BOSTON, — A test for one of the thousands of chemicals in cigarette smoke has the potential for more accurately estimating smokers’ mouth level exposure and may have applications for developing custom-tailored quitting approaches for the more than 43 million people in the United States who still smoke, and hundreds of millions elsewhere, scientists said here today.

In a report at the 240th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), they described development of a way to measure mainstream smoke deliveries of select chemicals that an individual smoker consumes on a per cigarette basis. It provides a much more accurate estimate of exposure than using automated cigarette smoking machines to estimate mainstream smoke deliveries, which traditionally have been used.

An inexpensive test on cigarette filters may
provide profiles of individual smoking patterns
useful for smoking cessation efforts. Credit: iStock

“Historically, our knowledge about the amounts of carcinogens, nicotine, and tar produced by cigarettes is based on data from smoking machines,” Clifford Watson, Ph.D., explained. “Those machines do not smoke cigarettes in the same way as people. Smokers may inhale large puff volumes or take more puffs per cigarette than the fixed regimen a smoking machine uses. Our method avoids those pitfalls and provides an actual ‘mouth level‘― rather than a ‘machine-level’ ― profile of smokers’ exposure to the harmful substances in tobacco smoke.”

Potential future applications include examining a smoker’s daily cigarette-to-cigarette consumption pattern and developing an optimized smoking cessation program based on an individual’s pattern. According to Watson, it may be possible to develop individualized plans for quitting that are custom-tailored to each individual’s smoking pattern to improve cessation rates. Watson added, “Cessation rates for smoking are generally poor so that any improvement may substantially increase quit rates.” Dr. Watson is a chemist with the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

The new method also could be valuable in better understanding health risks of cigarettes with different levels of smoke constituents, Watson added. Machine-smoked “light” and “ultra-light” cigarettes do produce smoke with less tar and nicotine than regular cigarettes. However, smokers that use such products may compensate and inhale deeper, take more puffs, or smoke more cigarettes. In doing so, their dose of tar, nicotine, and other chemicals may approach the dose from a regular cigarette.

Watson and colleagues based the method on previous research involving a substance naturally present in tobacco called solanesol. During smoking, a fraction of the solanesol deposits in the cigarette filters and serves as a good surrogate “marker” for other compounds in the mainstream smoke that smokers draw in their mouths. Watson reasoned that measurements of this one compound could be used to gauge a smoker’s exposure to numerous other chemicals in the more than 7,000 chemicals present in cigarette smoke.

The scientists removed filters from cigarette butts and measured the solanesol content. The cigarette butts were from a variety of brands machine smoked under different conditions, including variations in the amount of smoke per cigarette puff, differences in the number of puffs, and effectiveness of the filter. Their findings indicate that measuring solanesol does provide a quick, inexpensive way to estimate a smoker’s total exposure, in a way that more closely reflects their natural smoking habits.

Even cigarettes that are labelled as “low tar” or “light” are unsafe, prompting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recently ban tobacco companies from using these terms on cigarette packaging.

“There’s no such thing as a safe cigarette,” Watson cautioned. “The only proven means to reduce your health risk from tobacco use is to quit.”

Stringent smoking laws, combined with the increasing cost of cigarettes, are discouraging South Africans from smoking, with a significant number of smokers considering quitting, a nationwide smoking survey has found.

The survey, carried out in March and April, found that smokers’ habits, trends and behaviours were changing, with 66 percent of smokers saying the legislation restricting smoking in public places was making smokers consider quitting.

Smokers, non-smokers and former smokers were surveyed. Amendments to the Tobacco Control Act came into force in September, barring smoking in partially enclosed areas and in cars in which there were small children.

The amendments banned smoking in entertainment areas, including pubs, clubs, restaurant patios, and balconies, as well on pavements and in parkades.

Vanessa Sew Chung Hong, brand manager for Nicorette, which commissioned the survey, said it was encouraging that more people were thinking of quitting.

Of the 16 645 participants, 56 percent of the former smokers agreed with the stricter legislation, as did 44 percent of smokers and 48 percent of non-smokers.

Gauteng and the Western Cape had the most participants in the survey, accounting for 45 percent and 28 percent of the respondents.

About 63 percent of the smokers said they had tried to quit smoking between two and five times, while 6 percent had tried to quit more than six times. Another 6 percent said they had lost count.

Participants cited stress as their reason for smoking, while those who had quit said willpower had been the most effective way to stop.

Joe Camel is dead. The cowboy Marlboro died. Now the tobacco companies could lose up to their logo! The UMP deputy Yves Bur announced Tuesday he will introduce in the fall of a bill to impose a package of cigarettes “neutral”. Gone are the pretty colored packages Marlboro or Lucky Strike : each mark could no longer put his name on a plain background. Yves Trévilly, spokesman for British American Tobacco (owner of brands Lucky Strike, Dunhill, Vogue, Rothmans…), protested against this measure and returns to the TF1 news on price cuts announced last month.

TF1 News: Yves Bur wants to impose a package of cigarettes “neutral”. As industrial tobacco, What Do You Think?

Yves Trévilly, spokesman for British American Tobacco: It’s been a long time that anti-smoking associations require that. Each year they take advantage of empty media in August to revive the idea. The truth is that, under pressure, only three countries have studied the package “neutral”. Canada and the United Kingdom have abandoned as to impose a mark to renounce everything that makes its DNA, it is against all rules of international trade law and intellectual property. In Australia, the Minister of Health has just announced its intention in principle to do in 2011-2012. But we do not start from the beginning of an implementation … On the merits, I find this proposal stupid because it will mean that boost counterfeiting.

TF1 News: How?

YT: The tobacco product is already the most counterfeited in the world with 660 billion of “fake” cigarettes sold each year. So far, 98% of them come from China: they are made the night on state machines and cargo arriving by integers in other countries. If tomorrow you go to the packages ‘white’, it will be much easier to counterfeit, factories wildlife appear everywhere and flood the market. Make a cigarette counterfeiting, it is easy, but it is much harder to imitate a perfect package. We also work with customs to put small traps traceability. If you do not let the name brands, you remove all the complexity of the logo, graphics. There are mafias that are waiting for it. With 22% of smuggling in France (12 billion cigarettes cons 55000000000 “law), we are fortunate to be relatively free of infringement unless the product most sold (Note: the competitor Marlboro) which is victim of its success. A 4% market share, my Lucky Strike is less threatened. But tomorrow, nobody will be safe!
exergue We were among the first to demand the prohibition of “cigarette-candy”

TF1 News: Maybe the state priority is public health ….

YT: But these cigarettes are contraband just a public health problem because they are provided at competitive prices and seduce especially young people who have little purchasing power. It’s paradoxical: MP Yves Bur passed a law prohibiting the sale of tobacco to persons under 18 years and he has another three months later, which will provide them with the cigarettes at deflated prices. Yet we are responsible people. We were among the first to demand the banning of “cigarette-candy” chocolate or sweet to taste. Even in countries where we have the right, we ban marketing to younger people.

TF1 News: Have you not yourself revived hostilities in lowering the price of your packages Rothmans and Lucky Strike 20 cents last month? This encourages young people to smoke …

YT: Wait … The cigarette is the most regulated product in France. Every four months, manufacturers of cigarettes sent to the customs of their quotations. There are those who rise, others fall … That’s life in a normal brand! This would be true if we had gone on prices below the market but it stayed on the minimum price charged in France. We could fall further and we did not do it deliberately. Moreover, the budget minister has confirmed. We will not be more royalist than the king!
exergue Roselyne Bachelot wanted to get out of the case Domenech

TF1 News: Minister of Health was still known as “outraged” …

YT: Roselyne Bachelot has made a statement because she had to get out of the case Domenech and it suited him. Since you have heard more … Otherwise she explains why she goes against the minister of the budget! That said, the Minister of Health is, it seems, not favorable to neutral packages *. Taxes on cigarettes account for 13 billion euros, is the fourth tax return. By making the fiction, if the measurement of white packages were implemented it would affect only purchases within the official network of tobacconists. In Canada, where the law is very strict, people have left the traditional channels and buy their cigarettes on the streets of ancient Indian tribes that sell them in plastic bags. There are 50% of pirates!

TF1 News: As Coca-Cola, cigarettes are a product whose brand has an attractive side. Prohibit side “sexy” and “identifying” packages, do not you fight against smoking?

YT: I do not know and nobody knows anything.

TF1 News: You have many studies on it …

YT: No, if it were that simple, if someone knew the answer, the Camel would be at the level of Marlboros in France. Some want to smoke as their neighbors, others contrary to differ.

TF1 News: You could always shine on you “taste” of cigarettes …

YT: That is not the issue. As a manufacturer, I do not want to engage in this debate.

TF1 News: What will you do to defend yourself? Lobby?

YT: Nothing at all! I sincerely believe that the debate will not be granted, the bill will be filed, but it probably will not be included on the agenda of Parliament as it poses daunting challenges. It is totally demagogic! If a red car overturns a group of people at night, Yves Bur Will he seek to ban red cars or travel at night? It makes no sense. Now, if we are called to participate in consultations, we will speak. Smoking is an area where the rules are stacked without measuring their effects. That’s why I asked for a “Grenelle of tobacco”since 2009, to the point on taxes, for example. When anti-smoking associations require a price increase of 10% each year for a decline in consumption, this is stupid. That would make sense if France was an island in the middle of the Atlantic but in a commercial space open is ridiculous. People will source elsewhere. Or on the internet …

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados– A ban on smoking in public in Barbados takes effect on October 1st, with fines and imprisonment chosen as punishment for illegal smokers. Proprietors of buildings who allow people to smoke won’t be getting off the hook, either, because they too will be prosecuted.

