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November 4th, 2016:

Romania’s President promulgates new law on tobacco products

http://www.romania-insider.com/romanias-president-promulgates-new-law-tobacco-products/

The tobacco law, which sets out the conditions for the manufacturing, presentation, and sale of tobacco products according to a European directive, was promulgated by President Klaus Iohannis on November 3.

According to the new law, the warning pictures need to cover 65% of the package’s surface.

The flavored cigarettes will be banned 30 days after the law is published in the Official Gazette. The menthol cigarettes can be sold until 2019, but the ones with a click will disappear from the market.

The European directive should have been applied starting May 20. It was approved two years ago, but it hasn’t been transposed into the national law.

The European Commission had already started the sanctioning procedures against Romania. However, the local tobacco producers asked for more time to prepare for the changes brought by this new law.

editor@romania-insider.com

Smoking vs. Vaping 2016: 4 Facts And Myths About E-Cigarettes And Health

http://www.medicaldaily.com/smoking-vs-vaping-2016-4-facts-and-myths-about-e-cigarettes-revealed-403561

FACT: E-CIGARETTE VAPORS CONTAIN FORMALDEHYDE

Back in January 2015, a peer-reviewed letter from the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that the vapors e-cigarette users inhale contain multiple forms of formaldehyde.

MYTH: VAPING HELPS PEOPLE STOP SMOKING

A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO) claims that there is not enough evidence to show that e-cigarettes actually help people stop smoking. For years, the global public health community has been split over whether e-cigarettes are more positive or negative.

“While e-cigarettes offer a significant opportunity to public health, there are also risks. One is the way the tobacco industry uses harm reduction to secure reputational and access possibilities and to split the public health camp,” Anna Gilmore, professor of public health at the University of Bath and the UK Center for Tobacco Control Studies, told The Guardian.

FACT: E-CIGARETTES LOWER IMMUNITY TO INFECTIONS AND GERMS

Early last year, a study found that e-cigarettes may also reduce the body’s ability to fight off infections from strep and flu germs. According to Science News, mice exposed to e-cigarette vapors for two weeks had an increase in inflammation and susceptibility to infections.

MYTH: VAPING DOESN’T HARM THE LUNGS

A 2014 study found that using e-cigarettes has the same short-term effects on the lungs as smoking conventional tobacco cigarettes, according to Science News.

Health Canada proposing menthol ban for tobacco products

Federal government’s suggested change to Tobacco Act would apply to 95 per cent of tobacco market

https://ipolitics.ca/2016/11/04/health-canada-proposing-menthol-ban-for-tobacco-products/

Health Canada has announced it’s proposing an order that would amend the Tobacco Act to prohibit “the use of menthol in cigarettes, blunt wraps and most cigars sold on the Canadian market,” as a measure of curbing smoking rates among youth.

A press release issued by the federal department late Friday afternoon says the proposed flavour ban would apply to 95 per cent of the entire tobacco market.

This decision comes after Health Canada completed a month-long consultation on the issue back in May. Health Canada accepted stakeholder comments for 30 days.

The news release dated Nov. 4 says “the vast majority” of the comments the department received were supportive of a ban on the use of menthol flavouring in tobacco products.

Health Canada says the proposed amendment will be published in the Canada Gazette Part I and will be open to a 75-day public comment period. The news release encourages Canadians to submit feedback to the department.

The government has made other amendments in the past which banned other flavour additives, such as chocolate and bubblegum. Menthol makes tobacco smoke easier to inhale, “which facilitates experimentation by youth,” the news release reads. The document also says recent data shows that a “significant” number of young people smoke menthol cigarettes.

“Every year, tens of thousands of Canadians die from preventable diseases that can be directly linked to smoking,” Health Minister Jane Philpott is quoted saying in the release. “Research shows that the best way to prevent these deaths is to stop people from smoking in the first place, especially when they’re young.”

The health minister is scheduled to host a forum in early 2017 to discussed the future of tobacco control.

Need for systematic implementation of Tobacco control norm: FCA

http://www.sify.com/news/need-for-systematic-implementation-of-tobacco-control-norm-fca-news-others-qleuakaghjdff.html

New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS) The Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) — an association of 500 civil societies in 100 countries promoting tobacco control policies — on Friday urged over 180 member-countries of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to systematically and strategically implement the Tobacco control norms set by the convention till now.

