четверг, 23 августа 2007 г.

Chips to fish out the fake cigarettes

Every cigarette pack made in the UK will contain an electronic chip in future allowing Customs and other law enforcers to distinguish between legal and counterfeit cigarettes.

The main tobacco companies, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher are paying for the initiative including providing hundreds of hand-held electronic readers to Customs.

The industry estimates that some two billion fake cigarettes were smuggled into the UK last year which deprived the Exchequer of nearly £500m of duty.

The new crackdown, announced in yesterday's Budget, will initially target counterfeit cigarettes sold in small corner shops, which is a growing area of the illegal trade.

A spokesman for the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association said: 'Customs were becoming increasingly concerned that counterfeit cigarettes were entering the legitimate market after some retailers were found selling them.

'While the vast majority of counterfeits change hands at car boot sales or in pubs, the authorities wanted to set a deterrent to stop shopkeepers being tempted into the market.'

Fake cigarettes are smuggled from illegal factories in China, the Far East and Eastern Europe. A Customs raid in Coventry last month confiscated more than 14 million cigarettes which would normally have accounted for £3m in duty.

Counterfeit cigarettes tend to be far more dangerous to health than the legitimate brands with tests proving that on average they contain 60% more tar, 80% more nicotine and 130% more carbon monoxide. Customs claim that most counterfeiting is linked to organised crime.

The TMA would not reveal how much the new initiative will cost the industry although the spokesman said it was 'not inconsiderable'.

The first chips in packs are likely to start rolling off production lines within six months.

Christopher Ogden, director of the TMA said: 'Covert features to be included in UK cigarette packs will allow Customs' officers to instantly authenticate a genuine product through hand-held readers.'

Philip Morris didn't deliberately boost nicotine

The recent Harvard University report that concluded Philip Morris USA and other tobacco companies have deliberately increased the amount of nicotine that smokers get from cigarettes over the past seven years, if true, raises legitimate public and scientific concerns. ("Help is smoke screen for global profit," by Allan M. Brandt, March 1).

News of this report has increased the volume of those voices that favor regulation of cigarettes by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Philip Morris USA continues to support the legislation introduced in 2005 to grant the FDA authority over the product, including the regulation of tar and nicotine. Such authority would directly address the concerns raised in the Harvard report. It's a comprehensive bill, and Philip Morris USA is the only major cigarette manufacturer that supports it.

Cigarettes are addictive and cause serious diseases. The nicotine in cigarette smoke is addictive and an important health issue. But the conclusion from the report, that there was a trend of more and more nicotine in cigarettes between 1997 and 2005, and that the cigarettes were designed to yield greater amounts year after year, is not true for Philip Morris USA. We recognize that is a strong statement. And we understand it is important for us to demonstrate why and in what ways this conclusion is not accurate.

Contrary to the implications of the report, we have not changed the design of our cigarettes with the intention of increasing nicotine yields to make the product more addictive. The Harvard report itself also found no upward trends in Marlboro cigarettes for measures that the authors concluded were related to cigarette design and increased nicotine yield, including puffs per cigarette, nicotine content per cigarette or nicotine concentration in the tobacco rod.

In fact, the machine test data we submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health show that year-to-year variations in nicotine occur. They are part of the normal processes of growing tobacco and manufacturing cigarettes. But the nicotine yields in Marlboro cigarettes were the same in 1997 as in 2006: 1.86 milligrams per cigarette. That's not a trend up or down.

We understand that many are skeptical of what we say and do, but our actions and the data are transparent. JOHN R. NELSON

Dan Walters: Taxes fed illegal sale of smokes

California's bad habit of settling political conflicts with blockbuster ballot measures began in 1978 with Proposition 13, the property tax limitation whose impacts continue to reverberate nearly three decades later.

By 1988, a decade later, the syndrome was in full flower, with several dozen high-profile measures proposed. Not all qualified for the ballot, but tens of millions of dollars -- big money in those days -- was spent on the ones that did. They included five measures on insurance and personal injury lawsuits and Proposition 98, the school finance measure that is the most powerful factor in the annual state budget wrangle.

Speaking of bad habits, another of those high-dollar measures in 1988 was Proposition 99, the first of a spate of drives to raise cigarette taxes. At the time, although cigarette sales in California had been decreasing as smoking's health impacts had become better known, it was still a fairly common practice. Thus, the proposed boost in taxes from 10 cents a pack to 35 cents was highly controversial.

The tobacco industry committed millions of dollars to an anti-Proposition 99 campaign. One of its most controversial propaganda themes was that by raising taxes on cigarettes, the measure would create a criminal black market in untaxed smokes. Pro-tax advocates and editorialists universally dismissed as the allegation as fanciful.

The new tax, approved by 58 percent of voters, never generated the $650 million per year in revenue that its proponents promised. After a brief $500 million spike, revenues began a years-long slide until another boost in cigarette taxes, this time 50 cents a pack, was enacted in 1998. That one, sponsored by actor-director Rob Reiner to benefit early childhood development, caused another temporary uptick in cigarette tax revenues to $1.2 billion a year, but they have also since declined. Last year, voters rejected a $2.60-per-pack boost to underwrite health care.

Per capita cigarette sales, as calculated for tax purposes, have dropped from nearly 150 packs per year in the early 1960s to scarcely a fifth of that level today, undoubtedly a good thing from the public health standpoint. But as smoking has become much more expensive because of higher taxes and surcharges imposed by cigarette makers to pay for a multibillion-dollar lawsuit settlement, the old campaign propaganda about a black market has come true.

Earlier this month, the dimensions of the black market became evident when three Southern California men were sentenced to federal prison and ordered to pay the state nearly $2 million in lost taxes for their roles in a massive scheme to smuggle untaxed cigarettes from Virginia to California. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which cracked the case after an undercover investigation, described it as "a complex conspiracy" that involved potentially huge profits.

The state Board of Equalization, in a 2003 report to the Legislature that is now being updated, estimated that the state was losing $292 million per year in taxes on black market cigarettes, mostly those brought in by organized smuggling rings. There was also so-called "casual evasion" by individuals buying cigarettes in nearby states, from Indian tribes and through Internet sales.

The report helped persuade the Legislature to pass bills to tighten oversight of cigarette retailers and wholesalers -- laws that state tax officials hope will reduce the traffic in black-market smokes.

Nevertheless, the lucrative trade in untaxed cigarettes proves that the 1988 campaign claim was on the mark. As with liquor during Prohibition and illicit drugs today, when government makes a commodity illegal or expensive, it creates a market that criminals will supply.

Agency sued over seized cigarettes

Five Kentucky-based wholesalers and one based in Southern Indiana are suing the Kentucky Revenue Department, alleging that cigarettes they are distributing are being unfairly seized.

The wholesalers and their trade association, the Kentucky Tobacco & Candy Association, claim the state is taking packs on which the 30-cent tax was properly paid because machines that affix the tax stamps miss some packs.

The lawsuit filed in Franklin Circuit Court seeks, among other penalties, an injunction to block the state from seizing cigarettes under a law governing contraband.

The state has seized about 350,000 packs over the past eight months based on 215 inspections in 36 of Kentucky's 120 counties, including Jefferson, said Jill Midkiff, a spokeswoman for the Finance and Administration Cabinet.

About 85 percent to 90 percent of the packs had no stamp, she said.

"They don't seize anything that has at least 60 percent of the stamp and identifies the serial number, which would identify the wholesaler," Midkiff said.

The enforcement followed the increase of the tax from 3 cents to 30 cents in 2005. With the tax increase, revenue officials saw increased irregularities with the stamps, Midkiff said.

Contraband is an issue in Kentucky because of the still relatively low tax rate and the high number of smokers, said Scott White, the attorney for the plaintiffs.

But the Revenue Department is arbitrary and ignores the good-faith efforts of wholesalers to attach the stamps using state-approved machines, the wholesalers say.

That harms the wholesalers, who operate on a slim profit margin, White said.

The wholesalers and state officials had several meetings to discuss a compromise, but White said the state wouldn't budge, so his clients decided to proceed with the lawsuit.

The six wholesalers collectively do about $420 million in annual sales, and five of them said in the lawsuit that cigarettes that they have stamped and sold have been deemed contraband and seized.

Illegal cigarettes up in smoke under tough new campaign

Law enforcement agencies in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho Friday destroyed more than 200,000 packs of smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes in the battle against the illicit tobacco trade in Vietnam.
The burnt cigarettes, worth over VND1 billion (US$62,309) and bearing the Jet and Hero brand names, came under the radar to be confiscated since last October.

The two brands make up some 91 percent of the illegal cigarettes discovered in Vietnam in recent times.

The move is part of the ongoing campaign approved by the Government to destroy smuggled cigarettes of all kinds and to establish the Industry Alliance Reserve to support the fight against illicit cigarettes, said the tobacco association.

"The policy of destroying illicit cigarettes and establishing the Industry Alliance Reserve has been a breakthrough, enabling businesses to join hands with the Government to clear the local market of illegal cigarettes," said Pham Kien Nghiep, secretary general of the Vietnam Tobacco Association.

Since early this year, cities and provinces have destroyed illicit cigarettes in large quantities, including Hanoi with nearly 38,000 packs, Quang Tri with 72,000, An Giang with 73,000 and Quang Ngai with 107,000 packs.

Over the past two months, the illicit trade showed little sign of abating along the border line in Long An, An Giang and Quang Tri provinces.

In response, local authorities said that next month, task forces in Can Tho and An Giang would inspect local cigarette retailers and act accordingly against those selling cigarettes without legitimate stamps and seals.

The budget for supporting the fight against illicit cigarettes in 2007 is VND35 billion (US$2.19 million), contributed by members of the Vietnam Tobacco Association.

Smokers Stock Up Across State Line

BETHANY, Mo. -- Iowa's recent cigarette sales tax hike has turned out to be a boon for Missouri businesses.

More than two weeks ago, Iowa raised the tax by $1 a pack to $1.36. Missouri's tax is 17 cents per pack. Supporters said the extra tax money would both help pay for health care and cut down on smoking.