The announcement came yesterday from the country’s Health Minister, Donville Inniss, who said that the anti-smoking legislation that will give teeth to the ban has been approved by Cabinet and will be taken to parliament soon, as the government seeks to protect citizens from the harmful effects of second-hand tobacco smoke.

“This new legislation is the most significant piece of public health legislation to be completed over the last ten years and will positively impact on individuals, families, employers and employees,” he said during his ministry’s breakfast meeting on the Prohibition of Tobacco Smoking in Public Places. “This legislation is also showing our commitment as a government to the workers of Barbados, particularly in the service and tourism sectors.”

Under the proposed law, smokers found guilty of breaking the law face a maximum BDS$500 (US$250) fine or a 12-month prison term, or both.

Proprietors and operators of bars, restaurants, shops, hotels, government buildings and other public buildings will also be expected to comply with no smoking legislation and will face stiffer penalties if they don’t.

In addition to generally not allowing people to smoke in their establishments, they can forget about creating any special areas for smoking.

“If you wish to go and build an air-conditioned smoker room, understand that that too is against the law because the place is substantially enclosed,” Inniss explained.

Senior Medical Officer with responsibility for Chronic Diseases, Dr Kenneth George, added that neither the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control nor the anti-smoking legislation makes provisions for any designated areas for smokers.

Those found guilty of allowing people to smoke in a public place could be fined as much as BDS$5,000 (US$2,500), be sent to prison for 12 months, or both. If they fail to display no-smoking signs in at least two prominent places, as specified in the law, or stop inspectors assigned to ensure laws are being enforced from doing their job, they face similar punishment

The ban will no doubt raise questions about a person’s constitutional right to smoke.

But the Health Minister has made it clear that the rights of others must also be respected.

“It is a fundamental right of our citizens to live, work and play in clean and wholesome environments. While the legislation does not prevent the smoker from lighting up, it provides for a smoke-free environment for Barbadians and, indeed, visitors alike,” he said.

Responding to concerns about the effect of the no-smoking ban on the tourism sector, Inniss said he did not believe smoking in public places was a consideration for visitors.

He predicts there won’t be any fallout. In fact, he said, there may even be an increase in business if it is promoted that Barbados is moving towards becoming a smoke-free environment.

“Evidence has shown from other jurisdictions that such action as prohibition of smoking in public places has actually resulted in increased business for many of these establishments,” Minister Inniss said.

Before the smoking ban takes effect, the Ministry of Health will be engaging in a comprehensive public education programme.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Joy St John said the educational campaign will include training, public service announcements and community outreach. Additionally, she said, officials from the Ministry, along with environmental health officers, will be visiting businesses to ensure the pending regulations are clearly understood.

A new federal law intended to make sure mail-order cigarette sellers don’t avoid taxes is frustrating well-meaning people who want to mail smokes, including a Louisville man who can no longer send Marlboro Menthols to his grandson, a Marine serving in Afghanistan.

“Why punish a serviceman with this act when he can’t even have a cigarette over there,” Jack Gray said. “That’s not believable.”

It’s an unintended consequence of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, or PACT Act as it’s known for short, said a spokeswoman for the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Herbert Kohl, D-Wisc.

Besides foiling mail-order sellers that avoid taxes, the law also seeks to prevent minors from circumventing age limits by buying cigarettes through the mail.

In response to the law, which was passed and signed by President Obama in March, the U.S. Postal Service adopted a new policy at the end of June that nearly bans mailing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Most exceptions require they be sent via Express Mail, which allows the post office to confirm the package is delivered to an adult.

But Express Mail isn’t available in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Gray found out about the new law recently when he went to mail a package to his grandson, which he does occasionally.

“It was a bolt out of the blue,” Gray said.

“We are working to fix it as soon as possible,” Kohl spokeswoman Dawn Schueller said Tuesday. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a California Republican, filed a bill July 30 to create an exemption for mailing tobacco to members of the Armed Forces in combat zones. The bill has been referred to a committee.

UPS hasn’t delivered cigarettes to consumers since 2005, spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg said, adding that the decision came as various states passed restrictions. She said the postal service was the last major commercial carrier delivering cigarettes to consumers.

A FedEx spokeswoman said the company only ships tobacco products between licensed distributors.

Several national groups such as the American heart and lung associations supported the PACT Act for its restrictions on minors buying cigarettes over the Internet and the crack down on sales that avoid taxes.

But the new law has prompted frustrated discussion on a Website for parents of Marines and led to the creation of a Facebook page calling for the law to be changed.

Gray said his grandson, Lance Cpl. Thomas H. Gray, 20, a 2008 Valley High graduate, has been in Afghanistan since April. Gray said he mailed him cigarettes at least four times before the new policy.

“He can’t get the kind of cigarettes he likes over there,” Gray said, adding that he hasn’t talked to his grandson in a couple weeks, so they haven’t discussed the policy change.

Native Americans in New York, who sell cigarettes by mail-order and otherwise didn’t have to enforce state taxes, are challenging it in federal court.

“But this is not a case of trying to sell cigarettes,” Gray said of his situation. “This is a case of trying to get a cigarette to a guy that’s over there in a combat zone. He’s gonna smoke ‘em. He ain’t gonna sell ‘em.”

The bill included a provision that allows cigarettes to be mailed to individuals “who are not minors for noncommercial purposes.”

“We included that provision specifically to allow care packages to service members,” Kohl spokeswoman Schueller said, acknowledging that the Postal Service used Express Mail to verify the age of the recipient.

“We’re just following the law, said David Walton, a USPS spokesman in Louisville. “The ban is not something that we initiated. It’s a law that’s very exacting.”

As for sending the package without declaring what’s inside, Walton said packages being mailed overseas require a customs form and anyone caught lying about the contents could be prosecuted.

Denra Riley, president of the Fort Campbell Enlisted Spouses’ Club, said she’s aware of complaints about the new law, including from her husband, Sgt. First Class Christopher Riley of the 184th EOD Battalion out of Fort Campbell.

“I can’t help him out any more and it kind of does stink to be a spouse and not be able to send your husband things he” wants, she said.

“We do have a lot of soldiers complaining about it and I have heard a few spouses, myself included, that kind of don’t agree with it,” she said.

Riley said she thinks it would be a bigger issue, but “people are still going to do it. They’re just not going to put it on the forms any longer.”

But Gray said he doesn’t want to do that.

“I don’t advocate breaking the law,” he said. “But it’s just wrong, plain flat out wrong, to punish a Marine over there because of a tax law over here.”

By Gregory A. Hall

MONTEVIDEO: Uruguay’s government said on Monday it may loosen up the country’s tough laws on smoking to avoid a dispute with Philip Morris, drawing criticism from anti-tobacco activists.

Former Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez, an oncologist, banned smoking in public buildings four years ago. Tobacco advertising is also banned and cigarettes’ packets must carry large health warnings.

The rules, which also prevent the sale of products branded as “light,” put the small South American country at the vanguard of global anti-smoking laws.

However, the measures have irked global tobacco company Philip Morris International, which earlier this year filed for arbitration at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

Uruguay’s government said the possible reforms to the anti-smoking law would try to invalidate the company’s claim, which says the current law harms its business by preventing it from selling products advertised as “light.”

“On some arguments, Uruguay is very strong from a legal point of view and changes aren’t necessary. On other points, we need to make changes to the law or come up with a new law,” Foreign Minister Luis Almagro told reporters.

The government has said that any changes would be minor. Possible reforms might include reducing the size of health warnings from the current 80% of the packet’s size to 65%, and giving permission to sell “light” cigarettes.

Suggestions that the anti-smoking rules could be changed sparked criticism from health activists, who accused the government of caving into pressure from big business to avert a defeat at the arbitration panel.

Former president Vazquez, who led the crackdown during his term, accused the company of exercising “a blackmailing pressure” with the complaint, which is based on a trade deal between Uruguay and Switzerland, where the tobacco firm is based.

“The only thing that Philip Morris is trying to do with this is show its power over a small country that has set an international example on this issue,” he told the state-run television network.

The possible easing of the tobacco measures was also criticised by the country’s Centre for Investigation of the Tobacco Epidemic, a nongovernmental anti-smoking group.

“If the country gives way to this pressure, maybe this or some other multinational will soon try to use another international accord to challenge our ban on smoking in enclosed spaces or the ban on advertising,” Eduardo Bianco, the group’s president, told Reuters.

A representative from Philip Morris International could immediately be reached for comment. – Reuters

Many of us work in smoke-free offices, eat in smoke-free restaurants, even drink in smoke-free bars or outdoor cafes. But if we live in an apartment, should the whole building also be smoke free?

In an essay this week in The New England Journal of Medicine, public health and legal experts call for banning smoking in all public housing complexes, even within individual units. They say there is no safe level of exposure to passive smoke, and that even if one person in the building smokes, others are exposed to secondhand smoke and to toxic gases and carcinogens from tobacco.

