Australia - Smuggling of illegal cigarettes has hit an all-time high..

September 7, 2009 - Smuggling of illegal cigarettes has hit an all-time high as the Federal Government considers introducing heavier taxes on tobacco products. International flight crews bringing illegal cigarettes through Sydney Airport account for part of a major spike in Australia's tobacco black market.

Desperate attempts to avoid high tax rates are leading to unregulated tobacco products – often containing contaminates such as rat droppings and metal shavings – being sold under-the-counter at general stores.

For years, the major cigarette companies have regularly tried to block efforts to raise cigarette taxes or import fees by claiming that they will spark massive increases in cigarette smuggling and black markets.
(THE BIG CIGARETTE COMPANIES AND CIGARETTE SMUGGLING)

Figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph revealed customs detected 11 shipments of illicit tobacco products comprising 65 tonnes of leaf and 22 million cigarettes during the first three months of this year – an attempted tax evasion of more than $27 million. That was already more than half the $50 million worth of possible tax evasion from seizures in all of 2008.

Customs national investigations manager Richard Janeczko said smugglers were going to extreme lengths. "Anything from airline crews bringing them in, people trying to order them in on the internet, or full container loads disguised as things like pretzels," he said. "But the big smuggling is done by full container load – you're talking $4-$6 million dollars in revenue foregone in every one that's gone through."

In July, Customs arrested four men over an attempt to smuggle more than 4.8 tonnes of tobacco into Australia from Lebanon concealed within plastic tubs.

"Most of the illegal stuff is made in unregulated factories," Mr Janeczko said. "So you can't be sure exactly what's in them."

Earlier this month a report by the National Preventative Health Taskforce called for higher taxes on tobacco products. Rudd government is widely expected to announce a sharp increase in taxes on cigarettes following the Preventative Health Task Force's final submission to Health Minister Nicola Roxon this week. There has been no increase in the tax for a decade.

The price of a pack of 30 cigarettes would jump to $20 within three years if the Government adopts the plan.

Reference: Illegal cigarettes being smuggled into Australia, HeraldSun.com.au, 9/7/2009.

Australia related: Australia - illicit tobacco, do what's right increase the tobacco tax..; Australia - illegal cigarettes readily available...
Read more...

Australia - government's plan to reduce preventable illness will soon go to Parliament..

September 7, 2009 - Health Minister Nicola Roxon said legislation for a National Preventative Health Agency would be introduced into Parliament within the next fortnight (a period of 2-weeks), forming a key part of the Government's plan to reduce preventable illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

The independent but publicly funded agency will be responsible for a major preventative health advertising push, policy advice, health surveillance, consultation and research. The agency will begin in January, staffed by government-appointed population health experts. The new agency will initially be given $17.6 million of federal funding to cover operating costs over four years, although that does not include any additional cash set aside for specific advertising campaigns and other programs.

But it is also likely that some of the more extreme policy interventions recommended by the high-profile Preventative Health Taskforce will not be adopted.

National Preventative Health Strategy..

Ms Roxon said the Government's strategy would be to take a leadership role, without "necessarily always having to regulate and tax".

Although declining to comment on specific proposals, Ms Roxon said: "I am absolutely focused on how Government action can leverage change within the community rather than pretending that a regulatory approach on its own will solve these quite complex social problems."

Her comments follow the release last week of the taskforce's 300-page blueprint for preventive health, with a raft of policy prescriptions, including the possibility of higher taxes for unhealthy foods, higher cigarette and alcohol taxes, phasing out television advertising of junk food to children, a ban on all tobacco advertising and phasing out alcohol advertising during sports events.

Ms Roxon said the Government's approach would be to "engage the whole community" and "push, cajole and lead" families, schools, workplaces, industries, clubs and community organisations to encourage healthier living.

The report said about 32 percent of Australia's total burden of disease was linked to smoking, drinking, obesity and other preventable risks.

Chair of the National Preventative Health Task Force, Rob Moodie said the preventative health community had been waiting for more than 20 years for such an agency, but it would need to be independent and well-funded to make a difference. Professor Moodie said that while he did not think Ms Roxon's comments were out of step with the taskforce's recommendations, regulation and higher taxes would have to be an important part of the strategy.

Moodie: "The point to be made is that in many of the regulatory issues, there is extremely high community support. I mean, if you look at the work around licensing of alcohol outlets or promotion of junk food to kids, then you've got landslide victories in support of greater government regulation."

