Poll: Czech children have some of the highest smoking rates in the world

According to a survey from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) based on data from 2005-2006, nearly one quarter of 15-year-old Czech girls (23 percent) smoke regularly, which is the second highest number in the world, with the neighbouring Austria being the worst.

Among 15-year old Czech boys, one fifth (20 percent) smoke regularly. The situation is worse only in Austria, Finland and Hungary.

In Sweden and the United States, the number of smokers among children is three times lower than in the Czech Republic, the survey shows.

"The Czechs have figured in top positions in similar surveys for a long time. This is a result of the general atmosphere in society that still does not consider smoking among youths a serious problem," Zdenek Dienstbier, head of the Cancer League organisation, told the paper.

According to Dienstbier, neither the regulation of tobacco advertising nor other restrictive measures would markedly improve the situation.

Hana Sovinova, from the Czech State Health Institute that took part in the survey, said it was good news that the number of smokers among children started to fall slightly.

Sovinova said the situation was the worst in 2002.

"Over 30 percent of Czech girls and 29 percent of boys aged 15 smoked regularly then," she told the paper.

The OECD survey also focused on children and alcohol.

Source: Prague Daily Monitor, 06 May 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/ovyjd8

Young Plymouth politicians back hiding tobacco in shops

Young politicians in Plymouth have backed a national campaign calling for shops to put tobacco products out of sight.

Members of Plymouth's Youth Parliament have supported Cancer Research UK's 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind Campaign'.

As well as backing new restrictions on tobacco displays at the point of sale, the campaign is pushing for strong action on cigarette vending machines and plain packaging for cigarettes.

Marcus Natale, Deputy Member of Plymouth's Youth Parliament, aged 15, said: "I think the Out of Sight, Out of Mind campaign is a great way to diminish the sale of cigarettes to a youth market."

"We can't put a permanent stop to young smokers, however, with the help of stronger restrictions upon the sale and display of tobacco, it can be possible to reduce the number of young smokers."

He said that the issue of young smokers should be tackled by providing more direct education and restrictions within the law.

It comes as new tobacco control legislation is being discussed in the House of Lords.

One of the key new measures in the proposals is to remove all tobacco products from sight in shops.

Researchers say there is good evidence that this will help to reduce the number of young people who start smoking by protecting them from tobacco marketing.

Marcus said: "These new guidelines have received the appreciation of the youth as a majority of 64 per cent of young people aged 11 to 16 want cigarettes out of sight, a testament to our want for a healthier generation."

Jenny Evans, Plymouth Youth Cabinet member, aged 14, added: "I think that putting tobacco out of sight is a good thing. However I think that to make less people smoke we really need to be openly advertising the effects of smoking."

Research released this week by Cancer Research UK shows almost two thirds (64 per cent) of 11 to 16 year olds want cigarettes put out of sight in shops. Only 16 per cent do not agree with the proposal.

Researchers interviewed more than 1,400 youngsters from across the UK.

Lesley Thomas, tobacco control manager at Plymouth NHS Stop Smoking Service, said: "It's great that our young people are clued up as to how the tobacco industry surreptitiously advertises using huge displays in shops.

"We have a large number of young smokers in Plymouth and absolutely any measure that discourages them from smoking must be supported locally."
 

Source: Thisisplymouth, 08 May 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/oagxqk 

Attitudes toward tobacco industry linked to smoking behaviour

A new study by UCSF researchers concludes that media campaigns that portray the tobacco industry in a negative light and that appeal to young adults may be a powerful intervention to decrease young adult smoking. 

The study sheds light on the relationship between attitudes toward the tobacco industry and smoking behaviours of young adults aged 18 to 25 years, the age group with the highest smoking rate among any in the United States.

The study is the first to link attitudes about the tobacco industry to smoking attitudes and behaviour among a national sample of young adults, according to the research team. To determine attitudes, the researchers asked respondents how strongly they agreed or disagreed with three statements: Taking a stand against smoking is important to me; I want to be involved with efforts to get rid of cigarette smoking; and I would like to see cigarette companies go out of business.

The researchers found that those who agreed with those statements and supported action against the tobacco industry were one-third as likely to be smokers as those who did not support action against the tobacco industry. Among current smokers, those who had a negative attitude towards the tobacco industry were over four times more likely to plan to quit smoking than smokers who did not support action against the tobacco industry.

The results show a national impact of the "tobacco industry denormalization" approach, which educates the public about deceptive practices of the tobacco industry in order to influence individuals' decisions about smoking, according to the research team.

"Running anti-tobacco adverts to expose the fact that the tobacco industry kills five million people worldwide annually turns out to be hugely successful in preventing and promoting cessation," said Stanton Glantz, PhD, a study co-author and professor of medicine and director of UCSF's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. Other anti-smoking advertising campaigns have focused more on health hazards of smoking, rather than those including tobacco-industry denormalization messages, he added.