“Smoke does not know to stop at a door” and moves wherever air moves, wafting down hallways and elevator shafts and seeping through ceiling cracks and air ducts to contaminate the whole building, said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, one of the paper’s authors and an associate professor of pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. He recently coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe the toxic chemical residue of cigarettes that clings to one’s hair and clothing and to carpets and upholstery, even after smoke has cleared the air.

“If we’re going to protect bartenders in restaurants, if we’re going to protect healthy adults who go to work and enjoy a smoke-free workplace, we had better also protect infants, children, pregnant women and elderly people who may have just had a heart attack,” Dr. Winickoff said. He notes that people do not always know they’re being exposed to passive smoke because some of the harmful compounds do not carry the telltale tobacco smell that alerts nonsmokers to their presence.

Smokers’ rights groups immediately attacked the proposal, saying it was based on questionable scientific premises and represented an intrusion on the cherished right of people to do what they wish in the privacy of their own homes. “He wants us to believe we’re having an effect on people’s health through air ducts?” said Audrey Silk, founder of the group NYC-CLASH, Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment. “These people have an agenda — a smoke-free society.”

Late last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a statement “strongly” encouraging the 3,200 public housing authorities around the country to implement nonsmoking policies in some or all public housing units. As of a year ago, roughly 100 authorities and housing commissions had implemented nonsmoking policies in their buildings, according to the Smoke-Free Environmental Law Project of the Center for Social Gerontology, a state-funded anti-smoking group.

Studies have found measurable levels of nicotine in the apartments of nonsmokers, said John Spengler, a professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He said the issue of neighbors smoking has caused conflicts in high-priced condo complexes.

“It’s a thorny policy question and social question,” Dr. Spengler said, adding he foresees some private housing complexes adopting smoking policy covenants in the future. “Some people will respond that it’s a person’s right to do what they want in their own property. But then I pose there’s the question: where is the response of the state government to protect those who can’t protect themselves?”

In their essay in the medical journal, Dr. Winickoff and his co-authors, Mark Gottlieb of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern School of Law and Michelle M. Mello of the Harvard School of Public Health, note that the 2006 Surgeon General’s report on passive smoking concluded there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. They note that the National Toxicology Program has identified over 250 toxic gases, chemicals and metals in tobacco smoke, including 11 class A carcinogens linked to cancer.

Toxins are distributed through the air and then deposited on indoor surfaces like rugs and furniture, where they can be picked up by young children. Older and ill people may also be at increased exposure because they spend so much time indoors. The particulates are subsequently re-emitted into the air. Studies have found that children who live in households with a smoker have higher levels of certain nicotine byproducts in their urine than nonsmoking adults, possibly because they have closer contact with contaminated surfaces or a different response to toxins, and that this may put them at increased risk of cancer later in life.

Exposure to smoke is a cause of sudden infant death syndrome and can trigger asthma attacks, Dr. Winickoff said. Epidemiologic studies have linked secondhand smoke to lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmoking adults, he said.

Another benefit of smoking bans might be to reduce fires and fire-related injuries and deaths. In multi-family dwellings, smoking is the leading cause of fire deaths, accounting for a quarter of all fire-related deaths in 2005. A smoking ban might also curb smoking initiation among teenagers, who would see less of it and may be less likely to pick up the habit as a result, the writers argue.

But smoking rates are also higher among residents of public housing, which could make enforcement difficult; Americans who live below the poverty level are 1.6 times more likely to smoke than other Americans. The essay calls for continuing to make smoking cessation tools, including nicotine patches and gum, available to low-income residents so they can quit the habit.

“We’re not saying smokers shouldn’t live in public housing or multi-unit housing – it’s the act of smoking itself we need to limit,” Dr. Winickoff said. “We don’t want to penalize anyone for being a smoker. But about 70 percent of smokers want to quit, at any given time.”

By RONI CARYN RABIN
Nytimes, June 18, 2010

A new round of strict anti-smoking laws come into effect in September, but authorities are already looking at implementing even stricter measures to target smokers.

The next step could be forcing addicts to get their cigarettes on prescription, said Western Australia’s first Director General of Health and prominent anti-smoking advocate, Mike Daube.

Laws passed by the state government last year, which come into effect on September 22, have tightened restrictions in WA, making it tougher for smokers to light up on the beach, in the car, at playgrounds or while eating out.

Banned: tobacco product displays in retail premises (with exemption for specialist tobacco retailers)

Banned: smoking in outdoor eating areas (with some exemptions)

Banned: smoking in cars with children under 17 years present

Banned: smoking near children’s playground equipment

Banned: smoking between the flags at the beach

Banned: forcing staff to work in designated smoking areas

Professor Daube, an expert on health policy from Curtin University, said anti-smoking groups will let those bans “settle-in” before setting new targets.

“Over the next five to 10 years I think the question we have got to be asking is when do you phase out the commercial selling of cigarettes?,” he said.

“Should they be sold from conventional sales outlets, should they only be sold on prescription or in specified outlets?”

The new stricter measures coming into play in September have outraged the Australian Hotels Association, who say the hospitality industry will not become a de facto “smoking police”.

They include a ban on smoking in all outdoor eating areas in restaurants, cafes and pubs. A Health Department spokesperson said “up to 50 per cent of outdoor areas of licensed premises (are) able to access an exemption, provided the area is not already and ‘enclosed public space’ or is the subject of a restaurant license”.

AHA (WA) chief executive Bradley Woods said the industry was frustrated by the perceived need for additional regulation when the vast majority of venue owners were already practicing self regulation and meeting the needs of consumers.

The new rules would impact every one of 4000 licensed venues in the state.

“Hospitality business operators aren’t sworn public officers and have no jurisdiction in being able to issue offenders with infringement notices or fines,” Mr Woods said.

Enforcement was up to the authorities.

“We will play our part in advising patrons of the legal parameters, but we won’t become ‘smoking police’. The architects of this legislation failed to consider the logistical implications of this legislation in venues located throughout one of the largest physical jurisdictions anywhere in the world.”

He said there had been no formal consultation process with the industry.

“You can’t simply impose police on an industry sector without consultation and then expect it to be responsible for the implementation, communication and enforcement of the legislation,” Mr Woods said.

Professor Daube, who is also the Australian Council for Smoking and Health president, said smoking was still killing 1200 West Australians each year and 100,000 had died since the dangers of lighting up became apparent in 1952.

“If you put together the new laws we have here and the new federal activity, my view is we are the best performing state in the best performing country in the world,” he said.

“Smoking is declining quite dramatically, we are down to 15 per cent adult smokers and under 5 per cent of 12- to 17-year-old smokers. When you consider that at one stage 70 per cent of men were smoking it’s a big step.”

Australian Medical Association WA president Gary Geelhoed said he was disappointed with the compromise.

“It’s hard to imagine the designation of having an outdoor smoking zone next to a non-smoking one,” Professor Geelhoed said.

“We’re certainly happy with the new laws, although we would have liked them to ban smoking in all public areas in the sense of hotels and so on, and a reasonable distance from the entrances to buildings, but all in all it’s just one more step.”

Both men don’t anticipate a backlash to the rules from smokers.

“All the surveys show public support. More than two-thirds of smokers want to quit and nobody except the tobacco industry wants people to take up smoking,” Professor Daube said.

“I’ve been working on tobacco for nearly 40 years and I’ve never seen a backlash. Smokers know that it is harming their health and harming the health of others.”

By DAILE PEPPER AND KATHERINE FENECH
Watoday, June 14, 2010

Hookah bars that serve flavored tobacco and are popular with the high school and college set may soon have a tougher time setting up shop in Chicago.

North Side Aldermen Pat O’Connor (40th) and Marge Laurino (39th) have had their fill of licensed smoking lounges that turn into “private little clubhouses for underage smoking and drinking.”

They want to require hookah bars to obtain so-called “special use permits” that need community approval and permits from the Zoning Board of Appeals.

O’Connor introduced the ordinance at Wednesday’s City Council meeting after doing battle with several problem establishments.

“Fights. Drinking inside. Drinking outside. Gunshots. People coming from all over. We can’t allow that to take hold in a community. I don’t want to be fighting a hookah license from a disadvantage after they’ve turned into a bad establishment,” he said.

“If you go on the internet, kids say, ‘You can get in here. They’ll put you in the back, so people don’t know you’re under-age.’… They’re private little clubhouses that allow kids to drink under age, smoke under age and bring in food. They’re doing things that a regular restaurant couldn’t do.”

Hookah bars originated in India and gained popularity in the Middle East before picking up steam in the U.S., primarily in cities and college towns. Chicago has at least 33 hookah bars, according to an industry website.

For $18-to-$20, young people can sit around a table and smoke flavored tobacco from a water pipe.

Hookah bars are supposed to be confined to tobacco. They’re not allowed to serve anyone under 18. They’re prohibited from selling food or liquor to avoid unfair competition with restaurants where smoking is not allowed.

But, O’Connor said, “Take a place that rents a hookah and sells tobacco and try and figure out how they make their money and pay the rent. It’s hard to figure how that equation works without something else.”

“All we’re saying is, if you want to have a hoookah bar, it needs to be a special use. You need to go to the community, tell ‘em your business plan and how you’re gonna run it and let them have some say.”

The manager of a North Side hookah bar, who asked to remain annonymous, said minors are never served — and neither is food or liquor

“We card very hard. We know we’re liable if we sell tobacco to someone under 18,” the manager said.

“There’s always young people who try to find alcohol and tobacco. But, we don’t serve them. If they’re all over 21, we don’t mind if they bring their own bottle and drink it here. But, we make sure the entire table is over 21.”

