HEADLINES

• USA: Tobacco giant prepares for fight over cigarette tax
• Chinese come to their Cuban comrades' rescue by lighting up cigars
• India: 'Tobacco-free’ pan masalas found to be high in nicotine
• Hooked on hooka: Schoolgirl, 13, spending up to £60 per day on shisha

• USA: Tobacco giant prepares for fight over cigarette tax

  Tobacco giant Philip Morris USA has donated more than $128,000 to a new campaign account this month, in advance of a legislative plan to increase cigarette tax by $1 a pack to fund cancer research and prevention programs.

  Taxpayers Against Out-of-Control Spending was created "so that we may explore and evaluate our options regarding this measure," according to David Sutton, a spokesman for Philip Morris' parent company, Altria Group.

   

  The planned increase would take effect from 2012.
  Source: The Sacramento Bee, 23 February 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/g84Aw9

• Chinese come to their Cuban comrades' rescue by lighting up cigars

  Demand from China's expanding economic elite has helped to counter the effects of global recession and smoking bans on the Cuban cigar industry. 

  Cuban cigar sales rose 2% in 2010, reversing a downward trend. China overtook Germany as the third largest market for Habanos SA, the worldwide distributor of Cuban cigars, following the opening of Cuban cigar shops in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai.

  China is already the world's largest market for tobacco, with growing health concerns having little impact on the enormous demand. But of the roughly one in two Chinese men who smoke, the vast majority choose cigarettes.

  Source: The Guardian, 22 February 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/eYCUOH

• India: 'Tobacco-free’ pan masalas found to be high in nicotine

  Days after the Supreme Court banned the sale of smokeless tobacco products in plastic packages, a study commissioned by the Ministry of Health has shown that top pan masala brands, which claim to be 100 per cent tobacco-free, have been found to contain tobacco.

  A Global adult tobacco survey found that there are 274.9 million tobacco users in India, with a quarter using some form of smokeless tobacco.
   

  Scientific analysis of randomly picked pan masala brand samples by the Central Tobacco Research Institute (CTRI), has revealed that Rajnigandha, a popular pan masala, contains 2.26 gm of nicotine per 100 gm. A parallel study on the nicotine contents of smokeless tobacco products by the Food Research and Standardisation Lab, also showed Rajnigandha pan masala containing very high nicotine levels.

   

  Pan masala makers promote and advertise their products as “100 per cent tobacco-less”.
  Source: The Tribune, 22 February 20211
  Link: http://bit.ly/h8FRAL

• Hooked on hooka: Schoolgirl, 13, spending up to £60 per day on shisha

  A 13-year-old girl has become hooked on smoking shisha in back street cafes and is spending up to £60 per day on it. 

  The girl's mother believes hundreds of under 16s across the north-west are hooked on the pipes which are smoked in illegal backstreet dens. She claims that retailers charge around £6 per session and openly sell to underage children.

   

  The woman from Blackburn, Lancashire, said: 'My daughter just thinks because she's allowed to do it in these places it's legal and I'm over-reacting.

   

  'She'd never smoked before, now I think she's smoking cigarettes too. They're just not aware of the health risks and it has become widespread, 80 per cent of her friends are doing it.'

   

  A police spokesman said they are working to shut the shisa dens down.
   
  Source: Daily Mail, 23 February 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/fboPAW