FCA has also stated that there is a need for an mechanism to routinely review the needs of the parties while implementing the norms.

India is hosting the CoP7 WHO FCTC from November 7 to 12 which is likely to see the participation of over 180 countries. The objectives of the convention will be to formulate stringent norms and tobacco control policies.

“After 10 years, FCTC Parties have developed a detailed consensus on the measures needed to address the global tobacco epidemic. Starting next week, parties must shift their focus to ensuring that the treaty is as effective as possible on the ground,” said Francis Thompson, Executive Director of FCA, during a event in the national capital.

Stating that there is a resource gap while implementation of the tobacco control norms, Thompson said: “We just don’t have enough money and technical resources going into tobacco control. The official development agencies have lagged very far behind.”

“The Convention of Parties, as the specialised body that deals with the FCTC, must make the case for much more energetic implementation, with the necessary political will, technical assistance and resources to make this global target a reality,” said Thompson.

 

Mutational signatures associated with tobacco smoking in human cancer

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DNA study lays bare devastating damage caused by smoking

Major investigation into root causes of cancer reveals how tobacco smoke mutates DNA and gives rise to more than a dozen types of tumour

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/03/dna-study-lays-bare-devastating-damage-caused-by-smoking

The devastating impact of cigarette smoke on the body’s DNA has been laid bare by the first comprehensive study into the damage tobacco inflicts on human cells.

People who smoke a pack of cigarettes each day for a year develop on average 150 extra mutations in every lung cell, and nearly 100 more mutations than usual in each cell of the voice box, researchers found. More still build up in the mouth, bladder, liver and other organs.

While chemicals in tobacco smoke have long been known to raise the risk of at least 17 forms of cancer, the precise molecular mechanisms through which they mutate DNA and give rise to tumours in different tissues have never been clear.

“This is about running down the root cause of cancers,” said David Phillips, a professor of environmental carcinogenesis at King’s College London and a co-author on the study. “By identifying the root causes, we gain the sort of knowledge we need to think more seriously about cancer prevention.”

More than 70 of the 7,000 chemicals found in tobacco smoke are known to cause cancer. Some damage DNA directly, but others ramp up mutations in more subtle ways, often by disrupting the way cells function. The more mutations a cell acquires, the more likely it is to turn cancerous.

The reason why some people can smoke for years without getting cancer, while others develop the disease, is down to the way mutations arise. When a person smokes, the chemicals they inhale create mutations at random points in the genome. Many of these changes will be harmless, but others not so benign. The more smoke a person is exposed to, the greater the chance that the accumulating mutations will hit specific spots in the DNA that turn cells cancerous.

“You can really think of it as playing Russian roulette,” said Ludmil Alexandrov, a theoretical biologist at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico and the first author of the study. “You can miss the right genes. But if you smoke you still play the game. It’s a very strong message for people not to start smoking. If you smoke even a little bit you’ll erode the genetic material of most of the cells in your body.” Smoking is the most preventable cause of cancer in the world and accounts for more than 1 in 4 UK cancer deaths.

With researchers at the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute near Cambridge and others, Alexandrov analysed the DNA of more than 5,000 cancers. The team then turned to pattern recognition software to tease apart the various mutational signatures found in tumours from smokers versus non-smokers. To find the signatures – the patterns of mutations present in cancer cells – researchers performed the genetic equivalent of recording the chatter at a party and then extracting individual conversations from the hubbub.

The scientists spotted more than 20 mutational signatures in 13 types of cancer linked to tobacco smoking. But only five of these were more common in smokers’ tumours. One pattern of mutations, dubbed signature four, was found to be a major driver for lung cancer. It is thought to be caused by benzopyrene, a chemical found in tobacco smoke.

More intriguing was how tobacco caused mutations in tissues that are not directly exposed to smoke, such as the bladder, kidneys and pancreas. The study found that chemicals from tobacco smoke found their way to different organs and tissues and then sped up the molecular clocks in the cells. This ramped up the natural rate at which mutations built up in the tissues.

