Danish Government pushing for higher EU cigarette prices

Cigarette packet prices in Denmark could rise to at least 50 kroner if other EU countries hike their prices as well

If the Liberal-Conservative government has its way the price for a packet of cigarettes will be at least 50 kroner, if not higher.

Although it ignored the same recommendation to increase cigarette prices from the Prevention Commission earlier this year, the government is now prepared to follow the commission’s advice with a considerable price hike.

Jakob Axel Nielsen, the health minister, travels to Luxembourg today to meet with other European Union countries’ health representatives to discuss the issue. He will try and convince those countries to raise their cigarette prices prior to raising the cost at home in Denmark.

‘The price could go even higher than 50 kroner a pack,’ Nielsen told Metroxpress newspaper. ‘I’m going to press it up as much as possible. It’s extremely important for our citizens’ health.’

But Nielsen said the government would only raise cigarette prices if the other EU countries do so, because otherwise Danes would simply travel to Germany or Poland to take advantage of cheaper prices.

Cigarettes are a very sensitive commodity when talking about cross-border trade,’ said Nielsen. ‘That’s why it’s important to have the rest of the EU with us.’

Mette Weir, chairman of the Prevention Commission, said it was ‘typical’ for politicians to waiver on commission conclusions when they are first presented. But she is glad the recommendation is now being taken up by the government.

Nielsen said he could not give a precise date for when possible price changes would take effect, adding that getting the debate going in the EU was the important thing at the moment.

Source: The Copenhagen Post Online, 09 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/kptfct

Australia urged to approve plain-packaged cigarettes

A Canadian expert says the time is right for the Government to pursue the introduction of plain packaging for cigarettes. 

A recommendation to begin selling cigarettes without advertising logos is expected to be handed to the Federal Government by the preventative health taskforce.

Moves towards implementing plain packaging in Canada were unsuccessful.

But the executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, Cynthia Callard, says tobacco companies no longer have the same influence they had 10 years ago.

"The framework convention on tobacco control has said that plain packaging is a very effective way of reducing advertising and of increasing health warning messages," she said.

"Also I think tobacco companies do not have the political allies they had 10 years ago. There's been a sea change, I think, in attitudes by political leaders and by communities toward these companies and I think people are unwilling to give them the time of day."

Dr Callard says plain packaging will have no branding elements and will include the information people need.

She says packaging should be used to provide smokers with more information about health issues, as many smokers are not entirely aware of these.

"They know that smoking causes cancer but they don't know what their survival likelihood is," she said.

"[While] pictures [on current packaging] are good at giving people emotional connections to change their opinions, tips on quitting and effects on family members should be put on the package."

She expects Australia could be one of the first countries in the world to bring in plain packaging for cigarettes.

"I think it would be one of the best contributions that the Australian Government could make to global health," she said.

"To establish plain packaging as a normal and effective measure so that other countries could pass it more easily."

With a ban on cigarette advertising in place, anti-smoking activists argue that the packet itself is the last place that tobacco companies can market their brand.

And if plain packaging is introduced, the Federal Government can expect a challenge in the High Court from the tobacco industry.

This industry is not shy of litigation when it comes to protecting its business.

Source: ABC News, 11 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/lewc9a

Scotland: Anti-smoking group calls for industry to show advertising costs

Tobacco companies should be forced to publish their spending on advertising and promotion, a city charity has said.

Anti-smoking lobbying group ASH Scotland said since billboard advertising and sponsorship of tobacco products was banned in 2003, large organisations have found other ways of selling their brand.

Chief executive Sheila Duffy said the Scottish Government should take steps to monitor the spending to prevent the number of new smokers in the country.

"They [tobacco companies] need to find new customers to replace the 49,000 smokers who will quit or die every year," she said.

"One of the ways to do that is through large promotional displays that take pride of place in our shops, garages and supermarkets."

Source: Edinburgh Evening News, 08 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/mbj87v

Editorial: Can smoking ever be made safe?

Tobacco companies have begun "clinical trials" to assess whether a range of prototype "safer cigarettes" really do slash levels of toxic chemicals entering the body. At the moment there is no way of regulating any health claims firms might want to make for these cigarettes or restricting whether they bring such products onto the market at all. But this week the US government will decide whether to hand the job over to the Food and Drug Administration.

