Black Hawk Tobacco Shop Inc., selling Native American cigarettes in four retail stores in the valley, has closed in the wake of a lawsuit by the California attorney general and a letter from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.

The tribe’s letter, dated Feb. 17, advised the state of members’ concern that Black Hawk Tobacco was selling tobacco products on the Agua Caliente reservation illegally.

The letter gave the attorney general’s tobacco litigation and enforcement division the ammunition it needed to press for taxed cigarette sales.

Black Hawk Tobacco had claimed, as a defendant in the lawsuit filed in July, that it was exempt from California cigarette sales tax and other tobacco product sales because its business was being conducted in a retail store that was on Indian land.

Richard Milanovich, tribal chairman, wrote that Black Hawk Tobacco’s sovereign-status argument was without foundation.

Black Hawk Tobacco’s sales should comply with state cigarette tax law and tribal law, Milanovich said.

“The tribe (also) finds it curious, and more than a bit disconcerting that, although we are not in partnership with Black Hawk, nor do we approve of the illegal cigarette sales, (that) Black Hawk attempts to assert the tribe’s rights it possesses as a sovereign nation,” Milanovich wrote in the letter.

“The tribe wishes to make very clear to the Attorney General that Black Hawk’s continued illegal sale of cigarettes on the reservation is contrary to tribal law,” the letter said.

It concluded: It is an “impermissible attempt to use the tribe’s sovereign status as a way to further Black Hawk’s own economic interests as it surely would not conduct its sales on a sparsely populated, remote reservation.”

Black Hawk Tobacco’s lawyer did not return repeated calls to comment.

Calls to the stores, bearing “closed for remodeling” signs, were not answered.

Voluntary closure

The attorney general’s office said Black Hawk Tobacco owner Frederick McAllister voluntarily closed the stores after the tribe’s letter was submitted to Riverside County Superior Court. His attorney asked the injunction to be denied.
But the state is pressing for a ruling to prevent McAllister from selling cigarettes that are untaxed, bear no California tax stamp and are not certified as fire-safe.

“Our position is, if it’s illegal on the Agua Caliente reservation, it’s illegal anyplace else in the state of California,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Dennis Eckhart.

State prosecutors said their investigation showed that Black Hawk Tobacco, which also operates a mail order business, bought 2,800 master cases of cigarettes — typically holding 50 to 60 cartons — between Jan. 26 and July 2, 2009. The tax on any of those cigarettes that would have been sold would be $8.77 per carton.

“Assuming that all these cigarettes were sold in California, several hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes were not paid,” Eckhart said.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge John Evans said he would take the arguments under advisement.

The tribe has put other Native American tobacco stores on notice, among them: 7 Leaf Trading Post, which opened in January 2009 at 69-185 Ramon Road, Cathedral City.

Months ago, the Agua Caliente said it was not in business with 7 Leaf Trading Post and was not a partner of the business.

The tribe also said the sale of cigarettes on reservation land must be done in compliance with California Cigarette Tax Law.

“We’ve sent 7 Leaf and two other tobacco stores letters to cease-and-desist from selling tax-free tobacco products,” Eckhart said.

No one, especially Florida lawmakers, should feel sympathy for major tobacco companies because their market share of a poisonous product is shrinking in the state.

For decades, Big Tobacco lied to consumers about the devastating effects of smoking, and it was only in 1994 that Florida sued to recoup billions of dollars in health care costs under the Medicaid Third-Party Liability Act. Under the settlement, companies have to make payments of about 45 cents a pack, in addition to state and federal taxes.

But not all manufacturers operating in Florida have to pay. Major companies, led by Philip Morris USA, are crying foul – now that the market share of South Florida-based Dosal and a few other smaller companies has skyrocketed from 1 percent to 22 percent in Florida.

Though its motives obviously are financial and its target is Dosal, which has 18 percent of the Florida market, Philip Morris is right that all manufacturers who sell cigarettes in Florida should be taxed equally. No company, no matter how small or where it is located, should be allowed to avoid paying its fair share of the public costs made necessary by its hazardous product.
Dosal and its lobbyists fended off a similar attempt to extend the surcharge to the company last year. Lawmakers shouldn’t let the company – whose cigarettes already are much cheaper than name brands – off the hook this time.

Extending the surcharge to Dorsal and the other companies would mean millions of additional dollars to the cash-challenged state; Philip Morris estimates $221 million a year. Considering Florida collected nearly $60 million less than anticipated in settlement fund money last year and that lawmakers are facing a $3 billion budget deficit, the revenue is sorely needed.
Dosal claims it has been dismissed entirely from the suit, which was pushed by then-Gov. Lawton Chiles and former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, and, thus, shouldn’t be subjected to the surcharge. Philip Morris points out Dosal has never been formally cleared of all the state’s liability claims and that the company already makes similar payments to other states.

The state’s lawyers should thoroughly examine the settlement and seek to close any loophole allowing Dosal to escape liability.

In addition, lawmakers need to recognize that conditions have changed since the settlement was reached in 1997. Dosal is no longer a little company with a minute share of the market.

This is not, as Dosal wants lawmakers to believe, a battle between David and Goliath. This is about applying a surcharge to a sizeable company that manufactures a dangerous product. Forty-eight other states have come to the same sensible conclusion. Florida shouldn’t take the opposite stance.

Time is of the essence. Smokers can even purchase cigarettes online without any taxes being charged, the industry reports, depriving Florida of lawful revenue.

And with the steep increase in state and federal cigarette taxes in Florida over the last year, many North Florida residents are purchasing cigarettes in Alabama and Georgia, where taxes are lower, reducing revenue even more.

Lawmakers shouldn’t forget: Tobacco-related diseases and illnesses kill about 28,600 Floridians a year.

The state’s economic loss from smoking is estimated at $12.5 billion.

And taxpayers have had to pay billions of dollars in health care costs.

As Butterworth has written urging lawmakers to extend the surcharge to Dosal, “It is time to finish the job Florida started in 1997 and make all of Big Tobacco pay.”

ALBANY — A state tax department policy of not enforcing tax collections on Indian cigarette sales was officially rescinded Tuesday by the Paterson administration. But it will still take approval of a new set of regulations before the tax-free sales are halted.

Gov. David A. Paterson announced a proposed set of rules to break the decades-long dispute over tax-free tobacco sales, which critics say could be costing the state as much as $1 billion a year in revenues. The new plan envisions the tax being collected “upstream” at the wholesale level and not at Indian retail shops.

The proposed rules require cigarette manufacturers to sell cigarettes only to licensed stamping agents that certify they are not supplying tax-free retailers, such as the dozens of businesses on the Seneca Nation reservations, with cigarettes missing an official state tax stamp; they face perjury charges for lying.

The latest move comes as the State Senate Finance Committee is poised to issue subpoenas as early as today to a broad segment of the tobacco industry.

Sen. Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat who has railed against the lost tobacco excise taxes because of Indian and bootleg sales, is targeting nearly every aspect of the cigarette supply chain with a legal request for information that “could fill a dump truck,” said one government source.

The lawmaker wants to get details on the extent of the state’s untaxed cigarette industry; one state estimate has claimed nearly 40 percent of smokers buy untaxed or low-tax cigarettes “regularly.”

The Paterson administration today also will propose legislation to put in statute its new plan to permit a set number of tax-free cigarette sales to the state’s nine tribes for personal consumption by their members.

It would bypass a law already on the books that calls for coupons to be used by Indians to buy their own tax-free cigarettes. The legislation would lift a current injunction imposed by a state court judge in Buffalo against the state’s enforcement of the coupon-based law.

