and we could do nothing," said Patrick Falewee, president of the Dunkirk area tobacco trade association. "Over there they have no system of tobacco licensing, anyone can start a tobacco shop. You just buy an abandoned house in a border village and you start selling cigarettes. Now, at last, we can fight back. They have broken the French law against advertising tobacco and we are going to make sure that they are punished for it. We are going to pursue this case to the end." This is much more than a local quarrel. . . . Earlier this year, the British American Tobacco company estimated that more than one in five of all cigarettes smoked in France was bought abroad. Much the same problem exists in Germany, which has very cheap tobacco neighbours in Poland and the Czech Republic. There is a growing trade in smuggled cigarettes in Europe and an equally illegal growth of sales over the internet. But many French and German smokers have discovered the pleasures of perfectly legal, or almost legal, cigarette tourism. "They come to the shops in Belgium, not just from Dunkirk and Lille but from as far south as Paris and Rouen," . . . "The French are making a big hoo-ha about our shops here but the real price difference is not between France and Belgium but between here and Britain. Eighty per cent of our customers here are not French but British," he said. Was he suggesting that the French were being a little hypocritical? That Calais had been making a living for years from the thirst of Britons for cheap, low-tax booze and the cross-Channel hunger for lower-tax tobacco? Yet, now that the cigarette tax pattern had started to favour Belgium, they were complaining. The Independent Europe France Belgium Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.journals.elsevierhealth.com/periodicals/bps/article/S0006-3223(09)00701-X/abstract http://tobacco.org/news/291634.html Background Tobacco smoking is associated with reduced monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) activity. Smoking-associated low MAOA activities in pregnancy and in newborns may have negative perinatal and postnatal consequences. We aimed to compare, in everyday clinical conditions, biomarkers of MAOA activity in smoking (SPW) and lifetime nonsmoking pregnant women (NSPW) and in cord blood and to assess the newborns' behavior during the first 48 hours of life. . . . Conclusions Smoking is associated with MAOA inhibition in pregnant women and in their newborns at birth. Further studies are needed to estimate the behavioral significance of these findings. Journal of Substance Abuse ivan.berlin@psl.aphp.fr France Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1222491/Lily-Allen-flouts-French-smoking-ban-Paris-performs-plunging-leotard.html http://tobacco.org/news/291614.html Lily Allen showed her rebellious side last night as she flouted France's smoking ban on stage in Paris. In between verses, Lily puffed away on a cigarette as she performed in a skimpy leotard at the City of Light's Le Zenith venue. But the 24-year-old singer provided a distraction from her smoking with her slashed-to-the-navel leotard. . . . Lily has publicly declared her love of smoking, so it's unlikely she'll be quitting any time soon. She said: 'I love smoking… I don't really want to say it, but I do.' . . . While Lily doesn't appear to be too worried about the health affects of smoking, she admitted she suffers from mild arthritis. The Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday France Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT