Tobacco Seen As Harmful In Any Form

Back in medical school, we were told about the dangers of cigarette smoking but pipe and cigar smoke were seen as less harmful.

According to a new study in the journal Nature, pipe and cigar smoke may be more harmful than once thought.

Researchers conducted a study to determine whether pipe and cigar smoking was associated with elevated levels of cotinine--the end product of tobacco which can be detected in the urine.

They also looked at airflow to evaluate lung function. Those who did not smoke cigarettes but did smoke pipes or cigars were more likely to have airflow obstruction than those who had never smoked.

Clearly there is no free ride.

Celanese Counts On Cigarette Smoking, Soda Drinking To Raise Earnings

Celanese Corp. (CE), a Dallas chemical company, is counting on a rebound in cigarette smoking and soda-pop drinking to drive its earnings higher in 2011 and 2012.
As part of its consumer specialty segment, Celanese manufactures a sweetener for soft drinks and a product that is used for cigarettes filters. Its customers include Altria Group Inc. (MO), its Philip Morris International (PM) spin-off, and PepsiCo Corp. (PEP)."These tend to go into decline later in the cycle. We think that demand has bottomed out," Dave Weidman, chief executive and chairman of Celanese said in an interview Tuesday. But he was cautious about seeing any improvement for 2010, instead forecasting increases in the next two to three years.
Celanese swung to a small fourth-quarter profit Tuesday and topped analyst expectations. But the consumer specialty segment, what Weidman describes as a " late-cycle business," saw a volume decline because of soft demand for cigarettes and soft-drinks in global recession.
In January, Altria, the biggest U.S. tobacco producer, reported about a 11% to 12% decline in cigarette volumes in the fourth quarter and has a cautious outlook for the following year. "The business environment for 2010 is likely to remain challenging as many consumers continue to be under economic pressure based on high unemployment," Michael Szymanczyk, chairman and chief executive of Altria, said during an earnings conference call Jan. 28. Pepsi and Philip Morris International are scheduled to report quarterly results Thursday.
Celanese has three business segments that manufacture other chemicals used in paints, textiles and medical devices. The company has more than 30 industrial plants in North America, Europe and Asia.
The $4.2 billion company is "aggressively" pursuing several acquisitions that range in size of a few million dollars to just under $500 million in all three of geographic locations, Weidman said. "We like to stay in businesses that are similar to businesses that we have today," Weidman said. Weidman declined to give a timeline for when any of these deals could close.
Its largest segment by revenue, the acetyl intermediates division, had " significant volume recovery and margin expansion" in the fourth quarter. Its revenue climbed 13% as the segment returned to profitability.
"Much of the beat came from very strong results in the company's core acetyl intermediates business from which the company generates over 50% of its revenues," Hassan Ahmed, an analyst with Alembic Global Advisors in New York, wrote in a note to clients.
Celanese posted earnings of $5 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a prior-year loss of $155 million, or $1.09 a share.
Excluding impacts such as income-tax gains and provisions, the latest quarter had a 50-cent profit from continuing operations while the year earlier had a 40- cent loss. Revenue rose 7.9% to $1.39 billion on improved demand.
Weidman expects that in the next year Celanese's earnings per share should increase because the company has closed plants in Europe and Mexico meaning it will have lower taxes and less depreciation to report.Shares of Celanese rose 40 cents, or 1.4%, to $29.97.

Wipro Gets Outsourcing Contract From British American Tobacco

Wipro Technologies, the information-technology-services division of India's Wipro Ltd. (507685.BY), said Wednesday it won a multi-year outsourcing contract from British American Tobacco PLC (BTI) to support the tobacco major's global business operations.
The Indian company will provide application-support services to British American Tobacco across more than 130 countries, Wipro said in a statement. 
It didn't mention any financial terms of the contract.

Exploding Cigarette Earns Hurt Indonesian Rp 5 million

The company that manufactured a cigarette that allegedly exploded in the mouth of a security guard has paid compensation equal to less than Rp 1 million for each of the teeth the man lost.
Andi Susanto, 31, was riding his motorcycle along Jl. Teuku Umar in Cibitung, Bekasi, last Thursday, and smoking a Bentoel Clas Mild — marketed as the ultimate experience of satisfaction and smoothness — exploded in his mouth with devastating consequences. 
The mysterious explosion blew five teeth from his mouth and required numerous stitches. 
His helmet was also found to have cracked. 
Widia, Andi’s sister, confirmed that Bentoel had paid Rp 5 million ($535) in compensation — a figure that would have equated to Rp 1 million per tooth had it not been for the fact that another two teeth were extracted on Monday.
“The cigarette company has provided us with compensation. We have accepted their goodwill to help us,” Widia said.
She said the company had agreed to pay all of Andi’s immediate medical expenses at the Bekasi General Hospital and would also fund the ongoing rehabilitation treatment — presumably to include a new set of teeth. 
“We have settled all the outstanding matters with the cigarette company,” she said, adding that Andi’s condition was steadily improving.
“The doctor says that he can go home, but we have to wait until his condition is much better,” she said. 
Bekasi Police investigators are waiting on the results of laboratory tests, which are expected today, to help shed light on what they admit is a highly unusual case.
Bekasi Police Chief Herry Wibowo said on Sunday that the laboratory would test the remaining fragments of the cigarette as well as Andi’s jacket and helmet. 
Herry said investigators were looking for traces of explosives, including potassium.
He said there were no plans to recall Clas Mild cigarettes. 
Iwan Sulistyo, the marketing chief of the Clas Mild brand, said the company could offer no explanation for what had happened to Andi. 
Iwan confirmed, however, that the company had agreed to provide compensation and would also ensure that Andi’s medical bills were paid in full.
“We are communicating with the police and still waiting on the forensic laboratory tests,” Iwan said. “We do not put any strange materials in the cigarettes so we think that this is a weird case. This is the first time for us.”

