Clear The Air News Tobacco Blog Rotating Header Image

May, 2013:

Cigarette smoking is suicide by cancer, say oncologists

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/cigarette-smoking-is-suicide-by-cancer-say-oncologists/article4768653.ece?css=print

Published: May 31, 2013 12:16 IST | Updated: May 31, 2013 12:16 IST MADURAI, May 31, 2013

Cigarette smoking is suicide by cancer, say oncologists

Special Correspondent

Oncologists have cautioned smokers that ‘smoking is suicide’ on the eve of World No Tobacco Day on Friday.

Stating that it is high time for smokers to quit the habit, they warned that cigarette smoking is nothing but inviting cancer. As the city wakes up to the globally important day on May 31, there will be advice pouring in from the medical fraternity that tobacco damages virtually every vital part in the body including heart, lungs, kidney, throat, tongue, brain and blood vessels.

Launching no-tobacco campaign here on Thursday, Ramesh Ardhanari, Medical Director, Meenakshi Mission Hospital and Research Centre (MMHRC), urged the people to realise that smoking affects not only the person’s health but also others in the family and the surrounding.

“Both alcohol and tobacco are bad for health. But, in the case of drinking, it spoils only that particular individual who consumes alcohol whereas smoking is harmful for the people around. Passive smoking is also dangerous,” he said.

Awareness needed

Dr.Ardhanari had stressed the important role of cancer specialists in creating awareness of the link between cigarette and cancer.

The findings of World Health Organisation on the ill-effects of tobacco were explained at the awareness meet.

“Tobacco is the single most preventable cause of death globally and is responsible for killing one in 10 adults worldwide. It is related to 50 per cent of cancer cases, causes cardiac illness, stroke and debilitating lung diseases,” doctors explained.

K.S.Kirushnakumar, radiation oncologist, and Krishnakumar Rathinam, medical oncologist, made a presentation on how tobacco addiction is killing people in their productive age.

“Over 50 per cent of tobacco related deaths are occurring among people in the 35-60 age group. They are dying at a time when they have to take care of their family and children. This is a point to be borne in mind,” said Dr.Rathinam.

He appealed to people to keep away from tobacco products such as pan masala, gutka, snuff, betel leaf and cigarettes.

Dr.Kirushnakumar pointed out that incidence of tongue cancer is on the rise due to tobacco consumption and four out of 10 cancer cases are oral cancer.

“Chewing tobacco and snuff contain 28 different carcinogens. By taking a cigarette puff, you are inhaling 4,000 chemicals and 150 toxins including carbon monoxide,” he said.

Referring to the popular slogan ‘smoking thrills-but kills,’ Dr.Rathinam told youngsters that cigarette smoking may be a fascination today, but it leads to deathbed soon.

Vijaya Baskar, surgical oncologist and Ananda Selvakumar, radiation oncologist, too have expressed concern over people falling prey to tobacco. They spoke on the dangers of lung cancer and laryngeal cancer. All the oncologists have observed that several children under five years of age are getting infections due to ‘second hand smoke’ (passive smoking) at home.

According to a report, about 5,500 adolescents are joining the list of tobacco-users every day, and in India tobacco epidemic will kill more than 10 million people every year by 2030.

The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2013 is ‘ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship.’

S.Kumar, honorary secretary, Indian Medical Association, Madurai Meenakshi Branch, emphasised the need to create anti-tobacco awareness at a young age.

Special programme

Meanwhile, city-based Voice Trust is conducting a special programme at Bhima Jewellers on West Masi Street for customers and general public on Friday.

Two specialist doctors from Apollo Speciality Hospitals — pulmonologist M. Palaniappan and orthodontist J. Kannaperuman — will conduct special sessions to make people aware of the ills of smoking.

Printable version | May 31, 2013 7:46:38 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Madurai/cigarette-smoking-is-suicide-by-cancer-say-oncologists/article4768653.ece

© The Hindu

ASH Daily News for 31 May 2013

31 May 2013


enquiries@ash.org.uk

Telephone: 020 7404 0242

www.ash.org.uk

HEADLINES

World No Tobacco Day 2013: 6 million die every year from tobacco use, says WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) celebrates World No Tobacco Day 2013 on Friday with the theme “ban tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship”, highlighting the health risks associated with tobacco use and the need to advocate policies that will reduce its consumption.

