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November 21st, 2016:

Tobacco Industry And Front Groups Pump Up Their Propaganda For COP7

Nov 21st, 2016
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http://www.asiantribune.com/node/89760

Over the past year, governments across the globe have continued to make new agreements with the tobacco industry, as shown above. However there is a ray of hope from Namibia, which is choosing to grow more food crops.

The tobacco industry is very angry that the Conference of the Parties (COP) is using Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to protect the policy-making process from industry interference.

The industry has hijacked the “public space” of the COP. FCTC Parties have responded in recent sessions by not allowing participation from the “public”, which is dominated by industry representatives. For COP7, FCA is recommending Parties adopt pre-screening processes for the public and for the media. (Presently, media is in the category public).

The industry has gone on the offensive: conducting an international campaign to attack and discredit the COP and the World Health Organization (WHO) about lack of transparency. Industry representatives have written angry letters to both the COP and WHO and published many statements in the media criticizing the COP’s lack of ‘transparency’, which strikes a chord with broader society.

The industry throws a tantrum whenever it does not get its way, and has no qualms in criticising the 180 governments that are FCTC Parties. In one statement, a representative of Japan Tobacco International (JTI) said the industry wants to see change, (read, “we want to influence the COP”), and that it needs to “keep raising our voice about these censorship practices”.

Since the tobacco industry has no credibility to criticise the COP and tobacco control, it has recruited front groups, think tanks and sympathetic individuals to sing from its song sheet.

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is one such close ally. It advises the industry to talk more about “due process and fairness and less about the specifics of tobacco policy in drawing attention to this issue”.

According to the IEA, “With regard to [Article] 5.3 and COP, the industry needs to find allies amongst groups who take an interest in transparency, openness and constitutional structures. Such groups needn’t be sympathetic to the regulatory agenda of the industry; indeed they may even be antagonistic to the industry and tobacco products in general. That needn’t matter—the issue here is about the manner in which policy is developed and created, not the exact content of the policy.”

Another industry funded group, the International Tax and Investment Centre (ITIC), has stepped up its efforts to protect industry interests ever since the FCTC Secretariat issued a Note Verbal in 2014 about its activities. Earlier this year, an ITIC consultant, Gary Johns, wrote to several civil society groups involved in tobacco control taking issue with the critiques they had done on the ITIC’s skewed research. In a 36-page letter he sent to the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) earlier this year Johns wrote, “vested interests are not the problem – debate behind closed doors is”.

The letter was riddled with false accusations against SEATCA, mischaracterizations of fact and law, disparaging comments about the WHO, the Framework Convention Secretariat and FCTC Parties. SEATCA published an open letter in response.

In September, Johns, a former Australian Labor Minister, released a publication attacking WHO for not conducting its business in “transparent fashion and in public view.” The tobacco industry publicized his report in the Tobacco Reporter.

Another industry front group, the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA), which routinely rounds up its members to rabble rouse at COP sessions, has stepped up its misinformation campaign. ITGA’s Indian member Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA) has been applying pressure on the Indian government to allow its members to the COP using arguments of “principles of transparency and equity”

ITGA’s president has also claimed that the FCTC had banned dozens of officials representing tobacco-growing countries from participating in COP7.

A similar statement was made by a new NGO representative cum journalist, who claimed, “The policy of banning delegates having associations with tobacco production is said to be so broad that it will almost certainly prohibit finance ministers, economic development secretaries, public health officials, and even presidents and prime ministers …”

In September, ITGA members from North and South America, India, Europe, Africa, and Indonesia were in New Delhi for a two-day seminar to prepare their protests for COP7.

The ITGA claims COP decisions are being made “only by health officials and activists”. This is simply not true. Government delegations have included officials from non-health departments, such as ministries of agriculture, industry and trade, as official COP records show (Table 1).

In 2008, FCTC Parties adopted Article 5.3 guidelines. They include recommendations 4.9 and 8.3, which explicitly state that Parties should not nominate any person employed by the tobacco industry, or any entity working to further the industry’s interests, to serve on delegations to COP or other FCTC meetings, nor should any representatives of state-owned tobacco industries be included on government delegations.

WHO Chief Calls for Multisectoral Collaboration in Global Health Advocacy

Nov 21st, 2016
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http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/news/international/1611/4463-1.htm

“Tobacco use kills around 6 million people each year. That’s a fact. Health literacy must extend from the personal to the political and policy levels,” said Margaret Chan, the director-general of WHO, in her keynote address at the 9th Global Conference on Health Promotion.