The release of the proposed rules kicks off a 45-day comment period and a review period that could see enactment in six months, according to an administration official. Government sources said any agreements struck in the coming months to resolve the issue with individual Indian tribes could supersede the new rules.

The proposal comes as Paterson also is trying to push through a $1-per-pack excise tax increase, to $3.75, the nation’s highest. The move would further increase the profitability of bootleg and Indian cigarette sales unless a new collection mechanism is adopted.

The new regulations would result in licensed stamping agents, which basically serve as middlemen between manufacturers and retailers, paying the taxes to Albany. Besides certifying they are making only legal, taxable sales, wholesalers would have to list the source of their cigarettes with the tax department.

Manufacturers would have a legal burden, as well, because they would have to collect the certifications from wholesalers — meaning they could not sell their products to any wholesaler unless that supplier has certified to the tobacco companies that they do not sell any illegal tax-free cigarettes.

The Seneca Nation did not comment on the proposal.

“It seems reasonable to me,” Russell Sciandra, director of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York, said of the proposed rules.

The plan also calls for an “adequate” number of cigarettes to be supplied tax-free to Indian tribes for personal consumption of its members. In the case of the Senecas’ 7,967 members, it would mean a total of 167,000 tax-free packs being supplied to the tribe every quarter — or 21 packs every three months for every man, woman and child enrolled as a Seneca.

In all, the state’s nine tribes—with a total of 31,000 members — would receive 648,000 packs of tax-free cigarettes per quarter. Licensed stamping agents would be in violation of state law if they supply an amount beyond the approved allotment for each tribe.
By Tom Precious
NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

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

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

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

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

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

He will get as close as he can this year between his new restrictions act and sponsorship of an increase in the state tax on tobacco to $2 per pack of cigarettes, from 69.5 cents per pack now.
Story continues below

Some Utahns who fully endorse the effort to prohibit the sale of products containing nicotine that most kids can’t tell from regular candy and mints say lawmakers ought to take a breath before restricting e-cigarettes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

By James Thalman
Deseret News

One of the last options Hamilton County commissioners have to fix a fast-approaching debt in the stadium fund appears to be fading fast.

A proposal for a countywide cigarette tax was met with a lukewarm reception Tuesday by several local legislators, leaving the county with dwindling options. A cigarette tax requires approval by the General Assembly, and several local state legislators Tuesday said they don’t support it.

One of them supports a sales tax increase instead, which doesn’t require legislative approval. It would need only the vote of two of the three commissioners.

Six of the 11 Hamilton County legislators met Tuesday morning at the county administration building with Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune for a closed-door briefing on stadium fund, which pays construction debt on Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park. The fund will go into the red later this year.

Portune and Commissioner Greg Hartmann last month proposed bridging the gap with a cigarette tax in lieu of cutting a homeowner property tax rebate. But the idea isn’t faring well.

“I told them today I cannot support (the cigarette tax),” said state Rep. Connie Pillich, D-Montgomery, after the meeting. “I really feel penalizing one small segment of the population for the needs of everyone is not really the best idea.”

State Rep. Dale Mallory, D-West End, said it’d be tough for him to support the tax “because we’ve kind of beaten the smoker down to the ground.”

After the meeting, Portune stopped short of saying the cigarette tax is extinguished, but acknowledged proposing it would be a risk.

“In order for it to work, we need not just tepid support, we need enthusiastic support,” he said.

State Rep. Tyrone Yates, D-Evanston, is so far the only legislator to say he supports the tax. Ohio levies a $1.25 per pack tax on cigarettes. The federal government also levies a cigarette tax.

It’s unclear how many cigarettes are sold annually in Hamilton County. According to estimates from the Ohio Department of Taxation, statewide sales equated to 63 packs a person in the 2009 fiscal year, which ended June 30. At that rate, about 53.6 million packs of cigarettes were sold in Hamilton County during fiscal year 2009, according to Enquirer calculations. A 50 cent-per-pack tax, for example, would bring in about $26.8 million a year.

Commissioners had not disclosed what the potential tax rate would be. Cuyahoga County (which includes Cleveland) levies an additional 34.5 cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes to pay for sports stadiums and an arts center. Sales there were slightly lower at 50 packs per person in the 2009 fiscal year. Summit County is currently pursuing a cigarette tax.

Yates told the media Tuesday that he thinks a sales tax increase is a good option for Hamilton County – and one that doesn’t require legislative approval – to plug the hole in the fund.

“That (deficit’s) not going to disappear without some help from our fellow citizens,” Yates said. “I believe that the citizens of this county would be prepared to help the county commissioners get out of this hole.”

A third option – reducing a property tax rebate to homeowners – was already nixed for this year by two of the three commissioners, Greg Hartmann and Todd Portune, though it could be revisited in future years.

Voters approved a sales tax increase in 1996 to pay for the stadiums. Some of the revenue is also reserved for Cincinnati School District, stadium operations and the property tax rebate. However, sales tax revenue has fallen short of projections. Although it will contain enough money to pay the debt service, it won’t have enough to meet its other obligations.

Legislators acknowledged Tuesday that the county is in a bind.

Pillich said a sales tax is probably more fair than a cigarette tax, but doesn’t like either option.

State Rep. Denise Driehaus, D-West Price Hill, said she doesn’t like either tax idea.

They noted there had also been some discussion at the meeting about delaying property tax rebate payments until the county can get the deficit under control.

Although legislative approval isn’t needed for a sales tax increase, it would require a huge marketing campaign to voters where legislative support would be beneficial.
Commissioners can impose up to a half-cent sales tax increase on their own, but it would be subject to referendum.

The last time the commission tried that, in 2007, tax opponents gathered enough signatures to put the tax on the fall ballot – where voters rejected it. That tax would have paid for a jail and public safety programs.

A quarter-cent sales tax hike would generate about $28 million annually, enough to provide a long-term fix for the stadium fund.

Portune said after the meeting that he wasn’t ready to comment on what option commissioners will pursue. More discussion will come at Wednesday’s regular commission meeting, he said.

Pepper told the Enquirer he would not support a sales tax increase. He thinks the county should have done what the administration proposed in November – reduced the property tax rollback. He said that would have helped to bridge the 2010 deficit, buying time to work on longer-term solutions like a riverfront surcharge on things like game tickets or food sales.

By Jessica Brown, January 5, 2010

SMOKERS, your drug of choice is going to disappear from view.

It is now illegal for large outlets to display all tobacco products, which must be concealed in drawers that show only the prices.

On New Year’s Day, NSW became the first state to enact the ban, which has been approved by most other governments.

Here and in the ACT, retailers that employ more than 50 people, such as the Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, and their affiliated servos, must keep their ciggies under wraps.

Smaller outlets such as news-agents and corner stores have until July 1 to cover up, and specialist tobacconist shops have a grace period of three years.

The ban is expected to have a significant impact on smoking in NSW, which has not recorded much of a drop in the past couple of years.

ASH spokesman Stafford Sanders said: “There is very good research evidence to show that concealing these products has an impact on the attitude of children to tobacco. It has been effectively shown that the visibility of tobacco has an impact on children’s perception of how normal smoking is, and covering them up will flow through to child uptake.

“Plus, keeping tobacco out of sight will help those people who want to give up smoking – about two thirds of smokers – and discourage them from impulse buying.”

But specialist tobacco retailer Bart Muscat, who owns Free Choice in Lismore’s Magellan Street, believes that tobacco is here to stay, and that legislation to control it is little more than a revenue-earning device.

“As part of the new laws I now have to apply for a licence to sell tobacco, which costs me $250,” he said.

“The government already makes billions on cigarettes. It’s hard on small businesses.”

But, he says, the new laws are good for his business.

