HEADLINES

• Shops plea on cigarette display ban
• Cigarettes seized in Middlesbrough raids
• Wales: Cigarette butts account for 90% of street litter
• New Zealand: Life expectancy to rise if tobacco sales phased out
• Uganda’s forest cover fast dying out as tobacco industry booms

• Shops plea on cigarette display ban

  Shops are pressing ministers to drop a ban on displaying cigarettes due to be introduced next year under a Labour law.

  Shopkeepers say changing displays will cost about £1,000 each and put them at risk of being robbed as they reach for cigarettes kept away from view.

  Nearly 1,000 are writing to ministers and MPs calling for the ban to be scrapped, say the National Federation of Retail Newsagents.

  The Action on Smoking and Health charity say cigarette makers use packaging and displays to tempt children to smoke.

  Source: The Mirror, 15 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bpdF4H

• Cigarettes seized in Middlesbrough raids

  Thousands of cigarettes were seized in raids on Middlesbrough’s tobacco houses.
  
  The operation targeted four addresses in the town centre, Whinney Banks, Park End and Ormesby.
  
  Officers seized more than 1kg of hand-rolling tobacco and nearly 2,000 cigarettes of which more than half are believed to be counterfeit. Those responsible face hefty fines and possible jail terms if convicted of illegal sales.
  
  The raids followed mounting concern over sales of illegal cigarettes - smuggled, counterfeit and brands made exclusively for the black market sometimes known as “cheap whites” - from houses in the town.
  
  Research carried out by Teesside University found in some areas of the town up to 65% of smokers buy cigarettes from private houses.
  
  Operating outside the law, sellers are willing to sell tobacco to underage customers. In a recent survey, one in five smokers in the North-east admitted to buying illegal tobacco, rising to one in three in the 14-17 age group.
  
  Dr Peter Heywood, Middlesbrough’s director of public health, said: “People who deal in illicit or bootlegged cigarettes are quite happy selling to young people and children and this illegal activity is having a major impact on the health of some of the poorest communities."
  
  “It’s interesting that a recent survey in the North-east found that almost nine in 10 adults supported a crackdown on people who sell illegal tobacco to children. This operation is hugely important and I would urge anyone who is aware of similar activities taking place in their neighbourhoods to contact the confidential Crimestoppers hotline.”
  
  The operation followed months of intelligence-gathering and surveillance by Middlesbrough Trading Standards.
  
  Officers worked closely with colleagues in HM Revenue and Customs to identify the town’s most active illegal tobacco traders while Cleveland Police assisted in the raids.
  
  “Today’s raid was the culmination of a considerable amount of work by our officers and partners in other agencies, and that work will continue to ensure we stamp out this menace,” said Councillor Brenda Thompson, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive member for public health and sport."
  
  HM Revenue and Customs said they will continue to target and disrupt illegal traders of tobacco goods across the area.

  Source: Gazette Live, 13 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bHO8E8

• Wales: Cigarette butts account for 90% of street litter

  Smokers play a big part in dropping litter on the streets of the South Wales Valleys.
  
  Merthyr Tydfil and Caerphilly Councils are constantly tackling the problem with its cleaning teams carrying out street blitzes.
  
  But the dropping of cigarette butts on the highway is a blight on our landscape and must be stubbed out.
  
  A Keep Wales Tidy survey revealed that cigarette butts account for 90% of rubbish found on roads and pavements in the first nationwide litter survey to be undertaken anywhere in the UK.
  
  The group blamed the April 2007 smoking ban for the probable cause of the thousands of cigarette butts strewn across South Wales streets.
  
  But in a statement, Action on Smoking and Health Wales (ASH) said: “Prior to the smoking ban, the percentage of cigarette ends was 86% and therefore we need to consider a range of other factors when looking at the high percentage of smoking litter.”
  
  But pro-smoking lobby group the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST) said a concerted effort by both smokers and authorities was needed.
  
  FOREST spokesman, Neil Rafferty, said: “We obviously do not think that smokers should be dropping fag ends, but councils need to make it easier for smokers to dispose of them. We need a bit of consideration from smokers and a bit of imagination from politicians to solve this problem.”
  
  Tegryn Jones, chief executive of Keep Wales Tidy, said: “Responsibility for tackling this nationwide shame lies with all of us. It is not acceptable to throw litter.”
  
  Environment minister Jane Davidson said: “Funding from the Welsh Assembly Government has made it possible for Keep Wales Tidy to collect data on litter and refuse in each local authority area.”
   

  Source: Wales Online, 12 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bexvhA

• New Zealand: Life expectancy to rise if tobacco sales phased out

  New Zealanders would live longer if tobacco sales were ended by 2020, according to new research published today in the New Zealand Medical Journal.

  Maori could expect a five-year gain, while the life expectancy of non-Maori would be three years longer if sales ended by 2020 and the gains projected to 2040, researchers from Otago University, Wellington, say.

  This was compared to life expectancy if smoking rates stayed the same as they were in the 2006 census.

  "This is a win-win situation," lead researcher Tony Blakely said.

  "Making New Zealand free from tobacco sales not only improves everyone's life expectancy, but it also substantially reduces health inequalities between Maori and non-Maori."