See also:
– World No Tobacco Day infographic: The numbers behind smoking cigarettes, Metro
– The lowdown on smoking on World No Tobacco Day, Euronews
– World No-Tobacco Day: Tobacco Use Is on the Rise, Huffington Post


Source: International Business Times – 31 May 2013
Link: http://bit.ly/1aHj8FC

Wales: Ban glossy cigarette packaging, says anti-smoking charity

A ban on “glossy” cigarette packaging should be introduced to stop them being deliberately targeted at teenage girls, an anti-smoking charity has said.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in Wales is calling on the UK Government to ban eye-catching packaging aimed at young people and introduce standard plain packaging.


Source: Wales Online – 31 May 2013
Link: http://bit.ly/1aHk6lc

Bristol: City councillors poised to stub out smoking ads on taxis

Councillors are expected to ban an advertising slogan on the side of taxis in Bristol which says “smoking allowed”.

The city council has been approached by an advertising agency which is organising a campaign in support of smoking. Council officers are worried the slogan would infer that smoking is allowed inside taxis – but that is illegal.


Source: This is Bristol – 30 May 2013
Link: http://bit.ly/1aHkxvD

Singer Bruno Mars invests in e-cigarette company

Pop star Bruno Mars is so thrilled with the electronic cigarettes he has been using, he has decided to become an investor in the company which makes them.


Source: OK – 30 May 2013
Link: http://bit.ly/1aHkMXG

France: Health Minister confirms plan to ban e-cigarettes in public

France’s Health Minister Marisol Touraine has told French media that she wants to crackdown on the smoking of e-cigarettes by banning them in public places and restricting their use to over 18s. The announcement follows a report published earlier this week.


Source: The Local – 31 May 2013
Link: http://bit.ly/1aHl3d6

USA: Health groups protest new Camel cigarette campaign

The American Heart Association, American Lung Association and other health groups are asking at least two state attorneys to investigate a new Camel cigarette ad campaign.

The group says the Camel Crush cigarette ads ran in 24 magazines that target young people and may violate the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. The landmark agreement prohibits cigarette makers from targeting kids.


Source: The Guardian – 30 May 2013
Link: http://bit.ly/1aHlft0

Time to focus on tobacco ads

Friday, 31 May, 2013, 12:00am

CommentInsight & Opinion

SCMP Editorial

Today, World No Tobacco Day, there is a perverse reason to envy Hongkongers still addicted to smoking: the cost of cigarettes has generally remained stable over the past couple of years, while the prices of most staples and essentials we buy regularly have risen. This is because the government has not raised the tobacco excise tax in the last two budgets, and the industry has not risked greater consumer resistance by adding price increases to previous tax rises.

The World Health Organisation’s anti-smoking theme this year is not about taxes, but a call for government support for a ban on the remaining advertising and promotion of smoking, and on sponsorship of sporting and community events by tobacco companies. This is a worthy issue, but the question remains whether the government should have continued raising the tobacco excise in the interests of public health, given that the product is blamed for six million deaths a year – 10 per cent of them passive smokers. After all, the WHO and anti-smoking activists say price is the greatest deterrent to new smokers. The organisation says a tobacco excise tax should exceed 70 per cent of the marked price.

The government can argue that Hong Kong already comes close. But on other counts the current price of cigarettes here is no deterrent. It is below recommendations by international authorities and cheap compared with Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, where they cost two to three times as much. Government concern for the cost of living of the poor is understandable but, as the Asian Development Bank has pointed out, tobacco tax increases are arguably pro-poor because they reap a lot of the health benefits.

Thanks to education, indoor smoking bans and tax increases, only an estimated 11 to 12 per cent of Hongkongers over 15 now smoke. Apart from pricing and effective enforcement of smoking bans, control of tobacco advertising is one of the most effective means of reducing the attraction of smoking to young people.

Topics:

World No Tobacco Day

Tobacco Advertising



Mainland inertia on tobacco control ‘promises costly tsunami of illness’

Friday, 31 May, 2013, 12:00am

NewsChina

PUBLIC HEALTH

Zhuang Pinghui pinghui.zhuang@scmp.com

Tobacco control chief warns of costly tsunami of illness and death by 2030 if smoking bans and education campaigns not stepped up

Mainland tobacco control campaigners liken their battles for more obvious and graphic health hazard warnings on cigarette packs and a ban on the promotion of tobacco products on social media sites to disarming a ticking time bomb.

https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2013/05/31/ndfkljsdsdfgsdfklg.jpg?itok=UOmSxN4P

Tobacco is recognised by the World Health Organisation as one of the major risk factors in chronic, non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and lung disease, which account for 85 per cent of deaths on the mainland.