From November 21 to 24, World Health Organization officials, health ministers and health city mayors, totaling more than 1,180 health sector personnel from 126 countries and regions, will gather in Shanghai to discuss global health promotion and equity.

The conference, led by WHO, rotates host cities every three to four years. This year’s event is the first one to be held in China, the country with the world’s biggest population and thus the toughest challenge when it comes to health.

Describing the combination of legislative and fiscal measures as “among the most effective interventions,” Chan called for intersectional efforts at both the national and municipal levels to reshape people’s environments and lifestyle choices.

“Today’s complex health challenges can no longer be addressed by the health sector acting alone. Curbing the rise of antimicrobial resistance requires policy support from agriculture. Access to clean energy fuels economic growth, but it also reduces millions of deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular disease associated with air pollution,” Chan said.

Citing success in Australia, the U.K. and France, the director-general called on more countries to carry out Plain Packaging, a tobacco control measure headed by the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“In October, WHO urged governments to introduce taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce their significant contribution to obesity, diabetes and dental decay,” she added.

Chan also urged governments to accept responsibility for protecting children from obesity, and for assisting the poor in accessing healthy foods.

E-cigarettes raise teens’ risk of persistent cough and wheeze, study finds

Nov 21st, 2016
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Teenagers who use e-cigarettes have twice the risk of respiratory symptoms such as persistent cough, bronchitis, and wheeze as those who have never used the devices, a large US study has found.1

Use of e-cigarettes among teenagers is increasing dramatically, and public health experts are concerned that these devices may increase cigarette smoking. But there has been limited information on the effect of chronic e-cigarette use on respiratory health.

Researchers analysed responses to a questionnaire from 2086 teenagers aged 16 to 18 years who were taking part in the ongoing Southern California Children’s Health study, to investigate the long term effects of air pollution on respiratory health in young people. Respondents to the 2014 questionnaire were asked about use of e-cigarettes and chronic cough, phlegm, bronchitis, and wheeze in the previous 12 months.

The results showed that the risk of bronchitic symptoms was twice as high in teenagers who said that they were currently using e-cigarettes as in those who had never tried them (odds ratio 2.02 (95% confidence interval 1.42 to 2.88)).

Risk of bronchitis symptoms rose with frequency of current use, from a two thirds higher risk in teenagers who used e-cigarettes for 1-2 days in the previous month (odds ratio 1.66 (1.02 to 2.68)) to two and a half times the risk in those using them on three or more days (odds ratio 2.52 (1.56 to 4.08)), when compared with never users.

And the risk of respiratory symptoms was 85% higher in teenagers who said that they had used e-cigarettes than in those who had never used them (odds ratio 1.85 (1.37 to 2.49)). This increased risk remained even after adjustment for relevant potential confounding factors. Associations were slightly reduced when data were adjusted for lifetime number of cigarettes smoked and secondhand smoke exposure. But the risk of bronchitic symptoms among past e-cigarette users remained higher after adjustment for relevant potential confounders and was also seen among those who had never smoked cigarettes (odds ratio 1.70 (1.11 to 2.59)).

Just under a 10th (9.6% (201)) of the adolescents who responded to the survey were current users of e-cigarettes, having used them at least once in the previous 30 days.

An eighth (14.4%) were past users, reporting that they had used e-cigarettes previously but not in the past month. And three quarters (76%) said that they had never used e-cigarettes.

“E-cigarettes are known to deliver chemicals toxic to the lungs, including oxidant metals, glycerol vapour, diketone flavouring compounds, and nicotine,” said the study’s lead author, Rob McConnell, professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

He noted, “The Food and Drug Administration recently banned the sale of e-cigarettes to children under 18 years of age, and California just prohibited sale to young adults under 21.

“Our results suggest that these regulations and an environment that discourages the initiation of any tobacco product may reduce the burden of chronic respiratory symptoms in youth.” He added that further studies were needed to better understand the long term effects of e-cigarette use.

1 McConnell R, Barrington-Trimis JL, Wang K, et al. Electronic-cigarette use and respiratory symptoms in adolescents. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2016; doi:10.1164/rccm.201604-0804OC.

Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions

Early childhood household smoke exposure predicts later delinquency and dropout risk at age 12

Nov 21st, 2016
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https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-11/uom-ech111816.php

Results of a new study led by Professor Linda Pagani of the University of Montreal’s School of Psycho-Education show that the more children are exposed to household tobacco smoke in early childhood, the greater their risk of adopting antisocial behavior toward others, engaging in proactive and reactive aggression, having conduct problems at school, and dropping out at age 12.

“Young children have little control over their exposure to household tobacco smoke, which is considered toxic to the brain at a time when its development is exponential,” said Pagani.

“The detection of early environmental factors that influence later child well-being represents an important target for individual and community health. Parents who smoke near where their children live and play often inadvertently expose them to second and third hand smoke. It was already known that environmental smoke places children at risk of short- and long-term health problems. However, now for the first time, we have compelling evidence which suggests other dangers to developing brain systems that govern behavioural decisions, social and emotional life, and cognitive functioning,” she added.

Pagani, her graduate student François Lévesque-Seck, and fellow Professors Isabelle Archambault and Michel Janosz, came to their conclusions after examining data from a longitudinal birth cohort of Quebec boys and girls born in 1997 and 1998. The Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development is a public database administered and coordinated by the Institut de la statistique du Québec. Every year, parents of 1,035 children from the longitudinal study reported whether anyone smoked at home when their children were aged 1.5 to 7.5 years. At age 12, their children self-reported their antisocial behaviour and academic characteristics. Overall, 60 percent of families reported never being exposed to tobacco smoke, while 27 percent reported intermittent exposure, and 13 percent reported chronic exposure. Pagani’s team then analyzed the data to identify whether there was a significant link between early household smoke exposure and later signs of child deviance. This was done while eliminating the influence of numerous confounding factors such as exposure to tobacco smoke, drugs, and alcohol during pregnancy, and other parental and family characteristics that could have explained the observed link between early household smoke and later child deviance.

“Our goal was to eliminate any pre-existing conditions of the children or families that could shed a different light on our results or serve as alternative explanations,” said the researcher.

Animal studies have suggested that exposure to tobacco smoke is toxic to the developing brain at a time when it is most vulnerable to environment input. Abnormal brain development can result from chronic or transient exposure to toxic chemicals and gases in second hand tobacco smoke. These compounds eventually solidify and create third hand smoke. Antisocial behavior is characterized by proactive intent to harm others, lack prosocial feelings, and violate social norms. Such behaviors include aggression, criminal offenses, theft, refusal to comply with authority, and destruction of property. In later childhood, antisocial behavior is often associated with academic problems, as highlighted in the study. Deviance and dropout risk are costly to society as a whole.

“These long-term associations should encourage policy-makers and public health professionals to raise awareness among parents about the developmental risks of second hand smoke exposure. In addition, schools could incorporate this knowledge into curricula at all grade levels in an effort to prevent further exposure to neurotoxins,” she concluded.

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About the study

Professor Linda Pagani, her graduate student François Lévesque-Seck, and Professors Isabelle Archambault and Michel Janosz published the article “Early Childhood Household Smoke Exposure Predicts Later Delinquent Behaviour and Dropout Risk at Age 12″ online in Indoor Air, the official journal of the International Society of Indoor Air Quality and Climate, November 21, 2016. DOI: 10.1111/ina.12353

Linda Pagani, Isabelle Archambault, and Michel Janosz are professors at the School of Psychoeducation and researchers at the FRQSC School Environment Research Group, at the University of Montreal.

British American Tobacco says a minimum excise tax in the Autumn Statement would only fuel the black market

Nov 21st, 2016
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UK smokers face a triple whammy in 2017 ahead of Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement, a British American Tobacco spokesperson said.

http://www.cityam.com/254049/british-american-tobacco-says-minimum-excise-tax-autumn

With a duty escalator expected and more limitations to come from the EU’s tobacco products directive, BAT said the minimum excise tax proposed by former chancellor George Osborne should be dropped.

The minimum excise tax is effectively a floor price that would hike the price of value-for-money brands in an effort to encourage smokers to quit rather than switch to cheaper brands.

Will Hill is a spokesperson for BAT who said the company, which has a stake in low cost options, would urge the government not to introduce the proposed tax.

Research for the tobacco company by KPMG also showed the tax could increase activity in illicit trading. The study said British smokers who buy low cost brands are more likely to fall into the black market than to quit smoking.

