It’s designer handbags at dawn for Kate Moss – who’s only just put her name to a range of arm candy. The supermodel, 36, has been signed up by fab French bag manufacturers Longchamp.

Her bag range for them will launch at Selfridges in London later this month. But it seems Kate wants her name in giant lights and has demanded an outside VIP smoking lounge. Surely she is supposed to be selling bags not smoking fags? Our spy says: “It’s Kate Moss – she can ask for what she likes and they’ll probably bend over and give it to her.

Longchamp are spending a fortune on the sponsorship deal to boost the label.

But it’ll look more of a promotion for brand Moss. “The outside area is a bit of a problem.

“Her people want couches, cushions, tables, heaters and candles to make it comfy for her to have a fag. But she’s only due to be there for an hour.

“They don’t want to pay out lots for her to mingle with selected guests, only for her to hide in her VIP room necking champers with her mates.”

It’s a habit that some Indiana law makers are trying to make illegal in public places. Smoking may be the next thing you won’t see when you’re at a bar, restaurant or any other public place throughout the state. And it’s picking up steam from unlikely sources.

“I don’t really mind stepping out smoking,” said smoker Ricky Smith.

Smoking is something Ricky Smith’s done for the past 19 years. But a push from the Indiana Campaign for Smoke free Air and some lawmakers hope to make it illegal to smoke in public places. Saturday the group held a town hall meeting.

“The health impact is clear. Secondhand smoke is the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States,” said Smoke free Air Grassroots Chair Tim Filler.

Some counties in the state already have smoking bans like St. Joseph County. It was met with dissent from bar and restaurants owners who feared business would suffer.

“We were concerned about it as any small business would,” said Fiddler’s Hearth Owner Carol Meehan.

But Fiddler’s Hearth Owner Carol Meehan says sales have actually increased by 30 percent since the ordinance. Success stories like Meehan’s is exactly what Grassroots chair Tim Filler wants people to know about.

“More than two thirds of the state says they support a smoke free workplace law,” said Filler.

Success stories and tragic stories like the impact smoking has had on high school student Danielle Hampton’s family, especially her step father.

“Where he works now their workers smoke on the line and he developed cancer caused from the smoke,” said student Danielle Hampton.

Now he’s on a feeding tube all from secondhand smoke. Smith, a smoker himself, says he wouldn’t mind a statewide smoking ban in public places.

“I don’t want no secondhand smoke I don’t blame the next person,” said Smith.

Three smoke free bills have been filed in the Indiana state house this session. Representative Charlie Brown says he’ll re-introduce one of those bills to the House on Monday.

General Tobacco said Wednesday it will comply with recent notices regarding the removal of its cigarette brands from certain state directories of approved brands for sale.

Some states have pursued additional payments from Mayodan-based General Tobacco related to the Master Settlement Agreement, a deal reached in 1998 when tobacco companies agreed to pay states for the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses. In a statement Wednesday, General Tobacco said it continues to dispute the validity of the agreement and maintains its claims that it is owed more than $95 million in overpayment to states.

“Consumers should not have to lose the choice of GT’s brands over what the company considers to be a bona fide dispute over the interpretation of the MSA and its validity under federal and state law,” said Ronald Denman, GT’s executive vice president and general counsel.

“Big Tobacco got away with billions in sales with no payments to the states before the MSA and is now squeezing its competitors out of business under the auspices of the MSA so that it can make many more billions.”

The de-listing does not pertain to the filtered cigars or pipe tobacco products sold by GT.

Finland made international headlines recently with news that its government plans to completely eradicate smoking – not just a ban on smoking in public places, that already exists, but the total and final eradication of smoking amongst the Finnish population. It’s a lofty goal to be sure, and has reignited the smoking debate in other European countries, many of which have banned smoking in cafes, pubs and restaurants. The Czech Republic, however, like most former communist states, seems to be trailing behind.

round a quarter of all Czechs – 2.5 million people – are smokers, addicted to a drug that will eventually kill one in five of them at huge expense to the state. Many, of course, want to give up. Those that do often find themselves at the Tobacco Dependence Treatment Centre in Prague.

The director of the centre is Dr Eva Králíková, one of the country’s most vocal anti-smoking campaigners. She’s particularly concerned about the effects of passive smoking, and is disappointed that new legislation due to enter into force in July falls short of a total ban on smoking in pubs, cafes and restaurants. She says even the law’s provision that non-smoking areas must be separated with a wall does not go far enough.

“Unfortunately you have to open a door to go there, and of course the air will be mixed. It’s similar to a swimming pool where you can piss in one corner and then suggest the rest of the water is clean. Only a 100% smoke-free environment is safe.”

Smoking is already banned on trains, trams and buses, and is increasingly rare in the workplace. But pubs, restaurants and cafes are still overwhelmingly smoker-friendly. From July 1st they’ll be obliged to put a sticker on the door to say whether the establishment is smoking, non-smoking or mixed with a separate smoke-free room. Analysts predict that most will choose the first option, in a bid not to lose customers.

But for many Czechs attempts to eradicate smoking is part of a crusade by interfering busy-bodies, egged on by health fascists in Brussels. Senator Jaroslav Kubera, a heavy smoker with a deep belief in personal freedom, told Czech Radio recently he didn’t like the way things were going.

“The fact of the matter is that non-smokers aren’t looking after themselves, they’re just aggressively attacking those who smoke. All these regulations are ridiculous. They’ll be banning certain kinds of food next. States are interfering in people’s lives in more and more ways. George Orwell was spot on when he described the future in 1984 – believe me, it’s getting closer.”

Jaroslav KuberaJaroslav Kubera Anti-smoking campaigners suspect the powerful tobacco industry is behind the failed attempts to introduce a total smoking ban. A leading Czech newspaper claimed recently that representatives of three international cigarette companies actually work as assistants to MPs. As long as the tobacco industry enjoys unfettered access to lawmakers, say the anti-smoking campaigners, a Finnish-style crackdown on smoking is simply out of the question.

By Rob Cameron
21 Jan. 2010

U.S. regulators are working to lift the smokescreen clouding the ingredients used in cigarettes and other tobacco products.

In June, tobacco companies must tell the Food and Drug Administration their formulas for the first time, just as drugmakers have for decades. Manufacturers also will have to turn over any studies they’ve done on the effects of the ingredients.

It’s an early step for an agency just starting to flex muscles granted by a law that took effect last June that gives it broad power to regulate tobacco far beyond the warnings now on packs, short of banning it outright.

Companies have long acknowledged using cocoa, coffee, menthol and other additives to make tobacco taste better. The new information will help the FDA determine which ingredients might also make tobacco more harmful or addictive. It will also use the data to develop standards for tobacco products and could ban some ingredients or combinations.

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

While the FDA must keep much of the data confidential under trade-secret laws, it will publish a list of harmful and potentially harmful ingredients by June 2011. Under the law, it must be listed by quantity in each brand.

Some tobacco companies have voluntarily listed product ingredients online in recent years but never with the specificity they must give the FDA, said Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

For example, Altria Group Inc., based in Richmond and the parent company of the nation’s largest tobacco maker, Philip Morris USA, has posted general ingredients on its Web site since at least 1999.

