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ASH Daily news for 28 April 2011

HEADLINES

  • Unions raise exploitation of American tobacco workers at BAT London AGM

    Union protestors concerned at the poor treatment of migrant tobacco workers in the United States are flying into London today (Thursday) to confront shareholders attending the annual general meeting of British American Tobacco (BAT).

    Representatives from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), part of the AFL-CIO - the American equivalent of the TUC - will be at the meeting in the City to urge BAT to get tough with US tobacco giant Reynolds America Inc over the poor wages and working conditions of workers employed in its supply chain.

    BAT is one of the world's largest tobacco companies and has a controlling stake in Reynolds, a company whose supply chain US unions accuse of widespread exploitation, including the payment of illegal poverty wages, dangerous working conditions, and sub-standard housing.

    To coincide with the meeting, FLOC is releasing A State of Fear, which summarises the chief findings of a soon-to-be published report examining the harsh working and poor housing conditions suffered by tens of thousands of migrant farm workers who tend and harvest tobacco in North Carolina, the leading location for tobacco production in the US.

    The report says that the migrant workers are employed under some of the most dangerous working conditions in America and it uncovers evidence of widespread exploitation, in violation of both federal and state law
     

    Source: TUC website 28 April 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/jAv8w7

  • Wales: Smoking ban at entrances to hospitals welcomed


    Smoking will be banned outside the entrances of some of Wales’ busiest hospitals from next week.

    The ban at hospitals run by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is the first step in a move to outlaw smoking in all hospital grounds in the region.

    It is expected other hospitals around Wales, which are not already smoke-free, will follow suit in the next year.


    But rather than enforcing smoke-free policies in a heavy-handed, finger-wagging way, the NHS is adopting a softly-softly approach.

    In South Wales, staff members will be encouraged to tell other NHS staff, patients and visitors that they cannot smoke near hospital entrances and point them towards stop-smoking services

     

     

    Source: Walesonline.co.uk, 28 April 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/lbNA1Y

  • USA: FDA seeks tours of tobacco farms, factories

    The federal agency's Center for Tobacco Products is asking tobacco companies to invite it to tour farms and factories that grow or process tobacco.

    It says the visits are meant to help the agency better understand how each step in the process — from field to package — could influence the final product.

    The FDA wants to tour large and small cigarette factories, a smokeless-tobacco plant, tobacco farms, a rolling-paper factory and a tobacco warehouse.

    The agency won the authority to regulate tobacco in 2009. Although the agency has the authority to visit most tobacco facilities, the tours are not official inspections. It said in its request that better understanding the industry "may be helpful."

    "Some of the people they've hired certainly know a lot about tobacco, (but) the odds that many or any of them have actually been on the inside of a manufacturing facility is probably pretty low," said Ira Loss, an analyst with Washington Analysis who has covered the agency for three decades.

    The nation's second-largest cigarette maker, Reynolds American Inc., intends to take the agency up on the request.

    "We certainly think it's important the FDA understand the practicalities of tobacco manufacturing," Reynolds spokesman David Howard said.

    Altria Group Inc., owner of the nation's top cigarette company, Philip Morris USA, said it plans to respond but wouldn't say whether that meant it would extend an invitation.

    Tobacco companies, in essence, will foot the bill through user fees the FDA charges them.

    Source: Winston-Salem Journal, 23 April 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/eOmwtK

  • Malta: Picture warnings on cigarette packs

    Pictorial health warnings on cigarette packaging will be obligatory from next Wednesday.

    The legal notice regarding ‘Use of Colour Photographs or Other Illustrations as Health Warnings on Tobacco Packages Regulations, 2009’ was published on 27 October 2009.

    This legal notice implements the Commission decision taken on 5 September 2003, regarding the use of colour photographs or other illustrations to depict the health consequences of smoking.

    The regulation is to be enforced by the Environmental Health Officers, who have all the power to enforce tobacco related regulations as per the Tobacco (Smoking Control) Act.

    This includes the power to carry out inspections in outlets and seize any non-conforming products, besides taking legal action against the responsible persons.

    The penalties applicable under the Act range from € 232.94 up to a maximum of € 1,164.69.

    Source: The Malta Independent online, 28 April 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/ifjYi1

  • Cuba: Cigar roller seeks to break own record with 70-meter cigar

    Working eight hours a day for nine days, 67-year-old Jose "Cueto" Castelar is hoping to break his 2009 record of a 43.38-meter-long (142-foot-long) stogie.

    He hopes to complete his latest feat on May 3 and display it at the International Tourism Fair, which runs Monday-Saturday next week. It would be his fifth record in more than half a century of cigar-rolling.

    "Cueto said that as long as he lives, the Guinness record has to be in Cuba," said his spokesman Amado de la Rosa. "He is very lively now and will get tired as the days go by, but he hopes to reach his goal."

    The athletic-looking sexagenarian first learned to make cigars when he was 14 years old.

    Source: Yahoo news, 25 April 2011
    Link: http://yhoo.it/hnVJrk