Secondhand smoke raises TB risk: study

Smoking has long been known to boost tuberculosis risk, and a new study from Hong Kong suggests that being exposed to someone else's tobacco smoke also increases the likelihood of contracting the disease.

Dr. Chi C. Leung of the Wanchai Chest Clinic in Wanchai and colleagues compared TB risk in older women living with at least one smoker to that of women living in smoke-free homes. The study included 15,486 non-smoking women 65 to 74 years old, all of whom lived with their husbands. All of the women had enrolled at one of the territory's 18 Elderly Health Centers between 2000 and 2003, and about one in four lived with a smoker.

During follow-up, which lasted through the end of 2008 (or until a person died or was diagnosed with TB), 117 women developed active TB and 69 of these cases were confirmed in a laboratory.

Leung's team found that women who had been exposed to secondhand smoke were 1.5 times more likely to develop active TB than women who didn't live with a smoker, while their risk of culture-confirmed TB was 1.7-fold higher.

Secondhand smoke exposure accounted for about 14 percent of active TB cases and about 18 percent of culture-confirmed TB cases.

The researchers also found that the women who lived with a smoker were significantly more likely to have some type of obstructive lung disease, such as emphysema, as well as diabetes, at the study's outset.

The findings appear in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

In a written commentary published with the study, Dr. Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California San Francisco notes that secondhand smoke has many known harmful effects, including increasing the risk of lung cancer and heart disease in adults and promoting asthma and lower respiratory illness in children. And smoking can promote respiratory infections, such as TB, by impairing the ability of the lungs to fight off infection, he adds.

In China, 60 percent of men smoke, but only 4 percent of women do, Benowitz notes, so secondhand smoke disproportionately affects women.

"Secondhand smoke exposure is another health problem of particular concern for women in less developed countries," he adds. "Therefore, smoking bans should be part of the international women's health advocacy agenda."

Source: Reuters - 10 February 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/cGPDPx

Imperial Tobacco challenges ban on cigarette machines

Imperial Tobacco, Britain’s leading cigarette manufacturer, said yesterday that it was seeking a judicial review of the Government’s plan to ban cigarette vending machines from next year.

MPs and the Lords recently voted in favour of a backbench amendment to outlaw cigarette vending machines in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as part of the Government’s Health Bill, which has now become law.

It means that from October next year cigarette vending machines — which account for about 1 per cent of all UK cigarette sales — will be outlawed. Similar measures have also been supported by the Scottish Parliament.

The ban was proposed by Ian McCartney, a former Labour minister, who claims that the machines give young children access to cigarettes.

Gareth Davis, Imperial’s chief executive, said: “Legal action is always a last resort, but the Government’s decision to ban cigarette vending machines is so disproportionate and unnecessary that it must be challenged.

“We do not want children to smoke and supported the Government’s proposal to stop underage access through the introduction of electronic ID cards, token mechanisms and remote control technology.

“These are effective solutions, which have been implemented in a number of other countries and it is a matter of great regret that the UK Government ultimately chose to disregard all of these options in favour of a ban that will result in significant job losses in the vending industry.”

The judicial review has been sought by Sinclair Collis, the cigarette vending machine subsidiary of Imperial, which operates about 20,000 such machines across the UK. Based in Wolverhampton, it employs 174 people.

Simon Evans, Imperial’s spokesman, said that the cigarette vending machine market in Britain was already under severe pressure from the ban, introduced two years ago, on smoking in public places. He said that much of the business had gone to garage forecourts and corner shops as consumers stay at home to smoke. Mr Evans said that European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, had successfully restricted the access of cigarette machines to smokers of legal age without having to ban the machines altogether.

He said Imperial was likely to base its request for a judicial review on the grounds that few children were able to use vending machines because of their location in pubs and nightclubs and because vending machines typically charge far more for cigarettes than alternative suppliers, such as retailers.

About 6 per cent of 11 to 15-year- olds are thought to smoke — compared with 11 per cent a decade ago.

Also included in the Health Act 2009 is a ban on the retail display of tobacco products and a requirement for them to be sold instead from under the counter. The measure was fiercely opposed by the tobacco industry and small shopkeepers that rely on tobacco sales to attract customers. Retail industry bodies have said that up to three quarters of corner shops could close if the ban goes ahead. Imperial, whose brands include Lambert & Butler — Britain’s bestselling cigarette — Embassy and Regal, has a 45.3 per cent cent of the UK tobacco market. Japan Tobacco, maker of Silk Cut and Benson & Hedges, is next on 34.5 per cent.

Shares of Imperial closed down 19p at £20.19.]

Source: Times Online - 11 February 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/aLsHLX

Canada government seeks to avoid tobacco liability

The Canadian government asked the Supreme Court this week to overturn British Columbia court rulings that could force it to share financial responsibility for damages caused by tobacco use.

