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ASH Daily news for 13 August 2010

HEADLINES

  • Australia: Retail group quits cigarette label campaign

    The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) has pulled out of an alliance formed to fight the Commonwealth's plan to force tobacco manufacturers to use plain labelling on cigarette packets.

    In a statement published on its website, the AACS said different members of the Alliance of Australian Retailers "had different priorities".

    It said AACS members had made it clear they wanted the association to remain "focused on the broader issues that affect the Convenience sector".

    "AACS will continue to lobby governments on the consequences of tobacco regulation which is forcing consumers into the black market and away from legitimate retailers particularly in the Convenience channel," the statement added.

    Meanwhile, six Australians of the Year have signed an open letter calling on all political parties to commit to supporting the Federal Government's plain packaging plan.

    Professors Peter Doherty, Fiona Wood, Fiona Stanley, Sir Gustav Nossal, Ian Frazer and Patrick McGorry have joined forces to condemn the tobacco industry's campaign against the initiative.

    Australia's biggest tobacco companies say the plan will only provide a boost for the black market trade.

    But anti-smoking groups and health advocates back the proposal, and have described it as groundbreaking policy.

    Professor Doherty says he supports plain packaging to make cigarettes less attractive to young smokers.

    "The tobacco industry has fought a campaign of lies and deception for a very long time," he said.

    "I'm not particularly of a mind that we should ban everything that is potentially harmful to us. I don't think we want to live in an overly regulated nanny state, but I don't think the tobacco industry has much of a leg to stand on.

    "My father was a very heavy smoker - two packs a day - and he died at 48, so I'm less than entranced by the tobacco industry.

    "Basically I think the campaign for plain packaging is really to discourage young people from buying cigarettes."

    Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says he will consider going ahead with Labor's plain packaging plan if he wins the federal election.

    But Sir Gustav is urging Mr Abbott to give the plan his unequivocal support.

    "I think that he has been health minister, he knows the devastation that smoking causes and I'd love him to commit," he said.

    In April, the Government announced Australia was set to become the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes.

    From 2012, tobacco companies will only be allowed to print their brand name in a standard style and there will still be graphic health warnings on the packaging.

    Source: ABC News - 13 August 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9p9Os4

  • McDonald's in Japan to phase out smoking areas as smokers decrease at record rates

    McDonald's Japan, the largest restaurant chain in the country, with over 3,500 stores, has announced it will phase out smoking as it begins to revamp or replace 1,050 of its outlets. For local residents of Tokyo the annoyance of unclearly marked smoking zones in many cafes and restuarants, or non-smoking areas separated only by demarcations on the floor, it will come as a welcome relief.

    Non-smoking areas have become increasingly common in Tokyo in recent years, with bans on streets around many train stations and an increasing number of smokers-only areas popping up around the city. Chiyoda ward in Tokyo even has a patrol that can fine offenders, while a series of advertisements called Smoker's Style has been on display on many train lines sporadically throughout the last few years teaching courtesy to non-smokers.

    A report yesterday by Medical News revealed that Japan has in fact set a world record of 15 consecutive years of a declining percentage of the population considering themselves to be smokers. Japan Tobacco reports that in 1966 when records began, 49.4 percent of the population were smokers, while today it is 23.9 percent.

    Source: CNN Go - 12 August 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9Z5Ny6

  • New Zealand: Young smoking rate down, but experimentation up

    Latest results from the Action on Smoking and Health [New Zealand] year 10 Snapshot Survey shows the number of daily smokers among Horowhenua year 10 students is down nearly nine per cent.

    The reduction, down to 17.6 per cent from 26.4 per cent in 1999, is in line with the 10 per cent drop nationally, but the tally is well above - just 5.6 per cent of year 10s nationally admit to being daily smokers.

    The survey has run each year since 1999, when 26.4 per cent of Horowhenua students (compared with 31.6 per cent of national students) reported having never tried tobacco. The latest results, released last month, show Horowhenua 14 to 15-year-olds were more likely to try smoking, with 43.5 per cent (compared with 64 per cent of New Zealand's students) having never smoked a puff.

    In terms of experimenting - those who have tried smoking but do not currently smoke Horowhenua students bucked the national trend, with a local increase from 22.1 per cent to 27.5 per cent trying it out, compared with a 5.6 per cent national decline to 19.9 per cent.

    There are also fewer Horowhenua homes where neither parent smokes, down to 41.2 per cent from 53.8 per cent in 2001, compared with a national upward trend of 63 per cent from 60 per cent in 2001.

    Horowhenua PHO smoking cessation co-ordinator Melinda Vandermade was unsure why Horowhenua bucked some national trends, but suggested there may be a connection to a higher level of beneficiaries in the region and a response to the recession with increased unemployment.

    She said advertising programmes and social media played a huge part in the overall decline in smoking among teenagers, where campaigns used role models from Shortland St and the All Blacks to push the anti-smoking message.

    Sponsorship of smoke-free concerts and other events reinforced the fact that smoking was not cool anymore, she said. "We need to celebrate the fact that the decline nationwide is fantastic."

    Cigarette price rises did not have the same effect. "Regardless of cost teenagers will find a way of getting cigarettes," said Ms Vandermade.

    "If parents smoke, that environment has a direct effect on children. If cigarettes are no longer available or accessible chances are they will not want to do it either."

    The Horowhenua Mail spoke to two year 10 students about smoking, one who had given up and another who wanted to.

    Livvy - of Maori, Pakeha and Chinese descent gave up smoking a month ago because she felt it was not lady-like for girls to smoke and it affected her fitness.