“The others have to cover their stock, so people are coming to me because I have a wider range and I know what I’m talking about.”

RICHMOND, Va. — States cut funding for state tobacco prevention programs more than 15 percent this year, pushing it further than ever below federally recommended levels, according to a report that a coalition of public health groups is releasing Wednesday.

The states will spend $567.5 million of their own money and $62 million in federal grants on programs to prevent tobacco use — about 17 percent as much as the $3.7 billion the federal Centers for Disease Control recommends, the report says.

Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia trimmed funding for such programs this year. New York cut the most at $25.2 million, or 31 percent, the report said.

“All the states are struggling to figure out how they’re going to keep services whole in their states, and there are no easy places left to look,” said Debra Miller, director of health policy for the Council of State Governments.

States will collect more than $25 billion in a combination of tobacco taxes and legal settlements from the tobacco industry this fiscal year. They will spend about 2.3 percent of that on programs to prevent or stop tobacco use, the report says.

Released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and several other groups, the report says smoking-related health care costs $95.9 billion annually nationwide.

Tobacco companies agreed in 1998 to settle lawsuits several states brought over smoking-related health care costs by paying them about $206 billion over more than two decades.

The largest U.S. tobacco company, Altria Group Inc. — based in Richmond, Va., and maker of Skoal chewing tobacco and top-selling Marlboros — pays a majority of that. Spokesman David Sutton said states should use more of the settlement money for youth smoking prevention and health-related initiatives.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said states on average have never spent as much the CDC would like, but the total has declined dramatically in recent years.

Only one state — North Dakota — is meeting its CDC recommendation for this year, $9.4 million. Tennessee trails the list, spending only $1.5 million for prevention, compared with the $71.1 million the CDC recommends.

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention to offer best research practices related to tobacco use

Washington, DC – The study of tobacco has been the life-long focus of his research and now, Peter Shields, MD, deputy director of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center, has led the effort to edit a special-edition of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention (CEBP) dedicated to best research practices in tobacco science from researchers the world over.

The December issue of CEBP, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, is designed to provide researchers with the critical tools to conduct research directed to assisting decision-makers, such as those at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with a comprehensive review of the most up-to-date research on tobacco use. The journal includes nine review articles by leading experts in the field and covers topics from clinical trail design to how to best assess toxicity levels in new tobacco products. Shields is lead investigator for a series of papers in the issue.

“The FDA will soon grapple with very challenging issues,” Shields says. “It cannot ban tobacco entirely, and its policy makers will need to address a unique paradigm — how to regulate and balance health risks with continued protection of an industry whose products harm and kill people when used as intended.”

Shields says the special issue of CEBP will provide the FDA and those who serve on the FDA’s tobacco advisory panel with a strong scientific context to move tobacco regulation forward.

“Still, it is evident that not much scientific data are available to support the type of tobacco regulation that we would like to have today which could lead to a substantial drop in the tobacco-related diseases and deaths,” Shields explains. “Perhaps this lack of data will help drive more funding for this under-researched area. These papers identify the strengths, limitations and research gaps for a wide spectrum of tobacco research methods.”

The reviews in CEBP will also help inform future research by describing some of the strategies that might be applied when assessing differences in product risk and harms. Additionally, the issue features several studies on lung cancer in minorities, risk for experimentation, the impact of popular culture and the effect of alternative products like herbal cigarettes.

Shields he has served as an expert witness on behalf of plaintiffs in tobacco-related litigation.

###

About Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

The Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Lombardi is one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute, and the only one in the Washington, DC, area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.

More and more adults in Scotland bought cigarettes for young people under 18 years old. That’s why soon such adults in Scotland who buy cigarettes for under-age young people could soon face prosecution, bringing the law on the sale of tobacco products in the country into line with that on alcohol.
The Scottish government reported that soon will be introduced a new stipulation into the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services Bill. This information about new legislation was disclosed by Shona Robison, the deputy health minister in the Scottish government.
Already it is illegal in Scotland for an adult to buy alcohol and then pass it on to a child, but as yet there is no such law for tobacco.
The purpose to implement proxy purchasing is seen by ministers as a way of passing the duty of obligations from shopkeepers and other retail outlets to those who buy tobacco products for under-18s.
When this new Bill will be approved then it will also ban the display of tobacco in Scottish shops, outlaw cigarette vending machines and introduce a registration system for tobacco retailers.
Ms. Robison said that the Scottish government had discussed with a number of groups, including young people, on what she said would be a major change covering representative purchasing.
Under the current tobacco laws only the retailer made an assault when someone under the age of 18 is sold a tobacco product. Retailers have manifested concern that all the responsibility for bearing by tobacco retail laws rests on them.
A Scottish government spokesman said: “We have made clear that the Bill should be revised at Stage 2 to outlaw proxy purchase and underage purchase of tobacco products and cigarette papers. Doing this, it will ensure that there is more of a balance between the statutory responsibilities of tobacco retailers and underage purchasers. Our decision has been informed by consultations undertaken with key stakeholders and young people.”
A recent survey of adolescents in Scotland revealed that among 13-year-olds, the amount of regular smokers remained much the same in 2006 and 2008, at 3 percent in both years for boys and falling from 5 percent to 4 percent for girls.
Meanwhile, retail groups denoting small stores have warned that the black market in cigarettes will be encouraged by the government’s ban on tobacco displays. They are convinced that the amount of smuggled cigarettes and tobacco will escalate, cutting tax revenues and forcing the trade under the counter.

When it comes to smoking, Indonesia remains the last paradise for a puff in
Southeast Asia. Those addicted to cigarettes can openly light up in public places
without worrying about tough anti-tobacco penalties found in the rest of the
region.

This reality has been shaped by the power of local and multinational tobacco
companies on the archipelago of some 224 million people.

At the finals for the recent ‘Mild Live Wanted 2009′ countrywide talent
contest, in the former colonial city of Bandung, competing musicians belted
out their songs from around 3 p.m till midnight.

For Indonesia’s small, yet vocal, anti-tobacco activists, these concerts – billed
to promote local talent – offered more than music to fill their ears. They were
the latest in a string of publicity drives of the powerful multinational tobacco
company Philip Morris International (PMI) in the country.

”A Mild is a product of PMI,” says Dina Kania, policy advocacy coordinator of
the National Commission for Child Protection, a non-governmental
organisation that is part of the country’s anti-tobacco movement. ”This has
always been a PMI promotional event since this annual concert series began
in 2007.”

But in other forms of entertainment, the publicity for tobacco companies are
more direct, revealed Kania during a telephone interview from Jakarta. ”There
was a film for teenagers last year where one of the actresses, who is still in
junior high school, was smoking in scenes.”

Such an effort to glamorise smoking goes to extremes, at times. ”There are so
many scenes of people smoking in Indonesian movies where the camera even
zooms in to show the cigarette brand,” adds Kania. ”There is no regulation
like in other countries.”

It is little wonder why a regional anti-tobacco lobby has described Southeast
Asia’s largest country as a ”cash cow” for the tobacco industry. ”With 63
percent of its men smoking, Indonesia contributes handsomely towards PMI’s
profits – making it its fourth largest market in the world,” states the
Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

”In 2008, PMI owned PT HM Sampoerna became the market leader capturing
30 percent of the cigarette market share,” adds SEATCA. ”The increased
market was obtained through aggressive tobacco advertising and promotions
not matched anywhere else in Asia.”

The wide latitude tobacco companies have to advertise their product on large
billboards across the country has earned Indonesia the dubious distinction of
sharing the same spotlight as Zimbabwe. ”The country is also one of only two
that still allows cigarette advertising,” reports ‘The Jakarta Globe,’ an English-
language daily in a recent edition. ”The other is Zimbabwe, which like
Indonesia is one of the largest tobacco exporters in the world.”

