The minimum price paid to tobacco producers in Malawi, Africa’s largest producer of the burley variety, has been reduced by 7 percent as the cost of producing the leaf fell, the Tobacco Control Commission said.

Burley tobacco will trade at a minimum price of $2 per kilogram (2.2 pounds) from $2.15, while flue-cured tobacco will decline to $3 a kilogram form $3.60, the commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Bruce Munthali, told reporters in the capital, Lilongwe, yesterday, ahead of the opening of the tobacco selling season on March 16.

“A memorandum of understanding has been signed with buyers on these prices,” Munthali said. “We don’t expect to have problems this year.”

Prices of tobacco in the southern African nation picked up after the country’s leader, Bingu wa Mutharika, deported four officials at its three top tobacco-buying companies, accusing them of sabotaging his economic agenda by offering farmers lower prices.

Production of the leaf by Malawi, which relies on tobacco for 60 percent of its foreign-exchange earnings, will probably decline 7.3 percent to 215.3 million kilograms this year because of drought, according to the commission.

The world’s largest cigarette-makers introduced exquisite Marlboro Gold a super slim extension to its leading tobacco brand Marlboro cigarettes, the most popular tobacco product in the world. Now, the company announced the launch of the additional varieties of key global brands – Virginia Slims and Bond.

After some modifications in pack design, Philip Morris has re-launched Virginia Slims UNO White and Virginia Slims UNO Black. Both extensions are a little bit more expensive than other varieties of Virginia tobacco family, but are oriented for active smoking who are interested in having a more chic smoking product than other female smokers consume.

Philip Morris Sales &Marketing senior director, Frederick Stahl, admitted that Virginia Super Slims have gained huge popularity among women-smokers across this region and that they received a great feedback from female smokers regarding new styles of Virginia, especially about delicate smell of vanilla, innovating pack design and superb quality.

Philip Morris as well introduced a new style of Bond Street Selection smoking brand, which was named Bond Street One. The new addition to Bond portfolio provides the lowest level of nicotine, with just 0.1mg of nicotine a cigarette.
The company opted for introducing Bond Street One, after a market research has concluded that although Bond has been very successful across Europe, increasing its presence in the region’s tobacco market by 1% last year, the brand still has a room for improvement, but needed a low-tar extension to offer for those adult cigarette-lovers who prefer a lighter smoking experience.
Up to the present moment, Bond brand has been the third-best selling cigarette brand in generic category, behind fellow PMI brand Red & White and Japan Tobacco’s Monte Carlo.

Mr. Stahl said the Philip Morris International’s latest product line extensions depict the company’s intention to consolidate its leading place in every category of world-wide tobacco market.

Philip Morris International, which gained its universal popularity among the adult smokers around the world with such notable products as Marlboro, Parliament, Virginia, L&M, Chesterfield and Bond Street, accounts for a 38.4% market share in European tobacco market. The modifications in the design of Bond Street One and Virginia UNO packs were elaborated by eminent graphic designers Stuart Eadie and Tong McKnew from Switzerland.

Philip Morris International marketing director stated that two years ago the company started changing designs and creating new varieties for almost all cigarette brands in its portfolio. This move is reasoned by a number of factors, among which are the evolving demands of adult cigarette-lovers, the willingness to comply with smokers’ expectations and the ever-high competition.

A North Korea desperate for foreign exchange has been generating hard currency by re-exporting British cigarettes, despite renewed efforts by the international community to apply tougher sanctions on the impoverished state.

North Korean and other Asian trading entities started re-exporting State Express 555 cigarettes, manufactured by British American Tobacco,

in February last year, just months before North Korea’s second nuclear test in four years prompted the United Nations to impose tougher sanctions on Pyongyang.

BAT sold the so-called “NK 555s”, made and packaged in Singapore for the North Korean market, to a Singaporean distributor for shipment to Nampo, a port near Pyongyang.

However, at least 15,000 cases worth $6.3m (€4.6m, £4.2m) rebounded out of Nampo to ports in Vietnam and the Philippines, according to documents seen by the Financial Times, to go to other markets where they commanded a higher price.

While the UN banned luxury goods exports to North Korea, member nations have been allowed to compile their own sanctions lists, which critics say created loopholes.

The US, Japan, Australia and Canada banned a broad range of tobacco products. Meanwhile, the European Union and Singapore sanctioned only cigars, which allowed BAT to continue exporting NK 555 cigarettes to North Korea. BAT said it halted exports of the cigarettes from Singapore to North Korea after discovering a diverted cargo of NK 555s in August.

International tobacco companies frown on “grey market” or “parallel” exports of their products to markets for which they were not intended. But national customs authorities target counterfeits rather than so-called “diverted real product”.

The diversions offer a rare glimpse into how the impoverished country can secure foreign exchange – especially as the noose tightens on arms exports.

International security agencies have also cracked down on suspected North Korean smuggling of narcotics and counterfeit $100 bills in recent years, forcing the regime to find other sources of hard currency.

The NK 555 diversions may be part of a much larger flow of dollar-earning re-exports. Their interruption comes at an awkward time for a regime that has tested the patience of the international community.

Closer to home, a populace with memories of severe 1990s-era famines is infuriated by Pyongyang’s recently botched currency reform programme.

“The turmoil in North Korea is self-inflicted and far more damaging than the [UN] sanctions,” said Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

BAT has maintained some business ties to the country. It still supplies its former Pyongyang joint venture, from which it divested in 2007, with materials to make and sell cheaper Craven A cigarettes on the domestic market.

BAT says 175m NK 555s were exported to North Korea in 2008. They were made and packaged in Singapore which, like the EU, banned exports of cigars but not cigarettes.

The London-based company sold the NK 555s to SUTL Group, a familycontrolled distributor in Singapore, for onward shipment to the North Korean port of Nampo.

“When we became aware of the diversion, we immediately launched an investigation,” Pat Heneghan, global head of BAT’s anti-illicit trade division, told the FT. “We certainly didn’t like what we found.”

While there was no evidence of any involvement by SUTL in the diversion, Mr Heneghan said BAT still had “a very hard discussion with the distributor”. SUTL declined to comment.

There is no evidence that the re-export of NK 555s by a number of unidentifiable North Korean entities and other small trading companies across Asia was illegal.

While tobacco companies consider the re-routing of legitimate cigarettes from their intended market as “illicit”, they are not necessarily “illegal” in the eyes of customs authorities focused on counterfeits and smuggling.

“In August last year, BAT discovered a diverted NK 555 shipment in Singapore, which we assumed could be for transhipment to other markets in Asia,” said a BAT spokeswoman. “But we were unable to inspect the shipment as we could not demonstrate any breach of Singapore law to the authorities.”

On April 10 2009, the NK 555 re-exports were discussed in an e-mail sent by a Singapore-based cigarette trader to a potential buyer in Manila.

“We have to confirm by next week,” wrote Bert Lee of Compass Inc. “Empty containers will have to start moving into Nampo. . . So kindly speak and plan with your buyer and let me know if you want to take up this new NK 555 Blue.”

Compass began to sell cases of NK 555 to a Hong Kong-based trading company in early 2009. E-mails and shipping documents show the cigarettes were first diverted to Dalian, a Chinese port, and then shipped on to Singapore before finally landing in Haiphong in Vietnam.

While the trail ran cold in Haiphong, people tracking the shipment suspected its ultimate destination was China.

“They sell it to someone who can handle it for the China market,” said one person involved in the trade, who asked not to be identified.

Invoices sent from Compass to its Hong Kong buyer in February 2009 do not reveal the North Korean source of the NK 555s. But Mr Lee left no doubt about the cigarettes’ provenance.

“Stocks are now in NK and sample already send [sic] out to us,” he wrote to his potential buyer in Manila. “I hope we can work on this New Blue [555] and controlling the market and stocks as soon as possible.” Mr Lee did not reply to phone calls, e-mails and faxes from the FT.

“As a trader, we just get the product and buy and sell,” said one Compass executive who declined to identify himself or comment on the NK 555 shipments when contacted by telephone. “Where it goes, who knows?”

By Tom Mitchell in Hong Kong and Pan Kwan Yuk in London
March 9 2010

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.

GREENVILLE COUNTY, S.C. – The tax on cigarettes in South Carolina isn’t just low, it’s the lowest anywhere in the nation.

“South Carolina does have the lowest cigarette tax in the nation: 7 cents,” said Sen. Thomas Alexander, a Republican who represents Oconee County. “The last time it was increased was in 1977.”

But now there’s a push to raise that tax by another 50 cents per pack next year. The increase would generate $143 million per year, $5 million of which would be spent on programs to discourage young people from smoking.

