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September 28th, 2011:

Illinois Supreme Court sends Philip Morris back to Madison County

Sep 28th, 2011
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http://www.madisonrecord.com/news/238594-illinois-supreme-court-sends-philip-morris-back-to-madison-county

Description: SZ200_tillery.jpg

Tillery

Philip Morris is back in Madison County.

The lawsuit which resulted in a $10.1 billion verdict against cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris is expected to return to Madison County court after the Illinois Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear an appeal by Philip Morris that could have ended the case.

In 2003, then-Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron ruled that consumers were injured when Philip Morris advertised certain cigarettes as “light” and containing “lowered tar and nicotine.” At trial, plaintiffs’ attorney Stephen Tillery said the company knew Marlboro Lights were not safer and could be more damaging to smokers’ health than regular Marlboro Reds cigarettes.

The district court found, and the circuit court affirmed, that Philip Morris made “blatantly false” public statements about “light” cigarettes, “withheld and suppressed their extensive knowledge and understanding of nicotine-driven smoker compensation” and engaged in “highly sophisticated marketing and promotional campaigns to portray their light brands as less harmful than regular cigarettes.”

The case went to the Illinois Supreme Court after being in Madison County. The higher court reversed the circuit court’s judgment in 2005 on the grounds that Philip Morris’ use of the terms “lights” and “lowered tar and nicotine” were allowed by the Federal Trade Commission.

But in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the FTC had never authorized any cigarette-makers to use the terms “light” or “lowered tar and nicotine” in their advertising.

In that petition, Tillery argued the case should be reopened, because the FTC had explicitly denied allowing cigarette-manufacturers to make claims of certain cigarettes being less harmful than others.

Philip Morris convinced the trial court to dismiss Tillery’s appeal, claiming it was filed too late.

The Illinois Fifth District Appellate Court reversed the trial court in February, holding that the petition was filed on time and then instructing the trial judge to reopen the case and hear further evidence. Philip Morris asked the Illinois Supreme Court to reverse the Appellate Court. In its petition for leave to appeal, the company continued to argue the plaintiff’s petition was untimely.

In opposing Philip Morris’ petition, the plaintiff argued Philip Morris advanced an inaccurate version of the historical record which was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court and the FTC. Tillery also pointed out that the U.S. Department of Justice had “alleged that cigarette manufacturers (including Philip Morris) and tobacco-related trade organizations violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by engaging in a conspiracy to deceive the American public about, among other things, the purported health benefits from ‘light’ and ‘low tar.’

“The Illinois Supreme Court today issued a sound decision in Price vs. Philip Morris that we believe charts the way for the Circuit Court to hear arguments regarding whether these terms were ever authorized by the FTC,” Tillery said.

“The Supreme Court had an opportunity to review the appellate decision and found no reason to do so. After a long journey through the courts, we believe this decision moves the judgment a step closer toward a final confirmation for the 1.1 million Illinois consumers who were represented in the lawsuit.”

New paper in Lancet: Effective tobacco control is key to rapid progress in reducing NCDs

Sep 28th, 2011
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http://tobacco.ucsf.edu/new-paper-lancet-effective-tobacco-control-key-rapid-progress-reducing-ncds

New paper in Lancet:

Effective tobacco control is key to rapid progress in reducing NCDs

Submitted by sglantz on Wed, 2011-09-28 17:51

Hard evidence shows that implementing policies to cut tobacco use immediately improves health and reduces health care spending, say authors in this week’s issue of The Lancet. The researchers’ myth-busting Viewpoint argues that tobacco control does not, as is often assumed, take decades to show a benefit, nor does the economic benefit from tobacco revenue outweigh the healthcare savings.

Tobacco is responsible for about a sixth of the non-communicable diseases  – such as cancer – that kill 60% of the world’s people. Last week, a high-level UN meeting convened to discuss how to prevent such diseases and adopted a wide-ranging “political declaration”. This declaration recognised the importance of non-communicable diseases and the significant role of tobacco in causing them. It also pledged member states to work to reduce these diseases. While the benefits of cutting out tobacco use are now well-known, legislation and policies curtailing its use are still too weak and not widespread enough, say Prof Stanton Glantz and Mariaelena Gonzalez, at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. The reasons for this are the short-term revenue from tobacco taxes and the myth that the benefits of cutting tobacco use takes decades to materialise.

