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November 30th, 2012:

UK Eyes Oz’s Tough Anti-Smoking Laws

Nov 30th, 2012
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http://news.sky.com/story/1019156/uk-eyes-ozs-tough-anti-smoking-laws

Watch Sky NewsLive

01 December 2012

UK Eyes Oz’s Tough Anti-Smoking Laws

Australia introduces new laws which ban advertising on cigarette packets, as the British government watches the impact.

6:27am UK, Saturday 01 December 2012

Undated handout photo issued by Action on Smoking and Health of examples of Winfield cigarette packaging

Video: Should UK Follow Australia’s Smoking Ad Ban?

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

The British Government is considering following Australia’s lead by stripping all branding and logos from tobacco packaging.

From today, Australia becomes the first country in the world to put all tobacco products in standardised packs which are a drab olive colour and have the manufacturer’s brand in a simple uniform font.

The packs are covered in graphic health warnings portraying dying cancer sufferers, diseased feet and ill babies.

The law bans the use of logos, brand imagery, symbols, other images, colours and promotional text.

Australia’s plain packaging laws are a potential watershed for the global industry, which serves one billion regular smokers, according to World Health Organisation statistics.

Australia’s government says the aim is to deter young people from smoking by stripping the habit of glamour.

It is relying on studies showing that if people have not started smoking by the age of 26, there is a 99% chance they will never take it up.

The potential hitch, experts say, is the popularity of social media amongst the very demographic the plan is targeting.

After a series of Australian laws banning TV advertising and sports sponsorship and requiring most sellers to hide cigarettes from view, online is the final frontier for tobacco marketing.

“If you are a tobacco marketer and you’ve only got this small window left to promote your products, online is the compelling place for you to be in,” said Becky Freeman, a public health researcher at Sydney University.

Australia has become the first country to introduce plain cigarette packs

The tobacco industry recently lost a High Court bid to have the legislation stopped.

Scott McIntyre of British American Tobacco Australia, the maker of Winfield cigarettes, says the new packs are easier to fake and will boost black market trade, leading to cheaper, more accessible cigarettes.

“There will be serious unintended consequences from the legislation,” he said. “Counterfeiters from China and Indonesia will bring lots more of these products down to sell on the streets of Australia.”

The industry has shifted its focus to potential copycat legislation elsewhere. Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have filed complaints with the World Trade Organisation, funded by the tobacco industry, claiming the laws unfairly restrict trade, although their trade with Australia is minimal.

Many smokers in Australia say the new packs won’t change their habit. “As a 14-year veteran smoker the packets make no difference to me,” one man told Sky News.Cigarettes being sold in Australia

Another smoker said she may be more inclined to keep the packet, with its gruesome health warnings, hidden from view, but that it wouldn’t stop her smoking.

Earlier this year, the British Government launched a consultation on plans to introduce similar standardised packaging. Information generated by the consultation, which closed in August, is still being analysed by health officials.

Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK‘s chief executive, said: “The Australian Government is to be applauded. Today marks the day when tobacco companies are further stymied in their efforts to recruit Australian children into a lethal addiction.

A UK Department of Health spokesman said: “We have received many thousands of responses to the tobacco packaging consultation. We are currently in the process of carefully collating and analysing all the responses received.

“The Government has an open mind on this issue and any decisions to take further action will be taken only after full consideration of the consultation responses, evidence and other relevant information.”

Australia aims to cut the number of people smoking from 15% of the population to just 10% in six years’ time.

Germany’s most populous state toughens ban on smoking in bars

Nov 30th, 2012
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By Associated Press, Friday, November 30, 1:21 AM

BERLIN — Germany’s most populous state is toughening a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, closing loopholes in its five-year-old restrictions.

North Rhine-Westphalia, a western region of about 18 million people that includes Cologne, Bonn, Duesseldorf and the Ruhr industrial area, introduced its smoking ban in 2008 — around the same time other German states put similar restrictions into effect.

The state legislature on Thursday approved a toughened version to take effect next May. It shuts loopholes that allowed customers to light up in establishments that designated themselves smoking bars, in special rooms set aside for smokers or in beer tents, among other things. The center-left state government said the original ban had so many loopholes it didn’t effectively protect nonsmokers.

In future, exceptions will be allowed only for private parties.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

© The Washington Post Company

Australia’s tobacco marketing laws give retailers a headache

Nov 30th, 2012
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/11/30/us-australia-cigarettes-idUKBRE8AT08N20121130

By Jane Wardell

SYDNEY (Reuters) – James Yu, who runs the King of the Pack tobacconist in central Sydney, is indignant about Australia’s stringent anti-tobacco laws making manufactures package cigarettes in drab olive green packs with pictures of ill babies and diseased body parts.

