Tobacco News

As Indonesia struggles to address poverty and an overburdened health sector, a recent survey has found that spending on cigarettes is the second-biggest expenditure in poor households.

Rusman Heriawan, head of the Central Statics Agency (BPS), said on Sunday that the proportion of poor people’s income spent on tobacco was second only to rice.

Urban poor spent 25.44 percent of their income on rice, while rural poor spent 32.81 percent. Meanwhile, city-dwellers spent 7.7 percent of their earnings on cigarettes, with the rural poor spending 6.3 percent.
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Manitoba and Nova Scotia will join New Brunswick and other provinces actively pursuing legal action against the tobacco industry to recover health-care costs.

The Manitoba government said it intends to reach a satisfactory arrangement with a consortium of law firms hired by the New Brunswick government to handle this province’s litigation.
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NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Altria Group Inc.’s (MO) Philip Morris USA said Friday a St. Louis state-court jury has returned a verdict for a number of tobacco companies, agreeing that 37 Missouri hospitals couldn’t recover costs for treating sick smokers.

Lorillard Inc. (LO), Reynolds American Inc.’s (RAI) R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and others were also named in the suit. Tobacco companies face frequent legal challenges, though this was just the third such health-care cost recovery case to go to trial. Ream more »

The regulations, banning the use of various additives in tobacco processing, are to be drafted by the end of 2012. Some 40 percent of tobacco grown in Poland constitutes the Burley variety, used for the production of so-called American blends, enjoying the greatest popularity among smokers here. The problem is that these brands require addition of sugar components in the production process. Ream more »

More than 20 years ago, when I was living in Washington DC and went on a course to give up smoking, one of the recommended therapies was wrapping your cigarette packet in plain paper so you couldn’t see the name of the brand. Oddly enough, this helped. I hadn’t realised until then how big a part the brand had played in my addiction; how much I was in thrall to the reassuring authority of the handsome Rothmans logo. Ream more »

Farmers have also been spurred on by Zimbabwe’s adoption of the US dollar following the collapse of its own currency, with 99 per cent of all tobacco grown in the country now exported. Operators of a farm outside Zimbabwe’s capital Harare are harvesting a fine crop of lush 16 leaf plants to be smoked dry – the Virginia method of flavouring tobacco.
Last year the tobacco sold by growers was worth about $US274 million – this year that figure has reached almost $US500 million. Ream more »

Q: Has the tobacco industry turned over a new leaf and now has a conscience?
A: Not at all. The tobacco industry is as devious as ever, in spite of media efforts to give it a more positive image. It is still recruiting our children. It knows that it must capture our youth early if it is to continue to prosper. Eighty percent of adult smokers admit to starting before age 18. It has been estimated that the tobacco industry needs to recruit 5,000 new young smokers every day to maintain the total number of smokers because of smoker deaths and quitters.
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Government has faced a revenue loss of Rs 45 billion during the last six years on account of tax evasion, smuggling and counterfeiting in cigarette industry due to failure of government’s authorities in taking concrete steps.

According to industrial data, government had to face a revenue loss of Rs 7.5 billion in the current year, Rs 6.5 billion in 2009, Rs 6 billion in 2008, Rs 5.59 billion in 2007, Rs 5.48 billion in 2006 and Rs 4.1 billion in 2005 on account of tax evasion.
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There is nothing the Conservatives enjoy more than poking fun at Liberal foibles, which is why Stephen Harper accused Michael Ignatieff of encouraging people to smoke cigarettes on Tuesday. The Liberals used Question Period to promote the major new policy that Mr. Ignatieff had announced earlier in the day, which would offer financial assistance for people providing home care to relatives. Ream more »

JAKARTA — Australian, British and US rock bands including The Smashing Pumpkins and Stereophonics have been urged to withdraw from a music festival in Indonesia because of its tobacco sponsorship.
Anti-tobacco activists and health experts from Australia, the United States and Wales have expressed their concern that the bands’ actions will encourage youths to smoke in a country with high and rising addiction rates. Ream more »