Clove cigars close but not cigarettes..

Kretek - crackling sound of burning cloves.
October 27, 2009 - On June 22, 2009 President Barack Obama signed into law an anti-smoking bill that gives the FDA greater power to regulate tobacco. (President Obama signs bill for FDA to regulate tobacco..)

The most immediate change was that cigarette flavorings including clove except menthol will be banned, beginning on September 22, 2009. Analysts said that part of the law will have little impact since most manufacturers abandoned candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes in recent years. (More on FDA tobacco regulations..)

Big tobacco really did not mind taking these flavored cigarettes of the market. These cigarettes were not even one percent of the market. The three biggest U.S. tobacco companies say they do not produce any flavored cigarettes other than menthol varieties. Cloves for example was less than a tenth of one percent of the U.S. cigarette consumption.

Indonesia vows to take the matter to the World Trade Organization if the proposed ban becomes law. Indonesia’s ambassador to the U.S. Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, wrote to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat: Congress would be “blatantly favoring a domestically produced product over an imported one” if it bans cloves and not menthol. (Indonesia - dispute with U.S. over banning the use of clove in cigarettes..)

Kretek International (KI), the nation's top distributor of clove cigarettes (97 percent of U.S. market) is offering fans a new way to get their fix after the spice-flavored cigarettes are banned. The New Clove Cigars. The new filtered cigars—close to the size of a cigarette and flavored with clove, vanilla and cherry—allow KI, which imports Djarum-brand tobacco products from Indonesia, to avoid new federal laws banning flavored cigarettes other than menthol. (U.S. - Importer tries to get around clove cigarettes ban..)

The ban on flavored cigarettes, which critics say appeal to teenagers, doesn't include cigars. We wonder why the authors of the new tobacco regulations law did not ban all flavored tobacco products. In addition to cigars these include all types of snuff and dissolvable tobacco products like flavored pellets, toothpicks and edible strips that are placed on the tongue like Listerine breath strips. These are the tobacco items that will immediately catch the attention of our children. We should have learned from the problems the Canadians have had with kids smoking little cigars. During 2007, about 25 percent of that country's 15 to 17-year-olds smoked mini-cigars (cigarillos). (Canadian House of Commons passes bill to prevent production of mini-cigars or cigarillos..) Canada has now passed a bill banning flavored tobacco products..)

This same mistake was made in the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998. There was an agreement for cigarette producers and a weaker agreement for non-smoking tobacco producers. For the latter, only one company signed the agreement - UST, Inc - now part of the Altria Group.

KI has filed suit in federal court to prevent the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from banning flavored cigars. The tobacco law allows the FDA to regulate cigars but requires the agency to first issue regulations deeming cigars to be subject to the law, a process that could take years. But Lawrence Deyton, Director of FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, explained that the federal definition of a cigarette includes "any roll of tobacco wrapped in paper," suggesting certain cigars could immediately fall under the ban. (A cigar - any roll of tobacco wrapped in tobacco.)

A cigar is a tobacco leaf wrapped around a tobacco leaf filling. KI noted that the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau classified its Djarum clove-flavored cigars as cigars under federal law in 2007. "The difference between cigarettes and cigars has been clearly defined by standing law for more than 30 years," the company said. Mr. Geoghegan has stated that KI has been importing clove-flavored cigars for several years, but because of the banning of market shipments of Djarum cigarettes, distributor and retailer focus on Kretek's cigars has taken additional prominence." He said the company didn't just start importing cigars to get around the ban on flavored cigarettes. (Kretek International filed suit to prevent FDA from banning flavored cigars..)

Reefrence: To the FDA, This Indonesian Smoke Is Close but No Cigar With Ban on Clove Cigarettes, Importer Claims Its Product Is All Stogie by BARRY NEWMAN, The Wall Street Journal, 10/27/2009.

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Kenya - educate public on harmful effects of smoking and enforce provisions of tobacco control act..

October 26, 2009 - The war between the tobacco industry and various social organisations has gone a notch higher with lawyers allied to the African Tobacco Alliance and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids calling on the government to tighten its control legislations, to reduce the number of smokers in the country.

Rachel Kittonyo, Chairperson of the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance and Pamela Lambert, an official of Tobacco Free Kids were speaking during a tobacco control legal workshop in Nairobi, Kenya.


Chairperson of the Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA - a collection of groups and institutions working on tobacco control in Africa) Rachel Kittonyo said on Saturday that more than 18.2 percent of boys and girls in Kenya aged between 13 and 15 were currently smoking. “These are very worrying figures because in 2001 the figure was at 11 percent. This means that in a span of seven years the figure has almost doubled. If we do not do anything about it then in the next seven years, the figures will have shot up even higher,” she stated.

