RAI - February 3, 2011 - 4th quarter and full year 2010 business report..

January 21, 2011 - Reynolds American Inc. (NYSE: RAI) will webcast its conference call following the release of fourth-quarter and full-year 2010 financial results on Feb. 3, 2011. Details of the call are as follows:
Date and Time: Thursday, Feb. 3, 2011, 9:30 a.m. Eastern Time
Speakers: Susan M. Ivey, president and chief executive officer
Daniel M. Delen, president and chief executive officer-elect
Thomas R. Adams, chief financial officer
Morris L. Moore, vice president of investor relations

Registration and access: The RAI conference call will be available online on a listen-only basis at http://www.reynoldsamerican.com/events.cfm. Registration will be available as of Jan. 20, 2011. All remarks made during the conference call will be current at the time and will not be updated to reflect subsequent material developments. A replay will be available on the website for 30 days. While news media representatives will not be permitted to ask questions during the call, they are welcome to monitor the remarks on a listen-only basis. Following the call, media representatives may direct inquiries to Jane Seccombe at (336) 741-5068.
Call-in Numbers: (877) 390-5533 (toll-free) (678) 894-3969 (international)

Most likely this will be the last quarterly or annually earnings webcast conference call for Susan M. Ivey, president and chief executive officer. (RAI - announces executive appointments..)

Reference: RAI to webcast fourth-quarter and full-year 2010 earnings conference call, Reynolds American Inc., 1/20/2011.
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American Lung Association - Annual Report: Tobacco Control – Does Your State Make the Grade?

January 21, 2011 - Does your state make the grade when it comes to protecting citizens from illnesses caused by tobacco? And how about the federal government – is it making passing, or failing, marks in this critical battle?

A few excerpts from the 2010 report to provide a glimpse of progress – or the lack of it – in the fight against tobacco-caused disease.

Did Your State Make the Grade?: Find Your State on the MAP..

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California - La Palma's Central Park will be tobacco-free starting February 1, 2011..

January 20, 2011 - Central Park in La Palma will be smoke and tobacco-free starting Feb. 1, despite a smoldering debate and close vote at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. Three of the council's five members voted against establishing a small designated smoking area in the park, which would have been between the recreation buildings and the basketball courts. The failed vote allows a full ban to go into effect in two weeks.

Smoking is a health hazard, said Councilman Steve Shanahan, who supported the ban. "The majority of those who use the park are under the age of 18," he added, those who could most be harmed by secondhand smoke.

Reference: Smoking in the park snuffed out by MICHAEL MELLO (mmello@ocregister.com), THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 1/19/2011.
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Ireland - must substantially increase fines and prison sentences for cigarette smuggling..

January 20, 2011 - Ireland - highest tobacco prices in the EU..

Crime gangs smuggling tonnes of illegal tobacco into the country are facing fines on average of just €527 (708.95 USD), shocking new figures have shown. (Ireland - modest penalty for cigarette smuggling..)

Last year alone, Customs officers intercepted a staggering 3.4 tonnes of tobacco and 178.3 million cigarettes worth €76.5 million. It is estimated the illegal trade is depriving retailers of more than €500m (673m USD) of income per annum.

Despite the size of the problem only 94 people were prosecuted during 2010 for smuggling and fined a total of €49,630 (66,757.49 USD) with 13 being sent to jail.
Customs and Gardaí (police) also managed to prosecute 40 people for selling illegal tobacco with six prison terms handed down along with fines of just €99,250 (133,524.07 USD).

Fine Gael’s ((United Ireland Party) Alan Shatter said the current legislation was inadequate at dealing with the threat. "Criminal gangs know that if they are caught they are facing a slap on the wrist. The DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) should be more directly involved in this matter," he said.

Meanwhile, 10 rhino horns were among the contraband items detected at Irish airports and seaports last year. In figures released last night by the Revenue Commissioners, they confirm the horns were seized in three hauls at Shannon in January 2010, under an international convention called CITES.

