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August, 2011:

Lowest smoking rate since records began

Aug 25th, 2011
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South China Morning Post – 25 August 2011

Hong Kong’s fight against tobacco reached a milestone, as the city saw its lowest smoking rate since records began 30 years ago.

Only 11.1 per cent of people aged 15 or older were daily smokers last year – down from 12 per cent in 2009 and 11.8 in 2008. Some 19.9 per cent of men smoked, the first time the rate had gone below 20 per cent, said Dr Raymond Ho Lei-ming, Tobacco Control Office head. The rate among women was 3 per cent.

“We are one step closer to having a single-digit smoking rate,” he said.

The city’s latest smoking rate is one of the world’s lowest.

In Asia-Pacific, the next best rate is in Singapore, where 14 per cent of people smoke.

Hong Kong’s figures were released yesterday as a part of the Census and Statistics Department’s “thematic household survey”, conducted from October to December last year.

But teenage smoking increased, with 2.5 per cent of those aged 15 to 19 smoking every day, up from 1.8 per cent the previous year.

Ho said that as the household survey was done before the latest tobacco tax increase of 41.5 per cent in February, it could not be taken as suggesting the tax rise had failed to curb young smokers. “If we view the general trend in the past decade, teenage smoking is slowing – from 4.5 per cent in 2000 to 2.4 in 2008,” he said. The office would put more focus on helping the young to quit, he said.

yukhang.ng@scmp.com

Smoking rate hits historic low level

Aug 25th, 2011
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China Daily – 25 Aug 2011

Smoking rate in Hong Kong hit a historic low of 11.1 percent in 2010, the Tobacco Control Office of the Department of Health said on Wednesday, reporting that smokers accounted for only 11.1 percent of the population in 2010, despite a slight increase in smoking among youngsters aged 15 to 19.

About 675,000 persons in the city, age 15 or above, were smokers, said Raymond Ho Lei-ming, head of the office.

The figure is based on a survey released by the Census and Statistics Department earlier on Wednesday.

The rate is the lowest recorded since 1982, Ho said.

There had been a general downward trend in smoking over the past 30 years, he said.

The survey also showed the smoking rate among men had dropped below 20 percent, to 19.9 percent, for the first time.

The average daily cigarette consumption also declined, falling from 13.9 cigarettes a day in 2009 to 13.4 in the latest survey, Ho said.

Still, the office voiced concern for a slight increase in smoking among young people aged 15 to 19, which rose from 1.8 percent in 2009 to 2.5 percent in 2010.

Ho said he cannot explain the reason, but he noted the two surveys in 2009 and 2010 used different methodologies, which may have affected results.

Chairman of the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health Lisa Lau Man-man called the record-low number “inspiring”, saying it proved the efficacy of the smoking control measures adopted by the government.

Asked to comment on the increase in tobacco tax and the expansion of no-smoking zones across the city, Ho said it is still “too soon to say” about the effects.

There does not have to be any immediate effect, while more “noticeable” effects may come in the next few years, he said.

Nonetheless, Ho and Lau said more measures should be taken to bring the smoking rate even lower.

Ho suggested Hong Kong introduce plain cigarette packaging similar to what has been done in Australia, where cigarettes are required to be sold in the same monotonous, logo-free packages, with brand names printed in the same plain typeface.

Lau said she believes venue managers should be made liable if they allow customers to violate smoking bans in their places of business.

She also called for increasing tobacco tax on a regular basis.

Lau said the city’s goal is to cut the smoking rate to a single-digit figure “in near future”, but she did not specify a timetable.

Only very few regions in the world have achieved such a target, Ho said.

guojiaxue@chinadailyhk.com

China Daily

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hkedition/2011-08/25/content_13184640.htm

ACT to ban smoking in cars with kids

Aug 25th, 2011
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-25/act-car-smoking-ban/2854914 Australia

The ACT Government is moving to ban people from smoking in cars when children are passengers.

It will introduce legislation into the Legislative Assembly today that will allow police to issue a $250 on-the-spot fine to adults caught smoking in cars with children around.

The penalty will be separate to other traffic infringements, so people cannot lose their licence if they fail to pay the fine.

Most other Australian jurisdictions have similar laws.

Chief Minister Katy Gallagher says it will send a clear message that smoking is a danger to children’s health.

“This is about behaviour change, it’s not about wanting to see people get caught under this legislation,” she said.

“We’re also going to delay the commencement of it once it passes the Assembly, for six months, to make sure that we’ve got time to educate drivers about the new offence.

Ms Gallagher says police initially expressed some concerns about enforcing public health laws, but that has been worked through.

