Gallaher splits work between Ignis and Hogarth

Gallaher, the tobacco company, has split its below-the-line [marketing] account between Haygarth and incumbent Ignis. It is thought to be worth about £1m.

Ignis will oversee its festival activation programme, while Haygarth will handle retail activity. The company called the review, which was overseen by the AAR, in the autumn (MW.co.uk October 29).

Companies such as Imperial Tobacco and the Japan Tobacco-owned Gallaher, have sought to capitalise on this year's economic downturn, with the launch of cut-price packets of cigarettes.

Imperial Tobacco, which makes brands such as Lambert & Butler, has launched a new brand called JPS Silver, priced at £4.21 for a pack of 20. Similarly, Gallaher announced in October that it would reduce prices on its budget brand Sterling by 7% to £4.20 a pack.

The appointment of Haygarth and Ignis comes less than a week after the Government announced plans to ban tobacco displays in England and Wales.

Source: Marketing Week, 18 December 2008
Link: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=63736&d=258&h=262&f=3

Australia: Lung cancer deadliest tumor for women

Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest killer of Australian women with cancer, as females who started smoking in the 1970s and 1980s as they gained equal rights with men are diagnosed with the deadly disease.

More than 50 Australian women lost their battle with lung cancer every week in 2005 and the number will rise to almost 65 female deaths a week in 2010, said a report released on Friday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

As society changed in the 1970s and 1980s and women enjoyed the same freedoms as men, they took up cigarettes at a growing rate, while an anti-smoking message began to hit home for men and their smoking rate fell, said the report.

As a result, lung cancer rates are expected to grow by 0.4 per cent a year until 2010 for women and fall by 1.1 per cent for men, it said.

"In the past the tobacco industry targeted female smokers with advertising suggesting that smoking is glamorous or fashionable," said Kylie Lindorff, policy manager at the government's anti-smoking unit Quit.

"Unfortunately, these active campaigns to recruit female smokers are now translating into higher lung cancer deaths," Lindorff said in a statement.

"There is a lag of several decades between when someone starts smoking and the development of lung cancer, so given that women's smoking rates peaked in the late 1970s, we don't expect to see falls in the number of lung cancer deaths in women for some time," she said.

In 2005, for the first time, there were more than 100,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in Australia and the number is projected to grow by more than 3,000 extra cases a year in 2006-2010, mainly due to Australia's aging population.

There were 44,356 women diagnosed with cancer in 2005.

Breast cancer was the most common form of the disease for women, accounting for about a quarter of diagnoses, but the death rate from breast cancer has fallen due to a national breast screening program.

"The distressing part about it is that whereas there is less you can do about preventing breast cancer, lung cancer is entirely preventable by controlling smoking," said Cancer Council of Australia chief executive Ian Olver.

Source: Reuters Health, 19/12/08
Link: www.reuters.com/article/2008/12/19/us-australia-cancer-women-idUSTRE4BI0HI20081219

USA: Drop in secondhand smoke deaths predicted

The number of deaths and heart attacks due to second-hand smoke exposure may fall by as much as 30 percent if current downward trends in passive smoking exposure continue, according to a new report. 

"Exposure to passive smoking has been reduced by 25 percent to 40 percent, and its burden has been reduced by 25 percent and 30 percent over the last 8-10 years, but the burden remains substantial," Dr. James M. Lightwood and colleagues write in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Lightwood of the University of California San Francisco and his team used the Coronary Heart Disease Policy Model to gauge the health and cost burden of passive smoking on US residents over 35. The model is a computer simulation of the impact of heart disease caused by smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other factors.

The researchers estimated the prevalence of passive smoking exposure by looking at measurements of cotinine, a nicotine byproduct, in the blood of people participating in the National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Survey. At least a quarter of people 35 to 84 met the strictest criteria for second-hand smoke exposure, while up to 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women are exposed to some level of second-hand smoke.

Based on the assumption that passive smoke exposure boosts heart disease risk by 26 percent to 65 percent, for 1999-2004 Lightwood and his colleagues peg the number of heart disease deaths a year due to passive smoking at 21,800 to 75,100, and estimate that second-hand smoke causes 38,100 to 128,900 heart attacks.

If the downward trend in passive smoking exposure observed between 1988 and 2004 continued through to 2008, according to the researchers, deaths and heart attacks due to second-hand smoke would fall by 25 percent to 30 percent.

Continued reduction in second-hand smoke exposure will likely be driven by efforts to ban smoking in public and in the workplace and to promote smoke-free homes, they conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Preventive Medicine, January 2009.

Source: Reuters Health, 18/12/08
Link: www.reuters.com/article/2008/12/18/us-smoke-deaths-idUSTRE4BH6P920081218

Somerset traders cleaning up act on booze and cigs

The Home Secretary has praised Somerset’s trading standards for clamping down on alcohol and cigarette sales to underage shoppers. 

Test purchases with ‘decoy’ youngsters sent in by the team have shown a marked drop in illegal sales of age-restricted products.

The results since April show 77% of premises checked refused to sell alcohol to under 18s – down around a quarter on last year.

All premises checked complied with the law not to sell cigarettes to under 18s – an 11% improvement.

Test purchases in the fortnight before November 5 showed 95% of shops complied with age restrictions on the sale of fireworks.

In a letter to Somerset County Council leader Cllr Jill Shortland, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she was “impressed by the passion and commitment” the authority has shown in enforcing the legislation around age-restricted sales.

Cllr Henry Hobhouse, portfolio holder for community safety, said: “Somerset County Council is committed to providing services for a modern society in which under-age sales are a common concern.

“It is encouraging that test purchases show that Somerset businesses are doing their bit to crack down on the under-age sale of products such as alcohol and tobacco.”

Howard Burnett, Somerset’s trading standards team group manager, said: “Test purchases are a great way to make sure all the correct procedures are in place to prevent under-age sales.

“The increase in Somerset businesses refusing to serve the under-age volunteers involved in the programme should reassure local residents that Somerset traders are meeting their responsibilities to enforce product age restrictions.”

Source: Bridgwater Mercury, 21/12/08
Link: http://www.bridgwatermercury.co.uk/news/3984635.Traders_cleaning_up_act_on_booze_and_fags/