“It’s going to prompt kids to quit. It’s going to prompt adult smokers to quit. And over the lifetime of those individuals, we’re going to see a tremendous savings in health care costs for our state,” said Kelly Davis of the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative.

But if South Carolina is on the verge of bringing cigarettes taxes in line with other states, a report out today by a University of South Carolina graduate student gives the state low marks for cigarette prevention.

“Last year, South Carolina ranked last in the nation, spending no state funds and only a $1 million federal grant on tobacco prevention,” said graduate student Geri Guy.

While most funds, including the 1998 tobacco settlement, are used to offset health care costs, officials say little is earmarked for tobacco prevention. Plus, the last proposed increase in cigarette taxes was vetoed.

“We have a governor who’s made it clear from day one of his service that he’s opposed to any tax increases,” said Sen. Mike Fair of Greenville County.

But supporters say they hope next year will be different. The House of Representatives has approved the tax hike, and the state senate is expected to vote on the measure when the South Carolina Legislature convenes in January.
WYFF4.com

Restaurant workers and patrons in Lebanon are being exposed to hazardous levels of tobacco smoke, thus prompting researchers and business owners at an AUB conference to call for complete smoking bans in closed public areas.

Organized by the AUB Tobacco Control Research Group, the conference, which was recently held in Gefinor-Rotana Hotel, assessed smoke-free policies in indoor areas at four educational institutions, five private offices and companies, and nine food and drink establishments. The conference also presented the findings of a 2008 air quality survey at 28 different venues in Lebanon—including restaurants, pubs, and hospital cafeterias—which was conducted by the National Tobacco Control Program at the Ministry of Health.

“More than 90 percent of the venues surveyed had unhealthy to hazardous air quality,” said George Saade, who heads the program. Saade, who is also a cardiologist, said that in several venues, especially in Ramadan tents that fog up with nargileh smoke, the aerosol monitor they were using would lock, indicating that the air pollutant levels were higher than the maximum level it could measure—or 400 times higher than acceptable levels set by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The aerosol monitor was placed at the venues under study for a minimum of 30 minutes, during peak hours.

With more than 135,000 individuals working in the restaurant business in Lebanon and millions of tourists and locals who are patrons at such venues, immediate action is needed, said Saade.

“Policies and laws that ban secondhand smoke from public areas are an effective strategy to reduce workers’ exposure to this toxin,” said Saade. “This, in turn, may translate into improved health outcomes for these employees.”

Secondhand or passive smoke contains nearly 5000 chemical compounds, at least 172 toxic substances, including 67 known human or animal carcinogens, said Saade, adding: “There is no acceptable exposure level to secondhand smoke.”

Assessing smoke-free policies at schools and universities, a team led by assistant research professor Rima Nakkash found that although teenagers are aware of the harms of smoking, they still take up the unhealthy habit. “The solution: to implement smoke-free policies in schools and universities,” said Nakkash, also an active member of the Tobacco Control Research Group.
In fact, AUB’s experience with implementing smoke-free policies has proved rather promising, said Monique Chaaya, associate professor of epidemiology and statistics at AUB and a member of the Tobacco Control Research Group. In the first year after the smoke-free policy was implemented on campus, almost half of staff members and 18 percent of students thought they had reduced their smoking frequency.

Indeed, educational institutions that ban or restrict smoking on their premises noticed a significant health benefit related to smoke-free policies. Currently, more than 60 percent of Lebanese teenagers 13 to 15 years old smoke some kind of tobacco.

Moreover, the 2005 Global Youth Tobacco Survey had shown that smoke-free policies in schools and universities help students and teachers quit smoking and also discourage teenagers from taking up the habit.

The AUB research group also found that private companies had no problem enforcing smoking bans, but researchers recommended that bans be accompanied by smoking cessation programs to help smokers quit.

Meanwhile, a study of nine food and drink establishments found that if a national law that bans smoking in all closed public places is passed, the hospitality sector would willingly comply. “In general, no problems were encountered when an employee at a café or pub would ask a patron to stop smoking in compliance with the establishment’s smoke free policy,” said Nakkash, citing study results.
Nakkash and others concluded, based on findings, that there is a pressing need for a law that bans smoking in public areas in addition to a body that would ensure the enforcement of the law.

Moreover, studies conducted in the United States, Canada, and Britain have shown food and drink establishments do not lose any business—often even attracting more clients—when they adopt smoke-free policies. Researchers do not find such results surprising, as they note that the majority of any country’s population are non-smokers.

According to Hussam Eid, Zaatar wu Zeit’s marketing director and a smoker himself, a London study showed “that the only businesses that were substantially affected by smoke-free policies were Laundromats: because people don’t need to wash off the stench of tobacco from their clothes the next day.”

© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)

The freshly remodeled Gristedes supermarket on 25 University Place has expanded its space, adding new sections for beer, hot food, a salad bar, bakery and organic products, all looking like crowd-pleasers beneath Thanksgiving decorations strung above the aisles.

But cigarettes are no longer on sale here — seemingly a sign of the times in this upscale Greenwich Village neighborhood near New York University.

“We haven’t had them for some time now,” said an assistant manager who identified himself only as Thomas. He noted that cigarettes are available at other Gristedes stores in New York (about 20 still carry them), even though he believes the demand is down. The main reason for the decline in tobacco sales, another Gristedes manager said, is that “people know where they can get them elsewhere” for half the price that conventional retailers in New York charge — upward of $95 per carton, with $4.25 in state and city taxes tacked on.

He was alluding to untaxed tobacco sold on Indian reservations, a subject that has bedeviled convenience-store operators and New York governors from Cuomo to Paterson.

Led by its Greek-born owner and C.E.O., John Catsimatidis, a longtime New York City mayoral wannabe who smokes an occasional cigar, Gristedes Foods Inc. has claimed in protracted litigation that Indian merchants on two Eastern Long Island reservations are luring away New York customers, and even helping to fund organized crime gangs and terrorist groups like Hezbollah with bulk sales, a charge some politicians dismiss as absurd but others solemnly repeat.

“I’ve read articles [quoting] the F.B.I.,” mused the well-connected mogul, speaking on the telephone from his 11th Ave. headquarters. “And I think there is some evidence.”

In 2006, Gristedes Foods filed a much-ballyhooed civil lawsuit against the state-recognized Unkechaug Nation in suburban Mastic and the Shinnecock tribe in Southampton, contending Indian merchants were engaged in racketeering, allegedly selling cheap cigarettes in massive amounts to bootleggers who resold them on the city’s black market. A Brooklyn federal judge tossed that charge last year.

Early in October, U.S District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto granted a motion by the Unkechaugs to dismiss Gristedes’s complaint against the tribe and its chief for deceitful cigarette advertising on grounds of sovereign immunity. But Judge Matsumoto allowed Gristedes the option of continuing its litigation against Unkechaug Chief Harry Wallace and his smoke shop in their “individual” capacities.

“We haven’t been scalped yet,” Catsimatidis joked to The Villager. Catsimatidis (rhymes with Gristedes), who grew up in New York, said he would “love” to have the chain join the city’s lawsuit against some 14 Unkechaug vendors. The city’s suit was announced with considerable fanfare last year by fellow billionaire Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a fervent smoking foe, who Catsimatidis said “talked” to him about the city’s Unkechaug case before it was filed. But the judge turned down Gristedes’s application to join the suit earlier this month.

Despite this triple whammy from the courts, Catsimatidis, 61, said he had no plans to discontinue his costly litigation against the Indian vendors.

“I’m disappointed because the city and us are on the same wavelength and it would save duplication,” he said.” But right now, we plan to continue our litigation. I don’t know the strategies the city is using or even our own lawyers are using,” he added when informed that the city did not name Harry Wallace or his smoke shop in its complaint. “But between the city and the state, there has been $800 million in lost tax revenues from overall Indian sales across the state,” he said.

Howard Kleinhendler, one of Gristedes’s lead lawyers at the Manhattan firm of Wachtel & Masyr, said the supermarket chain would be seeking damages of at least $20 million in lost cigarette sales to tribal vendors.

“Our position is that the smoke shops are selling cigarettes to our customers on tribal lands and at a rate that nobody can compete with,” he said. “Our lawsuit is for past losses. Judge Matsumoto dismissed our case against the tribe on grounds that they are entitled to sovereign immunity. But Harry Wallace and his smoke shops aren’t [entitled]. We’re going after him because we think he’s selling cigarettes without taxes, against state and federal laws. We’re going to take depositions, get documents and determine the scope of his involvement in his individual capacity.”

