Tag Archives: tobacco products
Supermarkets launch ban to display cigarettes
Supermarkets were banned from displaying cigarettes and other tobacco products after new rule became effective on April, 29.
Public Health Minister Michael Matheson states that this step is the “right step” to discourage the younger generation from start smoking.
The open display ban was implemented as part of the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010, which will also touch on the sale of cigarettes from vending machines banned.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland have already introduced identical bans to avoid supermarkets from displaying cigarettes and tobacco products.
Stores that do not conform could be charged of a criminal offence or receive a fixed fine from trading standards officers.
“These bans are the right move to avoid teenagers in Scotland from try using cigarettes,” Mr Matheson said.
“It is well known that smoking is related to a variety of disease and is the major preventable cause of ill health. Annually, tobacco consumption is connected with more than 54,000 hospital admissions in Scotland.
“For this reason it is so necessary that this government works to improve health by lowering the amount of people who prefer smoking and evidence demonstrates that adolescents encountered with the advertising of cigarettes are more likely to start smoking.”
The Scottish Government’s Tobacco Control Strategy also supports the launch of standardized packaging.
Vicky Crichton, senior public affairs manager in Scotland for Cancer Research UK, claimed: “The following move is to get rid of all branding from cigarette packs. This would mean an end to the attractive, slickly designed packs that can appeal young adults into considering tobacco isn’t dangerous and would make all tobacco brands look the same.”
The Tobacco Retailers’ Alliance – which refers to more than 26,000 shopkeepers across the UK – has spoken out against the new rule.
TRA Scotland spokesman Geoff Barrett, who is a merchant in Glasgow, explained: “There is still no trustworthy data that launching this ban will prevent youngsters from smoking.
“That’s not really unexpected as we all know youngsters smoke because of peer pressure or because friends or families are smokers.
“Rather than burdening retailers with yet more rules and limitations, the Scottish Government should evaluate the problem of tobacco smuggling, which is very prevalent across Scotland and which is a major source of tobacco for Scotland’s young smokers.
“It also doesn’t make any sense that the UK Government is still considering standardized packaging before this latest restriction on display has even been introduced in Scotland, let alone evaluated.”
Supersmarkets are characterized as those with a relevant floor area exceeding 280 square metres. Smaller retailers have until April 6, 2015 to conform to the display ban.
Kiosks to obtain new look as tobacco display ban takes effect
Cigarette kiosks in Scotland’s bigger stores and markets will soon enough obtain a very distinctive look
The Scottish authorities’ ban on the cigarettes display, and other tobacco products, takes effect on April 29 this year.
According to the new regulations, which are part of The Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010, bigger shops must guarantee that tobacco products are not sold on the tobacco displays where they can be seen by everybody and it also establishes a limitation on the size of any temporary display.
Tobacco products vending machines will also be prohibited on the same day.
Smaller retailers will be allowed until April 6, 2015, to conform to the ban on tobacco displays as they may need additional time to make the required modifications on cigarette deals.
Councillor Tom Cook, Spokesperson for Improving Community Safety stated “The Trading Standards Service is in charge locally for guaranteeing compliance with the new regulations and our Officers have been dealing with businesses affected providing advice during the transition period. They will be visiting again in due course to ensure compliance.
“These new regulations are part of a persisted range of actions being launched by the Scottish authorities in their commitment to protect the health and welfare of people. It is considered these measures will discourage the younger generation from starting smoking and help to assist those who are trying to stop smoking.”
Pipes, bongs and hookahs could disappear
Pipes, bongs and hookahs could soon disappear from shelves in Florida
Rep. Darryl Rouson is supporting HB 49 that takes away exclusion in existing law that permits cigarette stores to sell smoking pipes. His bill would prohibit the selling all pipes in Florida.
Nevertheless, the St. Petersburg Democrat’s bill does not presently present any exclusion for various kinds of pipes, such as corn cob.
Pipes made from metal, wood, ceramic and more would be banned as would hookahs, chamber pipes and bongs. These can presently be bought from tobacco retailers if the shop’s yearly gross income from the product does not surpass 25 %. If the bill switches into law, those pipes would have to disappear from shelves by October 1 of this year.
Sale of hookahs would also be prohibited. But, the hookah cafes that have appeared in a lot of cities, often as adjuncts to bars of restaurants, would not have to be closed.
Rouson’s bill would make the sale of the pipes penal by no more than a year in prison and any following infractions would lead to no more than five years in prison. The Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco could also fine the retailer as much as $1,000 per pipe, Rouson mentioned. The division could also postpone or revoke the retailer’s license.