Studies by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other groups reveal that
the country has some 63 million smokers, with a tenth of students in their
teens being smokers. Children as young as 10 years are also among these
smokers, say some reports.

Indonesia’s smokers currently account for over 40 percent of Southeast Asia’s
125 million smokers. This accounts for a large number of deaths due to
smoking related diseases annually – about 200,000, according to SEATCA.

The prospect of more deaths from this ”smoking epidemic” has still to move
Jakarta, which is still to sign the world’s first public health treaty – the WHO
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which has been in force
since early 2005.

By contrast, this treaty has been signed by Indonesia’s nine neighbours in the
region, which include Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The FCTC requires countries to restrict tobacco advertising, sponsorship and
promotion; ensure people are protected from exposure to tobacco smoke;
and have new packaging and labelling policies – including graphic warning
signs about the dangers from smoking.

”Indonesia is the only country in the entire Asia-Pacific region not to sign and
ratify the FCTC,” says Mary Assunta, chair of the Framework Convention
Alliance (FCA), a global network of over 300 anti-tobacco lobby groups
functioning as a watchdog for the FCTC. ”There is no political will. They
haven’t even banned minors from buying cigarettes.”

”Indonesia needs to draw lessons from other parts of Southeast Asia,”
Assunta remarked in an interview. ”Once regulations were pushed through by
governments, there has been an immediate impact, like in Singapore,
Thailand and Malaysia.”

The multinational tobacco companies like PMI ”have been successful at
fighting off anti-tobacco legislation,” she added. ”It now has a big stake after
entering the market by buying the Indonesian company PT HM Sampoerna in
2005.”

The result of this deal saw PMI producing not just its globally known Marlboro
brand but also the new Marlboro Mix 9, a clove-flavoured cigarette, given
how popular such a flavoured smoke is in Indonesia.

For now the prospect of the tobacco lobby’s dominance giving way to the
anti-tobacco movement appears remote. The Indonesian legislature is
reluctant to endorse a draft anti-tobacco bill, which has incorporated many
features of the FCTC.

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

Caymanian smokers can rest easy. The anti tobacco law is going to miss yet another deadline.

Required regulations will not be ready to meet the 30 October deadline to fully implement the Tobacco Law, making it the second delay since the law was passed one year ago.

Government missed a deadline of 31 May, which was set by the previous government, to coincide with World No Tobacco Day.

Just 11 days prior to the 31 May deadline a new Government was voted in and Mark Scotland took the helm as Health Minister.

Despite the fact that there was a 60day consultation period, a Chamber of Commerce luncheon and other forums seeking input on the Tobacco Law, Mr. Scotland said the regulations just aren’t ready.

“I have seen the draft of the regulations and it is all marked up with corrections or revisions,” said Mr. Scotland. “So it is a small delay, probably the end of November or December.”

Director of the Cancer Society Christine Sanders said another delay in implementing the Tobacco law is not good for Cayman.

“The delay means that more people will be put at risk for developing cancer as a result of second hand smoke exposure,” said Ms Sanders.

The only part of the Tobacco law that has been implemented is a ban on selling tobacco to minors, which came into effect on 1 May, coinciding with the start of Child Month in the Cayman Islands.

Even without legislation in place, many restaurants and bars have implemented non–smoking policies indoors with some establishments going completely smoke–free.

“That is the trend,” said Ms Sanders.

Once the regulations are in effect, the law will ban smoking in bars, restaurants and places of collective use.

But smoking outdoors will still be permitted at least 10 feet away from the entrance to buildings.

Cigar bars are exempted but they will be required to install smoke extractors or ventilators within 12 months of the regulations being implemented.

The delay in introducing the Tobacco Law comes when countries around the world and throughout the Caribbean have introduced smoking bans.

Bermuda began enforcing a smoking ban in October 2006. Puerto Rico went further in March 2007 extending the ban on smoking in confined places including private cars with children younger than 13 inside. The British Virgin Islands followed suit in mid–2007 with a ban on smoking in all confined places.

Cuba has banned smoking in most work places, cigarette machines have been removed and it has been illegal to sell tobacco products close to schools since February 2005.

By Shurna Robbins, shurna@cfp.ky
22nd October, 2009 Caycompass

The Finance Ministry plans to raise excise duty on cigarettes to 76 euro for 1000 cigarettes from January 2010, Bulgarian-language Dnevnik daily quoted its own sources on September 28 2009.

If this plan goes ahead, cigarette prices in Bulgaria would increase by an average 30 per cent. Currently, the rate is 52.3 euro for 1000 cigarettes.

One of the most popular brands, Victory, which is currently sold at 3.40 leva a packet, could reach 4.50 leva while Marlboro, currently sold at 3.90 leva, could cost five leva.

The Finance Ministry plans to include the new rates of the cigarette excise duties in the draft bill on the 2010 state budget that will have to be tabled in Parliament by the end of October.

Bulgaria has an agreement with the European Commission to raise the current cigarette excise duty to 64 euro for 1000 cigarettes in 2010, from the current 52.3 euro, which would have been one of the lowest rates in the EU. Now, however, the Finance Ministry is apparently revising its intentions.

“The idea for a higher excise duty comes as a surprise because until a few days ago we were discussing an excise duty of 64 euro,” the state-owned Bulgartabak tabacco company, which holds half the cigarette market in Bulgaria, told Dnevnik.

Dnevnik quoted producers and importers who said that the increased excise duty would stimulate contraband and illegal cigarette production.

Copyright © Sep 28 2009 Sofiaecho

In its first relatively peaceful summer after almost a decade of bombings war and terror Iraq is seeking to approve landmark legislation, banning smoking in public places.

The bill already approved by the Cabinet, would prohibit smoking in the majority of public places, ban tobacco sales to adolescents, outlaw advertising and promotions and demand placing health warnings on each pack of cigarettes.

Iraq, home to region’s heaviest smokers, is used to smokers puffing in transport, streets, hospitals and even schools. So, the greater part of the reactions was negative, with people saying that there are many other much more serious problems in the country that should be solved prior to the problem of public health.

Hussein Ismail, 50-year-old Baghdad native complained that the lawmakers should resolve such essential issues like lack of electricity and potable water and the absence of work places. He said that issue with secondhand smoke should be the last one to consider when people are dying because of hunger.

Another Baghdad resident, Hisham Abbas sid that although he has been smoking for decades, he supported the law since it would make the country one step closer to the developed nations what would be important for people who went through the horrors of war..

Therefore, when the parliament comes from recess in September and adopts the legislation, Iraqi smokers could face the same inconveniences like their counterparts from New York, Tokyo, London and Toronto – the request to go outside each time they want to light up a cigarette, exposing their lives to a risk of being kidnapped, slashed, shot or killed in a street bombing, what is a common thing for the country of endless intestine wars.

Bombings and gunfire are heard every day. However, July, when approximately 320 Iraqis were killed across the country, became the fourth most peaceful month since the beginning of war-related deaths calculation in May 2005. American troops lost 7 soldiers, which is also one of the lowest numbers since 2003, when the war began, according to the Associated Press report.

Iraqi law is not the first one for Arab countries, since many neighbors already implemented smoking-restrictive measures. In times of cigar aficionado Saddam Hussein, local residents never new a restriction of their desire to smoke everywhere they want. Al-Qaida tried to get rid of smoking in the part of the country controlled by them. They even imposed a punishment for anyone caught smoking in prohibited places – they cut a finger or even hand of the smoker.