BY FRAN SPIELMAN
Suntimes, June 12, 2010

Hollyoaks actress Saira Choudhry has urged young women to give up smoking on World No Tobacco Day.

The 22-year-old, who plays Anita Roy in the Channel 4 soap, is supporting the campaign, which this year focuses on reducing the growing number of females aged 20-24 who are taking up smoking.

She said: “My Mum Fae is a no-smoking adviser and used to work in a hospital in Manchester. She always told me if I ever smoked she’d take me to the wards with her one day so I could see the effects for myself, which put me off completely.

“It’s really worrying that there is an increase in young women of my age group who are smoking. Apart from the fact it’s so bad for your health, it’s also really ageing and bad for your skin. I reckon you can always tell who is a smoker by looking at their skin.

“I’d say to all young girls who smoke, to give up this World No Tobacco Day and save up their money instead to go on a fabulous holiday or buy some great shoes.” According to The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, a national charity which helps people give up smoking, 31% of young women aged 20-24 now smoke.

Eileen Streets, director of tobacco control at the charity, said: “It is estimated that one in two smokers will die from a tobacco-related illness. There is no doubt that people who smoke are playing a game of Russian roulette.

“Smoking more than half a pack a day may cause infertility among women, the early onset of menopause and foetal abnormalities.

“Studies have also shown that the skin of a 40-year-old smoker is as damaged as that of a 60-year-old non-smoker.

“If the health risks alone are not enough of a concern then the financial implications should be. At today’s prices, a 20-a-day smoker will spend more than £37,000 over the next 20 years – that’s the equivalent of 98 pairs of Christian Louboutin classic black heels or eight Hermes Birkin bags.

“It’s not just about saving money though so you can buy some fabulous shoes, it’s about improving and protecting women’s health for today and also for future generations.”

Altria Group Inc.’s top executive expressed confidence yesterday that the nation’s largest tobacco company can defend itself against a wave of smoker lawsuits in Florida.

He also defended the company’s recent attempt to remove four members of a mostly government-appointed scientific board that will advise the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its new regulatory authority over tobacco products.

Henrico County-based Altria is “bullish” that it can successfully fight thousands of lawsuits filed in Florida against cigarette companies, Michael E. Szymanczyk, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, said at the company’s annual meeting yesterday.

Altria is the parent company of cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, smokeless tobacco maker U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., cigar manufacturer John Middleton Inc. and wine producer Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.

“Litigation is part of this business,” Szymanczyk said after one shareholder, lawyer and tobacco-control advocate Edward L. Sweda Jr., asked whether the company would reconsider its practice of refusing to settle lawsuits, considering the scope of the cases in Florida.

About 9,500 individual claims have been filed in state and federal courts since the Florida Supreme Court decertified a statewide $145 billion class-action lawsuit in 2006.

Lawsuits against the company “remain a challenge,” Szymanczyk said. “But if you look at the past decade, the company has had success defending its shareholders’ interests.”

For instance, Philip Morris said Wednesday that a jury in Duval County, Fla., returned a verdict in favor of the company in a lawsuit filed by the family of a smoker. Of the Florida cases that have gone to trial, verdicts in seven lawsuits have gone against Philip Morris USA, according to the company’s most recent quarterly report.

Yesterday, a jury in Fort Lauderdale ordered R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the No. 2 U.S. cigarette company, to pay $29.1 million to the widow of a Florida man who started smoking at age 13 and died of lung disease in 2008 at age 80.

Szymanczyk said the company is seeking to work with the FDA as the agency implements new regulations on tobacco products. Altria supported the legislation passed by Congress last year.

Yet one of the company’s critics at the meeting questioned why Altria, in March, sought to remove four of the 12 members of a scientific advisory board that is studying issues such as the health effects of menthol cigarettes.

“It seems there is a contradiction, when the company is trying to get rid of people who are concerned about public health and advising the FDA,” said Rev. Michael Crosby, a priest and tobacco-control activist from Milwaukee.

In its request to the FDA, Altria argued that the four panel members had conflicts of interest, including having served as paid experts for plaintiffs in lawsuits against tobacco companies. The FDA denied the company’s request to remove them from the board.

“We are participating” in the FDA’s regulatory process, Szymanczyk told about 130 shareholders who attended the meeting at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. “And part of participating involves representing shareholder interests.”

JOHN REID BLACKWELL
TIMES-DISPATCH, May 21, 2010

BOSTON – Massachusetts could become the first state to force retailers to display — at their registers — graphic ads that warn customers about the effects of smoking, reports the Boston Globe.

Images in the ads would feature “ominously darkened lungs, damaged brains, and diseased teeth could start appearing before the end of the year in more than 9,000 convenience stores, pharmacies and gas stations, if a proposal by the state Department of Public Health is approved as expected,” writes the newspaper.

Also, retailers who refuse to post the signs within 2 feet of tobacco displays and registers could face fines of $100 to $300.

The ads mirror a New York City campaign that began last December. Massachusetts would use $316,000 in federal stimulus money from the CDC, notes the newspaper, “which will allow the state to provide the materials to retailers without charge.”

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, commented that most retailers “will respond coolly” to another mandate.

“Do you really have to have additional graphic signage and multiple layers of it at each cash register?’’ said Hurst, adding, “If you warn on everything, those warnings become essentially meaningless. They already have signage on alcohol, tobacco, lottery, they have signage on price accuracy.’’

Philip Morris commented that such graphic warnings, if established, should be under the authority of the federal government, which has expanded authority to the FDA for the manufacture, distribution and retail sales of tobacco products as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, notes the newspaper.

The Massachusetts Public Health Council is expected to vote on the graphic posters in August.

The Seneca Nation of Indians has a message for President Barack Obama – “you let us down.”

The Seneca Nation took out a full page ad in Thursday’s Buffalo News saying Obama has failed on his campaign promise to support existing Native American treaties when he supported the PACT (Preventive All Cigarette Trafficking) Act last month that will make it illegal for Indian nations to ship tobacco products — including cigarettes — via the U.S. Postal Service. The ban takes effect later this spring.

Senecas contend the bill puts 3,000 local jobs in peril if cigarette sales drop.

“We find it sadly ironic that the President of the United States is coming to Buffalo to boast about his efforts to improve the economy when he signed a bill last month that will wipe out as many as 3,000 local jobs,” said Barry Snyder Sr., Seneca Nation president. “He deliberately dealt a severe blow not only to the Seneca economy, but to the entire Western New York economy. We want the people of Western New York to know their president is saying one thing and doing another.”

A full page, weekday ad in the Buffalo News costs more than $15,000.

The Senecas have also created a large banner that they hope to display near Industrial Support Inc. on Depot Street, where Obama is scheduled to visit Thursday afternoon.

The Marlboro man could soon be banned from the Outback.

Australia could become the first nation to ban brand images and colors on cigarette packages under a wide-ranging set of anti-smoking measures the government announced Thursday.

Starting July 1, 2012, tobacco products would have to be sold in the plainest of packaging — with few or no logos, brand images or colors. Promotional text would be restricted to brand and product names in a standard color, position, type style and size.

Restrictions on Internet advertising, a hefty increase in the tax on tobacco products and new anti-smoking campaigns are also among the initiatives.

The government said the moves would cut tobacco consumption and generate billions of dollars of revenue that would be plowed into the health system. The action won praise from the World Health Organization, which welcomed the measures as “a new gold standard for the regulation of tobacco products.”

Leading tobacco companies strongly criticized the measures, questioning their effectiveness and saying they would encourage counterfeiting.

“Plain packaging has not been introduced in any country in the world, and there is no evidence to support the government’s notion that this will reduce consumption,” Imperial Tobacco said in a statement from its Sydney office. “Plain packaging would seriously harm our brands and infringe the intellectual property rights in which both Imperial Tobacco and its shareholders have invested.”

Philip Morris International declined to say whether it would take legal action against the measure but argued that the imposition of plain packaging would represent “an unconstitutional expropriation of valuable intellectual property, violating a variety of Australia’s international trade obligations.”

British American Tobacco’s Australia unit echoed this, saying it believed that the plain packaging proposals “would not hold up to close scrutiny.”

But in a TV broadcast, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, “We, the government, will not be intimidated by any big tobacco company.” Cigarette boxes would continue to carry graphic health warnings, including photographs of the effects of smoking-related diseases.

The measures announced on Thursday also include a 25 percent increase in the excise tax on tobacco products, which was to come into force as of midnight. That will increase the cost of a packet of 30 cigarettes by about 2.16 Australian dollars, to about 16.70 Australian dollars ($15.40).

The additional tax revenue, estimated to total 5 billion Australian dollars over four years, would be invested in the nation’s health system, the government said.

BY BETTINA WASSENER AND MERAIAH FOLEY

Lansing – With just days until Michigan’s smoking ban takes effect Saturday, hookah bar owners are pushing for a reprieve from a law they say will put them out of business and unfairly targets Arab-Americans.

Members of the National Heritage Association, which represents more than 120 hookah bars in the state, say they hope for a legal opinion on whether they could allow the smoking of tobacco-free herbs in their hookah pipes under the tobacco-free law, and they may go to court to ask for an exemption from the ban.