Luke Lirot from the Law Offices of Lirot in Clearwater represented many smoke stores in court that challenged the constitutionality of present law regarding smoking gadgets. Their challenge of the law failed, but an appeal to that ruling is now on approval. He and his client prepare to challenge Rouson’s bill if it makes it into law.
Sen. Kelli Stargel has an identical bill (SB 1140) that would allow pipes to stay on the shelf if the purpose of the seller is that the gadget be used for tobacco products. Her bill particularly protects pipes that are mainly made of corn cob, briar, clay or meerschaum while Rouson’s presently does not.
Rouson said he is ready to unite his bill with Stargel’s to involve the exemptions that hers holds for certain types of pipes.
New York celebrated 10th anniversary of smoking ban
New York celebrated 10th anniversary of smoking ban public places such as bars and restaurants
On March 27, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg celebrated 10th anniversary of smoking ban public places such as bars and restaurants.
“Ten years ago when New York City banned smoking in restaurants and bars, many forecasted the end of the hospitality, restaurant and tourism industries,” Bloomberg stated.
Critics of the step anticipated smoking ban would harm the restaurant and bar earnings, but the Health Department review said there are now some 6,000 more restaurants and bars in New York than there were ten years ago.
The New York’s Smoke-Free Air Act became operative a little over a year into Bloomberg’s first term as mayor in 2003 and banned smoking inside bars, restaurants and most office buildings.
The following year, New York began offering free nicotine replacement therapy to smokers attempting to stop smoking and in 2011 extended the smoking ban to the New York’s parks and beaches.
As outlined by the review unveiled on March 27, the percentage of adult smokers decreased by about a third to 13% in 2011 from 19 % in 2002. The review, published by the city’s Health Department, also said the percentage of youths aged 18 who smoke slipped by about half to 9%.
Bloomberg’s period, which will end in 2013, has been marked by his efforts to boost New Yorkers’ health by trying to stimulate them to eat less salt, trans fats and calories in general, among other actions.
A week later, Bloomberg released his strategy to demand stores to hide cigarettes and tobacco products from tobacco displays, reasoning that would protect youth from advertising efforts.
Some store proprietors and tobacco companies have criticized the strategy as unnecessary extra regulation that would break the free speech provision of the U.S. Constitution.
Bloomberg also suggested a minimum price of $10.50 for a cigarette pack in order to some smokers would find smoking too costly to keep. The two bills are now before the city council.
Ronald Bayer, a professor of public health at Columbia University, called Bloomberg’s health projects a “major achievement” and said his attempts to make smoking less socially appropriate were an effective and legitimate use of his office.
He said it remains at question how much further government could go to discourage smokers to stop smoking.
Greece to Introduce Smoking Ban
After several smoking ban laws in the last decade have been frequently forgotten about by Greeks, who use tobacco products more than any other European country, the government has promised yet another attack and said it will introduce stricter checks in public areas.
The Health Ministry’s General Secretary, Christina Papanikolaou has released a circular calling for the improvement of checks at public places by inspectors responsible for the enactment of the law launched in 2010 that was quickly broken almost everywhere with no enforcement.
The new trend of inspections is predicted to deal with opposition from entrepreneurs who argue that the smoking ban will affect business amid the ongoing financial crisis, the same arguments they make every time Greece passes alleged smoking bans.
In November 2012, the Council of State decided that the ban was in line with Greek law and the Constitution, after 150 business owners and the Panhellenic Federation of Restaurants and Related Professions filed an appeal against it.
In spite of that, the law remains broken and non-smokers have no alternative when they go into public places, including hospitals, where people pretty much smoke anywhere they want.
Public workers, such as those in post offices and government buildings, as well as police, doctors, and bus drivers also light up without be concerned about being checked or fined. Members of Parliament also freely use cigarettes in the building where they passed the ban, neglecting their own law. There was no word on whether inspectors would try to stop smoking, check on them, or fine them at the same time those in other public places could be fined.
Ukrainian legal cigarette market to narrow in 2013
The Ukrainian legal cigarette market in 2013 could decrease to 75 billion cigarettes, in comparison to 80 billion items in 2012, states the director for corporate issues at Imperial Tobacco Ukraine, Yuriy Kyshko.
Yuriy Kyshko mentioned that growth in 2012 in the smuggling of cigarettes was observed on the Ukrainian market.
Imperial Tobacco Ukraine CFO Volodymyr Antypenko explained that according to an order of the company, TNS Ukraine experts carried out a research, under which counterfeit product consumption in Ukraine increased from 4.2% in October 2011 to 4.4% in October 2012.