The fine planned by Iraqi government is much less severe – 5-10 million dinars ($4,000-$8,000) for anyone caught on violating smoking ban.

Iraqi Public Health Minister already declared that even if they would fail to impose the ban properly, it anyway would be a very important step for a state coming from the lawlessness and war to a civilized society.

In Arab world smoking was considered as a rite for every boy’s passage to adult. The average pack of smokes costs 50 cents in the country.

Smoking restrictions in Arab countries differ in object and enforcement—more rigorous in Israel, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and barely enforced in Egypt. Turkey was the last country in the region to prohibit smoking in enclosed public places last month, resulting in a man killing a bar owner when he was requested to extinguish his cigarette.

Topeka, Kansas September 10, 2009 – With retail tobacco stores slated to be exempted from the proposed Topeka city wide smoking ban, you’d think that an organization of smoke shops would keep quiet and let the debate take its course. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association has other ideas.
Topeka city council members plan to act on the ordinance September 29. They will hear public comment about it at forums on September 21 and 28.
“We want to go on record opposing this ordinance for many reasons, not the least of which is that the statistics and so-called studies being cited by the pro-smoking ban forces need to be thoroughly vetted for accuracy. People tend to accept these generally false or misleading claims without challenging them. For every claim against smoking, secondhand smoke or the positive economic impact of smoking bans, there is at least one survey or scientific study that says otherwise,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director of IPCPR. “For example, even the Federal Reserve Bank says smoking bans can hurt businesses.”
McCalla cited obesity as the nation’s number one health problem, including many of those generally attributed to smoking. According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control, medical costs associated with obesity have increased from $78 billion in 1998 to $147 billion in 2006. Two-thirds of adults and some 20 percent of children in the United States are now overweight or obese.
“Does that mean government should prevent fat people from overeating or consuming high calorie foods? Of course not. It is not government’s place to tell us how to live or how to run our businesses. A business owner, not the government, has the right to decide if smoking will be allowed on his premises. When government interferes with that right, it begins sliding down the slippery slope of constitutional compromise which leads to the continued and growing loss of rights across the board,” said McCalla. “Just look around you to see growing erosion of our rights as United States citizens.”
In addition to proposing to tax food items such as sugary soft drinks, the CDC suggests banning television sets from children’s bedrooms.
“That’s just as intrusive, ridiculous and dangerous as legislative smoking bans. If you don’t want to be exposed to smoke, don’t go places where you might expect it. Patronize businesses that don’t permit smoking. That’s their right… and that’s your right. But government does not have the right to tell a business that it should or should not ban smoking. The constitution is on our side on this one,” McCalla said.

The appetite to raise taxes seems to be growing as the Utah Legislature prepares for an anticipated $700 million budget shortfall. This is especially true for the tobacco tax proposed by Davis County Republican Representative Paul Ray.

“I do not support any type of tax increase normally, but again, this is a tax where the tobacco companies are making billions of dollars off of people — they’re killing people. You know, they’re using blood money, basically,” Ray says. “But yet, the state, this is the only way we have to recoup the money that we’re paying for health care for smokers and so to me it’s a legitimate way to do that.”

Ray’s proposal would nearly double the sales tax on a pack of cigarettes from 69.5 cents to $1.31. Then it would automatically re-set the tax at one cent above the national average, which Ray believes is fitting because Utah doesn’t have many smokers.

Ray says there was enough support to pass his tax increase earlier this year, but legislative leadership wanted to save it as an option for next year. There’s also talk of raising other taxes, including the gas tax and the income tax. But Senate President Michael Waddoups says the tobacco tax increase is the most likely to pass.

“I think there’s a number of revenue sources that need to be looked at,” Waddoups says. “The easy one is the tobacco tax that was discussed last year in my body. I wouldn’t say it was unanimous, but I think it is going to be the easiest one to pass.”

State leaders cut a billion dollars from the budget last year, but about 40 percent of that was restored by federal stimulus money. Without that federal assistance coming in next year, lawmakers might tap up to half of the state’s $420 million Rainy Day Fund.


Copyright © 25 Aug, 2009 Kcpw

Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Wednesday a bill that makes it illegal for minors to possess tobacco in any form.

House Bill 799 establishes a multi-tiered system to discipline violators through a combination of service, education and nominal fees, according to a written statement from the office of State Sen. Ron Wait, R-Belvidere, who introduced the bill.

Any minor younger than 18 years old cannot have any form of tobacco – like a cigar, cigarette, smokeless tobacco – in his or her possession, the law states.

A first offense will come with a punishment of 15 hours of community service and a $25 fine, according to the statement. Subsequent violations increase fees and tack on more service hours.

Wait, who has been pushing the bill for 10 years, called it “common sense.”

“It’s illegal to buy and sell to minors but it was not illegal to possess by minors,” he said. “What sense does that make?”

Those minors who take up smoking are seven times more likely to drink alcohol, Wait said, and 22 times more likely to use illegal drugs. About 30 states already have laws similar to House Bill 799, and many U.S. cities, including DeKalb, have ordinances in place.

“Anything we can do to dissuade people from smoking is a step in a positive direction,” Wait said. “It’s bad for their health and their pocketbook. Once you hit 18, you are considered an adult and can make those decisions … but minors should not be able to have tobacco in their possession.”


Copyright © 2009 Daily-chronicle

COLUMBUS — A judge ruled Tuesday that state officials had no authority to divert $230 million from an anti-tobacco fund to balance the recently approved state budget.

The decision blows a hole in the $50.5 billion spending plan and means that human services programs that provide health care for the poor and services for abused children and adults could face another round of slashing and burning.

State officials, who said they have every right to the money, immediately appealed.

The ruling by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David Fais said the state cannot spend the funds, which were frozen after anti-smoking advocates filed a suit seeking to protect the money.

Gov. Ted Strickland and lawmakers had planned to spend $258 million — the $230 million in the account plus interest — on the human services programs. They counted on $80 million in the first year of the budget and $178 million in 2011, even though they knew the money was tied up in court.

The biggest chunk of the funding — $129 million — was designated for optional Medicaid services such as vision, podiatry, dental and hospice care, while $92 million was to be spent on adult and child protective services.

A trio of other programs was to soak up the additional money, with $30 million slated for health care for needy children, $5 million for breast and cervical cancer screenings and $2.2 million for a “buy-in” program helping special-needs children get health-care coverage.

Attorney General Richard Cordray appealed Fais’ decision to the 10th Ohio District Court of Appeals later Tuesday. Cordray’s office asked the appeals court to stay the judge’s ruling and hold arguments on the matter.

Amanda Wurst, spokeswoman for the Democratic governor, said that if the ruling isn’t reversed, human services programs for thousands of Ohioans will have to be axed.

“We do expect to win on appeal, but if we don’t we will have to make budgetary decisions at that time,” Wurst said. “But there would likely be cuts to these essential health-care services.”

Wurst said there is wiggle room in Medicaid estimates to provide the optional services while the case is being appealed.

Cuyahoga County’s share of funding for child and protective services will undoubtedly be cut if the Tuesday ruling isn’t overturned, said Deb Forkas, head of the county Department of Children and Family Services.

Forkas said county officials use the money for independent living for foster children as well as emergency assistance to families.

“Families will get less — there are no two ways about it because we don’t have the money to shore it up,” she said. “It’s going to be very difficult to do child welfare with no money.”

Gayle Channing Tenenbaum, legislative director for the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, said she was “greatly concerned” about the possibility of more budget cuts “when so much is at stake for children and the elderly.” County human services agencies already absorbed a $167 million cut in the budget passed last month, she noted.

Col Owens, a senior attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, said the optional Medicaid services are anything but optional. “They may be considered optional within the framework of the law, but they are hardly optional — they are critical,” he said.