Allowing the FDA to verify and restrict health claims made by cigarette companies could raise the bar on the quality of scientific evidence behind such claims, leading to greater transparency in tobacco research and cigarette marketing that could ultimately benefit smokers. "What I hope it will do is make it harder for tobacco companies to market products without some evidence that they are likely to reduce the death and disease associated with smoking," says Thomas Eissenberg, a drug dependence researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

It will be harder for tobacco companies to market products without evidence that they reduce harm. However, anti-smoking campaigners question whether such products should ever find their way to market. "I would be extremely sceptical of any attempt to produce healthy cigarettes," says Deborah Arnott of anti-smoking charity ASH-UK. "The conclusion we have reached is that it's really difficult to do anything to significantly reduce the harm caused by cigarettes."

Many tobacco companies across the world are already pinning their hopes of future growth on the development of so-called "potentially reduced exposure products". These include a type of powdered tobacco called snus, e-cigarettes and so-called "reduced harm" cigarettes containing lower levels of toxicants and modified filters.

Meanwhile, the prospect of having their claims vetted by government is prompting companies to devise new, more accurate ways to test the health impact of cigarettes.

So companies are now searching for new ways to assess a person's exposure to the toxicants in smoke. The most promising approach is to look for biomarkers such as the carcinogen pyrene in body fluids like urine.

"Development of biomarkers is critical for assessment of tobacco products," says Dorothy Hatsukami of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, whose lab is investigating biomarkers of smoke exposure. "You can't determine whether tobacco has reduced risk potential until you put it into a person and they use it."

So far BAT has identified several biomarkers which it is using to compare the amounts of toxicants smokers get from conventional cigarettes against prototype cigarettes which have been modified to be less harmful. A pilot study looked at concentrations of nicotine metabolites and three toxicants - NNK, acrolein and pyrene - in the urine of 150 smokers, with 50 non-smokers as controls. It found that urine levels correlated with those in the filters of the cigarettes the volunteers smoked (Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, in press). This is proof of the principle that it is possible to work out from urine samples whether a potentially safer cigarette exposes smokers to lower levels of damaging chemicals.

BAT now started a trial in which 250 smokers are either given conventional cigarettes, prototype cigarettes, or asked to quit smoking. The study will compare the levels of biomarkers in urine to see whether people smoking modified cigarettes are exposed to lower levels of toxicants or not.

Hatsukami said, "It is not simply a matter of tobacco companies proving that their cigarettes reduce the risk of cancer. You don't want a product that decreases your risk of cancer, but increases your risk of pulmonary disease. What's needed are biomarkers for a wide range of diseases."

What everyone does agree on is the need for some kind of regulation. The World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has been ratified by 164 countries and now the Framework secretariat is drawing up guidelines on tobacco regulation. Some of its advisors are cautiously optimistic about the prospect of FDA regulation, as long as standards for assessing harm reduction are high.

Eissenberg points out that there may be another, more cynical reason to give tobacco companies a second chance. "I think that there are some very smart people in the tobacco industry who have realised that if their customer base lives until they're 80 instead of dying when they're 60 then they're going to make a lot more money," he says.

Source: The New Scientist
Link: http://tinyurl.com/lku95d

Exercise and stop smoking to 'stay sharp'

A recipe for staying sharp in old age has been uncovered by scientists who studied more than 2,000 men and women through their seventies and eighties. 

The four key factors involved in preventing mental decline were found to be exercise, education, social activity and not smoking.

Researchers carried out a series of memory and mental tests on 2,500 men and women aged 70 to 79 over a period of eight years.

Just over half the participants showed a normal rate of age-related decline while 16% suffered a major reduction in their mental faculties.

However, 30% of the study volunteers remained unchanged and in some cases even showed an improvement in performance over the years.

The researchers then examined what lifestyle factors stood out among those people who were able to remain quick-witted in old age.

Study leader Dr Alexandra Fiocco, from the University of California at San Francisco, said: "To this day, the majority of past research has focused on factors that put people at greater risk to lose their cognitive skills over time, but much less is known about what factors help people maintain their skills."

The research, published in the journal Neurology, revealed a unique profile that distinguished people who avoided mental decline with the passing years.

Those who exercised moderately or vigorously at least once a week were 30% more likely to "stay sharp" than people who did not.

Individuals with a good education were nearly three times more likely to maintain their mental faculties than those with less education. Likewise, high levels of literacy were associated with a five-fold better chance of side-stepping age-related mental decline.

Non-smokers were nearly twice as likely to remain mentally fit than smokers. And people who were socially active - either by working or volunteering, or by living with someone - were 24% more likely to avoid mental deterioration in later life.

Dr Fiocco said, "Some of these factors such as exercise and smoking are behaviours that people can change. Discovering factors associated with cognitive maintenance may be very useful in prevention strategies that guard against or slow the onset of dementia. These results will also help us understand the mechanisms that are involved in successful ageing."

Source: The Independent, 09 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/kmeg4m