It has also resulted in many smokers shopping across the state line for cigarettes.

More and more Iowans are hopping in their cars and burning up roads to Missouri border towns such as South Lineville to stock up on cheap smokes.

"You can sit here on Saturday morning and see carloads come in," said Zach Robinson of Clio. "I mean, they will be four or five cartons a piece."

He said the choice is obvious: either pay $5.30 a pack in Iowa or $3 a pack in Missouri.

Misty Oliver stocked cigarettes Tuesday at the Kwik Zone convenience store just off Interstate 35 in Bethany, Mo.

"What are people saying when they come in? That the legislators are nuts," Oliver said

She said before Iowa's cigarette tax went into effect she sold about 30 cartons daily. Now she sells about 90 cartons a day.

"We normally order about 150 a week and we've been ordering about 800 a week since," she said.

Iowans even want the store's phone number.

Oliver said people are calling ahead to place their cigarette orders so there will be enough when they drive to Kwik Zone.

"A lot of them say they'll never buy cigarettes in Iowa again," she said.

People who cross the state line to buy cigarettes may be breaking the law. According to the Iowa Attorney General's Office, people can only bring two packs of cigarettes into Iowa.

Agency sued over seized cigarettes

Five Kentucky-based wholesalers and one based in Southern Indiana are suing the Kentucky Revenue Department, alleging that cigarettes they are distributing are being unfairly seized.

The wholesalers and their trade association, the Kentucky Tobacco & Candy Association, claim the state is taking packs on which the 30-cent tax was properly paid because machines that affix the tax stamps miss some packs.

The lawsuit filed in Franklin Circuit Court seeks, among other penalties, an injunction to block the state from seizing cigarettes under a law governing contraband.

The state has seized about 350,000 packs over the past eight months based on 215 inspections in 36 of Kentucky's 120 counties, including Jefferson, said Jill Midkiff, a spokeswoman for the Finance and Administration Cabinet.

About 85 percent to 90 percent of the packs had no stamp, she said.

"They don't seize anything that has at least 60 percent of the stamp and identifies the serial number, which would identify the wholesaler," Midkiff said.

The enforcement followed the increase of the tax from 3 cents to 30 cents in 2005. With the tax increase, revenue officials saw increased irregularities with the stamps, Midkiff said.

Contraband is an issue in Kentucky because of the still relatively low tax rate and the high number of smokers, said Scott White, the attorney for the plaintiffs.

But the Revenue Department is arbitrary and ignores the good-faith efforts of wholesalers to attach the stamps using state-approved machines, the wholesalers say.

That harms the wholesalers, who operate on a slim profit margin, White said.

The wholesalers and state officials had several meetings to discuss a compromise, but White said the state wouldn't budge, so his clients decided to proceed with the lawsuit.

The six wholesalers collectively do about $420 million in annual sales, and five of them said in the lawsuit that cigarettes that they have stamped and sold have been deemed contraband and seized.

JT completes Gallaher takeover

Japan Tobacco finished the takeover of Britain's Gallaher Group for $ 15 billion Wednesday, both sides said, in the biggest Japanese overseas acquisition ever.

The move also allows Japan Tobacco Inc., the world's third-largest cigarette company, to expand outside of Japan, which has seen declining smoking rates.

The takeover of Gallaher, the maker of Silk Cut and Benson & Hedges cigarettes, also takes Japan Tobacco into Western Europe, where it now has little presence, creating a tobacco empire with annual global output of 600 billion cigarettes.

Japan Tobacco, the overseas distributor for Winston, Camel and Salem cigarettes, and Gallaher Group PLC had been expected to complete the deal, announced in December.

JT acquired the shares at �11.40 each, for a total of �7.5 billion, or $ 15 billion, and assumed an additional debt of about $ 4 billion under the deal, the company said.

Ban cigarettes from school campuses

Everyone claims they believe school children shouldn't smoke. Everyone claims adults should set good examples for school children. But not everyone wants to back up their words with action.

On Wednesday, April 18, something inexplicable happened in the Education Committee of the Tennessee Senate - two local senators, Bill Ketron and Jim Tracy, voted to kill a ban on smoking on school grounds. (Tracy passed on the vote)

Current law allows adults, defined as anyone 18 years old or older, to smoke on school property after hours. In addition to the obvious bad example that seeing adults smoke sets for impressionable young people, ask yourself how many high school seniors are 18. Should they be allowed to smoke at school? They are now. Furthermore, current law bars local education authorities from completely banning smoking on school grounds. Should the state be allowed to so arrogantly bar these authorities from taking such action if they see fit? Sens. Ketron and Tracy apparently believe high school seniors should smoke and that state government should interject itself into the business of local school systems.

In committee, Ketron and Tracy both offered excuses for their votes, but, to be quite frank, their arguments don't hold water.

Tracy said he opposes the ban because it would be difficult to enforce. By this line of thinking, there are any number of laws we should remove from the books. To use the most obvious example, we should do away with all laws concerning illegal immigration. How many agents do we have on the U.S.-Mexico border? How many immigrants cross that border illegally each year? My point is this: The difficulty of enforcement should not deter us from trying to solve societal ills.

For his part, Ketron claimed he opposes smoking on school grounds because the ban might hurt attendance at school sporting events. To be blunt, that argument is utter nonsense. Current law bans smoking in school stadiums and gymnasiums. The proposed bill would simply mean they have to make sure they are off school property before they light up. Are parents truly going to skip watching their children perform just because they might have to walk a few hundred extra yards to smoke? I highly doubt it.

Sen. Roy Herron, the bill's sponsor, got to the crux of this argument in committee when he said, "We don't let people bring alcohol, illegal drugs or guns on the school grounds. We shouldn't let them bring the leading preventable cause of death in the state."

The positions are clear: Either you think adults should smoke on school grounds or you don't. Most Tennesseans believe the latter. It's a shame that Ketron and Tracy don't agree. Contrary to their beliefs, as evidenced by their actions in committee, smoking has no place on our school property. Sens. Ketron and Tracy should rethink their positions and do the responsible thing: support a complete ban of smoking on school grounds. After all, our young people deserve more than hollow words - they deserve substantive action to protect their health.

Cigarette smuggling case winds down

Federal prosecutors are wrapping up -- without going to trial -- an investigation of eight people accused of smuggling millions of dollars worth of cigarettes from North Idaho to tribal smoke shops in western Washington.

A trial date was cancelled Friday with guilty pleas from four final defendants, including accused ringleader Louie Mahoney, of Plummer, Idaho.

The latest guilty pleas came eight months after at least three defendants from western Washington cut plea-bargain deals with federal prosecutors and agreed to testify against Mahoney and other co-conspirators living in North Idaho, court documents reveal.

The smuggling operation between 1999 and May 2003 cost the state of Washington an estimated $56 million in lost taxes, according to Jim McDevitt, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington.

As part of the investigation and an earlier companion case involving six other defendants, a special task force seized $5.1 million in cash and more than 200,000 cartons of cigarettes.

Defendants in both cases agreed to forfeit the cash and cigarettes to the federal government as a condition of their plea agreements.

The "central conduit" of the conspiracy, court documents say, was Louie Mahoney, who ran the multi-million dollar a year contraband cigarette trafficking organization from his home in Plummer, on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation.

Mahoney's criminal enterprise engaged in shipping, transporting, receiving, possessing, selling, distributing and purchasing of contraband cigarettes, court documents say.

He and co-conspirators also were involved in money laundering the proceeds from the contraband cigarette sales, mail fraud, interstate transportation in aid of racketeering and cigarette record-keeping violations.

Mahoney did not have a Coeur d'Alene tribal license to sell tobacco products, court documents say.

Doing business as JKL Enterprises, Mahoney ordered untaxed cigarettes from wholesale suppliers in Spokane and elsewhere, using two retail stores owned by relatives on the Coeur d'Alene reservations as fronts.

The cigarettes and other tobacco products actually would be delivered to Mahoney's home on U.S. Highway 95, near Plummer, the documents say, before being shipped to a dozen tribal smoke shops in western Washington.

There, business was brisk because non-tribal customers could buy the cigarettes without paying the $14.25-per-carton state tax. In Washington, cigarettes must bear either tax-paid stamps or tax-exempt stamps.

Mahoney, 61, and his two sisters, Margaret R. Jose, 61, and Christine Mahoney-Meyer, both of Plummer, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Yakima to conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Roger Fiander, 67, of Wapato, Wash., also pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the federal anti-racketeering law.

In accepting the latest guilty pleas, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Whaley ordered background reports on the four defendants and scheduled sentencing for Aug. 28 in Yakima. They are free on bonds or other conditions until sentencing.

Written plea agreements signed by the defendants and approved by the court were not filed immediately as public documents.

Their guilty pleas came after earlier guilty pleas from four other defendants indicted in the same case � Gerald G. George, Lyle W. Conway, both of Fife, Wash., Lyle Shawn Conway, of Tacoma, and Kathleen S. Mahoney, of Walla Walla.

All four of those defendants also pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the federal anti-racketeering law, and are awaiting sentencing this summer.

Unindicted co-conspirators in the case were identified as David Bean, John Hunter, Harvey L. Davis and these businesses: JKL Enterprises; Fiander Enterprises; Lil' Brown Smoke Shack; Goodman Road Smoke Shop; Lyle's Smoke Shop; Lyle's II Smoke Shop; Indian Smoke Shop; Jerry's Smoke Shop; 2 Yay Yays and Chrissy's Corner.

Separate plea agreements signed by Kathleen S. Mahoney, Lyle Shawn Conway and Gerald G. George were filed as court documents, offering details of the investigation.

In particular, the guilty plea from Kathleen Mahoney last September appears to have been a pivotal point in getting last Friday's guilty pleas from the other four remaining defendants.

As part of her plea bargain, she described to investigators how the smuggling conspiracy worked as an insider. Her relationship with Louie Mahoney, if any, is not described in court documents.

She was involved in the day-to-day operations of Louie Mahoney's JKL Enterprises, based in his home. She received orders from Washington tribal retailers, ordered cigarettes from wholesalers and issued check to the wholesales for the cost of the contraband cigarettes, her plea agreement says.

