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August 5th, 2012:
India may adopt Australia’s plain packaging laws
Jill Stark
Published: August 5, 2012 – 3:00AM
AUSTRALIA’S push for plain cigarette packaging has inspired India to consider similar laws, opening up a new frontier in the fight to reduce tobacco consumption.
A taskforce of Australian and Indian public health experts last week presented a report to the New Delhi Parliament urging India, the world’s second-largest tobacco consumer and producer, to act. The report, by the Australia-India Institute based at the University of Melbourne, found 275 million Indians, or more than a third of the population, use tobacco, leading to nearly 1 million deaths a year. Many are children who are increasingly getting hooked on chewing tobacco, causing rates of oral cancer to soar.
The Indian government has welcomed the report’s recommendations, with Shakuntala Gamlin, joint secretary in the Ministry of Health, stating: “We have a huge young population addicted to tobacco. Plain packaging, particularly the Australian case study, can be an example for India.”
The collaboration, backed by the World Health Organisation and legal experts and senior academics in both countries, found there were no legal or trade barriers against the legislation.
Australia is facing legal action from the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Ukraine, with the countries claiming the plain packaging legislation breaches Australia’s commitments under global trade rules. The federal government is awaiting a High Court decision in a case brought by tobacco companies against the laws, due to be introduced on December 1.
The Australia-India Institute Taskforce on Tobacco Control was co-chaired by Professor Rob Moodie, from the University of Melbourne’s school of public health. He said tobacco companies are targeting developing countries to recoup market share lost in Western countries where anti-smoking measures have reduced smoking rates.
”Tobacco companies are like vectors of disease but unlike mosquitoes they can invest millions of dollars in suing people and trying to destroy public health cases against them,” Professor Moodie said. ”If India brings in plain packaging laws it would be a giant blow to the tobacco industry, particularly by virtue of south Asia being such a big market. It’s also a sign to China, the biggest consumer-producer of tobacco, so the more countries that pick this up the better.”
Professor Amitabh Mattoo, director of the Australia-India Institute, said he hoped the report would put pressure on Indian leaders to take strong action to tackle an epidemic in the country.
”Even though there are measures to curb smoking in public places, you can see young people and often children from otherwise impoverished backgrounds chewing tobacco or smoking bidis, the traditional Indian cigarette,” Professor Mattoo said. ”Plain packaging is not a panacea. In a country as big as India with more than a billion population, with all the different complexities, this is just one track to reduce tobacco consumption, but it will make a big difference.”
A spokesman for British American Tobacco Australia said he could not comment on the plain packaging debate until the High Court judgment.
This story was found at: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/india-may-adopt-australias-plain-packaging-laws-20120804-23mm4.html
Government Laboratory – Tar and Nicodine Report See how quickly these products can kill you and passive smoking bystanders
http://www.govtlab.gov.hk/english/pub_tnrpt.htm
As determined by the Government Chemist from
samples obtained during the period of
January – December 2011
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Tobacco companies support their financial right to addict you to nicotine and kill one in every two of you and to cost the Government billions in healthcare costs
The ‘Dark Side’ suckers nicotine addicts to fight for the right to die painfully and to kill innocent non-smoking bystanders and children:
https://www.myopinioncounts.co.nz/home.php
Tobacco companies support their financial rights to addict you to nicotine and kill one in every two of you and to cost Governments billions in healthcare costs:
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ABOUT US
My Opinion Counts is an online resource for New Zealand’s adult smokers who want to be sure that the Government has an opportunity to hear all views – including the views of smokers – before it imposes further tobacco taxes and regulations. SO YOU NON SMOKERS HAVE NO CHANCE OF YOUR VIEWS BEING AIRED HERE, THIS IS A PHILIP MORRIS SITE !
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Your opinion counts!
- · Stay informed about current and pending proposals THAT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE
- · Share your views with politicians and other key decision makers SO THEY CAN TURN TO THE DARK SIDE ALSO
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YOUR ISSUES
Tobacco tax has increased by more than 30% since April 2010. It’s getting even higher.
Council by council, outdoor smoking bans are getting more and more repressive.
Smokers are no longer able to see the choice of tobacco products available in a store.
New Zealand is deciding whether to import Australia’s tobacco plain packaging policy.
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Tobacco battle lights up as companies enter fray
Last updated 05:00 05/08/2012 http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/7416856/Tobacco-battle-lights-up-as-companies-enter-fray
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Hi My name is Ray and I support ‘good employers’ rights to kill Australians with their products
MAARTEN HOLL/Fairfax NZ
SMOKING ‘A PERSONAL CHOICE': Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace. Nicotine addiction has nothing at all to do with the ‘choice’ to smoke.
Health
Anti-tobacco groups call it a “last-ditch attempt” to survive, but the My Opinion Counts website, led by Philip Morris, is a sign big business is fighting back.
Green Party health spokesman Kevin Hague has labelled the website, set up last month as cigarettes were forced behind closed cabinet doors in shops, “disturbing” and “immoral”.
On the same day that law came in, the Government released details of its plain packaging plan, which Health Ministry officials say will reduce premature death and contribute to the goal of a smoke-free New Zealand by 2025. They also like aligning with Australia, where plain packs are being rolled out from October.
But website comments aimed at the Government, released to the Sunday Star-Times on the condition of anonymity, show the companies won’t go quietly.
