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2008-Jul-4 02:37 - Japan Tobacco Tax Could Triple Prices |
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TOKYO -- Japan, long known for its smoker-friendly
policies, is debating a substantial tax increase that could bring Tokyo in line
with the U.S. and Europe.
The ruling Liberal Democratic Party's annual tax
commission is expected to review a proposal by key lawmakers that could more
than triple the retail price of a pack of cigarettes to about $10.
The backers of the higher tax are looking at the
additional revenue as a way to cut Japan's ballooning budget deficit without
taking the deeply unpopular move of raising its consumption tax.
Japan Tobacco Inc., which has a virtual monopoly on cigarettes here and is 50% owned
by the government, argues that more-expensive cigarettes would depress sales
and lead to lower tax revenue. The company, the world's third-largest tobacco
maker by volume after Altria
Group Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC, on Tuesday sent executives
to lobby the LDP against an increase.
"The government can't hope for increased tax
revenue, because such a big raise in the tax would mean consumption
plummets," JT Deputy President Ryoichi Yamada said afterwards. "It's
unfair that smokers should have to bear the burden" of poor government
finances.
Japan needs to boost government revenue to pay for
pensions for its rapidly aging population. Government debt was 849 trillion yen
($8 trillion) at the end of March, equal to more than 160% of the country's
gross domestic product. One measure put forward to meet the shortfall is
raising the 5% consumption tax. But consumers are sure to oppose that, and
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, already suffering from low approval ratings, has
been reluctant to push the idea.
Many in Japan's ruling party see higher tobacco
tax as a promising alternative. In mid-June, about 45 lawmakers formed a
bipartisan league to argue the case for higher taxes. One of its main advocates
is LDP heavyweight Hidenao Nakagawa, former chief cabinet secretary and an
opponent of raising the consumption tax.
The price of a cigarette pack in Japan is among
the lowest in the industrialized world. On average, a pack costs about 300 yen,
of which roughly 60% is tax. That is less than half of what a pack costs in New
York and less than a third of what it costs in the United Kingdom.
These lawmakers argue that raising the cigarette
tax would boost Japan's tax revenue from the product, which was around 2.2
trillion yen for the year ended March 2008. If cigarette consumption remains
unchanged, charging 1,000 yen a pack would increase cigarette-tax revenue by
8.5 trillion yen a year, according to Barclays Capital. But surveys show that
as many as three-quarters of smokers say they would try to quit if cigarettes
cost 1,000 yen a pack, though it's unclear how many would succeed.
Health proponents, including the country's
physicians and Health Ministry, say an increase in cigarette taxes would cut
down on health-care costs. Japan has one of the highest smoking rates in the
industrialized world, at around 40% for men and 10% for women. Lung cancer is a
leading killer among men.
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2008-Jul-4 02:29 - Are menthol cigarettes worse than other cigarettes? |
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A study released two years ago by the
University of California, San Francisco found menthol cigarettes ay make it harder to
give up smoking than with non-menthol cigarettes. "Mentholation of
cigarettes does not seem to explain disparities in ischemic heart disease and
obstructive pulmonary disease between African-Americans and European Americans
in the United States, but may
partially explain lower rates of smoking cessation among
African-American smokers," the study concluded.
The study did not conclude that menthol
cigarettes were, on their own, more harmful than other cigarettes, but it did
suggest that the addictive nature of the menthol cigarettes ould
be a contributing factor in the disproportionate death rates for black and
white smokers. The reason that blacks are more likely to die from smoking
diseases is that they are much less likely to stop smoking, the researchers
explained.
More research still has to be done to confirm
the relationship between menthol to smoking and to determine the specific
connection it might have with the high rate of lung cancer in the African
American community. Depending on the proof that emerges from the research, the
government may then be authorized to ban menthol.
"What we don't have is the science that simply links both,"
Christensen said in her interview with The Daily Voice. "We need to
get the strongest language possible about the research. We need language that
is stronger than what we currently have on the bill with a definite time
line," she said.
After 10 years of pushing for the legislation, Christensen suggests this as a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. "If we don't get this bill passed, there
wont be any regulation on menthol or anything else," she said.
Last month, seven
former federal health secretaries sent a letter to
Congress warning about the potential dangers of menthol cigarettes and
objecting to the special treatment of menthol in tobacco
legislation. But despite the involvement of public health officials, there
has been limited involvement from black organizations on the issue,
according to some observers. Christensen sees the need for more
work to push the bill through. "Research has to be paid for and
reported quickly," she said.
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2008-Jun-30 01:50 - R.J. Reynolds Tobacco names Gilchrist |
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R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has named Andrew
Gilchrist executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief
information officer, effective July 1.
Gilchrist, who has served as senior vice
president and chief financial officer since 2006, will replace Donald Lamonds,
who is retiring Aug. 1 after 30 years.
Gilchrist joined Brown & Williamson
Tobacco Corp. in 1997 and held a number of management positions there and with
the company's former parent company, British American Tobacco. Gilchrist later
held executive positions at R.J. Reynolds or its parent company, Reynolds
American Inc.
Kirsten Valle
County officials have issued a stop-work order
for the luxury condo tower at the EpiCentre, a project already brought to a
standstill because of a dispute between the EpiCentre and its residential building's
developers.
Mecklenburg County Code Enforcement announced
the order Thursday, citing safety reasons. Work on the 50-story 210 Trade
building stopped in February, with two floors built, because of a disagreement
over technical building-code issues.
The dispute has prompted lawsuits from both
affiliates of Indianapolis-based Flaherty & Collins Properties, which is
developing the condo tower, and the Charlotte-based Ghazi Co., which is
developing the rest of the EpiCentre, a high-profile mixed-use complex being
built at Trade and College streets.
The county's stop-work order, which affects
the residential portion of the project only, will remain in place, with
decisions on the remaining issues deferred until Sept. 15, according to a news
release. Code enforcement Director James Bartl said the order simply keeps
developers from starting work again without talking to the county. The
building's final certificate of occupancy will not be issued until the code
issues are resolved, the release said.
The code enforcement office and Charlotte Fire
Department have seen “some evidence over the past 15 days that the owners of
the property are considering taking steps to resolve their code issues,” the
release said. The county's decision allows those groups to continue to work
toward solving the problems, it said. Kirsten Valle
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2008-Jun-30 01:47 - India tobacco exports may rise to record $600 mln |
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MUMBAI, - India is likely to export a record $600 million of
tobacco in 2008/09, as a shortfall in global output boosted demand and pushed
up prices to new highs, a senior official said.
"Prices have risen about 70 percent from last year and
importers are buying at these levels also. At this price, exports will touch $
600 million (in 2008/09)," J Suresh Babu, chairman of the Tobacco Board,
told Reuters on Thursday.
In the year ending March 2008, tobacco exports rose 32 percent
to $503 million, he said.
The average price of Flue Cured Virginia (FCV), a premier
grade used for cigarette-making, has risen more than 78 percent to 84.67 rupees
per kg, from 47.47 rupees a year ago.
A shortfall in other main producing countries like Brazil has
pushed up prices, which will sustain at these levels until global production
rises, Babu said.
India is the second biggest producer of tobacco after China
and the fourth-biggest exporter of unmanufactured tobacco.
However, rising exports and higher prices are hurting Indian
cigarette makers like Kolkata based ITC Ltd, the biggest cigarette maker in the country, and
Godfrey Phillips India Ltd.
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2008-Jun-22 23:00 - IMPERIAL'S REIGN REACHES ITS END |
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Imperial Tobacco is closing its last factory in Bristol, bringing an end to a remarkable
slice of the city's business history.
Bristol was
built on tobacco. The wealth of its tobacco barons, the Wills family, permeated
the very fabric of the city.
The legacy of their generous endowments can still be clearly seen in landmark
structures such as the University of Bristol's Wills
Building, the Cabot
Tower, the City
Museum and Art
Gallery, the Homeopathic Hospital
and St Monica's home for the elderly.
Their
trade put money into these and countless other projects, as well as into the
pockets of thousands of workers engaged in the production of the cigarettes and
tobacco products which were puffed by millions right around the globe.
Now, finally, all that is about to come to an end.
The axe is falling on Imperial Tobacco's cigar factory in Winterstoke Road. With its closure and
transfer of work to Spain,
the long history of tobacco production will be over.
All that will remain is an Imperial administrative headquarters in Southville,
not far away from what was once the hub of a vast business empire.
Today, as tobacco use is subject to endless assault and constraint from a
Government still, ironically, happy to benefit from its taxation, and those who
smoke in public are bracketed as social outcasts, the decision to shut up shop
in Winterstoke Road
will come as no real surprise.
But where did it all begin? Just how did Bristol
become inextricably linked with tobacco?
For that you have to go back to the 16th century when tobacco - dubbed
"the noxious weed" - was imported from British colonies in Virginia, America.
Up the Avon river and into what became the
city docks came boats laden with tobacco leaf. Waiting to process it were
numerous tobacco companies. Among them was one of the great names of the
industry, WD and HO Wills.
It was founded in 1786 by Henry Overton Wills and was originally known as
Wills, Watkins and Co. It only became WD and HO Wills in 1830 and traded as
such until 1982.
However, it was also part of Imperial Tobacco, a company formed in 1901 to
fight off American competitors. It was an amalgamation of Wills and a dozen
other tobacco factories. Wills, though, kept its name as a division of
Imperial.
It took a war to hook a nation on cigarettes. The Crimean War.
Troops fighting there picked up the Turkish habit of rolling tobacco up into
thin paper before lighting and inhaling. As a consequence, in 1881, the first
cigarette appeared. Bristol's
tobacco factories never looked back.
Wills opened a succession of factories. Its East Street, Bedminster, one
arrived in 1886, others in Ashton and Raleigh Road, Southville, followed.
Business was booming, with sales of brands such as the world-famous Wills Woodbines,
Bristol and
Embassy.
In the early 1970s Wills took the logical step of any thriving firm. It upped
sticks and moved out of town - to Hartcliffe. Bedminster and Southville
economies were devastated. Wills workers were essential to the businesses in
this part of town. It took years for the area to recover.
Yet the Hartcliffe complex was truly spectacular, both in its concept and its
operation. It was the largest of its kind anywhere in Europe
and provided work for 4,500 people who manufactured 350 million cigarettes
every week.
Its vast assembly hall was unique. there were no internal supports and it was
the size of a number of football pitches. Adjacent was an office block as well
as the sort of facilities Wills workers had become used to - their own
supermarket, post office, medical centre, dentist, bank, six restaurants and
lounges, even a bus station. It cost ?15m, covered 57 acres, and by 1975 most
of the old Wills operation had moved out there from Bedminster.
Many must have viewed it as a job for life. It always had been - surely, it
always would be. They could not have been more wide of the mark.
In 1982, Imperial had abolished the old Wills board. Four years later Imperial
was taken over by the Hanson Trust. By 1991 it was shut.
Drive by the site today and this spectacular and innovative factory has been
replaced by an out-of-town retail park. Nearby work proceeds apace on
converting the old shell of what was once the landscaped office block into an
apartments scheme.
Back in Bedminster, the East
Street factory premises still exist, only in a new
role as the frontage for yet another shopping complex, while architect George
Ferguson's foresight has retained and transformed part of the old Southville
site into a theatre, restaurant and bars.
Imperial HQ is close by in Upton
Road and is expanding its workforce.
That, however, should not detract from the fact that the company's decision to
shut up shop at its last remaining Bristol
production facility in Winterstoke
Road truly is the end of what has been an
astonishing era.
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2008-Jun-22 22:53 - Cigarette Tax Arrives Amid Grumbling and Vows |
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Fear of a dreaded disease has been part of the bargain for years. Shame
came slower, as smokers were cast from offices, restaurants and even bars. Now,
in New York City,
there is yet another scary side effect to smoking: empty pockets.
As a new $1.25 state tax took effect on Tuesday, making the combined tax
in New York City the nation’s highest and pushing the price of a pack of
cigarettes above $8 in most places, many smokers around the city swore they
were stopping, even as they bought what they promised would be their last pack.
Barbette Gaines, 47, who started smoking when she was 12, said she was
in a bad mood after paying $8.90 for Newports at a deli on the Lower East Side, and was considering calling a cessation
hotline.
Violeta Mujovic, a clerk at the Always Love Discount Smoke Shop on the Upper West Side — which advertises “cigarettes sold at
the lowest price in NYC” — said that about two dozen customers complained as
they forked over $8.15 a pack on Tuesday morning, but two people stormed out
empty-handed.
“They said they were quitting and just left,” said Ms. Mujovic, 23, who
smokes a pack a day herself and said she had called the city’s 311 line to sign
up for a program that provides quitters with free nicotine gum. “It is just too
ridiculous.”
Cigarette prices in the city have been going up steadily in recent
years, and taxes now total $4.25 a pack: $2.75 for the state and $1.50 in city
taxes that began in 2002.
At a news conference to announce the new tax Tuesday, city and state
health officials cited studies showing that smoking rates decrease as cigarette
prices rise, and said they expected that up to 140,000 of the city’s 1 million
smokers would quit because of the increased cost.
They said that the state expected to raise $265 million in new revenue
from the tax, but that the revenue was dwarfed by the cost of treating
smoking-related illnesses in the state, which they estimated at about $8.2
billion a year.
“At a pack a day, smoking is now a $3,000-a-year habit in New York City,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city’s health
commissioner, said at the news conference at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.
“Quitting now will not only improve your health, but it will save you money you
can use for yourself or your family.”