The mounting evidence in favour of drastically lowering tobacco use cannot be ignored, say the authors. For instance, after quitting smoking for just 1 year, the risk of heart attack falls by half, and after 5 years nearly returns to that of someone who has never smoked. In Arizona, USA, hospital admissions for asthma dropped by 22% after a year of strong smoke-free legislation (that included bans on smoking in workplaces, restaurants, and bars). In Scotland, there was a 13% annual decrease in childhood asthma admissions after the introduction of a smoke-free law.

Lost tax revenue is often used as a reason for being lenient with tobacco restrictions. Yet the numbers do not support this. “The California tobacco control programme cost US$1*4 billion during its first 15 years, and saved $86 billion in direct health-care costs, a 61 times return on investment,” say the authors. Meanwhile, the 3*6 billion packs of cigarettes not smoked during the first 15 years of the state’s programme reduced tobacco tax revenues by only $3*1 billion, a small fraction of the $86 billion in health-care savings.

The money not spent on tobacco still feeds the economy, but in different ways. “In middle-income countries, tobacco use lowers the household standard of living and human capital levels because money to purchase tobacco comes at the expense of other crucial necessities,” the authors add. A study in Bangladesh, for instance, showed that if people reallocated 69% of their usual tobacco expenditure on tobacco on food, 10*5 million fewer Bangladeshis would be malnourished.

World leaders must now “prioritise health over trade,” the authors conclude.

Download PDF : Glantz-NCD-Lancet

Japan’s Ruling Party Proposes Selling Stake in Japan Tobacco – Businessweek

Sep 28th, 2011
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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-09-28/japan-s-ruling-party-proposes-se
lling-stake-in-japan-tobacco.html
Japan’s Ruling Party Proposes Selling Stake in Japan Tobacco
September 28, 2011, 4:26 AM EDT

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s ruling party proposed selling the
government’s majority stake in Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-biggest
publicly traded cigarette maker, to help fund rebuilding after the March 11
earthquake.

Japan Tobacco fell 1.8 percent, the most since Sept. 5, to 356,500 yen at
the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo. The shares earlier today gained as much as 9.2
percent. The broader Topix index rose 0.7 percent.

The government may raise 1.8 trillion yen ($24 billion) by selling its 50.01
percent stake in Japan Tobacco at the stock’s current price. A sale may help
Japan Tobacco operate with fewer constraints as the government looks to
impose more taxes, including on cigarettes, to fund recovery from the March
11 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear disaster that followed.

“The company will have freedom to manage itself,” said Mikihiko Yamato, a
research partner at Japan Invest KK. “If the market turns around and moves
the shares up, the government may sell its stake earlier than the original
plan.”

The government raised tobacco taxes 40 percent in October 2010, and Japanese
Health Minister Yoko Komiyama said Sept. 20 that tobacco taxes should go up
again until the average price of a pack of cigarettes is about 700 yen, or
75 percent higher than the current level, to cut medical costs. The
Democratic Party of Japan also proposed a 9.2 trillion yen overall tax
increase yesterday.

Share-Price Gain

The maker of Mild Seven and Camel cigarettes has gained 19 percent this year
in Tokyo trading, compared with a 16 percent decline for the Topix index.
Yesterday was the last day investors could buy shares that would be eligible
for Japan Tobacco’s next dividend payment of 4,000 yen, Hideyuki Yamamoto, a
spokesman for Japan Tobacco, said in an e-mail today.

“We are hoping Japan Tobacco will be fully privatized, which has been the
government’s policy,” Yamamoto said in a separate phone call, declining to
comment further. Yamamoto had said earlier this month that Japan Tobacco was
“seriously considering” buying back some shares if the government were to
sell.

Japan plans to spend 19 trillion yen over the next five years to rebuild
after the record temblor and tsunami devastated the northeast and prompted
world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. While the government has already
approved two packages totaling about 6 trillion yen, the economy has shrunk
for three straight quarters.