Ms Roxon said a recommendation that the average price of a packet of 30 cigarettes be lifted to $20 within three years would be considered as part of the Government's review of the taxation system being conducted by Treasury secretary Ken Henry. An overhaul of the alcohol excise regime will also be considered by the Henry review.


VicHealth chief executive Todd Harper said it was correct that the "whole-of-community approach" favoured by Ms Roxon would be needed to tackle obesity and excessive alcohol and cigarette consumption.


Reference: Health watchdog unleashed, JOSH GORDON, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9/6/2009.

Task Force related news briefs:
Australia - Comments on the National Preventative Health Taskforce's Proposal..;
Australia - health blueprint to be unveiled by the Rudd Government..;
Western Australia - major tobacco companies were worried about tobacco controls..;
Australia - illicit tobacco, do what's right increase the tobacco tax..;
Australia - illegal cigarettes readily available..;
Australia - More on federal tobacco tax increase..;
Australia - federal government is currently analyzing recommendations for reducing smoking..;
Australia - providing cigarette ingredients to smokers won't help them quit...
Read more...

Australia - banning cigarette sales in pubs and clubs may help smokers quit..

September 7, 2009 - Cigarette sales should be banned from pubs and clubs, say anti-smoking campaigners, who point to the results of world-first research carried out in Sydney. The combination of being in the company of smokers at a venue where tobacco is also for sale softens the resolve of would-be quitters and can turn a one-off cigarette into a full-blown relapse, a study has found.

Wendy Oakes, tobacco control manager for the Cancer Council NSW, which funded the research, said long-term smokers would not be disadvantaged if cigarettes were removed from sale in licensed premises. "Smokers have very habitual buying patterns. Smokers don't run out of cigarettes," she said. Such a move would instead "support people to keep the resolve they've already made … not constantly harassing people and tempting them" as they tried to quit.

The new results revealed "a very strong association amongst people who said they had quit between having a cigarette and buying a pack of cigarettes", Ms Oakes said.

Outdoor smoking areas in otherwise smoke-free pubs meant people "clustered there in social groups [allowing] people to continue to smoke in very socialised ways", and borrowing a cigarette from a friend could quickly lead to a purchase.

Cigarette machines in pubs may be operated only by token and only by a staff member, but this might not be enough to break the nexus, Ms Oakes said. "We would like to see vending machines removed from pubs and clubs because the work done shows that it is a trigger area," she said.

In world-first research, Suzan Burton from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management asked smokers intending to quit to record their smoking and cigarette purchases in a diary over four days. She found they were much more likely than non-quitting smokers to buy them at bottle shops and bars rather than supermarkets, suggesting impulse buying.

Their smoking was disproportionately influenced by the presence of other smokers. If family or friends smoked around them, they were three times as likely to light up.

"Allowing cigarettes to be sold in pubs is allowing people to be targeted at their most vulnerable," said Associate Professor Burton, a consumer behaviour expert who conducted the study with colleague Lindie Clark.

Tobacco availability seemed to conspire with alcohol and relaxation to knock people off the wagon and stopping such sales "might be a relatively efficient method of preventing relapse".

The study is the first to track the behaviour of people as they try to give up smoking, letting the researchers see how consumption aligned with cigarette availability and social behaviour. Previous research has been based on quitters' retrospective recollections, which are notoriously unreliable.

Most smokers say they would prefer not to smoke. About half make a quit attempt in any six-month period.

Reference: Pub cigarette sales under fire, JULIE ROBOTHAM,
The Sydney Morning Herald,September 6, 2009.

Read more...

Turkey - with expansion of smoking ban cigarette sales drop..

September 7. 2009 - The July 19 expansion of the smoking ban to include restaurants, cafes, teahouses and bars has resulted in a significant drop in cigarette sales, which were 5.4 percent lower in July 2009 than a year ago.

According to data from the Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Agency, or TAPDK, the July decrease in sales amounts to 89,478,000 fewer packages of cigarettes sold.

Professor Elif Dağlı, the chair of the National Committee on Cigarettes and Health, or SSUK, said the implementation of similar laws in other countries has been shown to reduce consumption by 8 to 10 percent in the first six months. In the United States, she said, long-term decreases in sales have climbed to 27 percent.