More than 300 million mainlanders smoke, with another 740 million people regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, official figures show.

The deputy director of the National Office of Tobacco Control, Jiang Yuan, said the prevalence of tobacco use on the mainland was shown in side effects such as people having strokes at younger ages and a steady increase in the number of children with asthma.

“Without effective control of tobacco use, by 2030 chronic disease will increase dramatically, like a tsunami,” she said this week, ahead of today’s World No Tobacco Day.

The WHO says tobacco is responsible for a million deaths on the mainland every year and a quarter of the men who die from tobacco-related non-communicable diseases are younger than 60, resulting in major economic implications for an ageing society such as China.

“If China cannot effectively control the tobacco use of current smokers or prevent a rising number of young smokers, China will face a heavy burden of non-communicable disease,” said Professor Yang Gonghuan , former director of the National Office of Tobacco Control and a professor of public health at the Peking Union Medial College.

“The burden lies not only in the deaths but also many more who live with the diseases. The increasing medical bills, even with expanded public medical insurance, will pose a great challenge to the government. Any sensible administration should take that very seriously.”

The central government expressed support for the global effort to curb tobacco use when it ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in 2005, but the mainland has yet to make serious progress in curbing tobacco use.

It missed the convention’s 2009 deadline to implement a complete ban on smoking in public places, and a national law on banning smoking in public venues is a long way down the government’s list of legislative priorities.

“Among the eight government agencies involved, only the health authority and the education ministry are taking this very seriously,” the deputy director of the tobacco-control NGO Think Tank Research Centre for Health Development, Wu Yiqun , said. “A lot of work has been done and slow progress has been made possible by non-government organisations.”

Wu criticised the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which was appointed to lead the tobacco control mission.

The ministry released a China Tobacco Control Programme (2012-15) in December after more than two years of deliberation. It mentions expanding the size of warning labels on cigarette packs and the use of colours to warn buyers but stopped short of recommending packs carry graphic warning images, such as skeletons and damaged lungs, which have proved very effective in discouraging smoking overseas.

The plan was drawn up by the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, one of the eight government agencies involved. The mainland is one of the few markets in the world that has state-owned monopolies running tobacco production and trade, via the China National Tobacco Corporation. It is also the world’s largest tobacco producer and tobacco has been its top source of tax revenue since 1987.

Academics say the tobacco industry benefits the government’s coffers much more than the wider economy. Research by Yu Hui from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for the ChangCe Thinktank found that tobacco farmers, production workers and the transport sector did not need to rely on the tobacco industry.

The report found that profits from growing other agricultural products would far exceed those from tobacco farming and that such new products would absorb nine times the number of workers in the tobacco industry.

Topics:

Smoking

Tobacco

Smoking Ban

Tobacco Control


Source URL (retrieved on May 31st 2013, 8:32am): http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1250045/mainland-inertia-tobacco-control-promises-costly-tsunami-illness

WNTD

1.

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS1-h8_6fEaQVLqAi9mQDJE1P4sPPtX3ufU_N1h4DGsp96FvzRbPyZRorgudw9xghtTJTSdfQ

World No Tobacco Day: 2500 die in India daily

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Zee News3 hours ago

New Delhi: The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. Mass media campaigns, graphic

+

Show moreShow less

2. First puff of smoke: Age of onset falling (May 31 is World No Tobacco

3. Newstrack India4 hours ago

4. First puff of smoke: Age of onset falling

5. Daijiworld.com3 hours ago

6. all 3 news sources »

7.

Kenya to enforce ban on tobacco advertising

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Xinhua6 minutes ago

NAIROBI, May 30 (Xinhua) — The Kenyan government on Thursday pledged to enforce legislation to ban advertising and promotion of tobacco

8.

9.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbKrQva50-Gh9Y8Ah_zcp9PnHssQUYl1BeDJLuXAqjwcU1XtN-RvheHTMxDKefk1C0LJVBkQAd

Haaretz

OPINION: Promotion ban will help stub out habit

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Newcastle Herald26 minutes ago

WORLD No Tobacco Day is a date acknowledged by the World Health Organisation, as a reminder of how much tobacco still harms the

+

Show moreShow less

10. Israel to crack down on public puffing for global anti-tobacco day

11. Haaretz13 hours ago

12. Brookhaven Retreat Observes World No Tobacco Day

13. PR Web (press release)5 hours ago

14. all 115 news sources »

15.

WHO: Urge Ban on Tobacco Advertising, Promotion, Sponsorship

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Voice of America6 minutes ago

May 31 is World No Tobacco Day. The message from the World Health Organization to governments around the globe is to ban tobacco

16.