Cigarette makers say their products include contain tobacco, water, sugar and flavorings, along with chemicals like diammonium phosphate, a chemical used to improve burn rate and taste, and ammonium hydroxide, used to improve the taste.

Scientific studies suggest those chemicals also could make the body more easily absorb nicotine, the active and addictive component of tobacco.

“Until now, the tobacco companies were free to manipulate their product in ways to maximize sales, no matter the impact on the number of people who died or became addicted,” Myers said. “The manner of disclosure previously made it impossible for the government to make any meaningful assessments.”

About 46 million people in the U.S., or 20.6 percent of the country’s adults smoke cigarettes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, down from about 24 percent 10 years ago. It also estimates that about 443,000 people in the U.S. die each year from diseases linked to smoking.

Altria has supported what it has called “tough but fair regulation.” But its chief rivals — No. 2 Reynolds American Inc., parent company of R.J. Reynolds, and No. 3 Lorillard — opposed the law.

They said it would lock in Altria’s share of the market because its size gives it more resources to comply with regulations and future limits on marketing under the law. Altria’s brands include Marlboro, which held a 41.9 percent share of the U.S. cigarette market in the third quarter, according to Information Resources Inc.

Large cigarette displays in stores, known as “power walls,” will be illegal across Newfoundland and Labrador beginning Jan. 1, 2010.

Stores owners say they’re getting ready for the new provincial law that will mean they can no longer display, promote or advertise cigarettes.

It’s all part of the province’s plan to cut down the number of people lighting up.

“We’re going to do the simplest thing and put up a curtain,” said Todd Seward, who owns two stores in Labrador City, western Labrador.

Some consumers are pleased with the change.

“You walk into any convenience store and you go up to the cash and it’s right in your face. So I think it’s a great idea to just cover it up,” said Zonya Crew, of Labrador City.

Seward doesn’t expect the new law will affect tobacco sales.

“Its not like buying a candy bar. Most people are loyal to a brand and they come in and ask for that without even looking,” he said.

In the middle of the summer Turkey approved a statewide ban on smoking in all indoor public areas, becoming only the seventh nation across European region to adopt such measure.

The ban was massively criticized by local business owners and simple smokers, and even resulted in one victim, when a manager of a coffee house in the west of the country was shot dead after asking one of the customers to put out his cigarette.

Nevertheless, Turkish government decided to strengthen its regulatory role for local tobacco industry. The cigarette-makers are obliged to place written and graphic warning labels on the packs of tobacco products from January 1, 2010.

According to Mahmoud Maloudi, head of the Tobacco & Alcohol Market Regulation Board, agency dealing tobacco and alcohol products, the Board is going to begin warning current smokers with pictures of deceased lungs and written statements and pictures starting Jan. 1, 2010 in place of current warnings that are not vivid enough. Mr. Maloudi said there would be 14 different warnings on various tobacco products shown in order to make smokers aware of potential severe health risks related to tobacco consumption.

In conformity with TAMRD, there are nearly 200 kinds of packages for tobacco products approved for sales in the past. All those packages are required to bear latest written and graphic warning labels.

Tobacco manufacturers will have enough time to modify the production to print new warnings and place them at their products with particular intervals. Tobacco products manufactured by Dec. 31, 2009 that written warnings only, will be allowed to be on the market until July, 1st, 2010.

The aggregate area of both types of warnings should be not less than 65 percent of the entire package, in conformity with the corresponding ordinance. The deadline for the switch to new warnings is Jan. 1, 2011, by that day each tobacco product selling in Turkey must bear new warnings.

Pictorial warnings on tobacco products is a well-known strategy already used by many countries throughout the world, among which are Brazil, Thailand, the United Kingdom, Romania, India, and Singapore. The USA is going to place similar warnings in the nearest future as well.

The European Union Committee on Public Health developed more than 40 pictures involving the effects of tobacco consumption to be placed on the packages of tobacco products. Turkish authorities have selected 14 pictures for the local products.

According to several surveys, visual warnings make 20 percent of current smokers want to quit or even get rid of the habit.

Turkey prohibited smoking in enclosed public spaces last year, but gave eating and drinking establishments a delay to get ready to the ban. The delay expired on July 19, 2009 and the statewide ban became valid. In conformity with the legislation, smoking is banned restaurants, tea and coffee houses, bars and all workplaces. Tobacco advertisements and promotions also were prohibited.

The World Health Organization, or WHO, will make public this year’s report on Global Tobacco Epidemic at a meeting to be held in Turkey in December for its efforts to create a smoke-free environment and its successful implementation of smoking ban in enclosed areas.

WHO report presents every year information from 179 member countries regarding tobacco epidemic and tobacco control policies. The organization releases its annual report every year in a different country or a city which has made significant progress in fight against smoking or become a role model for its combat against smoking.

Last year’s meeting was held in New York that launched a smoking ban in restaurants and bars. London, Dublin, Mexico City, Montevideo and Istanbul were running to host this year’s meeting. WHO decided to have this year’s meeting in Istanbul because of the “%100 Smoke-Free Air Space in Turkey” which is successfully implemented since July 2009 after the smoking ban in enclosed areas.

Turkish health minister as well as WHO officials will take part at the meeting in Istanbul on December 9.

CHICAGO, IL – Makers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages have begun responding to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) letter looking in to whether it is permissible for them to add caffeine to their drinks, the Examiner.com reports.

Charles Murray, CEO of Shotpak Inc., maker of Gravity Vodka, said that he has “little doubt that Gravity is safe and complies with all government requirements necessary for its sale in the future,” adding that his company’s “50ml StandUp pouch has the caffeine equivalent of about half a cup of coffee or about one-third of what is allowed.”

Earlier this month, FDA Deputy Commissioner Dr. Joshua Sharfstein said that the FDA has not approved caffeine for use in alcoholic beverages. However, this has created some friction with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the agency in charge of compliance for formulas for alcoholic beverages.

“The TTB isn’t too happy about the FDA stepping into their territory,” wrote Wine and Spirits Daily. “Traditionally the FDA governs food and non-alcoholic beverages, while the TTB oversees beverage alcohol. The FDA says it has jurisdiction because the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act gives it authority over ‘articles used for food or drink’ and thus includes alcoholic beverages.”

According to the FDA, a 12-ounce soft drink may contain a maximum of .02% caffeine, or 68mg. However, that 68mg excludes “natural” caffeine levels, so guarana, yerba mate and coffee-based drinks conceivably could contain more. Also, drinks labeled as “dietary supplements” contain fewer restrictions. All of this spells confusion and frustration for caffeinated alcohol beverage producers.

Noting this, the brewmaster for Mobius Lager, a caffeinated beer containing taurine and ginseng, called the latest FDA action “bureaucratic” and “ridiculous,” adding that his company is formulating a formal response to the FDA. He said that his product is certified with the TTB, as are all products targeted by the recent FDA letter.

ANKARA, – Turkey will add visual health warning messages to cigarette packages produced as of Jan. 1, 2010, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Sunday.

Chairman Mehmet Kucuk of the Turkish Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulation Board (TAPDK) told the agency that cigarette packages produced before Dec. 31, 2009 which only have written warning signs can be sold till June 30, 2010.

