Tobacco News

Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, an anti-tobacco advocacy group, vehemently opposed the upcoming four-day industrial Global Tobacco Networking Forum (GTNF) summit, which is scheduled to be held between October 4 and October 9 in Bangalore’s ITC Royal Gardenia, stating that the event is in violation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to which India is a signatory nation.

Dr P C Gupta, Director of Healis Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health pointed out that the FCTC policy that India had signed includes a restriction on tobacco advertising, trade, sponsorship and promotion. The FCTC has stringent restrictions to protect people from exposure to smoking and consumption of other tobacco products. He said by being one of the official sponsors of the event, Tobacco Board of India has clearly violated the FCTC framework and demanded that the board immediately withdraw its sponsorship and cancel the event forthwith.
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UAE. A major promotion involving a partnership between Imperial Tobacco and Dubai Duty Free culminated in a recent prize draw, won by a Dubai-based Indian national.

The Davidoff Black & White ‘Journey of a Lifetime’ campaign, which ran throughout the Middle East during 2009, allowed participants to tailor-make their own dream holidays. The prize was won by Mr Zaakesh Mulla.

Mulla, whose prize was a one-week trip to Venice for two, was presented with his ‘ticket’ by Dubai Duty Free Managing Director Colm McLoughlin and Deputy Managing Director George Horan, plus Imperial Tobacco officials headed by Duty Free Area Manager Gulf & Horn Africa Countries Ioackim Gavalas, Trade Marketing & Development Manager Nigel Boonyong, Premium Brand Manager Gotje Rogall and NTDE Tobacco Division Director Ebad Ahmadi.
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Location. In the world of business, it can make or break you.
Allen and Carolyn Hampton considered Bristol, Kingsport and Greeneville before finally settling on Erwin for the latest location in their growing chain of discount tobacco stores.

Judging by Tri-City Wholesale Tobacco’s initial success in Erwin, the Hamptons apparently made the right decision.

“We feel like we have already met and gone above our goals in opening up the store here,” Allen said. “We’re two or three months ahead of where we needed to be in terms of success.”
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The memories of the days when tobacco sponsored NASCAR’s top series remain strong. But good memories, they are not.

My eyes teared up and my nostrils flared the first time I walked into a media room at a Winston Cup race. And not because I was sad or angry.

The cigarette smoke in the room was as thick as Bill Elliott’s accent. It was corner-bar dense.

This was during a time when the harmful effects of the stuff were well-known and widely publicized. People knew in those days that smoking cigarettes could kill you and that merely inhaling the poison from other people’s cigarettes could shorten and destroy your own life.
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Smokers in Bulgaria will pay an average of one lev more for a packet from April 1 2010, when the increased cigarette prices come into force.From April 1 2010, shops can only sell cigarettes with the new excise stamps and anyone caught selling cigarettes at their old price will face sanctions of up to 2000 leva. The cigarette packets with old excise stamps will be destroyed. Read more

It has been two weeks since Kevin Rudd and Nicola Roxon made their historic announcement that from 2012, all tobacco products will need to be packaged in plain boxes, with only a standard font brand name to differentiate brands. The announcement drew well over 1000 Google global news hits, a glowing editorial in The Lancet, and green light analyses from very senior constitutional, trademark and international trade treaty lawyers. Read more

And underage consumers buying cigarettes and smokeless products could face steeper fines and more hours in community service.
Judiciary panelists learned from Chuck Hamsher, a lobbyist for the American Heart Association, that West Virginia already has lost federal funding for non-compliance with existing law. Read more