April 8th, 2015:

City’s age limit to buy, sell tobacco could increase

Apr 8th, 2015

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/upperarlington/news/2015/04/07/citys-age-limit-to-buy-sell-tobacco-could-increase.html

A city council member and two Ohio State University professors asked city officials April 6 to raise the age limit for the sale and purchase of tobacco and nicotine products from 18 to 21 in Upper Arlington.

Saying it would be the most effective way to reduce smoking in the community, Councilman Kip Greenhill asked fellow council members to consider the request.

He was backed by Micah Berman, who teaches at OSU’s Moritz College of Law and College of Public Health, and Dr. Rob Crane, a clinical associate professor of family medicine at the OSU Wexner Medical Center and president of the Preventing Tobacco Addiction Foundation.

Each noted Upper Arlington was quick to support a public ban on smoking and to prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes, and said the city should take this new step in cutting off smoking before it becomes a lifelong habit for many.

“I think our community can take a lot of pride in being a leader, not only in Ohio but the Midwest, in public health,” Greenhill said. “This is probably the single most effective intervention we can use against tobacco.

“We all know tobacco kills. This is a safety issue.”

Crane said he was appearing before council because of Greenhill’s support of the proposal to raise the age limit for buying and selling nicotine products but also because of the city’s record against smoking.

He said he plans to visit communities throughout central Ohio in hopes of convincing others to increase their sale and purchase age restrictions.

“We’re going to talk about kids and preventing kids from starting,” Crane said. “One out of 13 children alive today will die from smoking. That’s 5.6 million American kids alive today who will die if we don’t do something.”

Crane said more than 50 cities in seven states already have raised the tobacco and nicotine age restriction from 18 to 21.

He added that, according to an OSU College of Public Health study, 22 percent of women age 18-21 in Franklin County smoke during pregnancy, which is twice the rate of smoking during pregnancy for those older than 21.

He said the study found the tobacco industry spends more than $1 million every day to market products in Ohio.

Berman said only retailers and tobacco companies oppose raising the age restrictions. Reducing smoking at young ages significantly decreases the chances someone will smoke later in life, he added.

“If you make it past 21, it is highly, highly unlikely that you will ever smoke,” Berman said. “If you make it past 18, it’s unlikely you will smoke. There has not been one lawsuit challenging any one of these regulations.”

Council is expected to consider legislation to change the age limit for the sale and purchase of tobacco and nicotine products at a future meeting after Greenhill and Councilmen David DeCapua and Mike Schadek indicated initial support for such a measure.

“It seems patently obvious for us to do this,” DeCapua said.

However, council Vice President Debbie Johnson and Councilman Erik Yassenoff said they are hesitant to move forward at this time.

Johnson said she wants to find out more about how raising the age limit would affect local businesses and law enforcement.

Yassenoff said he supports “uniformity” of regulations among neighboring communities and would prefer the issue be addressed in concert with other communities or, possibly, at the state level.

“I strongly support uniformity of public policy for jurisdictions that are closely knit,” he said. “(We could) reach out to other communities to see if we can all move forward at the same time.”

Because of the power of tobacco industry lobbyists, Crane and Berman said, they don’t believe the state will raise the age restriction any time soon, which puts the onus on local governments.

“I think it has to come from the ground up,” Berman said.

Raising the minimum buying age for tobacco could mean fewer people start to smoke

Apr 8th, 2015

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Apr 2 2015

Micah Berman

In 2005, the Boston suburb of Needham tried a new tactic to reduce youth tobacco use: the town raised the legal age for purchasing tobacco from 18 to 21. The results were dramatic – tobacco use among high school students dropped almost in half, and Needham’s decline in high school smoking rates far outpaced the surrounding suburbs.

In the past two years, communities around the country have begun to follow Needham’s lead. To date, more than 50 communities in seven states have raised their tobacco sales age to 21, including New York City in 2014. And the momentum keeps growing. And at least 10 state legislatures are now considering Tobacco 21 legislation.

Earlier this month, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which is part of the National Academy of Sciences, released a 335-page report detailing the benefits of raising the tobacco sales age to 21, which would match the minimum age for purchasing alcohol.

Of all the options for addressing tobacco use, why are Tobacco 21 policies catching on? Why do they work?

Tobacco use is a ‘pediatric epidemic’

Think about the people you know who smoke. How many of them smoked their first cigarette before age 21? How many of them wish they had never smoked that first cigarette? The likely answer to both of these questions is: all of them.