There will be no cigarette packages without visual warning messages in Turkey as of Jan. 1, 2011, Kucuk said.

There will be 14 pictures, which will be chosen from 42 sample pictures in the European Union’s system, on tobacco product packages to draw people’s attention to the harm of cigarettes, the chairman was quoted of saying.

Visual warning on cigarette packages is used in countries including Britain, Belgium, Romania, Brazil, Thailand and Singapore, the agency said.

A smoking ban came into effect across Turkey on July 19, extending an earlier prohibition on smoking to all public indoor areas including cafes, bars and restaurants.

Under the new rule, it is also illegal to advertise and promote tobacco products or the names and brands of tobacco producers, while TV channels and radios have to air at least 90 minutes of programs on the harmful effects of tobacco products every month.

The Attorney General of Colorado said yesterday that his state can collect taxes on sales of medical marijuana.

“Medical marijuana is tangible property that is generally subject to state sales tax,” Attorney General John Suthers said in an opinion, according to The Denver Post.

Suthers, a Republican, was responding to a query from the state’s governor, Democrat Bill Ritter.

“This is another in a series of significant steps toward some sort of legalization of marijuana,” said CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. “Once local and state officials in Colorado and elsewhere realize how much income they can generate from this tax it will be harder for them or anyone else to argue that pot shouldnt be legalized and regulated in some fashion.”

In response to the opinion, the Post reports, the governor’s office says it will direct businesses that offer medical marijuana to obtain retail licenses and begin paying sales taxes.

Ritter’s spokesman said the move to regulate the industry comes amid “chaos” in medical marijuana distribution tied to a rise in dispensaries this year. (The state legalized medical marijuana in 2000.)

The move was welcomed by the director of a group that represents medical marijuana dispensaries and their clients and doctors who write prescriptions for the drug in Colorado.

“I think the community is willing to pay taxes if it will help prove the legitimacy of their efforts,” Courtney Tanning of the Colorado Wellness Association told the Post. She said the medical marijuana industry “has been an underground, black-market community for so long that I think they’re really willing to pay dues to be taken seriously.”

By Brian Montopoli, November 17, 2009

MANILA — Members of the Philippine health NGO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) slammed the ongoing conference of the tobacco industry in Bangkok and warned of increase in tobacco-related deaths in Asia as the industry enhances its hold in the Asia Pacific market.

“The tobacco industry is training its guns and armor not for battle but to entice our young children to smoking addiction and lead them to suffer from tobacco-related deaths. Expect the industry to launch more sophisticated marketing and public relation gimmicks to penetrate the Asia Pacific market where governments are starting to implement stricter bans on smoking and tobacco advertising and promotions,” said Dr. Maricar Limpin, FCAP Executive Director.

The group issued this statement as the tobacco industry holds its own tobacco exposition dubbed, TABINFOASIA 2009 in Bangkok. The industry identified Asia Pacific as one of the world’s most important tobacco markets. In its website about the event, the organizers intend to address the rules and regulations governing tobacco in the global market with topics devoted to bans and regulations and corporate social responsibility as among the options that the industry players may consider in penetrating the market.

Limpin said the tobacco industry has been undermining the tobacco regulation laws of the Philippines by engaging in partnerships with government agencies and getting publicity to promote tobacco in the guise of corporate social responsibility.

In the press briefing conducted by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) in Bangkok, FCAP showed to the media Philip Morris Philippines Managing Director Chris Nelson donating check to the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) after the typhoons that have hit the country recently.

“The PNRC which has professed to dedicate itself to the service of humanity, provide assistance for the most vulnerable and protect the life of Filipinos has been receiving donations from Philip Morris that is marketing a deadly product, courtesy of its Chairman, Sen. Richard Gordon. It is doubly alarming because the Senator has shown clear bias for the tobacco industry when he consistently pushed for a watered-down version of the bill on picture-based health warning in cigarette packaging,” Limpin explained.

In the same briefing, FCAP also showed Nelson donating to public schools in the provinces and in cooperation with the Knowledge Channel Foundation, a private foundation allegedly working for the youth education.

“It is the height of marketing manipulation in the guise of corporate social responsibility that Philip Morris chose to engage public educational institutions that are supposed to take care of the well-being of the youth,” said Limpin.

FCAP is leading the group of anti-smoking advocates from the Philippines who are participating in the Southeast Asia Regional Workshop on Surveillance, Monitoring and Counteractions on the Industry organized by SEATCA. This strategy workshop will run one day ahead of Tabinfo Asia, from November 10 to 12, 2009.

November 10, 2009 Pinoypress

While almost all of Asia has ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and is moving to implement the WHO treaty FCTC, the global tobacco industry is intensifying is grip on Asia.

Tabinfo Asia 2009, a tobacco convention, is calling itself ‘one of the most important events held in one of the world’s most important tobacco regions. Tab Info is not open to the public health community. However, it will address topics that are of grave concern to public health. This is our interpretation of what the programme will address:

- ‘Tobacco industry in charge of the health system’? Leaving the health system in the hands of the tobacco industry is ludicrous. That is exactly what the tobacco industry is imagining at one session at Tab Info with the theme ‘What if the tobacco industry was ‘in charge of a country’s health system – what would they do about smoking?’

We doubt it will acknowledge responsibility for over five million deaths per year and many millions of patients from smoking.

- ‘Behaviour modification’: The tobacco industry misleads with scary terminology. The FCTC calls on parties to ban advertising and make public and work places smoke-free. However, the industry is calling this ’state-sponsored behaviour modification’.

(Wikipedia definition of behaviour modification: ‘altering an individual’s behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior and/or the reduction of maladaptive behavior through punishment and/or therapy’).

- ‘What’s New on the Product Front”: The tobacco industry’s profit is from nicotine addiction. The industry wants to addict new smokers, keep current smokers addicted and do this in a creative manner. So it will look at current and future innovations in sustaining addiction through ‘nicotine delivery systems’.

- Cigarettes are hazardous and kill half their smokers prematurely. But British-American Tobacco (BAT) is leading the discussion on ‘Harm and Risk Reduction’ and the question a panel will address is whether enough attention is being paid to this topic by governments, NGOs, growers, manufacturers and the media.

What a cruel irony for the tobacco industry to be talking about harm reduction when it continues to fight government efforts to reduce tobacco use.

- ‘Can packaging get more creative’? This session where probably address how to overcome or further dilute the impact of graphic warnings on packs. We see new cigarette pack designs that obscure the health warnings in the market. This session will plan how to make more attractive cigarette packs and not to pay attention to the health warnings.

- Wiping the regulatory slate clean? There will be a Regulatory Workshop that invites participants to wipe the regulatory slate clean and start afresh. The industry perhaps would like to wipe out the FCTC because it is asking participants to ‘Imagine if you were drafting a whole new regulatory framework what would it look like?’

The Democracy Institute, US, best known to have fought tobacco control efforts in the US, will lead the discussion on how to fight global tobacco control regulation.