“A 5.4 percent decrease in the first stage is much lower than our target but inspires hope for the future,” said Dağlı, who added that the organization believes the results will improve in a few years through the continued implementation of the ban.

“Cigarettes are a product that affect lung health very negatively. Reduced consumption is pleasing for us, but it is not enough because there is no safe dose of cigarettes: each one increases the risk to the lungs,” said professor Muzaffer Metintaş, the chair of the Turkish Thoracic Society.

Three million people in Turkey have suffered from chronic obstructive lung diseases due to smoking, which is also the cause of 90 percent of the lung-cancer diagnoses annually, Metintaş added.

If the rates of cigarette purchases continue to decline, the rates of health problems caused by smoking will also become lower, said professor Nazmi Bilir, a scholar at Hacettepe University’s public-health department. Bilir also noted the economical impact of the decreasing sales, saying: “Since a package of cigarettes costs approximately $2.5 in Turkey, that means $225 million has been saved just in one month. It is possible to use this kind of resource in much more beneficial areas.”

Reference: Smoking ban decreases cigarette sales, Hürriyet Daily News, 9/3/2009.

Turkey - related news briefs:
Turkey - smoking ban, cafes (teahouses) losing business, owners threaten to strike..;
Turkey - hundreds of cafe owners demonstrate against smoking ban..;
Turkey - small--scale retailers to demonstrate against smoking ban..;
Turkey - anti-smoking advocates happy with early results of smoking ban..; Turkey - smoker wounds manager and kills his friend when asked to stop smoking..
Turkey - cafe owners complain about smoking ban..;
Turkey - dangers of secondhand smoke media campaign..;
Turkish Government - makes major move to improve the health of its citizens..;
Turkey - smoking ban starting July 19th will be enforced - these guys are serious..;
Turkey - poll indicates employers, their employees and customers support smoking ban in cafes, bars and restaurants..;
Turkey - July 19th total smoking ban, will employees lose jobs..;
Turkey - on July 19, 2009 will mark the beginning of “100 percent smoke-free air” in this country..;
Turkey - national smoking ban starts July 19, 2009..;
Turkey - quit smoking photo displayed in İstanbul's Taksim Square..;
Turkey - data on tobacco usage - Turkish Statistics Institution..;
Turkey - smoking ban in all bars, restaurants and coffeehouses starting July 19, 2009..;
Smoking ban in Turkey lowers cigarette consumption..;
Turkey's ban on pubic smoking goes into effect on Monday, May 19, 2008..;
British American Tobacco (BAT) reported group volume sales up for first quarter 2008..;
More on the quick fix for outdoor smokers..;
BAT to Acquire Most of Denmark's ST..;
More on Philip Morris International of the Future..;
WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008...

Read more...

Indonesia - an NGO commission assists cigarettes must be banned in films ..

September 7, 2009 - The National Commission for Child Protection (Komisi Nasional Perlindungan Anak, NCCP) - a non-government organization (NGO) said Thursday, September 3rd that politicians had to ban the advertising of cigarette in movies.

Muhammad Joni, the vice chairman of the Commission: "We demand that the House of Representatives insert an article in the bill on films banning cigarette promotions in movies." The Commission said the bill must forbid cigarette companies from sponsoring the production of films, ban scenes where actors are shown smoking and prevent companies from marketing tobacco brands in the film.

Joni said the current bill, if passed into law, would possess weaker measures on prohibiting cigarette advertising compared to the laws on broadcasting and the press. "At least in both those laws, companies cannot display or broadcast cigarette products through their advertising," Joni said.

In the bill on films, Joni said, no article regulating the advertisement of cigarettes had been included.

The Commission has sent letters voicing their concerns and recommendations to the House and would try and arrange a meeting with lawmakers, Joni said. Currently, politicians at the House are still discussing the content of the bill.

Observers have speculated that the reason Indonesia has not devised a law banning cigarette ads or promotions could be that tobacco companies pay millions of rupiah in tax every year. The government has issued a regulation banning cigarette ads at sporting events and during certain hours in electronic media, like television.

In 2008, the tobacco industry paid Indonesia Rupiah (IDR) 60 trillion (EUR 4.2 billion) in taxes or about 10 per cent of total government earnings from taxes. Tobacco companies spent IDR 375 billion on advertising in the first quarter of this year (2009), according to AGB Nielsen Media Research. (Indonesia Finance Ministry to cap tax deductions for tobacco companies..) Dina Kania, policy advocacy coordinator of the National Commission for Child Protection: "There was a film for teenagers last year where one of the actresses, who is still in junior high school, was smoking in scenes.” Such an effort to glamorize smoking goes to extremes, at times.