Antypenko added that in 2012 some tobacco companies were participated in price wars on the Ukrainian cigarette market, which were described by the drop in the prices of some products by 15-20% in some locations.
He mentioned that starting with New Year only Imperial Tobacco Ukraine and Philip Morris Ukraine announced new prices of their tobacco products. He considers that the rest of tobacco companies did not raise prices due to the large amount of product stocks or expecting that the law on the hike of excise taxes will be not approved by the Ukrainian president.
Commenting on the impact of the smoking ban at restaurants and bars, which came into force on December 16, 2012 in Ukraine, Antypenko said that it’s difficult to identify how highly the requirement affected cigarette sales.
On November 20, 2012 the Ukrainian parliament passed law, raising excise duties for alcohol and tobacco.
The document supposes a rise in specific excise rates on non-filter cigarettes to Hr 72.70 per 1,000 cigarettes, and on filtered from Hr 110.64 per 1,000 to Hr 162.60 per 1,000 cigarettes.
Starting January 1, 2014, the specific excise rate on non-filter cigarettes will be established at Hr 77.50 per 1,000 items, from January 1, 2015, at Hr 82.50 per 1,000 cigarettes, and excise rate on filtered cigarettes will be Hr 173.2 and Hr 184.50 per 1,000 items.
Graphic warning labels headed for Europe
Germans are currently informed that smoking is harmful to their health and to those near them. It was claimed that in the near future, pictures of smokers’ harmed anatomies will replace thousands of words.
German famou paper “Bild” said on December 13 that the European Commission had decided on a common plan for tobacco products, after weeks of pause.
Getting a draft file from the EU’s executive, Bild said that more explicit, health warning labels would be printed on packages – in addition to a ban on additives such as those frequently noticed in menthol cigarettes. Words such as “Light” would also be banned, together with slim cigarettes, the paper stated.
Cigarette packages in Germany already have warning labels such as “smoking can be deadly” or “smoking causes considerable damage to you and people around you,” but Australia and England have already implemented a program where images of harmed lungs, teeth and other body parts are displayed in pictures. The reason for such measures is that these kinds of pictures present more powerful information than written health warning labels.
Bild claimed that these health warning labels, made up of a text and pictures, would take three-quarters of the front and back of any cigarette pack. Having taken consumer details on taxes accessed into account, the legislation would give only about 20% of the pack for the company to indicate itself.
The predicted ban on additives like coffee, flavorings, vitamins or coloring would likely ban the manufacturing of menthol cigarettes.
Bild’s data indicated a minimal diameter of 7.5 millimeters for all cigarettes, indicating that the slim cigarette brands – especially popular among regular smokers and women – would no longer adjust to European regulations.
Britain released similar rules in October 2008. Australia, at the same time, began printing big warning labels on similar olive brown cigarette packages – with the different brands printed in similar font – on December 1, 2012. This new Australian packaging is comparable – though a little more strictly controlled – than the data Bild stated it had received for Europe December 13.
The medical journal “The Lancet” released its “Global Burden of Disease Study 2010″ on December 13, stating smoking was the world’s second-biggest health threat on average all over the world.
Seoul toughens smoking ban in restaurants
Smoking will be banned in restaurants, bakeries, coffee stores and bars with a surface place of 150 square metres or larger in South Korea beginning from December 8, the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
Indoor as well as outdoor places of public buildings such as hospitals, libraries, government offices and commercial complexes will as well be specified as smoke-free zones, the ministry stated.
The modification to the National Health Promotion Act was supported at the Cabinet meeting.
“The government has determined to enforce stricter regulations on smoking as it identified limits in defending the public health with the existing laws,” the ministry stated.
Starting from December 8, about 80,000 restaurants should announce themselves as smoke-free eatery areas and determine a separate area for smoking customers. For those who breach the law, the government will enforce fines varying from 1.7 million (US$1,560) to 5 million won depending on the amount of breaks.
Not only restaurant keepers but also clients will be fined 100,000 won if they light up outside specified smoking places, officials said.
Smokers may have to look for smoking areas whenever they enter public buildings as the new legislation bans smoking even in their parking lots, rooftops and gardens.
The new legislation requires building keepers to set up a smoking area outside and 10 metres away from the entrance of their buildings.
The new smoking ban also contains prohibition of the use of names mentioning flavours added to cigarettes. Cigarette makers should take away words like menthol, mojito, cherry, aroma, coffee and apple mint from tobacco products, also as of this Saturday. Cigarette makers in Korea said they got tips from the Ministry of Health in November and changed the names of current flavoured tobacco products.
“We will adopt the government’s new law by modifying the names of flavoured tobacco products,” stated an official at KT&G.
