WHO FCTC Protocol to Prevent Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products Won't Be Completed Until End of 2010..

February 23, 2008 - WHO FCTC Protocol to Prevent Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products Won't Be Completed Until End of 2010.. The first session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) on a Protocol on Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products (refers primarily to the smuggling and counterfeiting of tobacco products, which are the world's most widely smuggled legal consumer product)took place from 11 to 16 February 2008 in Geneva. The elimination of illicit trade in tobacco is one of the key strategies under the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Illicit trade in tobacco products contributes to the rise in tobacco consumption and billions of dollars of tax revenue is lost every tax period. The Framework Convention Alliance (created to support the development, ratification, and implementation of the WHO FCTC is made up of over 300 organizations representing over 100 countries around the world) is urging governments to include the following provisions in the illicit trade protocol: An international tracking and tracing system of tobacco products; Anti-money laundering measures; System of record keeping for all imports and exports of tobacco products; Obligations for tobacco manufacturers to control their supply chain with penalties for those that fail to do so; The criminalization of participation in illicit trade in various forms; Increased international cooperation in the sharing of information and prosecution of offenses. Further negotiations are expected in October and in 2009 before a draft text is presented in 2010 to the 152 countries which have ratified the FCTC. (Nations to Launch Negotiations on Treaty to Combat Illicit Tobacco Trade, 2/11/2008) The Alliance must be prepared to aid especially developing countries because the beast will be released - Philip Morris International on March 28, 2008. Related FCTC news briefs: China to ban all tobacco advertising by 2011. and Bulgaria - a member of the European Union in 2007 and has ratified the Framework Convention... More on FCTC, the world's first public health treaty, can be found at SNUS.biz. Origins of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.. (TobaccoWatch.org) Read more...

R.J. Reynolds Pauses Free Cigarette Pack Promotion..

February 22, 2008 - R.J. Reynolds Pauses Free Cigarette Pack Promotion.. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) is temporarily dropping a promotion that allows smokers to buy some cigarette packs to get others free. Company chairwoman and chief executive Susan Ivey has said the company is looking for overall growth in market share without over-promoting and over-discounting its products. The company will test the plan in 25 states in the South and along the Eastern seaboard. The temporary halt will run through March 2008. Company officials said it will allow RJR to evaluate promotions in its growth brands Camel, Kool and Pall Mall. Analysts tell the Winston-Salem Journal the move is a sign that cigarette companies are looking to save advertising and promotional dollars in the shrinking cigarette market. That money can then be directed to sectors with growing customer bases. (The Associated Press, 2/20/2008) During my long run on Saturday morning stopped at a c-store to use the bathroom - there were two change mats when paying - one was buy one get one free for Salem and the other was buy one get one free for Camel - the temporary halt runs through March 2008. (TobaccoWatch.org) Click on image to enlarge.. About Image: RJRs' iconic Camel brand this week will get its first major package redo in 90 years. The new look sports the classic camel pyramid icon on a clean and contemporary looking white background. Graphics also flag Camel’s 1913 heritage and include blue and green highlights. RJR is not advertising in consumer publications during 2008. So Camel’s marketing support will consist of “Our Best Smoke Ever” POP, direct marketing with coupon offers to a consumer database and sampling at adult events. Gyro, Philadelphia, handles the account. ( "RJR's Camel Gets a Facelift" by Mike Beirne, Brandweek, 2/19/2008) Read more...

Hefty Fines - Hotels are serious about rooms being smoke free ..

February 21, 2008 - Hefty Fines - Hotels are serious about rooms being smoke free .. More guests ask for hotel rooms that are free of smoking residue and getting more sensitive about smelling any hint of cigarette smoke in non-smoking rooms. Fines can range from $175 to $500 if the smell of tobacco smokes is detected and/or cigarette butts are found in your trash. The American Hotel & Lodging Association found that 74% of hotel rooms in the U.S. were nonsmoking in 2006 up from 65% in 2001. Several large hotel chains including Marriott International Inc.'s Marriott and Starwood's Westin are 100% nonsmoking in North America. Last week, Sheraton, divisions of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., announced all of its North American properties will have a $200 smoking charge when the brands become 100% nonsmoking at the end of 2008. Walt Disney Co.'s Walt Disney World Resort hotels started applying a new smoking charge of as much as $500 in June 2007, when the brand became totally nonsmoking. Some hotels seek out actual physical evidence like photos of ashes or cigarette butts before they levy the fine. The Swissotel Chicago awards housekeepers a $10 bonus for every smoker they catch. ( "Now at Hotels: The $250 Cigarette" by Sarah Nassauer, Wall Street Journal - Personal Journal, 2/21/2008) Click on image to enlarge.. Read more...