Pressure to raise money now may have pushed the government to propose
selling more of its stake faster than planned, Yoshifumi Kikuchi, head of
dealing at Nissan Century Securities Co., said today by phone. To sell, the
government will need to rewrite a law that requires it to hold at least half
of the tobacco company.

“I didn’t expect the government to sell its entire stake,” Kikuchi said.
“It’s possible the government will sell its stake much earlier than planned
since the country’s finances are tight.”

–With assistance from Nicholas Wadhams in Beijing. Editors: Nicholas
Wadhams, Frank Longid

To contact the reporters on this story: Shunichi Ozasa in Tokyo at
sozasa@bloomberg.net; Miyuki Seguchi in Tokyo at mseguchi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Longid at
flongid@bloomberg.net

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Japan’s ruling party proposed selling the
government’s majority stake in Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-biggest
publicly traded cigarette maker, to help fund rebuilding after the March 11
earthquake.

Japan Tobacco fell 1.8 percent, the most since Sept. 5, to 356,500 yen at
the 3 p.m. close in Tokyo. The shares earlier today gained as much as 9.2
percent. The broader Topix index rose 0.7 percent.

The government may raise 1.8 trillion yen ($24 billion) by selling its 50.01
percent stake in Japan Tobacco at the stock’s current price. A sale may help
Japan Tobacco operate with fewer constraints as the government looks to
impose more taxes, including on cigarettes, to fund recovery from the March
11 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear disaster that followed.

“The company will have freedom to manage itself,” said Mikihiko Yamato, a
research partner at Japan Invest KK. “If the market turns around and moves
the shares up, the government may sell its stake earlier than the original
plan.”

The government raised tobacco taxes 40 percent in October 2010, and Japanese
Health Minister Yoko Komiyama said Sept. 20 that tobacco taxes should go up
again until the average price of a pack of cigarettes is about 700 yen, or
75 percent higher than the current level, to cut medical costs. The
Democratic Party of Japan also proposed a 9.2 trillion yen overall tax
increase yesterday.

Share-Price Gain

The maker of Mild Seven and Camel cigarettes has gained 19 percent this year
in Tokyo trading, compared with a 16 percent decline for the Topix index.
Yesterday was the last day investors could buy shares that would be eligible
for Japan Tobacco’s next dividend payment of 4,000 yen, Hideyuki Yamamoto, a
spokesman for Japan Tobacco, said in an e-mail today.

“We are hoping Japan Tobacco will be fully privatized, which has been the
government’s policy,” Yamamoto said in a separate phone call, declining to
comment further. Yamamoto had said earlier this month that Japan Tobacco was
“seriously considering” buying back some shares if the government were to
sell.

Japan plans to spend 19 trillion yen over the next five years to rebuild
after the record temblor and tsunami devastated the northeast and prompted
world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years. While the government has already
approved two packages totaling about 6 trillion yen, the economy has shrunk
for three straight quarters.

Pressure to raise money now may have pushed the government to propose
selling more of its stake faster than planned, Yoshifumi Kikuchi, head of
dealing at Nissan Century Securities Co., said today by phone. To sell, the
government will need to rewrite a law that requires it to hold at least half
of the tobacco company.

“I didn’t expect the government to sell its entire stake,” Kikuchi said.
“It’s possible the government will sell its stake much earlier than planned
since the country’s finances are tight.”

–With assistance from Nicholas Wadhams in Beijing. Editors: Nicholas
Wadhams, Frank Longid

To contact the reporters on this story: Shunichi Ozasa in Tokyo at
sozasa@bloomberg.net; Miyuki Seguchi in Tokyo at mseguchi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Longid at
flongid@bloomberg.net

Cut it out: Smoking scenes in movies DO encourage youngsters to light up

Sep 28th, 2011
by Editor.
No comments yet

Wednesday, Sep 28 2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2029433/Films-famous-smoking-scenes-encourage-youngsters-up.html?ito=feeds-newsxml#

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001077

Youngsters determined not to develop a cigarette habit could find their plans going up in smoke if they watch actors light up in movies, claim scientists.