The immediate reaction from smokers across the city ranged from
resignation to outrage. Outside the Rosebank Tavern on Staten
Island, Mike Sheehy, 49, saw the $8.75 he just paid at a nearby
deli for a pack of Marlboro Lights as an affront to his liberty.
“The Revolution was backed by tobacco,” he said, cigarette in hand.
“That’s where we got our dough from during the Revolutionary War. That’s the
crop that built America.
We’re true Americans.”
In Downtown Brooklyn, Oleg Gulchinsky, a 67-year-old immigrant from Ukraine with an
open pack of Misty 100s in his breast pocket, said, “Time to stop smoke and
begin drink vodka.”
“I joke,” Mr. Gulchinsky said. “But it’s too bad. I understand people
say it’s no good. But for me it’s good, it’s my choice.”
In Woodside, Queens, Chris Bastianos,
47, said he could not bring himself to end his 30-year-affair with tobacco —
yet. “If it went over $10 a day I’d stop,” he said.
There undoubtedly are some places where a pack already tops $10. Random
sampling showed a range of prices around the city: a newsstand on the corner of
Christopher Street
and Seventh Avenue South
in Greenwich Village had Marlboro Lights for $9, while the Big J Deli in
Woodside, Queens, was selling them for $6.75
(a clerk said he was not aware of when the taxes took effect). The large drug
stores were in the middle of the range, with Marlboro Lights costing $8.51 at a
CVS in Midtown.
Shahid Akhter, who opened the Amazing Store and Smoke Shop on Columbus
Avenue on the Upper West Side a month ago, said that past increases caused
business to drop slightly, but that crossing the $8 threshold — especially as
the cost of everything from oil to eggs continued to rise — was likely to have
a bigger effect.
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2008-Jun-4 04:49 - Feedback: Cigarette Tax Goes Up |
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Smokers in New York now pay the highest tax on cigarettes in
the country.
The latest increase of $1.25 means smokers will be paying a
total of $2.75 a pack just in taxes.
The average cost of a pack of smokes is now just under $7
statewide.
In New York City, which has its own cigarette tax, the cost of
a pack could soar past $10.
The state health commissioner thinks the increase will
convince an estimated 140,000 New Yorkers to stop smoking.
But, Francis Gray of Gray’s Wholesale in Clayton doesn’t think
it will make people kick the habit.
He supplies cigarettes to north country retailers.
About 50 percent of his annual business comes from cigarettes.
He says the last time the state increased taxes on a pack of
smokes six years ago, his sales dropped 15 to 20 percent.
Now Gray is bracing for the same downturn.
He says the higher tax will just drive smokers toward places
that don’t charge the tax: Native American stores and bootleggers.
“We make a few more cents a carton, but the volume goes down.
New York state collects more on each carton, but they have fewer cartons to
collect it on because all of the illegal cigarettes and the cigarettes from the
reservation - they’re collecting zero on,” said Gray.
State officials also say the increase should bring in $265
million a year in additional revenue.
Cigarette taxes already generate more than $1 billion for the
state.
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2008-Jun-4 04:45 - New York Smokers Cross the Line for Cheaper Cigarettes |
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A new cigarette tax in
New York has smokers flocking across the border to Pennsylvania.
On any day it's not hard
to find New York license plates in Great Bend Township just a few miles across
the border from the Empire State.
On this day there was car
after car after car of cigarette smokers who are now coming to Pennsylvania to
buy their favorite pack.
It comes after New York
hiked its tax on cigarettes an additional $1.25 a pack.
Stanley Potter drove 13 miles to get there from
Binghamton.
"Because they went
up a buck and a quarter up there in New York. The taxes are outrageous! I'm not
going to pay $6.50 for a pack of cigarettes anymore," Potter said.
His pack of Marlboros is
less than $5 at Smokin' Joe's in Great Bend Township.
Next door, at Tobacco
Junction, Bob Auble noticed a lot of New Yorkers coming in to buy smokes, even
before the new tax.
"They were coming in
buying two or three cartons at a time. It's going to be even worse now,"
Auble said.
New York's new cigarette
tax is considered the highest in the nation.
Smokers there now pay $2.75 a pack just in taxes alone. It's even worse in New
York City, which has it's own tax on cigarettes. Smokes in the Big Apple could
now cost more than $10 a pack.
Dave Homza of Kirkwood
sums up his reaction. "I'm going to try to quit. It's easier said than to
be done," Homza said. He's not alone.
The Empire State's health
commissioner expects 140,000 New Yorkers to quit smoking because of the
increase.
Stanley Potter knows he
won't be one of them. "Either that or quit smoking. I'd rather just come
down here, you know," Potter added.
Now the bad news for
smokers here in Pennsylvania.
There's a proposal in
Harrisburg this year to hike Pennsylvania's cigarette tax an extra 10-cents per
pack to help pay for expanded health care coverage.
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2008-May-26 03:12 - Zimbabwe: Tobacco Farmers Hail Agro-Cheques |
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TOBACCO farmers have hailed the introduction
of agro-cheques, which came into circulation on Tuesday.
The farmers said the introduction of the
cheques was a welcome relief and would go a long way in ensuring that they
access their proceeds as quickly as possible.
"The
Government should be commended for listening to our concerns and acting on
those concerns.
"While we may have had worried about the
onset of the selling season because of the delays in Government addressing our
concerns, it is now shaping up to be a good season," said Mrs Charity
Chikasi of Headlands.
Other farmers said the cheques would enable
them to quickly make purchases before returning to their homes.
"We were spending a lot of time and money
while waiting to get our money and when we did get the old cheques we were at
the mercy of shop owners but we are glad that this has been sorted out.
"We are happy that we can now get our
money before its value has been eroded," said Mr Richard Konde of Odzi.
A number of banks had by late Tuesday
requested for the cheques, which would be released to merchants who would then
pay them to farmers.
The cheques, which are as good as bearer
cheques and can be used as legal tender anywhere, come in $5 billion, $25
billion and $50 billion denominations. They expire in December.
The issue of withdrawal limits was one of the
few concerns that cigarettes and tobacco farmers had raised at the beginning of the selling season apart from
that of the exchange rate and support price.
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe dealt with the
other issues when it liberalised the foreign exchange market, which resulted in
farmers having their proceeds being calculated at the interbank rate.
The introduction of the interbank rate
resulted in the new support price of $70 million per US$ earned that had been
proposed for this season falling away.
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2008-May-26 02:42 - World tobacco giant “Philip Morris” operated in Azerbaijan in Soviet period |
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Zagathala. Hafiz Heydarov
– APA. The facts evidenced about the activity of world tobacco giant Philip
Morris, in Azerbaijan during the Soviet period were identified in Zagatala
Region of Azerbaijan, Jahangir Soltanov, Director of local Museum of History
and Ethnography told APA Shaki-Zagatala bureau.
