Nigeria: WHO hails ban on smoking

The World Health Orgaisation (WHO) representative in Nigeria, Peter Eriki, has commended the FCT administration for the ban on smoking in public places in the capital territory.

He said the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) had been ratified by 35 Countries in Africa.

Eriki said, "I wish to congratulate Nigeria for being one of the countries that have ratified the treaty as it contains evidence-based politicies for reducing tobacco use."

Eriki added that it also described the health impact of tobacco use and reflection on a shared global commitment to action.

"A ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is a powerful tool to protect youths and is one of WHO's strategies to combat tobacco use."

He called on WHO member states to enact laws that would comprehensively ban advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products.

Eriki urged youths in the country to rise against peer group pressure on tobacco use.

Mrs Felicita Olajide, the Chairwoman, Committee on the ban on smoking in public places in the FCT said bill boards had been erected at strategic entrances into the FCT to warn visitors against violating the ban.

According to Olajide, the campaign will also be carried to schools to discourage peer group pressure among youths.

Source: All Africa, 04 June 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/64ej3m

Scotland: 86% of shops selling tobacco to under-18s

It has emerged that more than four out of five Dundee shops visited during an undercover sting have been found selling tobacco to children.

A 15-year-old boy was able to purchase the cigarettes in 86% of premises checked,  the worst results Trading Standards officers in Dundee have ever uncovered.

George Regan, convener of Dundee City Council’s environmental services committee, said, “I am profoundly disappointed with these results, which show a sad ignorance of the new rules."

“The vital message on under-age sales does not seem to have filtered through to shop staff and retailers don’t seem to be taking seriously the damage under-age smoking can do to young people. I urge shopkeepers and staff to take a far more responsible position on the sale of cigarettes to children.”

Retailers have been warned if they persist in selling tobacco to under- 18s their details will be passed to the Procurator Fiscal.

ASH Scotland Chief Executive Sheila Duffy said, "Effective enforcement of tobacco sales was crucial if under-age smoking was to be tackled seriously. It is crucial that the law is upheld and ASH Scotland agree with BMA Scotland that a positive tobacco licensing scheme should be introduced so that shopkeepers who sell cigarettes to our children can be effectively penalised."

“A licensing scheme could be used as an enforcement tool so that retailers who sell cigarettes to anyone under age would not only face fines, but could also have their licence suspended and ultimately revoked for repeated violation.

“This would be cheaper and quicker than the current costly court system and be an active deterrent when it comes to retailers who consistently sell to those under age.”

Source: The Evening Telegraph, 04 June 2008  
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6a74ub

New York: Cigarette Taxes Increase By $1.25 a Pack

New York City has raised cigarette tax to $4.25 a pack, the highest in America. The average price of a pack of cigarettes is estimated to increase to $8 in New York City and $6 across the rest of the state.

The state health commissioner, Dr. Richard Daines, joined the city's health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Frieden, at the Children's Museum of Manhattan to announce advertising campaigns urging New Yorkers to use the tax increase as grounds to quit smoking.

They said they believe the increased tax will be most effective in limiting the sale of cigarettes to children. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has said the new tax would raise about $265 million in new state revenue this year.

Source: The New York Sun, 04 June 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/69umo9

Japan: Mother lets underage son use Taspo card to buy cigarettes

A Japanese woman who allegedly lent her 15-year-old son one of Japan's new "smart cards," which are intended to prevent minors from buying cigarettes from vending machines, may face charges.

The incident comes following attempts to restrict youth access to vending machines which now require buyers, who must be 20 or older, to use the cards to buy cigarettes from machines.

Each card — called a taspo, or tobacco passport — is embedded with the user's age on a Mifare chip, a smart card technology from Netherlands-based NXP Semiconductors that is popular around the world.

Some 4.7 million taspos have been issued, according to the industry group the Tobacco Institute of Japan. But this is the first time police are seeking charges in a taspo card violation.

Smokers must apply for the cards, which are free, and some people hope the process will get smokers to quit.

Japan's smoking population, now estimated at 26 million, has dropped every year for nine years. But Japanese males are still among the heaviest smokers in the world, at 53 percent, compared to 26 percent of American males.

Fukuoka Prefecture police in southwestern Japan said in a statement that "The boy's mother, who is 41, and whose name was not disclosed because she has not been charged, lent him her taspo card so he could buy cigarettes to smoke at home."  The woman faces a maximum penalty of $96. 

Source: The Associated Press, 05 June 2008  
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5ebdl4

USA: Opposition to Menthol Cigarettes Grows

Seven former federal health secretaries from Democratic and Republican administrations, faxed a letter to members of the Senate and House of Representatives demanding that menthol-flavoured cigarettes be banned just like various other cigarette flavourings the legislation would outlaw.

The letter said an estimated 80 percent of African-American teenage smokers pick menthol brands.

The letter reflects a growing controversy over the bill’s current exemption of menthol from a list of banned flavourings — an exemption some lawmakers said was intended to garner support from Philip Morris. The maker of Marlboro Menthol, the second-leading menthol brand after Lorillard’s Newport, Philip Morris has endorsed the bill, although most other cigarette companies oppose it.

Some antismoking advocates have said they see the menthol exemption as a necessary compromise toward getting the legislation passed, and they have said that the bill as currently drafted would give the F.D.A. the authority to limit or eliminate additives, including menthol, if they are proved to be harmful.

The legislation would ban cigarettes flavoured with strawberry, chocolate and a number of other fruit, candy and spice flavourings. Those flavorings have occasionally been added to cigarettes in what critics say are a lure to children. But the bill specifically protects menthol from the ban, even though menthol is the most widely used flavouring.

The bill has cleared key committees in both the Senate and the House but it is not yet scheduled for floor votes.

Responding to the letter from the former secretaries, the bill’s House sponsor, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, said that he believes an outright ban on menthol is not the best way to address it.

“I’m determined to see tobacco legislation pass Congress that protects all our children,” Mr. Waxman said. “Leading public health experts have told us that giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to ban menthol is the best way to balance both public health considerations with the reality that many adults only smoke menthol cigarettes. I’ll continue our ongoing review to make sure we are dealing with this issue in the most effective way possible."

The bill’s treatment of menthol “caves to the financial interests of tobacco companies and discriminates against African-Americans — the segment of our population at greatest risk for the killing and crippling smoking-related diseases,” the letter from the former secretaries said.

Mr. Califano, who served as health secretary under President Jimmy Carter, said the idea to send the letter began when Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, the health secretary during the administration of President George H. W. Bush, called him to complain about the bill’s treatment of menthol

Other former health secretary's who signed the letter were Tommy G. Thompson, from the Bush Administration; Donna E. Shalala, from the Clinton administration; Richard S. Schweicker and Dr. Otis R. Bowen, from the Reagan administration; and F. David Matthews from the Ford administration.

Source: The New York Times, 05 June 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/56lxhj