The packages, mandatory from Saturday when the laws take effect, make it hard to tell brands apart, complicating deliveries and adding to costs in his cramped, dark booth.

The legislation, the most Draconian in the world, strips packs of all branding, bright colors and logos, leaving only the name printed in identical small font.

“It used to take me an hour to unload a delivery, now it takes me four hours,” Yu said, demonstrating how difficult it is to find the brand names.

“The government should have just banned them altogether and then we’d go ok, fine, we’re done, we’ll shut up shop,” he said, throwing his hands up in the air.

Australia’s plain packaging laws are a potential watershed for the global industry, which serves 1 billion regular smokers, according to World Health Organization statistics.

While Australia has one of the world’s lowest smoking rates and the changes will have little impact on multinationals’ profits, other countries are considering similar steps.

The government says the aim is to deter young people from smoking by stripping the habit of glamour. It is relying on studies showing that if people have not started smoking by age 26, there is a 99 percent chance they will never take it up.

“Even from a very early age, you can see that kids understand the message that the tobacco company is trying to sell through their branding,” Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek told Reuters, citing studies that showed children made linkages such as crown logos and princesses.

The potential hitch, experts say, is the popularity of social media with the very demographic the plan is targeting.

After a series of Australian laws banning TV advertising and sports sponsorship and requiring most sellers to hide cigarettes from view, online is the final frontier for tobacco marketing.

Australia has banned online advertising by local companies and sites, but the door cannot be slammed at the border.

“If you are a tobacco marketer and you’ve only got this small window left to promote your products, online is the compelling place for you to be in,” said Becky Freeman, a public health researcher at Sydney University.

Freeman noted an increase in “average Joe” reviews of brands on social media sites such as Youtube, Twitter and Facebook.

“We have to ask, is that just a private citizen who really loves Marlboro cigarettes and they’ve gone to the trouble of making a video, or is there a marketing company involved?”

Scott McIntyre of British American Tobacco Australia, maker of Winfield cigarettes, made popular by ads featuring “Crocodile Dundee” actor Paul Hogan in the 1970s, said the industry was focused on dealing with the new rules rather than marketing.

WINNERS AND LOSERS

The industry lobbied hard against the laws. Tobacco firms said they would boost black market trade, leading to cheaper, more accessible cigarettes.

“There will be serious unintended consequences from the legislation,” said McIntyre. “Counterfeiters from China and Indonesia will bring lots more of these products down to sell on the streets of Australia.”

Others say the laws have boosted their business.

Sandra Ha of Zico Import Pty Ltd, a small family business, said demand for cigarette cases, silicon covers to mask the unpalatable packages, had shot up from almost nothing two months ago since British American Tobacco, Britain’s Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco lost a challenge to the laws in Australia’s High Court.

Ha said Zico had sold up to 6,000 to wholesale outlets and was awaiting new stock. “This is good business for us.”

COPYCATS

The industry has shifted its focus to potential copycat legislation elsewhere. Ukraine, Honduras and the Dominican Republic have filed complaints with the World Trade Organization, funded by the tobacco industry, claiming the laws unfairly restrict trade, although their trade with Australia is minimal.

A WTO ruling is likely in mid-2013.

Plibersek said the government has held discussions with other countries considering similar laws.

Canada was the first country to make photograph warnings mandatory in 2001. They now extend to more than 40 countries, including Brazil, Turkey and Ukraine. Tougher laws are being considered in Britain, New Zealand, South Africa and India.

Many smokers in Australia remain defiant.

“The pictures don’t affect me. I just ignore them. You just grab a smoke and put it away,” said Victor El Hage as he purchased a pack with a photograph of a mouth tumor. “Honestly, there’s only one reason I’d stop, and that’s my little girl.”

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in GENEVA; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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Plain Tobacco Packaging Takes Effect

Nov 30th, 2012
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http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/409965/20121130/tobacco-packaging-australia.htm

Friday, November 30, 2012 4:35 PM EST

Plain Tobacco Packaging Takes Effect

By Esther Tanquintic-Misa

Effective Saturday, Dec 1, all cigarettes or tobacco packs in Australia will be sold in identical, olive-brown plain packaging.

And this early, the new packaging on tobacco products, according to Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek, has already instilled some “psychological effects” on smokers.

“I have had a few letters . . . with smokers saying to me, ‘Oh the cigarettes don’t taste the same as they used to’,” Ms Plibersek told reporters in Sydney.

“It (has become) less attractive to smoke,” she said, although it was only the packaging that was changed. The ingredients of the pack’s contents, the tobacco or cigarette itself, did not change.