    She said she was self-motivated to give up smoking and anti-smoking advertising had not influenced her decision. "I started dancing and doing the gym and when I started smoking I noticed my stamina levels just dropped." She also did not want to disappoint her grandparents, who had never smoked. However, it was not easy to give up smoking, which she started at the age of 14, because she liked the "head rush" it gave her, and everyone at home smoked, as well as her peers at school and out of school, she said. Having goals and keeping active have helped Livvy keep strong in her commitment. "I just have to learn how to say no. If I am busy I don't think about smoking."

    Sapphire - of Samoan and European heritage - began casual smoking last year, enjoyed the "buzz" it gave her, and started smoking two cigarettes a day earlier this year when the family shifted from Porirua to Levin. Her mother and older siblings, aged 15 and 18, smoke. She said her dad gave up smoking about five years ago because it was a waste of money. He felt disgusting when smoking, and did not like the taste. Sapphire said it would change things if she had to buy her own cigarettes. "When I get a job I don't want to spend half my pay on smokes." She had decided to give up smoking after a recent talk with her dad and was relying on him to support her. Her mother did not like her smoking, despite being a smoker herself. "Mum has tried several times to give up, but has smoked all her life."

    Both girls said it was "not cool" to smoke and anti-smoking advertisements made smoking unappealing and disgusting, and raised concern over future health problems, such as diabetes as well as ruining their looks with wrinkles. However, they both experienced peer pressure to smoke when drinking alcohol at parties. Waiopehu College deputy principal Linda Sherlock said she taught a year 9 class with an anti-smoking message aimed at students who had not started smoking. She noted only one or two smokers per class this year compared with four or five in the equivalent class 10 years ago.

    Ms Vandermade said teenagers had become aware of the negative effects of smoking - in health and looks - and were doing something about it.

    The report's author, Dr Janine Paynter, said: "We're seeing that some of the inequalities in tobacco use are closing, and it is particularly encouraging to see a decent reduction in the daily smoking rate for Pacific girls." The survey results were based on nearly 27,000 questionnaires filled in by teenagers across New Zealand. The Horowhenua results were based on a pool of about 131 students. The report follows a rise in tobacco excise in May, which was hailed as leading to 4000 more smokers attempting to quit than would have done so before the increase.

    Source: Stuff - 13 August 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/aPhT03

  • USA: Tobacco shipments to resume to soldiers overseas

    The U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that it plans to resume shipping care packages with cigarettes and other tobacco to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    A law aimed at preventing smuggling had unintentionally banned families from sending tobacco to military members serving overseas. Spokesman Greg Frey said the postal service is planning to issue new instructions that could allow shipments to resume possibly as soon as Aug. 27.

    The Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009 quietly took effect June 29 and was created to prevent minors from ordering cigarettes through the mail. It allowed for small shipments of tobacco but required a way to verify the recipient was old enough - meaning the only way to ship the packages through the postal service was by Express Mail, which requires a signature.

    However, Express Mail doesn't deliver to most overseas military addresses.

    "It's a very delicate balancing act to remain in compliance with the law and serve the needs of our customers and in this particular case those brave men and women overseas," Frey said.

    The new instructions would allow tobacco shipments to military addresses through Priority Mail, which does ship to deployed troops, with delivery confirmation instead.

    U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl, the bill's sponsor, said in a statement that he was notified Thursday of the new instructions.

    "I'm pleased that the Postal Service responded so quickly to the concerns of our military families and found a way to honor the original intent of the bill: to keep cigarettes out of the hands of children and prevent tobacco smugglers from profiting on the black market," he said.


    Kohl recently sent a letter to the Postmaster General asking him to change the regulations, because the bill also expressly permits the shipping of tobacco from adult to adult, including to military addresses.

    Following the law's enactment, family members of soldiers were turned away when they tried to send care packages containing tobacco products to combat troops. The law only affects the U.S. Postal Service because UPS and FedEx do not allow consumer-to-consumer shipping of tobacco.

    Rep. Anthony Weiner was the primary house member on the act and said the law was intended to stop the black market sales of cigarettes, not stop soldiers from getting smokes.

    "We have made it clear that our troops overseas may still get care packages with cigarettes," he said.

    Source: The Washington Post - 12 August 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/dpHUZJ

  • "Mad Men" links up with smoking charity for auction

    Emmy-award winning TV show "Mad Men" is offering a walk-on role in the 1960s advertising drama in a charity auction that will partly benefit lung cancer treatment and research.

    The 10-day auction, which starts on Thursday on eBay at 3.ly/madmen, is a unique twist on the smoking seen in "Mad Men", which meticulously recreates the social mores of the early 1960s.

    A portion of the proceeds will go to the lung cancer program at southern California's City of Hope hospital -- one of the nation's leading cancer treatment centers.

    "The smoking depicted in Mad Men was ubiquitous in the '60s world of Madison Avenue advertising and is a vivid reminder of how far we've progressed in our attitudes towards smoking since then," said Sandra Stern, chief operating officer at Lionsgate's TV arm, which makes "Mad Men."

    Other items include furniture and props from the iconic Sterling Cooper ad agency, along with dresses worn by characters Betty Draper (January Jones) and Joan Harris (Christina Hendricks) in the show.

    "Mad Men", starring Jon Hamm as conflicted advertising executive Don Draper, has won two best drama Emmy Awards and goes into the 2010 Emmy ceremony later this month with another 17 nominations.

    But audiences for the fourth season on cable channel AMC dropped 24 percent for Sunday's third episode to 2.2 million, down from 2.9 million for the season premiere on July 25, according to TV ratings data.

    Source: Reuters - 12 August 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/chRWwt