“We knew there was direct damage from smoking in the lungs. What we didn’t expect was to see smoking speed up the molecular clocks inside cells,” said Alexandrov, whose study appears in the journal Science. “In bladder cancer, the only thing that causes the extra mutations in smokers is the speeding up of the clock, and that will be very dependent on the intensity of smoking. For every pack of cigarettes you smoke per year, you accumulate 18 mutations in all of your bladder cells,” he added.

Scientists hope that by understanding how the individual ingredients of tobacco smoke raise the risk of various cancers, they can develop new ways to prevent the disease. The same techniques used in the latest study will now be used to tease apart how alcohol, obesity and other factors also increase a person’s cancer risk.

“There is a message here for people who are occasional or social smokers who think it doesn’t do anything,” said Alexandrov. “If you smoke four to five packs of cigarettes in your lifetime it doesn’t sound that much, but you still get several mutations in every cell in your lungs and these are permanent, they do not go away. There are a lot of things that do revert back when you stop smoking, and this shouldn’t discourage people from giving up, but the specific mutations in the lung cells are like scars. If you stop smoking, they’ll still be there.”

Health Ministry wants government to exit tobacco firms

The Ministry of Health has made a plea to the Finance Ministry that the government should not own any stake in tobacco firms, said Health Secretary C K Mishra, according to a report in Business Standard on Friday.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/health-ministry-wants-government-to-exit-tobacco-firms_7894581.html

The Ministry of Health has made a plea to the Finance Ministry that the government should not own any stake in tobacco firms, said Health Secretary C K Mishra, according to a report in Business Standard on Friday.

The appeal comes in the backdrop of criticism from NGOs and activists that the government has been heavily investing in ITC , while arguing that tobacco could kill, the report stated.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) had a 14.3 percent stake; National Insurance Company, 1.2 percent; Oriental Insurance Company, 1.5 percent; General Insurance Company, 1.8 percent; New India Assurance (NIACL), 1.8 percent; and the Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India (SUUTI), 11.1 percent, according to the report which detailed ITC’s September filing with the stock exchanges.

Besides, in VST Industries , a Hyderabad-based cigarette manufacturer and distributer, NIACL had a 1.8 percent, according to the filing.

Graphic Pics on Cigarette Packs are Effective — But When in US?

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COP7:’Take meaningful steps to check global tobacco epidemic’

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/cop7-take-meaningful-steps-to-check-global-tobacco-epidemic-116110401597_1.html

Ahead of a global meet on tobacco in India, a civil society network today said that one billion people, which is nearly the population of India, will die from tobacco use this century while urging countries taking part in the meet to take meaningful steps to alter this forecast.

India is all set to host the Seventh Session of the Conference of Parties (COP7) to World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) during November 7-12, at Greater Noida, which will be inaugurated by Union Health Minister J P Nadda.

“After 10 years, FCTC Parties have developed a detailed consensus on the measures needed to address the global tobacco epidemic. Starting next week, Parties must shift their focus to ensuring that the treaty is as effective as possible on the ground,” said Framework Convention Alliance (FCA) Executive Director Francis Thompson.

It said that another agenda which should be prioritised is the report of a working group on mobilising more resources for tobacco control.

Despite the FCTC’s life-saving measures being widely recognised as effective and low-cost, in general few resources are dedicated to them.

“FCA urges COP7 to review parties’ current implementation needs and develop a list of priorities, agree on a mechanism to routinely review parties’ needs, and mandate the FCTC Secretariat, working with relevant stakeholders, to communicate implementation needs to potential donors strategically and systematically,” FCA said.

“One billion people – nearly the population of India – will die from tobacco use this century unless current trends change. Parties to the FCTC COP meeting in New Delhi next week can take meaningful steps to alter that forecast,” it said.

It said that at COP6 in 2012, FCTC Parties adopted a global target to reduce tobacco use by 30 per cent by 2025 and highlighting Parties’ progress towards that target would help potential donors to focus on the effectiveness of the treaty’s measures.

“The COP, as the specialised body that deals with the FCTC, must make the case for much more energetic implementation, with the necessary political will, technical assistance and resources to make this global target a reality,” said Thompson.