“Good luck with that,” retorted Chief Wallace, who is also a lawyer. “His sole claim is that I advertised falsely. There is no C.C.T.A. [Counterfeit Cigarette Trafficking Act] because that charge was tossed out. He has to show that what I sold affected his business directly 65 miles away. In addition, the sovereignty of the Nation can’t be ignored. I may still be in the case, but the other retailers he is trying to name still have the right to bring a motion to dismiss based upon sovereignty, and that will have to be litigated as to those businesses. The Gristedes case is effectively over.”

Wallace claims that Catsimatidis is pursuing the litigation as a political ploy to obtain an endorsement from Bloomberg if he runs for mayor in 2013, calling him a Bloomberg “surrogate.” Wallace believes both men are intent on putting Indian smoke shops out of business, a charge that Catsimatidis, a Democrat turned Republican, denies.

“I don’t want to close them down,” he said. “But I think they have to pay some taxes. There have been proposals in various other states that [tribal vendors] can pay less, but they should pay something. I think that would be a compromise position.”

In 2008, Catsimatidis, who has been a financial contributor to both political parties, formed an exploratory committee to consider running for mayor in the Republican primary, offering standard G.O.P. vote-getting staples, like lower taxes and reduced government red tape. But he removed himself as a possible contender when Bloomberg decided to run for a third time after prodding the City Council to overturn term limits in 2009.

When asked, Catsimatidis said he will consider running in 2013 if Bloomberg doesn’t go for a fourth term, claiming he “admires” the mayor’s performance and wants to continue keeping New York a “great world capital.”

Although Catsimatidis is clearly a long shot for the job, the portly businessman sounded like a seasoned pol as he talked about healthcare reform, claiming that if the bill passed by the House of Representatives gets through the Senate, then there will be “payback in the next election.”

Asked who he voted for in the last election, Catsimatidis said, “I’m a [Hillary] Clinton person, but I pray for Obama’s success.” He adds he was also part of the Clinton Foundation “and know some of the wonderful things Bill Clinton did on obesity.”

Catsimatidis — who also owns Jefferson Market on Sixth Ave. — admitted to worrying about his own heft, noting he weighs in at 250 pounds.

“I’m too short for my weight” — 5 feet 11 inches. “But I try to eat egg white omelets and I haven’t had steak once since January.”

Since he cares so much about health, why does he sell any cigarettes at his grocery stores?

“There is such a thing as freedom of choice,” the mogul replied. “I lecture my wife, who smokes, and tell her, Why don’t you just have one or two instead of more? It’s like what the Greek philosophers say: Everything in moderation.”

By Mary Reinholz, Thevillager

Four products used to control stress are food/snacks, alcohol, tobacco and drugs.

Consider the mind/body interface. The body is a marvelous vessel of self-regulating functions until the mind succumbs to stress, affecting body functions.

My choice: tobacco, through cigarettes, cigars, snuff or chewing. I prefer roll-your-own cigarettes. Rolling your own involves buying tobacco in bulk — a 6 oz. can — along with purchasing a box of filters/tubes.

The bulk tobacco is then cut to a finer composition, sorted by pulling out stems and hard leaves, then inserted in a rolling machine to inject into the tube filter. The shank of an ink pen is used to ram it down while hand-sifting more tobacco. A small percentage of smokers use this product. I partake for two reasons: moderation of use and cost savings.

There is a delayed gratification effect, the act of progress toward addressing stress in the manufacturing process, therefore addressing moderation versus quantities of factory cigarettes.

This has kept me out of the health care system — no medication, no health problems, not even aspirin. By not partaking in the mainstream food/snacks category, I’m 53 years old, 6 feet tall and weigh 140 pounds.

President Barack Obama paid for children’s health care in April with a 210 percent tax increase on this product, from 7 cents per ounce to $1.55 per ounce.

This is a violation of the public trust and is discriminatory.

Justify to me a punitive tax levied on perhaps 5 percent of the population (who roll their own tobacco) when more than 100 million abuse food and snacks.

MIKE STOCKS
Reflector

Like a fast-food chain selling diet supplements or a gasoline company building electric cars, a major tobacco company is eyeing a surprising business: Helping the smokers who buy their products kick the habit.

Reynolds American Inc. , which sells the Camel and Pall Mall brands of cigarettes, is in talks to buy a Swedish company that makes nicotine gum and mouth spray designed to help people quit smoking by reducing their cigarette cravings, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Reynolds could buy Niconovum AB for roughly $44.5-million (U.S.), according to University of Ottawa law professor and tobacco expert David Sweanor, who said he had spoken with someone close to the deal. A spokesperson for Reynolds declined to comment.

The deal would also mark a shift for cigarette companies, many of which embraced diversification decades ago but have changed course in recent years.

“Diversification in tobacco was valuable in the early years,” said Messod Daniel Beneish, a professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business who has done research on the tobacco industry.

Following the discovery that smoking was harmful in the 1950s, he said, tobacco companies reacted by creating an industry association to defend their interests and by tapping cash reserves to diversify, expanding their presence past a few tobacco-producing states.

“Political contributions become a lot more influential if you also have employees that depend on politicians’ support for continued employment,” Prof. Beneish said. “The diversification was geographical. … It bought the industry better lobbying support.”

By the late 1990s, the trend began to reverse, he said. “There’s settlement with states on many [health] care issues. … Once litigation and expropriation is going to happen, what’s the value in having diversified services? There’s virtually none.”

In 1999, for example, R.J. Reynolds spun off its tobacco holdings from Nabisco, which is now owned by Kraft Foods.

“The industry began to refocus their operations,” Prof. Beneish said.

But if this deal with the Swedish group goes through, it would represent a different kind of diversification, with financial instead of geographic motives.

“The global [cigarette] market is enormous, but it’s devastating, and smokers aren’t happy with it,” said Prof. Sweanor, who has studied the tobacco industry for years. “They all say they wish they weren’t smoking, they want an alternative. … Companies are trying to find something.”

Reynolds already sells one alternative: Camel Snus, a tobacco pouch held under the lip that, unlike traditional chewing tobacco, is a spit-free experience. According to Reynolds’ most recent quarterly report, sales of Snus offset declines in cigarette sales. Reynolds has been losing market share on cigarettes in the United States.

The acquisition of Niconovum would give Reynolds another cigarette alternative.

In addition to the gum and mouth spray, the Swedish company also makes a Snus-like product called the Zonnic pouch, which has nicotine but no tobacco. Many countries in the European Union as well as Australia and New Zealand, ban oral tobacco, Prof. Sweanor said. The pouch could give Reynolds a way around those regulations.

“I think this may be a very profitable business. They’re catering to the same crowd, essentially,” said Indiana University’s Prof. Beneish, who was a smoker for 30 years. “They have a captive audience. Trust me.”

REYNOLDS AMERICAN (RAI)
Close: $49.10 (U.S.), up 50¢
Susan Krashinsky
Nov. 10, 2009

Economists question duty hike’s effect on budget revenue

The government will adopt the medium excise rate on cigarettes, prime minister Boyko Borissov told the Union of Publishers in Bulgaria. From 2010 the duty will rise to EUR 64 per 1,000 cigarettes. The excise on fuels will not be changed to avoid pumping up inflation, said Borissov. The government will aim at a balanced budget.

From a macroeconomic viewpoint the effect of the higher cigarette excise will be almost unnoticeable and budget revenue may even drop, Georgi Ganev of the Centre for Liberal Strategies told the Pari daily. The effect will be felt mainly by the companies in the sector, as their market share and sales will shrink. The same view was voiced by King’s Tobacco CEO Boyko Kachulev. According to him cigarette consumption will decrease between 8 and 12%. The measure will make people smoke less, which will affect budget revenue, Ganev pointed out. Contraband will increase but adequate measures on the part of the customs authorities may limit the negative effect.

The higher excise is expected to boost budget revenue by BGN 130 million, finance minister Simeon Dyankov said last week. Smoking will decrease and people will use the money saved for buying other goods, which will increase consumption, economists said.

The excise hike, however, will inevitably affect companies in the cigarette industry. Contraband will increase further. The measure will be also a blow on smokers, who will have to pay BGN 1.30 more per packet.

Algiers- According to distributors of cigarettes, prices of these latter will soon rise and this after the tax increase, which will oblige the national society of tobacco and matches (Snta) to review its calculations.

*
The Director General of Snta said that the provisions of the Finance Act will have no impact on the revenue of the company, but this will not prevent the latter to revise upward the price of cigarettes, such as “Rym” and “Afras” brands which will be more expensive on the market.