The US Surgeon General has referred to tobacco use as a “pediatric epidemic,” because it almost always begins in youth. Indeed, despite all we know about the harms of tobacco, it is still the case that one in four high school seniors is a smoker and youth tobacco rates have barely budged over the past decade.

Of those who begin smoking as youth, 80% will smoke into adulthood, and one-half of all adult smokers will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases.

The flip side of tobacco use being a “pediatric epidemic” is that the likelihood of starting to smoke declines markedly with age. The older you are, the less likely you are to start smoking. Although the tobacco industry has been increasingly targeting college-age students with its marketing, it remains the case that if someone makes it through high school without smoking, it is unlikely that he or she will ever start.

The tobacco industry has recognized this for years. In a 1982 memo, a researcher from the tobacco company R J Reynolds stated: “If a man has never smoked by age 18, the odds are three-to-one he never will. By age 21, the odds are twenty-to-one.”

Why do Tobacco 21 policies work?

Tobacco 21 policies are effective because they make it much more difficult for middle and high school students to access tobacco. This is because youth tobacco experimentation and use is driven by legal tobacco sales, not by illegal ones.

Today, at least in most places, 18- and 19-year-olds can legally purchase tobacco products and then supply them to younger kids (who, at least in the early stages of smoking, only use cigarettes occasionally). Raising the minimum age to 21 puts legal purchasers outside the social circle of most high school students.

Of course, raising the tobacco sales age to 21 will not keep all high school students from finding ways to access tobacco products, but the experience in Needham suggests it will significantly reduce the amount of youth tobacco use.

Given the scope of the problem – more than 3,800 kids under the age of 18 start smoking every day – the public health benefits could be enormous. Using conservative assumptions, the IOM study concluded that a nationwide Tobacco 21 policy would avoid nearly 250,000 premature deaths among those born between 2000 and 2019. Other public health benefits, such as a reduction in low birth weight and pre-term births, would be far more immediate.

We also now know that a legal age of 18 for tobacco is out of touch with what the scientific evidence says about adolescent brain development. As discussed in the recent book The Teenage Brain, brains do not fully mature until people reach their early 20s (and possibly later).

For a still-developing brain, exposure to nicotine causes long-term neurological harm; in essence, the addiction to nicotine gets hard-wired into the developing brain. This leads to a stronger nicotine addiction and makes it much more difficult to quit later on. For this reason, the recent explosion in youth e-cigarette use is deeply troubling, and Tobacco 21 policies should also include e-cigarettes, hookahs and other products that deliver nicotine.

18 is not a magic number

Federal law prohibits the FDA from raising the tobacco sales age above 18; only Congress can do that for the nation as a whole – and it’s hard for Congress to get anything done these days. But every state and most communities have the legal authority to adopt Tobacco 21 laws, which is exactly what they are starting to do.

The opposition to this emerging movement (primarily tobacco companies and tobacco retailers) chants “old enough to vote, old enough to smoke.” But tobacco use is not a right or a privilege; it is an addictive and deadly activity. For the overwhelming majority of smokers, tobacco use is not in fact an “adult choice;” it is the result of an addiction that began when they were in high school or younger, and one that they are trying hard to kick.

There is nothing natural or unchangeable about a minimum age of 18. In traditional British common law, the “age of majority” (adulthood) was 21. In the US, the voting age was not lowered from 21 to 18 until 1971, but soon thereafter states began raising their drinking age from 18 to 21 when they realized that teens were disproportionately responsible for drunk driving accidents.

More recently, states that have sanctioned the legal use of marijuana – a drug far less deadly than tobacco – have set 21 as the minimum age. In short, it has long been the case that there are different minimum ages at different times and for different purposes.

Something we can agree on

Because no one (except for tobacco companies) wants the next generation to smoke, raising the minimum age to 21 is one tobacco control policy that nearly everyone can agree upon. It’s no surprise then, that a recently published study found that more than seven in 10 adults favored increasing the tobacco sales age to 21, including strong majorities in every demographic category (including current smokers and 18-20 year olds). This is the rare policy measure that is bipartisan, popular, and effective. What are we waiting for?

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-minimum-age-tobacco-people.html

Lee a pioneer in fight against smoking

Apr 8th, 2015

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7 Apr 2015

Lee Kuan Yew has been memorialised in many ways since he died last month, but his most lasting and enduring legacy may well be in the prevention of deaths from smoking.

He visited Britain in 1969, just when the evidence on the harm of tobacco was beginning to surface.

The story has it that someone mentioned to him – almost in passing – that smoking was harmful. In true style, he returned to Singapore and, well before any similar measure in the West, passed the world’s first serious piece of tobacco control legislation in 1970, banning smoking in buses, cinemas, theatres and other specified buildings.