"The cigarettes being distributed were contraband in the state of Washington because the cigarettes did not bear the applicable state tax stamps and transportation of the cigarettes was not reported to the state of Washington," it says.

Invoices for cigarettes delivered to JKL Enterprises at Mahoney's home indicated the shipments went to 2 Yay Yays Market, a retail business in Worley, Idaho, and Chrissy's Corner, another retails story in nearby Plummer.

The state of Idaho requires the shipper to maintain a duplicate invoice, showing complete details of the sale, including the name and address of the purchaser.

"Within a day of the delivery from distributors, employees or drivers for the western Washington Indian retailers would drive to JKL Enterprises in Plummer and pick up the (contraband) cigarettes," the document said. Payment was required in advance either by cash, check or a bank deposit.

JKL Enterprises' employees would help load the contraband smokes, "making sure that the cigarettes were not visible from outside the vehicles."

"The cigarettes were hidden so that if the vehicle was stopped by law enforcement in Washington, the contraband cigarettes would not be observed and seized," the document says.

If Mahoney or other JKL Enterprises' employees believed Washington State Liquor Control Board agents were watching Mahoney's home or roads from Idaho into Washington, shipments of contraband cigarettes would be delayed.

The investigation was conducted by agents from the Liquor Board, the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives.

Tobacco Companies Cut Marketing Spending

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After setting a record high in 2003, tobacco companies spent less money marketing and advertising their products in 2004 and 2005, a federal agency said Thursday.

Promotional spending by the five largest U.S. cigarette makers dropped to $14.15 billion in 2004, down from $15.15 billion in the previous year, and fell further to $13.1 billion in 2005, according to a report issued by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has monitored cigarette sales and marketing trends in regular reports since 1967.

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Anti-tobacco activists said the companies' promotional spending is still double the amount spent in 1998, the year the major cigarette companies entered into a legal settlement with a group of U.S. states.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said such aggressive price discounting by the tobacco companies has contributed to a reversal in youth smoking trends. A recent survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of smoking by high school students found a slight increase in 2005, reversing several years of reductions in youth smoking rates.

"The small decline in tobacco marketing expenditures... is a drop in the bucket compared to the massive increase between 1998 and 2003," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

The tobacco industry spent $6.7 billion in marketing in 1998, the FTC report said.

Most of the tobacco companies' promotional spending is in the form of price discounts to cigarette retailers and wholesalers to reduce the price of cigarettes to consumers, the FTC report said, while advertising in newspapers, magazines and on billboards has dropped significantly in recent years.

The companies provided $10.9 billion in price discounts in 2004, equal to 77.3 percent of all marketing expenditures, and $9.8 billion, or 74.6 percent of promotional spending, in 2005, the report said.

Myers criticized the discounts for offsetting the price impact of recent sales tax increases by many states. The discounts "make cigarettes more affordable to children, the most price-sensitive customers, and undermine state efforts to reduce tobacco use by increasing tobacco taxes."

Brendan McCormick, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA, said the price discounts are intended to reach adult smokers.

Michael Neese, another spokesman for the company, said that despite the discounts, the average retail price for Marlboro cigarettes increased 68 percent from 1998 to 2005.

The report comes as Congress considers legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the production and marketing of tobacco products. Similar legislation passed the Senate in 2004 but not in the House. The current bill has bipartisan support and may have better prospects for passage with Democrats now in charge of both chambers.

The FTC said its findings were based on data submitted by the five major cigarette makers in the United States: Altria Group Inc., parent of Philip Morris, which makes Marlboro cigarettes; Reynolds America Inc., which owns R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., makers of Camels; Houchens Industries Inc., the parent of Commonwealth Brands Inc., which makes discount brands USA Gold and Sonoma; Loews Corp., which owns Lorillard Tobacco Co., which makes Newports; and Vector Group Ltd., parent of Liggett Group Inc. and Vector Tobacco, which sells Grand Prix and Eve cigarettes.

Houchens sold Commonwealth Brands to British company Imperial Tobacco Group PLC earlier this year.

Shares of Altria dropped $1.14 to close at $69.33, while shares of Reynolds American rose 35 cents to $65.25, shares of Vector Group declined 16 cents to $18.49, and shares of Loews' Carolina Group, the company's cigarette division, dropped 63 cents to close at $76.55, all on the New York Stock Exchange.

Payment processing firm to stop servicing unlawful online tobacco retailers

New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo Wednesday announced an agreement in which Creative Cash Flow Solutions, Inc. will stop providing electronic payment processing services to online tobacco retailers, which illegally sell cigarettes over the internet. When the unlawful nature of online tobacco sales was brought to their attention, Long Island-based CCFS immediately agreed to cease providing their services.

As a result of CCFS's services, online tobacco retailers were able to process their illegal tobacco sales without credit cards. CCFS's assistance allowed the retailers to receive customer check information via the internet, telephone, or facsimile to enable a sales transaction. An investigation by the Attorney General determined that CCFS serviced at least ten online tobacco retailers. Several were located in New York State, and two were among the ten largest online tobacco retailers used by consumers throughout the United States.

This agreement is the first of its kind in the country. It furthers the successful efforts of New York and the other states that are part of the tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, a public health agreement which, among other goals, aims to stop the flow of cheap cigarettes to young people. Through the states' efforts, leading credit card companies have already agreed to cease allowing their cards to be used to facilitate these unlawful sales, and several major shippers have refused to deliver cigarettes purchased online. Cutting down on electronic funds transfers, such as those facilitated by CCFS, will make it more difficult for these retailers to continue selling.

Online tobacco retailers operate illegally in a number of ways, including failing to file required monthly sales reports with the tax administrator of the states into which they are shipping cigarettes; using interstate wire and mail systems to defraud state governments of excise tax revenues; and shipping over 10,000 cigarettes per month without any state tax excise stamp. These same practices also violate New York State tax laws, which prohibit attempts to "evade or defeat a tax," and New York State public health laws, which prohibit direct shipment of cigarettes to individual consumers in New York State, as well as similar laws of the states into which they sell.

Smoking menthol cigarettes may make butting out for good harder: study

TORONTO (CP) - Menthol and regular cigarettes appear to be equally harmful to the cardiovascular system and lungs, but smokers of menthols may have a harder time butting out for good, new research suggests.

In a study that followed more than 1,500 smokers over 15 years, U.S. researchers found that those who smoked menthol cigarettes in 1985 were more likely to still be smoking in 2000: almost 70 per cent of those whose tobacco of choice was menthol were still smoking compared with about 55 per cent of those who chose regular cigarettes.

"The main finding is that per cigarette smoked, menthol cigarettes are no more harmful than non-menthol in terms of arteriosclerosis or pulmonary (lung) damage," said lead investigator Dr. Mark Pletcher, a clinician and epidemiologist at the University of California in San Francisco.

"Certainly they're both harmful. It doesn't matter really what you smoke - you shouldn't," Pletcher said Monday from San Francisco. "But menthol smokers may have a harder time quitting and may need some extra support when they try to quit."

The authors found that smoking menthols was associated with "a lower likelihood of trying to quit in the first place." As well, menthol smokers were almost twice as likely to relapse after quitting and less likely to stop for a sustained period of time.

Pletcher said there may be biological reasons for that: Because menthol (a compound found in peppermint oil) creates smoke that feels cool and anesthesizes nerve endings in the throat and air passages, smokers may inhale deeper and be able to tolerate more cigarettes.

"Menthol can increase breath-holding, the way people inhale and hold their breath while they're smoking," he said, adding that menthol cigarettes may also be more addictive.

"There is a biological basis in that menthol appears to inhibit the metabolism of nicotine. If you inhibit nicotine metabolism, it will stay around longer. So you get more of a hit of the addictive substance of smoking."

Dr. Peter Selby, head of the nicotine dependence clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, said the study refutes the notion some smokers hold that menthol products are not as harmful as regular cigarettes.

"It's got this quasi-clean image attached to it," Selby said of minty menthol. "It's put in your cough drops and cough medicine . . . and it's in our toothpaste. So you discount how dangerous something potentially is."

"So it's not only the addictive nature from a biochemical perspective, but also psychologically how it plays in people's minds," he said. "Menthol cigarettes are not safer. And it may make it even harder to quit if you think smoking menthol cigarettes is cleaner or healthier or safer."

In the United States, about 25 per cent of smokers choose menthol; industry-wide figures aren't available for Canada, but menthol makes up only two per cent of cigarette products sold by the country's largest producer, Imperial Tobacco, company spokeswoman Catherine Doyle said from Montreal.

The researchers measured associations between the type of cigarette smoked and cessation of tobacco use, along with the level of coronary calcification (a buildup of calcium in the coronary arteries) in subjects and their change in lung function over a 10-year period.

Both coronary calcification and a decline in lung function were linked to the number of cigarettes smoked, but the type of cigarette appeared to make no difference, the study found.

The researchers, whose paper was published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, enrolled 808 women and 727 men, aged 18 to 30, as part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. At the beginning of the study, 972 (63 per cent) of the participants preferred menthol cigarettes, while 563 (36 per cent) smoked non-menthols.

Pletcher said menthol cigarettes are much more popular among African Americans than those of European descent. Almost 90 per cent of African Americans in the study puffed on menthols, compared with just 30 per cent of European Americans, he said.

When it came to the amount of tobacco indulgence, African Americans tended to smoke less than European Americans - yet they had disproportionately high rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease and other smoking-related illnesses, the researchers said.

"For a variety of historical and cultural reasons, including targeted advertising by the tobacco industry, African American smokers are much more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes than European American smokers," the authors wrote.

Pletcher said the researchers wanted to determine if menthol in cigarettes was behind higher rates of smoking-related disease among African-Americans. If that were the case, he said, then "getting rid of menthol would be a way to eliminate a lot of health problems."

But once the researchers factored in other social and demographic variables, most of this difference was explained by the fact that African Americans were both more likely to smoke menthols and less likely to quit smoking.

"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 authors conclude.