The Director General of the National Society of tobacco and matches (SNTA), the main supplier of the Algerian market, said that his department will begin a full study of this market and in anticipation of higher prices. The latter denied the increased in the price of cigarettes produced by the company indicating the long period during which prices of cigarettes have not changed.

Moreover, according to the DG of Snta, the company took over all the changes that took place on the market and has decided no official increase in prices of cigarettes and other products since 2004. He said the increases that occurred were the result of speculation between different distributors. The company services will decide increases if necessary.

Regarding marketing, the head of Snta said that the law requires from customers to diversify their purchases and this, in order to meet the needs of customers on the market. He believes that the selection of distributors for a specific brand of cigarette causes the stagnation of other brands.

The distributors, according to him do think only about easy and quick gain and the scarcity of a cigarette brand on the market opens the door to illegal traders who take advantage of the opportunity to resort to smuggling.

The company’s production is growing and continues and the state should support production to meet the demand that far exceeds production, he added.

In the same context, the DG of Snta said that the company is making significant profits and contributes to the national economy. The tax increase, according to him does not mean an increase in prices without revision of other conditions. The latter denies that there was a decline in production and profits since the founding of the company and that the increases in the prices of cigarettes have never had any impact on the company, considering the addicted Smoker as special clients.

Ennahar / Moussa Bouna

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Smokers may soon find it difficult to buy cigarettes at their local convenience store, deli or drugstore.

That’s because the state is increasing the annual licensing fee for retailers who sell tobacco by 900 percent — or a jump from the standard $100 application fee to $1,000 for stores making less than $1 million in gross annual sales.

Stores making at least $1 million but less than $10 million in gross sales are paying $2,500, up from the $100 fee, and retailers making more than $10 million in gross sales pay $5,000.

The deadline for renewing a license to sell tobacco in 2010 is Sept. 21.

State officials say the huge fee increase is an attempt to improve New Yorkers’ physical health and the state’s financial fitness, designed as it is to cut by 40 percent the number of retailers selling tobacco while raising money to help plug the remaining $2.1 billion deficit this year.

“It’s a dual purpose,” acknowledged Matt Anderson, a spokesman for the New York State Division of the Budget.

But local merchants say it only hurts the little guy during tough times.

“It’s a burden and it’s not right,” said Conrad Sidoti, owner of the Huguenot Pharmacy, one of the few remaining independent pharmacies in the borough.

Sidoti, who paid the $2,500 fee for 2010 but may not do it again for 2011, is especially upset that the fee is based on gross annual sales storewide, not on cigarette sales alone.

He said the prescriptions his pharmacy processes drive up gross sales but the profit margin is often small. Moreover, Sidoti said he must lay out the cash for those drugs and wait for reimbursements, which typically result in $5 or $6 in profit per prescription.

Sidoti is ambivalent about selling cigarettes, but said he depends on sales at the front of the store, where he also sells items such as cards, candy, and tobacco, to supplement business.

This summer was especially quiet.

“We’ve been hurting because the front is dead,” he added.

Thomas McClean of South Beach Novelty, a wholesale supplier that provides cigarettes and other items to Island stores, said many small businesses sell cigarettes as a convenience for repeat customers.

If those stores can’t afford to stock cigarettes, he added, they may lose shoppers who pick up other items when they come in to buy a pack of cigarettes.

“[The licenses] will just go to somebody who is big enough and who can afford the license, so technically you are pushing the small guy out of business,” he said.

Jim Calvin, president of The New York State Association of Convenience Stores, complained that hiking fees on licensed vendors will only push smokers in larger numbers to unlicensed and unregulated vendors, such as the Internet and Indian reservations.

He said New York state loses out on a billion dollars in tax revenue by failing to enforce a federal law requiring Indian reservations to charge tax on cigarette sales when selling tobacco products to non-Indian customers.

“We entirely agree that that is a big problem,” Russ Sciandra, a tobacco policy specialist with the American Cancer Society, said of such sales.

But that’s where agreements between the two groups end.

Sciandra believes that boosting the application fees for licensed tobacco retailers is a great way to further limit cigarette vendors.

He said tobacco remains the number-one health problem in the state, where, he added, 25,000 New Yorkers die each year because of tobacco-induced illnesses. A third of all cancer deaths in the United States are caused by tobacco, he said.

“Everything we can do to reduce tobacco use, we should do,” he said.

Copyright © 2009 Silive

The government has been accused of misleading parliament over the cost for retailers of implementing the controversial tobacco display ban.

Internal documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that officials at the Department of Health (DoH) were warned by manufacturers that they had dramatically underestimated how much it would cost retailers to modify their shops to comply with the ban.

The display ban is part of the health bill, which is due to come before parliament in October. Under the proposals, cigarettes would still be available to buy but would be placed out of sight. Customers who wanted to purchase them would be given a list of products for sale.

The legislation will ban the display of cigarettes in supermarkets from 2011 and small shops from 2013.

Lord Darzi, the health minister, told the House of Lords this year that shops would pay as little as £120 each to install sliding screens in their premises. In a Lords debate in March, the government minister Baroness Thornton said that the cost “could be as little as £120″.

The figure was also quoted in government briefing notes sent to peers in the Lords who oppose the display ban. The Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats are both likely to vote against it.

But according to the internal documents, which have been posted on the DoH website, the £120 figure was calculated in January this year after a quote had been obtained from a Canadian manufacturer, 4 Solutions Display. When Phil Beder, the company’s vice-president, was made aware of the figure being quoted, he wrote to the DoH and to Ash – an anti-smoking pressure group, which had also quoted the figure in its literature – to ask that it be withdrawn.

In an email sent to Ash, dated 29 April this year, Beder said that the price quoted was based on a bulk order and did not include shipping or installation costs. He forwarded the correspondence to the DoH on 30 April, saying that he wanted to “clarify” the company’s position.

Beder told Ash that he wanted “to make sure you are not making additional assumptions on costs to suit your internal needs. 4 Solutions cannot produce, deliver and install for the minimal dollars you are publishing. I trust your organisation will ensure the entire financial story is told to all.”

Ash responded by telling 4 Solutions that it was confident its figures were correct.

The Canadian manufacturer also wrote to the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, which is opposed to the ban, confirming that the full cost would be far higher than the figure quoted by the DoH. When the federation emailed the DoH on 15 May to highlight the discrepancy, an official replied saying: “We are confident of the validity of the estimates that ministers have been quoting.”

Small retailers have been lobbying against the display ban, arguing that independent shops cannot afford to refurbish their outlets at a time when many of them are already suffering a fall in sales as a result of the recession.

The Association of Convenience Stores, which represents more than 33,000 local shops, estimates that the new equipment required to remove tobacco from customers’ view could cost the convenience industry as much as £252m.

It claims the minimum a single store could expect to pay is £1,850 but that this could rise to as much as £4,985. Small shops say that the ban will benefit larger retail chains and supermarkets, which can afford to implement the changes.

When asked about the allegations a spokeswoman at the DoH said that the government remained committed to introducing the ban.

The DoH said: “Point-of-sale displays have already been removed in a number of countries, including Canada, [where] removing point-of-sale display has coincided with a fall in smoking prevalence rates among 15 to 19-year-olds from 29% in 2002 to 19% in 2007.”

Copyright © 10 September 2009 Guardian

Funding from a federal drug prevention program is set to help raise awareness about alcohol and tobacco abuse and treatment in the Monadnock Region.

The Monadnock Alcohol and Drug Abuse Coalition was one of 161 groups in the United States to be awarded a Drug Free Communities Program grant.

The coalition covers Cheshire County.

The Drug Free Communities program helps fund prevention coalitions, which work to mobilize different groups in a community — everyone from teachers and students to police and businesses — to prevent drug abuse.

The program is directed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, in partnership with the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Monadnock’s coalition applied for the full grant funding — $625,000 over five years.

Though the coalition knows it was awarded a grant, the group hasn’t heard whether it will be for the full amount.

Official notice of total grant dollars should come in the next few days, said Linda A. Rubin, Monadnock Family Services’ director of prevention and community outreach services.

Monadnock Family Services is the coalition’s fiscal agent, and will oversee the group’s grant spending.

The coalition, which was formed in 2003, has a 20-page “action plan,” Rubin said, detailing how the grant money will be spent.

Highlights include forming a youth advisory council — local adolescents who will attend leadership training sessions.

The youth council will help identify and promote establishments that do a good job preventing minors from buying alcohol and tobacco, through efforts such as “We Card” signs.

The coalition also plans to partner with the state liquor commission to train people who serve alcohol — restaurant waiters, for example, or convenience store employees — on how to deal with underage drinkers, Rubin said.

