Economist debunks tobacco firms claim

This came as the Senate Ways and Means Committee holds deliberations on Senate bills (SB) 3249 and 2764 authored by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago and SBs 2764 and 2763 by Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson. Also included is the House Bill 5727, which proposes two tiers for tobacco excise taxes and three for alcohol while removing the 1996 price classification freeze. "There is no relationship between price and illicit trade," Ms. Monsod said in a forum orgnized by the advocacy alliance Action for Economic Reforms.

She based this on 2012 data by the World Health Organization (WHO) and on another study this year by the Japan Tobacco International (JTI). "Smuggling is an enforcement issue," she added, saying that it is the function of law enforcement to curb smuggling, not taxes. Ms. Monsod also said that the sin tax is only just, despite the claim by tobacco companies that the tax is unfair for the poor. "It is precisely [why] we want the poor to stop [smoking because] they can’t afford medication," she said.

On the claim that farmers and retailers will lose livelihood, Ms. Monsod questioned the validity of the information sourced from the Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI) and the JTI. The economist also said that the government will not lose money even if the sin tax is increased, citing steady demand from addicted smokers. "People addicted will still buy cigarettes. Those who cannot afford will not buy [them]," she said.

"All the studies, without question, show that because of the inelasticity of demand, when you raise the price, total revenue will go up because there are addicted consumers. It’s as simple as that." "Revenues are going to increase. In no country in the world with even greater excise tax has there been revenue decrease," she added. Rejecting tobacco companies’ claim that the economy benefits from the tobacco industry, the economist said that the annual gross revenue from cigarette sales worth P103.8 billion does not offset the health care costs, foregone income due to sick leaves and premature deaths totalling P188.8 billion.

Second-hand smoke tied to memory problems: study

Smokers and people who regularly breathe others' cigarette fumes are worse at remembering things on their to-do lists than are people with no tobacco exposure, a small study says. Problems with so-called prospective memory may not only lead to embarrassment if a person forgets to meet with their friends, British researchers write in the journal Addiction. It can also have more-serious consequences such as forgetting to take your medication.

The study doesn't prove that smoke damages memory, but is nonetheless a cause for concern, the researchers say. "This research extends what is already known about the effects of smoking and second-hand smoke, suggesting there is not only health effects from it, but cognitive consequences too," said Tom Heffernan, the study's lead author from Northumbria University at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Heffernan and his colleague recruited 27 current smokers, 24 people who reported regular exposure to second-hand smoke and 28 people who said they were never exposed to smoke, whether first- or secondhand.

All were between 18 years old and 30 years old. The researchers had each person complete the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test, which included time-based tasks, such as returning a key to the researchers when seven minutes were left on the clock, and event-based tasks such as handing over the key when a certain word was said. Each person received points for the tasks they completed depending on how many prompts the researchers had to give them. Total scores ranged from zero to 18 points for each test, with higher scores meaning better memory.

For the time-based activities, there was a statistically reliable difference between the scores of each group. People without any exposure to tobacco smoke scored 16.3 points on average, while those who breathed second-hand smoke scored 13.7 points and smokers scored 11.6 points. For event-based activities, the smoke-free students again did better than smokers, but only marginally better than those exposed regularly to second-hand smoke.

Exactly what the findings mean in real life, and what's responsible for them, is unclear. And while the study suggests there is a link between smoking and memory problems, Heffernan warns that these are results from just one study. "I think we need to confirm these findings using other methods," he told Reuters Health.

Govt aims to stub out tobacco branding

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South Africa is aiming to follow Australia's lead and compel tobacco companies to use plain packaging for their tobacco products, MPs heard on Wednesday. "We will... be testing plain packaging... (which) means there will be no branding on tobacco products," health department director for health promotion Vimla Moodley said. Briefing members of Parliament's health portfolio committee on proposed new smoking regulations, she said the department was also testing the use of "pictorials" on tobacco packaging.