Cigarettes linked to अर्थ्रितिस

A team at the Menzies Research Institute are the first to demonstrate the harmful effects of cigarette smoking on knee osteoarthritis (OA), primarily with a person with a family history of knee OA.

It is common knowledge that cigarette smoking is associated with an increased risk of common diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, stroke, and rheumatoid arthritis, but until now research has suggested that smokers have a lower risk of developing knee OA.

Menzies' research published this week in the leading arthritis journal in the world, Arthritis and Rheumatism, conflicts with previous studies and provides significant evidence that smoking leads to knee cartilage loss and defect development largely in persons whose family has suffered from knee OA.

Investigators Dr Changhai Ding and Professor Graeme Jones say that the difference between the Menzies' study and previous studies related to smoking and knee OA is the imaging equipment used.

"At Menzies we have conducted one of the largest Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) based studies on knee cartilage health so far, where as previous studies on the relationship between knee OA and smoking have used x-ray images.

"X-rays can only show the space between the bones and not cartilage directly therefore are not necessarily accurate, but an MRI can directly assess cartilage volume and splits in cartilage," Professor Jones said.

Professor Jones states the message from this research study is simple.

"If you have a parent who has suffered from knee osteoarthritis you should think twice about continuing or taking up smoking."

Osteoarthritis is a highly prevalent and costly disease, affecting more than 3.4 million Australians. It has been designated a National Health Priority due to its extent and its socioeconomic impacts.

Tasmanian research studies have found a high prevalence of OA and osteoporosis in Tasmanian community, especially in the older population (more than 30%). Nearly 200 total knee replacements are performed for knee OA in Southern Tasmania every year.

Cost-effective interventions and continued research and development to delay the onset of osteoarthritis offer potential for substantial reductions in the future projected costs and burden of the disease.

Silly Parents, Meth is For Kids: Drug Dealers Try Their Hand at Marketing

Candy drugs. Drugs that taste like candy. Anyone else see a problem?

Recently, producers of methamphetamines released a brand new version of their already popular product. They are going after a decidedly younger audience with new and improved flavors such as peanut butter, strawberry and chocolate.

And why shouldn't they? It's no different than marketing to adults, except that now the drugs taste better.

There is no moral argument that can be made against marketing already illegal drugs to kids. For one thing, they're already illegal! There is no risk involved, no mental block about meth being taken off the

market by the FDA, no second thought about some company getting sued.

No worries there.

Drug dealers are also fully aware of the probable negative ramifications of their actions. They know what they are doing will undoubtedly cause harm in one form or another to their customers, yet they continue doing what they do to turn a profit. So obviously, hurting people is not an issue.

And as far as bringing this harm to the kids, why worry? Children are just another set of potential clients. The most important set, in fact, because they have the potential to continue the habit for much longer than, say, some 45-year-old looking for an escape from a short, meaningless life.

What kills me is that people act as if this is just the worst crime ever perpetrated on American soil. At least these drug dealers are being honest about their campaign. Because if you think this is the first time a potentially dangerous substance was marketed to young people, think again.

It's not like these tactics haven't been used before, and I'm not talking about the drug world. Producers of legal substances like alcohol and nicotine have been trying, and succeeding, for years to capture the attention of those too young to legally purchase their products.

The infamous cartoon character Joe Camel was banned from the marketing of Camel Cigarettes because of his strong visual appeal to minors. Does anyone out there actually believe he was meant for adults? Of course not, because this is a college campus and we are all reasonably intelligent.

Camel's quest for the underage crowd still continues though. Since the ban of their icon, Camel has created a whole new marketing blitz designed to shovel their cancer sticks down kids' throats, including lacing them with a chocolate-mint flavor during the holidays.

Alcohol producers have also done their part to sucker kids in.

Chocolaty alcoholic beverages reminiscent of Yoohoo bottles were removed from grocery store shelves within the last decade for their obvious appeal to the younger generation.

The only difference between those products and meth is that alcohol and tobacco are still legal and thus subject to FDA regulation and public scrutiny. But meth has already overcome both of those barriers in a single bound.

The drug world is just another industry clambering for a stake in that all-important demographic. Drug dealers aren't the first to try this and they certainly won't be the last.

Ring around the hookah

Why would anyone suck air through a bowl of water for the sole purpose of filling his or her lungs with tobacco smoke?

For Anwar Aljabaly, 18, of Dearborn the answer is as simple as lighting the charcoal in a hookah, or water pipe: enjoyment wrapped up in his Middle Eastern culture and heritage.

Dr. Raja Rabah of Children's Hospital in Detroit says there is another answer: addiction. People like Aljabaly are addicted to nicotine, whether it comes from conventional cigarettes or from the exotic water pipes called shisha, nargeela, narghile, arghileh, okka, kalyan, hubble-bubble and ghelyoon.

Hookah, arghileh, whatever you call it, the bottom line is addiction to nicotine, Rabah told me.

Aljabaly, a student at Henry Ford Community College, will be in Taylor on Tuesday as a panelist on an antismoking program called "Hooked on Hookah" at Wayne County Community College's Downriver campus. It's organized by the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance (SMCA).

He knows he'll be the lone ranger at this conference, since the other presenters will be opposed to hookah smoking. Aljabaly even makes his pitch for hookahs in an anti-hookah film also called "Hooked on Hookah." His message is simple: Hookah is good for the soul.

And hookah use is on the upswing. Olivia Polychroni, 18, of Taylor goes with friends to cafes in Dearborn or Novi to smoke hookah and doesn't worry. The Truman High School student told me, "Cigarettes are disgusting; they make your teeth yellow and they just don't appeal to me at all.

"I know there is some danger, but I don't do it a lot like cigarettes. I go to a caf� maybe once a week, if that."

Eateries get on bandwagon

To boost interest in his Southgate restaurant, Beirut Garden, owner Mike Alammar began offering hookahs to his patrons last month. It's definitely a sideline, sort of an experiment. He's proud of his cooking and frankly admits that there's no benefit to smoking.

I wanted to learn about hookah. Aljabaly agreed to meet me at Beirut Garden. He brought his friend, Saad Shouman, 22, a student at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a Dearborn resident. When I found them, they were eating from a big plate of hummus and another plate of grilled chicken, both prepared by Alammar.

"Hookah is better after you are full," Aljabaly told me.

"Sometimes if you smoke it when you're hungry, it makes you dizzy. Makes you want to throw up," Shouman says.

I'm perplexed. This is not an argument for hookah.

The toll of hookah

I told them what I'd learned from Melissa Thrasher at the SMCA -- that 45 minutes to an hour of smoking hookah is like smoking 100 cigarettes, and that the water does not filter the smoke, as many hookah smokers believe. And what Dr. Rabah said: Not only do you get the nicotine and tar of the tobacco, but you also breathe smoke from the charcoal that helps burn the tobacco.

"I heard the same, but I don't think it's true," Aljabaly says.

"I heard that one hit from hookah is like 20 cigarettes," says Shouman. I look at Shouman, Aljabaly's buddy. Was he contradicting his pal again?

"Hookah tobacco is not like cigarette tobacco," Aljabaly says. "You don't get addicted to it. If you compare the stuff cigarettes are made of and what hookah tobacco is made of, it's totally different. It has different flavors -- orange, double apple, watermelon, grape -- but it doesn't have nicotine."

"It has nicotine," says Shouman.

Whew! Score another for Thrasher and Rabah.

"No," says Aljabaly.

Both pals say they believe they are not addicted. They can go without smoking hookah and not miss it. But later, Aljabaly tells me he quit cigarettes a year ago and took up hookah.

Again, Aljabaly's buddy Shouman weighs in on the anti-hookah side. I wonder why Aljabaly brought him. Shouman is making the antismoking case: "If someone smokes hookah, he will develop cancer faster than someone who smokes cigarettes," opines Shouman.

"If you smoke it so much, it's going to cause cancer; it's very bad for the lungs." He proceeds to suck on the hookah mouthpiece, wreathing his head in a thick cloud of the white smoke that he says causes cancer. I am mystified.

"There's nothing good about it," says Alammar, the restaurant owner who rents hookahs at $12 an hour. He says he prefers cigarettes.

There are things going on here that I don't grasp. Often, these guys leave English and talk to each other -- around or over me -- in rapid Arabic, which I don't understand.

It is a mystery why Aljabaly, who is going to beard the anti-hookah lions in their den at the May 15 conference, would bring along Shouman, who seems intellectually in the same camp with Thrasher and Rabah, even if he puffs like a steam locomotive.

Cultural connection

The big point Aljabaly says he'll make at the "Hooked on Hookah" meeting is one that may be hard for anti-hookah campaigners to counter because it runs deeper than reason. Aljabaly explains: "My grandmother did it, my grandfather did it. When I was a little kid I watched them do it. My grandmother is 70 and she is healthy."

After finishing a big portion of grilled chicken and lots of hummus, Aljabaly announced, "Now that you're full, you're relaxed. You top it off with arghileh. Smoke a lot. Talk a lot. Talk about what's going on back in our country. It relieves the pain of being away from home.

"I went to Yemen two years ago. It was the best time. I didn't want to come back. It was a blast. I spent Ramadan there. It was the best Ramadan of my life."

I'm puzzled about why Aljabaly is willing to go alone into the antismoke crusaders' den for this panel discussion, which will be tilted against smoking. Alammar, the Beirut Garden owner, puts it better than I could: "So how much you making off all this?"

We laugh.

"You're not making anything?" says Alammar to Aljabaly. "You're crazy!"

"Fame, baby," says Aljabaly. "I should be paid. But I believe in it.

"Hookah's a way of life in a culture. I was born in Dubai. My family is from Yemen. You're in the United States and this kind of brings back a little something of home. Arghileh is a way of life."

Low tar cigs just as bad for you

New research has shown that low tar 'lite' cigarettes can damage the heart as much as regular cigarettes.

A study in the journal Heart has indicated that low tar cigarettes impair blood flow through the heart as severely as regular higher tar cigarettes.

The study looked at 62 people in their mid-20s, with no evidence of coronary artery disease.