“I am annoyed my rights seem to be taken away from me,” one smoker says. “I’m old enough to make my own mind up on whether I smoke, drink etc. I don’t need the Government or anyone else telling me what I can and can’t do,” another says.
Big tobacco is clearly unhappy. For years the companies worked with regulators, and where has it got them?
“Tobacco products can’t be used in virtually any public place, can’t be advertised, are sold in packs dominated by graphic health warnings, are subject to higher taxes than any other consumer good, and are the subject of significant public health campaigns,” Philip Morris general manager Brett Taylor said in a letter to Associate Health MinisterTariana Turia.
He describes plain packaging as “an attack on consumer choice and competition”, and says it will cost small businesses thousands of dollars in “lost time” because of “increased time on stock management, sales transaction times, and product selection errors”.
“Plain packaging . . . constitutes an expropriation of intellectual property in violation of international treaties,” Taylor says.
Meanwhile in Australia, three companies are suing the Government over plain packaging, an action that’s expected to fail, but a dispute through the World Trade Organisation will drag on longer, and is thought to have a better chance of success.
The message appears to have reached Wellington, where a recent cabinet paper advised: “We can expect to defend challenges from tobacco producing countries in WTO processes. We also risk litigation by companies under trade and investment agreements.”
Officials estimate a $6m legal bill to fight each suit, and a further $2m to defend WTO challenges, costs that may well have put the Government off.
Prime Minister John Key said he “wouldn’t die in a ditch” for plain packs, and Labour’s David Shearer has warned the Government to “look before we jump”.
UPGRADED FACTORY CAN CHURN OUT 8000 CIGARETTES A MINUTE
Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace is defending “good employer” Imperial Tobacco, as he prepares to officially open its $45 million factory upgrade.
The Petone factory has operated since the 1920s, and its six new production lines can now roll 8000 cigarettes a minute.
The company was swamped with applications in March when it announced 50 jobs would be created, and exports to Australia would quadruple, after an upgrade that Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia called “immoral”.
Cancer Society spokesman Jan Pearson chimed in, calling the upgrade “Kiwi imports Australians don’t want”.
Wallace doesn’t smoke but says the habit is a personal choice.
“I don’t think the critics are looking at the bigger picture. They’re saying it’s immoral. Are they saying that about people who sell alcohol? We have plenty of issues with alcohol too. No one forces anyone to smoke, and if people have a problem with smoking, or kicking the habit, that’s for them to deal with.”
Imperial Tobacco was a good employer, he said, and had taken measures such as blackout screens to reduce light pollution to neighbours, because the factory would operate longer hours.
“Many of the workers have been there decades. Some are the second generations of families to work there. It’s a good operation and one conscious of its obligations.”
Imperial hosts guests at the factory tomorrow, including Wallace, a day ahead of an open day for MPs and officials. Despite inviting dozens of MPs, a spokeswoman confirmed that almost all had said they were “too busy” to attend.
– © Fairfax NZ News
Almost 2,500 smokers quit in Plymouth over the last year
http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/2-500-smokers-quit-Plymouth-year/story-16647255-detail/story.html
ALMOST 2,500 smokers in Plymouth quit the habit in the last year.
Figures show that thousands of city smokers successfully stopped smoking between April 2011 and March 2012 with the support of local NHS Stop Smoking Services.
Professor Deb Lapthorne, director of public health for Plymouth, said she was pleased many people were taking advantage of free NHS support to help to improve their health.
“Stopping smoking is the single most important way of improving your health,” she said.
“Evidence shows that smokers are four times more likely to quit smoking with the support of the NHS Stop Smoking Services.
“We have a network of convenient, local advisers who run free advice sessions and can offer practical support and guidance on the best methods to quit smoking.
“Our stop smoking sessions are held in a variety of locations including as local pharmacies, GP surgeries, the workplace, libraries and sports centres.”
The NHS in Plymouth runs a variety of individually tailored support services for people who want to stop smoking, including a telephone helpline and local group activity – both in the community and the workplace.
The approach services take to help people stop smoking is based on the latest evidence and the circumstances of individual smokers. Over half of those setting a quit date successfully quit.
Mel Edwards, Plymouth smoking cessation lead, said: “We run so many clinics across the city, we try to be as accessible as possible and we run day time and evening clinics. It’s very successful and we tailor our support to each person and what they need in their life.
“We’re really pleased with the amount, to have 2,500 people in the city who have made such a positive change to their life is fantastic.”
Trevor Wood, from Southway, who smoked for 41 years before he decided to quit, was pleased so many people have made the change.
He said: “So many people quitting smoking is a really good thing. I’d encourage more people to quit now as well, as quickly as they can.”
Trevor recently told his ‘quit smoking’ story in support of the Herald’s loveLIFE campaign to inspire more people to stop smoking.
The campaign aims to encourage people in Plymouth to live a healthier life and do more exercise through four challenges over the course of the 12 months, between October 2011 and October 2012. The challenges are running, walking, swimming or cycling a million miles, dancing a million steps, stubbing out a million cigarettes or losing one hundred thousand pounds in weight.
All people need to do is sign up to the challenges and donate their individual amount, however big or small, to help us reach our goals.
So far a number of smokers have supported the initiative and stubbed out the fags that were so bad for their health.
To find your nearest service in Plymouth and to get advice visit: www.smokefreeplymouth.com, email ply-pct.smokefreeplymouth@nhs.net or contact 01752 314 040.