Tobacco.org

• WHO left holding breath for tobacco control law 

Cambodia will not meet a WHO deadline for all cigarette packages sold in the Kingdom to bear graphic health warnings by early 2009 because a law on tobacco control has not yet been passed, says Sung Vinn Tak, head of the tobacco health unit at the National Center for Health Promotion.

The country ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control requiring health warning messages and graphics to appear on cigarette packages in November 2005.

"To try to meet the deadline, we will soon issue a government directive," Sung Vinn Tak said. "We have created the directive to ask all cigarettes companies to comply even though we don't have a law in place yet."

Jump to full article »

Cambodia urged to outlaw tobacco ads 

A Cambodian NGO has been honoured by the World Health Organisation for its work on tobacco control. But the WHO also wants Cambodia to honour an obligation to outlaw cigarette ads by 2010.

Presenter: Chhieng Yuth

Jump to full article »

• Calls for Cambodia to draft anti-tobacco laws 

An alliance of non-government organisations called the Cambodia Movement for Health are urging the parliament to speed up passage of draft anti-tobacco legislation.

The Mekong Times reports the group is also stressing that stronger tobacco laws won't harm the economy.

Jump to full article »

• Lawsuit Limits, General Re, Peregrine in Court News (Update1) 

Japan Tobacco Inc.'s Canadian unit and a former tobacco executive will conclude a hearing tomorrow urging a judge to overturn an order requiring them to stand trial. The company is facing charges it helped defraud the Canadian government of about C$1 billion ($1 billion) in the 1990s by avoiding taxes through cigarette-smuggling operations into the U.S.

The Canadian government has asked Ontario Superior Court Judge Ian Nordheimer at the same hearing to overturn the part of the May 30 ruling and order six other tobacco executives to stand trial.

The case is Regina v. JTI-MacDonald Inc., Ontario Provincial Court (Toronto).

Jump to full article »

General Cigar Acquires Havana Honeys Premium Cigar Business 

General Cigar announces today that it has acquired certain assets of Havana Honeys Holdings LLC, a privately-held company that manufactures and markets flavored cigars under the Havana Honeys® brand. Included among the acquired assets are the Havana Honeys trademark as well as inventory and related assets to support the premium cigar segment of Havana Honeys. Terms of the purchase have not been disclosed.

Jump to full article »

Illegal cigarette destroyed in Mekong Delta 

More than 71,000 packets of smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes were destroyed Monday in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, the local market management department reports.

With the bust, the total of illegal cigarettes seized this year comes to four million packets nationwide.

Most of the illicit products are under trade name Hero and Jet, smuggled mainly from the neighboring country Cambodia.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco smuggling in 2006 cost nations $40 billion 

The illicit trade in tobacco last year cost governments $40 billion in lost tax revenues and amounted to 10.7 percent of the world trade in cigarettes, experts told a global health conference here Monday.

'Smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes are sold at lower prices than legal products, contributing to higher consumption and greater rates of smoking-related illness and death,' said Luk Joossens, senior policy advisor of the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), in his opening address to a global conference on tobacco-related issues.

'The illicit tobacco trade also deprives governments of billions of dollars of tax revenue reducing funding available for public health and other programmes,' said Joossens.

Jump to full article »

• Tobacco control policy to receive enormous support in Cambodia 

A recent survey by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) showed that a tobacco control policy will receive enormous support in Cambodia, local media said on Wednesday.

Over 90 percent interviewers supported the government's adoption of a law on tobacco control, according to the survey of a sample of 144 staff members from the ministries of Education, Youth and Sport, Women's Affairs, and Defense across the country.

It also found that more than 96 percent of the respondents wanted a ban on cigarette advertising, reported Cambodian daily newspaper the Koh Santepheap.

The survey aimed to encourage the government to push for an immediate adoption of such a law, reported another Cambodian daily newspaper the Kampuchea Thmey.

Jump to full article »

• Over 70,000 Cambodians die of smoking annually 

Cambodia loses 38 million U.S. dollars and over 70,000 lives each year due to cigarette smoking, according to a recent survey jointly conducted by Ministry of Health and World Health Organization.

From 1996 to 2006, 82 percent of rural men, 62 percent of urban dwellers, and 82 percent of youth nationwide were cigarette smokers, said the survey.