Twenty had smoked low tar, low nicotine cigarettes for at least three years; 20 others had smoked regular cigarettes for the same period, and the remainder were non-smokers.

All participants in the study were assessed for cardiovascular fitness, and in the case of the smokers, these tests were carried out two days before and 30 minutes after smoking two of their usual cigarettes within the space of 15 minutes.

The researchers focused on coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR), which is a measure of how readily coronary arteries can dilate in response to increased blood flow.

The two groups of smokers were similar in terms of their general health and the number of cigarettes they regularly smoked.

The test results showed that blood pressure and heart rate both rose after smoking, irrespective of cigarette type.

Similarly, CFVR, which was already lower in both groups of smokers than it was in non-smokers, fell further still after smoking, irrespective of cigarette type.

The authors say their results show that both light cigarettes and regular cigarettes impair blood flow through the coronary arteries to a similar degree.

They add that many smokers switch to low tar, low nicotine cigarettes in the mistaken belief that they will reduce some of the hazardous effects of smoking.

Tobacco's young अद्दिक्ट्स

Many young smokers cannot get through the day without a cigarette

New research shows British children as young as 11 are becoming addicted to cigarettes.

More than one in four - around 26% - of 15-year-olds are now regular smokers.

Half of all those questioned said they would find it difficult to get through the day without smoking.

About 37% of 11-15 year olds said their favourite brand of cigarettes was Benson and Hedges, while the next most popular is Lambert and Butler, according to the survey of schoolchildren by the Office of National Statistics.

Katie Aston, from the Health Education Authority, which commissioned the survey, said: "This new research confirms that children become hooked on cigarettes very early on.

"Many teenagers display the same signs of addiction as young adults, often smoking shortly after they wake up and finding it hard to get through the day without smoking."

Many of the children surveyed were influenced by indirect advertising by the tobacco industry, with almost one in five 11-15 year olds owning sports clothes with a cigarette logo.

A spokeswoman for ASH - Action on Health and Smoking - said: "This report shows that a partial ban on tobacco advertising just won't do.

"What we need is a total ban to stop these children becoming addicted to cigarettes."

Tobacco sales to children banned

Youngsters in Alderney will no longer be able to buy cigarettes.

Under-18s have been banned from purchasing tobacco products after a vote in the States.

It has been against the law in Jersey and Guernsey for decades, but the island's States only voted on Wednesday to stop tobacco sales to children.

The General Services Committee believes although Alderney does not have a major underage smoking problem, it is time to come into line with the other islands.

Alderney has gone one step further though in making the purchasing of tobacco illegal as well as the sale, putting the onus on both children and shopkeepers.

Guernsey has recently raised the legal smoking age to 18. But in Jersey and the UK, 16-year-olds can buy cigarettes legally.

New cigarette warnings 'working'

Graphic new warnings on cigarette packs have triggered a big increase in calls to the NHS Smoking Helpline.

Over 10,000 people said they were driven to call by the new labels during the first four months of 2003 - an increase of 12% in helpline call levels.

The new warnings were introduced in January following a European Union directive which stipulated health warning messages should cover 30% of the front of cigarette packets and 40% of the back.

A thick, black border adds a further 10% to the area given over to the warnings.

All cigarette packets must carry the warnings by September 2003.
Hazel Blears, Public Health Minister said: "It is very encouraging that our measures are already having such a positive effect, with thousands of people wanting to quit.

"The packs carried warnings before, but we know that the larger and starker the message, the more effective it is.

"People had become so used to the old health messages, especially because of tobacco companies' carefully crafted, slick designs, that they missed the message that cigarettes are deadly."

Marie Murray, a NHS Smoking Helpline advisor, said: "We have received a number of calls recently from people really frightened because they didn't realise all the toxic chemicals that are contained in smoke or that smoking could make you age faster or even make you impotent.

"Although many callers are already aware of the health risks of their habit it can be easy to forget just how harmful smoking is.

"The new warnings have really hit a nerve with people and have played a significant role over the last few months in prompting thousands of smokers to take their first step towards quitting by picking up the phone to the helpline."

Legislation banning cigarette in-pack promotions comes into effect this week.

These in-pack promotions encouraged smokers to buy more cigarettes to collect coupons, which could then be exchanged for goods.

One in four callers to the NHS Smoking Helpline successfully give up one year later.

'Safer' cigarette marketed in US

Some manufacturers are researching safer cigarettes

A cigarette claimed to be less harmful to health is being marketed to American smokers.

The Eclipse cigarette is being sold to a small number of customers in Texas, and over the internet.

A UK anti-smoking group has welcomed the launch - but warned smokers not to believe that the cigarette is 100% safe.

It is lit in the normal way, but instead of burning fully, the tobacco is heated until the nicotine is released.

Many of the harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke are produced by full combustion, so the heating will reduce the amount of these being released.

Smoking is the cause of nine out of 10 lung cancers, and a major contributor to heart disease and stroke.

It is also worsens chronic conditions such as bronchitis and emphysema.

'Best choice to quit'

Advertising for the Eclipse cigarette will say that that while the best choice for smokers who worry about their health is to quit, the next best choice is to smoke "safer"cigarettes.

Testing carried out by the company claims that smoking the cigarette lowers the risk of cancer, bronchitis and emphysema.

However, there are no long term studies which verify this.

It is unclear whether the chemicals produced by the new cigarette taste similar to those produced by ordinary cigarettes.

RJ Reynolds, the company behind Eclipse, marketed a no-smoke cigarette called Premier several years ago, but consumers rejected it because they did not like the taste.

The product has yet to be launched in the UK, and the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) broadly welcomed it.

Director Clive Bates said: "Basically it's the right approach for the manufacturers to take.

"However, if it is advertised as no-risk smoking it would be a disaster.

"I would like other manufacturers to be asked why they are not making products like this. It should become standard in the future."

Store owners fear cigarette tax increase

CONCORD - Owners of grocery, convenience and retail distributor stores lobbied state senators Monday to cut - if not eliminate - a proposed increase in the cigarette tax.

The House-approved $10.4 billion, two-year state budget plan relies heavily upon this tax, increasing it from 80 cents to $1.25 per pack.

Gov. John Lynch had proposed the tax only be raised to $1.08 to finance his budget plan.

John Dumais, president and chief executive officer of the New Hampshire Grocers Association, claimed his lobbying organization lost five small businesses that went under after the Legislature last raised the tax July 1, 2005.

Even though the state took in more money from the higher tax, it sold six million fewer packs of cigarettes in 2006 compared to 2005, he explained.

"We aren't talking about any small consequences for the state," he said.

The grocer lobby claims that for every $1 in cigarette pack sales, the state receives another $3.40 in other purchases.

Studies have concluded 40 percent of cigarette sales come from out-of-state residents. Massachusetts' residents make up the largest portion of that group.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has said he would oppose any increase in that state's tobacco tax, which is $1.51 per pack but doesn't include 20 cents that comes from applying the state's 5 percent sales tax.

"Massachusetts sold more packs in 2006 and profited from our last increase so you can bet they are hoping to do even better if we make the same mistake again," Dumais warned.

Supporters insist the state's retail sector would still profit from cigarettes sold at the higher price and that it would discourage teens from starting the addictive habit.

Ray Tetu said the higher tax would force his business to post a larger bond to cover the payment of tax stamps onto all cigarettes sold from his Manchester Wholesale Distributors Inc.

The firm employs 65 and has been in the family since 1939, but Tetu claims this latest proposed increase may put him under.

"If MWD and the other independent distributor within the state of New Hampshire were to close its doors tomorrow, there would not even be a hiccup for a split second for cigarette supplies," Tetu said.

Manchester Democratic Sen. Lou D'Allesandro, who is chairman of the Senate panel writing the budget, said it's too early to know how much of a tax increase is needed.

The finance panel is spending all of this week making final decisions about spending priorities for its version of the 1,100-page budget bill.

John Ganos, owner of the State Line Store on Route 13 in Brookline, said he attracts out-of-state purchases by advertising in daily newspapers as far removed as Worcester, Mass.

"Is this tax increase a good bet for the state? I know it is not for my business," Ganos added in a written statement. "And when the state is finished taxing this source into oblivion, where will they turn next?"

Thank you for smoking, Big Tobacco is glad

Today in Greece, which has the heaviest rate of smoking in the European Union, 55 people will die from smoking. Another 55 will die tomorrow, and, in the next year, smoking will kill 20,000, not including others forced to inhale cancer-causing discharges in taverns and bars, and in public buildings and work offices where it is allegedly forbidden, just like at the European Commission, which wants to ban smoking in public places except for its own buildings.
Today in Europe, 1,726 people will die from smoking, and nearly 630,000 in the next year. In the United States, 1,205 people will die today, and 440,000 in the next year. Worldwide, it is more than five million people annually, a holocaust every year.
Who cares? Because while the US has for years had regulations designed to curtail smoking, and the European Commission and its health ministers want to limit smoking, in neither place is there a call for the only solution - banning cigarettes and tobacco products.
Why? Do the math. According to the BBC, the US tobacco industry is worth more than USD 45 billion annually, much of it going to the federal and state governments in taxes, funding critical programs - including the cost of caring for smokers as they linger in hospitals and hospices to die.
The US tobacco industry provides 50,000 manufacturing jobs and 136,000 farming jobs directly, and generates another 400,000 jobs indirectly, while the US Treasury is estimated to have taken in USD 118 billion in tobacco taxes in the past 10 years, the BBC said, and makes seven times more money from the sale of a pack of cigarette than does the manufacturer.
In Hungary, where, like other Central European countries, smoking is popular and glamourised, nearly 1.19 billion Euro a year is spent on cigarettes. In many countries in Europe, up to 80 percent of the price of a pack of cigarettes goes to the taxman, and the United Kingdom's tobacco industry generated more than 14.8 billion Euro annually - 10 years ago.
And, as smokers in the US and western Europe increasingly kick the habit, Big Tobacco, running out of another generation of smokers it has killed off - mostly the poor and uneducated - has turned toward developing nations for the next victims. Within 20 years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates 85 percent of the smokers will come from the world's poorer countries.
In the meantime, there's still plenty of time to kill off Americans and Europeans, especially young women who are picking up more cigarettes all the time. If tobacco and nicotine were food additives killing five million people a year, there would be riots demanding a ban. But tobacco is government-sponsored, subsidised, legalised drug dealing, so there will be no prohibition.
The WHO, just ahead of "World No Tobacco Day," which is a fantasy right up there with "World Peace Day," blasted the tobacco industry for "spreading untruths," (that means lies) about smoking in public places in an attempt to slow down calls for no-smoking regulations. That's the same industry that said smoking doesn't cause cancer.
French singer-songwriter Renaud, who had been hooked on cigarettes, received a WHO award for his zealous crusade against tobacco, declaring, "It's a criminal industry." Yes, and lucrative too.
A European Parliament report last year found smoke from cigarettes contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including hazardous wastes, 50 cancer-causing chemicals and more than 100 chemical poisons. But if the US and EU could derive more revenues from it they'd recommend people spread it on their cereal for breakfast.
There may be some hope that people and anti-tobacco groups will succeed in doing what government won't. Cigarette use is dropping in the US and three years ago Ireland introduced a ban on smoking in public places, followed by Norway, Italy, Malta, Sweden, Scotland, Latvia and Lithuania. Smoking among German schoolchildren has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 30 years.
But the United States and the European Union remain the fourth and fifth largest tobacco producers in the world and the crop brings in more revenue for farmers and governments than any other, and that is more important than all the deaths and all the hospital costs and all the victims.
As Shigeru Omi of the WHO's Pacific office put it: "We all know that smoking kills." And that will be the epitaph of the governments who let it happen.

