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July, 2009:

Harm of passive smoking

SCMP

Tim Hamlett’s rant about the new tobacco-control legislation in his Tim Hamlett’s Hong Kong column (July 1), directed at three public health advocates, is a tired rehash of old and poorly founded libertarian arguments.

These views particularly ignore the massive harm caused to the population by second-hand smoke.

The Hong Kong public has, by a large majority, supported smoke-free policies in public places and the hospitality sector for more than two decades.

While most people are unlikely to be impressed by Hamlett’s failed satire, I doubt anyone will agree with his claim that the tragedy of a perinatal death is a “mundane” matter. Active and passive smoking makes a very large contribution to bad outcomes of pregnancy, including poor fetal growth, perinatal deaths and health problems in survivors.

Evidence for the harm caused by second-hand smoke to mothers and infants in Hong Kong is well documented, and the new legislation will make an important contribution to the health of women working in previously smoky catering venues.

If Hamlett took the trouble to study and understand the interconnected issues behind tobacco promotion to young people (through watching advertisements and other brand-extension devices) and lifetime damage to health because of workplace exposure, he would be a better role model for his students of journalism.

Anthony Hedley, school of public health, University of Hong Kong

Malaysia: MCTC laud effort to introduce nicotine tests in sports schools

Haresh Deol, Malay Mail

THE Malaysia Council for Tobacco (MCTC) welcomed the initiative by the National Sports Institute (NSI) to introduce nicotine tests in sports schools.

Their president, K. Koris Atan, however, stressed that the parties concerned should emphasise on the educational aspect of such a programme.

“It’s great to hear that NSI is starting such a programme. We would like to hear more of it,” said Koris. “We want to ensure children stay away from cigarettes and we’re glad there are still parties out there who are willing to help us in our cause.”

Koris questioned the government’s decision in still allowing the sale of the 14-stick packs, better known as the Kitty Packs, which was in violation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) signed by former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2005.

It was the same year which saw the launch of the failed RM100 million Tak Nak anti-smoking campaign. Ironically, the country hosted the International Tobacco Expo at the KL Convention Centre which saw the participation of over than 200 international companies displaying their products in November 2005.

Koris, who is also president of the Penang Consumer Protection Association and vice-president of the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations, said this at a press conference to announce the launch of the 3rd Malaysian Conference on Tobacco Control scheduled for Aug 8 and 9 at the UKM Hospital in Cheras.

Also present were Professor of Health, Economics & Consultant Public Health Medicine Senior Research Fellow Prof Datuk Dr Syed MohamedAljunid, USM Assoc. Prof. Foong Kin, Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society vice-president Assoc.

Prof. Dr Mohamad Haniki Nik Mohamed and Cyberjaya University head of department of Public Health and Community Medicine Prof. Dr AbuBakar Abdul Majid and MCTC exco member Shaari Ahamd Junid.

The Malay Mail had on June 24, highlighted the news by NSI director general Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz who said that there are plans by the NSI to start a pilot project by conducting tests on students from sports schools.

Responding to the article, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Liow Tiong Lai gave the thumbsup to the programme adding that it was possible for such tests to be done in public schools as well.

The test was suggested after the NSI recorded poor fitness levels and performance among athletes, especially those from team sports, over the years.

This was highlighted by Ramlan during Malay Mail’s two-part series published last October where he described “one smoker in a team can be the weakest link in the chain.”

Koris pointed out that there was a list of places where smoking is prohibited as drafted by the government. It also includes stadiums and sports venues.

“We have good laws but very poor enforcement. If people still smoke within the vicinity of the Parliament house, the house that drafts and tables laws, what more at stadiums,” he added.

Source: Malay Mail
Category: Youth
Date: 8 July 2009

Chow says smoking ban will not hurt entertainment industry

Margaret Chan, SCMP

Secretary for Food and Health York Chow Yat-ngok said on Wednesday the recent extension of the non-smoking ban in Hong Kong would not lead to business closures or job layoffs.

Since July 1, the controversial smoking ban was extended to another six types of entertainment establishments in the territory. This included clubs, bars, mahjong premises, nightclubs, massage establishments and bathhouses.

Vincent Fang Kang, the vice-chairman of the Liberal Party, told the Legislative Council some industries were worried about the financial impact of the ban.

He said the Entertainment Business Rights Concern Group feared many of their businesses would have to close. Mr Fang said the group was also worried that some 100,000 staff could lose their jobs.

