HEADLINES

• Can secondhand smoke hurt kids' grades?
• Black market tobacco trade could be stubbed out
• Dorchester smokers targeted by cigarette bin campaign
• BAT boss Paul Adams stubs out cigarettes ahead of exit
• Tobacco tins from Lawrence of Arabia’s army discovered
• USA: Anti-tobacco efforts put on a diet

• Can secondhand smoke hurt kids' grades?

  Children and teenagers exposed to secondhand smoke at home may get poorer grades than their peers from smoke-free homes, a study of Hong Kong students suggests.

  Secondhand smoke is a well-known health threat to children, being linked to increased risks of asthma, as well as bronchitis, pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Studies have also found a connection between smoking during pregnancy and higher risks of childhood behavior problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

  Some research has also found that children exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb or at home may trail their peers when it comes to cognitive abilities like reasoning and remembering. But whether secondhand smoke itself is to blame remains unclear.

  In the new study, researchers found that among 23,000 11- to 20-year-old non-smoking students, the one-third who lived with at least one smoker were more likely to describe their own school performance as "poor."

  Of students who said they were exposed to smoking at home at least five days a week, 23 percent said their school performance was poor compared with their classmates'. That rate was 20 percent among kids who had less frequent secondhand-smoke exposure at home, and 17 percent among those from smoke-free homes.

  The researchers were able to account for certain other factors, like parents' education levels and the type of housing -- both markers of socioeconomic status. They found that students' exposure to secondhand smoke, itself, was linked to a 14 percent to 28 percent greater risk of poor school performance, depending on how frequent the exposure was.

  Dr. Sai-Yin Ho and colleagues at the University of Hong Kong report the results in the Journal of Pediatrics.

  The findings do not prove that secondhand smoke was the reason for the poorer grades.

  The study had a number of limitations, including its reliance on students' ratings of their own academic performance and exposure to tobacco smoke. Future studies should include objective measures of secondhand-smoke exposure, using urine samples, as well as official school records, Ho's team writes.

  The researchers also could not account for the full range of factors that might be related to both secondhand-smoke exposure and children's school performance. They lacked information, for example, on whether students were exposed to smoking in the womb.

  Still, Ho's team notes, it is biologically plausible that the many toxic compounds in tobacco smoke -- including lead, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide -- could affect children's cognitive abilities.

  Regardless of whether secondhand smoke does hurt kids' school performance, there are many established reasons for parents to quit smoking and limit their children's exposure to smokers.

  These findings, the researchers write, offer another potential reason for parents to "eliminate smoking at home" and warn their children to avoid secondhand exposure.

  Source: Reuters - 29 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bILvYS

• Black market tobacco trade could be stubbed out

  It’s a familiar refrain from the tobacco industry: high excise hikes on tobacco products lead more consumers to buy their cigarettes on the black market. Governments should therefore be careful not to raise duty too sharply.

  The clamour for higher tobacco duty from global governments in the last year should therefore have been a boon to spivs hawking cheap cigarettes the world over. Except of course on a global scale, this simply isn’t the case. In a year when governments across the world have been raising their excise rates on tobacco in an effort to trim their budget deficits, we should be seeing a huge rise in the illicit tobacco market. Right?

  Well no. British American Tobacco’s Chief Executive Paul Adams said Wednesday there had been only a “slight rise” in the illicit market in the last year despite all the “significant” and “swingeing” excise increases mentioned in the company’s first-half results.

  Some individual markets were undoubtedly affected. In Romania for instance, the percentage of cigarettes bought on the black market rose to 36% once government tax rises led to a doubling in the price of a pack. That percentage has now come down to around 24%, according to Adams. This reduction was not brought about by any reduction in the excise duty, however, but by a tightening of border controls.

  Similar government action has led to a sharp reduction in the Canadian black market–where once again there were no price reductions.

  So perhaps the link between high excise duty and the illicit tobacco trade is not quite as strong as we’re led to believe. Besides which, tobacco firms appear less concerned about fueling the illicit market when it comes to raising their own prices. The fact that BAT managed to raise is first half sales by 4%, despite flat volumes, suggests it had no qualms about raising the price of its Dunhills, Lucky Strikes or Pall Malls.

  That’s not to suggest that illicit trade isn’t an issue of course. It accounts for about 12% of the world’s cigarette volumes. That means 12% of tobacco sales are effectively unregulated, with none of the strict controls on underage smoking the rest of the market faces. As the Canadian example and the recent experience in Romania have shown however, it is perhaps stricter border controls, and more stringent law enforcement rather than more modest duty increases that is best used to combat the problem.

  Source: Wall Street Journal - 28 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/aOUMpc

• Dorchester smokers targeted by cigarette bin campaign

  A dedicated litter fighting duo are vowing to carry on their battle to rid Dorchester’s streets of cigarette butts.

  Bob Kerr and Felicity McLaren have worked tirelessly in the county town over the last 16 months with their Stop the Drop campaign.

  With support from Dorchester BID (Dorset Business Improvement District), Dorchester Town Council and West Dorset District Council, they have seen 90 cigarette butt bins installed in the town centre.

