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March, 2010:

N Korea draws on tobacco to generate hard cash

Mar 15th, 2010
by AdminCTA.
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north korean smoker

Last updated: March 9, 2010

Source: Financial Times

By Tom Mitchell in Hong Kong and Pan Kwan Yuk in London

A North Korea desperate for foreign exchange has been generating hard currency by re-exporting British cigarettes, despite renewed efforts by the international community to apply tougher sanctions on the impoverished state.

North Korean and other Asian trading entities started re-exporting State Express 555 cigarettes, manufactured by British American Tobacco,

in February last year, just months before North Korea’s second nuclear test in four years prompted the United Nations to impose tougher sanctions on Pyongyang.

BAT sold the so-called “NK 555s”, made and packaged in Singapore for the North Korean market, to a Singaporean distributor for shipment to Nampo, a port near Pyongyang.

However, at least 15,000 cases worth $6.3m (€4.6m, £4.2m) rebounded out of Nampo to ports in Vietnam and the Philippines, according to documents seen by the Financial Times, to go to other markets where they commanded a higher price.

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New Zealand: Call for tobacco to be dealt with the same way as meth

Mar 15th, 2010
by AdminCTA.
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just say noFirst published: March 10, 2010

Source: New Zealand Herald

The prospect of a black market springing up to fill the void of legal tobacco sales if the product is banned has been dismissed at a parliamentary inquiry.

Many people and organisations have asked the Maori affairs select committee’s inquiry into tobacco to support an eventual prohibition on tobacco.

Most have not specified how this might be done, but Tairawhiti District Health Board member Brian Wilson suggested at the inquiry’s first public hearing, in Rotorua yesterday, that it could be achieved by classifying tobacco under the Misuse of Drugs Act, like methamphetamine.
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Tobacco Smuggling: The Report

Mar 14th, 2010
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smuggling report

Each year approximately 400 billion cigarettes, or one-third of all legally exported cigarettes, end up illegally smuggled across international borders. Cigarettes are the world’s most widely smuggled legal consumer product.

Find out more in the Illegal Pathways to Illegal Profits report here.
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Tobacco & Corporate Social Responsibility

Mar 14th, 2010
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tobacco and csrDownload the report here.
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Vox Populi: Further tobacco tax hike needed

Mar 14th, 2010
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tax hikeLast updated: March 11, 2010

Source: SCMP

Despite a series of government measures aimed at reducing smoking in Hong Kong, our tobacco tax is still very low compared with other places. Most smokers can still afford to buy packets of cigarettes. There is no incentive for them to quit.

It is clear that second-hand smoke is harmful, and it is unfair that non-smokers should be exposed to it in areas where people can still light up.

I believe the administration has to impose further increases in the tobacco tax. If it does this we will all eventually be able to breathe cleaner air.

Michelle Chan Yin-ching, To Kwa Wan

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UK: Expert calls for total smoking ban

Mar 14th, 2010
by AdminCTA.
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no smokingFirst published: March 10, 2010

Source: Yahoo

Expert calls for total smoking ban

More young people are being treated for smoking-related lung diseases, an expert has claimed.

Anindo Banerjee, 41, respiratory specialist at Southampton General Hospital, said even though there is a ban on lighting up in public, cigarettes continue to be a major health problem and not just for older generations. He called for a total ban on cigarettes on the eve of No Smoking Day.

Mr Banerjee said he is even treating a 19-year-old for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which can cause sufferers to slowly suffocate. “Year on year we are seeing increasing numbers of patients with severe chest diseases due to smoking in which the lungs are damaged, such as COPD,” he said.

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Paradox: Tobacco director doubles as patron for women’s health organization

Mar 12th, 2010
by AdminCTA.
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paradoxClear the Air is part of a worldwide movement in tobacco control

From: James Middleton [mailto:dynamco@netvigator.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 7:54 AM
To: ‘ballen@genesisresearch.org’
Subject: Tobacco director as patron

Honourable Barbara McDougall Honorary Patron of the Genesis Research Foundation.

http://www.genesisresearch.org/board/mcdougall.htm

please tell me, how can you possibly have a current board director of a Canadian tobacco company and BAT subsidiary , as a patron of a foundation supposedly whose aims are advancing women’s health ? There is nothing ‘Honourable’ about that. As for the IDRC Board of Governors (a Crown Corporation) , well shame on them too.

What a fiasco for Canada’s face to the World.

James Middleton

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Philip Morris Suing Over Cigarette Display Ban // “Blowing Smoke With a Nutty Legal Theory,” Says ASH

Mar 12th, 2010
by AdminCTA.
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tobacco control cover warningsFirst published: March 9, 2010

Source: PR Inside

Philip Morris has announced that it will file a law suit in Oslo, Norway, aimed at stopping a ban on the open display of cigarettes mandated by Norwegian law; a ban similar to one in effect in Iceland, and introduced in Ireland, all Canadian provinces, and New South Wales, Australia. But they seem to be blowing smoke with a nutty legal theory, says the public interest law professor behind litigation against against tobacco who has been called “Mr. Antismoking.”

Philip Morris plans to argue that the Norwegian law violated the European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement; an agreement which allows Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein to participate in the Internal Market in Europe. The Agreement generally bans “quantitative restrictions on imports and all measures having equivalent effect” [Article 11]. However it explicitly exempts “measures justified on grounds of public morality .
. the protections of health . . .” [Article 13]

Philip Morris says it plans to argue that Norway’s law is an import restriction which is not justified by “protections of health” because it hasn’t yet produced any drop in cigarette consumption. But, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf, this argument makes no sense for several reasons.
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Working the System

Mar 12th, 2010
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Big TobaccoBritish American Tobacco’s Influence on the European Union Treaty and Its Implications for Policy: An Analysis of Internal Tobacco Industry Documents

Download it here.
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Passive smoke harms teen arteries

Mar 11th, 2010
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smoking in cars

First published: March 7, 2010

Source: SCMP via Reuters

Children as young as 13 who have evidence of second-hand smoke in their blood also have visibly thicker arteries, Finnish researchers have reported.

Their study suggests the damage caused by second-hand tobacco smoke starts
in childhood and causes measurable damage by the teen years.

“Although previous research has found that passive smoke may be harmful for
adult blood vessels, we did not know until this study that these specific
effects also happen among children and adolescents,” Dr Katariina Kallio of
the University of Turku in Finland, who led the study, says.
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