But Dr Chow rejected these suggestions. He replied by emphasising that the smoking ban was necessary for the “public good”.

“It is common knowledge that smoking is hazardous to health,” Dr Chow said.

“Greater efforts in tobacco control could reduce the number of smokers and the harm of second-hand smoke.

He said it would also help reduce the cost of public health spending. Millions of dollars is spent each year treating smoking-related illnesses.

“Protection of public health through banning smoking at all indoor public places and workplaces was the objective of the amendment to the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance, as well as the consensus reached between the government and the Legco in 2006.” he noted, in a written reply to Mr Fang.

Dr Chow said these businesses had been given plenty of time to prepare for the extension of the smoking ban.
“Both overseas and local data show that such bans have not caused any long-term direct impact on the business or employment of the catering and entertainment industries,” he added.

“Although some local restaurants and karaoke bars had expressed worries that the smoking ban might lead to business losses and lay-offs, Census and Statistics Department statistics showed that restaurant receipts had surged by around 30 per cent after the smoking ban had taken effect for around two years since 2007,” explained Dr Chow.

The health secretary noted that employment had actually increased in the hospitality industry during this period.
“In any case, greater efforts in tobacco control would only help reduce the number of smokers as well as the harm of second-hand smoke, thereby improving the health of more people in our community and cutting down on our medical expenditure,” he said.

Dr Chow said the Food and Health Bureau would continue to monitor the implementation of the smoking ban and help the industries adapt to the ban.

Health experts say around 6,000 (actually 7000) people die each year in Hong Kong of smoking-related illness and about 1,000 (1324) are estimated to die from second-hand or passive smoking.

No smoking in cars with children

http://www.ashaust.org.au/lv3/action_POS.htm

Further Smoking Ban in Hong Kong

SCMP

With effect from July 1, the smoking ban was extended to all Hong Kong’s bars, nightclubs and other entertainment venues.
People working in entertainment premises affected by the July 1 extension of the ban have claimed that their businesses will be adversely affected and they are already suffering because of the present financial crisis.
However, they are only thinking about their revenue. They seem to be missing a very important point, which relates to health. They must surely know that statistics show second-hand smoke kills.
These owners should recognise that the health of their employees is more important than increased revenue.
Also, some people have suggested that business might improve with the ban. When it was implemented in restaurants, according to some surveys, businesses did not suffer.
In fact, with the ban in place some non-smokers may now go to bars they would have avoided when people were still able to light up.
It may also be good for smokers, as it may encourage them to smoke less.

R.Hau, Kowloon Bay


I don’t smoke and I always avoid going to places where smoke is found.
I am so happy that the tobacco ban has now been extended, because I can spend my money in more places.
When dining out, for example, I don’t have to ask for a non-smoking area. Besides, the whole idea of having smoking and non-smoking areas in restaurants was useless.
I was always curious about why some bars and discos were popular with smokers. Now that they are smoke-free, I hope they will adopt marketing strategies that appeal to me.
David Lue Yat-fung, Tuen Mun

Secret Tobacco Document Quotes

Source: http://www.tobacco.org/resources/documents/documentquotes.html


in case there was ever any doubt about the Great Satan ………………

“Moreover, nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms.”
July 17, 1963 report by Brown & Williamson general counsel/vice president Addison Yeaman, Implications of Battelle Hippo I and II and the Griffith Filter, 1963, 17 July, Memo (1802.05).
B&W Priv. 689033412
Bates # 2023191002 Text excerpts of the document are on the PBS Website
The memo is at the B&W Papers.
And at the following URL at Michael Tacelosky’s documents site:
Bates # 2023191002

“It may be well to remind you, however, that we have a research program in progress to obtain, by genetic means, any level of nicotine desired.”
1963 memo by B&W researcher, R.B. Griffith

http://www.tobacco.org/resources/documents/documentquotes.html

“In a chronic smoker the normal equilibrium in the corticotropin releasing system can be maintained only by continuous nicotine intake. . . A body left in this unbalanced state craves for renewed drug intake in order to restore the physiological equilibrium. This unconscious desire explains the addiction of the individual to nicotine.”
May 30, 1963 report prepared under contract by researchers in Switzerland for British-American Tobacco/B&W and withheld by B&W from the U.S. Surgeon General [Philip J. Hilts, “Tobacco Maker Studied Risk But Did Little About Results , ” New York Times , June 17, 1994, p. A1.]