The museum staff has already started to collect material
evidences and photos related to the activity of Philip Morris, known for its
Marlboro Marlboro cigarettes
, in Azerbaijan in
1970-80s. So far mechanical bracket clock, sunglasses and photos belonged to
Philip Morris staff in Zagatala have been found and brought to the museum.
“This is interesting fact
because Zagatala was one of few regions where Philip Morris the symbol of
capitalist system, worked in association with the Soviet economy. We found
things belonged to the Philip Morris cigarettes produced
in the countries, which were removed from the map of Europe as a result of
collapse of world socialist system”, said the director of museum. “It is
notable that Philip Morris chose Zagatala for cultivation of Virginia tobacco.
It proved ideas of German expert A. Ifon Plotto in 19th century about the
fertile lands of Zagatala”. The director of museum said they were developing
researches.
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2008-May-20 02:09 - Eateries' smoking ban is dissuading teens |
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Restaurant smoking bans may be as powerful as
peers or parents in the battle to keep teenagers from becoming smokers, a new
study suggests.
Teenagers who lived in towns that adopted early
bans on smoking in restaurants were 40 percent less likely to become smokers
than their counterparts in towns with weaker restaurant smoking laws, Boston researchers report.
The study did not address how smoking bans
discourage teenage smoking. But Dr. Michael Siegel of the Boston University
School of Public Health said the findings bear out his hypothesis that if teens
see fewer people smoking and conclude that smoking isn't socially acceptable,
then they may be less likely to pick up the habit.
Writing in the Archives of Pediatric &
Adolescent Medicine, Siegel reported results from three waves of phone surveys
in 301 Massachusetts
towns starting in 2001. Massachusetts banned smoking in all workplaces, bars,
and restaurants in 2004, but 227 cities and towns in the state had rules on
tobacco at work sites, including restaurants, before the law went into effect.
Siegel and his colleagues asked more than 3,800
young people who were between the ages of 12 and 17 at the beginning of the
study if they had ever smoked, if they had a cigarettes in
the past month, and if they had smoked more than 100 cigarettes.
"Restaurant smoking bans are actually one
of the most effective interventions to reduce youth smoking," Siegel said.
"There are not a lot of interventions out there which can produce a 40
percent reduction in youth smoking."
In towns that banned smoking in restaurants
ahead of the state law, 7.9 percent of participants had smoked more than 100 cigarettes when the study began; in towns with weak
laws, the rate was 9.6 percent. After adjusting for a variety of factors, such
as age, race, and household income, the difference widened to 40 percent,
Siegel said.
Having a parent or a close friend who smoked
was a factor in whether a child tried smoking, but not in whether the child
continued to smoke, he said.
"Everyone talks about whether parents or
friends smoke," Siegel said. "This shows that a restaurant smoking
ban is equal in power."
In an earlier paper based on the same survey,
Siegel found that teens living in towns that had an early smoking ban thought
fewer people smoked and considered it less socially acceptable than those who
lived in towns with weaker smoking laws.
According to state figures, teen smoking hit a
15-year low in 2007, dipping to 17.7 percent of high school students from 20.5
percent two years earlier. Sales to minors took an even steeper dive, with 22
percent of teens able to get cigarettes if they wanted them in 2006, compared
with 13.3 percent in 2007, according to a state program that sends teens to
stores to track how many businesses violate the law against selling to underage
buyers.
Lois Keithly, director of the Massachusetts
Tobacco Control Program, said many factors might have contributed to the
substantial decline in teen cigarette use.
"Certainly the statewide workplace smoking
ban was part of it," she said. "I think in a couple of years we'll be
able to compare it to other factors."
Since 2006, counseling and medications to help
smokers quit have been covered by MassHealth, the state's Medicaid plan, and
the benefit has been used by more than 10 percent of members, she said.
Public health efforts aimed at adolescents have
been reinvigorated, including the launch of the84.org, a website with
antismoking ads created by teenagers and named for the 84 percent of their
peers who don't smoke.
A proposed increase in the cigarette tax,
should it be approved by the Legislature, could also have an effect on teen
smoking rates, Keithly said.
"What I took from this study is the
importance of adolescents not seeing adults whom they respect smoking,"
she said.
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2008-May-16 01:28 - New Study may help the tobacco industry develop "safer" cigarettes |
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Everyone has known for decades that that smoking can kill, but until now no one really understood how cigarette smoke causes healthy lung cells to become cancerous. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, show that hydrogen peroxide in cigarette smoke is the culprit. This finding may help the tobacco industry develop "safer" Marlboro cigarettes by eliminating such substances in the smoke, while giving medical researchers a new avenue to developing lung cancer treatments.
"With the five-year survival rate for people with lung cancer at a dismally low 15.5 percent, we hope this study will provide better insight into the identification of new therapeutic targets," said Tzipora Goldkorn, senior author of the report.
In the research study, Goldkorn and colleagues describe how they exposed different sets of human lung airway cells (in the laboratory) to Marlboro cigarettes smoke and hydrogen peroxide. After exposure, these cells were then incubated for one to two days. Then they, along with unexposed airway cells, were assessed for signs of cancer development. The cells exposed to cigarettes smoke and the cells exposed to hydrogen peroxide showed the same molecular signatures of cancer development, while the unexposed cells did not.
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2008-May-12 01:24 - Wrinkles could be key to buying cigarettes in Japan |
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 TOKYO - Marlboro cigarettes vending machines in Japan may soon start counting wrinkles, crow's feet and skin sags to see if the customer is old enough to smoke.
The legal age for smoking in Japan is 20 and as the country's 570,000 tobacco vending machines prepare for a July regulation requiring them to ensure buyers are not underage, a company has developed a system to identify age by studying facial features.
By having the customer look into a digital camera attached to the machine, Fujitaka Co's system will compare facial characteristics, such as wrinkles surrounding the eyes, bone structure and skin sags, to the facial data of over 100,000 people, Hajime Yamamoto, a company spokesman said.
"With face recognition, so long as you've got some change and you are an adult, you can buy Marlboro cigarettes like before. The problem of minors borrowing cards to purchase cigarettes could be avoided as well," Yamamoto said.
Japan's finance ministry has already given permission to an age-identifying smart card called "taspo" and a system that can read the age from driving licenses.
It has yet to approve the facial identification method due to concerns about its accuracy.
Yamamoto said the system could correctly identify about 90 percent of the users, with the remaining 10 percent sent to a "grey zone" for "minors that look older, and baby-faced adults," where they would be asked to insert their driving license.
Underage smoking has been on a decline in Japan, but a health ministry survey in 2004 showed 13 percent of boys and 4 percent of girls in the third year of high school -- those aged 17 to 18 -- smoked every day.
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2008-May-5 23:27 - Altria Boosts Prices, Cuts Discounts On Cigarettes |
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Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA unit is cutting certain promotional discounts and raising prices on cigarettes brands starting Monday.