Other issues on the COP7 agenda that FCA will be focussing include, tobacco industry liability for the devastation caused by its products, FCTC’s illicit trade protocol, the treatment of tobacco in trade agreements, and tobacco and sustainable development.

Vaping does not help people stop smoking, says WHO report

Critics say World Health Organisation report is a backward step that will hamper fight to cut tobacco-related deaths

Countries might also want to ban nicotine delivery devices from all public places where smoking is not allowed, the report said.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/04/vaping-does-not-help-people-stop-smoking-says-who-report

Countries should consider curbing the use of e-cigarettes because there is not enough evidence to show they help people stop smoking, according to a World Health Organisation report.

Vaping will be on the agenda of a major meeting starting in India on Monday of the 180 countries that have signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, aimed at combatting Big Tobacco and preventing the millions of deaths every year around the world caused by smoking.

But the public health community is split over whether e-cigarettes are friend or foe and some are outraged by the WHO’s advice to the meeting. It suggests countries that have not already banned e-cigarettes and other forms of nicotine delivery might want to consider imposing severe restrictions, including banning the flavouring of e-cigarettes as well as sales, advertising and possession by young people.

Countries might also want to ban nicotine delivery devices from all public places where smoking is not allowed, require health warnings about the chemicals in them, include information on the addictive potential of nicotine and ban any claims that they can help people give up tobacco smoking, the report says.

The WHO suggests these are reasonable measures to control the use of products with effects that are still unknown – and which are increasingly being manufactured by the multinational tobacco corporations the signatories to the convention are pledged to defeat.

But for some in the public health community, WHO’s report is a backward step that will hamper the fight to cut tobacco-related deaths.

Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies based at Nottingham University, said the WHO report was unbalanced. “There is nothing saying e-cigarettes are allowing hundreds of thousands of people to stop smoking,” he said.

The convention exists to combat tobacco use, not nicotine use, he said. “It is perfectly reasonable to be concerned that young people might use e-cigarettes and become addicted. All those arguments apply to licensed nicotine products that anybody can walk into Tesco and buy.” But nicotine regulation is for other agencies, he said.

Britton is concerned about the “flavour” of the WHO document “which is that these products are out there, they are being produced by tobacco companies and we should probably ban them – or if not, here are some regulations that you might want to introduce.”

The meeting in Delhi will be a conference of the parties (COP) that have signed the treaty, which includes national governments and the European Union. It takes place every two years to decide the future direction of tobacco control. The WHO report was written at the request of the parties who wanted to know about the scientific evidence for or against nicotine-delivery devices, said Dr Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, head of the convention secretariat.

“So far there is a clear understanding that e-cigarettes should be regulated,” she said. “They should not be promoted among young people and pregnant women and other specific groups. They should not be promoted widely – there should be restrictions and regulations.” More monitoring of the effects and possible health benefits is needed, she said.

“While I don’t think COP will close the door [to e-cigarettes], I don’t think COP will open the door to them at this time,” she said.

The issue splits the public health community. Critics of e-cigarettes are concerned that they may be a “stalking horse” for Big Tobacco, which the Framework Convention has made a pariah.

Countries that have signed the treaty agree under Article 5.3 that the tobacco industry is beyond the pale and must never be allowed into negotiations. If e-cigarettes can help people stop smoking, the tobacco companies can argue for their rehabilitation and a presence at the table.

“While e-cigarettes offer a significant opportunity to public health, there are also risks. One is the way the tobacco industry uses harm reduction to secure reputational and access possibilities and to split the public health camp,” said Anna Gilmore, professor of public health at the University of Bath and the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies.

“The tobacco industry uses e-cigarettes to claim it is committed to harm reduction, but meanwhile it continues to engage in harm maximisation by spending millions to promote tobacco and oppose any policy that would reduce its use.”

Ahead of the Delhi meeting, rightwing thinktanks and libertarian groups have been on the attack, arguing that the COP is secretive and not transparent, because members of the public may be excluded from the proceedings. But, says Gilmore, that is because the industry and its representatives have to be kept out of the COP discussion, under Article 5.3, “yet we know the industry infiltrates these meetings often using third parties as a disguise,” said Gilmore.

It is impossible to screen every individual and group who wants to attend. “They are caught between a rock and a hard place, because of the industry’s underhand tactics,” she said.