Owens said Strickland and lawmakers were “between a rock and a hard place” as they pushed to find more dollars during budget deliberations and decided to tap the frozen account.

“We obviously wish they would have used a different funding source to begin with, but they were hard-pressed to come up with more resources and had something they thought made sense,” he said.

Wurst said the decision was disappointing but not unexpected given that Fais had granted a preliminary order against the state last year.

“We’re confident that the state has ability to appropriate state funds and that the governor and the legislature were under their full rights under the law,” she said.

House Speaker Armond Budish, a Beachwood Democrat, agreed, saying in an interview with Plain Dealer editors Tuesday that the judge’s decision was “not a strong legal ruling.” He predicted it would be overturned.

“From what I understand, the law supports our position,” he said, noting that lawmakers have repeatedly tapped tobacco funds for the budget in the past.

The money was received by the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation as part of the national settlement of lawsuits against the major tobacco companies. The Strickland administration sought to drain the fund, but was sued last year by the anti-smoking group seeking to keep the funds for tobacco prevention programs.

The Strickland administration had told the court earlier that it planned to use the money as part of a $1.57 billion state economic stimulus package. But on June 19, plans changed when Strickland snared the funds for human services programs as part of his “balanced budget framework” that was eventually incorporated into the state budget.

In his ruling, Fais said that draining the anti-tobacco fund “would result in a substantial increase in medical expense for both Ohioans and the state of Ohio for treatment of tobacco-related disease.”

Ellen Vargyas, general counsel for the anti-smoking American Legacy Foundation, one of the parties to the lawsuit, said the judge’s decision ensures that the tobacco money goes for its intended purpose.

“We think the judge wrote a careful, thoughtful and correct decision,” she said. “We’re very pleased that one more step was taken to protect these funds for the use they were intended for originally, which is tobacco control and prevention in Ohio.”
Copyright © 2009 Cleveland

Fewer Britons support the ban on smoking in pubs than in other public places, a survey has revealed.

While 93% agreed lighting up should not be allowed in restaurants, a smaller proportion of 75% believed it was right for cigarettes to be illegal in pubs.

Smoke-free legislation was enforced across the UK by July 2007.

A survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics since the ban showed the majority supported no smoking in the workplace (85%), indoor sports centres (94%), indoor shopping centres (91%) and railway and bus stations (85%).

Meanwhile, the proportion of smokers who said they would like to give up dropped to 67% in 2008-09 from 74% in 2007, although this was not significantly different to previous years, according to the ONS.

Half of smokers intended to quit within the next year, the study found.

Health was the most common reason for people wanting to stop smoking, cited by 71%, while almost a third (31%) gave financial reasons.

The survey into smoking-related behaviour and attitudes, which covered the period September 2008 to March 2009, also revealed an awareness among smokers of the dangers of tobacco to children.

A total of 77% claimed they did not smoke at all when they were in a room with a child – a figure that has increased from the 54% recorded in 1997.

In terms of taxation, there was a clear divide between smokers and non-smokers, with 17% of smokers saying tax should be increased by more than the rate of inflation compared with 64% of those who had never smoked who supported inflation-plus rises on tobacco taxation.

Citing problems with underage smokers, Frankfort officials may license businesses that sell tobacco.

Police Chief Rob Piscia said during routine compliance checks his officers have had repeated problems with some retail clerks selling cigarettes to people younger than 18. The clerk who sells tobacco gets a ticket and pays a fine, but there are no repercussions for the business owners.

The village’s land use and policy committee recently decided to recommend a new village-issued license to sell tobacco that could carry a $100 fee and a $250 fine for a first offense. The village also could revoke a retailer’s license, thus prohibiting tobacco sales.

The license could be revoked after a hearing.

The license suspension depends on the circumstances, Chief Piscia said.

The state of Illinois requires tobacco distributors to be licensed, but not retailers, said Jeff Barr, tobacco program manager for the Illinois Liquor Control Commission.

Through the state commission’s grant program, Frankfort police have distributed packets of information to retailers regarding tobacco sales, and have followed up with compliance checks two or three times a year.

Businesses that have been cited multiple times include Frankfort Tobacco and Always Open, a convenience store, Police Commander John Burica said. Walgreens and Gas City also have been cited more than once, but both have more than one location in the village, he said.

“The license would give us the authority to go after the owner, not just the clerk,” village administrator Jerry Ducay said. “We want to make sure the business owner takes this responsibility seriously.”

“It makes all the sense in the world to me,” Trustee Kevin Egan said.

He also suggested the village prohibit vending machine sales of tobacco products.

The $100 licensing fee is not designed to make a profit, but to cover the village’s costs for enforcement and administration, Egan said.

Warner and his colleaguesa examined tobacco’s net economic impact on regional economies, based on the eight regions defined by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, with the bureau’s southeastern region divided into non–tobacco- growing and tobacco-growing/ producing states. Modeling a period between 1993 and 2000, Warner et al. predict that
■ A doubling of the downward trend in tobacco use would lead to a loss of 36,600 jobs in the southeastern tobacco region by 2000—only 0.2% of total employment in the region—with offsetting increases in the rest of the country.
■ Even a total elimination of tobacco use would stabilize at slightly more than 1% of the employment in this region, while producing a net gain of jobs at a national level. Warner and colleagues predict a loss of about 303,000 jobs in the southeastern tobacco region in this case, stabilizing to 222,000 jobs by 2000 as the regional economy adjusted, but the number of jobs gained in other regions would rise to produce an overall increase of 133,000 jobs nationally.

The Food and Drug Administration wants your input on its newfound authority for regulating tobacco products.

The public has until Sept. 29 to offer opinion on how the agency should implement the new law and share comments about the use of tobacco or anything else that is pertinent.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed by President Obama last week, gives the FDA power to ban candy-flavored and fruit-flavored cigarettes, which are considered appealing to first-time smokers. The act also bans tobacco companies from using terms such as “low tar,” “light” or “mild,” requires larger warning labels on packages and further limits tobacco advertising.

Chris Cheung?s Hong Kong mahjong parlour is notable for two things: the incessant clatter of playing tiles and the thick fog of cigarette smoke shrouding the stony-faced gamblers.

“People come here to play and to smoke,” said Cheung. “It?s always been the tradition to do both together.”

For everyone involved here — from the staff ferrying free drinks and cigarettes to the players themselves — the marriage between the Chinese gambling game and smoking is one that shouldn’t be broken.

Nevertheless, it is about to be.

Hong Kong?s government is set to enforce a blanket smoking ban in public places from July 1, aimed at protecting workers in the city?s bars, nightclubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong parlours from second-hand smoke.

Yet many workers regard the legislation as a death-knell amid a recession that has pushed the city’s unemployment rate up to 5.3 percent. Bars have reported a drop in business as the slowdown bites.

“With the financial crisis, swine flu and now the smoking ban, it?s a perfect storm of trouble for the entertainment sector in Hong Kong,” said Lawrence Ho, who has run a bar here for 18 years.

“People are more worried about short-term job security than long-term health, because a ban is likely to make thousands unemployed.”

The Entertainment Business Rights Concern group, a lobbying organisation, says 95 percent of the nearly 100,000 owners and workers it represents fear they will lose their jobs if the ban is enforced.

The organisation points to studies conducted in Britain that say bar and pub business declined by around 15 percent in the two years after smoking bans.

Suzanne Wu, from the Secretary, Catering and Hotels Industries Employees General Union, said workers were divided.

“It is very difficult to unify the opinion as different employees have different concern. But for long-term benefit, we (the union) support the implementation of the smoking ban,” she told AFP.