Pamela Lambert, an official of Tobacco Free Kids, held that a concerted educational effort on the harmful effects of tobacco between the Kenyan government and citizens would reduce the number of smokers, noting that education had seen the number of smokers in developed nations go down. “If you look at the so called developed world you will see that statistics for tobacco use are coming down. The industry is now targeting Africa as a replacement market. Therefore governments and civil societies should assist in making people aware of how dangerous smoking is,” she explained.

Ms Lambert said that women were more susceptible (compared to men) to tobacco related illnesses and added that they should be discouraged from taking up the habit.
“The likelihood of getting cervical and breast cancer increases significantly with tobacco use. We should therefore make policies that will especially discourage women from engaging in the habit and gradually bring down the tremendous deaths and diseases caused by tobacco,” she observed.

The official observed that there would be a fundamental conflict of interests when the government decided to protect the health of its citizens while the tobacco industry is out to make a profit.

“The tobacco industry exists to make money of a product that causes addiction, death and disease, but when the government formulates governing laws for this industry to protect the lives of its citizens the tobacco industry challenges them,” she said.

Ms Lambert also took issue with the industry saying it had no viable grounds for challenging laws formulated to control its products, arguing that they were causing deaths. “They should stop accusing the government of putting limits on their business. We hope that when the time comes for any court to decide what is important between the right to somebody’s life and the right of a company to put five or ten cigarettes in a packet so as to make a profit; that the court in its wisdom will choose the people’s health and well being,” held Ms Lambert.

Ms Kittonyo revealed that ATCA was working with the government to train enforcement officers whose work was to ensure that smokers only did so in designated areas. “So far we have trained 660 officers in ten towns including Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret and Kakamega on how to enforce the Tobacco Control Act (of 2007 which came into force on 8th July 2008, regulates public smoking and the marketing and sale of tobacco products in Kenya). But we are still having talks with the City Council in Nairobi to ensure that they enforce the smoking in public ban,” she noted.

Reference: Caution as more Kenyans take up smoking by SARAH WAMBUI, Capital News, 10/25/2009.

Related news briefs:
Kenya - public health officers will be involved in enforcement of smoking regulations..;
Kenya - smoking ban must be enforced - it's the law..;
Kenya - BAT declines to support charities - tobacco control laws..;
Kenya - discrepancies between local smoke-free regulations and Tobacco Control Act..;
Smoking ban starts in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya..;
British American Tobacco (BAT) - 100 years in Africa..
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Swedish Match accused of adding substance to moist snuff (snus) to purposely increase user dependency and in turn, boosts sales..

October 26, 2009 - Tobacco company Swedish Match has been accused of adding a substance to moist snuff or 'snus' to purposely increase user dependency and, in turn, boosts sales of their products.

Public health minister Maria Larsson will now look into the need for rules to force tobacco companies to disclose data on nicotine in snuff. This after hard facts revealed yesterday that Swedish Match to put a means of snuff, which, according to scientists is increasing nicotine dependence. Minister Larsson, is concerned about the Swedish Match adding substance to increase dependency.

Since 2005, the company has introduced eight new snus products with higher than average nicotine levels. The usual level for snus is eight milligrams per gram. In one product, levels have almost doubled that figure. Last year, for example, a new 15 milligrams General-snuff, a new 13 milligrams Red Lacket-snuff and a new 12 milligrams rough snuff. Measurement data from the U.S. indicates that large sellers Portionssnus General and Ettan contains over 80 percent nicotine-free. pH-adjusting additive substance E500 in snuff - it increases the amount of so-called free nicotine, the type of nicotine which scientists are [agree is] most addictive.

”Certain consumer groups have shown demand for a high nicotine content,” the company’s production director Torbjörn Åkeson explains.

Allegations that the company adds a substance, known as E500, to purposely increase the amount of so-called ‘free’ nicotine – which increases dependency – are presented in a new report by investigative news programme Kalla Fakta.

Swedish Match deny the use of the substance for such purposes.

”We use it to stabilise the pH value in snus and have done so for 200 years,” information director Henrik Brehmer told the programme.

”There is no secret substance in snus.”

Brehmer rejected an assertion by Harvard School of Public Health Professor Greg Connolly Swedish Match is deliberately using the substance to addict consumers.
"In a study in 2008 he concluded that we are manipulating the pH value, something that we consider hugely speculative," Brehmer said.

”It never led to demands from any authority that we need to change something.”

There are around one million snus users in Sweden - population of nine million. Last year Swedish Match sold products amounting to four billion kronor.