A company spokesman said via email that it will cut the previously announced " off-invoice" promotional allowances offered on its Marlboro, Basic and L&M Box brands from Monday through June 29 by 9 cents a pack, or 90 cents a carton.
For the same period, the company is also eliminating the current 20-cents-a- pack, or $2-a-carton, promotional allowance on its Parliament cigarette brand, and increasing the list prices by 9 cents a pack, or 90 cents a carton, on the balance of its cigarettes brands.
Cigarette volumes in the U.S. have been falling and the cigarette industry has had to hike prices to offset higher taxes and costs.
In recent premarket trading, shares were at $20.43, flat with Friday's close.
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2008-Apr-25 01:09 - Tobacco market practices |
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LONDON - Britain's consumer affairs watchdog said on Friday it suspected cigarettes price-fixing involving tobacco companies and retailers, including all big four supermarket chains, between 2000 and 2003.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) issued a so-called statement of objections naming two tobacco manufacturers -- Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco-owned Gallaher -- and 11 retailers.
The retailers are Wal-Mart-owned Asda, Co-operative Group, First Quench, Morrisons, Safeway, Sainsbury, Shell, Somerfield, T&S Stores, Tesco and TM Retail.
Imperial Tobacco had no immediate comment. Gallaher, which is owned by Japan Tobacco, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The OFT made two allegations, including that there were arrangements between "each manufacturer and each retailer that restricted the ability of each of these cigarettes retailers to determine its selling prices independently, by linking the retail price of a manufacturer's brand to the retail price of a competing brand of another manufacturer".
The second was more specific, alleging "in the case of Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, Asda, Sainsbury, Shell, Somerfield and Tesco, the indirect exchange of proposed future retail prices between competitors".
The allegations come two days after the OFT was forced to apologise to supermarket Morrisons and pay 100,000 pounds ($197,700) to settle a defamation action over an incorrect accusation in another antitrust probe.
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2008-Apr-22 03:24 - Councillors' debate goes up in smoke |
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Council members suspended discussions yesterday over an anti-smoking law, saying it was too confusing. Councillors were lost in speculations as they discussed the law, which is a combination of a new parliamentary proposal and an original draft proposed by the Health Ministry 14 years ago. It was presented to the council then, but was left in the file until the parliament reactivated it.
Council members initially approved the proposal two weeks ago, but last week decided to refer it back to the services committee for complete re-working.
Some objected to part of the draft, which stipulated that adults who smoke in cars with children aboard be prosecuted, saying it was not workable. Others said prosecuting people who smoke in malls and other closed areas would be even tougher, as courts demand that offenders be caught red-handed.
Health Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Primary Health Care and Public Health Dr Mariam Al Jalahma warned councillors that the law did not take into consideration any future advancements in the tobacco field, such as e-cigarettes, the sale of which has been restricted in some countries. These are gaining popularity amongst the young people of the Gulf and the law should be amended to deal with them, she said.
Councillors were also upset with the punishments directed towards major outlets that violated the law, saying that they were too light. Under the proposed law, traders who sell tobacco to children under 14 years could face up to six months in jail. Places which fail to properly separate smoking and non-smoking areas or violate smoking restrictions would be fined from BD100 to BD1,000 and closed for up to three months for repeated offences. People who smoke in closed areas, including buses and malls would face fines of BD50 to BD100.
A national anti-smoking authority, chaired by the Health Minister, would be formed to implement and supervise the law. Parliament voted in favour of the new law in February and if approved by the council, it will be ratified by His Majesty King Hamad.
The law will be referred back to parliament, once the council finalises its draft. Council public utilities and environment affairs committee's Faoud Al Hajji said the law stipulated that shops could only sell cigarettesin packs of 20s. "The ban is illogical, because those who are used to buying four cigarettes, would be now forced to buy a pack," he said. "Do we want to kill people faster?"
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2008-Apr-18 03:22 - Cheap cigarettes online at the-cheapest-cigarettes.com |
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2008-Apr-16 22:43 - Drugs and sex in sports |
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Through the years, several members of the different media outlets have expressed the opinion that the “Hippy” movement caused many problems. The “Hippy” movement has been blamed for many of the drug problems we have experienced since the 1960s.
As a sports fan, it really bothers me when people blame the “Hippy” movement for many of today's problems. To be a good athlete, one must be in good physical condition. Drugs harm the health of a person and hurt the ability to play sports.
Fortunately, contrary to popular belief, society is better off than it once was with drugs and, as a result, athletes are in better condition and play better. In turn, playing sports will make the athletes even healthier. From the perspective of a sports fan, I realize the more we learn about drugs, the more exciting it will be to watch games.
Improving health and being in good condition is something I am able to appreciate because I struggle with weight problems I continue to try to fix.
It is true some “Hippies” smoked marijuana, cocaine, heroine and other physically and mentally addictive drugs. However, they did not represent the majority of rebels from the 1960s. Furthermore, we have progressed in so many ways and we have become far more educated with drugs than we once were.
Prior to the 1960s, no one knew how bad it was to smoke cigarettes. Now, by law, there must a Surgeon General Warning on every pack of cigarettes. Second-hand smoke is no longer accepted as part of society. Smoking in many public places is outlawed in several states including Arkansas.
Just back in the 1980s, Dave Corzine, a former center for the Chicago Bulls, was known for smoking cigarettes at halftime of basketball games. I doubt that would go over too well today.
I always knew the evils of cigarettes from the time I was a little boy because I was fortunate enough to have parents who were in the right places at the right times to know how bad smoking was. One of my parents had a relative who smoked and had a horrible time dealing with second-hand smoke in places such as the home and car. In fact, as a kid, this parent was able to buy cigarettes at the store for this relative and the store sold them without a problem. My other parent had a relative who was a doctor that explained the evils of smoking, which was not common knowledge, unlike today.
The state legislature passed a new law about smoking in most public places back in 2006. Because of that bill, smoking in most public places in Arkansas is banned. At the time, I worked in Lake Village and interviewed State Sen. Jimmy Jeffress, who used to smoke and was also instrumental in the bill. When I wrote that article, I was reminded of how far we have come in the fight against drugs.
Chewing tobacco has also been a quite common practice in sports in the past, especially in baseball from what I have noticed. While that still goes on, we at least now fully understand the dangers involved. Everyone who chews tobacco also now reads the Surgeon General Warning.
Thanks to the world of sports, most everyone knows the dangers of steroids. Roger Clemens, a baseball pitcher for many years who set many records, and Barry Bonds, who set the all-time home run record in baseball, have been accused of taking steroids.
Clemens and Bonds, once viewed as heroes in the public eye, are now perceived by many as cheaters. Clemens and Bonds allegedly took steroids, which have harmed many bodies and cost many players their lives. Two athletes who died from steroids were Ken Caminiti, who played baseball, and Lyle Alzado, who played football.