Film smoking warning doesn't go far enough, critics सय

The decision by the Motion Picture Association of America last month to begin using its rating system to warn parents when movies "glamourise" smoking was Hollywood's first - and to some critics of the industry, long overdue - acknowledgement of the powerful role movies play in creating thousands of new smokers every year.

But the MPAA stopped well short of applying a restrictive R rating to all pictures in which there is smoking, or even when the presence of cigarettes is "pervasive," a move that would have cost the studios a large part of their most lucrative cash crop: children under 17, who also just happen to be the most impressionable group of potential smokers. And that left anti-smoking organisations fuming.

"What they've done is inadequate," says Ellen Vargyas, general counsel of the American Legacy Foundation, an anti-smoking organization. "Basically they said, `We'll look at smoking, and if the spirit moves us, we may issue a warning.' But there are no standards." And American Medical Association chairman Cecil B. Wilson huffed that by failing to make all movie smoking R-rated, "the MPAA has ignored the gravity of the health threat that on-screen smoking poses to children and teens."

As one of America's most powerful corporate cartels, the Hollywood studios can afford to give ground grudgingly, and when they do, they don't like having smoke blown in their face. "There is a very, very small fringe that has taken an unyielding, and increasingly unreasonable position on this," says Seth Oster, executive vice-president for communications of the MPAA. "And they fail to recognize anything as being constructive if it falls short of their extreme demands."

The MPAA has long insisted that its rating system - devised 40 years ago to ward off the threat of government regulation - is an informational tool for parents, not some sort of Maginot line in the culture wars.

"Many people seem to misunderstand the rating system to be an agent of social change, when in fact that's exactly the opposite of what it is," Oster says. "It is not intended to change behavior. It is for parents, so they can make informed decisions about what movies they do and don't want their kids to see. And that's it."

But that's not it, of course.

"Honestly, I don't know what the rating system is supposed to be, but it's very influential," says Vargyas. "We're trying to save lives. Is that social change? Not social change? I don't know, but we're in it because we know - and the evidence proves - that depictions of smoking in movies are closely associated with about 400,000 new kid smokers every year. And a third of them are going to die early."

Both sides of the debate are quick to produce research that backs up their own claims; statistics that prove smoking in movies is up, or that smoking in movies is down. Many of the numbers seem to cancel each other out.

Some are couched in fuzzy language (400,000 is specific; "closely associated with" is not). Or they come from universities whose studies are funded by groups like the American Legacy Foundation - created by the 1998 multi-billion dollar tobacco company settlement with state attorneys general. The MPAA's numbers come from the MPAA, which is an industry trade group, and can hardly be considered independent.

The ratings advisories may be intended for parents, but in the real world of adolescent multiplex surfing, it's left to the kids to sort it all out. Matt Draper, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at North Star Academy in Redwood City, California, says that seeing an actor smoking in a movie wouldn't influence him to try cigarettes. "Not really," he says, "because I know it's just a movie and it's fake. I think violence is worse than smoking."

So does Redwood City high school sophomore Jason Dean, 15. "Seeing someone's head getting blown off - all bloody and gory - that's what everyone wants," he says. "But seeing someone smoke is more of an everyday thing. You see people smoking outside of restaurants. Gore is going to reign supreme over smoking."

Cigarettes and the movies have been entwined since pictures began to talk in 1927, when actors suddenly found themselves needing something to do while the words came out. As movie stars began exhaling those beautiful silvery clouds on screen, the country was enveloped in a wreath of smoke. Cigarette production in the United States jumped more than 1200 percent between 1910 and 1930.

Unlike sex, violence and bad language - all reined in by the old Hollywood production code, and today by the ratings system - smoking in movies wasn't merely tolerated, it became the essence of screen glamour.

The most famous example of this was the 1942 drama Now, Voyager, in which Paul Heinreid's character lights a cigarette for himself, then one for Bette Davis' character, and for a moment has two lit cigarettes dangling from his lips. That image became so iconic that for the rest of his life, Heinreid was unable to go out in public without women begging him to light their cigarettes.

Bogart and Bacall? Their famous romance was launched over a cigarette in To Have and Have Not, and continued offscreen until he died of throat cancer at age 57. In movies as in the military, the rule was "smoke `em if you got `em." Some research suggests that there is more smoking in films than in real life.

The MPAA says smoking now will be treated on a par with violence, sexual situations and bad language. But it created an exemption from more restrictive ratings for movies such as the Edward R. Murrow biopic Good Night, and Good Luck, in which the smoking is deemed "historically accurate." (Ratings board chairwoman Joan Graves has said that picture would probably still get a PG rating, but would now come with a "pervasive smoking" warning.)

But with no such exemptions for historically accurate depictions of sex or violence, the one thing the ratings board seems to have assured is that it will apply its standards inconsistently.

"I don't think anybody ever actually died from hearing the f-word," Vargyas says. "The motion picture industry needs to step up to the plate and say, `Now we know. We didn't know, but now we do. What we're selling is the only consumer product that, when used as directed, kills.'"

Duty free cigarettes pulled from shelf after Kiwi furore

"New Zealand-branded" cigarettes have been pulled from the shelves of the nation's duty free stores after a storm of negative publicity.

DFS said it did not intended to disrespect consumers by seling the cigarettes, which feature black packaging with a silver fern and the words 'New Zealand'.

The cigarettes were made in Luxembourg.

New Zealand's Smokefree Coalition and Te Reo Marama had called for the immediate removal of all branding from all cigarette packs following outrage over NZ-branded cigarettes.

Marketing researcher Professor Janet Hoek said that the new brand, with the description "luxuriously mild cigarettes", only adds weight to the case for removing all branding from cigarette packets. Research by Hoek and her associates has shown that the descriptions "light" and "mild" can be misleading.

"We know that smokers inappropriately associate health attributes with these descriptors. Add an attempt to associate these new cigarettes with a "clean, green" brand like New Zealand, and you have seriously misleading packaging," said Hoek.

Hoek supported the move to ban branding from cigarette packets, leaving health warnings as the only pictorial image.

The Smokefree Coalition and Te Reo Marama (the Maori Smokefree Coalition) said the Luxemborg-sourced cigarettes were an affront to all New Zealanders.

Smokefree Coalition director Mark Peck has described the cigarettes as an outrageous attempt to exploit New Zealand's image while Te Reo Marama director Shane Kawenata Bradbrook says using the silver fern, an internationally recognisable symbol of New Zealand, is an insult.

Prepare to be ostracised, all you smokers of England

Smokers of England, lay down your cigarettes. Yes, right away; stub them out. Now take a few deep breaths, to allow your blood to become reoxygenated, and your brain function to be restored.

What I'm about to tell you is very important. It is the story of what is about to happen to you, and the society you inhabit, when the smoking ban in pubs, restaurants and workplaces comes into force on July 1. You'll find some of this story quite unexpected: indeed, I would struggle to believe it myself had I not experienced it in Scotland in the 15 months since the ban was introduced here.

For a start, there will be no rebellion. All those rumblings you're hearing about boycotts of pubs, of unrest and civil strife? Fights over the B&H? Of landlords defying the law? Forget it. Those are but the defiant mutterings of a defeated army, beginning the long retreat from Moscow. There will be no trouble at all. The smokers, meek as lambs, will either stand obediently outside or refrain from smoking.

In Scotland, only one smoker and one business have been taken to court for flouting the ban, and 175 people fined. Indeed, instead of lawlessness and hostility, be prepared for the exact opposite: a widespread and generous welcome for the ban, even among confirmed smokers, and an intangible, unquantifiable uplift in the national mood.

Now, not to put too fine a point on it, we all know what the Scottish psyche can be like: chippy, somewhat negative, a little begrudging in spirit. Against all the odds, the smoking ban has had a positive effect. Scotland, for me, feels like a country that's been to a health farm and come back with a clear complexion, open tubes, and a spring in its step.

How can I pin down why, over such a brief period, this feels like a markedly more modern, fashionable country? Above all, it's the clean air; the removal of constant pollution in our noses wherever we went. Perhaps too, at a less conscious level, it is a sense of self-worth, of freedom from something rather destructive.

And so here's the remarkable thing. In 15 months, the smoking ban has tilted society completely the other way. Where once there was an acceptance of fug, there is intolerance of anything but clean air.

