HEADLINES

• Giving up smoking can restore everyday memory
• Opinion: "Why plain packaging will not stop youths smoking"
• '7 steps' campaign launched to help protect children from secondhand smoke exposure
• Imperial Tobacco hurt by Spanish price war
• Australia helps fund global anti-smoking fight
• Japan: Raise cigarette tax to cover medical costs
• Ireland: Gangs are making huge profits from cigarette smuggling

• Giving up smoking can restore everyday memory

  According to research from Northumbria University giving up smoking isn't just good for your health; it's also good for your memory.

  Research published in the online edition of Drug and Alcohol Dependence reveals that stopping smoking can restore everyday memory to virtually the same level as non-smokers.

  Dr Tom Heffernan from the Collaboration for Drug and Alcohol Research Group at Northumbria University said: "Given that there are up to 10 million smokers in the UK and as many as 45 million in the United States, it's important to understand the effects smoking has on everyday cognitive function - of which prospective memory is an excellent example."

  He added: "This is the first time that a study has set out to examine whether giving up smoking has an impact on memory.

  Dr Heffernan, together with Dr Terence O' Neill, is now set to research the impact of 'secondhand' smoke on health and everyday memory.

  Source: News Medical, 20 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/oALQmI

• Opinion: "Why plain packaging will not stop youths smoking"

  An opinion piece on plain packaging by Richard White published in the Guardian.

  Australia's health minister Nicola Roxon is aiming for the country to be the first to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes. In what she calls a "courageous" move against the tobacco industry, legislation is expected to come into force on 1 July 2012 that will make all packets a uniform olive green with the name of the brand in small type. The World Medical Association has called on other governments to follow Australia's example.

  Here in the UK, health secretary Andrew Lansley says he wants to look at the idea of introducing plain packaging so that brightly-coloured cigarette packets do not lure youths into smoking.

  The immediate rhetoric in favour of plain packaging is the protection of children: that by having dull, plain packages, minors, and indeed non-smokers, will not be tempted to buy a packet on impulse, having been enticed by the shiny packet. The measure is an extension of the ban on tobacco companies advertising their products.

  No evidence exists, however, to suggest that anyone "impulsively" buys cigarettes, nor is there evidence that the policy would make any difference to smoking rates as no country has yet implemented it.

  We already have measures to stop children smoking. Cigarettes are always, without exception, kept behind the counter so neither child nor adult has any access to buying tobacco without the cashier physically handing it to them.

  As for existing smokers, people still buy alcohol with plain labels so it is unlikely smokers will be deterred by plain packaging. Rather, we may just see an increase in cigarette cases, which would allow minors to be as creative as possible, thus potentially encouraging them to take up the habit.

  Undoubtedly, plain packaging will fail in reducing youth smoking rates because counterfeit cigarettes are far cheaper and the criminals selling them will not require identification proving the buyer to be over 18 – rates might even increase.

  The real danger lies in the smuggling trade. With cigarettes now the most widely smuggled legal product and about 85% of cheap cigarettes sold on London streets being counterfeit, introducing a policy that would only make it easier for criminal outfits to mimic a packet should be cause for grave concern.

  Source: The Guardian, 20 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/pzERvV

• '7 steps' campaign launched to help protect children from secondhand smoke exposure

  A campaign has been launched in the NHS Berkshire West area to help protect children from secondhand tobacco smoke.

  The ‘7 steps’ campaign, which is being carried out across West Berkshire, Reading and Wokingham, aims to inform and assist parents of young children in reducing the amount of secondhand smoke their children are exposed to.

  As part of the campaign, parents and carers are being encouraged to take seven steps outside the home before lighting up a cigarette, while 32 Sure Start children’s centres will be visited over the next two months, when advice and leaflets will be provided for interested parents and carers.

  Director of public health for NHS Berkshire West, Janet Maxwell, said: “Protecting families from second hand smoke will save lives and I am pleased this campaign is being well received and parents are pledging to change habits and take the seven steps to improve their family’s health.”

  Source: Newbury Today, 20 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/p6Tg6Z

• Imperial Tobacco hurt by Spanish price war

  Imperial Tobacco Plc , the world's fourth-largest cigarette group, expects sales to rise just 2 percent in the current year after being hurt by a savage price war in Spain.
  
  Imperial is the market leader in Spain with a near 30 percent share from brands like Fortuna, Ducados and Nobel, but suffered from a market depressed by economic woes and a 2011 ban on smoking in public places which sparked a price war this year.
  
  Analysts say the outlook for 2012 has improved in the Iberian market, Imperial's third most profitable market after Britain and Germany, as all major tobacco players there have recently increased cigarette prices.
  
  Imperial's annual sales rise was in line with expectations and was unlikely to lead to any major changes to earnings forecasts, analysts said, and the group said its performance in the year to Sept. 30 remained in line with its expectations.
  
  The group, which makes over 300 billion cigarettes annually, has seen cigarette volumes declining in the 12-month period by around 2 percent.
  
  Imperial raised its cigarette prices in Spain in July and September, alongside price increases by the world's three biggest players - Philip Morris International , British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco.

  Source: Reuters News, 21 September 2011
  Link: http://reut.rs/pTrNKB

• Australia helps fund global anti-smoking fight

  The Australian government has pledged $700,000 to the World Health Organisation to help other countries reduce smoking rates.

  The money will fund an inter-governmental working group to draw up guidelines on how increased taxes and prices can reduce the harm caused by cigarettes.

  "This funding is designed to help developing countries with their efforts to fight tobacco," Health Minister Nicola Roxon said in a statement.

  "Tobacco is one of the deadliest products in the world and it is in the interest of all nations to act to minimise the harm from tobacco on their population."

  Cancer Council Australia has praised the federal government's contribution to the global anti-smoking effort.

  "Funding guidelines on tobacco tax have great potential to reduce the global tobacco toll," council chief executive Ian Olver said in a statement.

  Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 21 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/oH2o6h

• Japan: Raise cigarette tax to cover medical costs

  According to health minister Yoko Komiyama, tobacco taxes should be raised until the average price for a pack of cigarettes is about ¥700, or 75 percent more than the present level, to cut medical costs.

  The ministry, which is participating in a Tax Commission session, will push for increasing tobacco levies by ¥100 annually for three years, Komiyama said recently.

  Smoking was responsible for at least ¥4.3 trillion in medical costs and economic losses for Japan in 2005, according to a study by Institute for Health Economics and Policy.

  The average price for a pack of 20 cigarettes went up by 33 percent in October last year to ¥400, or about $5.20. That compares with the average price of $10.80 in New York City, when the city raised taxes in July 2010.

  Source: The Japan Times, 21 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/nya3Uf

• Ireland: Gangs are making huge profits from cigarette smuggling

  According to Retailers Against Smuggling, the representative group for Ireland’s tobacco retailers, cigarette smuggling is on the increase.

  Benny Gilsenan, made the claim after Revenue’s Customs officials seized over eight million cigarettes in an organised raid last week. The destination of the cigarettes is believed to have been criminal gangs and their linchpins operating in the Mid West and South of the country. The illegal cigarettes had a retail value of €3.1 million and a loss to the Exchequer of €2.5 million.

  “The size and value of the latest haul shows that cigarette smuggling is the most lucrative criminal activity for organised crime gangs,” said Mr Gilsenan.

  He added, “We are particularly concerned that former drug dealers and dissident republicans are heavily involved in cigarette smuggling. The fact that a commercial vehicle from the North was seized as part of Customs’ operation suggests that there is a strong link to paramilitary groups.”

  Source: Limerick Post, 20 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/olfaN6