- ‘Two Views of SE Asia’: Over ‘a delightful buffet breakfast’, the Thai Tobacco Monopoly and BAT will discuss how to fight legislation and increase profits in this region. The Thai Tobacco Monopoly may acknowledge how it lost many battles in Thailand. BAT may not share its experience in delaying and diluting legislation in Malaysia over many years.

- ‘China: an Insight’: About one million people die from smoking-related diseases in China every year. But that is not what the industry will discuss in the session, ‘What’s happening in the industry in the world’s biggest market?’

It won’t refer to ‘Eyes on the prize: Transnational tobacco companies in China 1976-1997′ by O’Sullivan B and Chapman S.

- ‘Operating in a World of Bans’: Plain packaging is inevitable since the industry is fighting graphic warnings and already obscuring pictorial messages. This is a nightmare to the industry and it has to find ways to fight plain-packaging in this session.

The industry is ‘promising a fun, productive workshop’ led by John Luik, who is notorious for countering tobacco control.

Joy F Alampay
Nov 10, 09

For the nine months ended September 30, 2009 West Indian Tobacco Company Limited (WITCO) continued to materialise the benefits derived from increased cost containment as well as growth in top line earnings. For the period, WITCO reported an EPS of $2.27 compared to $1.74 that was achieved in the comparable period of 2008, representing a 30.5 per cent growth rate.

The directors have approved the payment of a Third Interim Dividend of $0.59 per ordinary share payable on November 19 on record at the close of business on November 10 2009. Total dividends for the year is now $1.42 (2008 – $1.12).

The Company reported an 11 per cent increase in Turnover year-on-year which moved from $586.1M to $650.4M. It is worthy to note that WITCO experienced a reduced Turnover growth in Q3 of 3.6 per cent compared to an 8.1 per cent growth achieved in Q2. It can be assumed that tightened economic conditions coupled with the recent price increases may have accounted for the slowdown.

Gross profit for the period was $364.3M or 14.9 per cent higher than prior period as the Company was able to reduce Excise margin while maintaining Cost of Sales margin year-on-year.

The main benefit for WITCO came from cost containment through reduction in all other Operating Cost. These include Distribution Costs, Administrative Expenses and Other Operating Expenses. Collectively, these expenses fell 9.6 per cent to $105.4M. As a result, Operating Profit was propelled to $258.9M from $200.3M, a 29.3 per cent improvement. Operating Profit margin increased from 63.2 per cent to 71.1 per cent.

Profit after taxation rose to $190.8M from $146.4M, an increase of 30.4 per cent.

WITCO’s performance over the last two years is summarised in Exhibit 1. As is illustrated the Company has seen improvements in Profit margins due to lower Cost margins.

As the Company moves forward, they will have to operate in a more controlled environment with the proposed amended Tobacco Bill which aims to have more stringent policies on the distribution and use of cigarettes. This may have an adverse effect on the level of Revenue for WITCO as sales quantity may be affected. This coupled with current dampened economic conditions and the recent increase in prices may further affect Revenue. Some evidence of this exists in the reduced level of Turnover achieved in the third quarter. It must be noted however that over the years, the demand for the Company’s products has been generally inelastic in nature.

On the expense side, the amended Tobacco Bill may actually have benefited the Company as they ceased major advertising avenues and removed product sponsorship to align itself with the Bill. This was seen in the reduction achieved in all other Operating Costs. A continued effort on overall cost containment would assist overall earnings for WITCO.

The stock price has increased by 18.9 per cent for the year whilst the market index has fallen 6.9 per cent. At the current price of $31.50 the stock is trading at a trailing multiple of 10.47 times in line with current market multiples.

Based on the fair valuation and the recent improvement in price, BOURSE revises it recommendation to a HOLD.

One Caribbean Media Limited

The struggles of One Caribbean Media Limited (OCM) continued into the third quarter of the year. For the nine months ended September 30, 2009 OCM recorded an EPS of $0.65 representing a 28.6 per cent decline in earnings when compared to prior period EPS of $0.91.

At the top line, the Company reported a 12.9 per cent falloff in Revenue which moved from $379.4M to $330.4M. The Group was unable to improve its Cost of Sales margin which increased from 64.8 per cent to 66.9 per cent.

As a result, Gross Profit recorded an 18.2 per cent decline year-on-year moving from $109.3M to $133.5M.

Moving down the income statement, the Company reduced Administrative expenses but incurred an increase in Marketing expenses. Collectively, Total operating expenses fell 2.3 per cent from $54.2M to $53M. Year on year, Total operating expense margin deteriorated to 48.5 per cent from 40.6 per cent.

It must be noted however, that on a quarterly basis OCM has seen some improvement in its cost structure in the last two quarters as illustrated in Exhibit 2.

For the full nine months however, the Company was unable to make significant inroads in cost containment as Profit after tax fell to $43M from $60.6M, representing a 29.1 per cent decrease.

Looking forward, with little or no improvement in local economic conditions, OCM may be challenged to achieve top line Revenue growth. The Chairman indicated in his statement that the Company has reduced expenses and taken steps to restructure some of its businesses. This was evident on a quarterly basis as illustrated earlier. A continued effort should be maintained on cost containment in an attempt to assist OCM in fostering bottom line growth.

At the current price of $17.50 OCM is trading at a trailing multiple of 16.06 times, the second highest since the turn of the century. At this valuation combined with the muted Revenue outlook given current economic condition, BOURSE maintains a SELL recommendation.

November 9th 2009, Trinidadexpress

If you’re reading the print edition of CM Life, look toward the top of the page. What do you see?

Even if you’re not, don’t worry. You would see the text of the First Amendment — establishing that the government can not infringe upon free speech. This certainly was on the minds of our founding fathers, given that criticism of the king was not tolerated.

The last couple of months have shown that the federal government views itself as that king. And like some cheap pirate novel, it wants revenge.

Let’s look back to June. The initial version of the house bill designed to give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products contained a clause that would have made it illegal to mention on the packaging or through the media that the product was regulated by the FDA.

The version of the bill signed into law by President Barack Obama doesn’t contain that exact language anymore, but they still made it illegal to say anything that might even remotely make people think the product is safer.

That blurb about misleading consumers is just as bad as the first version — it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that someone will think consumption of tobacco products is safer now that the FDA is involved.

Let’s look at things even more recent. Humana was punished for putting out truthful information, that ObamaCare would adversely impact enrollees in their Medicare Advantage program — by Medicare. The administration finally realized that the gag order it imposed was wrong, yet it apparently still requires “permission” for insurance companies to communicate with its client base.

Censorship, anyone?

What about you bloggers out there? Like a product and want to tell the world about it? Better make known any disclosures! The FTC is concerned that you might be improperly advertising .

“But Jason, the corporations could hire and promote bloggers to make the products out to be something it’s not!” Assuming that argument would actually legitimize the infringement (it doesn’t), let’s look at a counterpoint.

On Sept. 20, George Stephanopoulos questioned Obama about the health care bill mandate for coverage being a tax on ABC’s “This Week”. Obama denied the claim on the fact that, well, he said it’s not a tax increase – even though the bill indicates a tax penalty for those who don’t have coverage.
Now wait a minute. The government is concerned about some shill blogger being able to push a product with false legitimacy or Humana truthfully informing their customers, all while letting Obama get away with what amounts to calling the sky green?

