Germany: Documents show tobacco industry conspired against airline smoking ban

An analysis of tobacco industry documents published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) tells how the German cigarette industry worked to stop Lufthansa, the flagship airline of Germany, from banning smoking on its domestic flights in the early 1990s.

Documents also reveal that German tobacco companies worked to keep cigarette vending machines accessible to children, stop higher taxes on cigarettes, block a ban on tobacco advertising and recruit doctors and scientists to serve as “expert witnesses” to testify against the health dangers of tobacco.

One of the paper’s authors, Martina Pötschke-Langer, who heads the World Health Organization’s Collaboration Centre for Tobacco Control at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, said “The campaign against Lufthansa’s non-smoking flights appears to be especially vicious, since pressure was applied to the government as well as to public opinion via the mass media.” Lufthansa started working to ban smoking on German domestic flights in 1989, but wasn’t successful until 1996.

Source: RINF.com, 21 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/QoKGO

Smoking affects airway morphology and inflammation in mild asthma

Smoking status impacts on morphological and inflammatory processes in young individuals with mild asthma, which may affect their response to treatment and clinical outcomes, say Canadian scientists.

Cigarette smoking remains common among asthmatics, despite the associations between exposure to tobacco smoke and increased morbidity and mortality. While neutrophilia in induced sputum has been observed in asthmatic smokers, the impact on the morphology of the bronchial mucosa of regular smoking has not been fully characterized.

Louis-Philippe Boulet, from Hôpital Laval in Québec, and colleagues therefore studied bronchial biopsies obtained from 24 steroid-naîve mild asthmatic individuals, half of whom were nonsmokers and the remainder current smokers.

The average age of nonsmoking and smoking asthmatics was 25.8 years and 32.7 years, respectively, while the average duration of asthma was 15.3 years and 15.7 years, respectively. The average number of pack years was 16.7 for smokers. The only significant difference between smokers and nonsmokers in terms of respiratory function was that smokers had a higher forced vital capacity.

There were no significant differences between smokers and nonsmokers in terms of bronchial subepitheila mucosa morphology. However, smoking asthmatics were more likely to have squamous cell metaplasia in their bronchial mucosa than nonsmoking asthmatics, seen in 25% versus 0% of patients, respectively, as well as increased expression of subepithelial NE, IFN-gamma, and intraepithelial IL-8.

The team writes in the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy: “The mechanisms by which smoking could influence the basic physiopathological process of asthma should still be explored, as should the influence of smoking cessation on the reversibility of these features.”

Free abstract

Source: medwirenews, 22 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/NORQ4

International pact sought on cigarette smuggling

Delegates from more than 150 countries met on Monday to push for a wide-ranging pact to curb the booming trade in cigarette smuggling. The week-long conference in Geneva is being held under the auspices of the World Health Organization (WHO), which estimates 5 million people die each year from diseases related to smoking.

"Illicit trade in tobacco products contributes to the rise in tobacco consumption and poses a serious threat to health," the WHO said. By making cigarettes available at prices two to three times lower than in the shops, smugglers threaten to undermine global efforts to reduce smoking and save lives, WHO officials say.

Governments and police officials say that as well as putting huge amounts of cash into the pockets of dishonest businessmen, the large-scale business also helps finance organized crime. The draft text under discussion this week -- in the form of a protocol to the WHO's 2004 Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which has been ratified by 157 countries -- underlined this danger for global law and order.

The illegal cigarette trade, it says, "generates huge financial profits funding transnational criminal activity which penetrates, contaminates and corrupts government objectives and legitimate commercial and financial businesses at all levels. The U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists told a news briefing some cigarettes were now being manufactured in the former Soviet Union solely for smuggling, describing them as "the first ever designed-for-crime brand."

A first round of discussions on the anti-smuggling pact in what is called an Intergovernmental Negotiating Body was held in February and another is due in 2009. Officials hope a final text will be ready for approval in 2010 by all Framework Convention signatories. The 34-page draft sets out principles for international cooperation between governments and law-enforcement agencies to crack down on producers who sell knowingly to smugglers, and calls for a licensing system for supply and distribution.

It would also have police and customs in signatory states keep close watch on border points and ports which the smugglers and their suppliers are suspected of using, as well as shops and markets where smuggled cigarettes are sold. The draft, presented by conference chairman Ian Walton-Georges of the European Union's anti-fraud office OLAF, would also have governments set up a "tracking and tracing system" for cigarettes and products used to make them.

It would ban the sale of cigarettes and equipment used to make them via the Internet, and oblige each signatory government to criminalize activities linked to the trade beyond its border and institute tough sentences for offenders.

Source: Reuters UK, 20 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/4GKYM

Study shows nicotine replacement therapy best way to quit smoking

It's like fighting fire with fire - using nicotine to give up smoking - but now there is new evidence in Australia that nicotine replacement therapy is the best way to beat the habit. A report by the Cancer Institute in Australia compared a number of studies there and from other countries.

They found that smokers on nicotine replacement therapy and the Australian subsidized drug, Champix, were two to three times more likely to quit for good after 12 months compared to going cold turkey. “The best thing they can do for their health is to actually get help to quit through products,” says Anita Dessaix of the New South Wales Cancer Institute.

Nicotine tablets which dissolve on the tongue were not seen as effective and smokers were more likely to get value for money using lozenges or the drug. The nicotine inhaler was found to be the least cost effective option.

Source: 3 News, 22 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/0ntsS

Saudi Arabia: Court set to hear tobacco compensation case

A Saudi court will begin hearing a lawsuit on Tuesday filed by the Ministry of Health against agents of international tobacco companies in the kingdom. Health chiefs will demand compensation of $2.6 billion and an annual compensation of $133 million for the expenditures incurred on the treatment of smokers when the General Court in Riyadh opens.

“This is the first case filed by the ministry against agents of tobacco companies, demanding compensation for medical care,” said an official statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency and reported by Arab News on Tuesday. “The court was ready to look into the case at a previous date but the tobacco agents did not attend that session,” it added.

In a previous statement on the issue, Health Minister Hamad Al-Manie said he was confident that his ministry would win the lawsuit. In 1998, American trial lawyers, assisted by 46 state attorneys general, succeeded in getting tobacco companies to pay $250 billion over 25 years.

Anti-smoking clinics have been opened in various cities in the kingdom as part of the ministry’s efforts to encourage smokers to give up the addiction. A new law to combat smoking in public and workplaces has also been drafted and is awaiting Cabinet approval. Saudi Arabia tops the list of tobacco importers, according to 2007 statistics. Iran is placed second, followed by Jordan, Turkey, Morocco and Egypt.

Source: arabianbusiness.com, 21 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/Dt7CC