Todd Harper, Cancer Council Victoria chief executive, citing results from a study conducted by the council, said smokers seem averse to the taste of plain-packaged cigarettes, claiming it tastes worse than branded cigarettes.

“I think this gives some clues as to why the tobacco industry has been so desperate and so committed to spending money, doing whatever it takes, to block plain packaging,” he said.

“They know the impact it will have on people’s perception of smoking and also the taste of smoking.”

Under the new law, tobacco or cigarette makers are required to package their products using drab, olive-brown packets with expanded graphic health warnings that must feature very graphic images such as gangrenous feet and mouth cancer.

“That’s the aim of this exercise,” Ms Plibersek said.

“The challenge for us as a government is to make it (smoking) as unappealing as possible. If we can prevent young people from taking it up, that’s a lifetime gift to them.”

Stafford Sanders, Protecting Children from Tobacco Coalition coordinator, said the law is very important to educate the young people, especially those who start smoking before even turning 18.

Smoking causes 270,000 cancers yearly in Europe: study

Nov 30th, 2012
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http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-28/lifestyle/sns-rt-us-smoking-cancer-europebre8ar16p-20121128_1_lung-cancer-cancer-cases-cancer-rates

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Across eight European and Scandinavian countries, 270,000 people are diagnosed every year with cancers caused by smoking, according to a new study.

“These results tell us that (the) contribution of tobacco smoking to cancer is substantial, and that, in spite of substantial efforts put forward to reduce smoking in European countries, the overwhelming importance of cigarette smoking on cancer risk is still of public health concern, and a priority from the point of view of prevention,” said Dr. Antonio Agudo, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Oncology in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain.

Smoking is known to be a major contributor to a variety of cancers, including lung, colon and bladder cancers.

Understanding just how great the burden of smoking is on cancer rates is important to developing prevention strategies, Agudo wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

He and his colleagues, as part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), gathered information on more than 440,000 residents of Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

One out of four men and one out of five women in the study currently smoked. A slightly larger proportion – about one of every three men and roughly one out of every four women – had smoked previously.

The researchers began tracking the participants, none of whom had been diagnosed with cancer at the beginning of the study, between 1992 and 2000.

Over an average of 11 years of follow up, the team found that 14,563 people who were exposed to tobacco smoke developed a type of cancer that is considered to be fully or partly caused by tobacco exposure. This is equivalent to 270 diagnoses out of every 100,000 people.

Current smokers were 2.6 times as likely as never smokers to develop a tobacco-related cancer and ex-smokers had 1.5 times the risk.

Nearly 4,500 people were diagnosed with colon or rectal cancer, about 3,000 with lung cancer and 1,850 people developed lower urinary tract cancer.

Other types of tobacco-related cancers were less common, but included stomach, cervix, mouth, kidney, pancreas and a form of leukemia.

Although each of these cancers has been associated with smoking, not all of the cases were caused by it.

The researchers calculated the “attributable fraction,” or the proportion of cancer cases likely to blame on cigarettes, and determined that overall 35 percent were caused by smoking.

For some types of cancers – such as lung and larynx – the vast majority, more than 80 percent, were caused by smoking, whereas a smaller portion of others, including kidney cancers (eight percent) and pancreas cancers (13 percent), were caused by smoking.

Agudo’s study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, included only a sample – although a relatively young and healthy one – of the European population.

Across the eight countries with data available for both men and women, about 1.5 million new cancer cases are diagnosed each year – half of the tobacco related forms of cancer, according to the researchers.

Given the proportion of those attributable to smoking, the group calculated that 270,000 cancer cases each year in those countries are due to cigarettes.

The number “is not far from our expectations,” said Agudo.

Dr. Prabhat Jha, a professor at the University of Toronto who was not involved in the study, said the findings are consistent with estimates of how many deaths are caused by smoking in Europe.

He added that the numbers could be underestimates, however.

Jha pointed out that the researchers found the risk of developing lung cancer among women to be about a third that of men, but that could be because the women were not followed long enough.

“The main reason might be that the full effects of smoking on cancer in the specific women studied in EPIC have not yet matured,” he told Reuters Health in an email.

Jha noted that in wealthy countries, such as those in Europe in North America, the rates of smoking-related cancers and deaths have declined substantially, while cancer rates in China and India are rising.

Nevertheless, “this study should support greater EU efforts” to curb smoking, he said.

Agudo added, “our results come from a group of countries where efforts to reduce tobacco smoking are already in place since long ago. Thus we hope they can (be) useful as well to countries where the tobacco epidemic is still increasing to enhance efforts to face this serious health threat.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Ve0y5o Journal of Clinical Oncology, online November 19, 2012