Tanzania’s delegation to the World Trade Organisation has vowed to appeal against a proposed bill by Canada that seeks to ban the use of ingredients in cigarette brands saying it will affect tobacco farmers globally.

The team will also raise the issue of the Canadian ban being incorporated into the draft guidelines (Art 9 and 10) of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) at the World Health Organisation.

Similar position

It remains to be seen whether Kenya, also a member of the FCTC will take a similar position.

“We are taking this step aware of the potential harm on demand of our tobacco if the Canadian articles find their way into the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control,” said Mr Mohamed Muya, Tanzania permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives. He spoke during the opening of the international Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) meeting in Zanzibar held last weekend.

In October 2009, Canada adopted a new law (the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act) that will effectively ban the manufacture and sale of traditional blended cigarettes – and will thereby indirectly significantly reduce imports of the burley and oriental tobacco used in such cigarettes.

“The issue is not to oppose the proposed control measures but it is a matter of economic interests to get an alternative crop that will give similar economic benefits to tobacco,” said the permanent secretary.

Kenya’s current tobacco regulation does not have direct impact on tobacco farming.

The story of the Smith and Sugg Warehouse (Daily Reflector, May 25) brought back memories of selling tobacco in Greenville way before the New Deal.
Eastern North Carolina is a land of small farmers — 20-30 acres of cleared land, some even smaller. They grew tobacco on 2-5 acres and sold most of it at local markets. Some farmers thought that a larger market would offer better prices as there would be more buyers.
In southern Martin County, two farmers owned large flatbed trucks and each hauled and sold tobacco to two warehouses in Greenville, one at Smith and Sugg and the other at McGowan and Cannon.
The two truckers had no problem loading their trucks with their neighbors’ tobacco and driving the 30-plus miles to the Greenville markets. Once there, the tobacco was placed on blankets approximately 3.5 feet square and lined up in rows about two feet apart.
It was really an exciting experience for an early teen to see a warehouse covered with about two acres of tobacco in baskets, including the crew — warehouse men starting the bidding, the auctioneer asking buyers for bids — as they moved up and down the rows and sometimes could not finish the sale.

Because of the phenomenal increase in computer power from processors, you are going to see automated machines popping up all over the country soon. You are going to see tiny little automated stores opening up. They’ll specialize in particular areas, and will provide convenience for a variety of products that would not have been available otherwise in such small spaces.

Here’s an example I saw in the New York Times. For buying cigarettes, there’s a machine now being used in Asia. When someone goes up and tries to buy cigarettes, it analyzes the person’s skin with a smart brain and an electronic eye. And if it thinks that the customer looks too young? It won’t let them buy cigarettes.

The one that got a lot of news coverage recently is in the Middle East, where people can buy gold right out of a machine. Does that tell you how frenzied people are about gold?

But those are kooky kind of things. The point I’m making is that the technology has improved to the point where it will be possible to have vending machines that sell things like sophisticated electronics and fancy women’s makeup.

I use the word “vending” but that’s not really what it is. You name any product category and it’s now going to be possible for you to buy it at your convenience. And the thing for retailers is profitability, because they can do so much in a tiny space. It completely changes an industry.

Think about my favorite example of all, Redbox, which has destroyed the traditional model of renting movies. With that little tiny kiosk that is smart as all get out, they have managed to displace an entire video rental industry.

So just think about if you’re entrepreneurial. Think about where you see an opportunity to drive costs down and provide people with selection and 24-hour service. You might meet a need or a want and create a fatter wallet for yourself.

Employees of British American Tobacco (BAT) are actively promoting the company’s cigarette brands by administering Facebook groups, joining groups as fans, and posting promotional materials — all violations of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — according to Australian researchers.

“The international tobacco-control community and governments should focus far greater attention on monitoring and documenting ways in which tobacco companies are utilizing online social-networking sites to promote smoking and brands,” the researchers said.

Becky Freeman of the University of Sydney and colleagues identified BAT employees on Facebook; they then searched the site for the name ‘British American Tobacco’ and company brands like ‘Dunhill’ and ‘Lucky Strike.’ Each term resulted in more than 500 search results on Facebook.