This is the first time the Monadnock coalition applied for the Drug Free Communities grant.

Three other New Hampshire coalitions also received grant funding: Hinsdale Prevention Coalition, Dover Coalition for Youth and the Drug Advisory Coalition in Merrimack.

Jessica Arriens can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1433, or jarriens@keenesentinel.com.

Malawi has the highest incidence of child labour in southern Africa and it exists in several sectors, including commercial farms, domestic work and the informal sector. Most children work in the informal sector with 88.9% of the children in the age group 5-14 working in the agricultural sector, where tobacco estates are highly represented. Many children are employed as unpaid family workers, helping their parents during high seasons but these children combine work with school. A significant number of children (4.7%), however, work without attending school. This is more common in boys than girls, and among children in rural areas.

Malawi is one of the world’s biggest tobacco producers and relies on tobacco as its main export product, representing 70% of the nation’s export income and the second largest source of total income following foreign aid (Davies, 2003). Most of the tobacco in Malawi is cultivated by farmers on smallholdings, by tobacco tenants and by casual farm workers. Using the tenant population of 39,000, the number of children working on tobacco farms in Malawi has been estimated at 78,000 although the actual number is thought to be much higher because of problems of estimation.

Existing research provides some information on the different activities children are engaged in on the farms and to some extent the hazards children face. It also gives some understanding of why children are involved in this work.

Apart from one consultation conducted by Save the Children (2006) it seems that very little research has been done with children themselves to find out how they experience and understand the work they do. It also seems that there has been little or no work done on finding out what children see as the best form of intervention.

For this reason Plan Malawi decided to undertake this study to find out how children experience work on the tobacco farms and their understanding of why they are involved in this work. The impact of the work on their physical and psychosocial well-being was also of concern as were their ideas about ways to make sure they are protected and can access their rights.

The research will be used to inform the work Plan and its partners in Malawi are doing to raise awareness of child labour on tobacco farms, to advocate for changed conditions and to develop interventions for the affected children.
The legislative frame work Extract from Desk Review, Child labour in Malawi, Anna Liwander, July 2008. Plan International Malawi. Malawi is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was adopted by the United Nations in 1989. The Convention includes a section on the need to protect children from work that is dangerous, or might harm their health or their education.
Malawi has also ratified the Minimum Age Convention (ILO Convention No. 138) and the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO Convention No. 182). The Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO Convention No. 182, 1999) adopts 15 as the minimum age of employment. In addition, Malawi has its own legislative framework that includes the Constitution, which bars employment of children below the age of 16 years while the Malawi Employment Act of 2000 raises the bar by condemning the employment of children below the age of 14 years.
The Constitution of Malawi Section 23 accords children the right of protection from any work that is of a hazardous nature or any work that may prejudice their attendance at school or inflict any harm on their health and development. Frameworks for the fight against child labour also include a National Code of Conduct developed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development together with UNICEF (Tsoka & Konyani, 2003).
However, there is no written labour policy in Malawi, let alone child labour policy. Perhaps more importantly, there is no meaningful enforcement of any of the existing provisions (Otañez et al, 2006). According to the child labour baseline survey conducted by the Centre for Social Research (Tsoka & Konyani, 2003), many of the district labour offices, which are responsible for administrating most of the labour legislation and regulations, are scarcely funded. There also seems to be a lack of writing materials for recording complaints, and labour inspections are rarely conducted.

By Jack Silverman in Daily Diversion,
I have to confess that when I first noticed YES WE CAN Discount Tobacco & Beer as I drove down Gallatin Road yesterday, I winced. How cynical, I thought: appropriating the slogan of the 44th president of the United States of America to hawk nicotine and alcohol. I asked the proprietor, who was deeply engrossed in a cell phone conversation, if in fact the store was so named in honor of President Obama, and he confirmed my assumption before returning to his call.

​But the more I thought about it, the more it made perfect sense. After all, we know about Barack’s much-publicized cigarette smoking. Then there’s his fondness for beer, as evidenced by a photo of him quaffing a cold one at a Bulls-Wizards basketball game, not to mention that snoozefest of a beer summit a couple weeks back.

So instead of a marketplace of vice, YES WE CAN is really a monument to those human weaknesses that make Barack Obama more, well, human. One of us. And in these challenging economic times, who wants to pay full price to indulge their self-destructive behaviors? To put it in the current political vernacular, think of YES WE CAN as the “Cash for Drunkers” program. Or maybe the Obama Stimulants (and Depressants) Package.

Copyright © 2009: Nashvillescene

A computer error means that a man goes over his credit card limit by $23 quadrillion for a pack of smokes, and then there’s the bank fee.

How much you pay for cigarettes depends on where you live. But there’s nowhere on Earth that charges $23 quadrillion – that’s $23,148,855,308,184,500, to be precise – a pack.

But thanks to a computer error, that’s how much a New Hampshire man paid at a gas station using his pre-paid Visa card. When he checked his balance online later he discovered the amount – plus the $15 bank fee for being overdrawn, just to add insult to injury.

Josh Muszynski told TV station WMUR:

“I thought somebody had bought Europe with my credit card.”

“It is a lot of money in the negative, something I could never, ever afford to pay back. My children could not afford it, grandchildren, nothing like that.”

He spent two hours on the phone with Bank of America before the bank removed the charge and the overdrawn fee. In a statement, Visa Debit Processing Services said:

“Late yesterday, July 13, a temporary programming error at Visa Debit Processing Services caused some transactions to be inaccurately posted to a small number of Visa prepaid accounts.”

“The technical glitch, which impacted fewer than 13,000 Visa prepaid transactions, has been corrected and erroneous postings have been removed. Importantly, this incident had no financial impact on Visa prepaid cardholders.”

“Visa regrets any inconvenience to our customers, and has taken immediate steps to ensure this error doesn’t occur again.”
Copyright © 2009 Digitaltrends

Amcor Ltd., Australia’s biggest packaging company, may pay $2.2 billion to $2.4 billion for four of Rio Tinto Group’s packaging units, the Wall Street Journal said, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter.

Rio plans to sell a European food-packaging division, an Asian food-packaging unit, pharmaceutical-packaging operations, and a tobacco packaging unit to Amcor, according to the report. Melbourne-based Amcor will likely fund the acquisition through a combination of debt and equity, the Journal reported.

Bemis Co., the largest producer of flexible plastic packaging in the Americas, this week agreed to acquire the Food Americas business of Alcan Packaging for $1.2 billion. Amcor said in February it was in talks to acquire parts of the Alcan packaging unit from Rio, which said this week it was still seeking buyers for the remainder of the packaging assets.

The acquisition “would be a sound strategic fit and should allow Amcor to gain meaningful market share and supplier power,” Citigroup Inc. analysts Julian Bu and Scott Hudson said today in a note to clients. “As long as the deal generates meaningful earnings accretion, we would expect any associated equity issuance to be well supported by the market.”

Amcor rose 2.2 percent to A$5.15 at 1:39 p.m. Sydney time on the Australian stock exchange. It has dropped 11 percent this year and has a market value of A$4.3 billion ($3.4 billion).

Rio Tinto spokesman Ian Head declined to comment. Amcor spokesman John Murray couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Total Revenue

The total revenue involved in the reported deal is about $4.3 billion, Citigroup’s Bu and Hudson said. The deal may add to earnings by as much as 30 percent from the first year, they said. “This will be unexpected by the market.”

Rio has raised $18.9 billion selling assets and stock this year to cut debt. The remaining packaging assets could fetch more than $2 billion based on the valuations used in the sale to Bemis, Citigroup said in a July 6 report.

Amcor may face objections from antitrust regulators in any bid for the assets, analysts from JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co. said this week.

A combined Amcor and Alcan packaging group would control about a 48 percent of the market in tobacco packaging in Western Europe and 53 percent in eastern Europe, Merrill Lynch said. It would also control 45 percent of the market in medical and 56 percent of pharmaceutical packaging, mainly in the U.S., it said.

Amcor is advised by UBS AG while Rio Tinto is advised by Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Copyright © 2009 Bloomberg

The Australian newspaper reported, citing the Preventative Health Taskforce discussion paper, Australia may increase the price of cigarettes pack to help cut the number of tobacco smokers by 1 million people.

The Australian government may increase the cigs price of a packet of 30 cigarettes to A$20 ($16), or raise the average cigs price of a single smoke from 45 Australia cents to 67 cents, which would net an extra A$1.97 billion in taxes, the newspaper said.

Plain labeling of cigarette packets, a ban on internet sales and media campaigns are also recommended by the taskforce, the newspaper reported.