"This is the first study to examine attitudes toward the tobacco industry itself as motivating smoking behavior in young adults," said Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and assistant professor of general internal medicine at UCSF. "The results show a huge effect of attitudes linked to advertising campaigns that focus on portraying the tobacco industry in a negative light. The tobacco industry cares a lot about public opinion and hates those ads, because the ads make the industry look bad."

The UCSF study measured attitudes of 1,528 people in the 18-25 age range through questions covering attitudes toward the tobacco industry, support of action against the industry, social groups, receptivity to advertising, depression, alcohol use, and other factors associated with smoking.

Ling attributes negative attitudes toward tobacco companies to the success of the advertising campaigns that slant against the industry. The study breaks new ground in examining attitudes in a national young adult sample that had previously been evaluated only in California, she noted.

Smoking prevention efforts have been heavily concentrated on adolescents under the age of 18, and results of denormalization campaigns on adolescent smoking have been studied elsewhere. The tobacco industry focuses much of its advertising efforts on young adults in the 18 to 25 year old range, because it is the youngest legal market for tobacco. The target group in the UCSF study therefore mirrors the demographic group that has been the major target of the tobacco industry's advertising efforts.

Ling added, "Young adults are ground zero in tobacco battles right now. They are sensitive to the tobacco industry lying about its products, and to the fact that the industry has been manipulating the public for so long."

The other author on the study is Torsten B. Neilands, PhD, associate professor, Department of Medicine, and director of the research methods core at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies.

Source: Medical News Today, 07 May 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/dh5yrw

Illegal cigarettes in fish lorry

Millions of illegally imported cigarettes have been found in South Yorkshire in a lorry carrying fish. 

Customs officers found six million cigarettes hidden behind a cover-load of fish in the lorry in Rotherham.

The cigarettes were thought to be worth more than £1.5m in lost excise duty and VAT.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) also uncovered 10 million illegal cigarettes destined for the black market in Sheffield on 28 April.

Officers said they were acting on intelligence when they tracked down the lorry at an industrial estate in Rotherham.

It is thought that the vehicle was brought into the UK via Poland.

Brian Matthews, of HMRC, said: "We commented last week that South Yorkshire was fast becoming one of the worst areas in the UK for smuggled cigarettes and tobacco and the fact that we are intercepting such large, commercial quantities in the area only serves to justify this claim."

Source: BBC News, 08 May 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/qqdsw3

USA: Philip Morris looks to new products for overseas growth

At its first shareholder meeting since the spinoff from Altria Group Inc., Philip Morris International Inc. said new products in its key brands like Marlboro will help grow cigarette sales overseas, its core market.

Chief Executive Louis C. Camilleri told investors at the annual meeting in New York that the company is seeing growing consumer interest for new and innovative products.

Philip Morris International's product development has focused on lighter-tasting, smoother and slimmer cigarettes, Camilleri said, adding that there is an increasing demand for menthol cigarettes in some markets.

The company said its Marlboro Filter Plus cigarettes, also sold as Marlboro Flavor Plus, held 2.5 percent of the market in Romania in the first quarter this year. The cigarettes, first introduced in Korea, contain tobacco inside their filters to add flavour and are sold in a new style of slide-open package.

"Marlboro remains by far the best-selling international cigarette brand in the world," Camilleri said. "But we have also successfully developed a broad portfolio of other brands across all price categories."

Camilleri said Philip Morris International improved its profitability by raising prices, "even in a recessionary time." Its first-quarter revenue from increased prices was its highest ever, he said.

Like most tobacco companies, Philip Morris International is pursuing sales of smokeless tobacco products to replace the revenue they are losing as cigarette demand falls.

Camilleri said, "We believe that together snus can grow and we also believe that snus is a reduced-harm product," he said, noting that there are some who oppose the product and others who support the idea of tobacco alternatives with lower health risks.

The majority of the question-and-answer session at the meeting consisted of remarks from anti-tobacco and corporate accountability groups targeting the company's marketing efforts and dealings in government regulation.

A speaker from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said the World Health Organization estimates that 5.4 million people will die this year from tobacco use and requested that Camilleri have a moment of silence, to which he agreed.

Camilleri said he's "extremely bullish on the prospects of this company," saying Philip Morris International controls about 16 percent of the market for cigarettes outside the U.S., and the company's pricing power puts it in a better position than others.

"Yes, we have our issues but I think we are more than up to the challenge," Camilleri said.

Shareholders elected nine directors and approved criteria and award limits for its performance incentive plan.

Philip Morris International, with offices in New York and Lausanne, Switzerland, was spun off from Richmond, Va.-based Altria, the seller of Marlboro and other Philip Morris brands in the U.S., in March 2008. It is the world's largest non-governmental cigarette seller, smaller only than state-controlled China National Tobacco Corp.

Philip Morris International's annual net income rose 14 percent to $6.89 billion in 2008 from $6.04 billion in 2007. Revenue rose 15 percent to $63.64 billion in its first year as an independent company.

Source: Press Association, 07 May 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/o6e578