If set at the wrong level, the research shows the tax could cost the Treasury £1.2bn between 2017 and 2020.

The Treasury lost more than £31bn in tax revenue between 2010 and 2015 due to high taxes on alcohol and tobacco, a report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance said.

The company also said the minimum excise tax would run counter to Theresa May’s assurances of a government that works for the many and not just the privileged few.

Anti-smoking campaigner wins top award

Nov 21st, 2016
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http://scottishcancerfoundation.org.uk/news/anti-smoking-campaigner-wins-top-award/

An anti-tobacco campaigner who has played a leading role in reducing the harm caused by cigarettes in Scotland has been honoured by the Scottish Cancer Foundation.

Sheila Duffy, the chief executive of ASH Scotland, is this year’s recipient of Scottish Cancer Foundation prize which recognises individuals who have made an outstanding contribution in the fight against cancer.

Today, smoking rates in Scotland are half what they were in the 1970s and the number of young people taking up the habit is at the lowest level ever recorded. Meanwhile public support has grown for measures to regulate tobacco even further.

Sheila Duffy has been at the heart of these changes for the past 20 years. She played a prominent role in building the case in Scotland for the introduction of a smoking ban in enclosed public places in 2006 – the first part of the UK to introduce such a measure. It has been credited with changing attitudes to smoking and has been described as one of the most important public health changes of the past 100 years.

In addition Ms Duffy has campaigned successfully to move tobacco out of the reach of young people, enhance support for those who want to quit, and remove attractive branding from tobacco packaging which reduces its appeal, particularly to young people.

Professor Bob Steele, Chairman of the Scottish Cancer Foundation said: “Smoking causes or increases the risk of a range of cancers and it has been very pleasing to see the positive reductions that have taken place in tobacco use in Scotland in recent years. Sheila Duffy and the organisation she leads have been instrumental in many of these changes which will free hundreds of thousands of Scots from the fear of contracting tobacco related cancer.

“Her commitment has helped to make Scotland a healthier country and she is a very worthy winner of the Scottish Cancer Foundation prize.”

Ms Duffy said : “I am greatly honoured to receive this award, especially in 2016 as we celebrate ten years of smoke-free indoor spaces. Tobacco is the single biggest preventable cause of cancer, and working to put cigarettes out of sight, out of mind and out of fashion must be a priority going forward.”

“The national ambition is that a child born this year will grow up and reach the age of 18 smoke-free. Achieving this will prevent future cancers, and directly reduce health inequalities.”

The award comes with £10,000 prize money which is to be used to further reduce the burden of cancer in Scotland. Ms Duffy said that ASH Scotland plans to use the money on research to improve the help that can be given to people living in challenging circumstances. The smoking rate for the poorest fifth of the population is still 34%, amongst those with a long-term disability or unemployed it is nearly 50% and among prisoners it is 72%. A third of all tobacco used is by people with mental health issues.

The research will focus on factors that lead people in these groups to smoke and the barriers they face to stopping. It is hoped this will fill gaps in our current knowledge and lead to more effective measures to help them.

The Scottish Cancer Foundation prize is supported by the Grant Simpson Trust which helps organisations involved in the “advancement of health.”

The award to Ms Duffy was presented at the Scotland Against Cancer conference on November 21 at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Major tobacco firms are appealing a landmark $15B ruling they lost

Nov 21st, 2016
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https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/11/21/major-tobacco-firms-are-appealing-a-landmark-15b-ruling-they-lost.html

Three major tobacco firms are appealing a landmark $15 billion Superior Court ruling they lost in June 2015.

Lawyers for Imperial Tobacco, JTI-Macdonald and Rothmans-Benson & Hedges began arguments today during hearings that are expected to last until the end of the week.

The companies were targeted by two separate lawsuits heard at the same time that were filed in 1998 and only went to trial in 2012.

They were sued by people who were addicted to cigarettes and couldn’t quit as well as by those who had suffered from cancer or emphysema.

Some 76 witnesses testified and nearly 43,000 documents were deposited as evidence, including internal tobacco company documents that showed smokers didn’t know or understand the risks associated with cigarettes.

Cigarette companies argued their customers knew the risks of smoking and that their products were sold legally and were strictly regulated by the federal government.

The same cigarette companies are also being sued by the Quebec government in a $60-billion lawsuit aiming to recover health care costs related to smokers.