We now understand nutrition better than ever. At one time, people used to think red meat was good for growing kids. Since then, we have come a long way.
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who lost a lot of weight a few years back and changed his lifestyle to one more healthy, has been a very positive influence in this area. He should be commended for all he has done to help increase public awareness to the obesity problem.
Another false stereotype I have heard is how sex got out of hand in the 1960s during the “Hippy” movement. Not only are we more educated than ever about sex, people are much more careful about checking for AIDS prior to sexual intercourse.
It was actually the sports world that brought the AIDS issue to the forefront when, back in 1991, Earvin “Magic” Johnson was forced to retire from the Los Angeles Lakers when he discovered he contracted the HIV virus. People knew about AIDS before Johnson but after Magic's famous press conference where he announced his retirement from the Lakers, everyone talked about it to the point where Magic was a topic of discussion during the 1992 Presidential Debates between former President George H.W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. Now, because Magic contracted the HIV virus, when a player in the NBA gets a cut, he must leave the game to assure the other players on the court are not in danger of getting AIDS.
The point I am trying to make is many people claim the “Hippy” movement hurt us when it comes to health issues such as drugs and sex. However, the reality is sex is practiced much more safely now than it was prior to the “Hippy” movement. Not only is the sports world partially responsible for this, we will have better athletes than we did prior to the “Hippy” movement because they'll be in better health.
I sincerely commend former President Bush for reaching out to Magic after learning Johnson had the HIV virus. Former President Bush tried to get Magic to serve on a committee to help put a stop people from getting AIDS. Unfortunately, Magic quit the cause early on and did not give Bush any meaningful input about how things could have been better.
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2008-Apr-11 01:53 - Russia looks to kick smoking |
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Millions of Russians could be urged to kick their favourite habit if a global anti-smoking treaty is ratified by the country’s lawmakers. The treaty boosts health warnings on packets and calls an end to advertising. Half a million Russians die every year from smoke-related diseases. Having played an active role in the framing of the Global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Russia is still not a member.
In Russia, 60% of men and 30% of women smoke cigarettes.
According to State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov, “Russia is the third most prolific producer in the world of tobacco products - some 414 billion cigarettes annually. But unlike the U.S. who are the world leaders and who export most of what they produce, Russian tobacco is consumed within the country”.
The World Health Organization Global Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was adopted in 2003 and came into effect two years later. More than 150 countries already ratified it.
The document outlines tough measures aimed at reducing tobacco consumption. “For example, within three years 30 per cent of the surface area of cigarettes packet would have to carry warnings over harmful smoking is. In five years we would have to bring tobacco advertising to heel. There's a whole lot of work to be done in this respect,” explains Ivan Dubov from the Ministry of Public Health and Social Development.
Although certain measures have already been adopted by law makers, Russia still seems to be lagging behind Europe in its anti-smoking policies. Public smoking has been banned in Ireland since 2004, in the UK since July last year and in Germany, employers can refuse to hire smoker.
But with a strong tobacco lobby and an average price for a pack of cigarettes at just around one dollar - one tenth of the price in the UK - the task of getting Russians to cut back their habit is a long one.
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2008-Apr-8 02:25 - The Most Expensive Ingredient in Cigarettes |
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 The ABC affiliate in Albany reports that Gov. David Paterson and state legislative leaders have agreed on a $1.25-a-pack increase in New York's cigarettes tax, making it $2.75. That will give New York the highest state cigarette tax in the country, surpassing New Jersey's rate of $2.57 a pack. Smokers who buy cigarettes in New York City pay an additional $1.50 a pack, so they will be shelling out $4.25 in state and city taxes, plus the 39-cent federal tax, for a total of $4.64 a pack. They also have to pay sales tax, which in New York City is 8.38 percent. So a pack of cigarettes that would cost, say, $4 without taxes will cost New Yorkers more than $9, most of which will go into city, state, and federal coffers. In other words, the government will be taxing a product disproportionately consumed by poor people at an effective rate of more than 100 percent, reaping bigger profits than anyone else from a business it simultaneously condemns as the foremost threat to public health. It can get away with this punitive levy because the people it's bleeding are an unpopular minority with little political influence. And what do we call this policy? Progressive.
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2008-Apr-4 01:11 - State Lawmakers Vote To Hike Cigarette Tax By $1.25 |
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The state Legislature has agreed on Wednesday to hike the cigarette tax by a $1.25 per pack, bringing the statewide tax to $2.75 per pack.
The original proposed increase was $1.50 per pack.
But an additional city cigarettes tax means that smokers in the five boroughs pay a total of $4.25 in taxes.
A spokesman for the state budget office said the additional money will raise $265 million for the state, much of which would go towards health programs.
The average statewide price for a pack of cigarettes is nearly $6.
Meanwhile scientists say that some smoker's addictions may be partially blamed on genetics.
A study in this week's Nature Genetics Journal says scientists have identified genetic variations that seem to make people more likely to get hooked on cigarettes and more likely to develop lung cancer.
Researchers say a smoker who inherits the trait from both parents has an 80 percent greater chance of developing lung cancer than a smoker who doesn't inherit them.
The findings could potentially lead to screening tests and more personalized treatments for smokers trying to break the habit.
The study looked at genes of more than 35,000 people.
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2008-Mar-31 02:13 - Tobacco funded Mass. researchers |
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The nation's largest cigarettes maker has paid for scientific research at four Massachusetts universities since 2000, a practice that critics of the tobacco industry liken to the Mafia underwriting crime fighting.
'Taking money from the tobacco industry to conduct scientific research is like the DA taking money from the Mafia to conduct investigations of crime,' said Gregory Connolly, a Harvard School of Public Health professor and former director of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.
Philip Morris USA, which makes Marlboro and other top-selling cigarettes lines, gave grants to scientists at Boston University, Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Massachusetts, company spokesman David M. Sylvia said Friday.
The research supported by the company touched on conditions such as heart disease and cancer that are linked to smoking. The grants given by the Philip Morris External Research Program were not used to develop new tobacco products or refine existing brands, but they may have helped the company rehabilitate its public image.
When accepting Philip Morris money, the researchers had to promise to disclose the source of their funding in scientific publications, Sylvia said, and the company, in turn, promised not to meddle in the research.
Still, industry foes said research paid for by tobacco companies is irredeemably compromised. "Taking money from the tobacco industry to conduct scientific research is like the DA taking money from the Mafia to conduct investigations of crime," said Gregory Connolly, a Harvard School of Public Health professor and former director of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program.
University scientists first came under withering attack for taking money from Big Tobacco in the 1990s, when their work was seen as buttressing industry claims that cigarettes were not harmful. The tenor of industry-funded research changed after the companies acknowledged in a landmark settlement in 1998 that their products were lethal.