The researchers found, for example, that a Facebook group called Lucky Strike Fun was administered by a BAT employee from Greece. Large numbers of BAT employees also were members of groups promoting Lucky Strike and Dunhill, the study said.

“It is not possible to determine who created the Facebook pages that promoted the Dunhill and Lucky Strike brands,” Freeman and colleagues noted. “However, according to Facebook’s own rules of conduct these pages should have been created by persons authorized by BAT. It is also possible that these pages were created by private fans of BAT brands. However, given that BAT employees have joined these pages as BAT network members, the company cannot claim to be unaware of these promotional activities.”

“Further, the goal of online social networking is to intentionally create communities where fans of a brand can promote the products they like through ‘word of mouse’ marketing and engage with the companies making these products,” according to the study. “Given that pages/groups with bigger numbers of members generate more interest, the high number of BAT employees on the Lucky Strike fan page and the Kent cigarettes group could have been a strategy to help drive traffic to the page/group. Even if BAT did not create these pages itself, it has not removed this content from Facebook.”

Lots of people who quit cigarettes to escape the dangers of nicotine are turning to water pipe smoking, wrongly assuming that toking on “hookahs” is safer, new research indicates.

Researchers used questionnaires and collected information on 871 Canadians aged 18 to 24 and found that 23% had used water pipes, commonly known as hookahs, during the previous year.

Water pipe users were more likely to have used psychoactive substances such as marijuana, the researchers say.

The youths who used water pipes tended to be younger, male, English speakers who didn’t live with parents but whose moms and dads had higher household incomes than other study participants.
Hookahs Healhier? No

A hookah is a single or multi-stemmed, often glass-based device used for smoking tobacco. The smoke is cooled and filtered by passing through water. They are popular in many areas of the world. But the study authors say the notion that hookah is safer than smoking cigarettes is erroneous.

“Little is known about the addictive nature or health risks of water pipe smoking, but it may be at least as harmful as cigarette smoking,” the authors write.

Water pipe smoke contains nicotine, carbon monoxide, and carcinogens and may contain even greater amounts of tar and heavy metals than cigarette smoke, the researchers say. Water pipe smoke has been linked to lung cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases, and pregnancy-related complications.

Researchers say that water pipe smoking has increased recently in North America and Europe.

Among their findings:
Hookah use was markedly higher among people who had smoked cigarettes, used tobacco products, drank alcohol, or engaged in binge drinking.
Water pipe use also was higher in people who had smoked marijuana or who had used illicit drugs in the past year.
Hookah users may constitute an advantaged group of young people who have the leisure time, resources, and opportunity to smoke water pipes.

The authors note that at least one researcher reported that a single session of smoking a water pipe might be equivalent to smoking two cigarettes for a non-daily hookah user, or 10 cigarettes for a daily water pipe smoker.

The World Health Organization has said that hookah use is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes in a 200-puff session. But outside the Middle East, few studies have been done on the subject.
Hookah Use in U.S.

In the U.S., between 9% and 20% of college students said they had used a water pipe in the past month. A 2006 Canadian study found that 7% of children in grades seven to 12 reported they had used a water pipe, and 3% in the past 30 days.

The researchers attribute use of water pipes, at least in part, to lack of publicity about possible dangers and the perception that smoking through a water pipe is less addictive than cigarette smoking.

That is a danger, they say. People who don’t smoke cigarettes may try smoking with a water pipe because of the notion that it is less harmful. To prevent this, the researchers say, more study is needed to gather evidence that might help people make more informed decisions.

The study is published online in advance of the June print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Three Fort Wayne firefighters have been ordered to serve unpaid suspensions for various offenses, Fire Chief Pete Kelly announced Monday at the monthly Fire Department Merit Commission.

Pvt. Joe Tarney, a firefighter of nine years, was ordered to serve a 12-hour suspension for insubordination. The chief said Tarney was not cooperative with a supervisor while he was working an alternative assignment.

“His behavior was less than it should have been toward a superior officer,” said Kelly, describing Tarney’s offense as an “insolated incident.”

Tarney has received no prior discipline but has received a number of certificates of completed training since joining the department.