Contentions that cigarette prices have no effect on tobacco consumption are wrong, says Louis Gauvin, co-director of the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac.

Léger Marketing conducted a study last month for the Canadian Convenience Stores Association. In its report, which was made public this month, association vice-president Michel Gadbois says cheaper cigarettes won’t influence the number of people who get hooked on tobacco.

For months, dépanneur owners have complained that cigarette prices, and the taxes on tobacco products, are too high and are hurting their bottom line.

Calling the study, conducted in 25 Quebec cities, biased, Gauvin this week questioned who Gadbois’s employer really is.

“We believe that Gadbois is doing more work for the tobacco industry by suggesting lower taxes,” Gauvin said. “If a convenience store is having financial difficulties, it’s not solely because taxes on tobacco are too high.” Gadbois says he stands by the study’s findings.

“(The coalition) is just complaining that we’re using arguments that they may or may not like,” he said.

Gadbois also said younger smokers are more likely to buy contraband cigarettes, because they are cheaper.

Smoker Tatiana Boroday, 20, sitting outside Dawson College’s downtown campus yesterday, said she doesn’t think cigarette prices make a difference to younger smokers.

“People are still going to end up buying them whether they’re $7 or $12, because they need it,” she said. ” It’s all psychological.” Boroday makes sure to put aside at least $120 a month to support her addiction. She wouldn’t consider getting contraband cigarettes, which are generally cheaper, because “they’re gross.” Ari Simon, 19, walking near Cabot Square yesterday, said he has been smoking for three years and he’s not overly concerned about splurging on cigarettes.

If you’re going to do it, he said, you might as well buy the classier brands.

Although these younger smokers weren’t as interested in saving money, some older smokers were.

Jerry, a 47-year-old Montrealer who spoke on condition that his last name not be published, said he doesn’t even bother setting foot in convenience stores for his fix.

He buys his smokes for $22 a carton in Kahnawake – compared with the cost of about $70 in a dépanneur – “because our Canadian ones are bloody expensive, more expensive than in Europe.” Khalil Assaf, owner of Pro-Soir dépanneur at Lincoln and Guy Sts., says he doesn’t know what all the fuss is about.

He agrees with the Convenience Stores Association’s report, saying cigarette sales are still booming.

© Copyright Montreal Gazette

The point is being made across the nation that cigarettes will kill you. And if smoking them doesn’t get you, paying for them might. Florida residents who smoke are feeling the effects of the growing disdain for smoking.

Back in April, they were hit with a 62 cent per pack increase due to a federal tax hike. If that weren’t bad enough, as of July 1st, they will be paying an additional dollar per pack. This additional tax will bring the price of a pack of cigarettes to around $6.00.

Smokers are split over their reactions to this price increase. Some say that perhaps they will finally be compelled to quit smoking. Others see it as an unfair tax hike that effects a select group of people.

However, in conjunction with the act that was just signed by President Obama, some see this as a good way to stop teens from smoking – or at least to keep them from starting.

It was reported that the additional tax money collected from the sale of cigarettes in Florida will go toward cancer research and to help offset Medicaid costs.

Copyright © Examiner

The once-mighty force known as Big Tobacco is fading. In recent years it’s paid billions in lawsuit damages, faced an ad ban on TV and radio, and watched no-smoking rules proliferate. Now Congress has handed the industry its biggest defeat ever.

Tobacco firms must submit products and ingredient recipes to the federal Food and Drug Administration. There are other features of the new rules: no youth-friendly candy flavorings, no marketing near schools and larger warning labels.

The nation is left with an oddity: a Washington health agency charged with overseeing a deadly product. But the strictures are remarkable for their sweep.

Pushed along by ever-sharper public demands, Congress has turned on an industry that once ruled Washington via lobbyists, contributions and long-tenured legislators from tobacco states.

The new law won’t mean anything unless the regulations drive down tobacco use and keep teenagers from taking up the habit. One prediction from an anti-smoking group: that the 20 percent of adults who presently smoke will drop to 5 percent in 20 years – a wish come true.

President Obama, who knows something about the difficulty of kicking the habit, is expected to sign the legislation this week.
Copyright © 2009 Sfgate

Cigarette companies are using “loopholes” in legislation to cut prices and reverse smokers’ quit rates, anti-smoking groups say.

Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) director Ben Youdan said the recent lowering of the price of some brands at the bottom end of the tobacco market was an “underhand and cynical attempt to discourage people from quitting smoking”.

While it was illegal for individual retailers to discount cigarettes, supply companies can make country-wide price adjustments.

Tobacco giant British American Tobacco (BAT) said its national price cut was in response to similar moves by competitors.

BAT’s Pall Mall and Freedom cigarette prices have been lowered by about 50c a packet, with Freedom’s “limited edition” packet selling for $1.10 less.

A recorded message on the BAT phone number said the price of cigarettes was about 66 per cent tax.

Fifty cents out of the remaining 34 per cent meant the company was taking about a 15 per cent drop in its returns.

BAT head of corporate and regulatory affairs Susan Jones said the price moves were in response to cuts by competitors like Imperial Tobacco’s Horizon and John Brandon brands.

BAT has 76 per cent of the New Zealand market and owns six of the top 10 brands, including the country’s top two brands, Horizon and Benson and Hedges.

Pall Mall is the country’s fifth-best seller.

Jones said Pall Mall and Freedom were “value” brands, but their prices were “still terrifically high and still very highly taxed”.

Youdan said companies blaming each other for the price drop was beside the point one of them had started the move and the outcome was that both had lower prices that removed the incentive for smokers to quit.

Youdan said New Zealand had good quit rates.

“The best thing to decrease smoking is to raise the price,” he said.

“They are using loopholes in the Smoke-free Environments Act. They (retailers) are forbidden to offer them at a reduced rate other than ‘normal trade discounts’.”

A complaint had been laid with the Ministry of Health, he said.

Copyright © 2009 Stuff

Gov. Haley Barbour said today that he may ask state lawmakers to consider putting more taxes on cigarettes if a special session is required to resolve disagreements over the budget.
But a key House leader said he doesn’t believe there is enough support in that chamber for additional taxes on smaller manufacturers.

The state’s 18-cent cigarette tax increased by 50 cents on May 15. Lawmakers did not distinguish between premium-brand cigarettes and those made by smaller manufacturers when they agreed to raise the tax.

Barbour, a Republican, says it is fair to put a higher tax on smaller companies that are not participating in the state’s lawsuit settlement with larger tobacco companies. He also wants the state to change the way it taxes smokeless tobacco.

Barbour said the tax hike would generate at least an additional $20 million.

House Ways and Means Chairman Percy Watson said he will consider the legislation, but he doubts it would pass the Democrat-controlled chamber. He said lawmakers were reluctant to include the additional taxes because the federal tax also recently was increased.

“Many members felt that would be placing too much on small companies in one year,” Watson, D-Hattiesburg, said today. “I have no indication the feelings have changed.”

House and Senate negotiators are at an impasse over a nearly $5 billion budget for the coming fiscal year. Barbour has said he will call a special session if they can’t resolve their differences in regular session.

The regular session reconvenes Wednesday.

Special sessions cost more than regular sessions — nearly $59,895 the first day and about $39,420 for following days. The governor controls the agenda of special sessions.

State Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, urged legislators to continue the regular session. But he said, if the governor calls a special session, he should include legislation that puts more money into the state wind pool and a fund that helps keep car-tag costs stable. Flaggs said local and private bills should also be on the governor’s agenda, and he encouraged him to consider accepting federal stimulus money for unemployment benefits.

Cigarette sales took another hit in Oregon last year.

A report released on Monday by the Oregon Tobacco Prevention and Education Program showed that cigarette sales have dropped to their lowest level ever, falling from nearly 55 to almost 50 packs per capita in the fiscal year ending June 2008.

“Over this last year, we’ve seen a decrease in consumption, so that’s exciting,” said Cathryn Cushing, spokeswoman for the state Public Health Division. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of folks who’ve quit smoking, and that’s exciting, too, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”

The report is encouraging on the home front, with 89 percent of households banning smoking, a 2 percent increase last year.

That slight uptick is important now that Oregon has banned smoking in most workplaces, including bars and restaurants, said Dr. Mel Kohn, director of public health in Oregon.

“Now that we have a Smokefree Workplace Law, the main place that people get exposed to secondhand smoke is at home,” he said. “I am encouraged by the fact that people realize that this is a hazard and are trying to avoid getting exposed and exposing their children.”

Oregon has tracked a dramatic drop in smoking among young people since 1996, but still every day 48 children in Oregon pick up their first cigarette, Kohn said.