The evidence is that only an embattled minority continues to smoke. From knowing dozens of smokers, I only know two; I go to parties and meetings and meals in people's houses, and no one smokes. No one even considers smoking. Seeing a fellow guest pull out a cigarette would be akin to seeing them openly pick their nose.

So clean is the air now, that being exposed to the smell of cigarettes is a physical shock. I do not exaggerate.

When you pass someone smoking in the street, or meet someone who has just had a cigarette, you recoil at the smell from their clothes and their breath. Incredible to think that we all, as smokers, used to smell like that: and never noticed. We used to kiss each other too! Today, given the sensory shift that has taken place over the past year, it feels quite offensive: an unwelcome whiff from some grim past.

And that, dear smokers, is the great alienation that you face. In the reborn, smoke-free England, prepare to become perceived as a relic. You've been left behind. Worse than that, you must prepare to be regarded as, well . . . ever so slightly down-market.

As you stand outside your pub or your club or your restaurant, or even your friend's dinner party, you will find you have become part of a sad, excluded, sheepish army of no-hopers, the huddled masses who loiter, sucking deeply on their drug of choice.

I'm not being judgmental, you understand; I'm reporting accurately the extraordinary pariah-like situation of those who continue to smoke in Scotland. When it comes to branding yourself as indelibly working-class, smoking has become as bad as being obese. One smoking friend of mine, a lawyer, says she's going to start wearing a shell suit so she doesn't stand out from the crowd.

And it's not just the company smokers that are forced to keep, it's the surroundings. Away from the high streets, where chairs and tables outside have helped create a (long overdue) mood of caf culture, Scotland has sprouted a forest of shabby plastic awnings, scuffed beer gardens with patio heaters, and Perspex shelters that look like bus stops. Littered with fag butts, these are not the places for the fashionable to be seen.

Without protest, these shelters have subsequently been banned at all hospitals. Councils have stopped staff smoking outside offices, depots and schools.

So will snobbery be the unexpected weapon of the antismoking lobby in England? I expect it will. The organisation Ash hopes that four million people, or almost 40 per cent of smokers, will stop because of the ban. When smokers find they must enter the kingdom of chavdom, expect that figure to rise.

It is estimated that more than 46,000 people quit as a result of the smoking ban in Scotland. In some areas, the initial "quit rates" were as high as 69 per cent. A study by the Scottish Executive found seven out of ten people supported the ban and nearly eight in ten believed it a success.

Not everyone is happy, of course. Drink sales have gone down 11 per cent as the locals have stayed away; 35 per cent of pubs have laid off staff. But, dare I say it, the smoking ban has allowed Scotland to inch its way up-market: to become a more civilised and, yes, sophisticated country. May England flourish likewise.

Outside tobacco

Today, every person sitting in bar or restaurant can free drink and smoke cigarette. This pleasure will be accepted till Sunday, July1.

Of interesting remark is that in all bars a lot of persons used to light up. Imagine that after July 1 all this persons ought to go outside if they desire to smoke. This will look as following: dozen off people will stand around outside on the streets and smoke.

Society also didn’t consent to such picture. As showed a recent survey, 44 per cent of people would be intimidated to go into a pub where smokers were standing outside the front door.

Customer Katherine Hornsby, 18, said: “I am worried about the trouble it may bring to the streets when people are outside smoking.”

The Queen's Head, Alnwick is planning to create special areas designed only for tobacco usage.

Another problem will be cig’ litters. It must be understood that outside smoking increase the risk that tobacco litters will be dropped on the streets, which wouldn’t be very aesthetic as well as for local as for tourists.

Gordon Thompson, 62, said: “I hope they provide somewhere better to get rid of cigarette ends so that we are not littering the streets.”

A resolution for this difficulty purposed Peter Wright, regional environmental health spokesman for tobacco control group FRESH: “There are a number of options available to pubs. Wall-mounted cigarette litter bins are one option. They cost around ?80. Pubs that have them have proved to be successful at keeping the area outsidetidy. Alternatively, a pub can make signs asking people to put their cigarette ends in bins inside the pub.”

What about those that doesn’t have a beer garden? One of such bar that is owned by George, Alnwick.

Tenant Christine Blair said: “We are going to put four chairs and two tables outside the pub and we are going to apply for planning permission to have bins on our walls. This could be difficult though as we are a listed building. We are also considering putting ashtrays on the window ledges.”

About this problem spokesman from Alnwick District Council said: “We are aware that it could be a problem and are monitoring the situation to see if we need to take different action but won’t know what is needed until after July 1. It might be the question of doing the normal street sweeping but it could be the case that we will need to have talks with pubs about special cigarette bins.”

Best cigars for people who knows that they want

Did you ever entered in a cigar shop that from its entrance smell a quality and luxury. This is the flavor that persists in store in the Merritt Park Shopping Center owned by Dan Sawalhi.

Such smelling stores deal only with those that smoke. Sawalhi opened the store five years ago. Speaking about walk-in humidor that also can be founded here Sawalhi installed it three years ago.

On this tobacco island are presented about 400 labels of upscale cigars with name brands made with premium filler. According to Sawalhi such kind of store is the most well-stocked humidor in the area.

“Once we opened the humidor,” Sawalhi said, “I started to see people who were truly interested in enjoying good cigars.”

When Sawalhi had opened his store, he had expected to register such success among Dundalk citizens. “We seriously underestimated people in the community,” Sawalhi said. “We had no idea that they had such a taste for good cigars.”

Also, Sawalhi said: “When we opened the store we didn’t intend to sell premium cigars, not around here, anyway. We didn’t think people would be interested. We were very wrong. There is no one around here doing what we are doing, which is selling good cigars.”

Long filler cigars, made from the best part of the tobacco leaf can be detected through a simple smell.

Every tobacco product presented in this cigar store a manual work and is of premium quality. Also, here are purposed different humidors and other cigar-smoking accessories like cutters and premium lighters.

Clients of Sawalhi store belong to different life area. “We get [police] officers from [the North Point] precinct,” Sawalhi said. “Also firemen, contractors. Basically, people who like quality and know what they like.”

“The good cigars sell very well,” Sawalhi said. “I’m still surprised at how well they sell.”

Moreover, clients of this wonderful store, along with first-rate cigars, are delighted with a cup of good coffee or a snack from the shop’s mini caf?. “We encourage people to enjoy the smoke,” Sawalhi said. “That’s why we also have good coffee to go with it.”

At the end, can be added Sawalhi comment: “Smoking cigars is a luxury. That’s why people will keep coming here instead of anywhere else in the area. They know quality.”

Italian smoker must be of 18 year old

In Italy is planned a new introduction related with age on what smoking is allowed. Now, Every Italian citizen that rich 16 years old is allowed to buy tobacco products.

Age of using tobacco products can differ in every country or state. For example in US person must be of 21 years old, in England 18. There are countries where is sued to smoke at much earlier. It depends on social and cultural differences of each country.

Although Italy was one from first states where were introduced public smoking ban, number of smokers remain at same high level.

It is expected that rising age for buying cigarette to 18 years from 16 will reduce number of tobacco users.

Health Minister Livia Turco, said that the number of youngsters who start smoking before they turn 14 jumped 60 percent over the five years to 2005. “This is a good and timely measure that I believe is our duty to adopt as soon as possible,” she affirmed.

In Italy, restriction on tobacco was introduced last year, in January, but number of smokers still remains high.

It is supposed that after introducing of new age restriction is one of most optimal resolution.

As long as new age- restriction not have legal force, sale of tobacco is allowed to persons that have 16 years old.

New Yorkers drop cigarette habits in droves

New York - High taxes and heath scare tactics have driven an estimated 240,000 New Yorkers to drop smoking in the last five years, the largest drop in the United States, news reports said Friday based on research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

New York City's residents who quit smoking during the period represented 19 per cent of all smokers, which the city's government put at 1,305,000 in 2002, or 21.6 per cent of the adult population. In 2006, the number of smokers dropped to 1,065,000, or 17.5 per cent.

'When we look at the US data overall, from 1965 to the present, this is faster than the US as a whole in any period,' The New York Times quoted Jennifer Ellis, the city health official who directed the study, as saying.

The study by city researchers was made from interviews with 10,000 city residents. New York City has a population of 8 million. The researchers contributed data to the CDC publication.

The city has spent 10 million dollars in television campaigns to fight smoking in the last five years after imposing higher taxes for every pack of cigarettes. A top brand pack of cigarettes now costs about 7 dollars, forcing smokers to travel outside the city to buy cigarettes, driving down at the same tax collection for the city, but only slightly.

Thomas Frieden, the city's commissioner for health and mental hygiene, told The Times, 'The big picture is that if you are willing to do the right thing and take political risks as Mayor (Michael) Bloomberg did, you can get enormous health benefits.'

WA state tribe looking to take cigarette venture coast to coast

SQUAXIN ISLAND INDIAN RESERVATION, Wash. - Tens of thousands of cigarettes roll off an assembly line every day at a warehouse on this small reservation, each carton destined for stores around the state of Washington.
By the end of the year, those cartons could be stacked in stores around the nation. The Squaxin Island tribe, which became the first in the West to manufacture its own tobacco products in 2005, is set to expand its venture from coast to coast.

The Squaxins won't be the first tribal government to have national reach - the Seneca-Cayugas in Oklahoma have sold their cigarettes in numerous states since 1999. Individual tribal members at other tribes, including the Yakamas in Eastern Washington, also manufacture their own cigarettes.
For the 1,000-member Squaxin Island tribe, expanding its tobacco industry outside of the state of Washington is an important step to diversify its economy beyond gambling.

"It's just a commonsense approach to expanding, rather than just keeping all our eggs in one basket," said Bryan Johnson, general manager for Skookum Creek Tobacco.

The tribe has no illusions about taking on Big Tobacco. They are currently manufacturing just 50,000 cartons a month, but can increase that to 250,000 a month, a goal they hope to reach within the next three years, but still a drop in the bucket compared to major cigarette brands.

Philip Morris, which has just over 50 percent of the market, doesn't comment on new players in the business, said spokesman Greg Mathe. But RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company spokesman David Howard said he welcomes the competition. RJ Reynolds makes up just under 30 percent of the market, he said.

