Puff, puff, puff, nicotine rises gradually

Nicotine builds up gradually in smokers' brains rather than spiking after each puff, according to a study that might help point to new ways to help people quit smoking.

Dr. Jed E. Rose of Duke University reports in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that nicotine buildup in the brain was gradual over several minutes.

Scientists have theorized that there is a spike of nicotine in the brain about seven seconds after each puff, but almost no measurements had been taken until now, Rose said in a telephone interview.

"We were surprised to find that the rate of uptake was much different from what one commonly hears," said Rose, who directs the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, a part of the university's School of Medicine.

Rose used brain scans to measure the nicotine levels in 13 regular smokers and 10 people who smoke only occasionally, an indication they were not addicted to nicotine.

Maximum brain levels of nicotine were reached in 3 to 5 minutes, and built up slower in addicted smokers than in casual ones, the researchers found.

"This slower rate resulted from nicotine staying longer in the lungs of dependent smokers, which may be a result of the chronic effects of smoke on the lungs," Rose suggested.

"Now that we know there are not these spikes" that had been expected, Rose said, researchers may be better able to develop new approaches to help smokers get what they need from cigarettes, but in a way that's not addictive.

His laboratory, for example, is working on a mist inhaler to deliver nicotine without any combustion.

Still in question: Why do some people become addicted to cigarettes and others don't? The difference in the rate of nicotine buildup in the brain doesn't explain this, the researchers said.

The research was funded by the giant tobacco companies Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International. The researchers said the companies had no role in designing or carrying out the research or analyzing the results.

Rose's findings confirm his earlier work on blood levels of nicotine, and "the brain is what really matters," commented Dr. Kenneth A. Perkins, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who also studies smoking addiction.

The assumption was that a critical effect of smoking was a shot of nicotine with each puff, then another shot with the next puff, and so on, Perkins said.

"He is showing that, at least when you look at the blood and brain concentration levels, that's not really what's going on, it's much more gradual," Perkins, who was not part of Rose's research team, said in a telephone interview.

"Clinically, what you do with that, I'm not quite sure," he added.

Source: AP - 9 March 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/cASFbo

Allen 'ignores' smoking ban on stage

Lily Allen ignored the smoking ban again during a gig last Friday.

The singer - who is suffering from a chest infection - was seen smoking throughout her show with Dizzee Rascal at the MEN Arena in Manchester.

The 24-year-old apologised for her off-key vocals, telling her fans that she had bronchitis.

According to Yahoo!, she said: "I've got a bout of bronchitis so sorry if my singing's a bit s**t. Not that it's any good anyway."

The 'Fear' singer was investigated by local authorities in Liverpool in December after she lit up during a performance, and was fined last year after smoking on stage in Paris.

Source: Digital Spy - 8 March 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/c5trv3

Phillip Morris takes Norway to court

The world's larges tobacco company Phillip Morris International (PMI) is taking the Norwegian state to court. PMI wants the Norwegian ban on displaying tobacco products in stores lifted, Dagens Næringsliv reports.

"There is no scientific evidence that the ban has any health effect", says PMI communication director Anne Edwards to the newspaper.

She points to Iceland, which introduced the ban against the display of tobacco in stores in 2001.

According to Edwards, the ban against the display of tobacco has not reduced the number of smokers in Iceland.

PMI controls 42 per cent of the Norwegian tobacco market.

Source: The Norway Post - 9 March 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/9brb17

Australia invests $10.7 million to quell indigenous smoking

The Minister for Indigenous Health, Warren Snowdon, today announced 14 sites across the country will benefit from a $10.7 million funding round to promote innovative anti-tobacco campaigns and prevention strategies.

The Australian Government’s Indigenous Tobacco Control Initiative aims to reduce smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in urban, regional and remote areas.

“Half of Indigenous adults are smokers, and the rate of smoking in the Indigenous population is about twice the rate of the non-Indigenous population. That needs to change,” Mr Snowdon said.

“These projects are based on innovative and cultural-appropriate, community-based approaches. They are also in areas which have higher than average smoking rates,” he said.

“The initiatives range from starting up a Quit Café, establishing support groups for new parents, promoting role models, to offering counselling to get their message across.

“They tackle a variety of Indigenous groups. Teenagers, pregnant women, families and homeless people are among the target audiences,” Mr Snowdon said.

“A number of respected organisations have been chosen including the Asthma Foundation of WA, the Cancer Council of Queensland, the Bila Muuji Regional Aboriginal Health Service in New South Wales and the Menzies School of Health Research in the Northern Territory.”

The Minister made the announcement at the Sunrise Health Service Aboriginal Corporation in Katherine, south of Darwin, which received $1m in funding to promote smoke free messages.

The Indigenous Tobacco Control Initiative was launched in March 2008 with a commitment of $14.5 million over three years. Funding of $3.8 million was provided for six projects in 2008-09

The initiative is paving the way for a comprehensive national approach to tackling the issue through the Australian Government’s $100.6 million Tackling Smoking measure under COAG’s National Partnership Agreement on Closing the Gap in Indigenous Health Outcomes.

Source: The Gov Monitor - 8 march 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/bTNqAC

Art collection fetches record $25.9m

An art collection put together by British American Tobacco over five decades to liven up its factories and 'inspire' workers was sold for a Dutch record 13.6 million euros (S$25.9 million), Sotheby's said on Tuesday.

'The results represent the highest total ever achieved ($18.5 million) in the Netherlands for a sale of fine art,' the auction house said in a statement after Monday's sale in Amsterdam.

The 163 works of art that make up the Peter Stuyvesant Collection, the largest collection of post-war and contemporary art ever to go on sale in the Netherlands, had been valued at about four million euros before the auction.

