Altria Group, Inc. - sales figures for the 1st 6-months 2009..

August 30, 2009 -

Altria Group Inc., by the numbers
Sales figures are for first six months of 2009.
No. 1 -- biggest U.S. cigarette company and smokeless tobacco company
50.2% share of U.S. cigarette market
56.1% share of moist snuff market
29.8% share of U.S. cigar market
$9.9 billion in cigarette sales
$671 million in smokeless tobacco sales
$233 million in cigar sales
75 billion cigarettes sold, including 63.7 billion Marlboros
267 million cans of Copenhagen and Skoal snuff sold
599 million Black & Mild cigars sold
SOURCE: Altria financial reports

Reference: Altria revamps marketing in light of new regulations by David Ress, Richmond Times-Dispatch, 8/27/2009.
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St. Louis County - joint statement

August 30, 2009 - St. Louis County Executive Charlie A. Dooley signed a bill Friday morning, August 28th that will let voters decide on November 3 whether to ban smoking in most indoor public places. The major voluntary health agencies (American Cancer Society (ACS) American Lung Association (ALA), American Heart Association (AHA)) and Tobacco Free Missouri have just aired (August 28th) ads on KMOX Radio in opposition to the smoke-free air bill which was approved on August 25. The aim is to persuade St. Louis County Executive, Charlie Dooley, to veto it and push for a stronger bill with no significant exemptions. Below is their press release.

JOINT STATEMENT COUNTY COUNCIL ACTION ON SMOKE-FREE PROPOSAL

The American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, American Heart Association, and Tobacco Free Missouri are extremely disappointed that the St. Louis County Council has voted to send a confusing and badly flawed smoke-free proposal to the ballot. We oppose the proposal because it does not fully protect the public’s right to breathe smoke-free air, makes enforcement unworkable, and unfairly pits business against business. We now call on County Executive Dooley to reject this ordinance in its current form and to ask the Council to start over with a more deliberative process that yields meaningful health protection for St. Louis County.

We hoped the Council would send an ordinance to the people that would do what it was intended to do – truly protect workers and patrons from secondhand smoke, in a way that is easy for people to understand and easy to enforce. We thank the many residents who voiced their support for a strong and comprehensive measure that covers all workplaces, including bars and restaurants and urge everyone to continue the fight for smoke-free air.

Instead, the Council has passed a proposal that compromises the health of those employees and patrons most exposed to secondhand smoke. Smoke-free ordinances are intended to protect employees and customers of all businesses, not just some. Under this proposal, bars will be able to obtain a license from the county to allow smoking. In effect, this will give bars a county-issued license to harm the health of its employees and customers.

Additionally, the proposal contains ten loopholes and many flaws in the language. And as we have seen in many other communities, this leads to confusion and can create expensive enforcement issues and potential legal challenges.

The evidence is clear: In the end, a weak ordinance ends up compromising the health of workers and the public, offers false reassurance, and stands in the way of future efforts. With the abundant science about the dangers of secondhand smoke, exemptions for certain workplaces are no longer acceptable.

In issuing a groundbreaking report on secondhand smoke in 2006, the U.S. Surgeon General stated, “The debate is over. The science is clear: Secondhand smoke is not a mere annoyance, but a serious health hazard that causes premature death and disease.” Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including at least 69 carcinogens. The Surgeon General found that secondhand smoke is a proven cause of lung cancer, heart disease, serious respiratory illnesses such as bronchitis and asthma.

Reference: Joint statement by ACS, ALA, AHA, & Tobacco Free Missouri on St. Louis County smoke-free airbill, Missouri Group Against Smoking Pollution, 8/28/2009.
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Iran - 94% of drug seizures in world occur in Iran..

August 30, 2009 - About six and a half billion cigarettes are smuggled into Iran per year, the managing director of the Iranian Tobacco Company said here on Tuesday. The smuggled cigarettes are mostly "fake" and under the brand of "Marlboro", Mahmoud Abtahi said.