“We know that there are various ways that the industry targets kids for promoting cigarette use because kids who start smoking have a much more difficult time stopping,” he said.

He said the decline in smoking among adults — which has dropped to 17 percent — should help further reduce youth smoking.

“Kids model the behavior that they see around them,” he said. “With them having less exposure to smoke in the environment — that’s all going to make it less attractive for kids to be smoking, but this is a constant kind of battle that has to be waged.”

The faltering economy has probably helped curb smoking, Kohn said. The federal cigarette tax also went up earlier this year.

The state has battled smoking through a prevention program that went into effect in 1996. Funding was sliced in half in fiscal year 2003. Sales of cigarettes continued to dip but then saw an increase from 2005 to 2007, when funding was restored.

Though many smokers have quit, the death rate has remained stubbornly flat, accounting for about 22 percent of the 30,000 Oregonians who die every year.

“The change in death rates does not go down as quickly as the change in smoking rates,” Cushing said. “A lot of the damage was done years ago. We’re going to see that percentage coming down over time.”

While smoking has dropped overall in Oregon, it went up on the north coast and in the south of the state.

“Tobacco use is very closely correlated with income and education level,” Cushing said. “Folks who have less money tend to smoke more. If they’re stressed and having trouble it’s hard to quit, but we know 80 percent of them would like to quit.”

The more who quit, the more Oregon will be like its neighbors. Although it has a lower rate than the national average of 19.8 percent, both California and Washington have fewer smokers in percentage terms, and only 11.7 percent in Utah smoke.

“I wish it was dropping faster than it is,” Kohn said. “It tells us that there’s more work left to do.”

Copyright © 2009 Oregonlive

Las Vegas casino dealers are exposed to a host of harmful chemicals through secondhand smoke while on the job, according to a new National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study.

The study, the first to examine the effects of secondhand smoke in Las Vegas casinos, reported that the dealers had traces of a tobacco-specific carcinogen in their urine.

The results were drawn from 124 casino dealers at Bally’s, Caesars Palace and Paris Las Vegas who wore portable pumps that measured the level of tobacco smoke in the air during their shifts. In addition, 114 dealers submitted urine samples to the agency before and after their shifts.

The institute conducted research and interviewed workers during three on-site visits from July 2005 through January 2006.

Anti-smoking advocates hailed the results of the long-awaited study, which mirror previous government and privately funded research on secondhand smoke and are expected to provide ammunition to those pressuring the gaming industry to implement smoking bans.

“Casino workers deserve the same rights as other workers, including the right to a healthy and safe workplace, free from toxic secondhand smoke,” said Cynthia Hallett, executive director of Americans For Nonsmokers’ Rights. “After the release of this report, we hope to see casino workers protected by strong smoke-free workplace laws throughout the country.”

But insiders said that won’t be easy, even if many casino executives privately support the idea. The industry has long fought smoking bans, fearing they would cut into profits as smokers go elsewhere to light up or interrupt their games to smoke outdoors.

With the recession pushing some casino companies to the verge of bankruptcy, some insiders say the industry would put up an even bigger fight during such a critical time.

“If we (ban smoking) and competitors don’t follow suit, what then?” said one executive, who asked not to be named.

The institute’s report found that a majority of the 147 dealers who completed a separate health survey reported symptoms such as red or irritated eyes, a cough, stuffy nose, runny nose and headache. In total, 11 percent of the dealers studied, who did not work in poker rooms at the time, had been diagnosed with asthma, while 35 percent had symptoms suggestive of work-related asthma. Many poker rooms have voluntarily banned smoking.

“That strikes me as enormous,” considering that only about 7 percent of the national population suffers from asthmatic symptoms, said James Repace, a biophysicist and former EPA scientist who has testified in smoking lawsuits against businesses, including casinos. “This is an important result that broadens the information we have on secondhand smoke.”

While the sample size was relatively small, it’s significant for a study of this kind, said Repace, who has conducted similar studies that have been published in academic journals.

The study adds a significant chapter to a small body of research on secondhand smoke in casinos.

Although some scientists and other researchers who support smoking bans have conducted such research, the institute — which conducts research and offers recommendations, but doesn’t enforce workplace safety — has completed a handful of studies on secondhand smoke, but only one other casino study, of Bally’s workers in Atlantic City, focusing on secondhand smoke.

Institute officials said the study’s results were in line with previous research conducted by various groups on secondhand smoke. Officials blamed the more than three-year lag time in completing the study on staffing, turnover and a backlog of other research reports.

“This took longer than we would have liked,” said Christine West, a nurse epidemiologist for the institute and study co-author, adding that casino management fully cooperated with researchers during the information-gathering process.

Few government studies exist in part because institute evaluations are driven by employee complaints and workers fear they will be fired for requesting a study of their workplaces, said Stephanie Steinberg, chairwoman of Smoke-Free Gaming, a Colorado-based group that lobbies for smoking bans in several states, including Nevada.

“This rigorous evaluation shows this isn’t just the perception of the employee. It’s a reality that they were exposed to carcinogens at work,” she said.

Terrie Price, who dealt cards at Caesars Palace for 25 years, requested the agency study the air at Caesars and the other casinos, where colleagues worked. She called the study a vindication of two decades’ worth of complaints.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” she said.

A spokesman for Harrah’s Entertainment, which owns the casinos at issue in the study, declined to comment on specific findings, saying the company is still reviewing the report.

In response to the smoking ban recommendation, spokesman Gary Thompson said the company would consider a nationwide smoking ban provided that it includes all gambling venues, such as racetracks and tribal casinos.

The study comes as many properties, including those owned by Harrah’s, have voluntarily banned smoking in poker rooms as well as at certain slot machines and tables. A few years ago, Harrah’s began offering smoking cessation courses for employees and financial incentives for workers who quit smoking.

And yet, while most states have smoke-free workplace laws, most states that allow gambling also have built-in exemptions for gambling venues such as casinos or racetracks.

Nevada’s Clean Indoor Air Act, approved by a majority of voters in 2006, includes an exemption for the gambling floors of casinos and bars that don’t serve food. Las Vegas video poker bars are pushing legislation that would partially roll back the initiative by allowing smoking in bars that prevent access to minors.

Although the casino industry has publicly opposed smoking bans, many decision-makers, at least privately, appear to be split on the issue.

Some casino executives, who declined to be named, say some companies are vehemently opposed to the idea of smoking bans, even ones that could be universally applied. Others are leaning toward nonsmoking environments.

With the rapid spread of smoking bans in recent years, the American Gaming Association, which lobbies on federal issues, in 2007 dropped efforts to fight smoking bans to avoid taking sides among competing members at the local and state levels.

“Indoor air quality is an issue that will be addressed on a company-by-company, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis,” American Gaming Association Executive Director Judy Patterson said Wednesday.

While national advocates turn up the heat on casino companies, local agencies are taking a wait-and-see approach to casino smoking bans.

Maria Azzarelli, a tobacco control coordinator with the Southern Nevada Health District, said the agency doesn’t intend to use the report to press for a smoking ban. The Health District focuses on education and prevention rather than lobbying, which is the realm of advocacy groups, she said.

The report should be no surprise to anyone on either side of the smoking debate, she added.

“The gaming industry is aware of all this, as many gaming establishments have voluntarily limited smoking because their patrons are asking for it. It’s a good business decision for these entities.”

Copyright © 2009 Lasvegassun

San Diego State University researchers say filter-tipped cigarette butts are toxic to marine and fresh-water fish. KPBS Environment Reporter Ed Joyce tells us they want those butts classified as hazardous waste.

SDSU Public Health Professor Tom Novotny and other members of the Cigarette Butt Advisory Group plan to recommend that filtered cigarette butts should have new requirements for disposal.

They say the toxic waste in the butts harms wildlife and the environment.

“It is toxic at rather low concentrations,” Novotny said. “Even one butt in a liter of water can kill the fish in a period of 96 hours.”

The recommendation is based on new research from SDSU Public Health Professor Rick Gersberg.

A cigarette butt is a combination of a plastic filter and the remnants of a smoked cigarette.

The filter is non-biodegradable, and the tobacco remnant is toxic until it biodegrades into the environment.

What remains in the filter are residues, tars, and particulates.

Novotny says cigarette butts are the number one littered substance in the world, with several years as the number one single item picked up on beach cleanup days in San Diego and elsewhere.

“When they unconsciously throw their butts onto the ground, it’s not just litter, it’s a toxic hazardous waste product,” Novotny said. “And that’s what we’re trying to say. So that may be regulated at the local or state level. And we hope people will be more conscious about what they do with these cigarette butts.”

