US: Experts say new tobacco product targets young adults

New research at West Virginia University is examining whether a smokeless, spitless tobacco product aimed at young adults is catching on. And the researchers have found that RJ Reynolds' Camel Snus touted as a socially acceptable way to satisfy addiction contains surprisingly high levels of nicotine.

"Camel Snus contains more nicotine than most other snuff products," said Bruce Adkins of the state Division of Tobacco Prevention in Charleston. "In fact, the Camel Snus currently being marketed in West Virginia contains double the nicotine of an earlier tested version sold elsewhere in the United States. This provides a new example of the tobacco companies' manipulating nicotine levels without informing consumers."

"West Virginia has extremely high rates of smokeless tobacco use and high rates of smoking," said Cindy Tworek, Ph.D., a member of WVU's Translational Tobacco Reduction Research Program (T2R2). "It would appear that tobacco companies are trying to strategically market new smokeless, spitless tobacco products in these areas of high use, such as West Virginia, and also promoting their use as a way to get nicotine in places where you can't smoke." T2R2 is a joint effort of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU and the West Virginia Prevention Research Center.

Tworek is conducting a survey of several hundred young adults on or around college campuses in West Virginia to see whether the product's marketing has scored a hit. She hopes to have results compiled early in 2009.

Snus comes in a pouch that is placed between the gum and the upper lip. Because of low salt and moisture content, users don't have to spit. "It's a pouch you put in your mouth and you basically just let it sit there and absorb," she said. "You are supposed to be able to swallow the juice so you don't spit."

Tworek first noticed Camel Snus in a Morgantown gas station's convenience store, colorfully packaged in a refrigerated display case, and sporting youth-pleasing flavors such as frost and spice.

"Given West Virginia's high smoking rates, plus the fact that West Virginia has the highest rate of spit tobacco in the country among adult men, it makes sense that Morgantown became a test market for Camel Snus," she said. "Packaging, colors, and advertising have potential to appeal to a younger audience, including product pamphlets on where you can use Camel Snus. The 'spitless' nature of the product would also seem more attractive to women vs. other more traditional forms of smokeless tobacco, like chew or snuff."

The product's nicotine level is also an issue. To study nicotine and other chemicals in snus, the Division of Tobacco Prevention partnered with Tworek and Robert H. Anderson, deputy director of the WVU Prevention Research Center in the WVU Department of Community Medicine.

"Our research shows that nicotine levels in Camel Snus are stronger than levels in several snuff products sold in the United States," Anderson said. Previous data suggested that snus products being test-marketed in the United States were weak in nicotine, the authors wrote in a study presented for publication in an upcoming issue of the state's medical journal.

In contrast, the research findings indicate that the version of Camel Snus currently being sold in West Virginia has double the nicotine compared to an earlier analysis of a test-market version of the same product.

"With nicotine levels this high, these products are going to be highly addicting. The public needs this awareness, especially to remind them that there's no tobacco product that can be used without significant potential health risks," Adkins said.

Anderson added, "We think the target market for snus includes youth the same way the tobacco companies have marketed to young people for decades. Kids could use it in schools, and teachers wouldn't even know."

Tests showed another brand of snus the Liggett Group's Tourney products to be much lower in nicotine than Camel Snus.

"Tobacco manufacturers manipulate nicotine levels in snus and can do so even within a brand's flavors," the authors wrote. "Furthermore, they can do this without disclosing this information to consumers."

The study notes the tobacco industry's long history of developing and marketing products that purport to be less harmful than other products. But the researchers said they cannot confirm snus as a safe alternative to smoking, even though the product qualifies as a PREP, or Potential Reduced Exposure Product. (PREPs are not evaluated for safety by the government.)

"Snus products have not been tested in terms of long-term safety, to know whether it's accurate to market them as a health-safe alternative to smoking," Tworek said.
 

Source: MediLexicon News 19 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/ttLdc 

Calls for generic cigarette packs at anti-smoking summit in Durban

Health experts from across the world meeting in South Africa's port city of Durban this week are discussing proposals to strip tobacco manufacturers of one of their last marketing tools: eye-catching packaging. Representatives of the 160 countries that are party to the 2003 World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control have been meeting in Durban since Monday to discuss guidelines on the implementation of the treaty.