For Cheung, business at his mahjong parlour is already down 30 percent from the previous year and he says a smoking ban will compound his losses.

“If you are playing mahjong with three strangers with money at stake, you can?t ask them to wait five minutes while you go out for a smoke,” he said.

Hong Kong banned smoking in public places such as schools, beaches, restaurants and karaoke bars in 2007, but the legislation was deferred for two-and-a-half years for certain establishments.

Now that the ban is about to be enforced, some are asking for more time and have even organised demonstrations.

“The current economic situation in Hong Kong is very bad and these people think they won’t survive a smoking ban on top of it,” said legislator Paul Tse, who supports a two-year deferment.

The government points to Census and Statistics Department figures that show restaurant business is up 30 percent since the ban was enforced two years ago.

“A number of establishments have attracted guests who are non-smokers or dislike second-hand smoke after the implementation of the ban,” it said in a statement.

While cities such as New York and London have adapted to smoking bans, business owners here say Hong Kong?s high-rise living makes the issue more problematic.

Anita To owns two bars on the 20th floor of a building in the city?s nightlife district of Causeway Bay and says she fears customers won?t come back after they have dropped down to street level for a cigarette.

“A large percentage of my customers are smokers and I don?t think on July 1 they will quit smoking,” she said. “Business is already down 50 percent and I think the ban will just kill me off.”

Critics say the government?s watered-down introduction two years ago has caused the problems.

“It has brought confusion and challenges to the law, great expense and effort for the health and legal authorities, and bar workers continuing to be exposed to dangerous smoke,” said Judith Mackay, a Hong Kong-based advisor for the World Lung Foundation.

And crucially it has delayed the tough new legislation until the fear of unemployment takes priority over the health of workers.

“Some of my staff have been breathing second-hand smoke for 30 years,” said Cheung. “Right now they?d rather keep their jobs.”

Lamenting his first teenage cigarette, President Barack Obama ruefully admitted on Monday that he’s spent his adult life fighting the
habit. Then he signed the nation’s toughest anti-smoking law, aiming to keep thousands of other teens from getting hooked.

Obama praised the historic legislation, which gives the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate what goes into tobacco products, to make public the ingredients and to prohibit marketing campaigns geared toward children.

But he didn’t say how his own struggle was coming since he moved into the White House. And aides were no more forthcoming . As senator, candidate and now president, Obama has veered between frank and cagey about his personal battle with smoking.

During Monday’s bill signing , Obama focused on how the new law would help keep future generations of children away from the dangerous habit.

Copyright © 2009 Indiatimes

According to the survey completed by the Ghana Ministry of Health Service (GMHS), 15 percent of almost 1000 teenagers, studying in three secondary schools located in Accra, the capital of Ghana, light up regularly.

Mr. James Stapleton, Leading Health Researcher of GMHS stated that although the current smoking rates have not been so enormous. However, the scientists are concerned with the fact that those rates have been growing constantly and, therefore, they seek the government to implement more rigorous smoking restriction policies to prevent teenagers from getting hooked to cigarettes.

While addressing the speech on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day celebrations in Accra, Dr. Stapleton declared that restrictive measures were vital since minors who used to smoke during adolescence were exposed to the risk of many hazardous effects of the tobacco and were easier to become addicted to nicotine after a while.

The World No Tobacco Day was sponsored by Coalition for Tobacco Control, a group of Non-governmental Organisations advocating for reducing tobacco consumption in Ghana. The organizers admit the aim of the event was to make people aware of the dangers of tobacco consumption both for the individuals who smoke and for the surrounding people who are exposed to secondhand smoke, and also to introduce Accra residents and guests to the tobacco control legislation that is supposed to be approved in the beginning of next year.

Mr. Stapleton said they held special classes for teaches who currently visit schools across the county and educate pupils of the risks of smoking and as well have initiated several public campaigns aimed at raisin public awareness of health complications related to smoking.

The scientist also said the GMHS joined forces with other Health related state agencies in order to elaborate measures to reduce tobacco consumption.

The collaboration of public health organization has been rather successful as they created a bill that was sent to the government for consideration and approval.

In case it is approved, the bill would prohibit smoking in all public enclosed places in order to prevent exposure to secondhand smoke.

The law as well prohibits selling cigarettes to children under 18 in order to reduce child smoking rates.

The President of Coalition for Tobacco Control, Mrs. Gwen Truce urged the lawmakers to approve the latter bill as soon as possible in order to reduce the rates of smokers in the country and reduce the number of health related illnesses.

She stated non-smokers who breathed in the cigarette smoke were exposed to a higher risk than the smokers since those who smoke; breathe out almost 85 percent of hazardous which is inhaled by innocent people.

She cited Health Ministry statistics showing that in several decades, lung diseases that were not frequent, had become one of the leading illnesses nowadays because of exposure to smoke.

Prof. Bella Mubongo from the University of Ghana advised the teenagers to avoid smoking or consuming tobacco by other means and also stay away from people who would attempt to persuade them to try cigarettes, as it would result in addiction and cause severe health complications

A plan to roll back part of a voter-approved smoking ban and exempt tobacco trade conventions from the prohibition became law on Tuesday without Gov. Jim Gibbons’ signature.

When Gibbons sent AB309 to the secretary of state’s office, making it part of Nevada law even though he didn’t sign the measure, it completed his review of about 530 bills sent to him by lawmakers. While most were signed, he vetoed 48 of the bills and was overridden 25 times by lawmakers.

The tobacco trade show exemption had been amended into AB309, which deals with the crime of stalking, and was approved a week ago on the final day of the 2009 legislative session.

The original bill, SB372, would have softened the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act, passed by voters in 2006, by fine-tuning just where smoking should be prohibited. Lobbyists wanted to allow smoking in bars that serve food as long as minors are restricted from entry, but that bill died in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
The amendment to AB309 was pushed by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority because some groups with tobacco industry ties canceled Nevada conventions after the 2006 ban took effect.

An initial attempt to add the smoking provision to the stalking bill was blocked because the lawmakers’ legal counsel said the smoking issue was not germane to the bill’s purpose. But legislative lawyers revised their opinion and said the amendment could work because both the bill and amendment deal with crimes.

Among final bills signed by Gibbons was SB55, allocating $9 million in bond revenues as a final installment on Nevada’s share of a major Tahoe environmental improvement program. The bill earmarks a third of the money for the first phase of what’s envisioned as a 725-acre park near casinos at the California-Nevada line on Lake Tahoe’s south shore.

The $9 million is part of about $900 million for the environmental improvement program, launched in 1997 by then-President Clinton. The funds have come from federal, California, Nevada, local government and private sources.

Gibbons also signed:

- AB140, which helps to ease foreclosure problems by mandating that renters be notified that a property is in foreclosure. Also, the state Board of Health must get advance word if a licensed health facility faces foreclosure.

- SB152, Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford’s “green jobs initiative.” The measure allows for use of stimulus funds to train about 3,200 workers to perform weatherization, energy retrofit applications and energy audits, which could help consumers save money on their utility bills.

- SB269, which provides for immediate license suspensions of medical professionals convicted of felonies. The measure is a response to a hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas caused by shoddy injection practices.

- AB385, which requires that parole and probation officers have a maximum of 70 cases for low-risk offenders. The bill also requires periodic reports to legislators about staffing ratios for private prisons.

- AB521, which expands health care coverage for full-time, salaried firefighters exposed to carcinogens on the job.