17.

Hundreds of Dubai shops to halt tobacco sales for 24 hours

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

The National1 hour ago

DUBAI // More than 400 businesses – including petrol stations and supermarkets – across the emirate will voluntarily stop selling tobacco for 24 hours from

+

Show moreShow less

18. 420 shops stop selling tobacco products on World No Tobacco Day

19. AME Info (press release)14 minutes ago

20. all 2 news sources »

21.

Bollywood ‘youth films’ found full of tobacco use

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Indian Express9 hours ago

Half of Bollywood’s top-grossing “youth-rated” films released between 2006 and 2008 showed tobacco usage, according to a study that

22.

23.

Chinese expert promotes comprehensive ban on tobacco ads

You +1’d this publicly. Undo

Shanghai Daily (subscription)4 hours ago

BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) — A tobacco control expert on Thursday proposed a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertisements

Qld govt accused of investing in tobacco

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/health/2013/05/31/09/19/qld-govt-accused-of-i
nvesting-in-tobacco

Qld govt accused of investing in tobacco

9:16am May 31, 2013

The Heart Foundation has accused Queensland’s government of profiting
from tobacco while withdrawing smoking prevention programs.

On World Tobacco Day, the foundation says unlike other states,
Queensland continues to invest in tobacco companies through the
Queensland Investment Corporation.

Funding for a campaign to help people quit the habit was also cut in
last year’s state budget, Heart Foundation director Rachelle Foreman
says.

Public health staff dedicated to helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people quit smoking also lost their jobs, she added.

“This is a double standard and we’d like to see the Queensland
government investing in tobacco reduction,” Ms Foreman told AAP.

A spokesman for Health Minister Lawrence Springborg said Queensland had
allocated $1.9 million to a quit smoking hotline and was set to announce
$400,000 for an anti-smoking campaign aimed at young women.

He said the government was encouraging local councils to consider
smoking bans in more public places, and the minister hadn’t ruled out
further measures against smoking.

The Queensland Investment Corporation was not linked to the health
department, the spokesman added.

“We are very active in anti-tobacco campaigning and we’re going to
continue to be,” the spokesman told AAP.

C AAP 2013

Hong Kong snubbed on FTA and tax deals

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/hong-kong-snubbed-on-fta-and-tax-deals/story-e6frg8zx-1226653318300

Hong Kong snubbed on FTA and tax deals

THE Australian government has refused requests from Hong Kong to start negotiating a free trade agreement and a double taxation agreement. The refusal has angered Australian companies hoping to boost their business with and through Hong Kong, the primary gateway to China.

During a visit to Australia in 2011, Donald Tsang, who stepped down last year as Hong Kong’s chief executive, approached Julia Gillard and then-foreign minister Kevin Rudd about an FTA and a DTA. Following a visit by Mr Rudd to Hong Kong and further talks, the Hong Kong government wrote formally to Canberra proposing talks towards an FTA.

Hong Kong was told in reply that its proposal was “an ambitious one” and “we would need to be convinced about the benefits” of considering talks.

After further representations, Hong Kong was told that Australia did not wish to pursue the offer.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, which has 1400 individual and 500 corporate members representing 750 companies, has made two direct representations for a DTA to Treasurer Wayne Swan, most recently this January, and two to the Treasury — without any result.

Cameron Boardman, the head of Invest Hong Kong for Australia and New Zealand, said a DTA would be “a significant catalyst for cross-border investment both ways”. Investment between Hong Kong and Australia is already 1.67 times greater than that between China and Australia. Much of China’s international investment derives from the Hong Kong-listed arms of its largest corporations. Mr Boardman said New Zealand, which has both an FTA and DTA with Hong Kong, ” is now starting to reap the benefits, in capital and fund management flows, from its DTA. But in Canberra, there appears to be no enthusiasm for this or for an FTA, or a willingness to begin anything on a formal basis.

“Hong Kong is keen to get on with both deals, since there’s a mutual benefit, and it’s hard to see why Australia isn’t interested.”

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said she was aware Hong Kong had approached Canberra about its proposals and that the government “is not interested”. She said: “There’s already a great deal of business between Australia and Hong Kong, which is a window in and out of China. In that context, it’s very important.” She said many benefits could result from such agreements.

The Australian chamber in Hong Kong told Mr Swan the lack of a DTA diminishes Australia’s reputation as a regional financial services hub, limits Australia’s potential as a secondary renminbi destination in Asia, and discourages Asian investors from investing in Australian funds.