“I don’t think it was feasible either to have public health officials out pulling people over in cars because they don’t have the powers to do that either,” she said.

“We’ve reached a healthy compromise and we don’t expect there will be additional cost because we don’t expect that police will pursue people just for smoking.”

Anti-smoking lobby groups have praised the proposed changes.

Quit executive director Fiona Sharkie says tobacco smoke poses an enormous health risk to children.

“The dangers of second hand smoke are well documented and the harms that second hand smoking or smoking near children at all, are really devastating,” she said.

“In a confined area like a car it’s really important people are not smoking around anyone in the car, but particularly young children.

“It’s an enormous health risk particularly in respiratory illnesses and also can be with glue ear. We’re talking about young babies and the high rates of SIDS from smoking households.”

Topics: smoking, states-and-territories, canberra-2600, act

Tobacco Plain Packaging Bill 2011

Aug 24th, 2011
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http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd1112a/12bd035

Download (PDF, 718KB)

Australia Poised to Ban Tobacco Package Logos – Bloomberg

Aug 24th, 2011
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-24/australia-s-lower-house-passes-plai
n-tobacco-packaging-laws.html
Australia Poised to Ban Tobacco Package Logos
By Gemma Daley and Joe Schneider – Aug 25, 2011 10:54 AM GMT+0800 .
…Australia is poised to become the first nation to require tobacco
products to be sold in plain packages, a move that could see other countries
follow suit and crimp earnings of companies like British American Tobacco
Plc.

The laws, passed by the lower house yesterday and due in the Senate in
September, will ban logos and color variations on cigarette packages.
Packets will have to be olive green and carry health warnings within six
months from Jan 1, 2012.

“Other countries will follow,” said Anne Jackson, chief executive of Ash
Australia, a non-profit lobby group funded by Cancer Council Australia and
the Heart Foundation. “This is a light shining the way for others to do the
same and many countries are already considering it.”

Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced the move last April, along with a 25
percent tobacco tax increase and a A$85 million (A$89 million) advertising
campaign to combat smoking, which the government says kills 15,000
Australians each year. Companies have since introduced their own advertising
campaigns and legal actions against the move.

British American Tobacco Plc (BATS) this week lost an appeal for the release
of Australian government documents the company said would help it fight the
law. The company plans to ask the Australian High Court to review the
ruling.

The company will next take its case to the Parliamentary Legal and
Constitutional Affairs Committee, with a hearing scheduled for Sept. 13,
Scott McIntyre, a spokesman for the tobacco company, said today in a phone
interview. So far the focus has been on the health aspect of the
legislation, he said.

Legal Implications
“There are a lot of issues outside of health that have to be looked at,”
McIntyre said. “There are serious repercussions here. The tobacco company
will pursue the case in courts, seeking billions of dollars in damages, if
the law is enacted.”

Smoking costs Australia about A$31 billion per year in health and workplace
costs, according to the government. With 15.1 percent of the population aged
14 or over smoking daily, it is the country’s top drug and preventable
health issue, the government says.

“There isn’t any safe amount of tobacco you can smoke,” Roxon told Channel
Ten television today. “It will kill you eventually and we obviously want to
make sure the message is loud and clear.”

The tobacco companies say the bill is a breach of the Australian
Constitution, as plain packaging exceeds the Commonwealth’s acquisition
powers. They said they would seek damages for losing the right to use their
trademarks, which they claim the government is seizing, illegally.

Brand Identification Questions
“This would clearly undermine the value of manufacturers’ trademarks and
destroy the goodwill built up over many years in consumer brands,” British
American Tobacco said in a June 6 submission to the government. “Plain
packaging will frustrate brand identification and consumer choice, making
smuggled branded product more acceptable to consumers.”

Australia’s top court has never addressed the question of whether banning
the use of trademarks amounts to an acquisition by the government, George
Williams, a constitutional law professor at the University of New South
Wales in Sydney, said.

“The tobacco companies have a hard road ahead,” Williams said. “They’re
quite likely to lose.”

Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), the world’s biggest publicly traded
tobacco company, said the Australian law also violates a 1994 treaty with
Hong Kong that prohibits the forced removal of trademarks.

Legal Strategies Considered
“It is disappointing that the House of Representatives has approved plain
packaging even though the Government admits there is no evidence that the
policy will be effective at reducing smoking,” Philip Morris said in a
statement today in response to the passage in the lower house.

The tobacco companies plan to argue the law is a breach of the World Trade
Organization’s Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or
TRIPS.

According to TRIPS, the use of a trade mark in the course of trade “shall
not be unjustifiably encumbered by special requirements.” The tobacco
companies say the Australian law breaches that article.