A research team from Imperial College in London argue that there’s a danger young people will mimic what they see on the big screen.

The World Health Organisation does recommend to governments around the world that films with smoking scenes contain an adult rating, but few put the advice into practice.

Suggestive: Youths are more likely to take up smoking if they watch it happening in movies, say researchers. Pictured is Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct

Suggestive: Young people are more likely to take up smoking if they watch it happening in movies, say researchers. Pictured is Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct

Lead researcher Dr Christopher Millett, a senior lecturer at Imperial’s School of Public Health, points out that in fact ‘many governments provide generous subsidies to the U.S. film industry to produce youth-rated films that contain smoking and as such indirectly promote youth smoking’.

There are hundreds of famous smoking scenes in films from Basic Instinct to Bridget Jones, but the report by Dr Millett’s team, published in PLoS Medicine magazine, states that exposure to tobacco imagery in movies is a ‘potent cause of youth experimentation and progression to established smoking’.

It adds: ‘Governments should ensure that film subsidy programmes are harmonised with public health goals by making films with tobacco imagery ineligible for public subsidies.’

Theory at the edge of reason? Could Bridget Jones be unwittingly pushing youngsters into a cigarette habit

Theory at the edge of reason? Scientists believe Bridget Jones could unwittingly be encouraging youngsters into a cigarette habit

This conclusion is backed up by recent research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, which revealed that smokers’ brains ‘light up’ when they see actors puffing away on-screen.

‘When a smoker sees someone smoking, their brain seems to simulate the movements they would make if they were having a cigarette themselves,’ said Todd Heatherton at the Centre for Social Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Potent image: Researchers used Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men, starring Nicolas Cage, to test the responses of smokers to a character lighting up in a movie

Potent image: Researchers used Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men, starring Nicolas Cage, to test the responses of smokers to a character lighting up in a movie

Dr Heatherton used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of volunteers watching Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men, which contains a lot of smoking scenes.

Reward circuits in the brains of smokers fired up whenever a cigarette in the film was lit.

Simon Chapman from the University of Sydney, also writing in PLoS Medicine, however, argues that the link between smoking in movies and smoking uptake is not a straightforward one and that censorship is not the answer.

Download PDF : PLOSjournal.pmed.1001077

Government Inaction on Ratings and Government
Subsidies to the US Film Industry Help Promote Youth
Smoking.

Smoke-free streets has to be next goal

Sep 28th, 2011
by Editor.
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South China Morning Post – 28 Sept. 2011

Breaking records would seem to be part of the Hong Kong psyche, with dozens set over the years for everything from hauling aircraft by hand to the biggest outdoor light show. But when it comes to being a world-beater, becoming the world’s first smoke-free city should be one of our goals. With just 11.1 per cent of people over the age of 15 smoking, we already have the lowest rate in the Asia-Pacific region and what would appear to be the best among developed societies. A single-digit figure and then smoke-free status – a level at which smokers make up 5 per cent or less of the population – have to be our goal.

Smoking rates are declining in most rich parts of the world, but it is thanks to three decades of campaigning by anti-tobacco lobbyists and our government’s attentiveness that Hong Kong’s levels are so low. The ill effects to health of cigarettes and second-hand smoke are well recognised by authorities. That has led to high taxes and bans on smoking in indoor public places. The next steps have to be even better enforcement of laws, more far-reaching advertising to dissuade visitors from smoking and to extend the restrictions to outdoor venues.

We should be proud of what has been achieved. There was a time when smoking was the epitome of cool and glamour. Cigarettes were widely advertised and nothing stood in the way of lighting up in a cinema, restaurant or bus. Fortunately, though, society has learned that health is more important than image and cigarettes are increasingly frowned upon.

But the fight is far from over. Overseas studies show that children are easily influenced, especially by the behaviour of parents and peers. Despite the indoor bans, it is not uncommon to see smoking in some pubs, nightclubs and karaoke bars. Busy shopping districts are still clouded by the cigarette smoke of tourists. Great strides have been made, but no records for low smoking rates will be set unless more effort is put into enforcing laws and making streets smoke-free.