The owners are upset hookah bars weren’t included when lawmakers exempted cigar bars, retail tobacco shops and the gambling floors of Detroit’s casinos. Clean air advocates say they’d prefer smoking be banned everywhere — and just because people can smoke in cigar bars doesn’t mean they should be able to in hookah bars.

“It’s not equal rights to all citizens,” said Mike Berry, president of the association and the owner of 360 Lounge and Grille, a Dearborn hookah bar.

The law bans smoking anywhere food or drink is served, and eating and smoking are part of the hookah bar tradition, Berry said. For people of Middle Eastern descent, the hookah bar is a gathering place for friends and family members at the end of the day.

“I go there at least three or four times a week,” said Sami Bazzi, 25, of Dearborn, whose parents moved to the United States from Lebanon.

“It’s very, very unfair for them to say we can’t sit around and socialize and smoke a hookah.”

Most hookah bars are also restaurants, and they can continue to offer hookah if they decide to give up serving food, said Emily Palsrok, a spokeswoman for the Campaign for Smoke Free Air.

She said Michigan, though it’s the 38th state to pass a smoking ban, has one of the strongest smoke-free laws in the nation. Other states have exemptions for everything from hookah bars to bowling alleys, Palsrok said.

“But the reality of getting it through the Legislature was that lawmakers were going to have carve-outs, and (cigar bars) was one of them.”

Kelly Niebel, spokeswoman for the Department of Community Health, said whether hookah bars should be exempt is “a question more geared to the people who wrote and passed the law.”

A change to the law is unlikely, said Matt Marsden, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.

“We’re not going to go back and revisit something that was as contentious and exhausting as the smoking debate was,” Marsden said.

Gary Reed, who lobbied on behalf of cigar bars when the law was being written, said cigar bars worked hard with lawmakers to grant them an exemption.

“During the entire legislative process … (the hookah bars) were pretty silent from what I was able to see,” Reed said.

Canton civil rights attorney Nabih Ayad, a member of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, said he’s prepared to represent the hookah owners if they decide to take the issue to court.

The law will hurt “a whole class of people almost entirely made up of Middle Eastern background,” Ayad said.

Mike Nolan, president of the Michigan Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association, which represents cigar bars, says hookah shops also should be exempted from the law.

“This isn’t a story of Big Tobacco — these are mostly family businesses,” Nolan said. “I’m very upset because we worked very hard to get them the exemption.

“We didn’t try to sell out the hookah bars in any way shape or form. We’re on their side.”

Karen Bouffard
Detroit News, April 28. 2010

DAMASCUS, Syria — A smoking ban that few are expected to abide by went into effect in Syria Wednesday, a country where people light up even in hospitals.

The ban targets most public places such as restaurants, cafes, schools, universities, hospitals, parks, movie theaters, museums and public transport.

The law, which also forbids the sale of cigarettes to minors, was approved six months ago by President Bashar Assad, a British-trained eye doctor.

The Middle East’s favorite pastime — smoking water pipes — is also prohibited in public under the new law except in well-ventilated and designated areas. Also outlawed are tobacco advertising and the sale and import of sweets and toys modeled after tobacco products.

Offenders will face fines ranging between $45 and $870 and a possible three to 12 months in jail.

“The ban is good, but I doubt I will stop smoking,” said businessman Bassam Shanna, 47.

The ban’s effects are already being felt in Damascus’ famous cafes.

The normally bustling indoor area of the Nowfara Cafe in the city’s downtown area was almost entirely empty on Wednesday.

“Fifty people would be sitting here if it weren’t for the ban” complained the manager, Shadi Rabbat.

However, the cafe’s terrace was crowded with some 50 customers smoking water pipes.

“We hope the government will reconsider the ban,” said another cafe owner who refused to give his name because he feared reprisals by the authorities.

Syria had in the past taken steps to try to restrict smoking, including a 1996 decree issued by Assad’s late father, President Hafez Assad, that banned smoking in government offices, hospitals and the airport.

A 2004 law banned smoking in internet cafes and another law in 2006 made buses, railway stations, movie theaters, parks and cultural centers smoke-free, with violators facing a fine of about $10 and three months in jail. But the bans were often flouted and not strictly enforced.

This time, however, more sweeping measures were being taken, reflecting Syria’s desire to join other Arab countries struggling to control smoking with bans and anti-smoking campaigns.

Fines are also steeper this time round — the fine for smoking in a cafe is $45 while it goes up to a staggering $870 in five-star hotels.

Health ministry officials will be frequently carrying out on site inspections to ensure the law was being observed in public places.

“It’s a chance for me to seriously try to quit smoking,” said Mohammed al-Kash, a sociology professor at Damascus University. “I am fully committed to the ban.”

Three million people — or 15 percent of Syria’s 23.5 million population — smoke. As much as 23 percent of these are university students, according to figures published in the state media. Syrians are thought to spend $565 million a year on smoking.

Other Arab countries are also struggling to create a more smoke free environment.

In the tobacco-loving Arab world, people smoke in offices, universities, taxis, hair salons and even hospitals and smoking has long been a social imperative and a rite of passage for young men.

Packs can cost as little as 50 cents in some Arab nations.

Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and most recently Iraq have imposed restrictions on smoking in public, but the bans vary in scope and enforcement.

The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, for example, has no laws banning smoking in government offices or public places, and government employees — including President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad — regularly smoke in their offices.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products—charged with implementing the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) with the goal of reducing the tremendous toll of disease and death caused by tobacco use—will launch a Stakeholder Listening Series in 2010.

The Stakeholder Listening Series will help the FDA Center for Tobacco Products to more effectively implement the Tobacco Control Act by taking full advantage of the knowledge, ideas, feedback, and suggestions from all communities interested in and affected by tobacco product regulation.

Multiple stakeholder listening sessions will be held across the United States during the following 12 to 18 months. The sessions will be organized around the interests and perspectives of tobacco product regulation stakeholder communities, including, but not limited to:

* Public health and advocacy groups;
* State, local, and Tribal groups;
* Tobacco industry businesses and representatives;
* Tobacco growers;
* Retail establishments;
* Minority health organizations; and
* Academic and scientific organizations.

Each session will focus on topics of greatest interest to our primary stakeholder communities and will include presentations by topic experts and the FDA. The presentations will be followed by a facilitated discussion among participants. To enhance transparency, the FDA Center for Tobacco Products will publish summaries of the results of each session. The focus of each stakeholder session will be to assure good communication between FDA and our primary stakeholder communities. Potential topics for the Stakeholder Listening Series, may include, but are not limited to:

* Provisions and implementation of the Tobacco Control Act;
* Public health impacts related to tobacco product use, especially among youth;
* Tobacco product cessation and non-initiation strategies;
* Tobacco product registration and ingredient listings;
* Tobacco product labeling, marketing, and tobacco use by ethnic and minority groups;
* Marketing and advertising of tobacco products;
* Small tobacco businesses and retailers’ understanding of provisions and compliance with the Tobacco Control Act;
* Import and export provisions of the Tobacco Control Act; and
* Development of tobacco product standards.

The FDA Center for Tobacco Products will develop and publish a schedule for the Stakeholder Listening Series in the coming months. Stakeholders will be notified of the schedule when published and are encouraged to visit http://www.fda.gov/tobacco.

The FDA Center for Tobacco Products looks forward to building a collaborative environment and open communications as we work to effectively implement the Tobacco Control Act and protect our kids from the dangers of tobacco.

As Georgia faces a gaping budget shortfall of over $1 billion, state lawmakers must find ways to raise revenue as well as cut expenses.

Nobody likes to pay taxes. Economists do not like taxes because they distort the economy. They make businesses less productive and give consumers less for their dollar. The math is simple: Taxing the good things the economy produces equals less of the good things in life.

That’s why when taxes are a necessary evil, it is better to tax bad things. Along these lines, lawmakers are currently debating an increase in the tobacco tax. We suggest taxing the other smoke as well: pollution. Georgia lawmakers should consider raising the tax on gasoline.

The United States has the lowest gasoline taxes in the industrialized world, and Georgia has one of the lowest state gas taxes rates in the U.S. Even a five-cent increase in the gas tax could raise about $330 million per year, helping to closing the short-run budget gap. In the long run, it could provide an opportunity to cut other taxes that fall on more productive parts of the economy.

Raising the gas tax would have other advantages. First, some of the revenue would come right from the pockets of oil exporters, primarily OPEC nations, some of which support terrorism and other actions hostile to the U.S.

With a higher gas tax, people will have an incentive to drive less and drive more fuel-efficient cars. This will reduce the demand for foreign oil and further reduces the money going to OPEC. Even better, it can help insulate our economy from oil shocks, which are sure to come in the future just as they have in the past. In this way, the gas tax can actually make our economy more resilient and more efficient, not less efficient as other taxes do.

Second, when we burn less gasoline, we also produce less pollution. Whatever one’s opinion of global warming, we all recognize the smog that plagues Atlanta and much of Georgia. This pollution causes asthma attacks and contributes to deaths from heart and lung disease. Reducing this pollution will improve health and the quality of life for Georgians.

Twenty-eight counties in Georgia have pollution levels that exceed federal air pollution standards. As a consequence, industrial development in these areas is limited. By helping these counties come back into compliance with federal standards, the gas tax creates opportunities for business expansion. Another win for our economy.

Finally, when we reduce driving and the number of cars on the road, we also reduce congestion and car accidents. The average Atlantan, for example, spends 60 hours a year stuck in traffic. By helping reduce this congestion, the gas tax can help free up our time for more productive uses. Yet another win.