Menthol May Be Nicotine's Partner In Addiction

Nicotine is definitely addictive, but scientists have been debating for several decades the effect of menthol in hooking people on tobacco. Some researchers suspect that menthol allows smokers to take deeper drags or puffs on cigarettes, drawing in greater amounts of nicotine and its byproducts.
"It helps the poison go down smoother," says Jonathan Foulds, the director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at the University of Dentistry and Medicine of New Jersey's School of Public Health.
In a cessation program at his university, Foulds found that people who smoked menthol cigarettes seemed to have more difficulty quitting than those who smoked regular cigarettes. 
Nearly 1,700 people were enrolled in the program. They signed up, Foulds says, because they wanted help quitting. Millions of Americans say they've tried to quit smoking, and some groups appear to have a harder time than others, such as low-income, less-educated African-Americans and Hispanics. 
The current cost of smoking, particularly in the northeastern United States, would certainly be enough to make a poor person want to break the habit. In New Jersey, a pack of cigarettes costs $8; in Manhattan, a pack costs $11. 
For many, those prices mean it's time to quit or cut back. But Foulds says it's not quite that simple when the body is addicted to a certain level of nicotine.
Over time, he says, "Your body tries to inhale more smoke per cigarette to get the usual dose of nicotine. With regular cigarettes, it becomes harsh because nicotine and the toxins in the smoke are harsh on your throat."Menthol smokers, it appears, don't have the same problem. Those who smoke menthols say it creates a cooling, soothing sensation.
Menthol is a cooling agent, Foulds says, and that makes it easier to inhale more smoke per cigarette and perhaps get more nicotine.Dr. Kolawole Okuyemi of the University of Minnesota has studied disparities in black and white smokers, and the effect of menthol cigarettes on biochemical markers.
A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that African-Americans who smoke menthol cigarettes inhale a higher volume of carbon monoxide compared to those who smoke non-menthol cigarettes, according to Okuyemi. They also take in more byproducts of nicotine that can be measured in the blood or the saliva.
"If you take a menthol smoker who smokes 10 cigarettes and a non-menthol smoker who smokes 10 cigarettes a day, the carbon monoxide, the nicotine and cotinine [a byproduct of nicotine] will be higher for the menthol smoker." That suggests "there is something about menthol that makes it easier to smoke more intensely," Okuyemi says.
One of the biggest indicators of a person's addiction is how soon they light up after they get up in the morning, Okuyemi says. Studies show that menthol smokers light up sooner than regular smokers – as soon as five minutes after they get out of bed.
Among African-Americans who smoke, the vast majority smoke mentholated cigarettes, and many of these studies compared biochemical markers in black and white smokers. It may have more to do with the fact that African-Americans metabolize nicotine more slowly, says Okuyemi. That would mean that they are more likely to retain nicotine.
Andrew Hyland of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute isn't entirely convinced that menthol aids addiction. Though not linked in any way to Lorillard, which manufactures menthol cigarettes, Hyland's study was cited by one of the company's representatives as evidence that menthol cigarettes are no more addictive than others.
Hyland followed 13,000 smokers for five years. He found that low-income and less-educated people had a harder time quitting, but he found no difference between whites and blacks, or menthol and regular cigarette smokers. He agrees that menthol's role in smoking is not entirely neutral.
"If you look at how deeply people inhale or the puff volumes — how much smoke they bring into their lungs — some studies show that it is easier [to smoke menthol], but other studies show it's not," says Hyland. "To me, that means it is probably not a huge deal, especially relative to the thing that gets people hooked. The menthol is a tool, a marketing tool. Once they are hooked on the product, with the nicotine, that's when they're in trouble."
Historical documents show that the industry did in fact target African-Americans in the late 1950s. At that time, African-Americans were no more likely to smoke menthol than white Americans. Lorillard maintains that a fourth of white Americans who smoke today smoke menthol cigarettes. About 75 percent of African-American smokers use menthol cigarettes now, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 
They start later in life and quit later, like 56-year-old Larry Harrison, who gave up cigarettes after 38 years.
"Fourteen days clean," he says. For those who don't think that sounds like a very long time, he says, "When you've been smoking 38 years, one day is a long time without a cigarette."