U.S. Supreme Court Declares Maine Online Tobacco Sales Law Null..

February 21, 2008 - U.S. Supreme Court Declares Maine Online Tobacco Sales Law Null.. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Wednesday (February 20, 2008) a Maine law meant to restrict minors’ access to tobacco via Internet or mail by forcing delivery companies to institute a recipient-verification service that ensured the buyer is of legal age. “Despite the importance of the public health objective, we cannot agree with Maine that the federal law creates an exemption on that basis,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer said. “Many products create ‘public health’ risks … to allow Maine directly to regulate carrier services would permit other States to do the same.” The law passed Maine’s legislature in 2003, but both a federal appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court found it inappropriate. The federal court had already declared it unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court agreed, unanimously voting against it. The law stipulated that carriers should inspect all tobacco packages directed to Maine. In case they failed to do so, carriers such as United Parcel Service and Federal Express faced negligence charges for knowingly allowing minors access to the products. Another aspect of the law was that it prohibited tobacco shipments into Maine for unlicensed retailers. “Maine’s primary arguments for an exception from the pre-emption – that its laws help prevent minors from obtaining cigarettes and thereby protect its citizens’ public health – are unavailing. The federal law does not create a public health exception, but, to the contrary, explicitly lists a set of exceptions that do not include public health,” the Supreme Court said. Maine was not the only state to support such a law, as 31 other states joined the same efforts to cut down on cigarettes deliver over the Internet and most of all, avoid them reaching minors. After taking into consideration all the aspects and Maine’s arguments that rejecting the law would only compromise the efforts to prevent minor’s access to cigarettes, the Solicitor General said other legislative alternatives should be found to this one. In a concurring opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that the case points to an urgent need for federal legislation. "Tobacco use by children and adolescents, we have recognized, may be the single most significant threat to public health in the United States," she writes. "But no comprehensive federal law currently exists to prevent tobacco sellers from exploiting the underage market. Instead, Congress has encouraged state efforts." Click on image to enlarge..
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Big Tobacco’s Guinea Pigs: How an Unregulated Industry Experiments on America’s Kids and Consumers..

February 21, 2008 - Big Tobacco’s Guinea Pigs: How an Unregulated Industry Experiments on America’s Kids and Consumers.. This excellent report has been issued by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. More and more tobacco products are being marketed as a result of the decline in cigarette smoking and ban on smoking in public places. The report details how the companies manipulate their products to recruit new youth users, create and sustain addiction, and discourage users from quitting. Even though tobacco use in the leading preventable cause of death in this country, tobacco products are not regulated by any public health agency. As a result tobacco manufacturers can introduce new products, secretly modify existing products with new designs and ingredients, and make unproven health claims without regard for the impact on public health. The cornerstone of the pending legislation before the U.S. congress is the requirement that any explicit or implicit health claim must be evaluated by the FDA on a pre-market basis. This principle applies to all other products that the FDA regulates and should be applied to tobacco products. Some related news briefs: C-store Highlighting Tobacco Blunt Wraps Available in Lots of Different Flavors.. and Tobacco Products When You Can't Smoke - Tobacco Film Strips (like Listerine Breath Strips), Nicogel, Nicofix, Firebreaks. Other news briefs concerned with the pending legislation: December 10, 2007, December 7, 2007 and October 5, 2007. (TobaccoWatch.org) Read more...

Swedish Match (Svenska Tandsticks) shares are falling in 2008..

February 20, 2008 - The shares of Swedish Match AB, the world's second-biggest maker of smokeless tobacco products, fell four kronor, or 2.8 percent, to 138 kronor ($21.75 USD) in Stockholm trading on Tuesday (2/19/2008). The stock has declined 11 percent in 2008 after 11 years of gains. Taxes on snus, or Swedish-style snuff, rose again last month in the only European Union country that permits its sale. A scientific committee said on Tuesday there's not enough evidence to show that snus may help people quit smoking, casting a pall on efforts by Swedish Match to lift a ban in other EU states. Snuff generates about half of Swedish Match's operating profit, and the bulk of snuff sales comes from Sweden. The country's government raised taxes by 37 percent last month (January 2008) after doubling them in 2007. The company has forecast an effect similar to that of the last tax rise, which contributed to a 10-percent drop in total sales and a 27-percent slide in operating profit in last year's first quarter (2007). Swedish Match and competitors such as Altria Group Inc have banked on demand for smokeless products to fuel sales as fewer people buy cigarettes in the United States and western Europe. ( "Swedish Match boosts result with land sell-off" by Thomas Mulier 2008-2-21, ShanghaiDaily.com) See related news briefs: November 18, 2007, October 25, 2007 and September 17, 2007. Also of interest: Philip Morris (PM) USA May Acquire Swedish Match (Svenska Tandsticks).. and Philip Morris International acquires Swedish Snus manufacturer Rocker Production AB...
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Ed Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania wants to pay for providing health insurance