"Their interest now is to try to convince the public that they are truly concerned companies and that they care enough to fund important research at reputable institutions," said Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University School of Public Health researcher who has extensively studied the tobacco industry. "And, they're using the good name of these institutions to try to bolster their own scientific and public credibility."
BU's acceptance of research grants from Philip Morris was first disclosed Thursday in The Daily Free Press, a student newspaper at the university. In a statement issued Friday evening, the provost of BU's medical campus, Dr. Karen Antman, said the school had received $3.99 million from Philip Morris during the past decade and devoted it to the study of tobacco-related diseases.
"We adhere to the highest ethical conduct in research and pursue funding from a variety of sources for unrestricted medical research," Antman said in the statement. "Our research is conducted and the results are assessed against the standard benchmarks that apply to any research."
Philip Morris would not disclose how much money in total it distributed through the External Research Program from 2000 through last year, when it was ended. Nor would the company specify the amounts given to Massachusetts
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2008-Mar-28 07:31 - Cigarettes may be sold 'under the counter' |
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Cigarettes may have to be sold under the counter as part of new Government proposals described as "creepy and authoritarian".
Newsagents and supermarkets may also have to move their cigarettes displays out of view so as not to tempt people to take up smoking.
The "out of sight, out of mind" proposal is part of the Department of Health's consultation to be launched later this spring, which looks at ways to stop children smoking. The relevant legislation could be introduced in the autumn.
But the move has been denounced by critics as further evidence of a growing "nanny state" and another assault on smokers.
Neil Rafferty, a spokesman for the smokers' rights group Forest, said: "This is another attempt by the Government to stigmatise smokers and make them feel bad about themselves.
"It is a creepy and authoritarian measure. Tobacco is a perfectly legal product from which the Government makes more than ?10 billion a year in taxes."
Other measures on the table include the outlawing of vending machines from pubs and restaurants and making nicotine-replacement gums and patches easier to buy.
According to the Department of Health, the strategy - coupled with the ban on smoking in public places - will save hundreds of lives.
Someone who starts smoking at the age of 15 is three times more likely to die of cancer than someone who starts in their late 20s, the department said.
Dawn Primarolo, the public health minister, said: "It's vital we get across the message to children that smoking is bad. If that means stripping out vending machines or removing cigarettes from behind the counter, I'm willing to do that."
According to the Office for National Statistics, the proportion of adults who smoke has dropped from 24 per cent to 22 per cent since the ban was introduced last July. The Government has a target of reducing the proportion of smokers to 21 per cent by 2010.
David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said: "I think this is worth looking at. As someone who struggled with giving up smoking, it helps if you take away some of the temptation."
Shane Brennan, a spokesman for the Association of Convenience Stores, which represents 33,000 shops, said: "This is going to be a massive burden on retailers and we are not sure that the end justifies the means. Cigarettes are already kept behind the counter."
Mark Littlewood, the communications director of the think tank Progressive Vision, said: "Banning the display of cigarettes and vending machines would be petty, pointless and patronising."
"These sorts of ideas are typical of a government who seem hell bent on intervening in every single aspect of our lives, however trivial."
Meanwhile, health experts have said that rising cigarette prices are increasing the risk of cancer as more smokers swap cigarettes for cheaper roll-ups.
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2008-Mar-25 06:22 - Online Fine Wines, Tobacco |
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When asked to which states her employer was legally allowed to ship its product, Jessie Carrico said it would probably be easier to list the states it can't be shipped.
Until just recently, the Baroda, Mich.-based Round Barn Winery wine couldn't even ship cigarettes product just across the nearby state line.
"We were really struggling to get to Indiana. We just got our permit recently," said Carrico, an employee in the tasting room at Round Barn. "We weren't allowed there for the longest time."
While wineries have had trouble shipping to Indiana in recent years, the practice is gaining steam nationwide as local growers are finding customers all over the country.
Of the 50 states, Round Barn ships to only 18, as well as to Washington, D.C. Their roster, though, is growing. That's thanks in part to changes in laws like the one that allowed out-of-state wineries to begin shipping to Indiana.
Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission Manager Shirley Kirby said laws restricting wineries from shipping directly to customers changed two years ago, opening up a new line of profit.
"We had a three-tier law in Indiana in which the manufacturer had to ship directly to a wholesaler who then would ship to a retailer," she said. "Now the law has reversed. Wineries like those now can direct ship to individuals."
Kirby said the winery must have not sold to a wholesaler within the past 120 days and must secure a surety bond and pay a yearly fee of $100 to be able to ship directly to individuals.
"Our out-of-state business is growing," Carrico said. "Our popularity is growing, so it helps to be able to ship to people in so many different states."
The market on mail- or Internet-order premium items hasn't been cornered by wineries, but by cigar sellers, as well. Wholesalers like North Carolina-based J.R. Cigars and Thompson Cigars make millions each year shipping premium cigars throughout the world.
Their selections are vast and their prices are usually competitive, so much so that at times they give private cigar store owners a run for their money.
Maj. Robin Poindexter, with the Indiana Excise Police, said a 24-percent tax is called the "other cigarettes products" tax, or OTP, and it's charged to wholesalers and distributors and collected by the state department of revenue.
It was introduced in the 1990s after several of the nation's most prominent tobacco companies settled several high-dollar lawsuits.
Poindexter said the tax shouldn't necessarily push online sales. The state of Indiana requires online sellers to keep track of Indiana residents who buy through them then give the buyers' information to the state.
The state then sends buyers a bill requiring the pay the taxes that weren't paid at the time of purchase.
"Now whether or not they do, that is a different story," Poindexter said. "I can't speak to how effective it is, but that's the intent, to somehow level the playing field."
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2008-Mar-25 06:21 - Sigaretta Elettronica - e-cigarettes - smettere di fumare - Quit smoking - Life - Vendita on-line - Lazio – Cassino |
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LIFE resembles a normal cigarette but it does not contain any tobacco products. LIFE is an amazing new product which allows you to smoke where you want when you want. LIFE allows the consumption of nicotine mixed with aromas without inhaling dangerous and unpleasant substances which naturally occur as a by-product of combustion.
LIFE high tech micro-electronic components allow you to replicate the full experience of smoking, including that very satisfying feeling of inhaling smoke. As there is no combustion involved, what is actually inhaled and exhaled is in reality just water vapor. A tiny micro-component creates the same smoke produced by a normal cigarette but the smoke is made by the combination of scents and nicotine mixed with water vapor. The experience of smoking a LIFE e-Cigarette is very satisfying under all traditional aspects: visual, olfactory and psychological recreating the same exact sensation experienced when smoking a traditional cigarette. Smoking a LIFE e-Cigarette will enable you to replicate that feeling of smoking, absorb your nicotine and satisfy that craving in a very healthy way. The recharges in LIFE cigarette last longer than a traditional pack of cigarette. A standard pack of life refills will last as much as 5 packs of cigarette! LIFE is a more economical and healthy way to enjoy smoking.
