HEADLINES

• Indonesia: Tobacco firm pulls Kelly Clarkson gig sponsorship
• USA: Altria post higher profit, sticks by year forecast
• Smoking linked to weight gain
• Passive smoking linked to chronic sinus disease risk

• Indonesia: Tobacco firm pulls Kelly Clarkson gig sponsorship

  An Indonesian cigarette company has pulled its sponsorship of a Kelly Clarkson gig in Jakarta after protests from fans and anti-smoking groups.

  Before the announcement, she said she would perform despite the criticism.

  Clarkson said in her blog she had not known adverts featured a logo for local cigarette brand LA Lights, adding she refused "to cancel on my fans".

  The promoter of the 29 April gig said "final agreement" had been reached with tobacco Djarum to terminate the deal.
  
  After the gig sponsorship emerged, anti-smoking groups in Indonesia and the US accused Clarkson, 27, of being a spokesperson for the tobacco industry.

  Writing in her blog, the first American Idol winner rejected protests from fans and anti-smoking groups saying she was being used "as a political pawn".

  "My morning began with finding out that I am all over billboards, TV ads, and other media formats alongside a tobacco company who, unbeknownst to me, is sponsoring my Jakarta date on my current tour," she wrote.

  She said she had not been told of the sponsorship, was not a smoker and was "in no way an advocate or an ambassador for youth smoking".

  "Unfortunately, my only option at this point was to cancel the show in order to stop the sponsorship."

  But she could not "justify penalizing my fans for someone else's oversight", she added.

  Tobacco advertising is allowed in Indonesia, where cigarettes sell for around $1 (65p) a pack.

  Source: BBC News, 23 April 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9T67dp

• USA: Altria post higher profit, sticks by year forecast

  Altria Group Inc (MO.N), the largest U.S. tobacco company, posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by cost cuts and price increases.

  But the company also stood by its full-year earnings forecast, saying high unemployment and economic pressures were weighing on smokers.

  The maker of Marlboro cigarettes and Skoal smokeless tobacco said first-quarter profit was $813 million, or 39 cents a share, compared with $589 million, or 28 cents a share, a year earlier.

  Excluding one-time items, earnings were 42 cents a share. Analysts on average had forecast 40 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

  The company shipped 34.1 billion cigarettes in the quarter, down 0.7 percent from a year earlier. Shipments for the 2009 period were pressured by wholesale customers trying to clear out inventory ahead of a large increase in cigarette taxes.

  Customers restocked inventories in the second quarter of 2009, so 2010 will have a tough comparison in terms of revenue and shipments.

  Cigarette market share fell to 50.2 percent from 50.9 percent a year earlier, though top seller Marlboro's share rose to 42.7 percent from 42.4 percent.

  Marlboro's share was helped by the introduction of two new varieties of the cigarette, which offset continued heavy promotional spending by discount competitors, Altria CEO Mike Szymanczyk said during a conference call with financial analysts.

  Marlboro's performance was pegged as one of the positives for Altria by Credit-Suisse analyst Thilo Wrede.

  "Marlboro volume increased 1.6 percent and the brand gained 30 (percentage points of) market share while pricing was stronger than we had anticipated," Wrede said in a research note. But he noted that despite Marlboro's strong performance, the company's Philip Morris USA tobacco unit lost market share for the fifth consecutive quarter.

  The company shipped 186.1 million cans of smokeless tobacco, up 21.9 percent from a year earlier.

  Revenue rose 27 percent to $5.76 billion.

  Excluding excise taxes, revenue was $3.95 billion. On that basis, analysts on average had forecast $3.83 billion.

  For the year, Altria still forecasts earnings of $1.85 a share to $1.89 a share.

  Altria shares rose 1.2 percent, or 27 cents, to $21.44 in morning New York Stock Exchange trading.

  Source: Reuters News, 21 April 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/aXIgxo

• Smoking linked to weight gain

  Smokers are more likely to put on weight than non-smokers, contrary to the myth that the habit makes people slimmer by dulling the appetite.

  Researchers from the Department of Preventative Medicine at the University of Navarra in Spain assessed data from 7,565 people relating to age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise.

  They found that people who had never smoked gained the least weight over a 50-month period.

  People who stopped smoking during the course of the study gained weight, with those who smoked the most at the beginning of the period also putting on the most pounds. Those who continued to smoke throughout gained more weight than the non-smokers.

  Lead author of the report, published in the Revista Espanola de Cardiologia, Francisco Javier Basterra-Gortari said the findings "are crucial for considering prevention programmes".

  The study pointed out that some smokers are put off quitting by the fear they will gain weight as a result.

  According to campaign group Action on Smoking and Health around ten million adults in Britain smoke. Around a third of deaths from cancer are the result of smoking.

  Source: netdoctor, 23 April 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/cI4zL7

• Passive smoking linked to chronic sinus disease risk

  People who are exposed to secondhand smoke - appear to have a higher-than-normal risk of developing chronic rhinosinusitis (chronic sinus disease), according to a study published in the April issue of Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

  As background information, the report states that passive smoke (also known as second-hand smoke) contains over 4,000 substances, of which over 50 are either known or suspected to cause cancer. Evidence appears to indicate that passive smoking is linked to a wide range of diseases in children as well as adults, including SID (sudden infant death syndrome), acute respiratory infections, middle ear disease, asthma, coronary heart disease and lung and sinus cancers. It is estimated that 126 million non-smokers, or 60 percent of all U.S. non-smokers, are exposed to secondhand smoke, making it a major public health problem.

  C. Martin Tammemagi, D.V.M., M.Sc., Ph.D., of Brock University, St. Catharine's, Ontario, Canada, and team studied 306 non-smoking patients who had been diagnosed as having chronic rhinosinusitis (inflammation of the nose or sinuses lasting 12 weeks or longer). Their exposure to secondhand smoke at home, work, in public places and at private social functions during the five years before diagnosis was compared with that of 306 individuals who were the same age, sex and race but did not have rhinosinusitis.

  Patients with chronic rhinosinusitis were more likely than control patients to have exposure to secondhand smoke at home (13.4% vs. 9.1%), at work (18.6% vs. 6.9%), in public places (90.2% vs. 84.3%) and at private social functions (51.3% vs. 27.8%). A dose-response relationship was observed, in which individuals who were exposed to secondhand smoke in more of the four venues had an increased risk of chronic rhinosinusitis.

  In general, about 40% of chronic rhinosinusitis cases seemed to be attributable to passive smoking.

  Mechanisms explaining the connection are not certain, but several possibilities exist, the authors note. Secondhand smoke exposure may increase susceptibility to or worsen respiratory infections, inhibit immune responses and increase the permeability of cells lining the respiratory tract.

  The authors conclude "Even though more evidence is needed to validate the secondhand smoke-chronic rhinosinusitis association, secondhand smoke is already known to cause many other diseases. Thus, there is already ample reason for taking action to eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke. The U.S. Surgeon General recommends that physicians routinely ask their patients about secondhand smoke exposure."

  "On the basis of our findings, physicians should recommend that patients who are susceptible to chronic rhinosinusitis or who have chronic rhinosinusitis avoid exposure to secondhand smoke. The dose-response relationship between secondhand smoke and chronic rhinosinusitis indicates that even modest levels of exposure carry some risk."

  Source: MediLexicon News, 23 April 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bNCJFh