“As a result of the Government’s actions, Philip Morris has little option
but to pursue our claim for substantial compensation through international
arbitration against Australia and to also consider legal claims under
domestic Australian law,” Philip Morris said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gemma Daley in Canberra at
gdaley@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at
phirschberg@bloomberg.net

Tougher restrictions on tobacco products

Aug 24th, 2011
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http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/domestic-news/general/16419-tougher-restrictions-on-tobacco-products.html

24 August 2011

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/htimes/images/2011/aug/214/kill.jpg

TOBACCO products are in for a fairly radical facelift, although not a flattering one. Visible tobacco shelves are to be removed completely from kiosks and shops from the beginning of 2012.According to the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health Valvira, the new regulations support the 30-year-old prohibition on the advertisement of tobacco products.

“The methods for displaying tobacco products have been a means of promoting sales. Now that means has been removed,” according to lawyer Laura Terho. The new regulations do not prohibit the sale of tobacco products. Under the new tighter law the products sold will be shown only on a separate list, which the customer will have to ask to see. All traces of product branding will be removed from the automatic cigarette dispensers at supermarket checkouts. They will be replaced with numbers or some other form of coding.

For the time being, cigarette packets themselves will not be altered. In addition to the brand name and logo, cigarette packs currently also carry a warning of the health risks associated with tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide inhalation. Disturbing images showing the harmful effects of tobacco products are likely to be made compulsory by the end of 2012, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. A new selection of warning images for use throughout the European Union is currently in preparation.

Additionally, in coming years EU countries may switch over to the practice of removing all branding from tobacco product packaging. All brand names and product descriptions would be written unobstrusively in small text, all with the same size and type of font. The decision to adopt such simplified and unenticing packaging has already been taken in Australia. This has raised a furore among tobacco firms, which have accused the federal government of destroying their brands.

Finland began putting the squeeze on the tobacco industry in 1976, a trend which has coincided with a slow but steady drop in the popularity of smoking. Almost one in five working-age Finns light up every day. The same proportion of 18-year-olds smoke, although among this cohort there has been a steady decline over the past decade.

Associations urge tobacco tax duty

Aug 23rd, 2011
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http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/28717-Associations-urge-tobacco-tax-duty.html

image

While local anti-smoking associations slam the tobacco tax for being too low, street vendors say the increase may hurt their business

Two local anti-smoking associations urge the government to raise the tobacco tax “as soon as possible”, in order to make prevention more effective. The Health Bureau said the new tax will be ready by the time the new tobacco ban goes into effect in January 2012.
Currently, each cigarette pack in Macau is taxed at a rate of 4 patacas, 20 cents for each cigarette. In Hong Kong, the government has increased its rates by 41.5 percent in February. A pack of cigarettes is now priced at HKD 50, 70 percent of which represents tobacco tax.
“Tobacco prices in Macau are far too cheap,” director-general of the Smoking and Healthy Life Association of Macau, Samuel Chan, told the Macau Daily Times.
He suggested cigarette prices in Macau “should be similar to Hong Kong, if not higher”. Therefore, Chan called on the government to “seriously pushing it as soon as possible.”
“According to the experience of Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, taxation on tobacco has been proved to be one of the most effective means for prevention,” Chan recalled.
“Surveys from the WHO [World Health Organisation] also show that the number of people quitting smoking have increased after taxes have been raised,” he stressed.
Director-general of the Smoking Abstention and Good Health Association, Johnny Au, also believes “Macau has lot of room to increase taxes compared to Hong Kong.”
He urged the government to find a way to raise tobacco taxation in order to put Macau in line with Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Lawmaker Paul Chan Wai Chi and member of the New Macau Association, which has been strongly advocating a tobacco ban in the city, told the MDTimes that taxes should double, but warned that Macau “cannot be compared with Hong Kong in this regard, because it depends on local residents’  purchasing power”.
“A tobacco tax hike may provoke tobacco smuggling and the authorities need to enhance supervision of this industry,” the pro-democrat pointed out.
Au added that the raising of taxes would only be effective to encourage low-income people to quit smoking. “Higher income people will continue to smoke,” he said.
In May this year, the Health Bureau submitted a proposal to the Economic Services to increase tobacco tax. In a written reply to MDTimes it said it is “expecting to announce the new tobacco tax when the new law becomes effective”.
The new law, which will come into force on January 1, 2012, bans smoking in most public places and indoors, except casinos. Gaming operators will be required to set aside dedicated smoking areas of up to 50 percent of their total public area from January 2013.
Meanwhile, Chan Wai Chi suggested that the government strengthen promotion and education in order for “people to understand that smoking not only harms their health, but also indirectly affects others as well”.
The two associations also ask the government to not only rely on taxation and the new anti-tobacco law, but also put forward more measures.
“We must have a whole package of measures for anti-smoking prevention, as taxation is only effective for low-income people,” Au insisted.
In addition, Samuel Chan suggested the government to put more money for promotion of healthy messages to young people.

