Smokefree North West demands tougher action on under-age smoking

Anti smoking campaigners have demanded tougher laws on cigarette sales in Halton just one week after the Government hardened penalties on retailers selling tobacco to children.

Smokefree North West (SFNW) welcomed the changes but said more should be done to combat teen smoking.

Figures show 22.5% of 15-16-year-olds in Halton and St Helens smoke.

But since April 1, retailers selling tobacco to under-18s will lose their licence for one year and pay a fine of up to £20,000.

A Smokefree spokesman said research shows that 67% of 15-year-old smokers in the North West buy their cigarettes from a newsagent, tobacconist or sweet shop.

Andrea Crossfield, Smokefree North West director, said: “Any measures that restrict the supply of tobacco to young people are clearly going to have a positive impact."

“However, in order to see a significant reduction in the number taking up smoking, the Government must take further action to protect them."

“Parliament is currently considering further measures, including retailers having to put cigarettes out of sight at point of sale and the phasing out of cigarette vending machines."

“There is strong support for this legislation. More than 60,000 North West residents contacted the Department of Health supporting these new measures.

“The prevalence of smoking in the region is a huge social problem. One in five deaths in the North West is due to smoking, and secondhand smoke accounts for around 14,000 deaths in the region annually.

“Only by tackling the uptake of smoking in young people we can break the inter-generational cycle.”

Source: Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News, 16 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/chy977

Ireland: 49% of unemployed people smoke

Nearly half of all unemployed Irish people smoke. 

Research carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland also shows that 27% of all Irish people currently smoke.

This means the incidence of smokers among the unemployed is nearly double that of the general population at 49%.

In the workforce, craft and trade workers were the highest group of smokers with 45% of female and 39% of male workers smoking.

It also revealed that the lowest levels of smoking were reported by professional workers, with 20% of men and 18% of women smoking.

Dr Karen Morgan says the figures don't come as a surprise.

Source: Belfast Telegraph, 15 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/cve97c

USA: Philip Morris makes $4 Billion tobacco payment

Philip Morris USA says it has made its payment as part of an agreement in which some cigarette makers pay the states for smoking-related health care costs.

The nation's No. 1 cigarette maker and operating company of Altria Group said it made its full annual payment of about $4 billion as part of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement.

The Richmond-based maker of Marlboro, Virginia Slims and Parliament cigarettes says it has paid more than $47 billion under the settlement and previous agreements since 1997.

As part of the landmark settlement to reimburse states for smoking-related health care costs, tobacco companies agreed to make about $206 billion in annual payments over more than two decades.

Source: Forbes, 15 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/csyj6j

Ukraine border police intercept record load of smuggled cigarettes

Ukrainian border police have intercepted a record load of smuggled cigarettes.
 
Law enforcers at the Chop border crossing inspecting vehicles travelling from the former Soviet republic into the Czech Republic discovered more than 220,000 packages of L&M cigarettes concealed in a rail car. 

The freight car built to haul flammable or toxic liquid gas contained four hidden compartments between the gas tanks' steel exterior and glass interior walls, in which smugglers had stored the cigarettes, a Ukraine border police official said.

The illicit shipment had a street value of approximately a half million dollars inside Ukraine, and as much as 1.5 million dollars inside the European Union. It was the most valuable illicit cigarette haul ever discovered by Ukrainian law enforcers.

Border police uncovered the shipment thanks to a new scanning machine, according to the article.

"We believe we have destroyed the operations of a major cigarette smuggling ring," a Ukraine customs service statement claimed.

Kharkiv is a centre of cigarette production in Ukraine, having seen heavy investment from international tobacco companies in the last decade.

Smuggling goods wholesale into the European Union has long been one of Ukraine's most profitable businesses, frequently taking place with the collusion of corrupt law enforcers, according to Ukrainian media reports.

Small-scale smuggling is an important industry in Ukraine's poor western provinces, where the economies of some villages are heavily dependent on small batches of goods transported by villagers as duty-free personal luggage back and forth between Ukraine and the EU.

Ukraine's border police in late March arrested a Mongolian national with an expired diplomatic passport attempting to export more than 1,000 packs of cigarettes as part of his personal effects.

Source: Earth Times, 15 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/can5dm