In a recent review of the benefits and costs of gasoline taxes published in a prestigious academic journal, economists calculated that to maximize economic efficiency, the U.S. gas tax should be $1.01. Tweaking their model for Georgia implies an optimal tax of about 80 cents. Currently, combined federal and state taxes in Georgia are about 42 cents. That leaves room for raising the tax by 38 cents.

While we do not advocate a hike this big, these estimates underscore the fact that increasing the gas tax is a step in the right direction.

The late conservative William F. Buckley Jr. understood this fact when he called for a massive hike in the gas tax so Americans paid the full price of consumption. A few years later, Ronald Reagan increased the federal gas tax by five cents.

It’s time to do it in Georgia, too.

Spencer Banzhaf and Paul Ferraro are associate professors of economics in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.

Mice and rats were forced to breathe smoke to examine the safety of new ingredients, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection claimed.

The studies were held by Marlboro cigarettes maker Philip Morris and Camel manufacturer RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, the group said.

‘It is outrageous that, in this day and age, tobacco companies continue to subject animals to these horrific tests when we all know how harmful smoking is to our health,’ said BUAV boss Michelle Thew. ‘Smoking is a lifestyle choice and it’s unacceptable animals should suffer and die for companies to modify their products.’

Tests on animals involving tobacco have been banned in Britain since 1997 but the organisation said studies continued in Europe and the US.

Philip Morris research groups from the US, Belgium and Germany had recently held experiments in which rats were forced to inhale smoke for six hours a day for 90 days, the BUAV said. In a US study by RJ Reynolds, more than 1,000 mice and rats were used, it was alleged. The information was obtained, the BUAV said, from papers published in science journals. A Philip Morris spokesman said the company’s rare use of animal tests was focused on developing lower-risk tobacco products or making sure major modifications did not add to the toxicity of its cigarettes.

‘This research was not to confirm the quality of the cigarette or to see if it was safe,’ he added. ‘There is no such thing as a safe cigarette.’

No one from RJ Reynolds was available for comment.

LAS VEGAS — Nearly a year after Congress passed and the president signed a historic increase in the federal excise tax (FET) on tobacco to fund an expansion of children’s healthcare benefits, convenience store and tobacco outlet retailers joined here at the Tobacco Plus Expo from March 3-4, to discover the opportunities in the category, learn the latest trends, see new products and more.

Ahead of the conference, Convenience Store News held its annual Tobacco Roundtable March 2, where a panel of retailers and manufacturers met to discuss best practices in the category, as well as hear the latest tobacco retailing data presented by CSNews.

One retailer at the event noted the past year was spent “adapting to trends.” One of which included bringing in loose pipe tobacco into stores as a lower-cost alternative to roll-your-own (RYO) cigarette tobacco, which was subject of a 1,200 percent tax hike under the FET increase.

Similarly, retailers agreed that last year’s predictions that RYO tobacco would die as a result of the FET increase were false. One attendee said the segment “suffered the worst” due to the combined effects of the FET and lower-priced pipe tobacco entering the arena, but the “value of RYO is sill there. … [New] consumers will enter this category and not know anything about last year and the increases in price.”

The success of two- and three-count foil packs of cigars was also noted at the roundtable. Another winning product in the other tobacco products (OTP) category is moist snuff, which is seeing high single-digit growth, according to one roundtable attendee.

Another opportunity for retailers is the increasing incidence of tobacco users overlapping segments, such as cigarette smokers using moist snuff or cigars. “Customers buying OTP are smokers. That will get bigger and overlap, and OTP will become more important as retailers realize that,” said one roundtable manufacturer attendee.

And on the legislative front, one large c-store chain noted its positive efforts fighting state taxation issues. The retailer said being active in legislative matters “never has been a focus” for the company, but recent success with in-store petitions is making a case for more involvement.

There were discussions at the roundtable, however, on the challenges in the tobacco category. Most attendees at the roundtable voiced concerns over restrictive contracts by the major cigarette companies that make it harder for retailers to take advantage of all the promotional incentives available.

“Contracts hinder us,” said one retail chain attendee. “Contracts that reward for margins are restrictive. And out-of-stock [automated] ordering is so tight and close-managed that it leaves no room for error.”

“It’s more important now more than ever to be a student of the category,” said one supplier at the roundtable. “It is more important to manage the category and space allocations between cigarettes and OTP.”

Attendees at the roundtable included representatives from such retailers as 7-Eleven, Smoker Friendly and TravelCenters of America. For more on the roundtable, watch for the April 12 issue of CSNews. The roundtable was sponsored by McLane Co. Inc. and Republic Tobacco.

Meanwhile, the Tobacco Plus Expo focused on targeting untapped opportunities in a session called “El Elefante in Your Isles,” which was presented by Juan Tornoe, consultant at Hispanic Trending.

“Everyone is aware of the growth of the Latino market. But oftentimes, businesses think they are doing OK, so they don’t go after Latinos,” he told attendees.

Contrasting the Hispanic growth in the U.S. to the European immigrants of the 1800s, Tornoe said: “many expected the Hispanic market to become part of the big melting pot [of the U.S.] but the Hispanic community has stayed [separate].”

This is due in part to continued Hispanic immigration into the U.S., along with a higher birth rate among Hispanic women compared to other U.S. women. By July 2050, 30 percent of the U.S. population will be Hispanic, equating to one of every three customers, he said.

Other reasons for the lack of assimilation is current technology allows Latinos to stay connected to families in their home countries, and as a result, keeping them connected with their culture.

Tornoe said retailers should create marketing messages that cater to the Hispanic customers’ demographics in their region. Factors that influence messages include:

– Country of origin/heritage
– Language of preference
– Place of residence
– Generation
– Socio-cultural level
– Assimilation/Acculturation level

“By combining these factors, you will be able to tell how to talk to a group of people and how to reach out to them,” he said.

And to connect with Latinos, retailers have to understand their culture and societal norms, some of which are:

– A high degree of intimacy
– Less personal space
– A respect for power and authority
– High importance of families in the decision-making process
– Bigger families and later instances of “empty nests”
– A desire to keep traditions
– A desire for social harmony
– Social flexibility between Hispanic backgrounds and U.S. environments
– Respect for women
– A higher importance on food
– Trends toward retro-acculturation, where heritage is being adopted to pass onto the next generation.

At the least, Tornoe stressed retailers should adopt bi-lingual signage, ensuring that the translations are grammatically and contextually accurate.

Another way to catch Latinos’ attention is to use Hispanic cultural elements in general market messages, such as inserting a phrase in Spanish or Latin music.
“Don’t overtly appeal to both cultures. One should be more subtle and complement the other,” he said.

He concluded: “Reach out to Latinos and face them headfirst.”

Meanwhile, the show floor of the Tobacco Plus Expo had an unexpectedly upbeat buzz compared to last year when retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers were anxious about the new federal excise tax and what impact it would have on their business. This year, retailers, wholesalers and distributors filled the Las Vegas Convention Center hall to view the latest new products from vendors and manufacturers spanning cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigars and more.

A proposal to ban smoking in Japanese workplaces would herald a big political shift in the world’s fourth-biggest cigarette market and accelerate the decline of its giant tobacco lobby, industry experts say.

It would also bring Japan into line with much of the developed world, where prohibitions on smoking at work have been widespread for years.

A health ministry panel is expected to finalise a report by April that will recommend smoking be banned in offices and factories or, as an alternative, confined to separate rooms, Japanese media has reported.

The report would pave the way for the ministry to submit a bill to parliament as early as next year.

If passed, it would be a dramatic step for a country where smoking is still permitted in parts of hospitals and schools, and where the atmosphere in restaurants, cafes and bars is often thick with smoke.

In April Kanagawa will become the first of Japan’s 47 prefectures to regulate smoking in public places – but it will exempt small hotels and restaurants.

The proportion of the population that smokes has fallen a long way since 1965, when roughly 82 per cent of men indulged the habit. But it remains high for the industrialised world: last year 25 per cent of adults counted themselves as smokers.

Professor Manabu Sakuta, of the Japan Society for Tobacco Control, said that ”it’s late coming and could take up to four years to go through, but legislation would signal a big change in the political landscape”.

Japan had lagged a long way behind most of the developed world ”because of politics and money”, he said. ”There’s traditionally been a cosy connection between the Liberal Democratic Party [removed from power last September after more than half a century of near-uninterrupted rule], tobacco growers and cigarette sellers.

”Then you have the Smoking Research Foundation, which spends ¥5 billion a year selling its message that smoking is not necessarily harmful for you.”

Cigarettes are cheap at ¥300 ($3.77) a pack of 20 and are widely available in the country’s 570,000 tobacco vending machines.

But the government, which owns 50.01 per cent of Japan Tobacco, will introduce a tax increase of ¥3.5 a cigarette from October.

Japan Tobacco said it expects the government eventually to sell its stake in the company to raise funds to reduce the country’s soaring public debt.

A spokeswoman said ”Japan Tobacco recognises that certain illnesses are caused by tobacco. But to protect smokers’ rights, we would hope that the government allows smoking rooms in workplaces and does not enforce a total ban.”

JUSTIN NORRIE
February 27, 2010

Many public departments and organisations working in the federal capital have no proper mechanism to enforce anti-tobacco laws and any check on violation during duty hours within their premises.