Swedish Match may be concerned that the demand for snus in Sweden has been going down. The number of men using smokeless wet snuff (‘snus’) tobacco has fallen from 22 to 19 percent, while snus use among women has remained stable over the last five years at about 3 to 4 percent. (Sweden - Regular tobacco (including SNUS) use falling..)

Reference: Swedish Match under fire in secret snus substance investigation, The Local (Swedish News in English), 10/25/2009; Swedish snuff more addicting?, UPI.com, 10/25/2009; Fortified snuff creates more dependence, Göteborgs-Posten (GP)(major daily newspaper in Sweden), 10/25/2009; Breakin News: Nicotine Found in SNUS, Swedish Angst, 10/25/2009.

E500 - pH adjuster?? -


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Ireland - lots of smokers - lots of sickness - resulting in premature death - THIS HAS TO STOP..

October 25, 2009 - A third of the Irish population now smokes, a new survey reveals.
Ireland..

A survey of 4,082 people this summer revealed that 33 percent of the Irish population had taken up or continued to smoke. It is the highest smoking rate recorded here in the past 11 years, according to the EU's 'HELP -- For A Life Without Tobacco' campaign.

Despite hikes in tobacco tax, the smoking ban and a new law against the public display of cigarettes for sale, the number of smokers has steadily risen since 2007 when 29 percent of the population smoked.

The survey, which was conducted between March and September, revealed the largest group of smokers -- 45 percent --- is aged between 16 and 30.

Men form the majority of smokers at 38 percent, compared with women at 28 percent.

Prof Luke Clancy, a respiratory consultant and director general of the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society last night described the statistics as very disappointing. "There is no evidence of any decline in smoking in this survey, indicating a clear need for higher prices of cigarettes and better treatment of tobacco-dependence," he said.

Reference: Smoking rate soars up to one third despite ban by ALLISON BRAY, Independent.ie, 10/24/2009.

Some Ireland related news briefs:
Ireland - people responding well to the ban on cigarette displays..;
Ireland - Prof Clancy not enough spent on prevention..;
Ireland - tobacco vendors must register by October 1, 2009..;
Children - exposed to cigarette smoke in cars have greater chance of respiratory distress..;
Ireland - tobacco companies not helping small retailers - display ban..;
Tobacco control initiatives starting Wednesday, July 1, 2009..;
Ireland - Office of Tobacco Control 2008 annual report - Positive..;
Ireland - modest penalty for cigarette smuggling..;
Ireland - to amend tobacco legislation to to include pictoral warnings..;
Ireland - as of July 1, 2009 no advertising or display of tobacco products will be permitted in retail outlets..;
Ireland - cigarette tax abandoned over smuggling fears..;
Ireland - may raise tax on cigarettes as part of emergency budget..;
Ireland - ban smoking in cars when kids are present..;
Ireland - further provisions of the Public Health (Tobacco) Acts 2002 and 2004 are to be commenced on 1 July 2009.;
Ireland - 80% of smokers want a ban on tobacco advertising in shops to stop youngsters starting the habit..;
Ireland to ban tobacco displays..;
Ireland - reduction in admissions for acute coronary syndrome...


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Switzerland - Imperial Tobacco sponsorship major televised European tennis event..

October 25, 2009 - One of the world's largest cigarette companies, Britain's Imperial Tobacco, has been drawn into a row [a difficult situation] over the sponsorship of a major televised European tennis event.

Health organisations are furious that the main sponsor of the Basel ATP World Tour 500 tournament in Switzerland is Davidoff, the luxury brand that covers everything from cigarettes to cigars and aftershave. Davidoff's cigarette brand is owned by Imperial.

The EU banned all tobacco advertising in its member states in 2005. But Switzerland is not in the EU and tobacco sponsorship is legal. Satellite broadcaster Eurosport has dropped plans to carry the event after French anti-tobacco campaigners threatened legal action if the tournament was screened in France. Instead, the event will now be carried by a German satellite broadcaster.

The tournament's close association with tobacco has prompted fury from the World Health Organisation and European campaign groups, including the UK's Action on Smoking and Health (Ash). More than 500 eminent health experts have signed an open letter calling on Roger Federer, the Swiss world number one player, to pull out of the tournament. Federer has declined to respond.

Unesco, the UN's cultural arm, which received a donation from the event's organisers, has returned the money and demanded it no longer be associated with the tournament. A spokesman for Imperial declined to comment.

Reference: Tobacco firm in tennis sponsorship row Swiss tournament takes money from Davidoff, Jamie Doward - The Observer, Guardian.co.uk, 10/25/2009.

Related news briefs:
Geneva, Switzerland - ban on smoking in public places returns..;
Switzerland - unified program to ban smoking in buildings open to the public..;
Switzerland could join EU requiring sale of only self-extinguishing cigarettes...
Read more...