These were pictures of the "health consequences" of smoking. "Up to now, the regulations allowed for text messages (showing) health warnings, for example 'tobacco is harmful to your health'. "But in terms of international guidelines... we need to introduce pictorials, which are pictures of health consequences on tobacco products." The department was currently testing pictorials, and the health messages that went with them, in Gauteng and the Western Cape. Reports on these would be completed by December this year.

On the introduction of laws compelling tobacco manufacturers to use plain, non-branded packaging, Moodley noted that Australia had recently done this. "We are keen to test this and if there is... support for it, we will go this route," she said. Australia's plain-packaging laws were fiercely opposed by tobacco companies, but the manufacturers received a set-back last month when the country's highest court endorsed the new regulations, which are set to take effect on December 1 this year. Speaking after the briefing, Moodley said the new South African regulations - which are still subject to review - could be ready by as early as next year.

The proposed regulations also seek to ban smoking in public places and "certain outdoor places". Moodley told the committee that current regulations allow 25% of the floor space in a restaurant or an indoor facility be designated a smoking area. "With this set of regulations... indoor public spaces will now be 100% smoke free... Those places will no longer have a space for indoor public tobacco use."

Other areas the department was seeking to make 100% smoke free included "entrances to public spaces, outdoor eating and drinking areas, health facilities, schools, child-care facilities, covered walkways and in stadiums", she said. According to a document tabled at the briefing, so-called "smoking prevalence" in South Africa is declining, though about 44 400 deaths in the country each year are "related directly to tobacco".

Imperial Tobacco anticipates regionally varied results

Imperial Tobacco Group has said that the overall financial position and operational performance of the group in the year ended September 30th has been in line with its expectations. Tobacco net revenues are expected to be up by around four per cent with particularly good performances in its Eastern Europe, Africa & Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions.

However, stick equivalent volumes are expected to decline by up to three per cent, the majority of which is due to ongoing market weakness in Ukraine and Poland and compliance with international trade sanctions against Syria. In a statement the firm said: "We are delivering strong gains from our key strategic brands and improving our revenue momentum through our focus on driving quality growth across our total tobacco portfolio.

"We are making excellent progress with our key strategic brands Davidoff, Gauloises Blondes, West and JPS and expect this to be reflected in further strong volume and revenue gains from these brands which continue to represent an increasing proportion of our volumes." Analysts at Credit Suisse reacted by reiterating their "outperform" view on the company´s shares.

They added the followin: "This means that Imperial should deliver 4% organic tobacco sales growth in FY12, which we see as a resilient performance considering the difficult EU industry volume backdrop this year (…) On the positive side, Imperial's strategic brands continue to enjoy strong momentum in non-EU markets, trends in Germany remain favourable and the roll-out of innovation (glidetec, Davidoff Id, crushballs) should continue supporting top line growth in coming quarters."

Tobacco farmers say high taxes endanger livelihood

The Philippine Tobacco Growers Association said that high tobacco taxes will endanger their livelihood contrary to government claims that they will benefit from them. The 20,000 members of the group say that the fact that the government is encouraging them to plant other crops means it is not true there will be enough buyers for their products. PTGA president Saturnino Distor said they do not believe that alternative crop programs and funding have been prepared for them. We do not agree that there will be buyers for our harvest.

 The government knows that our only livelihood will be affected which is why they are pushing us to plant other crops,” Distor stressed. They added that based on their experience, government support promised them are not enough and often come late. Distor said that tobacco is a cash crop that provides them good income that supports their family’s needs and their children’s education. He explained they have tried planting other crops like corn, but this did not give them the same income they get from tobacco. He reiterated that the tax bill of the DOF and the Department of Health (DOH) will wipe out a large percent of farmers’ incomes as well as threaten the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of factory workers dependent on the industry.

 The PTGA appealed to the Senate to remove these anti-farmer and anti-worker provisions in the excise tax bill on tobacco and alcohol products approved by the House of Representatives last month. The PTGA president explained that their harvest are bought by big manufacturers as well as small cigarette makers. And that a considerable volume of their harvest are bought for the manufacture of low-priced brands, which under the amended House Bill 5727 threatens to put these out of the market.