Heri Akhmadi, a member of the bill's working committee, said the committee had agreed to devise an article which would ban any advertisements or persuasive efforts to promote addictive products. That includes narcotics, alcohol, and cigarettes, he said. "The Indonesian Censorship Agency can later make specific recommendations about what can and cannot be shown during films," he told The Jakarta Post.

Heri said if the bill was passed, the Agency would become an independent commission.
"It would not be controlled by the government and its members would deal with complaints and suggestions directly from the people," he said.

Child protection groups have argued that children and teenagers - one of the largest consumer groups of films - deserved to be protected from tobacco advertising in films and encouraged to think about their health before smoking a cigarette.

"Currently, many films, even children's films, are being used to advertise tobacco products," he said, adding that many purposely targeted certain age groups. "They are trying to find new consumers, with their current market dying, deciding to quit or not having the money to purchase their product," said Joni.

Tobacco companies have also been accused of trying to build brand loyalty by advertising certain products to young people. "If someone starts smoking a certain brand at a young age, they are likely to continue smoking that brand in the future," he said.

Movies are an effective advertising tool because children and teenagers tend to be heavily influenced by actors, he said.

"Research has shown that more often than not, young people are persuaded to smoke because their idols or role models smoke," he said.

Smoking among younger generations in Indonesia is steadily on the rise.

The 2006 Global Youth Tobacco Survey, conducted by the World Health Organization, showed that 25 percent of males aged 13 to 15 had smoked. The percentage of women for the same age bracket was 2 percent. The Central Statistic Agency (BPS) reported in 2004 that nearly 20 percent of teenagers aged 15 to 19 were smokers, higher than the 13.7 percent recorded in 2001. The age at which people are beginning to smoke is dropping as well. The BPS reported that in 2001, the average age at which smokers began smoking was 15.4 years old, while in 2004 it was 15 year old. (mrs)

Reference: Cigarettes in films must be banned: Commission, The Jakarta Post, 9/5/2009.

Indonesia related news briefs:
Indonesia - a paradise for tobacco companies..
Indonesia - after buying cigarettes very little left for food..;
Indonesia - will they ratify the first world public health treaty..;
Indonesia - last paradise to smoke in public places in Southeast Asia..;
Indonesia - Industry minister to close tobacco to new foreign investment..;
Indonesia Finance Ministry to cap tax deductions for tobacco companies..;
Indonesia - Smoking hits poor families the hardest, making the poor even poorer..;
Indonesia - Cigarette makers defy crisis, grows stronger..;
Indonesia - government may raise cigarette excise tax next year..;
WHO - Indonesia is crying out for your help..;
Indonesia - dispute with U.S. over banning the use of clove in cigarettes..;
Indonesia 'cash cow' for Philip Morris International..;
Tobacco industry has long targeted young people as "replacement smokers";
Indonesia - district court dismisses request to ratify FCTC..;
Asean Countries - Tobacco Industry Blocking Global Treaty On Tobacco..; Indonesia - farmers hold rally protest tobacco controls..;
Indonesia - tobacco farmers reject Islamic council's edict..; Indonesia - Ulema Council - debate results is split on smoking..;
Indonesia - Withdraw Sponsorhip of Another Rock Concert..;
Indonesia to increase tax on tobacco products..;
Semarang, Indonesia - Cigarette Smoking Areas to be Prepared..;
Jakarta, Indonesia - Malls help enforce non-smoking ban..;
Indonesia - federal anti-smoking laws in one year - MAYBE..;
Indonesia - NGO's (non-government organizations) Demand the Government Ratify WHO's FCTC.;
Indonesia to raise cigarette tax by 6 to 7% in 2009..;
Surabaya, Indonesia - anti-smoking bylaw 10/2009 - FOR REAL??
Indonesians smoking more than ever before..;
Indonesia further rise in the excise tax would hurt the cigarette industry..;
Alicia Keys - Jakarta Concert (July 31st) tobacco companies forced to withdraw sponsorship.. and
Most Indonesians support moves to ban tobacco advertisements...

Read more...