Among mounting calls for bettering public health and a clean environment, the Korean government has been broadening smoking-ban guidelines in recent years, while preserving the price of cigarettes considerably lower than other developed countries.
The government intends to prohibit smoking in small restaurants with areas larger than 100 square metres in 2014 and to all restaurants, irrespective of size, in 2015.
Smoking in internet cafes will also be banned starting in June 2013.
Tobacco Review
Tobacco is a large perennial herbaceous blooming plant that belongs to the solanaceae or nightshade family. It is the world’s most commonly grown non-food plant and is selected by growers from more than 120 countries due to its performance under broadly different climatic and soil conditions to fulfill the requirements of many various markets.
The tobacco plant varies from one to three metres in height and produces 10 to 20 leaves from its main stalk. About 90 percent of tobacco grows between 40º north and 40º south, although it can be grown up to 60º north.
A native crop of the Americas, tobacco is grown in order to get its leaves. But, for commercial cultivation the flowers are take off in order to encourage the leaves to grow further down the stem. Variations in soil and climate create leaves that have particular features and need various methods of fertilization, insect and disease control, growing and curing. All tobacco types belong to the Nicotiana genus, even though the main source of industrial tobacco is Nicotiana Tabacum. Nicotiana Rustica is as well cultivated, albeit to a far lesser extent, and used in Oriental tobaccos.
Farmers have created a broad variety of morphologically various types, from the small-leaved aromatic tobaccos to the large, broad-leaved cigar tobaccos. Yet, each kind of tobacco is usually identified by the curing technique applied to it.
Curing is the last stage in the manufacturing of tobacco. After that, the leaves are marketed to be turned into the ultimate tobacco product, e.g. cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and snuff.
With the aid of curing, the moisture content in the tobacco leaf is lowered from 80 percent to about 20 percent, therefore guaranteeing the tobacco’s preservability. Further, the various techniques of curing also enrich the leaf’s natural aroma. As various tobacco products need leaves with various characteristics, the unique flavour of each type of tobacco is what establishes its suitability for use in various tobacco products.
In curing barns leaves will be dried out some time. After the curing process is finished and the leaf has dehydrated completely, fresh air is released into the curing barn, a bit moistening the leaves as to enable them to be sent for sale without crumbling.
Tobacco industry claims on cigarette packaging are nonsense
Facts in the review – already confirmed in recent tobacco industry papers – demolishes reasons against the implementation of plain packages and demonstrates that counterfeit producers find all current packs easy to fake. Plain, standardised packages are not likely to result in a rush of new counterfeiters creating more packs.
The review by Luk Joossens – who has advised the World Bank, the European Commission and World Health Organization on illegal tobacco trade – was made by Cancer Research UK as the authorities examine the benefits and disadvantages of plain packaging after a public discussion.
It demonstrates that illegal packs are so low-cost to make they can hardly become much lower priced and plain packaging will not considerably have an effect on their final price.
The total cost of production of a 20-pack of illegal cigarettes is about 10 to 15 pence – of which up to a third is determined to be on packaging. They are usually sold in the UK for about £3.
The review as well indicates that it is successful government measure that has been effective in cutting the illegal trade.
UK taxes have not been paid on 9% of cigarettes smoked in the United Kingdom. This has dropped from 21% in 2000/01 but for those concentrated on health it needs to drop further.
Luk Joossens, review author and international expert on illegal tobacco trade, said: “The cigarette companies states that plain packs would be easier to fake. The fact is that all packages are easy to fake and that counterfeiters are able to supply high quality packaging at affordable prices in a short time. Plain packaging will not make any difference to the illegal business.”
Australia is the first country to place health smoking warnings on all tobacco products. Other countries are likely to follow with New Zealand strongly indicating it may be next.
Jean King, Cancer Research UK’s director of tobacco control, said: “The cigarette companies has a track record of assisting smuggling and often says systems that reduce smoking rates will raise smuggling, even though smuggling has been decreasing for a decade. Statements that plain packaging will lead to a rush of illicit tobacco into the UK are absurd.
“The cigarette companies are making these statements while struggling with the idea of plain packs – the new plan it most fears. Placing all tobacco products in plain packs will minimize their attractiveness to youngsters and help result in fewer teenagers becoming hooked to cigarettes.
“The cigarette companies have no trustworthiness and should not accept any health projects that are intended to reduce smoking rates. The companies hope the UK government will respond to the discussion as soon as possible. The answer is standardised packaging will not prevent everyone from using tobacco but it will give large numbers of teenagers one less motive to take up cigarettes.”