Smoking-related illnesses claim more American lives than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide and illegal drugs combined, and Pacific University’s College of Health Professions Campus in Hillsboro is doing their part to change this statistic.
The dangers of smoking are common knowledge, as anti-smoking advertisements are beginning to replace those that used to promote it. But it is easy to let that information go in one ear and out the other, and the Health Professions Campus is going one step further to encourage quitting by going tobacco free.
On May 1, the Health Professions Campus instituted a tobacco-free policy which prohibits the use of any tobacco products in and around the campus. This policy not only applies to students and Pacific University employees, but also to patients, visitors, and Virginia Garcia employees.
The CHP Campus Tobacco-Free Committee says that they are not asking students and employees of the Health Professions Campus and Virginia Garcia to quit tobacco, but are only encouraging them to refrain from using tobacco products while at work or school. In order to assist with those who are refraining from or quitting tobacco, they are prepared to offer free counseling and educational programs. As some may experience extreme withdrawals, they may also prescribe medications to coincide with the other programs offered.
Since patients and visitors will also be required to follow the new policy, support services will be available to them while they are on campus.
A “Wellness Table” was set up in the lobby of the building the week prior to the implementation of the new policy in order to educate the campus community of the new policy, as well as information on healthy living and tips on how to refrain from tobacco use.

Copyright Media

A coalition of bar owners in Iowa has decided to drop its lawsuit over the state’s tobacco ban, but a spokesman says the fight is not over.

After the decision of bar owners, a Polk County judge last week dismissed the lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the tobacco ban. It was filed by several groups of bar owners on July 1, 2008, the same day the Iowa Smokefree Air Act went into effect.

The lawsuit claims the smoking ban, which prohibits smoking cigarettes in nearly all public places including bars and restaurants, is unconstitutional for several reasons.

Brian Froehlich, of Wilton, is with the Iowa Bar Owners Coalition. He says the groups are redirecting their efforts and will support the bars that are going to court to protect their businesses.

Beedi workers’ unions in the State are up in arms again with the Supreme Court clearing the Central government law making it mandatory to display pictorial warnings on tobacco packs from May 31.

Consequent to the implementation of Section 7 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003, it will be compulsory to depict lungs for smoking forms of tobacco packages and scorpion for chewing and smokeless forms.

Ticklish issue

Though the unions agree that the latest pictorial warning was not as harsh as the skull and cross bones as originally proposed, they have demanded that the Centre should first pay attention to the rehabilitation of lakhs of workers, particularly the women, who would be displaced.

They wondered why the beedi industry alone should be targeted when chewing gutkha and consuming alcohol was much more dangerous for human life. The unions also accused the Centre of succumbing to pressure from the powerful cigarette manufacturers’ lobby particularly the mini-cigarette makers, raising a question mark over the fate of the beedi industry.

There are over 10 lakh workers engaged in rolling beedis in Andhra Pradesh with over 6-lakh earning their livelihood in five districts of Telangana alone. Industry estimates put the production at 100 crore beedis per day in the State alone. Wages for rolling 1,000 beedis comes to Rs. 75.

The Andhra Pradesh Beedi and Cigar Workers Union president Siddhi Ramulu said the law was anti-worker and intended at benefiting the multinational companies. A.S. Poshetty, president of the AP Beedi Workers Federation, which represents the interests of 16 unions in Telangana, charged that the government instead of implementing laws concerning the minimum wages and welfare schemes for the workers was serious about implementing the pictorial warning.

Death blow

M. Sirajuddin, president of All-India Beedi, Cigarette and Tobacco Workers Federation said the direction would cripple the beedi industry. Women who formed the bulk of the beedi workers were already feeling the pinch of insecurity said S. Rama, general secretary of AP Beedi and Cigar Workers Union. Two women beedi workers had already ended their lives in Nizamabad and Medak district, perturbed over their future.

Copyright © 2009 Hindu

British American Tobacco is recruiting 250 volunteers in Germany to test experimental cigarettes designed to produce less toxic smoke than conventional products.

The smokers’ biological reactions will be analysed through a battery of scientific tests.

The study in Hamburg is believed to be the first modern clinical trial of tobacco treated to be safer when smoked. BAT’s long-term business plan is to produce cigarettes that can be marketed as less likely to cause disease, with solid evidence to support the claim.

The tobacco industry has been wary of making claims about less harmful products since the debacle of low-tar and light cigarettes in the 1970s and 80s.

These were promoted as being safer on the basis of lab tests with “smoking machines” – but turned out to be just as dangerous as traditional products because consumers puffed harder to get their hit of smoke and nicotine.

BAT has made three “prototype combustible products” for the German trial. They incorporate tobacco that has been processed in several ways to generate fewer “toxicants” as it burns, including treatment with enzymes similar to those in biological washing powders. The prototypes also have new filters, with activated charcoal and resins to absorb harmful chemicals.

Momentum Pharma Services, a contract research organisation that normally works for drug companies, is carrying out the £6m analysis. It has been registered on an independent clinical trials database – a first for BAT – and results will be published in a scientific journal next year.

Although the tobacco industry has been investigating cigarette safety for decades, science has only now reached a stage at which researchers can discover how to make smoking genuinely safer, said David O’Reilly, BAT head of public health and scientific affairs.

“There are 100 or so toxicants in cigarette smoke and more than 30 significant diseases associated with smoking,” he said.

The trial will show whether and how much the prototype cigarettes reduce smokers’ exposure to toxicants, by measuring the levels of associated chemicals known as “biomarkers” in their blood, urine and saliva.

A local bar owner who lit a cigarette Monday inside the Erie County Health Department to prove the state’s smoking ban lacks clarity got a clear message from health officials.

Paul Hauke Jr., 61, of Sandusky will become the first individual in Ohio to receive a written warning for violating the smoking ban, said Jay Carey, Ohio Department of Health spokesman.

Since Ohio voters approved the smoking ban in November 2006, only business owners, not individuals, have received written warnings or fines, Carey said.

Businesses receive a written warning for the first offense and increasing fines of $100, $500, $1,000 and $2,500 for subsequent violations. Individuals receive a warning letter and then a $100 fine for every violation thereafter.

Hauke is going down both roads. As part owner of Sandusky watering holes Boze’s Bar and Lake Wilmer Inn, he’s awaiting two hearings for repeat smoking violations that allegedly occurred at those bars.

A nonsmoker, he said he lit up in the health department’s lobby to prove the smoking ban unfairly penalizes business owners because it fails to offer them any means to make patrons stop smoking.

Hauke pulled a similar stunt at the municipal building in Findlay two weeks ago.

The hearings for smoking-ban violators are “a joke,” Hauke said, adding that the ban itself has been poorly administered and its legal particulars are murky.

“There are so many points that are screwed up, it isn’t even funny,” Hauke said.

On Monday, he realized how far health officials will go to enforce the ban.

“I lit up a cigarette, and the lady told me to put it out or she’d call the police,” Hauke said. “I said, ‘go ahead and call them, because I ain’t putting it out.’”

Erie County health commissioner Pete Schade said Hauke was belligerent when asked to extinguish the butt.

“He continued to puff away,” Schade said, adding that Hauke pontificated on everything that was wrong with the smoking ban, Erie County and the state.

Hauke also threatened to call a state hotline to file a complaint against Erie County Health Department for permitting a smoking violation — his own, Schade said.

“That’s like driving drunk to the police station and then complaining that there’s a drunk driver on the road,” Schade said.

There were two women waiting in the health department lobby when Hauke started smoking, one of whom left as soon as the smoke hit the air. The other asked Hauke to extinguish the cigarette because she had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a progressive breathing disease often caused by cigarette smoking.

“The reason I put it out is because a lady came in with a breathing apparatus,” Hauke said. “I didn’t want to hurt her health any. I put it out and went outside.”

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