Thousands of people who do not smoked, become victims of second hand smoke as smokers openly smoke cigarettes in government offices which is a clear violation of concerned laws, causing harmful effects on health of non-smokers, citizens complained.

Cognizant of deleterious impact of tobacco, legislation was undertaken by the

Ministry of Health and ‘Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smokers Health Ordinance 2002’ was promulgated.

Later, through an SRO the government disallowed designated areas in offices for smokers, which were earlier allowed in the ordinance and totally banned smoking in any public place or office to protect the health of non-smokers.

Prior to issuance of the SRO, all public and private offices were allowed to allocate a separate place for smokers like smokers’ corner within office premises with adequate arrangements.

The citizens demanded that after promulgation of the laws all public and work places have become smoke free therefore smokers should not be allowed to use tobacco in their offices or at public places.

“Why such laws are not being implemented in true spirit and violators are not being stopped to do so. It seems no one is serious to enforce such laws,” Muhammad Aftab, a citizen of federal capital questioned. He added complete implementation of the law and strict action against violators will help to protect health of non-smokers particularly in public offices.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan had signed and ratified multisectoral and multidimensional Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on May 18, 2004 and November 3,2004 respectively. Under provisions of FCTC, the country is required to bring its laws and policies in line with the global convention.

Dr. Arif Azad, executive director of The Network for Consumer Protection said that tobacco was the main cause of numerous hazards to human health, adding that all national and international obligations should be followed by the concerned authorities in this regard to check on use of tobacco particularly in offices.

He said smoking causes many diseases and ailments including heart attack, cancer of lungs, oral cavity, esophagus, larynx and diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema. He said the organisation is working to raise the level of awareness of policy makers on the issue for making effective policies for tobacco control in the country.

According to health experts, the use of tobacco continues to be a major public health challenge in Pakistan where 100,000 annual deaths occur due to tobacco related diseases.

They added tobacco consumption in the country is increasing manifold as a result of aggressive marketing and promotion of tobacco products by the tobacco industry including multinationals. When contacted an official of Tobacco Control Cell, Ministry of Health said that SRO withdrawal on designated areas for smokers will help cell to have strictly check on law violators with the help of public and concerned departments.

He said a strategic plan of action has been made by the cell with focus on awareness programme for health officials, professionals, teachers, decision makers, administrative staffs etc.

One of the central intended consequences of the landmark Cigarette Restitution Fund was to reduce smoking in the general population. Cancer research, substance abuse programs and other efforts to deal with the health and financial effects of smoking on individuals and states were also part of the plan.

According to a recent Capital News Service story, however, those consequences are working at cross-purposes to some extent here in Maryland.

Officially named the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, the contract was struck in 1998 between the nation’s four largest tobacco companies and the attorneys general of 46 states. The amount of money involved was huge, with the participating companies agreeing to pay a minimum of $206 billion over the first 25 years of the agreement.

Maryland is among the participating states, and has since 2001 been awarded in excess of $1 billion of the $4.4 billion it was allotted in the settlement.

In many states, substantial portions of settlement money has been diverted to purposes other than the smoking-related research and programs originally identified for funding. Some argue that has been and is taking place in Maryland, too.

The fly in the ointment of the restitution fund is that the amount of money the participating tobacco companies are required to pay is based primarily on the number of cigarettes they sell. The bottom line is that that number and the payments that correspond to it have been on the decline since the settlement was struck.

In Maryland, as elsewhere, that means less funding is available to fight smoking, conduct scientific research, and help pay the medical bills resulting from treating those who have smoked. That is a big bill.

In Maryland, fund money has been going into a number of projects, including crop conversion, cancer research and substance abuse prevention. But these programs are now being squeezed by the ever-smaller amounts of funding they are receiving from the settlement.

As might be expected, there is some disagreement over how the money is being spent. In Maryland, some of it has gone to Medicaid, legal fees and other state agencies and programs. That has riled those who believe it should go strictly to preventing smoking, and treating its effects.

Is all this good news or bad news? On balance, we’d say good. Cancer mortality rates have dropped and the prevalence of smoking in both adults and youth has declined appreciably.

A smoke-free society is the ultimate goal, as it would mean a healthier, more productive, less medically expensive population. The long-term trend toward less smoking is the one most important statistic in this story. If that means fewer tobacco settlement dollars for Maryland and other states, it should be worth the price — especially in the long run.

Many smokers and former smokers will tell you, it`s not easy to kick the tobacco habit, but some tobacco prevention advocates say there`s a sure-fire way to make it easier; raise the tax on tobacco products.

The report shows voters across the country say raising the tobacco tax by a dollar per pack of cigarettes is their preferred way to address state budget deficits.

North Dakota isn`t exactly strapped for cash, but the report released by a number of tobacco prevention groups like the American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free kids shows increasing the tax on tobacco products by one dollar will bring $28 million of revenue to the state.

“While we`re not in a budget deficit, there`s still really good health programs that are going unfunded and this is a good way to generate new revenue to cover those health programs,” said Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy Executive Director Jeanne Prom.

Tobacco Prevention advocates say the best part about the increase is that the report shows it will keep 4,900 kids in North Dakota from becoming smokers, and will spur 3,200 current adult smokers to quit. The Center For Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy says price is everything when it comes to tobacco use.

“We need to raise the tax so it`s hard to start and easy to quit and when we raise the tax, more people will quit and those who do continue will probably smoke less and that`s all meaning a better health outcome for our state,” said Prom.

While prevention advocates call it a progressive tax, others call it regressive because most smokers are middle and lower class, and raising the cost of cigarettes won`t make them kick the habit, instead it will just hurt their pocketbooks even more.

“It just hurts the lower, middle class and poor people the most and the state quite frankly doesn`t need the revenue and so it seems to me like it`s a solution in search of a problem,” said Narloch.

But tobacco prevention groups say smoking in North Dakota is a problem and when people are faced with the choice between cigarettes and food, they`ll make the choice to quit their tobacco habit.

The Center for Tobacco Prevention and Control Policy says it`s confident a price hike will urge people to quit because about a year ago when the federal tax was raised by about 60 cents, the Quitline saw a big increase in the number of callers asking for help to stop smoking.

The first month of a statewide smoking ban in restaurants and bars has been pretty much a nonevent, local business operators said yesterday.

Most longtime customers who smoke have either adapted to the restrictions, which went into effect Jan. 2, or chosen to brave the cold weather before or after a meal, the operators say.

On the other hand, the operators say they haven’t seen a sizable uptick in business from nonsmokers either, although that could be weather-related as well.

“We may be turning the tables around more quickly since the ban went into place,” said Steven Hondos, the owner of the Jimmy the Greek restaurant off University Parkway. The restaurant was successful for years in striking a balance between smokers and nonsmokers.

“The people who smoke, who love our food, are still coming in. They understand this was not our decision, so I haven’t sensed any kind of backlash against us.

“We’re noticing more people coming in who didn’t before because of the smoke,” Hondos said. “But it hasn’t been that many so far.”

There hasn’t been a rash of complaints about noncompliance with the ban regarding individuals, restaurants and bars.

Anyone caught smoking in a restaurant or bar could get a $50 fine. Restaurants or bars that repeatedly fail to enforce the smoking ban could get a $250 fine.

As of Jan. 24, there have been 147 formal complaints filed regarding Triad bars and restaurants with the N.C. Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch.

Guilford County has the bulk of those complaints at 94, followed by Forsyth County with 17. There have been no complaints filed in Alleghany, Davie, Watauga and Yadkin counties.

There have been some instances of confusion with patrons using an electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette. The cigarette, which isn’t affected by the statewide smoking ban, is battery-operated and contains cartridges of nicotine. A heater converts the chemical into a vapor.

Customers still can smoke in an outdoor seating area or patio, and some restaurant and bar owners said that they are taking steps to make those areas more comfortable.

Local health departments are responsible for enforcing the law, investigating complaints and issuing the fines.

Dr. Tim Monroe, the Forsyth County health director, said his department has a policy of investigating all complaints. Inspectors will check for compliance with the no-smoking law during their quarterly inspections of restaurants. Monroe does not foresee an aggressive campaign to send inspectors out with the sole intention of catching smoking violations.

Gayle Anderson, the president and chief executive of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, said she has not received a complaint about a bar or restaurant being out of compliance with the ban.

“With the economy down, the bad weather the past few weeks, etc. it would be hard to compare business with January 2009,” Anderson said.

Anderson said she expects bars and restaurants will gain business over time based on the experience of those groups that already took the nonsmoking plunge.

“Over the past several years, a number of restaurants here have consulted with us before going non-smoking,” Anderson said.

“When we’ve checked back with them several months after they made that decision, they’ve told us it really had not affected their business after the first couple of weeks.”

John Cahoon, the co-owner of Finnegan’s Wake in the Downtown Arts District, said that the smoking ban has made his establishment “a little busier” in the short term.

“The ban hasn’t hurt us even though 20 percent to 25 percent of our business has traditionally been with smokers,” Cahoon said.

“We believe we’re getting new customers because, previously, the separation between smoking and nonsmoking wasn’t enough for some people.”
By Richard Craver
February 2, 2010

SALT LAKE CITY — Lawmakers’ ongoing “anti-tobacco nicky fit,” as Utah smokers affectionately call the spate of prohibitions on almost anything with nicotine, will continue this week after stalling momentarily when a House committee realized that two bills are targeting the same nicotine-drenched product.