The very high tax of as much as 708 percent on low-priced cigarette brands, which small manufacturers make, will price these products out of the market leaving the farmers with no market to sell a significant volume of their annual production, Distor noted. “This is a big dent on our income. How can we recoup our production and operational costs in planting tobacco if we can not sell all our produce?” he asked. “We appeal to the Senate to correct the grossly unfair and inequitable provisions in the House tax bill, which threatens the survival not only of tobacco farmers, but of the millions of others dependent on the tobacco industry.”

County program addresses alcohol, tobacco use during pregnancy

More than 2,000 children are born every year in Ventura County after exposure to alcohol, tobacco or illegal substances during pregnancy. Since 2003, Ventura County Public Health has partnered with Ventura County prenatal care providers to use the 4Ps Plus Screening Tool, a nationally recognized program that helps identify women at risk for using alcohol, tobacco and illegal substances during pregnancy.

Over the past nine years, more than 20,000 pregnant women have been screened. In 2011, 19.3 percent of those screened admitted to using alcohol, tobacco or an illegal drug during the month before they knew they were pregnant. According to the Center for Disease Control, exposure to alcohol during pregnancy is the leading cause of preventable birth defects today. As many as 1 in 100 Americans may be living with the effects of maternal drinking in pregnancy, known collectively as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Alcohol use during pregnancy crosses all socioeconomic boundaries, and it is estimated that the lifetime cost to the taxpayers for individuals with FASDs is almost $2 million per person. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are entirely preventable by abstaining from alcohol and drugs during conception and pregnancy.

Recto wants lower rates for tobacco?

Advocates of the sin tax bill expect the measure to be diluted further when the Senate comes out with its committee report on the bill in October. Health Secretary Enrique Ona and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima met with Senate ways and means committee chair Ralph Recto on September 18 in a bid to persuade him about the benefits of the bill, a source, who belongs to an organization working with the Finance and Health departments in pushing for the bill, told Rappler.

But Recto, who earlier expressed misgivings about the “high” taxes that will be imposed especially on tobacco, seemed to be unconvinced. Recto reportedly wants a 3-tier excise tax system for cigarettes, diluting the 2-tier provided in the bill passed by the House of Representatives in June. Apart from this, Recto also reportedly wants lower rates imposed on the tiers.

The tiers – for low-priced, medium-priced and high-priced cigarettes – will have tax rates of P3.50, P8.50 and P12.50, said the source. The rates are close to what were provided in the bill Representative Victor Ortega of the tobacco-growing province La Union earlier filed in the House. There is no word, however, on the tax structure for alcohol products. Authored by Cavite Rep Jun Abaya, approved House Bill 5727 seeks to raise at least P31 billion additional revenues from a 2-tier tax system for tobacco (with tax rates of P22 and P30) and 2 and 3 tiers for fermented liquor and distilled spirits.

The bill was a watered-down version of the one originally filed by Abaya that sought to raise P60 billion. In the Senate, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago filed bills, which carry the same provisions as the original Abaya bill in the House. The additional revenues from the sin tax measure will be used to fund the Aquino government's universal health care program and assist tobacco farmers in shifting to viable, alternative crops. The Senate held Thursday, September 20, its fourth and possibly, last public hearing on the measure.

Bland packaging a way to cut the appeal of cigarettes

We may not judge a book by its cover, but we appear to judge a cigarette by its packaging, an insight that could help cut smoking rates. According to a new study of 640 young women in Brazil, placing cigarettes in plain packages may be a way to cut down on their appeal.

 The study, published in BMC Public Health, asked women to compare the appeal of brand cigarettes with those placed in generic packaging. In one part of the study, the women were asked to choose whether they would like to be given the gift of a brand pack of cigarettes or a pack in plain packaging. Three times more chose the branded pack.