Photos: Killing the cigarettes, for a change, Photos by Amir Pourmand ISNA (Iranian Student's News Agency)..

Being a neighbor of the biggest drug producer in the world, the Islamic Republic has also suffered the greatest financial and human losses in its efforts to fight drug trafficking, Abtahi added.

According to official figures 94 percent of drug seizures in the world occur in Iran. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates most of the opium going from Afghanistan to the West is smuggled via Iran. This amounts to approximately 2,500 tons of opium crossing Iran's borders every year.

Iran is tackling drug trafficking head-on, and about two tons of illicit drugs are seized every day in this great battle. Great numbers of Iranian border control officers have died while defending their country against well-armed traffickers. They lost their lives to prevent drugs from poisoning the world.

The Tobacco Atlas estimates that tobacco use kills some six million people each year -- more than a third of whom will die from cancer -- and drains U.S. $500 billion annually from global economies.

However, drug production is on the rise in Afghanistan. Unfortunately foreign troops and other responsible authorities have failed to curb drug cultivation in the country. There has been a forty-fold increase in opium cultivation in the neighboring Afghanistan over the past eight years.

Reference: Cigarette, drug smuggling on the rise in Iran, Mehr News Agency, Payvand Iran News, 8/27/2009.

Iran - news briefs: Iran - over 45% of Iranians exposed to secondhand smoke..; Iran - graphic warnings cigarette packs..; Cigarettes, bras and Bull semen: Just a few things the US exports to Iran...

Click on image to enlarge, Photo: by Amir Pourmand ISNA (Iranian Student's News Agency)..

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Spain - ready for expansion and enforcement of Anti-Smoking Act..

August 30, 2009 - The Ministry of Health is expanding the first Anti-Smoking Act to prohibit smoking in all public places.

When Spain toughened anti-smoking legislation in 2006, the measure was hailed as an important step forward in the battle against addiction in the country formerly known as a "smokers' paradise." Three and half years later, however, smoke is again floating in bars, restaurants, and even some places of work, prompting the government to consider stricter legislation.

The current law bans smoking at work and in public places such as hospitals, schools or shopping centers.

Owners of bars or restaurants measuring less than 100 square metres, however, may allow smoking. Those make up about 80 percent of the total of such establishments.

Bigger venues must have separate smoking areas if they allow smoking. In practice, only around 40,000 of Spain's more than 350,000 leisure establishments have created smoking areas or banned smoking. Even at places of work, smoking has not been entirely eliminated.

The anti-smoking law is not applied fully in some regions. Those do not carry out inspections, do not apply sanctions, or have watered the law down with their own decrees, according to press reports.

The 2006 law has been "beneficial," but it has "gaps" and is not clear enough, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said. The positive effects of the law could be observed in 2006, when the number of heart attacks went down by about 10 percent. One million Spaniards are estimated to have stopped smoking since the law entered into force.

Now, however, the amount of smokers has stabilized at around 24 percent of the population.

Smoking is Spain's top public health problem, causing more than 50,000 deaths annually, according to the national anti-smoking committee CNPT (National Committee for Smoking Prevention). The way forward is to align Spain's legislation with that of many other European countries, introducing a smoking ban in all public places, Jimenez believes.

The law would include measures aimed at making sure that regional authorities apply it correctly, according to Health Ministry sources. Parliament recently called on the government to gradually increase the number of smoke-free public places. Health professionals have long urged a total ban, but restaurant, bar and hotel owners fear loss of income.

"People come to bars to drink, talk and smoke," said Jordi Vila, a client at a Barcelona bar. "Trying to regulate everything, including private lives, is dangerous and causes problems." It is not necessary to change the law to protect the health of non-smokers, the hoteliers' association Cehat said, arguing that it was sufficient to force the full application of the current law.