The tobacco industry successfully got the British Columbia Court of Appeals to rule in December that the federal government should be a third-party defendant, meaning it may have to share in possible any liability that may result from lawsuits against the tobacco industry.

The British Columbia provincial government, for instance, is suing the tobacco industry for billions of dollars in health care costs. Another case is a class action by smokers against British American Tobacco's Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. The claimants allege they were misled into believing cigarettes labeled mild or light were safer to smoke.

The tobacco industry has long argued that government should share in any responsibility for damages because they were partners in the sale of tobacco by keeping it legal and collecting tax revenue from it. And they argue that Ottawa pushed them to promote light cigarettes.

The government filed its application to the Supreme Court of Canada on Monday asking the court to hear an appeal.

Several of Canada's provinces have sued the industry for billions in damages, but the main British Columbia case -- based on legal action by U.S. states -- was filed first and is being used as the lead case in the Canadian courts.

Rob Cunningham of the anti-tobacco Canadian Cancer Society, said the federal government should not be asked to pay for tobacco costs.

"The tobacco industry is the cause of the wrongs and the tobacco epidemic, and they shouldn't be trying to shift responsibility onto someone else," he said.

Source: Reuters - 10 February 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/bCvePN

U.S. would reap billions from $1 cigarette tax hike

Adding a $1 per pack tax to cigarettes could raise more than $9 billion a year for states, health advocates said on Wednesday, and a poll released with the study shows Americans would support such a tax.

The poll, conducted by International Communications Research, found 60 percent of voters would support the tax to help struggling states and would prefer it over other tax increases or budget cuts.

"An increase in tobacco tax rates is not only sound public health policy but a smart and predictable way to help boost the economy and generate long-term health savings for states facing deepening budget deficits," said John Seffrin, chief executive of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

"We have irrefutable evidence that raising the tobacco tax lowers smoking rates among adults and deters millions of children from picking up their first cigarette," Seffrin said in a statement.

The report was released by the Cancer Action Network, the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

All these non-profit groups have long supported taxing tobacco more as a way to discourage smoking.

The report, available here, projects the revenue that each state could earn by increasing cigarette taxes, based on research that shows a 10 percent cigarette tax increase reduces total consumption by 4 percent.

It projects that a $1 a pack cigarette tax would prompt 1.2 million adult smokers to quit.

"In 2007, Texas increased its cigarette tax by $1 per pack from 41 cents to $1.41 per pack," the report reads. The next year, cigarette tax revenues nearly tripled from $523 million to $1.5 billion, despite a 21 percent decline in sales.

Analysts agree that higher taxes prompt many to quit, although some smokers merely switch to cheaper brands. In October, cigarette makers Philip Morris International Inc and Reynolds American Inc blamed the economy and a new 62 cent per pack federal tax for declining sales.

Federal taxes now total $1.01. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said in January that the average U.S. cost for a pack of cigarettes was $5.15 and that the Centers for Disease Control estimates the health-related costs of smoking at $10.47 a pack.

VOTER SUPPORT

The groups also surveyed 847 registered voters and found 60 percent favor raising the tobacco tax to help state budgets while 38 percent were opposed..

The survey, with a margin of error of three points, found that 72 percent of voters opposed increases in state sales and 80 percent rejected higher gasoline taxes.

"Each year in the United States, smoking-caused disease results in $96 billion in health care costs, much of which is paid by taxpayers through higher insurance premiums and government-funded health programs such as Medicaid," the report argues

"Indeed, higher Medicaid costs are one of the reasons states are facing budget difficulties."

The average state cigarette tax is $1.34 per pack, ranging from 7 cents a pack in tobacco-growing South Carolina to $3.46 in Rhode Island.

The World Health Organization says tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death globally, killing more than 5 million people each year from heart disease, cancer and lung disease. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 percent of U.S. adults smoke.

Source: Reuters - 10 February 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/aelP6o

‘Smokeless' cigarettes back in British pubs

A Cheshire company has signed a deal that will see its “smokeless cigarettes” on sale in vending machines in thousands of UK pubs, clubs and restaurants.

Warrington-based Notar (UK) has teamed up with vending machine company Cherwell Group just weeks after launching the Similar product in the UK.

Notar is the UK trade distributor of Similar cigarettes, which were developed in Germany.

The company says the product – which does not need to be lit – has been designed to look and taste like a cigarette without producing fumes or smell.

Similar will go on sale in the North West, the North East and London this month, and will go nationwide by the end of the year.

Notar director Andrew Wrench said: “We are absolutely delighted with our deal with Cherwell.

“It will make our product available to a significant number of people who want to smoke legally – or more accurately, who need a cigarette when they can’t have one. Recent statistics suggest there are still 11m smokers in this country who have to sneak outside their places of work or pubs and clubs to enjoy a cigarette.”

Source: Liverpool Echo - 11 February 2010
Link: http://bit.ly/cRkDLQ