HEADLINES

• Tobacco giant pledges £112m to combat European illegal trade in cigarettes
• Tory backbenchers call for smoking ban review
• Netherlands is told to get tough on smokers as cancer mortality stagnates
• Habit, not nicotine, prompts cigarette cravings

• Tobacco giant pledges £112m to combat European illegal trade in cigarettes

  One of the world's biggest tobacco companies today pledged £112million towards European efforts to smash the illegal trade in cigarettes.

  British American Tobacco (BAT) is joining forces with the European Commission's anti-fraud office and national enforcement authorities in the 27 EU countries to counter organised crime worth tens of billions of pounds a year.

  The deal was agreed at a signing ceremony today, two years after BAT approached the commission with plans to step-up the fight against tobacco counterfeiting and smuggling.

  Estimates put annual losses from the smuggling of genuine and counterfeit cigarettes - those with cheap contents and copied brand logos - at around £8.4billion a year.

  Average customs duty and VAT losses from 10 million smuggled cigarettes - the cargo of a 40ft boat - is £1.25million.  However, the UK loss would be three times as much because of higher than average tobacco taxes.

  Algirdas Semeta, European tax and anti-fraud commissioner, said: 'Today's agreement will help greatly in combating the illegal trade in cigarettes and will send a strong signal to criminals that they have both the authorities and industry working against them.'

  Jack Bowles, BAT's director for Western Europe, said: 'The illicit trade in tobacco is organised crime and is the number one fraud perpetrated in Europe.

  'This is costing member state governments and businesses tens of billions of pounds every year. This is happening at a time when governments around Europe can ill afford to be losing these revenues.'

  He said 75 billion cigarettes were smuggled around Europe every year.

  Mr Bowles added: 'To put this into context, 75 billion cigarettes are more cigarettes than are sold in a large EU member state, such as Spain or Poland or the UK.  This means that close to 13 per cent of all cigarettes sold in Europe change hands illegally. 'Illicit trade is like an illegal tobacco company having almost 13 per cent of the European market, without obeying any laws.

  'To demonstrate our commitment to this partnership, and our ceaseless determination to reduce and ultimately eradicate this escalating problem, we shall be contributing £112million over 20 years. This will support the commission and the member states as they continue to play the lead role in this fight against illicit trade.'

  BAT is the world's second largest stockmarket-listed tobacco group, and includes Dunhill, Kent, Pall Mall and Lucky Strike among its brands.

  China is the biggest source of counterfeit cigarettes, but significant quantities come from Russia and Ukraine and illegal factories have been found in some EU countries.

  Genuine smuggled cigarettes come from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus - countries where prices are so much lower that huge profits can be made smuggling them into higher-priced markets.

  A third concern is the growth of cheap new brands outside the EU, which are then illegally imported and sold. The commission said they are becoming an alternative to counterfeit cigarettes, popular with consumers because of their low prices.  In 2008, 5.2 billion cigarettes were seized by EU member states.

  
   

  Source: Daily Mail, 16 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bbSTqB

• Tory backbenchers call for smoking ban review

  The smoking ban has a detrimental effect on pubs and clubs and should be reviewed, two Tory backbenchers claimed today.

  MP for East Yorkshire Greg Knight said pubs were closing at an "alarming rate", while the MP for Shipley Philip Davies said ministers should ensure the "freedom of people to smoke in public places".

  The ban on smoking in enclosed public places in England came into effect in 2007 in an attempt to cut deaths caused by second-hand smoke. During Commons exchanges on forthcoming business, Mr Knight, a former minister, said the coalition had cancelled the proposed 2010 review of the ban.

  He said: "In view of this, can we have an early debate in government time of the effects the smoking ban is having, in its current form, on our pubs and clubs which are still closing at an alarming rate?"

  Commons Leader Sir George Young said he would raise the issue with Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

  Mr Davies echoed calls for a debate on the effects of the ban. He said: "The Government is pushing through Parliament a Freedom Bill. I hope you will use your influence to ensure the freedom of people to smoke in public places and the freedom of pubs and clubs to allow people to smoke on what are their own premises in such a Freedom Bill."

  Sir George replied: "I have to disappoint you. I supported the Health Bill when it went through the House. I encouraged the government to remove the exemption for pubs that did not sell food. I think it was a sensible thing to do and I stand by that policy. I think the benefit to public health has been welcome."

  
   

  Source: The Mirror, 15 June 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bCQjZb

• Netherlands is told to get tough on smokers as cancer mortality stagnates

  The Netherlands needs the political will to do more to tackle smoking, experts on tobacco control urged at an international conference in The Hague this week. The call came as the latest figures show numbers of deaths from cancer and levels of smoking higher than the European average.

  The Dutch organisation Stivoro, the tobacco control expertise centre that hosted the conference together with the Dutch National Cancer Control Programme, called for a new direction for tobacco control.

  The conference heard that more incisive messages about the consequences of smoking and more awareness about the influence of the tobacco industry were needed. Only then would smoking become less "normal" and the Netherlands properly fulfil its commitments under the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

  Measures proposed included replacing the written warnings on cigarette packets with graphic ones, increasing the tax on relatively cheap rolling tobacco, favoured by younger smokers, and enforcing the smoking ban in the hospitality sector.