  Currently just under 50 percent of Maori smoke, and about 22 percent of the whole population, with 4500-5000 tobacco-related deaths annually.

  Professor Blakely said there was growing momentum among the public and politicians that it was time to end the tobacco epidemic.

  The Maori Affairs select committee was soon to report to Parliament with recommendations, following its inquiry into the effect of the tobacco industry on Maori.

  "Phasing out the sale of tobacco by 2020 would be the single most important and feasible action to reduce Maori mortality and ethnic disparities in this country," said Prof Blakely.

  Prof Richard Edwards, co-author and lead researcher on projects looking at how to end tobacco sales in New Zealand, said enough was known now about how to reduce smoking to start a 10-year countdown to zero tobacco sales.

  "A 'sinking lid' in tobacco imports, accompanied by massive increases in tobacco cessation activity and other supportive measures to promote quitting amongst smokers and to stop children starting, will see New Zealand effectively tobacco-free by 2020," he said.

  A companion paper in the journal presents trends in survival and lifetables, necessary for projections of life expectancy to 2040.

  Dr Kristie Carter, lead author of the paper, reported that the differences in life expectancy between current smokers and people who never smoked was about seven years during 1996-99 -- the most recent period with the necessary data.

  If nothing was done, and smoking persisted at current rates it would become an even greater constraint on life expectancy and reduction of health inequalities in future, Prof Blakely said.

  The research arose from the New Zealand Census-Mortality Study, funded by the Health Research Council and the Ministry of Health.

  Source: Otago Daily Times, 16 AUgust 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/cIZFLE

• Uganda’s forest cover fast dying out as tobacco industry booms

  Uganda’s tobacco industry is spawning an environmental disaster, as farmers turn to fruit trees for wood fuel to cure the tobacco leaves.
  
  Driving through tobacco growing areas, outside the Murchison Falls National Park one barely encounters natural forests. The native trees have been cut down and no efforts have been made to replace them.
  
  Occasionally, one sees smaller manmade forests of eucalyptus trees that belong to a few individuals who, after growing food crops still have land to spare.
  
  Larger manmade forests belong to the leading tobacco company British American Tobacco Uganda Ltd. The company sells the wood to the tobacco farmers.
  
  Caught between the short term need for revenue and employment opportunities that the tobacco industry presents, the government has turned a blind eye to the unfolding environmental impact of the plant.
  
  In 2009, the country exported 32,000 tonnes of tobacco leaves that fetched $57 million in revenue. The previous year, the industry exported 29,042 tonnes fetching $66 million.
  
  Also, over 90 per cent of Uganda households rely on wood fuel as a source of energy, which adds to the challenge of redeeming the forest cover.
  
  In addition, there is increased demand for timber for the construction and furniture making industries.
  
  A 1992 Panos study on deforestation in developing countries revealed that 69 per cent of wood consumed by tobacco companies goes to fuel used in curing tobacco, and 15 per cent to poles and sticks for constructing barns.
  
  The most affected countries include Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Brazil and Uganda. Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa that uses the flue method — which makes use of coal, petrol or oil — to cure tobacco leaves.
  
  Despite tobacco being an industrial crop with a considerable number of farmers producing it, the National Agricultural Research Organisation, Uganda’s lead research body, cannot regulate the crop as it is outside its mandate.
  
  This leaves the sector in the hands of private multi billion dollar companies.
  
  Julius Mukalazi, director of research at the Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in West Nile, said the effect is disastrous as these companies have exhausted the natural forest trees and are now cutting down mango trees.
  
  “In the future we may not have fruits,” said Dr Mukalazi. “Batu and other companies need to come up with mitigating programmes such as agroforestry, growing woodland for firewood and fodder for livestock, which should be integrated under Naro.”
  However, when asked about their plan for reforestation, Batu was unresponsive.
  The British American Tobacco Company introduced tobacco to the farmers in West Nile in 1927 as a cash crop.
  
  The region is also suitable for growing fruits like mangoes, avocados, citrus and passion fruits, which also have industrial uses.
  
  Cereals, cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and pumpkins can also be grown in the area to boost food security. The surplus can be sold in ready markets in DR Congo and Southern Sudan.
  
  The region is also suitable for apiary and cash crops like coffee and cotton, but the farmers prefer growing tobacco because of the incentives that the tobacco companies provide.
  
  Yet regulating the tobacco industry continues to present a unique challenge.Unlike other environmental control efforts, the problem in this case is a multibillion dollar industry.
  
  For example, while Uganda’s activists fight tobacco advertisements in the mass media, tobacco companies are offering scholarships, contracts to farmers who are assured of payment after harvest, besides taking part in corporate social responsibility projects that portrays them favourably in the public eye.
  
  According to the Forestry Policy of 2001, Uganda’s natural forest cover stands at 4.9 million hectares which is 24 per cent of the total land area, out of which government owns 1.9 million hectares either under the Forestry Department or in national parks that fall under the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
  
  Incidentally, only 740,000 hectares of forests stands today. It is estimated that 800,000 cubic metres of logs are cut each year.

  Source: The East African, 16 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/8XDNTG