 "The women in this study rated branded packs as more appealing, more stylish and sophisticated than the plain packs," said David Hammond, a University of Waterloo researcher and the study's leader. "They also thought that cigarettes in branded packs would be better tasting and smoother. Removal of all description from the packs, leaving only the brand, further reduced their appeal." Australia recently passed a law making plain packaging mandatory for cigarettes.

Anti-smoking campaign hopes gift cards do the trick

The federal health care overhaul is a complex structure woven through with carrots and sticks, incentives and disincentives. Physicians get payments to implement sleek new electronic health records systems. Hospitals get penalized financially if too many patients require readmittance. Now, in California, an Affordable Care Act grant is offering select Medi-Cal enrollees $20 retail gift cards in a leading-edge, anti-smoking trial. All they must do is call the California Smokers' Helpline and complete the sign-up protocol to participate in telephone counseling sessions.

Skeptics may dub it dialing for dollars. But experts say the program may show monetary incentives to be an important tool in improving health and reducing the growth of health care costs in the long run. An initial pilot project already finished in Sacramento showed positive results, doubling the number of calls to the Smokers' Helpline, said Elisa Tong, an associate professor at UC Davis Medical Center and a member of the outreach team for the project. Sacramento was a natural place to begin because it has an "embarrassingly high" number of Medi-Cal enrollees with health complications who smoke, Tong said. Medi-Cal is California's version of the federal Medicaid program for people with low incomes or who have certain disabilities.

Compared with the statewide average of about 12 percent, 35 percent of at-risk Medi-Cal consumers in Sacramento are smokers. California's Department of Health Care Services recently expanded the pilot project statewide, to further test the effectiveness of offering financial incentives. Researchers involved in the project will identify Medi-Cal patients with chronic conditions and invite them to take part. Within that group, some will be selected in a randomized, controlled trial to receive certificates of completion that can be traded for free nicotine patches. Another slice of the larger group will be eligible to receive $10 retail gift cards for each relapse-prevention call they complete to the hotline. Also being tested is another tier of incentives for those who tried but were unable to quit smoking.

This would allow a selected number of beneficiaries to receive up to $40 to re-enroll. Broadly speaking, the California project is but one of many layers of carrots and sticks nestled in the Affordable Care Act with the aim of re-engineering the nation's health care system into one of better outcomes, fewer mistakes and lower costs. California received a federal grant of $10 million to pay for the program, which will target 75,000 Medi-Cal members over five years of incentives and study. The state was deemed well-positioned for the project because the California Smokers' Helpline has been up and running for 20 years at the University of California, San Diego. Controls and tracking methods are in place to prevent fraud, Tong said, and the trained hotline counselors are able to weed out profiteers who may be attracted to the program by the $20 gift cards.

The gift cards are good at major retailers such as Walmart, Target and Safeway, said Norman Williams, deputy director for public affairs at the state Department of Health Care Services. Williams said it makes sense to seek out ailing Medi-Cal members who smoke to try to change their behavior. "If you have a chronic disease, we are going to pay especially close attention to you," Williams said, noting that treating tobacco-related disease absorbs 11 percent, or $15 billion, of Medi-Cal's budget. Tong hopes the hotline program will take hold in California's rural areas, which have smoking rates among Medi-Cal enrollees as high as 45 percent.

"It's long overdue in rural California," she said. "We need to address this quickly." A 2004 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine determined that economic incentives to change consumers' preventive health behaviors worked 73 percent of the time. "Economic incentives are effective in the short run for simple preventive care, and distinct, well-defined behavioral goals," according to the abstract of the study. "Small incentives can produce finite changes, but it is not clear what size of incentive is needed to yield a major sustained effect." Tong said California researchers hope to pull together a comprehensive picture of what combination of financial incentives are most effective at changing behavior. Already, she said, the project is "helping to generate a lot of discussion about how this program can become a model for the nation."