Meanwhile, 54 percent of men and seven percent of women in Cambodia were cigarette smokers, it added.

"The danger of cigarette smoking is not as cruel as that of rampant disease like cholera, but it goes into our body slowly, destroys our health and finally leads to death," Lim Thai Pheang, president of the Institute of Public Health of Cambodia, was quoted by local media as saying.

Jump to full article »

• Panel: Smoking Ban Hurts Casino Revenue  

Smoking bans are snuffing out casino revenue, but more marketing and investment can lure customers back, a panel of experts told a gambling conference.

Since the Canadian province of Ontario imposed a smoking ban in public places in May, casinos along the border with the United States have suffered a revenue drop of 10 percent to more than 20 percent, said Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. vice president Karl Gagesch.

"Short-term pain," Gagesch told the conference Tuesday. "Long term, we think we're going to be OK."

The largest impact has been at Casino Windsor, which laid off more than 300 employees over the summer as American smokers stayed in Michigan and New York to gamble, he said. Visitation was also hurt by a strong Canadian dollar and tougher border security, he said. . . .

A similar smoking ban at three racinos, or race tracks that also offer slot machines, in Delaware also had a negative impact, with slot machine revenue down 10 percent to 19 percent since the ban was imposed in 2002, said Richard Thalheimer, an economist and president Thalheimer Research Associates.

Slot revenue has since rebounded, he noted, mainly because of the introduction of more slot machines.

Karen Blumenfeld, a member of the New Jersey Group Against Smoking Pollution (GASP), heralded the panel's openness to adapting to a wave of anti-smoking legislation sweeping the country.

"It's not the gloom and doom," she said. "I'm very relieved that the industry is now embracing these changes."

Jump to full article »

Anti-smoking ads blow by auditor, irk Tories 

The Dalton McGuinty Liberals have channelled millions of taxpayer dollars into the Heart and Stroke Foundation's media campaigns which endorse the government's own smoking law.

The $3.17-million "Smoke-Free Ontario" campaigns were completely financed by provincial taxpayers, but were exempted from Liberal legislation requiring government advertising be vetted by the provincial auditor to avoid partisan messaging.

The ads -- which featured the tagline, "A Smoke-Free Ontario. It's about health. It's about time." -- ran throughout the period when the Liberal government's Smoke-Free Ontario Act was coming into effect this spring.

Conservative Leader John Tory said the Liberal government was clearly searching for a "back door" to get around its own ban on partisan government advertising.

Jump to full article »

• Chewing tobacco in noodles sickens 30  

Thirty Cambodians suffered food poisoning after eating homemade noodles contaminated with chewing tobacco that had dropped into the batter from the cook's mouth, police said Monday.

The victims, mostly children, began vomiting after eating noodle soup for breakfast Friday in a village in Banteay Meanchey province . . .

Sieng Sang, an avid tobacco chewer like many poor Cambodian women, said she had not realized a wad had dropped into the flour as she was talking.

Police gave her a lesson in hygiene and told her to be more careful when opening her mouth while cooking, Yort Ray said.

Jump to full article »

Tobacco blamed for noodle illness 

THIRTY Cambodians suffered food poisoning after eating homemade noodles contaminated with chewing tobacco that had dropped into the batter from the cook's mouth.

Jump to full article »

Provinces could cash in on tobacco ruling 

Tobacco companies are in for a huge fight.

The B.C. government has won the right to sue tobacco firms to help pay for health care costs related to smoking.

A victory for Canada's health minister.

A B.C. politician before going to Ottawa, Ujjal Dosanjh helped draft the legislation 8 years ago.

"This is a product that in accordance with its instructions will kill," says Dosanjh.

Jump to full article »

Bell Centre to go smoke free 

Montreal's Bell Centre goes smoke free Sunday. The policy will apply for all events, starting tomorrow, when the Canadiens play their first exhibition game against the Atlanta Thrashers. The only place to smoke will be OUTSIDE, near La Gauchetiere, Lucien L'Allier and Windsor Court entrances. All indoor smoking areas will be closed, this in accordance with the Quebec government's upcoming implementation of new regulations on the usage of tobacco in the workplace and public areas.

Jump to full article »