"Competition is good for adult tobacco consumers, it gives them more choices," he said, but quickly added "our brands are better."

Currently, Skookum Creek has three products: Complete and Premis cigarettes and Island Blendz little cigars. They also sell loose tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes.

This fall the tribe will unveil Winthrop, a brand meant to compete with Marlboro, and Traditions, an additive-free brand meant to take on Natural American Spirit, which is an additive-free brand owned by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.

Bob Whitener, CEO of Island Enterprises, the tribe's development company, expects Skookum Creek to be certified to sell cigarettes in all 50 states within a year.

For now, their main store is on the reservation, about 20 miles northwest of the state capital of Olympia. The Kamilche Trading Post, a gas station and convenience store owned by the tribe, has the tribe's brands prominently displayed in a corner of the store.

Ed Caulfield of Shelton stops by to buy a carton of Premis cigarettes about twice a month.

"I like to support local businesses," he said, saying that he normally smoked Kools, but liked these just as much. "And the price is significantly better."

A carton of Marlboro Lights here costs $39.65. A carton of Premis costs $18.99.

Under a legal exemption, tribes that sell cigarettes they manufacture themselves don't have to affix the state's cigarette tax - currently $20.25 a carton, the third highest in the nation - to products sold on their own reservation. Skookum Creek products sold elsewhere must have the cigarette tax attached.

All the company's 12 employees are tribal members, and the tribe expects that number to grow to 30 once the company increases.

The Squaxins are expanding their cigarette business at a time when smoking isn't all that popular. In Washington state, the rate is just 17.5 percent, lower than the national average of 20.9 percent. And in 2005, voters in Washington state overwhelmingly passed an initiative prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants.

But even with the diminishing smoking population, there's money to be made, Whitener said.

Terry Reid, director of the tobacco prevention control program with the state Department of Health, said the state recognizes the right of tribes to include cigarettes as part of their economic engine. But, from a public health standpoint, he said they are "concerned about tobacco industry marketing practices, anything that puts more product on the market, and potentially creates new smokers."

In Washington state, about 32 percent of adult Indians and Alaska Natives smoke, nearly double the rate of the rest of the population, state officials say. The tribes use about $900,000 in state money each year to fight tobacco use. But Indian smoking rates have remained about the same, as the total number of smokers in Washington state dropped by 21 percent since 2000.

Ray Peters, the tribe's executive director, said that tribe takes high smoking rates seriously. Along with money from the state, the tribe spends its own dollars on smoking cessation and prevention programs, and anti-smoking programs geared specifically toward young members. The tobacco operation also helps pay for the tribe's day care program, and provides checks of about $240 a month to the tribe's elders.

"There's a lot of evils out there and it's our responsibility as a government to educate," Peters said. "But we are also a government that has to create a tax base to build infrastructure."

Revealed: tobacco giant's secret new weapon in the age of smoking bans

AS STRICT indoor smoking bans come into force across Victoria this weekend, tobacco giant Philip Morris has secret plans to launch Australia's first hand-held electronic smoking device, which it claims will reduce second-hand smoke by more than 90 per cent.

The controversial "Heatbar" is about the size of a mobile phone and is said to heat specially designed cigarettes without burning them.

Confidential documents seen by The Age reveal Philip Morris' marketing plan for the device, which it claims will usher in a "new movement in smoking, where art meets technology".

"The heating elements inside Heatbar respond when you take a puff," the documents claim. "The specifically designed cigarette is gently toasted and never burnt." And unlike normal cigarettes, the device is said to deliver an "aerosol which gives the consumer the flavour and aroma associated with smoking".

Philip Morris also says the device cuts harmful substances associated with cigarettes, including carbon monoxide. It will be sold from a concept store, The New Movement Tobacconist, to open in Chapel Street, South Yarra, and to be modelled on a similar outlet in Switzerland.

The move has provoked a furious response from Quit Victoria, with acting director Suzie Stillman urging the Federal Government to introduce a licensing system for all tobacco products. "Without this system, the tobacco industry will continue to use the Australian public as laboratory rats for their latest gimmicks," Ms Stillman said.

She said there was no scientific evidence to suggest that smoking cigarettes with the Heatbar was any safer.

Philip Morris patented the Heatbar technology in the US in 2004 and opened a "lounge-bar" by the same name in Zurich, Switzerland, last year. The venue sells and promotes the device along with four brands of compatible cigarettes named Jag, Drift, Muse and Solano.

It is believed the same four brands will be available at the company's Melbourne store.

Yesterday, Philip Morris spokeswoman Nerida White would not confirm if the device would be sold in Melbourne, but said the product had been discussed with the Federal Government. "I can't speculate on what we might be doing in the future, but I can tell you that when (the store) opens it will be selling Philip Morris brands and competitors' products too," Ms White said.

She said the the company, which sells more than 4 billion cigarettes a year in Australia, would gain a "first-hand insight into how retailing works" from its Chapel Street outlet, which was due to open by late July.

Cancer Council Victoria director Professor David Hill said the technology was part of the industry's long-term strategy to portray tobacco products as fashionable and desirable to the young. "If the proposal is indeed technically legal, Philip Morris seem to have issued an invitation to government to respond with appropriate legislation or regulation," Professor Hill said.

A spokesman for Victoria's Department of Human Services said any reform of tobacco regulations would be a federal responsibility.

Quit Victoria is planning a petition to pressure Stonnington Council to review the granting of a planning permit for the store.

A council spokesman said it was unable to revoke planning approval because the shop complied with guidelines.

Some Foods Affect Taste Of Cigarettes

Research suggests certain foods affect the taste of cigarettes and may even make quitting a little easier.

Addicted smokers say there are times a cigarette tastes even better.

" Caffeine and liquor will make you smoke," said a man on the street. "When you eat dinner or lunch, which is the heaviest meals, for some reason the cigarette tastes better," another men said.

But scientists have found certain food and drink may also have an opposite effect and doctors hope it can help smokers quit.

"The idea is you use all of the tricks you can to succeed with smoking cessation," Dr. Mary O'Sullivan from St. Luke's Hospital said. "You use the medication; you use every trick in the book, because it is a very tough addiction to break."

Duke researchers interviewed more than 200 smokers and discovered fruits, vegetables, milk and juice can worsen the taste of cigarettes.

Traditionally the addiction has always centered around nicotine. Now more attention is being paid to the taste, smell and experience of cigarettes.

"There is a whole side of stopping smoking which is behavioral and they're focusing on the sensory part and the pleasure part of it," O'Sullivan said.

Until science has those answers, the new research at least gives smokers an easy way to diminish their desire by laying off caffeine and alcohol and loading up on fruits and vegetables.

Researchers aren't sure why foods like broccoli and apples make cigarettes less appealing to smokers, but they're hoping it will lead to new aids for people trying to quit.

Anti-Smoking Pill May Help Curb Drinking

Newest Anti-Smoking Pill May Help Curb Drinking
(AP) WASHINGTON A single pill appears to hold promise in curbing the urges to both smoke and drink, according to researchers trying to help people overcome addiction by targeting a pleasure center in the brain.

The drug, called varenicline, already is sold to help smokers kick the habit. New but preliminary research suggests it could gain a second use in helping heavy drinkers quit, too.

Much further down the line, the tablets might be considered as a treatment for addictions to everything from gambling to painkillers, researchers said.


Pfizer Inc. developed the drug specifically as a stop-smoking aid and has sold it in the United States since August under the brand name Chantix. Varenicline works by latching onto the same receptors in the brain that nicotine binds to when inhaled in cigarette smoke, an action that leads to the release of dopamine in the brain's pleasure centers.
Taking the drug blocks any inhaled nicotine from reinforcing that effect.

A study published Monday suggests not just nicotine but alcohol also acts on the same locations in the brain.
That means a drug like varenicline, which makes smoking less rewarding, could do the same for drinking. Preliminary work, done in rats, suggests that is the case.

"The biggest thrill is that this drug, which has already proved safe for people trying to stop smoking, is now a potential drug to fight alcohol dependence," said Selena Bartlett, a neuroscientist with the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at the University of California, San Francisco who led the study. Details appear this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More often than not, smoking and drinking go together �¢ï¿½ï¿½ an observation pub-goers have made for hundreds of years. That a single drug could work to curb both addictions isn't a given �¢ï¿½ï¿½ nor is it surprising, said Christopher de Fiebre, an associate professor of pharmacology and neuroscience at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.

"This is an extremely important paper and hopefully it will convince the major funding agencies that they need to examine the interactions between nicotine and alcohol to a greater extent than they have done to date," said de Fiebre, who was not connected with the study.

In fact, the California researchers, together with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, are now planning the first studies in humans of the drug's effectiveness in curbing alcohol cravings and dependence, Bartlett said. That the drug is already Food and Drug Administration-approved should speed things along.

"This is a drug that people are actually using. That's not trivial �¢ï¿½ï¿½ not at all," said Mark Egli, co-leader of the medications development program at the NIAAA, part of the National Institutes of Health. "There is plenty of animal research that looks pretty cool but there is no way those drugs are ever going to be used by human beings."

In the new study, researchers trained rats to drink alcohol and measured the effect of varenicline once the animals became the laboratory equivalent of heavy drinkers. They found the drug curbed their drinking. Even when stopped, the animals resumed drinking but didn't binge.

Just as varenicline doesn't work for all smokers, it's highly unlikely it would for all drinkers.

"Is this going to be a cure-all? No, not for smoking or alcoholism because both diseases are more complicated than a single target or single genetic issue," said Allan Collins, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Colorado who was not connected to the study.

Still, Collins, who's worked on the topic for decades, called the drug's potential use in treating alcoholism a "no-brainer." And Egli said it supports the emerging view that there is a common biological basis for addictions to both alcohol and tobacco.

As for Pfizer, the New York company has yet to decide whether to seek broader FDA approval for the drug, a spokesman said.

"Without having considerable more data on this it would be very difficult for us to say we might pursue it or not. It's almost a wait-and-see," said Pfizer's Stephen Lederer.