Australia fumes over kangaroos used to sell cigarettes

BAT, which is battling Canberra over moves toward plain packaging in Australia, is selling its Winfield brand overseas with a picture of a kangaroo on the front and a map of Australia on the back.

It is also using the slogan “An Australian Favourite” and Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, the former health minister, is not amused.

“I think many Australians are going to be outraged that a big tobacco company all the way round the world is using Australia's healthy lifestyle to market their deadly products,” she told reporters.

“What I think it's really showing is the sneaky levels that tobacco companies will go to to encourage people to buy their products.”

Australia is set to be the first country to mandate plain packaging to reduce smoking rates under a groundbreaking law passed in November.

Under the legislation, all tobacco products sold in Australia must be in drab, olive-brown packets with large, graphic health warnings showing diseased body parts and sick babies from Dec. 1 this year.

Brand imagery will also be banned, sparking a furious response from the major tobacco companies who have launched a constitutional challenge to the High Court, claiming it infringes their intellectual property rights.

Despite her dismay at Australian images being used to sell cigarettes in Europe, Roxon admitted there was little she could do about it.

“Whilst it's probably unlikely that we can do anything to stop these packs being sold in Europe, we certainly can call on British American Tobacco, as the Australian public can, to say 'get your hands off our icons',” she said.

“Don't use them to sell your product which actually has nothing to do with Australia.

“They are trying to imply to the European market that this is something that Australia promotes, that this is something that Australians prefer, that this somehow is connected with our healthy lifestyle.”

Quitting smoking with a little help from a friend

It’s where it began for more than a few smokers–in high school.

So it goes for “Pam” of Port Dover, who had been smoking for 40 years, before finding a way out.

Pam finally said goodbye cigarettes more than a year ago.

It wasn’t easy kicking the habit, but she got by with a little help from a friend.

A friend who had taken a “hynotist course’ hypnotized her in an effort to help Pam quit.

And it worked.

That’s not necessarily any other smoker’s preferred way to quit.

The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit offers suggestions on it’s website to people who may want to help a friend or family member quit.

Smoking is the cause of the tens of thousands of deaths in Canada.

Tobacco Company Hides the Truth About Their Cigarettes

Cigarette giants Philip Morris USA may have altered data on the harmful effects of cigarettes, according to an independent study conducted by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

The study, which was published in the journal PLoS Medicine, found a 2002 Philip Morris report called “Project Mix” obscured the toxicity levels in their cigarettes and minimized the risk of cancer, heart disease and other smoking related illnesses.

The Philip Morris report detailed chemical analyses of smoke and animal toxicology studies of 333 cigarette additives.

The study also revealed that Philip Morris added further toxins to cigarettes after they released their “Project Mix” report, thus, underreporting the true toxin levels of their products.

“We discovered these post-hoc changes in analytical protocols after the industry scientists found that the additives increased cigarette toxicity by increasing the number of fine particles in the cigarette smoke that cause heart and other disease,” explained Dr. Stanton A. Glantz, professor of medicine of UCSF, and lead study author.

“When we conducted our own analysis by studying additives per cigarette, following Philip Morris’ original protocol, we found that 15 carcinogenic chemicals increased by 20 percent or more,” he added.

UCSF researchers suggest new protocols be established for when cigarette companies release product data.

Glantz also suggested the reason Philp Morris failed to specify all of the toxic effects in their animal studies was simply because their study and the amount of animals weren’t big enough.

“The experiment was too small in terms of the number of rats analyzed to statistically detect important changes in biological effects,” he concluded.

Tobacco Industry Vet Freudenthal Joins Imperial Tobacco Group

Kevin Freudenthal has been named president and CEO for Commonwealth - Altadis Inc. and region director for the Americas at Imperial Tobacco Group (ITG). He succeeds Graham Bolt, who retired from the company at the end of December.

Freudenthal will take overall responsibility for Commonwealth - Altadis from Eric Workman, senior vice president of marketing, at the end of the month.