Among the proposals under consideration is a move towards generic or plain cigarette packs, with standardized colours, fonts and 'only the most objective information,' including a very large health warning, according to Heather Selin of the Framework Convention secretariat.

'The idea would be to make them as ugly as possible,' Selin told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Gone would be the colour coding - red, blue, etc. - that manufacturers use to denote the cigarettes' 'strength' - a notion rejected by health experts as misleading. Plain cigarette packaging has been discussed in some countries like Canada as far back as 1995, according to Selin. Britain also began a consultative process around generic packaging earlier this year.

Given the global clampdown on cigarette advertising, packaging has become one of few remaining vehicles for brand promotion. Manufacturers have, therefore, vigorously, resisted the push for stripped-down packs.

'Not only would a standardization of cigarette packaging drive down pricing and put an end to the appeal of premium cigarettes, which carry higher profit margins, but it would also lead to a rise in illicit cigarette trade,' Tobacco Journal International said, heaping scorn on the idea in its September 2 issue.

Even if, as Selin deemed likely, the parties to the tobacco convention meeting in Durban decide to adopt new guidelines on plain packaging, governments would not be bound by them. But it would bolster calls for tighter regulations on packaging in countries that were already leaning that way, she said.

Also under discussion at the Durban conference, which closes Saturday, is a proposal to make pictorial health warnings, rather than text-only warnings, the norm on packs. Surveys in Canada, Singapore and Brazil, have found graphic warnings to be much more effective than text in turning people off smoking, particularly among lower-income groups. The tobacco treaty merely states that health warnings 'may' include pictures or pictograms.

Source: M&C 21 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/l27d9

Imperial Tobacco celebrates Dubai Duty Free anniversary with limited edition Davidoff gift boxes

To mark the 25th anniversary of Dubai Duty Free, Imperial Tobacco is launching a special edition gift box of Davidoff cigarettes. It will only be available for the celebratory period and is exclusive to Dubai Duty Free. The gift box has a new shimmer design for all variants and has an integrated gift for Davidoff adult smokers – a 200 carton also holds a 1GB USB stick, while the 400 carton contains a 2GB USB stick.

“This is the first time that Imperial Tobacco has launched a product specifically for just one airport,” said Imperial Tobacco International Trade Marketing Manager Global Duty Free Mark Robinson. “We are proud to work closely with Dubai Duty Free and together over the years have developed Davidoff cigarettes into one of the top selling brands in the airport. Dubai was one of the launch airports for our super premium Davidoff Black & White last year and is in our top five airports worldwide for the brand.”

Source: The Moody Report.com 21 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/2m7eN

Smoking 'to blame' for greatest number of home fire deaths

Smoking causes the greatest number of accidental fire deaths in the home, according to a Government Minister. Work on setting a European standard for fire-safe cigarettes would take about two years to complete, said junior communities and local government minister Baroness Andrews.

She was speaking during a Lords debate on the co-ordination of fire safety and emergency services across the EU.

"The number of deaths caused by smoking is a very acute example of personal responsibility. In 2006, there were 3,168 accidental dwelling fires in the UK started by smoking. It is an extraordinary figure...96 people were killed and 1,146 injured," she said.

"The Government has been instrumental in encouraging the European Commission to look into the case for creating a European standard for fire-safer cigarettes, designed to self-extinguish if left unattended, rather than smoulder down and set things alight.

"We have watched with interest developments of this kind in other countries, particularly in the USA and Canada. In October 2005 Canada became the first country to implement a cigarette fire safety standard.

"Since then, assessments suggest that on the basis of their methodology, we would have had 2,116 fewer fires, so these fire-safe cigarettes work.

"The EU has voted overwhelmingly to create such a standard. By establishing a European standard for fire-safe cigarettes, manufacturers will have to produce cigarettes which meet the EU standard compelled by law.

"We continue to be at the forefront of pushing this forward and expect our work on developing this standard to commence later this year. It will probably take about two years to complete," Lady Andrews said.
 