“This Week” had roughly 3.08 million viewers during that episode — far more than the 900,000 enrolees Humana informed. Nope, no double standard there. None at all.

Of course, there are many other examples of infringements — I only discussed large ones within the past year.

By Jason Gillman

After Wisconsin stores sell all their regular cigarettes, the new law requires they only restock their shelves with fire-safe cigarettes. The cigarettes go out when the smoker sets them down for more than a minute.

The only cigarettes you’ll find on Mileage Gas Station’s shelves are fire-safe cigarettes.

William Olson has been smoking since 16 years old, and he’s not happy about the new law.

“I don’t like them. You sit there, you light them up, and if you’re doing something and you turn around and they’re out,” said Olson.

The Fire Department says that’s the point since more than 20% of fires start because of unattended smoking materials.

“It’s a cigarette that has three bands of paper within the cigarette to help slow down the burning process if the cigarette is left unattended,” said Lt. Craig Snyder with the La Crosse Fire Department.

The fire department says damage at an apartment building on 10th street caused about a week ago, was because of a fire likely started by a cigarette.

“The state of New York was the first ones to pass the fire safe cigarettes in 2004, since then they’ve seen about a 10%-20% steady decrease in fires caused by smoking materials each year,” said Lt. Snyder.

Although numbers show the cigarettes help, they’re not fool proof.

“Fires can still be caused by cigarettes, this is just one way to slow down that process,” Lt. Snyder warned.

Smokers say it’s another reason they shouldn’t have to buy the new cigarettes.

“These fire safe ones, they still burn,” said smoker Garrett Schaitel.

As stores across the state continue to sell out of regular cigaret’s, smokers won’t have much of a choice.

Wkbt

Labour MPs will tomorrow rebel against a government anti-smoking initiative that they fear will drive many small shops out of business.

They will defy Labour whips by voting against a plan to outlaw the display in all stores of cigarettes, which would have to be kept out of customers’ sight.

Westminster sources say that about one in 10 government backbenchers are preparing to vote against the relevant clause in the health bill when it comes before the House of Commons for its third and final reading.

They have been swayed by representatives of small retailers arguing that the ban will threaten the future of convenience stores and newsagents by boosting sales of illicit tobacco and increasing supermarkets’ commercial dominance.

Some ministers are known to sympathise with the concerns being raised about the point-of-sale ban and fear that such a move, especially in a recession, could be unwise and unpopular. However, health ministers say it will prove a key weapon in their efforts to “de-normalise” tobacco, reduce the number of smokers and build on the success of the 2007 ban on smoking in public places.

Phil Woolas, the borders and immigration minister, recently indicated his concern about the ban at a fringe meeting of Labour’s annual party conference. He told a gathering staged by the Tobacco Retailers Alliance, which is funded by the cigarette makers’ trade body, the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association: “Although it might get me sacked, I don’t agree with the point-of-sale elements on the health bill. I think they won’t do what they are meant to do and will just damage small retailers and lead to more smuggling.”

The Tyne Bridge Labour MP, David Clelland, a key figure in the rebellion, believes that if the ban becomes law “what will happen is that many small corner shops will suffer by the cost of renovating their premises and the loss of trade for a legal product, just as many pubs and clubs have closed up and down the country as a result of the total ban on smoking inside their premises”.

But the Department of Health insists that the evidence from Iceland and most provinces of Canada, who already have such a ban, shows that a ban on displaying cigarettes in shops helps cut the number of people who smoke and makes it easier for smokers to quit. Ireland took the same action in July.

A health department spokeswoman said the move would protect children, and added: “Convenience stores are at the heart of our communities. We would not want to impose impractical or expensive regulations on them. Any regulations to keep tobacco out of sight in stores would not be imposed on small shopkeepers until 2013 to give them time to get ready.”

There is another flashpoint around the bill’s plan to curb youth smoking by restricting access to tobacco vending machines in pubs. It would compel bar staff to check the age of someone wanting to buy cigarettes before operating the machine with a remote control. But many landlords think the plan is unworkable, especially when staff are busy, and some MPs and health organisations such as the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK are pressing for a ban. The Holyrood government has announced plans to do so in Scotland.

Ian McCartney, a former cabinet minister, has given his former colleagues a headache by tabling an amendment calling for total withdrawal, and many MPs — including Conservatives such as shadow health minister Mike Penning — are behind it. Sources at Westminster argue that that clause of the bill, and McCartney’s amendment, may be taken as a free vote in order to prevent the government suffering a defeat on one of its own major bills.

McCartney said that cumbersome, partial controls on vending machines would still allow under-18s to obtain cigarettes. “We don’t allow children to buy alcohol, fireworks or solvents in vending machines, so why should they be able to get cigarettes from them? It’s a loophole in efforts to ensure that the law which says that only those over 18 can buy cigarettes is upheld.”

Denis Campbell Guardian, 11 October 2009

For some smokers, death-related warnings actually increase cigarettes’ appeal.

In June, President Obama signed a law requiring tobacco companies to post large, graphic warnings on cigarette packs. Current cautionary statements such as “Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema” and “Smoking is dangerous to your health” will gradually be replaced with more ominous assertions, including “Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease,” “Cigarettes cause cancer” and the refreshingly blunt “Smoking can kill you.”

But regulators may want to rethink this ashes-to-ashes theme. New research suggests that, for a certain set of smokers, those allusions to death may actually increase the likelihood they’ll light up.

That’s the conclusion of a paper published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, which questions the effectiveness of anti-smoking campaigns that emphasize mortality threats. The researchers, led by psychologist Jochim Hansen of New York University and the University of Basel, suggest a campaign that dispels the belief smoking makes one cool or attractive could be more effective in getting at least some smokers to quit.

Hansen and his colleagues looked at cigarette pack warnings from the perspective of Terror Management Theory, which was developed in the mid-1980s by psychologists Tom Pyszczynski, Jeff Greenberg and Sheldon Solomon. It contends that our awareness of our own deaths creates the potential for extreme anxiety, which we keep at bay by reaffirming faith in our belief systems (which give our lives a sense of meaning) and maintaining a high level of self-esteem.

Reasonably enough, the researchers assert that for some people, smoking is a facet of their positive self-image. They consider the habit sexy or attractive, or perhaps a proud example of their rebellious spirit.

For those individuals, terror management theory suggests mortality-laced warning labels could be counterproductive. The threat to one’s life would presumably result in an urge to pump up one’s self-esteem — which, for those individuals, could easily mean a renewed commitment to smoking.

To test this concept, the researchers conducted a study of 39 smokers, ranging in age from 17 to 41. Participants filled out a questionnaire designed to measure the degree to which they base their self-esteem on smoking. They then were presented illustrations of a cigarette pack containing a warning message.

Half of them read warnings that spoke of the life-threatening consequences of smoking, such as “Smoking leads to deadly lung cancer.” The other half read warnings that did not involve mortality, such as “Smoking makes you unattractive.”

Following a 15-minute delay in which participants answered questions unrelated to smoking (so that the warning messages would leave their conscious minds), they answered a final set of questions including “Do you enjoy smoking?” “How important is smoking to you?” and “Are you going to smoke a cigarette directly after this study?”