  Geoffrey Fong, of the International Tobacco Control Project in Ontario, Canada, co-produced a national report on the Netherlands. This showed strong pro-smoking attitudes. Only 22% of smokers, the lowest figure in 16 countries, had a negative opinion of smoking and were therefore likely to quit.

  The number of cafés and bars in which smoking continued to occur fell after the 2008 smoking ban to 30% but then rose to 36%. Far more dramatic falls to about 5% were seen in Scotland and France. Professor Fong said that the ban was "clearly not being implemented properly," adding that all measures needed "sustained and unwavering commitment from government."

  Barbara Zolty, who is involved in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, said that the Dutch could do more to meet their treaty commitments. She called for a 100% smoke-free environment indoors, arguing that there was no justification for exemptions such as for venues with ventilation systems, currently under consideration. She said that the most effective warnings on cigarette packets are graphical ones and that displaying products at the point of sale should be banned.

  "The time for half measures is over," she said. "We know what works. It is now the time for the political will to move forward."

  Stanton Glantz, from the University of California’s Center for Tobacco Control Research, urged Dutch authorities to understand the influence of tobacco companies. The industry, he said, opposes smoke-free policies in the Netherlands just as anywhere else in the world.

  "There is nothing different here. These are not ideas which indigenously grow in Dutch culture," he said. Instead "poor results" in the Netherlands reflected "a failure of government," said Professor Glantz. He urged resistance to "industry inspired ineffectual solutions" such as ventilation systems in cafés.

  Lies van Gennip, director of Stivoro, said that, unlike in other countries, "People in Holland still retain a positive view of smoking. We must change that. With information and regulation we must continue to work to denormalise smoking."

  The National Cancer Control Programme reported that smoking is responsible for 30% of deaths from cancer, a figure unchanged since 2006. At 28%, the percentage of people who smoke in the Netherlands is one of the highest in the European Union. In the United Kingdom it is 21%. The incidence of lung cancer continues to rise, especially among women. Stivoro estimates that smoking is the single most avoidable cause of illness and results in 20 000 deaths a year in the Netherlands.

  Source: British Medical Journal, 18 June 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bbSTqB

• Habit, not nicotine, prompts cigarette cravings

  Are smokers hooked on nicotine, or on the habit of smoking itself? That's the question posed by an ingenious study on smokers who worked as flight attendants, which found cravings for the next cigarette were just as strong on short-haul as long-haul flights. The study authors say this suggests nicotine replacement therapy may not be the most effective way to help someone quit smoking.

  What do we know already?

  Nicotine is an addictive substance, and that's part of what makes smoking hard to quit. However, many people stop smoking for weeks or even months but take up the habit again much later, when all nicotine cravings should be gone. People often say they start smoking again because of stress, or because they're in a situation they associate with smoking, such as having drinks with friends who smoke.

  However, much of the effort to help people give up smoking has focused on overcoming short-term nicotine cravings. For example, lots of people try nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), which gives people nicotine from another source such as gum or patches.

  We know NRT can improve people's chances of giving up smoking, but it doesn't mean you won't start smoking again. In one study, 9 in 100 people quit smoking for a year with the help of NRT, but only 5 in 100 were non-smokers eight years later. We also know that other types of support, such as advice from a doctor, nurse or counsellor, can help.

  This latest research looked at smoking cravings in flight attendants who usually smoked, but weren't allowed to during flights. The attendants recorded their levels of cravings at specific time points during short- and long-haul flights.

  What does the new study say?

  The flight attendants' cigarette cravings were related more strongly to how soon they expected to be able to smoke (how long until they were able to leave the plane) than to the length of time since they had their last cigarette (the overall length of the flight).

  The short-haul flights lasted between 3 and 6 hours. Cravings peaked at the end of the flight, measured just after the passengers had left the plane. The long-haul flights were from 8 to 13 hours. The researchers looked at the attendants' cravings at 3 to 6 hours - the time when the short-haul flights were over and cravings were highest. However, cravings were not especially high at this point on long-haul flights. They did, however, reach the same peak levels of craving as the short-haul flight during the final measurement when the passengers had left the plane, but cravings were not stronger after a long-haul flight than a short-haul flight.

  Interestingly, the effect of a break between short-haul flights was to reduce craving levels, even for those attendants who hadn't smoked between flights.

  The researchers also looked at the attendants' stress levels during the flight, but didn't find a link between increased stress and desire to smoke. There was a small increase in desire to smoke for attendants who smoked more heavily and had smoked for longer.

  How reliable are the findings?

  The study was relatively small, and the results relied on flight attendants being able to fill in questionnaires throughout their busy in-flight schedule. However, they show fairly consistent results and support other studies that indicate that people have fewer cravings in situations where they know they can't smoke. However, most of the 53 attendants were young and didn't smoke heavily. So, a study looking at heavier smokers who have smoked for longer would help see if the results apply to other smokers.

  What does this mean for me?

  If you want to quit smoking, this study shows that planning on how to deal with situations when you usually smoke may be as important as thinking about smoking cessation aids such as nicotine replacement.

  What should I do now?

  There's lots of help available if you want to quit smoking through your local GP surgery or by contacting the free NHS smoking helpline on 0800 022 4 332. You can find out more and get resources to help you quit at the Smoke Free website (www.smokefree.nhs.uk).

  Where does the study come from?

  The study was done by researchers at Tel Aviv University, with flight attendants from El Al airline. It was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, which is owned by the American Psychological Association.

   

  Source: The Guardian, 15 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bbSTqB