Tobacco company loses bid for plain packaging documents

Aug 23rd, 2011
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-23/bat-loses-court-bid-on-plain-packaging-documents/2851600/?site=melbourne

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/2851622-3x2-285x190.jpg

BAT is fighting the Government’s plan for plain packaging of cigarettes.

Melbourne

Cigarette giant British American Tobacco (BAT) has lost a Federal Court bid to access Commonwealth documents on the plain packaging policy.

The Federal Government is moving ahead with plans to introduce the scheme by next July.

British American Tobacco has accused the Government of blocking access to government legal advice that suggests the scheme could be unlawful.

The company has argued the documents, which date back to the mid-1990s, raise questions about the scheme’s compliance with international trade and tariff obligations.

The court this morning dismissed the company’s application

Northern Ireland sets tobacco display ban for spring

Aug 23rd, 2011
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http://www.tobaccojournal.com/Northern_Ireland_sets_tobacco_display_ban_for_spring.50764.0.html

23 Aug 2011. Northern Ireland’s health minister Edwin Poots said a ban on displaying cigarettes in shops will not begin until next spring at the earliest, reports the Belfast Telegraph.
Poots also wants to ban vending machine sales from 1 February 2012. He said removing displays of tobacco products from view in shops, and preventing children from accessing them through vending machines, would “build upon measures already in place aimed at reducing the prevalence of smoking”.

In March 2009 the Assembly approved the ban on the display of tobacco items in shops in Northern Ireland. Then health minister Michael McGimpsey wanted to introduce the prohibition in 2010 but the Democratic Unionist Party argued for a delay to 2013 to give retailers time to fund changes to their premises. (pi)

Plain packing push gets tick of approval Market watch top headlines

Aug 22nd, 2011
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http://www.tradingroom.com.au/apps/view_breaking_news_article.ac?page=/data/news_research/published/2011/8/234/catf_110822_194500_0470.html

August 22 2011, 7:45PM

A federal parliamentary committee has dismissed as “insubstantial and superficial” big tobacco’s claim that there is no evidence to suggest plain packaging of cigarettes will cut smoking rates.

The Gillard government wants to force all cigarettes to be sold in drab olive-brown packs from mid-2012 in order to reduce the product’s allure and make mandatory health warnings clearer.

Manufacturers told an inquiry into Labor’s draft laws that there was no evidence to suggest the world-first move would actually deliver health benefits.

But the lower house health committee rejected that argument.

“The committee considers that criticisms of the evidence base … were insubstantial and, on the whole, superficial,” it said in an advisory report released on Monday.

“Notably, the fact that plain packaging has not been introduced in other countries should not function as a deterrent to passage of the legislation.”

The Labor-dominated committee said the plain-packaging push demonstrated Australia’s willingness to take the lead in tobacco control.

Indeed, it was told by the Canadian Cancer Society that Australia was a potential “role model” for other countries considering the move.

Quit Victoria gave evidence that there were 30 “rigorous experimental studies” examining the influence of tobacco packaging.

“(It was) reported that all of these studies had concluded that the packaging of cigarettes was an important marketing device for cigarette manufacturers, and that a reduction in branding had made cigarettes less attractive, and had increased the power of graphic health warnings,” the advisory report states.

Big tobacco argued plain packaging could make it easier for counterfeit products to enter Australia and see legitimate manufacturers compete on price rather than brand.

But again the health committee wasn’t convinced.

“The committee notes Australia has a strong customs and quarantine regime and that there are also a range of sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures which could be adopted,” it said.

“The committee does not find the argument that the legislation will lead to unintended negative health consequences to be convincing.”

Committee chair Steve Georganas said public health advocates “overwhelmingly” believed the evidence in support of plain packaging was sufficiently robust to proceed.

The Heart Foundation welcomed the committee’s findings and called on parliament to pass the draft laws which are due to be debated in the lower house on Wednesday.

“We urge all political parties to get on with ending the tobacco industry’s marketing of death in glossy boxes,” the foundation said in a statement.

The opposition last week said it would support the main enabling legislation but not an associated bill which aims to ensure plain packaging won’t affect big tobacco’s ability to protect trademarks for use other than on packs.

But Health Minister Nicola Roxon believes the government has enough support to get both bills through parliament without opposition support.

By Julian Drape

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