Source: 24 Dash.com 20 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/DwqaN

African farmers turn backs on tobacco

Most African farmers grow tobacco because they are poor and lack alternative ways to earn a living, but with encouragement, many Tanzanian farmers are giving the killer crop the cold-shoulder. This is according to Lutgard Kagaruki, from the Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum, who addressed a panel at the World Health Organisation's tobacco control conference in Durban this week.

Tanzania is the second biggest grower of tobacco in Africa after Malawi, but many tobacco farmers were "enslaved in permanent debt to the tobacco companies" and wanted to get out, said Kagaruki. "The tobacco companies give subsidies and loans for them to buy fertiliser, chemicals (pesticides) and seed. But then they under-grade the crops and set low prices. The farmers can't repay the loans and find themselves enslaved in permanent debt bondage," said Kagaruki. The 80 000 tobacco farmers in Tanzania earned an estimated US$1 (R10) a day, she added.

In addition, three-quarters of the farmers smoked and suffered from the respiratory sicknesses and cancer associated with smoking. The TTCF started to organise among tobacco farmers in the Namtambo district, encouraging them rather to grow food by pointing out that at least they could eat their crops when they faced hard times.

"In October 2006 there were 22 300 tobacco farmers in the district, but a year later there were only 6 333," said Kagaruki. "They have started growing simsim (sesame seeds) and sunflowers and groundnuts, and they are very happy. They call me on my cellphone and tell me how well they are doing," she added.

While tobacco is Tanzania's second biggest foreign exchange earner, bringing about $55,5-million into the country in 2003/4, one of the country's cancer institutes, the Ocean Road Cancer Institute, reported spending $30-million treating smoking-related cancers during the same period.

However, Dr Yusuf Salojee, from South Africa's National Council Against Smoking, warned that finding alternative livelihoods for farmers does not work as a tobacco control measure."With the collapse of Zimbabwe's tobacco farms after land seizures, all that happened was that Tanzania, Zambia and even Mozambique started to grow more tobacco," he told the conference. "It does not reduce tobacco demand, but rather shifts supply to another country."

Daniel Sibetchem, from Cameroon's health ministry, said there was a worrying increase in smoking among his country's young people, with 44 percent of schoolchildren having tried tobacco. More than one in five children aged 13 to 14 were already smokers. Nigeria has resorted to the courts to control the spread of smoking, according to Dr Michael Anibueze, of the country's ministry of health.

Source: The Star 21 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/zeCYg  

Warning over future lung disease death rates in China

Millions of people in China will die from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer over the next three decades if smoking rates and the use of solid fuels in the country do not fall, researchers warn.

However, measures aimed at reducing smoking rates and solid fuel use in the country could prevent a significant proportion of these deaths, say lead researcher Dr Majid Ezzati, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, and team.

Smoking is particularly problematic in China, where half of all men smoke. Solid-fuel use also poses significant public health concerns, as more than 70% of Chinese households use wood, crop residues and coal for heating and cooking.

Using statistics from various sources, Dr Ezzati and colleagues estimated past trends in smoking and household fuel use in China to predict future trends in death rates due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.

Results from their predictive model indicate that, by 2033, 65 million people in China will have died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 18 million will have died from lung cancer if smoking and solid-fuel use continue at their current rates.

The combined effects of smoking and solid fuel use will be responsible for 82% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths and 75% of lung cancer deaths.

Moderately aggressive measures – those that make significant progress but do not completely phase out smoking and solid-fuel use – would reduce chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths by 6–31% and lung cancer deaths by 8–26%.

“Without interventions, the annual numbers of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer deaths in China are predicted to double over the next 30 years,” write Dr Ezzati and team in The Lancet.

They conclude: “Moderate, aggressive, and complete reduction of these exposures over the next 3 decades, through mechanisms such as tobacco taxation, advertising bans and fuel pricing, can lead to a 7-38% reduction in deaths from these two diseases, which have few other effective treatments.”

In an accompanying commentary, Gong-huan Yang, from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, China, and Nan-shan Zhong, from Gangzhou Medical College in China, said the study “is a good reminder for the Chinese Government to make relevant policies and emphasises the urgent need for tobacco control and expedition of gas fuel as a replacement for solid fuel in China”.

Source: MedWire News 20 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/xkoeb