ASH Daily News for 19/12/2001

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ASH Daily News
19 December 2001

HEADLINES

Treasury defends stance on smuggling
Cigalettes hit the shelves
64,000 quitters end up winners

FULL TEXT

Treasury defends stance in smuggling

Britain has hit back at the EU after it threatened legal action over allegations that Customs and Excise officials are heavy handed on travellers who buy alcohol and tobacco abroad and bring it back to Britain.

On a recent visit to Britain, Frits Bolkestein, EU commissioner for the internal market, said the action of HM Customs could be in contravention of EU laws on the free movement of goods within the single market, and had indicated that the commission could take the UK to the European Court of Justice over the matter.

But the treasury has defended its stance on challenging travellers coming back from the mainland with excessive amounts of tobacco and alcohol. In a letter to Mr Bolkestein, the financial secretary to the treasury, Paul Boateng, said that Customs’ efforts were aimed solely at tackling smuggling, which last year cost the treasury £4billion in lost revenue.

In the letter, Mr Boateng said: “Millions of honest shoppers cross the Channel each year. They can bring back as much tobacco and alcohol as they like for their own use. But smuggling is something totally different The criminal gangs engaged in smuggling rob our public services of revenue, undermine honest shopkeepers and use the proceeds to fund other forms of organised crime.” The letter apparently also pointed out how criminals disguised themselves as genuine shoppers, using prams and toddlers’ rucksacks to smuggle tobacco and even strapping tobacco to babies’ bodies.

Mr Boateng also invited Bolkestein to visit the Channel ports to see for himself Britain’s fight against smuggling.

A spokesman for Mr Bolkestein said that the Commission would study the UK’s response but added that the commission had met a number of disgruntled people who had complained about heavy handedness from HM Customs.

Source: Financial Times, 19 December 2001


Cigalettes hit the shelves

The Guardian reports that a strange new product called Cigalettes has hit the shelves in the United States. About the size of Smarties, Cigalettes are tablets of compressed tobacco that melt gently in the mouth and deliver a nicotine hit several times the strength of a smoke.

Its makers, Star Scientific claim that the product is a less harmful way of delivering nicotine compared to smoking. Though oral tobacco is nothing new – the Swedes being the heaviest users in Europe – Cigalettes stand out due to the way they are packaged and marketed. Star Scientific have taken a disarmingly honest approach to the ills of tobacco, marking the packaging of Cigalettes with a large warning that reads: “There are no safe tobacco products. Quitting or not starting is your best option.”

The company maintains that it is committed producing less harmful tobacco products and market them in a unique way. Paul Perito, chairman of Star Scientific is quoted as having said that he hoped for a world without smoking.

The candid approach has not won the company many friends in the tobacco industry especially since companies such as Imperial, Gallaher and British American Tobacco all still quibble about the term “addictive” pointing out that smokers can give up if they try hard enough. But Paul Perito remains scornful of his mainstream rivals, saying that, “Any tobacco executive who maintains that nicotine is not addictive is either bereft of his or her senses or is totally ignorant.”

Star Scientific’s stance on tobacco has polarised opinion among critics of the tobacco industry. The firm remains in the centre of the debate whether it is possible for a company to manufacture and sell tobacco in an ethical way.

Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health said “I take them very seriously. The concept they have is a good one: they want to develop less harmful technologies and license them to companies which take them up either due to regulatory pressure or market pressure.”

Others are not so sure. Some campaigners in the US have branded Cigalettes as “candy” saying: “It is a very dangerous gimmick from a company that has proved itself completely devious and cunning in targeting children and deceiving the public.”

But Clive Bates added: “There is quite a large number of people who show a very low chance that they will ever give up. For example 80% of schizophrenics are smokers. There are suggestion that they smoke in order to relieve their symptoms. You have to ask: If they are going to continue to smoke, can they do it in a less harmful way?”

Full Text of Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4322555,00.html
Source: The Guardian, 19 December 2001



64,000 quitters end up winners

Around 64,000 smokers claim they have quit through the national smoking cessation services. The figures released by the Department of Health cover April 2000 to March 2001. At a four week follow up, 49 percent of the 132,500 who originally set a quit date had been successful in kicking their addiction.

Source: Health Service Journal, 13 December 2001



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