He also received a commendation award in October 2002 for a water rescue, according to his personnel file.

In addition, Pvt. Ryan O’Shaughnessey and Pvt. Rick Crowder, both firefighters of seven years, were ordered in April to serve 12-hour suspensions for failing to obey orders.

Both firefighters are accused of using tobacco while in a fire department engine house.

Use of any tobacco products is prohibited in firehouses by city ordinance and department rules, the chief said.

“They admitted to it, but I think they were hoping to get away with it,” Kelly said.

Both O’Shaughnessey and Crowder have received a number of certificates of completed training since joining the department. Neither firefighter has received any prior discipline, according to their personnel files.

Smoking a shisha pipe is as harmful as smoking tobacco, according to a new research.

People who smoke shisha, or herbal tobacco, can suffer from high carbon monoxide levels, the Department of Health and the Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre has found, Qatar News Agency (QNA) has reported.

High levels of carbon monoxide can cause brain damage and unconsciousness.

Shisha is a water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose.

The research revealed that one session of smoking Shisha resulted in carbon monoxide levels at least four to five times higher than the amount produced by one cigarette.

Dr Hilary Wareing, director of the Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre, told the BBC’s Asian Network that the results of the research shocked her.

“Our mouths opened at the level of harm – none of the tests we did showed anything other than Shisha is hazardous to health,” New Straits Times Online quoted her as saying.

Users of tanning beds might not be able to desist from using them for one simple reason: they can’t, no matter how much they’re being warned of the damage they might be doing to themselves. According to a recent study cited by The Money Times, tanning beds are just as addictive as alcohol and cigarettes, therefore tanorexia might start to be treated like a genuine addiction in order to wan people off it.

Apparently, those who use tanning beds regularly can’t stop what they’re doing because they can’t and not because they don’t want to. According to the study published in Archives of Dermatology, heavy users of these devices experience the same symptoms as addicts, therefore they might also experience withdrawal should they decide to stop getting a tan the artificial way. A solution to this would be to treat tanorexia like a genuine disease, it is being said.

“To reach their findings, the research team looked at 421 college students, 229 of whom said they used sunbeds or sun lamps, with an average of 23 visits each to tanning beds per year. Of these, 160 met criteria for indoor tanning addiction. For the study, [Catherine] Mosher and [Sharon] Danoff-Burg chose two questionnaires used to judge other forms of addiction, including substance abuse. They modified the questionnaires – combining the CAGE and DSM-IV criteria for addiction – to focus on use of indoor tanning beds and gave it to the participants,” the aforementioned publication writes.

“Despite efforts to educate the public about the health risks, recreational tanning continues to increase among young adults. In addition to appearance enhancement, motivations include relaxation, improved mood and socialization. This study provides further support for the notion that tanning may be conceptualized as an addictive behavior for a subgroup of individuals who tan indoors. Overall, findings suggest that individuals who use drugs may be more likely to develop dependence on indoor tanning because of a similar addictive process. In addition, tanning and drug user may be reinforced by peer group norms,” researchers write.

Further studies are needed to determine how this addiction to tanning beds might be treated, which is precisely what Gary Lipman, chairman of The Sunbed Association, uses as argument to speak against it. According to Lipman, not only is tanning not addictive, but the study that makes this outrageous claim is so flawed he wonders how come it was published in the first place.

Throwing another idea into the budget ring, Councilman Darrell Clarke today plans to introduce legislation that would tax cigars and chewing tobacco.

Council members also said they were reviewing a budget report from Econsult Corp. that said the city could raise as much as $20 million by restructuring the business-privilege tax.

These two ideas are part of complex negotiations on how to close a budget gap projected at up to $150 million. Mayor Nutter has proposed an annual $300-per-household trash fee and a 2-cent-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages, which would be charged as part of a retailer’s business tax.

Council seems to have rejected the trash-fee plan. Many members prefer a proposal to raise property taxes. And the soda tax – which has drawn harsh criticism from soft-drink manufacturers, Teamsters and retailers – may be hanging by a thread.