  Mrs McLaren has also been round handing out hundreds of personal cigarette butt disposers donated by Japan Tobacco International.

  But the pair say there is still plenty to be done to tackle the problem of cigarette butt littering in the town and are also being frustrated in their efforts by vandalism against a number of the bins they have installed.

  Mr Kerr said: “Cigarette butts are the worst, most common piece of litter in our town, in any town, and although we have been reducing the volume of this to some extent there is still some way to go.”

  Mr Kerr said he would like to see legislation enforced that enables police and other authorities to fine people for dropping litter and also urged people to take more personal responsibility for the cleanliness of their streets.

  He said: “It is almost a losing battle because we don’t have anyone on our side.

  “People seem to rely more and more on someone else to clean up after them and there is a lack of individual responsibility, which I think is a shame.”

  After 60 businesses agreed to buy 90 cigarette bins, Mr Kerr and Mrs McLaren had hoped to draw a line under that side of their campaign and focus on other areas.

  But damage to several bins and people stealing the inner trays mean they are still having to spend time and money replacing the units.

  Mr Kerr said he had been told people were stealing the trays to remove the tobacco from cigarette butts in the bins and roll their own cigarettes.

  He said they had to replace 15 trays at £7.50 a time so far, while other bins had been kicked, set on fire or ripped off the wall.

  Mrs McLaren said: “We thought we would have got to the stage where we could move onto different aspects of the problem and it looks like we are going to be bogged down by this.”

  Source: Dorset Echo - 28 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/aQKMEI

• BAT boss Paul Adams stubs out cigarettes ahead of exit

  The boss of Britain's biggest tobacco firm has given up smoking cigarettes, it has emerged.

  Paul Adams, chief executive of British American Tobacco, kicked the habit after spending 19 years selling millions of packets of Dunhill, Kent and Lucky Strike to smokers.

  Seven of those years were spent at the helm of the London-based business.

  The smoking habits of tobacco groups' executives have always attracted close scrutiny.

  In 2002, BAT took a battering when its then chairman Martin Broughton admitted smoking is bad for you and he wouldn't advise his children to smoke.

  However, a spokesman for the company was last night at pains to point out that Adams still smokes cigars, saying: 'Paul Adams smokes Dunhill cigars. He no longer smokes cigarettes.'

  She later insisted that he is still a smoker: 'Whether someone smokes pipes, cigars, cigarettes, or rollies they are still a smoker.

  'He is still a consumer of tobacco. It would not be correct to say that Paul has "kicked the habit".

  'If he'd given up smoking then that would be fine, but he hasn't so it's not true.' Adams' decision to quit the fags emerged as the 56-year-old, who is standing down as chief executive next year, also revealed his plans for life after BAT.

  While most FTSE bosses migrate to non-executive roles and chairmanships, Adams will be taking a gap year to visit foreign cities with his family.

  'I think I deserve some time off,' he told the Mail. 'You've heard of "backpacking" - we will be going "flash packing" - staying in nice hotels.'

  He was speaking as BAT said first- half pretax profits increased from £2.1bn a year ago to £2.3bn. Revenues rose 8pc to £7.3bn in the period.

  The firm hiked the dividend by almost a fifth from 27.9p to 33.2p, but the shares shed 17p to 2,242.5p after volumes fell 3pc.

  Adams, pictured above, said the trend was now improving but people had been smoking less for three reasons.
  'When a recession bites people will either smoke less, stop smoking or in some markets switch to smuggled or counterfeit tobacco.'

  Source: Daily Mail - 28 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9e6FIf

• Tobacco tins from Lawrence of Arabia’s army discovered

  The tins were discovered by archaeologists who have been surveying the Arab army site in Wuheida, southern Jordan, since it was discovered in November.

  They were used to supply Wills cigarettes from Bristol to British and Arab troops fighting the Ottoman Turks during the First World War.

  Archaeologists from Bristol University also recovered numerous bullets, spent cartridges, cartridge clips, and British military buttons from the encampment

  In 1916 Arabs keen on freeing themselves from Ottoman rule launched the Great Arab Revolt.

  TE Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, led a small band of Arab fighters to capture the important town of Aqaba from Ottoman hands — a key moment in the war.

  Source: The Telegraph - 30 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/a9m57L

• USA: Anti-tobacco efforts put on a diet

  Funding for anti-tobacco efforts is taking a hit as governments and philanthropies switch their preventive-health focus to fighting obesity, according to a Philanthropy story relayed on Tobacco China Online and quoting The New York Times.

  The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the US' largest private grant maker for anti-smoking efforts, was said to have trimmed tobacco-related grants to $4 million last year while committing $58 million to the weight issue.

  With Michelle Obama leading a campaign against childhood obesity, the White House steered $1.15 billion from the economic-stimulus and health-care overhaul bills toward the fight against fat, compared to $200 million for preventing tobacco use. States are also said to be cutting back on funds for anti-smoking programs, raising concerns among tobacco-control organizations. 

  Source: Tobacco Reporter - 29 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9ebfLB