“We have , then, as our first premise, that the primary motivation for smoking is to obtain the pharmacological effect of nicotine.”
Fall, 1969 Philip Morris draft report by Thomas Osdene, then VP of Research and Development, to the board of directors, “Why One Smokes.” Minnesota Trial Exhibit 3681 Bates # 1003287036-48

“We are in a nicotine rather than a tobacco industry”
British American Tobacco Co. senior executive, as quoted in the minutes from a 1971 meeting of executives.

“Thus a tobacco product is, in essence, a vehicle for delivery of nicotine, designed to deliver the nicotine in a generally acceptable and attractive form. . . Our industry is then based upon design, manufacture and sale of attractive dosage forms of nicotine and our company’s position in our industry is determined by our ability to produce dosage forms of nicotine which have more overall value, tangible or intangible, to the consumer than those of our competitors.”
1972 memo, “The nature of the tobacco business and the crucial role of nicotine therein,” by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. scientist Claude E. Teague (1972)

“Although more people talk about ‘taste,’ it is likely that greater numbers smoke for the narcotic value that comes from the nicotine”
1972 memo from Philip Morris

“There is little doubt that if it were not for the nicotine in tobacco smoke, people would be little more inclined to smoke than they are to blow bubbles or to light sparklers.”
M.A.H. Russell, “The Smoking Habit and Its Classification.” The Practitioner 212 (1974), p. 794

“Consideration of nicotine delivery necessary to achieve long-term use and satisfaction by the consumer dictate that we should continue to pursue the concept of nicotine enhancement”
July 22, 1977 Lorillard memo from vice president for research and development, Fred Schultz to Alexander Spears

“Very few consumers are aware of the effects of nicotine, i.e., its addictive nature and that nicotine is a poison”
1978 B&W memo signed by H.D. Steele

“Nicotine is the most pharmacologically active constituent in tobacco smoke and is probably the most usual factor responsible for the maintenance of the smoking habit”
1978 internal British-American Tobacco Co. document by D.E. Creighton AP 04/03/98

“We have to satisfy the ‘individual’ who is either about to give up or has just done so… We are searching explicitly for a socially acceptable addictive product involving:

  • A pattern of repeated consumption.
  • A product which is likely to involve repeated handling.
  • The essential constituent is most likely to be nicotine or a “direct” substitute for it.
  • The product must be non-ignitable (to eliminate inhalation of combustion products and passive smoking).”

August 1979, ‘Key Areas – Product Innovation Over Next 10 Years for Long Term Development’ (BAT) The Guardian 02/15/98

“There are biologically active materials present in cigarette tobacco. These are: a) cancer causing b) cancer promoting c) poisonous d) stimulating, pleasurable, and flavorful.”
1961 “Confidential” memorandum from the consulting research firm hired by Liggett to do research for the company

Smokers face A$20 cigarette packs

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/05/2617115.htm?section=justin

The Government is being urged to slash smoking rates to 9 per cent within a decade. (Reuters: Charles Platiau, file photo)

The Cancer Council says it would welcome any proposal for an increase in the price of cigarettes.

The Federal Government is currently analysing a series of recommendations aimed at reducing smoking rates put forward by the National Preventative Health Taskforce.

Newspaper reports say the yet-to-be-released recommendations suggest increasing the tax on cigarettes to more than $20 a packet and a move to plain packaging.

Cancer Council Australia chief executive Professor Ian Olver says increasing tobacco prices is the best way to reduce smoking rates.

“If you put up the price by 10 per cent per pack, you can actually drive down a country’s smoking rate by 4 per cent, which is an enormous impact on health care,” he said.

“But Australia has been lagging behind over many years in increasing that price.”

The taskforce has urged the Government to slash smoking rates over the next decade to 9 per cent.

It believes the price rise could convince 306,000 adults to quit and prevent 183,000 children from eventually taking up the habit.

Alarmed tobacco companies claim the measures could be unlawful.

Under the changes, cigarette packets would be generic and plain with larger graphic health warnings taking up about 90 per cent of the front and 100 per cent of the back.

Newspaper reports say tobacco companies also face a blanket ban on all sponsorship, internet sales, public relations activities and corporate responsibility donations.

ABC/AAP

Give Me Five

RTHK, http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/radio3/give_me_five/20090705.html

Presenter : Andrew Dembina
Lively local and international personalities pick five pieces of music that have impacted their lives.