The researchers found that, among those who associated smoking with self-esteem, the death-related warnings actually led to more positive attitudes toward cigarette use. They concluded the smokers clung more tightly to their habit as “a strategy to buffer against existential fears provoked by death-related warning messages.”

On the other hand, for these same people, the non-death-related warnings had a dampening effect on attitudes toward smoking. Warnings that smoking makes one less attractive “may be particularly threatening to people who believe the opposite,” they report.

The researchers admit it is impossible to know what percentage of smokers tie their self-esteem to the health-impairing habit. Thus, for the population at large, “it is difficult to predict whether a death-related or a death-unrelated warning message would be more effective,” they write.

“Yet one could speculate that certain populations base their self-esteem on smoking to a higher degree than others — for instance, young smokers who want to impress their peers,” they add. “If this turns out to be true, a consequence of our findings would be that such populations should be warned against noxious consequences of smoking with death-neutral messages.”

So those unfiltered warnings that are on the way may be counterproductive with the group the government is trying hardest to target: young smokers. Like previous research on the Montana Meth Project, the study is a reminder that death threats will capture people’s attention, but how they impact behavior is a much more complicated question.


Miller-mccune

Although the health reform bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus talks about “shared responsibility,” it imposes no responsibility whatsoever on the small minority of Americans whose choice to smoke costs almost $200 billion a year in totally unnecessary costs which must now be borne by the nonsmoking majority, charges Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), which has proposed a plan featured on MSNBC to impose a surcharge on smokers to help fund health care reform.

“Instead of a 35% tax on comprehensive health insurance plans — including those protecting many current and retired union members — Senators should impose a surcharge or user fee of those whose deliberate choice to continue smoking increases the taxes as well as the health insurance premiums of all nonsmokers. It could raise as much money, be fairer, and, rather than deterring measures to keep people healthy, would keep people much healthier by slashing the incidence of expensive smoking-caused diseases now imperiling our health care system,” says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, Executive Director of ASH.

The Baucus bill proposes to raise $215 billion over 10 years by taxing comprehensive health insurance plans. But requiring smokers to pay a surcharge of as little as $40/month on their health insurance — similar to the surcharge they have long paid for their life insurance — would raise more money.
Also, if the surcharge encouraged only 15% of current smokers to quit, these savings would exceed the $215 billion the Baucus bill would impose on the well insured. After all, smokers now spend over $90 billion a year in tobacco products, so they should be able to afford an additional $21.5 billion if they refuse to quit.

To fund reform, Baucus would also restrict the rate of growth of certain Medicare spending. It would reduce payments to insurance companies in Medicare Advantage programs relied upon by millions of senior citizens. It would also restrict Medicare reimbursements for services like home health care and medical imaging.

“Isn’t it fairer to target smokers who cost us all almost $200 billion a year than to seek to balance health care reform on the backs of innocent senior citizens who depend on Medicare Advantage and services like home health care? Why slash life-saving medical imaging like X-rays, MRIs, etc. and not the major cause of most easily preventable diseases,” asks Banzhaf.

Many studies show that the percentage of smokers is highest among those with the lowest incomes — exactly the same population where so many of the currently uninsured are now found. Thus, any health reform plan which guarantees to pay their treatment costs is likely to cost even more than estimated because of the extraordinarily high rates of heart attacks, stroke, lung- and other cancers, respiratory diseases etc. caused by their much higher rate of smoking.

“It is unfair to let the small percentage of adults who chose to smoke (about 19%, of which only about 13% smoke daily) impose on all of us totally unnecessary costs medical and other costs far in excess of that required to completely fund health care reform,” argues Banzhaf, while taxing those who aren’t contributing to these costs like people with comprehensive health care plans, and restricting Medicare Advantage programs, life-saving medical imaging, etc.

Instead, it is far fairer and much more effective to begin to require smokers to pay their fair share of those costs; a move which could raise most of the money necessary to fund health care reform which slashing the costs of medical care for everyone. “It’s a win, win, win proposal,” says Banzhaf.


PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Professor of Public Interest Law at GWU, and
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
America’s First Antismoking Organization
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // http://ash.org

The tobacco business is likely to face stricter regulations in the near future ― regulated in terms of “public health” and banned from using words like “mild” or “light” on cigarette packs.

According to local media, Rep. Jeon Hae-sook of the main opposition Democratic Party is scheduled to propose a revision bill to the National Health Promotion Act.

It focuses on scrapping the Tobacco Business Act, which currently regulates the tobacco business.

The revision is aimed at putting it under the full control of the National Health Promotion Act.

“Globally, the concern over people’s health is growing. The Tobacco Business Act is against the global trend, in that the tobacco business should be controlled in terms of people’s health instead of promoting it as a business to collect taxes,” the lawmaker said.

According to the lawmaker, many countries are giving health authorities the power to regulate tobacco business.

The U.S. Senate, for example, recently passed a bill giving full-regulation rights on tobacco to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

In Korea, however, it is regulated by both the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.

Tobacco has been an important tax source for the government. A 2,500-won pack of cigarettes, for example, includes a 1,550 won tax and other surcharges, or non-tax monetary charges, such as surcharges for health promotion and waste disposal.

There were talks of raising the tax on tobacco amid faltering government fiscal health, but it faced severe opposition from smokers and criticism that it is trying to squeeze the working class.

When the health authorities get full control of the sector, however, cigarette prices are likely to be raised as the health ministry has continuously supported such a move as a means to discourage people from smoking.

The pharmacist-turned-lawmaker also seeks banning words like “mild” or “light” from use in cigarette names. She explained that these mislead smokers to believe such brands do less harm to their health.

The revision will also sanction graphic pictures illustrating the damage caused by smoking on packs and advertisements.


By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr

EL PASO, Texas — The written warning label printed on cigarette packages will be replaced with a much larger label that shows graphic images of smoking’s side effects.

The new regulations are part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act passed in June.

The law calls for new labels to cover at least half of the front and back of each package and to contain images.

Smoker Marco Kato, of west El Paso, is part of the 21 percent of Americans who smoke daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I probably buy a pack every other day,” said Kato. “Sometimes more on the weekends.”

He said he never looks at the current warning label on cigarettes. The drastic change in labeling is supposed to change that.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said Natie Castillo, of west El Paso. “Maybe it will give an incentive for people to think about it before they light up and smoke.”

The new labels will be more in line with those produced in most foreign countries. Labels from Canada show graphic images of various forms of cancer and even death.

“I think that’s great,” said Tara Kahn, of west El Paso. “It’s a picture, you know. You’re not just reading the words, you’re actually putting the words and the picture together so you’re seeing the effects of it.”

But Kato said most smokers are aware of the dangers, and no warning, despite how graphic, will be able to shake the addiction.

“I don’t think the label would change my mind,” said Kato. “I think prices will probably change people’s minds.”

The FDA has up to two years to develop the new labels. Then tobacco companies have 18 months to start printing them on the packages.


Copyright September 6, 2009 by KFOXTV

Gruesome pictorial cigarette-package warnings will be coming to the U.S. relatively soon, according to a recent article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The startlingly graphic labels — which are already required in many countries around the world – typically feature photos of people ravaged by diseases caused from smoking, in an effort to discourage tobacco use.