The Customs figures show, overall at the three state airports, the value of drug seizures was dramatically down last year. Some €1.7m worth of drugs was seized by officials at Dublin airport last year, compared with €4.6m in 2009. The detections included €1.1m worth of cocaine in 22 seizures, along with €436,600 worth of khat in 44 seizures. The report shows an increased value in drug seizures at both Shannon and Cork airports. At Shannon, it was €572,883 compared with €258,704 in 2009 while the increase in value of drugs recovered at Cork airport was €180,134, compared with €72,550 in 2009.

Reference: Tobacco smuggler gangs fined an average of only €527, finds study by Gordon Deegan and Darren Boyle, IrishExaminer.com, 1/17/2011.

Ireland - illegal tobacco related..
Ireland - cigarette dealers are now selling their smuggled goods door-to-door..;
Ireland - police force says gangs making €3m a week from illegal cigarette sales..;
Ireland - time for major effort to crackdown on tobacco smuggling..;
Ireland - tobacco smuggling has reached record levels..;
Ireland retailers claim since display ban smuggling up - denied by health campaigners..;
Ireland - Illicit tobacco trade booms..;
Ireland - no increase in excise duty on tobacco products worry about smuggling..;
Ireland - increase fine for cigarettes imported illegally..;
http://snus-news.blogspot.com/2009/11/ireland-increase-fine-for-cigarettes.html;
Ireland - cigarette tax abandoned over smuggling fears...
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France - MPs to vote to allow-their-bygone-heroes-to-smoke..

January 20, 2011 - French lawmakers have decided that Jean-Paul Sartre, Coco Chanel, and other long-dead icons can have their cigarettes back. Smoldering cigarettes and pipes had been airbrushed out of old photos and vintage movie posters out of fear of breaking a 1991 law that banned the "direct or indirect" promotion of smoking. Fear of breaking the so-called Evin law, which bans the "direct or indirect" promotion of tobacco products, had led authorities to remove smouldering Gauloises from pictures of a string of famous French figures in recent years.

On Wednesday, January 19th French MPs (Members of Parliament) approved a bill that excludes "cultural heritage" from the antismoking rules. "The falsification of history, the censorship of works of the mind, the denial of reality must remain the heinous marks of totalitarian regimes," said the bill. Didier Malthus, the Socialist MP who drafted the bill, said that those who had interpreted the law in such an "extensive way" had "put cultural works into question". The bill must now go before parliament that would exclude cultural heritage from the anti-smoking law..

The first time the law had sparked outcry was over a 1996 stamp featuring a well-known photo of André Malraux, the award-winning author and culture minister of Charles de Gaulle's cabinet, sans his trademark cigarette. The rule reached new heights of absurdity in 2009 when the trademark pipe of the late Jacques Tati, one of France's most enduring comic characters, was replaced with a yellow windmill in a poster campaign – a move which one cinema expert said would have made him "die laughing".

All tobacco advertising and sponsorship on television was banned within the European Union since 1991 under the Television Without Frontiers Directive. It was extended in July 2005 to cover other forms of media such as the internet, print media, radio, and sports event like F1. In 2007, France joined other European countries in banning smoking in public places.

References: French vote to allow their bygone heroes to smoke by Henry Samuel, The Telegraph 1/19/2011; French MPs to change anti-smoking law after Jacques Tati pipe row by RFI, www.english.rfi.fr, 1/19/2011.

France - a few related news briefs:
France - Smoking is more prevalent in French women than male counterparts..;
France - National Committee on Tobacco Control has banned all forms of tobacco advertising ..;
France - parliament member proposes to impose new taxes on tobacco..;
France - BAT cuts cigarettes prices, also Drum - fine-cut handrolling tobacco (shag);
France - decree signed, graphic warnings on cigarette packs next year..;
France - number of cigarettes sold starts to rise again..;
France - anti-smoking shock ad aimed at teens..;
France - some smokers are flaunting the ban on smoking..;
Cigarette sales in France dropped to a record low in 2008..;
French researchers announced a striking 15% decrease in admissions of patients with myocardial infarction to emergency wards since the public ban on smoking came into effect..;
France - cheaper cigarettes close by in Belgium...
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