February 20, 2008 - for people who don’t have it, by adding an additional 10-cents per pack tax on cigarettes (to $1.45 - why not more??) plus a new 36-cent tax on moist snuff/chewing tobacco and pipe/rolling tobacco and a new 3.6-cent tax per cigar - Let's Get It Done - Already. Pa. politicians are in lust with sin taxes, phillyBurbs.com, 2/20/2008 (Rendell actually introduced a proposal to increase the cigarette tax by $0.10 per pack as well as levy a new tax on other tobacco products to help fund his plan to provide health insurance to all Pennsylvania residents back in January 2007. - excerpted from: Borys Krawczenuik, Rendell Would Raise Cigarette Tax a Dime, Scranton Times-Tribune, January 27, 2007.) The Dummies - July 1, 2007 - Pennsylvania already taxes cigarettes, but is the only state in the union that doesn't tax other tobacco products.. Also, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is proposing an excise tax on tobacco... William T. Godshall - MPH, the Executive Director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, a proponent of the use of snus recently co-authored a paper with Dr. Brad Rodu (December 2006 issue of the Harm Reduction Journal) entitled, "Tobacco Harm Reduction: An Alternate Cessation Strategy for Inveterate Smokers". When we asked Mr. Godshall how can we limit the distribution of moist snuff pouches so they don't get in the mouths of kids. He responded: The 1992 Synar Amendment, and laws in every state (and many local jurisdictions) sharply reduced tobacco sales to youth, and the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement sharply reduced cigarette and smokeless tobacco advertising and promotions that had previously targetted youth. Meanwhile, tax hikes on cigarettes and other tobacco products have further reduced youth consumption of those tobacco products. Click on image to enlarge..(TobaccoWatch.org) Read more...

Altria Group Dropped From Dow Jones..

February 19, 2008 - Bank of America Corp. and Chevron Corp. will replace tobacco company Altria Group and manufacturer Honeywell International in the Dow Jones industrial average of 30 actively traded blue chip stocks, giving the stock market’s best-known indicator bigger slices of the banking and energy sectors. Altria, better known by its former name, Phillip Morris Cos. The maker of Marlboro cigarettes last year spun off its Kraft Foods division after earlier selling most of its Miller Brewing unit, and it will soon corral its international tobacco operations into a separate company. The blue chip index’s parent, Dow Jones & Co., said the slimmed down Altria will be too small and narrowly focused to warrant inclusion in the Dow. Phillip Morris became part of the index in 1985. While Altria’s makeover prompted the decision to alter the index for the first time since 2004, Dow Jones also reviewed the other 29 components. The changes, which take place today (Tuesday, February 19, 2008), are the first since April 2004. The 30 stocks are chosen by the editors of the Wall Street Journal (which is published by Dow Jones & Company), a practice that dates back to the beginning of the century. ( Dow Jones index to replace Altria and Honeywell by Tim Paradis - ASSOCIATED PRESS, The Buffalo News BUSINESS Today, 2/19/2008) Some related news briefs regarding the Altria split: More on Philip Morris International of the Future.., With less restrains PMI looks to the future.., With the spin off of Philip Morris International the parent company of Philip Morris, Altria, will become a company focused on various tobacco markets in the United States.., Altria Announces Spin-off of Philip Morris International Inc.., Tomorrow Altria Board Expected to Announce Decision to Split Philip Morris International (PMI) From Philip Morris USA.. and . Click on image to enlarge..
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New Jersey May Ban Certain Flavored Cigarettes..