How gruesome are the warnings? Rotting teeth. Huge tumors. Festering sores.

Dramatic indeed, but are they enough to make people quit smoking? Apparently the Obama Administration is willing to try, as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act signed into law on June 22.

The debate is likely to be fierce as the FDA and tobacco companies grapple with exactly how to implement the directive. But there is evidence that graphic warnings do make a difference in smoking rates. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that smoking rates have dropped five percent since graphic cigarette-pack warnings became mandatory in 2000.

The new U.S. law directs the FDA to come up with specifics on the required graphic warnings within two years. From that point, tobacco companies will then have 18 months to comply.

For examples of what the new warnings may look like, the Tobacco Labeling Resource Center has a photo gallery of graphic cigarette warnings from around the world

Tobacco giants could be forced to pack their cigarettes in plain packaging following the introduction of new laws into Parliament by Family First Leader Senator Steve Fielding today.

“What this legislation will do is take the polish off cigarette branding and the positive images the tobacco giants try to associate with their products, Senator Fielding said.

“There is no case for allowing any glossy brand promotion for a product that is lethal and addictive.

“These new laws take the move by some state governments to ban point of sale advertising a step further by taking away all promotion of tobacco.”

“Smoking related diseases cost the Australian community over $30 billion each year.”

Chair of Cancer Council Australia’s tobacco issues committee, Kylie Lindorff, said Family First’s reforms to tobacco product packaging are essential to reducing the unacceptable level of cancer death and disability caused by smoking in Australia.

“It is incongruous enough that a poorly regulated product that is available from retailers almost anywhere kills more than half of its consumers,” Ms Lindorff said.

“For the products to also be marketed in glossy packets intended to convey the aspirations or sense of identity of the consumer is even more absurd.”

The Heart Foundation also strongly supports Senator Fielding’s laws because current cigarette packaging is a potent form of advertising and promotion for smoking.

“Generic plain packaging, with a clear graphic warning on the front and back of the pack, should be mandated to counter the allure of smoking and reduce the disease burden it causes,” National Heart Foundation’s tobacco control spokesperson, Maurice Swanson said

The Public Health Association of Australia says smoking is the largest single preventable cause of death and disease in Australia, with over 15,000 deaths each year.

Bus riders accustomed to smoking a cigarette at the Transportation Center before boarding a bus will find their options limited from now on.

Charlotte Area Transit System officials said today they are putting parts of the Transportation Center off-limits to smokers. Anyone interested in lighting up will have to do so at any of three areas of the center.

CATS Transit Support Services Director John Trunk said litter from cigarette butts has been an issue at the center.

“By implementing assigned smoking areas, we are improving the cleanliness of the CTC for our customers and employees,” Trunk said.

The areas approved for smoking will be the south side of the center, facing Fourth Street; Trade Street near the bus shelter; and along Brevard Street, on the north side of the entrance doors. CATS officials say the smoking areas will be marked.

CATS will issue warnings during the first 30 days of the new policy, but after that, violators of the new law will be subject to a $50 fine.

It’s a bit ironic that a state where smoking still enjoys a wide audience will forever be tied to a federal program to reduce underage smoking. The late U.S. Rep. Mike Synar drew the ire of the tobacco industry for his anti-smoking efforts, including a nearly two-decade-old program that cracks down on retailers that sell tobacco products to minors.

Synar likely would be proud that the most recent national statistics show the rate of retailers cited for illegal sales is down to a record low of 9.9 percent and far below the federal standard of 20 percent. The data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported rates below 5 percent in Montana and Arkansas and as high as 17 percent in Ohio.

Oklahoma reported a 12.5 percent violation rate for the 2008 federal fiscal year, but state statistics reported a few months ago suggest the percentage of retailers snagged for illegally selling tobacco products is substantially higher, at about 18 percent.

States that exceed the federal standard risk losing millions of dollars in grant funding, and state mental health Commissioner Terri White has warned such a loss would cripple Oklahoma’s substance abuse programs. And of course it’s no secret that the real tragedy of stores and clerks that break the rules is they help children get hooked on a deadly, cancer-causing habit.

Synar’s efforts and vision have been great for the country and its youth. Too bad the program isn’t working as a better deterrent in Oklahoma.

MORRISVILLE, N.C. — Leaf tobacco producer Alliance One International Inc. said Wednesday that it plans an offering of $75 million senior notes due 2016.

The company said it plans to use the proceeds to pay off borrowings under some short-term seasonal credit lines from foreign financing sources that mature over the next two to ten months.

The notes are part of the same series as some outstanding senior notes due 2016 that were issued on July 2.

There will be $645 million outstanding notes in the series once the offering closes.

Alliance One International buys, processes, stores and sells leaf tobacco to cigarette manufacturers and other consumer tobacco products in the United States, South America, Europe and Asia.

Its shares closed at $3.86 Tuesday.

The stop smoking package is an NHS Choices initiative to inform people on the health effects of smoking cigarettes and to help them make the choice to quit smoking and to stay smoke free. The NHS understands that quitting smoking is hard but wants smokers to know they are not alone and so offers support with articles, videos, tools, advice and helpful hints and tips on stopping smoking.

London, England,- NHS Choices, the digital front door to the NHS, has embarked on a public education campaign to provide ongoing help and resources to those battling an addiction to smoking. The NHS website provides a number of educational materials as a part of their stop smoking package. These resources include articles, videos, tools, advice and
helpful hints and tips on stopping smoking. The smoker will find information on the impact of this habit on their health, finances and those around them; and what support they can get to break the habit, quit smoking and stay smoke free.

Quitting smoking isn’t easy, but the drastic improvements to life and health are really motivating. The damage that smoking causes to the body is terrible, and secondhand smoke can also cause problems for everybody else. NHS Choices offers help and resources for people wanting to stop smoking and continue to live smoke free.

“Smoking is unattractive and dangerous and the costs are high and increasing year on year,” according to an NHS Choices spokesperson. “Stopping smoking and going smoke-free will have people feeling great and give them extra money in their pockets. It may be tough, but they are not alone; the NHS is here to help them along, every step of the way.”

NHS Choices offers its website on stopping smoking to help, inform and educate on the risks and effects of smoking, and their Stop smoking package aims to help people to quit smoking and remain smoke free. People looking to stop smoking can access tools such as the Smoking Calculator that allows them to figure out the financial and health costs of their habit. They can also download the Stop Smoking Widget, which is a desktop application offering a 30 day course of daily messages, information and tips straight to their computer.

“A study of 43,000 Norwegian smokers published in 2005 suggested that those who smoked up to five cigarettes a day were three times more likely to die of heart disease,” says GP Dr Michael Apple. “Smoking just one cigarette a day trebles your risk of lung cancer and raises the risk of chronic lung disease, as well as cancer of the mouth, throat, bladder, pancreas and many more. It also makes it more difficult to conceive, lowers sperm count and causes more complications in pregnancy. Study after study shows that the risks increase the more you smoke, but all risks start with just one cigarette.”