Freudenthal has 26 years of industry experience and has made a career out of leadership and innovation in marketing tobacco products, the company said, working with large teams, crafting business strategy and improving profitability.

Before joining ITG, he was vice president for category management for Altria Group, and before that, spent two decades in executive positions at U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co., where he began his career as a territory representative.
"Kevin is one of the most seasoned and successful tobacco executives, and we look forward to him being onboard starting on January 30. He will lead our efforts to complete the integration for CA as well as our mission for growth in the U.S. market," said Workman.

Freudenthal has been a member of the Tobacco Outlet Advisory Group, UST Retail Advisory Group, Texas Grocers & Convenience Association, California Grocers Association, National Association of Convenience Stores, and American Wholesales Marketers Association. He has also sponsored the CSP Executive Council and the Network of Executive Women.

Signature brands sold by Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Commonwealth - Altadis include USA Gold, Fortuna and Sonoma cigarettes, Phillies, Dutch Masters and Backwoods and White Cat cigars.

United Kingdom-based Imperial Tobacco Group has 51 manufacturing sites, around 38,000 employees and operates in more than 160 markets.

Higher cigar taxes won't reduce teen tobacco use

Contrary to Vincent DeMarco's claims, minors have access to tobacco products because youth and retailers are breaking the law ("Cigar tax increase would reduce teen use," Jan. 4). Increasing taxes is not the answer; enforcing the law is.

Higher taxes will cause additional economic hardship to Maryland's small business owners in the midst of the worst economy in 30 years.

If these businesses close, the unemployed will potentially seek public assistance. This one-two economic gut punch will only exacerbate Maryland's fiscal challenges.
Maryland's law-abiding adult premium cigar consumers are already paying high taxes. If the state legislature increases cigar taxes, adult consumers will take their business across state lines to lower- or no-tax states, costing Maryland precious revenue.

Tobacco Free Fun Night at Riverside Middle School

Riverside Middle School reACT Against Tobacco Club and RiverStone Health have partnered to organize a Tobacco Free Fun Night for seventh- and eighth-graders, their friends and families.
The event, which includes a dodgeball tournament, healthy food and prizes, begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 6, at the Riverside Middle School gym.
Students will compete in the dodgeball tournament in teams of seven. The winners will take on a team of teachers, and the team that loses this round will have to complete a comical challenge. Winning teams will receive shirts and prizes.
All participants and spectators at the Tobacco Free Fun Night are encouraged to make a tobacco-free pledge as they enter the building.

Tobacco growers get P5.4-m crop assistance

Tobacco growers in Abra province obtained a P5.4 million as production assistance from the National Tobacco Administration to perk up the age-old industry.

Administrator Edgardo Zaragoza said the loan package under the Tobacco Contract Growing System is targeted to sustain the livelihood of a major segment of the farming population.

“We are happy at NTA to learn that the provincial and municipal governments are wisely using their share from the Tobacco Excise Tax Act purposely for the benefit of our tobacco growers,” he said. “We have to return to them the benefits derived from tobacco production, especially the building of farm to market roads, so that they will be able to deliver their produce to the prospective markets the soonest.”

NTA-Abra branch manager Esmeralda Valera said 261 tobacco farmers have availed of the loan package. About 160 hectares of land are included in the cropping season in the 19 tobacco-growing municipalities .

Flue-curing barns in the different towns have been installed to ensure quality leaves that would command a higher price in the market and assured planters of better returns on investment.

Zaragoza urged beneficiaries to be quality and not quantity-oriented.

“We want our farmers to continue increasing their income from tobacco production that is why they should not rush the harvesting of tobacco leaves so that they will be able to get the better ones especially when already dry so that buyers will not take advantage of the situation,” he said. Valera said the capitol was still distributing fertilizers from the remaining subsidy for the cropping season.

Tobacco farming is concentrated in 19 of the 27 towns, an industry second to hybrid and native rice production in lowland and upland municipalities over the past decades.