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February 5th, 2016:

“16 Cancers Linked To Smoking!” East Riding Campaigners Warn

smoking-cancers

EVERY WEEK 8 people from East Riding area discover they have cancer caused by smoking!

While most smokers know about the link between smoking and lung cancer, many people do not realise that smoking is linked with not one but 16 different cancers, including cancers of the mouth, nasal cavities, pharynx and larynx, stomach, kidney, bowel, liver, pancreas, ureter, oesophagus, cervix, bladder and ovaries as well as myeloid leukaemia.

Quit16 is a hard-hitting campaign that highlights the 16 cancers associated with smoking and asks people to quit. It is the first region-wide anti-smoking campaign that includes advertising on television and online, by local tobacco control alliances, collaborating as Breathe 2025, and supported by Cancer Research UK.

It is based on a campaign first developed and run in Australia in 2014 by the Cancer Council Western Australia, with 74% of smokers who saw it seriously considering quitting and 20% discussing quitting with a health professional as a result.

Yorkshire and the Humber has one of the highest adult smoking rates in the country, with 20% of adults still smoking.

The campaign launched this month and runs throughout February 2016.

Natalie Belt Service Manager said: ‘The films and message are brutally honest: there are 16 cancers caused by smoking. Some will kill you quickly, others more slowly and it’s you and your family that have to live through it.

Stopping smoking is the best thing you can do to reduce the risk that one of those deaths will be you.

‘Quitting isn’t easy but there is lots of help out there from face to face support to personalised texts, emails and apps.

You can find out details of support near you on our website Quit16.co.uk

The economic burden of lung disease

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The cost of respiratory disease

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European Lung: Tobacco Smoking

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Sneaking a Smoke – Paraguay’s Tobacco Business Fuels Latin America’s Black Market

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/paraguay/2016-02-05/sneaking-smoke

As a small country of 6.9 million inhabitants, Paraguay rarely draws international attention. Unlike some of its neighbors, it does not face debilitating violence, nor is it overwhelmed by paramilitary or gang activity. In fact, Paraguay has enjoyed economic growth in recent years. But beyond its apparent normalcy, the nation is grappling with pervasive corruption and organized crime.

One particular sector seems to play a significant role in the nation’s corruption-related challenges—Paraguay’s tobacco industry. According to a 2009 study by Uruguay’s Tobacco Epidemic Research Center (CIET), Paraguay accounts for approximately 11 percent of the world’s supply of contraband cigarettes. Paraguayan cigarette manufacturers produced 68 billion cigarettes in 2006, more than 20 times what the country consumes. Estimates suggest that 90 percent of the nation’s production—worth an estimated $1 billion—disappears every year to the black market.

More recent figures paint a similar picture. In 2013, the International Tax and Investment Center (ITIC) put Paraguay’s illicit production at 65 billion cigarettes per year, many times higher the country’s annual domestic consumption of only 2.5 billion. In other words, Paraguayans are puffing away on less than three percent of the nation’s output. A KPMG study commissioned by British American Tobacco from May 2015 pegged the country’s domestic consumption even lower, at 0.78 billion cigarettes smoked in 2014.

In most cases, smuggled Paraguayan cigarettes head to the black market in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Some have been found as far away as Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, and even Europe. Paraguayan cigarette brands represented 73 percent of the total illicit…

Hong Kong Customs conducts special operation against illicit cigarette activities before Chinese New Year

http://7thspace.com/headlines/523932/hong_kong_customs_conducts_special_operation_against_illicit_cigarette_activities_before_chinese_new_year.html

Hong Kong (HKSAR) – Hong Kong Customs concluded a two-week territory-wide operation to combat illicit cigarette activities before Chinese New Year yesterday (February 4). According to its past enforcement experience, Customs believes that people engaged in illicit cigarette activities will try to replenish stocks before Chinese New Year, and mounted the special operation with a view to combating these activities.

In the operation, Customs detected a total of 38 suspected illicit cigarette cases including two smuggling, 10 storage and distribution, seven peddling and 19 telephone-order cases.

A total of about two million sticks of suspected illicit cigarettes were seized with a total market value of about $5.3 million and duty potential of about $3.8 million. A total of 32 men and seven women, aged between 23 and 81, were arrested. After a series of enforcement actions, Customs believes that the operation has successfully disrupted the supply chains for illicit cigarettes in the territory.

Under the Import and Export Ordinance, smuggling is a serious offence.

The maximum penalty is a fine of $2 million and imprisonment for seven years.

Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, anyone involved in dealing with, or possession of, or selling or buying illicit cigarettes commits an offence. The maximum penalty is a fine of $1 million and imprisonment for two years.

Members of the public are urged to report any suspected illicit cigarette activities to the Customs’ hotline at 2545 6182.

Should City Government Set a Minimum Tobacco Price?

http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2016/02/05/should-city-government-set-minimum-tobacco-price

Tucked into a new ordinance that would tax smokeless and other non-cigarette tobacco products is a provision that would set a minimum price on cigarettes, cigars and chew tobacco.

The ordinance, introduced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel last month and sponsored by Alds. Joe Moreno (1st Ward), Will Burns (4th Ward) and Ameya Pawar (47th Ward), would raise $6 million by taxing snuff tobacco products and roll-your-own cigarettes and cigars.

It also establishes a minimum floor price of $11.50 for a pack of cigarettes, $1.74 for one cigar, and $11.50 for a 1.2-ounce can of smokeless tobacco, a provision that has retailers up in arms.

“Government pricing of products is a big no-no,” says Illinois Retail Merchants Association Vice President Tanya Triche. “It’s a slippery slope. So if City Hall decides it can set the price on something that is bad for your health, does that mean government should set the price of sugary drinks, etc.? City Hall should not go into our stores, walk up and down our aisles and determine our prices.”

Triche acknowledges that the average pack of cigarettes already sells for between $11 and $12 retail, including state, county and city taxes. But she says that retailers regularly accept coupons and discounts that can shave between $1 and $2 off of the price. The ordinance cites a 2011 study of New York smokers that shows the average discount at $1.25.

The ordinance states that the purpose of setting a minimum is to “prevent discounting and preserve the public-health positive deterrent effect of a strong tax.”

Ald. Pawar says he believes tobacco companies can get around new taxes.

“If you simply put a tax on a product, they can just drop the price or have other ways to make it up,” Pawar said. “We’re talking about a product that his killed millions of people, so frankly, their arguments about slippery slopes are ludicrous. This isn’t a slippery slope into price fixing. It’s the right thing to do. Tobacco companies have shown time and time again that they will use predatory practices to lure young people to smoke, i.e. flavored cigarettes. I would ask the retail merchants association, ‘Why are you carrying big tobacco’s water?’”

But some aldermen who are in favor of the smokeless tobacco tax aren’t exactly on board with the minimum floor price part of the ordinance.

“I don’t think we should be in the business of setting prices on products,” says Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), a member of City Council’s Progressive Caucus. “It sets a dangerous precedent to start pricing anything that someone might consider a vice.”

Triche also claims that the ordinance is unconstitutional, citing a state law that says the city cannot impose a tax on tobacco products that did not exist already prior to 1993 without first getting the approval of the Illinois General Assembly.

“The more the city passes these kinds of laws, the more they flood the market with illegal cigarettes and drive people to other counties and Indiana to purchase tobacco products,” Triche said.

The ordinance could be voted on in Monday’s City Council Finance Committee Meeting, and could go before the full council next Wednesday.