The NHS Choices stop smoking package offers the following resources to help people quit smoking and remain smoke free:

1) Why stop smoking? – Includes information on the benefits of stopping smoking, the drastic improvements to health and life it can bring and the effects of secondhand smoke on non-smokers and children.

2) What Suits Me? – Includes information on all of the free NHS services available to support people as they go smoke free, such as local support groups and the NHS Smoking Helpline.

3) Real Life Quitters – Real life and celebrity quitters tell their true stories about how they successfully stopped smoking and how they used the free NHS support.

4) Questions? – Includes answers to commonly asked questions and the facility to submit questions to trained NHS advisers. People can share their own experiences by posting to the message wall where they can find out about other people’s stories as well.

5) Smoking and Pregnancy – Information on the effects of smoking on baby development.

6) Quit Tools – There are lots of tools on this website that can help people to go smoke free. They can find out about what happens to their body when they quit smoking, assess their current addiction levels, download inspirational videos, order support packs and more.

“It’s never too late to stop,” says an NHS spokesperson. “Stopping smoking at any age will increase life expectancy, provided that a serious disease has not already developed.”


Copyright © 2009 Pr-inside

SHANGHAI: Organizers of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo said yesterday that they would not accept a 200 million yuan ($29 million) donation from a local tobacco company in order to observe the promise of a “healthy and smoke-free Expo.”

Sources from the Shanghai World Expo Coordination Bureau said organizers have annulled the sponsorship contract with Shanghai Tobacco in deference to China’s anti-smoking efforts and to maintain a healthy image at the world event.

The announcement has come in response to a week-long heated debate around China on the legitimacy of allowing tobacco promotion and sponsorship in a public event like the World Expo.

The debate was partly triggered by an earlier suggestion from a group of Chinese health experts that Expo organizers should reject the donation, which would have been a “public showcase of tobacco advertising” and a “violation of international treaties.”

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), under which parties are obliged to undertake a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, at both domestic and international levels.

In 2003, China, the world’s largest tobacco producer and consumer, signed the FCTC, and committed to banning all types of tobacco advertising and promotion by 2011.

Shanghai Tobacco, which produces China’s major cigarette brands including Panda and Chung Hua, donated 200 million yuan on May 7 to help build the China Pavilion, which is expected to cost 1.5 billion yuan.

The donation had been the largest amount so far since the donation drive for the China Pavilion kicked off in December 2007.

A spokesman from Shanghai Tobacco reached by China Daily yesterday refused to comment on the rejection.

The World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday praised the decision.

Expo turns down tobacco donation
A woman wears a gas mask to protest second-hand smoke during a performance art show in front of a Shanghai subway station in this file photo. [China Daily/Wu Kai]Expo turns down tobacco donation

“WHO congratulates the Expo authorities on their decision to return the donation from Shanghai Tobacco,” said WHO in a written statement to China Daily.

“This decision heralds a new healthier era in China as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control comes into force and is fully implemented and respected. It is also wonderful news for the Shanghai Expo and is in keeping with its slogan, ‘Better City, Better Life.’”

Some netizens, however, voiced differing opinions.

On Sina.com, one of the most popular news portals in China, a netizen from western Gansu province said that organizers might have used the donation for anti-smoking campaigns.

“They (tobacco companies) have made so much money. Why don’t we use it for public good?” he said.

Others indicated the State-owned Shanghai Tobacco has long been a major contributor to the government, so it should come as no surprise that authorities first accepted the donation.

But Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the standing committee of ThinkTank Research Center for Health Development, an anti-tobacco organization, said she is glad to see rising awareness of tobacco control both within the government and among the public.

“The Chinese government has made great improvementfrom last year’s cancellation of charity titles awarded to tobacco companies to the recent return of the donation to the Expo It shows the awareness is growing.”

Six domestic tobacco companies were removed from the annual China Charity Awards list at the end of last year as a result of complaints from health departments and civil organizations. The six companies donated 963 million yuan in all.

But more needs to be done for China to strictly observe the FCTC and extend tobacco control to areas that used to be neglected, Wu said.

Some Hope Project schools in western China still sport names of the tobacco companies that donated money to them, which is obviously not good for the healthy development of children, she said.

Smoking ban in Shanghai

Following Beijing’s move to ban smoking in public places before the Olympics last year, health authorities in Shanghai have been trying to extend smoking bans from public venues to all indoor workplaces as measures to clear the city’s air of cigarette smoke ahead of the Expo.

A local anti-smoking law is currently under deliberation and likely to come into force by the end of this year, according to Ding Yuan, director of the tobacco control office under the municipal health bureau.

“All places with ceilings and at least three walls will be defined as indoor areas where smoking will be strictly prohibited,” a spokesman from the office had said previously.

But Ding conceded that authorities would have a “very difficult” time actually prohibiting smoking in all indoor areas as defined, so the final version of the law might be more lenient.

“But our message is clear: We encourage people to take action against indoor smoking and to promote a healthy lifestyle in the city.”

According to government statistics, China is home to some 350 million smokers, 1 million of whom die of smoking-related diseases each year.

About 54 million Chinese suffered from “passive smoking” and 100,000 Chinese die every year from exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke.

In Shanghai, one in four people is a smoker.
Copyright © 2009 Chinadaily

STOCKHOLM, July 17 – Tobacco products maker Swedish Match AB (SWMA.ST) posted a rise in second-quarter earnings on Friday and said it expected higher sales and operating profit in the second half of the year versus 2008 levels.

Pretax profit rose to 791 million Swedish crowns ($101 million) from a year-ago 574 million, adjusted for the divestment of a South African pipe tobacco and snuff operation.

The mean forecast for pretax profit in a Reuters poll, which included that business, was for a 705 million profit.

The company said the businesses it sold made a net profit of 41 million crowns in the period. It did not give a pretax figure.

The firm sells tobacco products such as cigars, lighters and wet snuff — a tobacco product sold mainly in the United States and Scandinavia, but banned elsewhere in the European Union.

The operating margin for its key product wet snuff — which accounted for around 58 percent of total operating profit last year — dipped to 42.6 percent from a year-ago 43.6 percent, lagging an expected 42.8 percent in the Reuters poll.

The cigar division’s operating margin rose to 24.9 percent from 20.2 percent in the same period the previous year and versus a mean forecast of 18.9 percent.

Copyright © 2009 Reuters

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 17 – The Ohio budget includes $258 million for human services from the settlement with tobacco companies that has been frozen by a court challenge.

Anti-smoking advocates say the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation funds can be used only for smoking-reduction programs, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported Thursday.

The state originally asked Common Pleas Judge David Fais in Franklin County to allow the $258 million to be used for economic stimulus but later switched it to programs for programs for abused children and other needy groups.

Fais said in February in a preliminary decision the anti-tobacco groups have a “substantial likelihood of success.”

“If these dollars weren’t available, it would be a disaster for abused and neglected children we serve, the frail elderly we serve, and the people who are needing the optional Medicaid services,” said Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, legislative director for the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

Critics say Gov. Ted Strickland’s budget contains other questionable revenue assumptions. The budget assumes a proposal for slot machines at race tracks will generate $933 million.

The state has also overestimated its revenues in the past two years, the newspaper said.
Copyright © 2009 Upi