India: Pictorial warnings on tobacco products to commence from December

The mandated pictorial warning on cigarette and beedi packets in India will come into force on December 1, 2008, revealed media reports citing the country's health minister Anbumani Ramadoss.

The warnings would include a skull and bones sign, a caution saying tobacco/smoking kills and images advocating the need to stop tobacco consumption.

Mr Ramadoss has maintained that court cases were responsible for the delay in implementing pictorial warnings on tobacco products.

The central government has also implemented a ban on smoking in public places which came into effect on October 2, 2008.

Source: Datamonitor, 17 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/V7bHB

Thailand: WHO makes 12-day inspection of tobacco controls

Although Thailand has introduced tobacco control measures in line with its obligations under the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, policing of these measures is flawed, according to a report in The Nation quoting a WHO survey. 

"Despite the ban, some convenience stores display cigarette packets," said WHO official, Dr Armando Peruga, during a tobacco control survey in Thailand from November 2 to 13. "We've found many smokers puffing cigarettes in areas declared as smoking free," he added.

Disease Control Department director general, ML Somchai Chakrabhand, said he would present the WHO findings to the national tobacco control board in January.

The secretary general of Thailand’s Action on Smoking and Health foundation, Prakit Vathesatogkit, said budgetary constraint was one key reason why enforcement was flawed, while another was the fact that the police had their hands full with other duties, such as “crime suppression”.

Source: Tobacco Reporter Magazine, 17 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/0UtKG

US: Health groups lash states over tobacco efforts

U.S. states have not lived up to their commitment to devote a major portion of their huge legal settlement with the tobacco industry a decade ago on anti-smoking efforts, health advocacy groups said on Tuesday.

In the 10 years since the landmark deal, the states have received $79.2 billion of the settlement and another $124.3 billion from tobacco taxes, but have spent only about 3 percent of it -- $6.5 billion -- on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, the groups said in a report.

The deal, which restricted cigarette advertising practices, requires tobacco companies to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity, with total payments estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years.

The report was issued by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

No state currently is funding tobacco prevention programs at the levels recommended by the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and only nine are funding such efforts at even half the recommended level, according to the report.

In November 1998, 46 states settled their lawsuits against the major tobacco companies to recover tobacco-related healthcare costs, joining four states -- Mississippi, Texas, Florida and Minnesota -- that had reached earlier, individual settlements.

"This report underscores the need for state officials to take a hard look at the devastating impact of tobacco use in their own communities," M. Cass Wheeler, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association, said in a statement.

"They must reassess their priorities and use the money for what it was originally intended - to fund prevention and cessation programs and break the cycle of addiction."

The CDC said in a report last week that the number of U.S. adults who smoke has dropped below 20 percent for the first time on record, although cigarettes still kill 443,000 Americans annually.

The CDC also said that including direct healthcare expenditures and productivity losses, the economic burden of smoking on the United States stands at $193 billion a year.

Source: Reuters UK, 18 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/qHdgz

US: Reynolds focuses on new products as market changes

Reynolds American Inc hopes newer products like dissolvable tobacco strips and tobacco pouches called snus will boost future profits in a U.S. market where cigarette smoking has been declining for years.

The maker of Camel cigarettes and Grizzly smokeless tobacco emphasized new product development in a meeting with analysts on Monday. The company is preparing for a likely increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes in 2009 and coping with a slumping U.S. economy that has already pushed some consumers to move down to lower-priced tobacco products.

"The migration from combustible products to smokeless products is already underway and we see it accelerating," Chief Executive Susan Ivey said, referring to the move from cigarettes.

U.S. cigarette consumption has decreased steadily since 1981 as smoking has been banned in more public areas and messages about its health hazards have become more prevalent. Cigarette makers have also been hit by marketing limits as part of a 1998 tobacco litigation settlement with the states.

Reynolds, like rival Altria Group Inc and other tobacco companies, has been testing new forms of smokeless tobacco products to attract new consumers. The company plans to launch Camel snus nationwide in 2009 and to begin test-marketing dissolvable tobacco sticks, strips and lozenges in three cities at about the same time.

One potential target for dissolvable tobacco could be women, who have traditionally been resistant to using other forms of smokeless tobacco. But even as it looks to develop products that could help future profits, Reynolds is also looking at a tough U.S. economy in the present. "We still see total tobacco as relatively resistant to this recession," Ivey said. But she also noted some consumers have been trading down to less expensive products.

With the election of Barack Obama to be the next U.S president and even stronger Democratic majorities in Congress, Ivey said an increase in the federal excise tax is likely, though she was not sure by how much, or when. With more states facing budget shortfalls, tax increases on tobacco by the states could also be on the horizon.

But Ivey noted that some states that have increased cigarette taxes have lost revenue as consumers have moved to the Internet or neighboring states to buy their smokes.

Source: Reuters UK, 17 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/tCSha

Smoking may harm the egg, embryo

In research that might have implications for human reproduction, U.S. and Chinese scientists have found that cigarette smoke damages mouse eggs and embryos.

The study was designed to examine whether cigarette smoke causes oxidative stress, cell death and dysfunction, and the shortening of telomeres (DNA at the ends of chromosomes that protect them from degradation). Two groups of female mice were exposed to cigarette smoke or cigarette smoke condensate for four weeks and compared to a control group of mice.

The mice exposed to cigarette smoke or the condensate were more likely than the unexposed mice to show increased fragmentation and delayed fertilization, resulting in impaired embryo development, the study found. The fragmented eggs also showed oxidative stress, and embryos from mice exposed to cigarette smoke or condensate for four weeks before fertilization were more likely to contain dead cells and altered expression of the protein Oct4, which plays an important role in the formation of viable blastocysts (a stage of embryonic development).

The association between cigarette smoke or condensate and embryo development was dependent on the length of exposure, the team noted. But even embryos exposed to smoke for as little as four days showed reduced telomere length in cells and decreased blastocyst development, suggesting that embryos may be more sensitive to smoke-induced oxidative stress than eggs, the researchers said.

The study was published in the November issue of the journal Fertility and Sterility.

"Here is even more evidence demonstrating the dreadful effects smoking has on reproductive tissues and function. While there are some data implying that the effects may not be permanent, every woman planning to become pregnant would be wise to quit smoking or, better yet, never start," Dr. William Gibbons, president-elect of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, said in a society news release.

Source: healthfinder.gov, 17 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/zmnQJ