Steuben ponders smoking ban on county properties

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Tobacco users may need another place to light up or chew, with Steuben County legislators considering a tobacco ban on all county property. The county Legislature’s Human Services, Health and Education Committee unanimously adopted a draft law prohibiting the use of tobacco on county-owned or leased property. The prohibition would include county offices located in Corning and Hornell. Deputy County Administrator Jack Wheeler said complaints from those entering county buildings and lobbying from county Public Health officials led the committee to approve Wednesday the draft law banning tobacco.

Several years ago, the county decided to restrict smoking to within 50 feet of county office entrances. However, tobacco users have tended to encroach on the 50-foot perimeter since then, Wheeler said. In some areas – such as the small courtyard between the main county building and the county Clerk’s office – a strict application of the 50-foot application prevents any smoking, he said. Banning smoking has gatherered steam in recent years, with municipalities restricting smoking in certain areas.

Chemung County does not have a ban, but the City of Elmira – the site of county offices – keeps tobacco users 25 feet away from building entrances, according to www.tobaccofreenys.org.. Allegany County also restricts smoking to 25 feet of entrances. In Yates County, county workers are not allowed to smoke at county building entrances, the Web site reported. However, Ontario, Schuyler and Seneca counties recently adopted outright bans on county owned or leased properties, according to the organization. Locally, the tobacco-free initiative is endorsed by the Southern Tier Tobacco Awareness Community Partnership, which has teamed up 10 years ago with the American Lung Association, American Heart Association, and the Chemung, Schuyler, and Steuben health departments to work towards tobacco-use prevention and cessation.

Since then, the American Cancer Society and a variety of youth, school, civic organizations, and hospitals to join in, and allowed for increased grant funds, according to the group. The measure will be presented to the Legislature when it meets Sept. 24. If approved, the draft would be up for final adoption after a public hearing at the regular board meeting in October. The real question is whether the ban is enforceable, Wheeler said. “It’s going to be hard for our staff to keep an eye on things,” Wheeler said. “But if we’re going to hold our employees to a standard, it’s only fair the public be held to the same standard, too.”

Smoking ban for city owned vehicles

Municipal workers in Houston, Miss., can smoke, just not in city-owned vehicles. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reports that the new city policy - which applies to cigarettes, cigars and pipes as well as chewing tobacco - was adopted by the board of aldermen in August.

Employees who violate the ban will be reprimanded and those who violate it three times can be terminated, according to the policy. The city has had a "no-smoking" policy in city buildings - for the public and employees - for several years. Officials say the policy is for public health reasons, safety reasons and a desire by the city to endorse a healthy lifestyle in the community.

Hannon Announces New Law Banning E-Cigarettes from Minors

Electronic cigarettes (also known as “e-cigarettes”) are battery operated devices that vaporize cartridges filled with nicotine, flavor and other chemicals, and are currently marketed as a smoking-cessation produce or as a "healthier alternative" to traditional smoking products. “Almost all Americans who use tobacco products become addicted to the nicotine contained in those products before they turn 18,” said Senator Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau). .

“While electronic cigarettes are often used to help smokers to quit, there is also a very real danger that their use by minors can cause the very addiction they are designed to break.” Despite their widespread use, there are little data available detailing the risks associated with smoking e-cigarettes, although the FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) has found that e-cigarettes may be dangerous to users because they contain carcinogens and other chemicals, and the FDA does not currently regulate their use. This law, which becomes effective on January 1, 2013, bans the sale and distribution of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18.

Boulder's medical marijuana industry thins in face of strict city regulation

When Boulder first established a specific license to help regulate medical marijuana businesses in 2010, more than 200 pot-related companies -- dispensaries, grow operations and infused-product manufacturers -- already were up and running throughout the city, remitting sales and use taxes under generic business licenses. In November of that year, city officials received applications for the new medical marijuana licenses from 119 businesses, most of which already were open.

Yet today, nearly two years later, Boulder's marijuana industry has thinned significantly, with just 26 dispensaries and 32 grow operations still operating in the city. A strict approach to background checks weeded out many of those initial applicants, forcing them to shutter or abandon plans to open. But closures continue in Boulder; as recently as March, there were 32 active wellness center licenses in the city.