Take a look at the range of accessories created specifically for LIFE e-cigarette and the all new LIFE-Cigar! All the pleasure of smoking that cigar when and where you want is only possible with LIFE-Cigar.
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LIFE is less harmful than a traditional cigarette as there is no combustion and it is more considerate for your non-smoking friends.
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2008-Mar-25 06:20 - Hamlet at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol |
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Jonathan Miller has performed some strange surgery on the Bard in his time - I still have nightmares about the colonial-era Tempest in which Ariel was an aspiring African dictator flourishing a fly-whisk - but his in-the-round revival of Hamlet in the West Country’s most enterprising theatre is a model for any director and a treat for any playgoer. Miller trusts the text, cutting little but some of the stuff about Denmark’s fears of invasion, a subject that Shakespeare anyway treats as cursorily as Jay Villiers’s Claudius does when he offhandedly drops the Norwegian king’s reassuring message on to the floor.
He ensures that every line has its due meaning and weight. He even sets his production in the Elizabethan era. And is the result academic, pedantic or dull? Quite the contrary. This Hamlet is grippingly alive from the moment when Philip Buck’s initially scornful Horatio and the royal guards wait in the silvery murk for the dead king’s ghost to an ending in which the exhausted Claudius compliantly takes the poisoned cup and drinks from it, as at some hellish communion service. And, not least at the moment when self-slaughter seems a tempting escape from life’s “fardels”, Jamie Ballard proves well able to bear the theatre’s ultimate fardel, the role of Hamlet. At first he’s slumped, head hanging down, on one of the old pews that furnish an otherwise bare stage. He’s still in deep grief at his father’s death and shock at his mother’s remarriage and, at times, can’t quite stem his tears. So the meeting with Andrew Hilton’s ghost - impressively majestic but so lacking in horror-stricken intensity that purgatory might be the Athenaeum - is in a way restorative.
Now he can feel what he feels without guilt, shame or a sense of being “unmanly”. Ballard’s one fault is to get shrill when he rages, making you feel that his fury is coming from the throat, not the belly. But he’s intelligent, incisive, sentient and humorous, using parody gestures and comic voices when he’s disorienting others with what’s here is a mocking and self-mocking pretence of madness.
His scenes with Annabel Scholey’s Ophelia are especially strong: he burying his head in her skirts as he seeks comfort, she pushing away the man she loves because she’s being watched by Roland Oliver’s gleefully busybodying Polonius. Scholey’s hyper-obedient, ultra-repressed Ophelia more than prepares us for the scene in which, dressed in a stained shift, she madly pokes sticks into her dolls’ pudenda. Likewise Villiers, who starts out smiling, confident and supremely rational, becomes tense and angry and ends weary, beaten and suicidal, and always seems much in love with Francesca Ryan’s Gertrude. Each of these fine performers makes a journey that’s logical, carefully charted yet emotionally true - and, as such, characteristic of Miller’s cigarettes production.
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2008-Mar-14 03:00 - Smokeless in Paris |
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PARIS -- What are all those people doing outside bars and restaurants, shivering to death in the wintry cold? Smoking. That’s what they’re doing.
Addiction is mightier than the freezing temperature. Since the French government banned smoking inside any public space at the beginning of this year, France’s 12 million smokers have had to take to the streets and sidewalks for a smoke.
If the French can stop smoking in public places, why can’t Mexicans? I have just been in Mexico City, where going to a restaurant is unbearable because smokers act as if they owned the place -- and our lungs. There are no smokers more arrogant than Mexicans when they are asked to put out their cigarettes in a public place -- and refuse to do so. They look at you with contempt, as if their right to smoke was more important than your right to protect yourself from disease or death. Most times, they just continue smoking, and if they could, they would even blow their smoke on your food.
All of this, hopefully, will change as soon as the new laws passed by the Mexican Senate and by the Federal District Legislative Assembly go into effect nationwide and in Mexico City. Mexico and France are two of the few countries that are taking definitive measures to defend their populations from smokers and the cigarettes companies that market smoke and cancer.
There are more than a billion smokers in the world. One out of every six inhabitants on the planet is a smoker. The tobacco companies, reacting to new restrictions imposed in wealthier and better-informed countries, have taken their products and exported lung disease to the poorest nations of the world where there is less information about tobacco’s noxious effects.
Many governments would rather receive millions of dollars in tax revenues through the sale and consumption of cigarettes than impose new restrictions and a health policy that would save their citizens’ lives. Poor and developing nations spend only $1 on anti-smoking publicity for every $5,000 they receive from the tobacco companies, according to a recent World Health Organization study.
Among the world’s 192 U.N.-member countries, only 10 have stringent measures banning smoking in offices, restaurants and any closed spaces. This means that now, in this 21st century, 1 billion people will die from health complications due to cigarettes smoking. This information comes from a report financed by the Michael Bloomberg Foundation. Paris is a leading role model. For centuries, it has set the pace for the joy of life -- and the joy for a good life. And today the city is even better -- and smokeless.
Smoking kills. I know this firsthand. My father smoked for 20 years, and died 20 years before his time. Without those cigarettes, he might even have accompanied me on this trip.
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2008-Mar-10 01:18 - Lawmaker says China's tobacco control should start with gov't employees |
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China's government employees should be banned from offering or receiving cigarettes on social occasions as a first step towards the country's goal to minimize the harm of tobacco on people's health.
"Government departments and their employees are responsible for taking the lead in China's tobacco control," said Yan Aoshuang, a deputy to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) from Beijing.
Yan said government employees should not be allowed to accept cigarettes for free or at discounted prices from tobacco companies.
"Besides, all government offices should ban smoking in the workplace to ensure a smoking-free environment," she said on the sidelines of the annual parliamentary session.
Yan said the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and Ministry of Culture should draft regulations to ban disguised tobacco adverts and scenes of smoking in films or TV plays.
"Film producers and cinemas should play anti-smoking adverts during intervals, and all TVs should air these adverts for free at prime time," she said.
Beijing banned smoking in taxis last October, a latest move toward a smoking-free Olympic Games in August.
In a regional ban enacted in 1995, the city put hospitals, schools, theaters, libraries, banks, shops and all means of public transport as smoking-free areas.
Shao Yiming, a specialist on the prevention of AIDS and venereal diseases, has proposed non-smoking areas at all Chinese hotels, restaurants and other public facilities.
China should also impose higher taxes on tobacco to reduce consumption and encourage insurance companies to offer medical insurance policies covering abstinence treatment, said Shao, a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in his proposal to the top advisory session.
The Chinese are among the world's most enthusiastic smokers, with a growing market of 350 million. Ministry of Health said smoking causes 1 million deaths a year in China.
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2008-Mar-3 06:49 - Smokers think about cigarettes more than sex |
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