Clarke said his tobacco-products tax, which would affect chewing tobacco, cigars, pipe tobacco and rolling papers, but not cigarettes, would be levied on retailers as part of the business tax and could raise $6 million annually.

“An overwhelming majority of Council members will support this measure,” Clarke said. “It’s at a point where we’re trying to find any measures we can find consensus on.”

Under Clarke’s legislation, chewing and pipe tobacco would be taxed at 36 cents per ounce and individual cigars at 3.6 cents per ounce.

Although there is no legislation on the table yet, Council members have also been seriously looking at the business tax, which has two components – a gross-receipts portion, which taxes firms on their sales, and a net-income portion, which taxes profits.

The report Econsult provided to Council states that if the gross-receipts rate went from 0.1415 percent to 0.2 percent and the net-income rate went from 6.45 percent to 6 percent, the city could realize $20 million in additional revenue.

Econsult stresses in the report that the data on the business-privilege tax is “very preliminary.”

Any change to the business-tax structure would mark a major shift in city tax policy. Since 1995, the city has been making small reductions to the gross-receipts tax, which reformers have long criticized for hitting businesses on their sales, even if they don’t make a profit.

But Council members Bill Green and Maria Quinones-Sanchez have been reviewing a change in course – eliminating the net-income portion of the tax and raising the gross-receipts levy. They argue that the current structure penalizes city-based firms and lets national retailers get away with paying little or nothing.

Sanchez said Council was reviewing the Econsult report, noting that the idea might work as part of a multiyear plan to reduce the net income and increase gross receipts.

“It is something I’m going to advocate very strongly that we look at,” Sanchez said. “I’m hopeful that over the next couple of weeks we will decide if this is a viable option.”

Finance Director Rob Dubow said the city had serious concerns about raising the gross-receipts portion of the business tax.

“Studies have shown that is a real job- killer,” Dubow said. “We haven’t had any real discussion with them about this. But we’d have real concerns about this.”

HALF a million cigarettes and 231lbs of loose tobacco have been seized in a raid in Blackburn.

Revenue and Customs officials arrested two men at the scene at a home in Whalley Street.

It is thought that the total value of the haul found at the house is worth between £200,000 and £300,000.

Both men arrested have been bailed pending further inquiries.

They are being investigated on suspicion of being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of duty.

A spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs said the raid was an example of the authority’s commitment to cracking down on the illegal cigarettes trade.

It came after a tip-off from a concerned resident, he said.

He said: “The illicit tobacco market allows low-level criminality to gain a foothold in the community and funds serious organised crime, including the drugs trade.

“Suppliers of smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes are often large international gangs making huge profits.”

Yesterday residents in Whalley Street expressed their shock at the raid, late on Friday.

One said: “The customs people were there for hours searching the house and we saw they arrested two people. It was a real surprise.”

Officers said East Lancashire was a fake cigarettes ‘hot spot’ and launched a crackdown last year on the back of 70 complaints and 17 separate seizures in 12 months, mainly from small retailers in the county buying from large criminal networks.

Lancashire County Council’s consumer watchdogs are now warning smokers of the dangers involved with counterfeit tobacco.

It is estimated that over 4,000 people die each year in the UK from smuggled, illicit and counterfeit cigarettes and this equates to about 80 Lancashire residents.

Counterfeit cigarettes have been found to contain sawdust, insects and rat droppings.

According to officers, cheap cigarettes are likely to be bought by children.

Trading Standards officer Julie Waddington said ‘cheap labour’ and easily assembled counterfeit factories in China and Eastern Europe create the market.

But that a lack of quality control could result in dangerous levels of nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide, which are closely monitored during legitimate production.

She said: “Legitimate traders are struggling in the recession as it is and any counterfeit sales hit those who trade fairly.

“You’ve also got the issue of manufacturers exploiting workers.”

Ms Waddington said fake cigarettes smuggled into the country can then become available through a mix of avenues, including ‘under the counter’ at otherwise legitimate shops or through individual sellers.

“It will spread by word of mouth and people will walk in to a shop and ask for ‘duty frees’ or ‘cheap cigarettes’.

“Shops pay a premium, the duty, to legitimate cigarette companies, but if they are brought in another way, that duty is not paid.”