The government and health professionals dismiss such arguments and stress that strict smoking bans have not caused business losses or social conflicts in other countries. A ban would save some 1,000 employees of bars, restaurants, discotheques and other leisure establishments from cancer-related deaths annually, oncologist Esteve Fernandez said.

About 70 percent of Spaniards back a total ban, Jimenez said. The smokers' association Club for Tolerance, however, disputed the reliability of such polls.

Spain - related news briefs: Spain - ready for full smoking ban in public places..; Spain - ban smoking public places - a lot of talk no action..; Spain plans gruesome images on cigarette packs sometime in future...

Reference: 'Smokers' paradise' Spain plans tougher ban - Feature, DPA, EarthTimes.org, 8/29/2009.

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Michigan - possible increase in tax on tobacco products coming..

August 30, 2009 - In an effort to close a $1.8 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that starts October 1, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has proposed a variety of tax increases, including a 25 cent boost in the cigarette tax (and similar taxes on other tobacco products) to bring them to parity with the cigarette tax. These changes offer a "Win, win, win" for Michigan.

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of premature death in Michigan. A 50-cent increase in the price of cigarettes will reduce kids' smoking by 6 percent, preventing 48,600 of Michigan's children from becoming smokers, and adult smoking by 3 percent. Equalizing OTP taxes with a $2.50 cigarette tax will reduce youth use by a whopping 47.5 percent.

A 50-cent increase will raise $108 million in new annual revenue, while equalizing the OTP tax with the cigarette tax increases will raise another $59 million. Every state that has increased tobacco taxes has enjoyed substantial and reliable increases in revenue. Plus, every 1 percent drop in the smoking rate will save Michigan $723 million in future health-care costs.

Lobbyists for gas stations and convenience stores claim that increasing Michigan's cigarette tax will cost the state revenue. They are flat wrong.

Money spent on cigarettes does not disappear when smokers quit or cut back, but is spent on other goods and services. A pack-a-day smoker who quits because of a state cigarette tax increase will save more than $1,000 per year on cigarettes and then spend that money on other things, including other products sold by convenience stores. If the smoker cuts back to half a pack a day, they will have more than $500 to spend in different ways.

Convenience store lobbyists argue that cigarette sales declines will reduce their related revenues and profits, but hide the fact that much of the money previously spent on cigarettes will be spent on many other goods sold by convenience stores. Unbiased economic studies show reducing cigarette sales in a state creates new jobs and improves the economy.

Democrats, Republicans and Independents strongly support raising tobacco taxes to prevent kids from smoking. A nationwide survey conducted by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that 68 percent of voters supported a tax increase if dollars were used to prevent and reduce tobacco use. According to the Michigan BRFSS Surveillance Brief, almost 70 percent of Michigan adults support equalizing the tax on other tobacco products to parity with the cigarette tax.

Tobacco use burdens taxpayers. Current revenues from tobacco taxes ($1.1 billion) are dwarfed by the cost of tobacco use to Michigan's economy ($7.4 billion). Yet Michigan allocates only $3.6 million a year to the state's tobacco prevention program, which pales beside the $121 million that the Centers for Disease Control says is required for effective tobacco prevention and cessation here. Amazingly, some politicians are considering cutting this funding even further.

Our elected leaders should join Granholm and raise all tobacco taxes now. Dedicating even a small portion of the new revenue to Michigan's Tobacco Program to help tobacco users quit and provide tobacco prevention services in Michigan communities will raise money, reduce health care costs and save lives.

Michigan Petroleum Association/Michigan of Convenience Stores - negative consequences of cigarette tax increase..

Reference: Douglas (Cliff Douglas is director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network): Tobacco tax boost will profit Michigan
Tax increases deter use and reduce health costs, Lansing State Journal, 8/23/2009.

Michigan - related news briefs: Michigan - counties can pass smoking rules..; Michigan public smoking ban fizzles..; Will Michigan Pass Smoking Ban Before the End of Year..; Michigan Falls Short Again on Ban in Public Places..; Michigan Senate Deals Blow To Smoking Ban...

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