The top lot was German artist Martin Kippenberger's Dinosaurierei (Dinosaur Egg), an oil on canvas that fetched 1.07 million euros, more than three times the expected price, said Sotheby's.

The collection was started by businessman Alexander Orlow, who in 1960 invited 13 artists from 13 European countries to create paintings for the production hall of his Turmac tobacco company in the Netherlands, later bought by British American Tobacco.

Expanded over the next 50 years, the collection included works by Dutch painters Karel Appel and Jan Schoonhoven, French artist Niki de Saint-Phalle, Hungarian Victor Vasarely and Venezuela's Jesus Rafael Soto. Many of the works had been storage since British American Tobacco started closing some of the European factories that used to display them.

Source: The Straits Times - 9 March 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/8YmDe0

N Korea draws on tobacco to generate hard cash

A North Korea desperate for foreign exchange has been generating hard currency by re-exporting British cigarettes, despite renewed efforts by the international community to apply tougher sanctions on the impoverished state.

North Korean and other Asian trading entities started re-exporting State Express 555 cigarettes, manufactured by British American Tobacco,

in February last year, just months before North Korea's second nuclear test in four years prompted the United Nations to impose tougher sanctions on Pyongyang.

BAT sold the so-called "NK 555s", made and packaged in Singapore for the North Korean market, to a Singaporean distributor for shipment to Nampo, a port near Pyongyang.

However, at least 15,000 cases worth $6.3m (€4.6m, £4.2m) rebounded out of Nampo to ports in Vietnam and the Philippines, according to documents seen by the Financial Times, to go to other markets where they commanded a higher price.

While the UN banned luxury goods exports to North Korea, member nations have been allowed to compile their own sanctions lists, which critics say created loopholes.

The US, Japan, Australia and Canada banned a broad range of tobacco products. Meanwhile, the European Union and Singapore sanctioned only cigars, which allowed BAT to continue exporting NK 555 cigarettes to North Korea. BAT said it halted exports of the cigarettes from Singapore to North Korea after discovering a diverted cargo of NK 555s in August.

International tobacco companies frown on "grey market" or "parallel" exports of their products to markets for which they were not intended. But national customs authorities target counterfeits rather than so-called "diverted real product".

The diversions offer a rare glimpse into how the impoverished country can secure foreign exchange - especially as the noose tightens on arms exports.

International security agencies have also cracked down on suspected North Korean smuggling of narcotics and counterfeit $100 bills in recent years, forcing the regime to find other sources of hard currency.

The NK 555 diversions may be part of a much larger flow of dollar-earning re-exports. Their interruption comes at an awkward time for a regime that has tested the patience of the international community.

Closer to home, a populace with memories of severe 1990s-era famines is infuriated by Pyongyang's recently botched currency reform programme.

"The turmoil in North Korea is self-inflicted and far more damaging than the [UN] sanctions," said Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert with the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

BAT has maintained some business ties to the country. It still supplies its former Pyongyang joint venture, from which it divested in 2007, with materials to make and sell cheaper Craven A cigarettes on the domestic market.

BAT says 175m NK 555s were exported to North Korea in 2008. They were made and packaged in Singapore which, like the EU, banned exports of cigars but not cigarettes.

The London-based company sold the NK 555s to SUTL Group, a familycontrolled distributor in Singapore, for onward shipment to the North Korean port of Nampo.

"When we became aware of the diversion, we immediately launched an investigation," Pat Heneghan, global head of BAT's anti-illicit trade division, told the FT. "We certainly didn't like what we found."

While there was no evidence of any involvement by SUTL in the diversion, Mr Heneghan said BAT still had "a very hard discussion with the distributor". SUTL declined to comment.

There is no evidence that the re-export of NK 555s by a number of unidentifiable North Korean entities and other small trading companies across Asia was illegal.

While tobacco companies consider the re-routing of legitimate cigarettes from their intended market as "illicit", they are not necessarily "illegal" in the eyes of customs authorities focused on counterfeits and smuggling.

"In August last year, BAT discovered a diverted NK 555 shipment in Singapore, which we assumed could be for transhipment to other markets in Asia," said a BAT spokeswoman. "But we were unable to inspect the shipment as we could not demonstrate any breach of Singapore law to the authorities."

On April 10 2009, the NK 555 re-exports were discussed in an e-mail sent by a Singapore-based cigarette trader to a potential buyer in Manila.

"We have to confirm by next week," wrote Bert Lee of Compass Inc. "Empty containers will have to start moving into Nampo. . . So kindly speak and plan with your buyer and let me know if you want to take up this new NK 555 Blue."

Compass began to sell cases of NK 555 to a Hong Kong-based trading company in early 2009. E-mails and shipping documents show the cigarettes were first diverted to Dalian, a Chinese port, and then shipped on to Singapore before finally landing in Haiphong in Vietnam.

While the trail ran cold in Haiphong, people tracking the shipment suspected its ultimate destination was China.

"They sell it to someone who can handle it for the China market," said one person involved in the trade, who asked not to be identified.

Invoices sent from Compass to its Hong Kong buyer in February 2009 do not reveal the North Korean source of the NK 555s. But Mr Lee left no doubt about the cigarettes' provenance.

"Stocks are now in NK and sample already send [sic] out to us," he wrote to his potential buyer in Manila. "I hope we can work on this New Blue [555] and controlling the market and stocks as soon as possible." Mr Lee did not reply to phone calls, e-mails and faxes from the FT.

"As a trader, we just get the product and buy and sell," said one Compass executive who declined to identify himself or comment on the NK 555 shipments when contacted by telephone. "Where it goes, who knows?"

Source: Financial Times - 9 March 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/9kucNJ