He says stronger enforcement of non-smoking areas and anti-litter laws could help reduce the butts.

Other policies could include fines, waste fees or taxes to pay for recycling or  making manufacturers pay for cleanup costs.

The thieves who broke into a “fortress-like” wholesaler’s warehouse over the weekend in a coordinated and well-planned heist made off with cigarettes worth about $1 million, police and the business owner said Monday.

Initially, 1,500 cartons were reported missing after the early Saturday morning burglary, but by Monday, the owner of Montano Cigarettes, Candy & Tobacco Inc. updated that to 15,000 cartons.

In what police spokesman Officer Vaughan Dumas called an “obviously well-planned” heist, burglars disabled lighting and security systems at the 290 Boston Post Road warehouse before using a ladder to scale a massive concrete wall and enter the warehouse through a roof access hatch, police said. Security cameras caught some of the action.

“I’m upset, disappointed and in disbelief,” owner Gary V. Montano said. “I thought we had a complete fortress, impregnable. But given enough time, I guess anything is possible.”

Police believe the thieves loaded 15,000 cartons of cigarettes and a still unknown number of health and beauty products into a box truck, which was reported stolen from Budget rental car at 540 Boston Post Road prior to the burglary.

Montano sells cigarettes, candy and other goods to convenience stores in the area.

He sells cartons of cigarettes to retailers for about $60 on average.

Cigarettes have historically been attractive to thieves because of their value and ease of resale on the black market. But a bump in price from a federal tax that takes effect Wednesday sweetened the pot. Montano said he paid an extra $7 per carton after manufacturers raised their prices in advance of the tax.

Montano said the 62 cents a pack increase on cigarettes, which raises the federal tax from 39 cents to $1.01, boosted the value of the swiped cartons by about $105,000. Connecticut already has a $2 tax on each pack of cigarettes, and there is a bill before the General Assembly’s Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee that would raise the state tax by about 50 cents a pack.

Dumas said the tax increase was not a likely factor in the theft, since cigarettes have been a popular target of thieves for at least as long as he’s been fighting crime.

Dumas said one of the first burglaries he ever investigated in 1988 or 1989 was a smash-and-grab in which cartons of cigarettes were taken. While the price of cigarettes is increasing, Dumas said he “didn’t want to predict out whether a trend is emerging just because of this incident.”

Along with cigarettes, baby formula has long been a popular item for thieves looking to make a quick buck because it is expensive and easy to resell on the street, Dumas and state police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said.

“We check the 24-hour markets and we check the ones that are closed for the night,” Vance said. “We are well aware of the value of a pack of cigarettes and a can of baby formula.”

The theft of both items seems to increase in difficult economic times, Vance said.

While shoplifters going after formula and burglars targeting cigarettes are fairly common, much rarer is the type of heist pulled off Saturday morning.

On Monday, Montano was trying to get his business back to normal.

In the warehouse, employees shuttled boxes of candy, health products and cigarettes around the store. There were also telltale signs of Saturday morning’s events: Inside the store the chief and deputy chief of police met with Montano; a technician repaired phone lines working on what appeared to be a security system; and outside the store a piece of cardboard with the words “Danger High Voltage” written on it in black marker covered an electrical box.

“We’re busy today,” said Montano, who is also chairman of the Milford Harbor Management Commission and has a wall covered in plaques acknowledging his philanthropic involvement in the area.

While Montano gets his business together, police are examining surveillance footage and searching for the stolen 2007 International rental truck with an Oklahoma commercial registration 2KL379.

Source: Nhregister

Scientists believe that federal tax hikes and tobacco industry price increase would contribute to thousands smokers kicking up their habit; At the same time many economists consider that price hikes would lead to bankruptcy of many small businesses and that would leave thousands of people jobless in the difficult time of recession.

On the threshold of tax hike which comes into force on April Fool’s Day, many bitter jokes like “Save a kid, smoke a cigarette,” or “If you want to be a hero, buy a carton” can be heard anywhere, since the majority of cheap cigarettes smokers are trying to find at least one reasonable explanation on their question – why all the administration’ plans have been put upon their shoulders.

It gets more and more expensive to smoke these days. For example, if you are an Iowa resident, undermining your health by smoking would cost you $2.36 for a single pack in just taxes after new tax enters into effect on April, 1. It is even more expensive to smoke in New York.

The federal government claimed that they had decided to increase the cigarette tax to $1.01 for each pack in order to collect the revenue for funding additional Children’s Health Insurance Program. According to this program, it would provide health insurance for more than 4 million children who did not get health insurance- Medicaid since their parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid.  It is supposed that the tax would help to collect more than $32 billion in four years. However, it seems that those Washington smart-heads forgot to count how much smokers would give up being simply unable to pay these larger-tan-life prices for cigarettes.

Price hurts.

In the situation when the majority of states have imposed indoor and public smoking bans, and with the recent rather difficult economic situation, the cigarette tax hikes and constant price increases would definitely give rise to the desire to give up smoking and buy cheap nicotine replacement gum than expensive cigarettes. Every smoker would find himself in the situation where he would have to choose either to quit or to pay enormous prices.

The desire to give up smoking appears to a wise and healthy solution for both body and wallet. And here the reverse side of the coin emerges, since there may be simply not enough wealthy smokers who would pay in order to contribute to compensate an underfunded children’ health insurance program.

Winners and losers.

As regards the losers, at this point everything is rather clear. The biggest losers are the smokers who would have to pay or give up and those uninsured children who would never get a health insurance because thousands of smokers would quit leaving the Healt Insurance Program without funding.

The question is more complicated with the winners. However, they can be found too. It is distributors of electronic cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and nicotine replacement therapies.

Those companies who distribute so-called e-cigs online have already earned hundred thousands on their products, because many people believe that electronic cigarettes are healthier and safer alternatives of conventional cigarettes, the fact that various health organizations led by World Health Organization have denied.

Therefore, the only conclusion that comes to mind is that our government should not punish but hail smokers, who would pay instead of government for the treatment of sick kids.

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Source: Ourcigarettesnews ®

Altria Group Inc is raising the price of Marlboro and other cigarettes by more than 70 cents per pack and cutting the cost of the high-end smokeless tobacco brands it recently acquired, while its major rival stayed silent on whether it would also change prices.

The cigarette price increases from Altria’s Philip Morris USA go into effect on March 9 and are related primarily to the upcoming increase in federal excise tax, a spokesman said.

Rival Reynolds American Inc, best known for its Camel brand, is not changing its prices for now. Reynolds also did not match a smaller price increase of about 9 cents per pack Philip Morris took in February.

Altria shares rose about 4.5 percent in midday trading, while Reynolds shares fell nearly 3 percent.

In February, President Barack Obama signed a law expanding a health program to include 3.5 million uninsured children. The expansion is being paid for by raising the federal tax on cigarettes to $1 per pack from 39 cents per pack in April. Taxes on cigars and other tobacco products will also rise.

Philip Morris USA, the largest U.S. cigarette maker, said it told trade partners about the plan on Wednesday, the same day a U.S. House of Representatives panel passed legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration new power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products.

The company, which is owned by Altria, is now raising prices by 71 cents per pack on brands, including Marlboro, Parliament, Virginia Slims and Basic. Other brands, such as Benson & Hedges and Merit, will see an increase of almost 81 cents per pack.

“We view today’s announcement as broadly positive since it is likely to improve investor confidence about cigarette manufacturers’ ability to protect profits and margins this year despite an anticipated volume decline,” Goldman Sachs analyst Judy Hong wrote in a note to clients.

Altria’s John Middleton cigar business is raising prices by 41 cents per pack for a five-pack of cigars immediately.

Some smokeless tobacco users will see prices go down. Altria acquired UST Inc in early January as it tries to find new sources of revenue in the face of a shrinking U.S. cigarette market.

Altria, which wants its smokeless brands to be seen as a better value versus competitors, is lowering the list price on Skoal and Copenhagen by 62 cents per can and the price of Red Seal by 27 cents per can. However, the lower-priced Husky brand will get an increase of 20 cents per can. Altria is also discontinuing the Rooster brand.

Hong said the news could be viewed as a negative for Reynolds, since the price cut on Skoal and Copenhagen is larger than expected.

A spokesman for Reynolds said the company had nothing to report on pricing changes. Reynolds last raised prices on some of its smaller cigarette brands, such as Misty and Capri, by 5 cents to 15 cents per pack in December.

Altria shares were up 69 cents at $15.76 after rising to $15.98 earlier in the session. The shares of Reynolds, whose smokeless tobacco brands include Kodiak, were down 92 at $33.01.