Electronic cigarettes, which look like normal cigarettes but are smokeless and run on batteries that heat a capsule of nicotine in the mouthpiece into a vapor, are targeted directly by HB88 and also would be covered indirectly by a new “Nicotine Product Restriction Act” proposed by HB71.

The former was approved and sent to the House consent calendar. But the bill would be redundant under the broader nicotine-product and flavored smokeless tobacco restrictions in HB71.

The sponsor of HB71, Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, said the redundant language is easily fixed and is a sign that other lawmakers are as eager as he is to keep tabs on tobacco products, particularly new ones that look and taste like candy or breath mints and are targeted at teens.

“If I had my way, I would outlaw tobacco altogether,” Ray told committee members.

He will get as close as he can this year between his new restrictions act and sponsorship of an increase in the state tax on tobacco to $2 per pack of cigarettes, from 69.5 cents per pack now.
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Some Utahns who fully endorse the effort to prohibit the sale of products containing nicotine that most kids can’t tell from regular candy and mints say lawmakers ought to take a breath before restricting e-cigarettes.

Mark Livingston, a private citizen who said he detests smoking, said e-cigarettes have been able to help family members get off regular cigarettes. “It would be a shame to include them, because I’ve seen them help people who already have a nicotine problem. At least they and people around them aren’t inhaling smoke.”

Studies by various anti-smoking organizations show that tobacco smoke contains upwards of 300 carcinogenic or toxic compounds.

Other lawmakers said they wonder: If the smoking-cessation benefits of e-cigarettes, which are widely available on the Internet, become part of the discussion, should all products, such as nicotine-laced gum, be covered by the bill, as well?

Nicotine in any form is toxic to humans, Ray said, noting that most of the new breath-mint-type tobacco products have two and three times the nicotine found in a regular cigarette.

E-cigarettes also might do as much harm as good. A new study announced Friday by the Korea Food and Drug Administration shows that although they have less nicotine than ordinary cigarettes, the vaporized solution from them can cause a host of immediate physical reactions, including lung cancer, if used for two years or longer.

Members of the House Health and Human Services Committee plan to clear the air on the topic during their meeting scheduled Tuesday.

By James Thalman
Deseret News

CIGARETTE firms are to be forced to sell every brand in plain GREY packets to make them less attractive to kids.

They will all have to be in identical boxes, with the brand name shown in just plain text above a big health warning, under new government plans.

Ministers want to ditch the glitzy packaging when laws forcing shopkeepers to keep smokes under the counter come in later this year.

And parents could also be banned from lighting up at home or in their cars when travelling with children.

Health Secretary Andy Burnham will unveil the crackdown tomorrow. A Health Department source said: “We want to do everything possible to stop children from starting to smoke.

“We’re going to look to see if getting rid of jazzy cigarette packs will take away the lure of smoking.”

Mr Burnham is to start talks with shops and manufacturers after a study showed children believe cigs in attractive packets are less harmful.

Britain has already seen the toughest ever crackdown on cigarettes – including a ban on smoking at work.

And new laws will soon come into force banning vending machines and cigarettes on open display in stores.

But Mr Burnham plans to go even further by declaring his vision of a “smoke-free future” where kids are protected from the scourge of tobacco.

In a speech tomorrow he will say: “I believe we are right to take tough action – and that we should be unapologetic about it.

“I make no apology for taking a hard line when it comes to protecting children and given them the best start in life. I want to see a smoke-free future, a future where people lead healthier and longer lives because they don’t smoke.” His new purge on tobacco will guarantee NHS help for every smoker who wants to quit, including free nicotine patches or gum.

Seven out of ten smokers say they want to stop and 2.4 million have quit since the “Smoking Kills” campaign was launched in 1998.

An insider added: “Every smoker will get support, including nicotine replacement therapy. It’s much better to be on patches than inhale all the toxic chemicals in cigarettes.”

Treating patients for smoke- induced lung and heart disease costs the NHS £2.7 billion a year.

Last night the new clampdown was welcomed by Labour MP Ian McCartney, who has campaigned tirelessly to protect kids from smoking.

He said: “This will be another big step towards preventing another generation of young people being damaged and injured by tobacco.”

LONDON, ENGLAND – A ban on the display of tobacco in stores across Scotland is expected to pass this week, a move that is part of a wide-ranging campaign aimed at reducing smoking, the BBC and The Scotsman report.

The ban, part of the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services Bill, would also prohibit cigarette vending machines while introducing a registration plan for retailers.

The Tobacco Retailers Alliance opposes the legislation, warning that a vending machine ban will lead to job losses. The National Association of Cigarette Machine Operators has proposed digitally operated machines that require an ID check prior to use rather than an outright ban.

If passed, the move to ban cigarette displays will affect supermarkets starting in 2011 and small stores in 2013.

In Canada, the marketing of tobacco products is “dark” at retail, forcing convenience stores to essentially hide product behind curtains or in drawers out of sight to customers. For more on tobacco issues, see the November 2008 NACS Magazine feature, “Tobacco Road.”

Smokers have plenty to worry about: cancer and other health risks, societal disapproval, the costs of feeding their addiction. Many worry about trying to quit.

But how many of the 46 million smokers in the U.S. ever think about what’s been added to tobacco?

Companies have acknowledged using cocoa, coffee, menthol and other additives to make tobacco taste better. Some of those additives might be making cigarettes more addictive.

“Tobacco products today are really the only human-consumed product that we don’t know what’s in them,” Dr. Lawrence R. Deyton, the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s new Center for Tobacco Products, said recently.

That veil of secrecy will soon be lifting. A new law will require cigarette makers to disclose to the FDA what’s in their products. It’s no secret that tobacco and its smoke contain more than 60 carcinogens.

The information on other ingredients should help the FDA determine which ingredients might also make tobacco more harmful or addictive.

The agency is being asked to use the data to develop standards for tobacco products or to ban some ingredients or combinations.

The FDA should make sure it uses this new information to protect smokers who can’t or won’t stop smoking to protect themselves.

The Daily Record
1/25/2010

SPANIARDS ARE born anarchists who seem to believe that rules and regulations, be they double parking, speeding or smoking, are made to be ignored.

A law banning smoking in places of work or leisure was introduced three years ago but it has had little effect.

The sales of cigarettes fell slightly during the first few months, but they are now back to 2006 levels and the numbers of smokers remain the same.

Someone described the 2006 law as having as many holes “as a leaking bucket”.

The law banning smoking in the workplace seems to be respected and it is a common sight to see groups of people puffing away in the streets outside their offices.

But when the draft Bill was first presented in parliament, the catering trade – who feared they would lose business – were up in arms.

Using their powerful clout, they succeeded in diluting the Bill to allow smoking in the majority of establishments.

In theory, if the premises is less than 100sq m, the owner can choose whether to allow smoking.

But 100sq m in Madrid seems to be pretty elastic, and it is up to the bosses to measure their own premises – which allows them to ignore the space behind the bar – or between the tables and so on.

In larger establishments, smoking is officially permitted only if the premises is physically divided into two areas – and not by merely putting up a removable screen – with separate extractor fans installed for each zone.

But it is estimated that less than 1 per cent of Madrid’s bars and restaurants have invested in new air conditioners or partition walls.

Many simply have some tables for smokers and others for non-smokers.

Another loophole is at private functions. Handing round a box of cigars is a tradition at Spanish weddings, baptisms and family events.

Owners of restaurants and other function-hosting establishments fought to open another hole in the law: the father of the bride can still offer his Havana cigars to his guests.

A report issued last week by the ministry of health showed the frightening statistics of the results of smoking. It is estimated that 50,000 deaths from cancer of the lungs, throat and oesophagus, among others, are caused by tobacco; and 1,400 of these deaths are of passive smokers who have been exposed to tobacco smoke.

It is the non-smoker who has trouble finding a smoke-free bar or cafe in Madrid. Pop into virtually any one, and you are forced to view the scene through a haze of tobacco smoke.

Not surprisingly the passive smoking staff are feeling the consequences.

Dublin-born Morys, who has been in the bar and restaurant trade for more than 30 years, is one of the sufferers.

He is now in remission after treatment for throat cancer at the end of last year and is back at work as manager of an Irish pub in Madrid.

He hates the smoky atmosphere and complains that his throat and eyes trouble him every day when he ends his shift.

But he admits that the customers appreciate their freedom to light up.

“One of the first things visiting Irish and British clients welcome is that they can enjoy a cigarette at the bar and don’t have to go outside into the cold as they would do at home,” he says.

The unions say they receive many complaints from their members. “Waiters and barmen complain to us, but there is little we can do because the law is so permissive,” said a spokesman for the UGT (the general workers’ union).

Other union officials worry that many of their members could lose their jobs if employers took advantage of a stricter law to cut down on staff.

One sector you would expect to support the smoking ban is the health authorities in Madrid where the conservative Popular Party (PP) governs the autonomous government.

But they refuse to enforce the law and support the catering trade.

The PP councillor for health, Juan José Guemes, an ex-smoker, says a ban on smoking in public places would be going against the rights of the individual.

“However dangerous it might be, we are not here to impose rules and restrictions on anyone. We have to educate the people on the dangers of tobacco.

“Of course we respect the rights of non-smokers, but if they don’t want to breathe in smoke, they should find a non-smoking bar,” he told The Irish Times, ­ although the only option he gave this non-smoking writer was a singularly unattractive establishment.