Some medical marijuana business owners say Boulder's strict approach to regulation has pushed even "good" operators out of the trade, and they wonder whether the intent of regulation was to winnow the number of businesses that opened during the green rush of 2009 and 2010. "It's like one strike and you're done," said Diane Czarkowski, one of the founders of Boulder Kind Care, the first Boulder dispensary to receive a business license from the city. Tired of dealing with regulations, Czarkowski -- who describes herself as "more of a vision person" -- sold her shares and got out of the pot business in March, though she still works as a consultant and advocate. Boulder Kind Care does not appear on a current list of licensed dispensaries provided by the city, and the center's outgoing phone message says it is "temporarily closed due to lack of product."

Boulder officials say their goal always has been a well-regulated medical marijuana industry, not necessarily fewer dispensaries. "I have never heard that or gotten the impression that that's what council wanted," Senior Assistant City Attorney Kathy Haddock said of limiting the number of dispensaries. "I do think they want businesses that follow the rules and that's important." Boulder is in the process of revising its medical marijuana ordinances in preparation for November's expiration of a moratorium on new business licenses.

The city is taking public comment on the issue until Sept. 21, and, as of Friday, officials had received more than 400 responses. At a meeting Friday with marijuana business owners, many pushed back against possible restrictions on advertising (could a T-shirt be considered advertising?) and labeling requirements (labs that purport to test the THC content of marijuana can return widely differing results, they noted). Afterward, Czarkowski, who hasn't ruled out getting back into the business, said she felt like Boulder is being more open to business concerns. "I left there feeling so much better about the attitude," she said. "I felt like we had a voice."

Salisbury cigar store construction in doubt

It’s unclear whether plans will go up in smoke to open a cigar shop on the city’s south side now that the owner, ordered in the spring to stop renovations, has a green light to proceed with upgrades at the retail space in the Clairmont Shopping Center. The owner of the proposed Johns Cigars hung a shingle and began renovations on the estimated 1,500 square-foot retail space next to Chipotle Mexican Grill.

The problem was construction of the space was started without a required building permit from the City of Salisbury, said William Holland, director of the City of Salisbury’s Department of Building, Permitting and Inspections. What’s more, the owner, whom management at the shopping owner would not identify, was forced to rip out wooden building materials installed without permission because they failed to meet fire code requirements at the location, Holland said. “They started construction without a permit, and used combustible materials in a non-combustible structure,” Holland said. “We put a stop work order out, and they had to tear out the wood.”

The owner of the cigar shop submitted development plans, but the city delayed the issuance of a building permit to allow time to complete construction at the nearby CVS pharmacy at the southern end of the Clairmont center, Holland said. Pharmacy construction involved a temporary loss of a portion of a fire corridor at the rear of the shopping center to accommodate a drive-thru window. The building department wanted the infrastructure in place and the area cleared before a permit was issued for cigar shop renovations, Holland said. CVS opened last month, and the city is positioned to resume the permitting process for the cigar shop. But Holland hasn’t heard from the cigar shop owner since the stop-work order was issued in the spring.

“The plan is OK, but they have no permit,” he said. “They can come in, but we haven’t had communications with them. They might have gone somewhere else.” Blair Rinnier, a principal at Rinnier Development Corp., which owns the shopping center, said this week that the cigar shop is “still a go,” but did not elaborate. Rinnier did not name the prospective tenant, but said it was a local person. The retail space is the only vacancy at Clairmont, said Rinnier.

“We’re excited to have the CVS, and it is nice to have Clairmont extended to College Avenue,” he said, referring to an expansion that now extends the shopping center to the intersection of South Salisbury Boulevard and College Avenue. Holland said retail centers are trending toward construction with non-combustible materials, like steel and concrete. Clairmont Shopping Center was built in the 1960s, and upgrades must follow the requirement. “That’s getting to be the way to go, using non-combustible materials for safety,” he said.