This was shortly followed by a second law in 1971 banning tobacco advertising. This was the birth of utilising tobacco control laws to reduce the then- emerging epidemic of smoking deaths.

These Singapore laws were also landmarks in understanding the role of law in the promotion of public health, and that the tobacco war would never be won in the corridors of hospitals and clinics, but in the corridors of power.

Political will is still the single most important ingredient in reducing what is now a pandemic of tobacco deaths – and needed more today than ever.

Dr Judith Mackay, director, Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control

http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1758765/letters-editor-april-08-2015

‘Scarier’ cigarette packet warnings and ban on e-cigarettes mooted in Hong Kong

Apr 8th, 2015

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8 Apr 2015

Emily Tsang

Warnings on cigarette packets that “smoking kills” are not scary enough, according to new government proposals under which tobacco products will be labelled with even more frightening content, a health official says.

Other new measures include expanding no-smoking areas and a citywide ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes, said Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee, undersecretary of the Food and Health Bureau.

These proposals are expected to be presented to the Legislative Council this year.

One of the bureau’s main goals is to expand the size of the health warning, which now covers about 50 per cent of the pack, and to replace them with “scarier” messages targeted at female and young smokers.

Those currently in place had been criticised as not scary enough, Chan said. “They have been in use since 2006, and the government believes it is time to update the content,” she said.

According to the Department of Health, the proportion of people who smoke daily has seen a downward trend, with a low of 10.7 per cent in 2012, the last year for which data is available. But while that is one of the lowest in the world, Chan said “we shouldn’t be proud”, and should continue trying to reduce it.

Many countries such as Thailand and Canada have enhanced the warnings by having them cover 60 to 80 per cent of each pack. In late 2012, Australia issued the world’s toughest warning – by replacing all of the branding labels with warnings that cover the whole packet.

Antonio Kwong Cho-shing, chairman of the city’s anti-smoking watchdog the Council on Smoking and Health, said Hong Kong should do the same.

But Chan said the city may not decide to go quite so far, and the size of the health warning would be open for public discussion.

She also highlighted the importance of enhancing the warning message targeting female smokers. Bucking the citywide trend, the number of women who smoke has risen 70 per cent between 1990 and 2012, from 56,100 to 96,800 – although women accounted for just 3.1 per cent of all smokers in 2012.

“Women smoke for a different reason, usually due to psychological reasons such as stress and depression. Some believe it helps in losing weight. Since they are more aware of their appearances, the messages can target how tobacco would affect their skin texture or [make them look] older.”

Chan said the new warning would also highlight the health risk for parents exposing their children to second- and third-hand smoke.

But the Coalition on Tobacco Affairs, made up of representatives from tobacco companies, objected to the move and said current warnings were sufficient. A spokeswoman said there was no evidence that oversized warnings reduced smoking, and said the move would harm the intellectual property rights of tobacco companies.

The government’s push to enhance the warning labels followed its decision not to raise the tobacco tax this year. Chan said a tax increase would be considered again in the next fiscal year.

http://www.scmp.com/print/news/hong-kong/article/1759823/hong-kong-government-looks-expand-citys-anti-smoking-measures

dynamco Apr 8th 2015 3:07pm

apathetic, backward, useless, retrograde, insipid ?Health? Dept spring to mind
India will have 85% graphic warnings
Australia, Ireland, UK already, followed by Wales and Scotland will have plain packs followed by France , India, Norway whilst here they sit back ‘n take the money, next year, next year
The smoking prevalence is higher than they state, no thematic study asks whether the smokers have used illicit tobacco , which would affect the figures
The Tobacco Control Office is suitably understaffed by approx 1,000 % so they cannot patrol, there is no onus on premises owners to keep their premises tobacco smokefree
20% of the 7,000 tobacco deaths every year here and from passive smoking
All in all, a fking mess from a Govt that is supposed to have duty of care to its people

‘Scarier’ cigarette packet warnings and ban on e-cigarettes mooted in Hong Kong

Apr 8th, 2015

by Editor.

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Messages on packets will be more graphic, and government will also ban e-cigarettes and extend no-smoking areas to help people kick the habit

Other new measures include expanding no-smoking areas and a citywide ban on the sale of electronic cigarettes, said Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee, undersecretary of the Food and Health Bureau.

These proposals are expected to be presented to the Legislative Council this year.

Those currently in place had been criticised as not scary enough, Chan said. “They have been in use since 2006, and the government believes it is time to update the content,” she said.

Antonio Kwong Cho-shing, chairman of the city’s anti-smoking watchdog the Council on Smoking and Health, said Hong Kong should do the same.