February 19, 2008 - The sale of flavored cigarettes would be prohibited in New Jersey under a bill (S-613) that was approved by a state Senate panel yesterday. The bill, approved by the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee by a vote of 8-1, now heads to the full Senate. "Flavored cigarettes are a sales gimmick brought to you by the same minds that thought Joe Camel was a good idea," said Sen. Joseph F. Vitale (D-Middlesex), the chair of the panel who sponsored the bill along with Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex). "Offering cigarettes in various candy flavors is a blatant attempt by the tobacco industry to recruit children into a life of smoking, and all the negative health consequences that such a life carries." The bill would prohibit the sale or distribution of cigarettes made to taste like fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, alcoholic beverage, herbs or spices. Menthol and clove cigarettes are exempted from the prohibition, and the measure does not apply to cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco and smokeless tobacco. The bill was approved by the full Senate last session, but did not receive Assembly consideration before the end of the session last month. (by Scott Goldstein, NJBIZ, 2/15/2008) With the move away from cigarettes it would be important for this bill to also include flavored cigars, cigarillos, pipe tobacco and smokeless tobacco. UST's Skoal a very popular moist snuff has many different flavored smokeless tobacctastes to mask the tobacco taste. Skoal is available in a variety of flavors Wintergreen, Straight, Mint, Cherry, Classic, Spearmint, Berry Blend, Vanilla Blend, Apple Blend and Peach Blend (also Citrus Blend). Flavored pipe tobacco cigar brands like Middleton's Black & Mild Cigars, the top selling cigar package in the U.S. (as of 9/2004 - ACNielson) is very popular with young Americans. Several different flavors are available including Mild, Apple, Mild FT Filter Tip, Mild Cherry-Vanilla, Cream, Vanilla and Wine. (Middleton is now owned by Philip Morris USA) There's also whiskey flavored cigars, e.g., Bikers Butt Bourbon Corona. Related news briefs: PM USA recently acquired John Middleton, Inc. maker of Black & Mild (B&M) Cigars and C-store news - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco (RJR) is removing more Camel SNUS signs by the gasoline pumps... Click on image to enlarge.. (TobaccoWatch.org)
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EU Scientific Committee Concludes: Insufficent Evidence to Lift Ban on SNUS..

February 18, 2008 - EU Scientific Committee Concludes: Insufficent Evidence to Lift Ban on SNUS.. General conclusion of the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) is that smokeless tobacco products (STP) are addictive and their use is hazardous to health. STP contain various levels of toxic substances. Evidence on the effectiveness of STP as a smoking cessation aid is insufficient, and relative trends in progression from STP into and from smoking differ between countries. It is thus not possible to extrapolate the patterns of tobacco use from one country where oral tobacco is available to other countries due to societal, and cultural differences the patterns of tobacco use'' to other countries, the committee said. Evidence that the snuff, known as snus, may help Swedish smokers stop isn't sufficient to lift an EU ban because it's not possible to extrapolate. For example, overall smoking prevalence in Norway, as well as in young Norwegians, has decreased at the same rates in men and women during the last decade, whereas a marked increase in snus use during this time period has only occurred in young men. The benefits of lifting a ban would be offset by the risk that consumers who might never have smoked would start using snus, or that consumers who quit smoking for the product would continue using it indefinitely, the panel said. Now the European Commission must decide to accept or reject the commitee's conclusion. "This conclusion implies that there will be no impetus for a change in policy for a lifting of the ban," wrote David Hayes, an analyst at Lehman Brothers. Related news briefs: EU officials said that Snus might appeal too much to young people.. and SCENIHR received the assignment from the European Union (EU) Commission to investigate the health risks of smokeless tobacco products, including Swedish snus. Read more...

License Could Be Required to Use Tobacco..

February 17, 2008 - Professor Julian Le Grand, Chairman of Health England has come up with a great idea. Smokers could be forced to pay £10 ($19.61 USD) for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way. Professor Le Grand, a former adviser to ex-PM Tony Blair, said cash raised by the proposed scheme would go to the National Health Services. Le Grand added: "70% of smokers actually want to stop smoking. "So if you just make it a little bit more difficult for them to actually re-start or even to start in the first place, yes I think it will make a big difference." He said it was the inconvenience of getting a permit - as much as the cost - that would deter people from persisting with the smoking habit. "You've got to get a form, a complex form - the government's good at complex forms; you have got to get a photograph. "It's a little bit of a problem to actually do it, so you have got to make a conscious decision every year to opt in to being a smoker." A department of health spokeswoman did not rule out such a scheme as part of the next wave of tobacco regulation. ('£10 licence to smoke' proposed, BBC News, 2/15/2008)

Related news brief: SMOKERS, heavy drinkers and obese people will be banned from NHS treatment under a new plan..

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