James Middleton, chairman of the Anti-Tobacco Committee of Clear the Air shares his five musical favourites with Andrew Dembina.

Hoteliers lash out at Chinese tourists

Lee Ying and Lin Hsiu-tzu, Taipei Times

Taiwan’s travel industry is being forced to deal with many negative consequences — from damaged hotel equipment to delayed payments — coming from the influx of Chinese tourists, hotel operators and travel agencies said.

One year ago yesterday, Taiwan allowed the first Chinese tourist groups to enter the country on direct cross-strait flights. However, one year later, Taiwan’s hotel and tourism operators have more to complain about than to praise regarding their guests from across the Strait.

Although Chinese tourists did increase occupancy at hotels and boarding houses, they have also caused a lot of trouble, hotel and boarding house operators said at a meeting with Taipei County Tourism and Travel Bureau Director Chin Huei-chu (秦慧珠) earlier this week.

One hotel operator in Taipei County said that after his hotel stopped providing ashtrays following the January ban on smoking indoors, Chinese tourists began smoking in their rooms and putting their cigarettes out on the carpet and wooden tables, or use its bathroom cups as ashtrays.

Another hotel operator said that although his hotel provides ironing boards in the rooms, Chinese tourists often iron their clothes directly on the floor, burning the carpets.

He said that he had even found a missing alarm clock in the electric water boiler in the room one time after guests from China left.

Other hotel operators said that while it was not news that guests often steal towels and slippers, they still found it quite shocking that Chinese tourists would take shoe brushes, shoe horns, hangers and even closet door knobs away.

Hotel and tourism operators said that some of the other complaints they often receive about Chinese tourists include littering, walking around wearing only underwear in public areas and spitting.

Chin said that hotel operators could ask Chinese tourists to leave a deposit when they check in. However, representatives from the Tourism Bureau and travel agencies were opposed to it, saying there was no legal basis for requiring deposits and that it may make Chinese tourists feel that they are targets of discrimination.

China, on the other hand, suggested that hotels should ask travel agencies to pay for damage inflicted by their customers.

Meanwhile, travel agencies complained in a separate meeting that their partner travel agencies in China often write checks payable only after three to six months, causing them tremendous financial pressure.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LEE WEN-YI

Warning: Quit-smoking drugs can kill … but they’re still on sale here

Beatrice Siu and agencies, HK Standard

Two drugs to help smokers kick the habit will continue to be sold in Hong Kong despite claims they may trigger depression or induce suicidal thoughts.

On July 1, the Food and Drug Administration in the United States ordered Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline to highlight the safety warnings on their respective drugs Champix and Zyban.

According to an FDA report published last month, 37 suicides and more than 400 cases of suicidal behavior were linked to the drugs.

Champix is available at 32 smoking- cessation clinics in public hospitals, eight private hospitals and around 200 private clinics and some community pharmacies.

Fewer than 100 patients are currently taking Zyban, though between 700 and 800 have taken it since it went on sale in 2001.
The FDA is calling for an additional study of the drugs to determine the extent of their side effects.

The FDA said patients do not have to stop treatment, but urged medical staff to be vigilant.

A spokeswoman for the Hospital Authority said Champix is a self- financed medicine, but added frontline medical staff will heed FDA warnings.

Pfizer Corporate Affairs director Geraldine Ip Pui-see said depression and suicidal tendencies are among symptoms contained in the drug description.

The active ingredient, varenicline tartrate, is solely for smoking cessation.

There is no concrete proof the drug is directly linked to psychiatric syndromes, and depression may also occur during nicotine withdrawal, Ip said.

Champix was launched in 2007.

Pfizer has applied to the Department of Health to add the warnings of suicidal thoughts to its drug description.
GSK marketing director Rachel Fan Sze-leung said Zyban, which contains the active ingredient bupropion, is also used to treat depression.

Fan said depression is included among the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and there have been reports of suicidal tendencies during treatment.

GSK will not withdraw the sales of its product in Hong Kong.

Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong president So Yiu-wah said patients who quit smoking may suffer depression even without taking drugs.

“Nicotine triggers the brain to secrete dopamine, which makes smokers feel happy. So patients may feel depressed after quitting smoking,” So said.

He said hospitals will study any reports of mental illness before prescribing smoke-cessation drugs.
Instructions should also be in Chinese.

Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital corporate communication manager Sharon Lun Wai-ching said the hospital has prescribed Champix and Zyban to patients, but agreed to follow Department of Health instructions.