Warnings on cigarette packets in Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP

But Chan said the city may not decide to go quite so far, and the size of the health warning would be open for public discussion.

Chan said the new warning would also highlight the health risk for parents exposing their children to second- and third-hand smoke.

The government’s push to enhance the warning labels followed its decision not to raise the tobacco tax this year. Chan said a tax increase would be considered again in the next fiscal year.

Source URL (modified on Apr 8th 2015, 10:35am): http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1759823/hong-kong-government-looks-expand-citys-anti-smoking-measures

UPPER ARLINGTON, OHIO CONSIDERS MINIMUM TOBACCO PURCHASING AGE INCREASE

Apr 8th, 2015

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http://halfwheel.com/upper-arlington-ohio-considers-minimum-tobacco-purchasing-age-increase/82668

A one-man movement to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco, similar to the one seen in Massachusetts, could becoming to Ohio.

Dr. Rob Crane, a clinical associate professor of family medicine at The Ohio State University, joined Upper Arlington Councilman Kip Greenhill in support of a measure that would raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21 in the Columbus suburb.

According to ThisWeek Community News, Crane told the city council that he would begin visiting governments around the state in support of the minimum purchasing age change. That is similar to Dr. Lester Hartman, a Massachusetts-based pediatrician who has been campaigning across his state for similar legislation. To date, Hartman has been rather effective at getting laws changed at the municipal level.

Crane found additional support on the city council with Councilmen David DeCapua and Mike Schadek joining Greenhill in the proposal. The measure is expected to be formally taken up at a future meeting.

Upper Arlington is located in Franklin County, northwest of Columbus and bordering The Ohio State University. It has a population just under 35,000.

BILL TO RAISE TOBACCO PURCHASE AGE IN WASHINGTON MOVES FORWARD, WITH CHANGES

Apr 8th, 2015

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http://halfwheel.com/bill-to-raise-tobacco-purchase-age-in-washington-moves-forward-with-changes/82688

A bill to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco and nicotine delivery products in Washington state continues to move forward, but a few changes have been made since it was introduced in January.

After clearing the House Committee on Health Care & Wellness by a 12-3 vote in mid-February, the bill went to the House Committee on Finance, where it was met by a pair of important changes. First, the proposed age was dropped from 21 to 19, and an effective date of July 1, 2019 was added, with the bill then passed by a 9-7 vote by that committee.

Following that, an amendment was filed to change it the effective date to July 1, 2015, meaning that if it passed the full House of Representatives as well as the Senate, the change would go into effect this summer.

Earlier today, the bill was scheduled for a second floor reading by the Rules Committee, with the possibility it could still be considered by the end of the day.

One in ten of all cigarettes sold in Burton is illegal

Apr 8th, 2015

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http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/10-cigarettes-sold-Burton-illegal/story-26297465-detail/story.html

A MAJOR investigation has revealed that the streets of Burton are being blighted by the sale of illegal cigarettes.

Council bosses now believe that one in 10 of all cigarettes sold in the town are illegal.

Figures have also revealed that 28 per cent of smokers in East Staffordshire buy illegal or counterfeit cigarettes.

People in the area buy their tobacco regularly from ‘non-shop’ sources such as pubs, car boot sales and market stalls, which offer much lower prices than high street shops.

The shocking facts and figures means the continuation of efforts by Staffordshire Police, Staffordshire County Council and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to try to crackdown on the problem.

A county council spokesman said: “These products are widely available at low cost and this undermines efforts to discourage smoking through higher pricing of legitimate tobacco.

“The county council has worked hard to combat the sale of illicit alcohol and tobacco in recent years.

“We have received a great deal of information from local people on shops and individuals suspected of selling illicit tobacco products which plays a big part in our operations.”

The majority of the tobacco and cigarettes being sold is either counterfeit or fabricated brands manufactured with no quality control.

Stuart Taylor, HMRC assistant director, criminal investigation, revealed that raids had uncovered illegal goods stored behind cupboards and even in stashed drinks cartons.

He said: “Some of the hiding places used by retailers to conceal these goods in Burton were very sophisticated.”

Shaid Hussain, who runs Good News, in High Street, said those who chose to sell illicit goods were taking custom away from genuine stores.

But he raised concerns that the irresponsible actions of some shop owners could damage the perception of all off-licences in the town centre.

Mr Hussain said: “If these people continue to sell these cigarettes it is taking business away from shops like us – our margin is five per cent on cigarettes.

“Someone buying counterfeit cigarettes doesn’t know what is in them.”