Hong Kong has signed DTAs with 25 countries including Britain, France, Malaysia, Indonesia, Switzerland and, recently, Canada, and is negotiating with 10 other nations. Australia already has 44 DTAs, including with Singapore and China.

Darren Bowdern, chairman of the Australian chamber’s finance committee and a KPMG tax partner in Hong Kong, said there would be little impact on Australian revenues except for royalty withholding tax, which involved very few companies and was an area Hong Kong may be willing to carve out of the deal

WHO urges global ban on tobacco marketing

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/who-urges-global-ban-on-tobacco-marketing/story-e6frfkui-1226653355946

World Breaking News

WHO urges global ban on tobacco marketing

  • From: AAP
  • May 29, 2013 11:42PM

GOVERNMENTS worldwide must ban all forms of tobacco marketing, not just billboards and TV ads, as companies find new ways to tap the market, the World Health Organization says.

Douglas Bettcher, head of the WHO’s non-communicable disease division, said on Wednesday tougher measures were needed to rein in tobacco use, which claims six million lives a year.

“This is an industry that sells a product that kills up to half their consumers,” but companies are still able to draw in a new generation of smokers despite measures in a 2005 tobacco-control treaty, he said.

“Most tobacco users start their deadly drug dependence before the age of 20,” he told reporters, ahead of Friday’s World No Tobacco Day.

“Banning tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship is one of the best ways to protect young people from starting smoking as well as reducing tobacco consumption across the entire population,” he added.

Bans on overt advertising are crucial, he said, but companies are masters at finding less-obvious means to attract potential smokers and ensure customers remain loyal.

“Tobacco companies are like a mutating virus. When you ban one type of advertising, maybe the most commonly-known forms, billboards, television, radio, they move into other areas,” Bettcher said.

He pointed to tactics including selling branded products such as clothing, product-placement in reality TV shows, using social media to fuel a sense of consumer community, and event sponsorship. (Davidoff Art Basel)

“That’s why the ban has to be complete in order to be fully effective,” he said.

Bettcher noted that as of 2011, 19 nations had introduced total bans — and seen a seven per cent reduction in tobacco use — while one-third of countries had minimal or no restrictions.

Fresh data are due in July.

With increasingly-tough measures in developed nations, tobacco firms have moved to drive up demand in markets such as Africa.

Bettcher warned of a “perfect storm” on that continent, with health services even less able to cope with the impact of smoking than their developed-nation equivalents.

Bettcher also lauded Australia for its landmark plain packaging rules, in force since December, which require tobacco products to be sold in drab-green boxes bearing the same typeface and graphic images of diseased smokers.

New Zealand and Ireland have announced plans to follow suit, despite a tobacco industry-backed challenge to Australia at the World Trade Organization by cigar-producers Cuba, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, plus Ukraine

Actions needed to close ‘tobacco loopholes’ – The Standard

http://thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=36921&icid=3&d_str
=20130530

Actions needed to close ‘tobacco loopholes’
(1 hr 16 mins ago)

The Council on Smoking and Health has urged the government to introduce
plain cigarette packaging and ban tobacco-product displays, RTHK
reports.
The Council says the tobacco industry has exploited loopholes in the
Smoking Ordinance — which bans tobacco advertising. It believes
additional measures are needed to counteract these tactics.

Starbucks imposing no smoking areas outside its stores

http://kdvr.com/2013/05/30/starbucks-imposing-no-smoking-areas-outside-its-stores/?hpt=us_bn9

Starbucks imposing no smoking areas outside its stores

Posted on: 7:55 pm, May 30, 2013, by Jon Bowman

DENVER — June 1 is the day the Starbucks Coffee chain will put in effect a new, perhaps safer, smoke-free zone around its shops.

Signage has been put up letting customers know about the change in how, when, and where they can smoke while enjoying coffee, tea, or healthy donuts.

“I do smoke and I understand people not wanting to inhale my smoke, but I wouldn’t mind if they smoked sitting next to me,” said Mike Keeler. “It makes sense, but…”

The coffee giant rolled out the 25 instead of 15-feet rule in California and the Philippines last year, and since they had little resistance there, now the rest of the coffee loving world will get cleaner air on outside patios.

Right now, the company allows smoking on the outside seating sections. But that will change.

Even those E-cigarettes will not be allowed near front doors of the coffee chain. You’ll still be able to enjoy a cup of joe and a square, just not so close outside Starbucks front door.