HEADLINES

• Scotland: Retailers 'concerned' over tobacco display ban
• Officials say smuggled tobacco bound for Hook
• BA cabin crew member smuggled cigarettes
• Nicotine binding to receptor linked to breast cancer Cell Growth

• Scotland: Retailers 'concerned' over tobacco display ban

  New laws banning shop tobacco displays in Scotland will increase black market trade, an industry survey has claimed.

  The Tobacco Retailers Alliance study said 56% of shopkeepers believed the move would increase contraband sales.

  The study by the alliance, which has 26,000 UK members, came after MSPs passed the law in January.

  Ministers said the move would break the link between youth smoking and related long-term problems by making tobacco less attractive.

  The measure is part of the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services Act, which also bans cigarette vending machines and introduces a registration scheme for retailers.

  The survey by the Tobacco Retailers Alliance, which strongly opposed the display ban, also claimed 49% of shopkeepers said they are aware of smuggled tobacco being sold in their area, while 38% knew of smugglers supplying under-age smokers.

  The group's Scottish spokeswoman, Fiona Barrett, said: "It's through friends or family that the majority of under-age smokers get their tobacco, so if the government made it a crime for people over 18 to buy tobacco to give to those under 18, while at the same time putting more focus on tackling tobacco smuggling, youth smoking rates would be reduced."

  But Sheila Duffy, of anti-smoking group Ash Scotland, said "The tobacco industry has tried to divert attention away from the important health issues at stake by exaggerating fears based on unfounded claims.

  "There is no reason to think that adult smokers who currently buy their product legally from responsible retailers will suddenly switch to illegal sources because the product is no longer on display."

  The display ban comes into force next year for large retailers and in 2013 for small shops.

  Specialist tobacconists are exempt from the ban, while displays will be permitted in cash and carry and duty-free stores if they are confined to a secluded area.

  MSPs have already banned smoking in public places and raised the age for buying cigarettes to 18.

  Source: BBC News, 25 August 2010
  Link: http://bbc.in/ahjXYP

• Officials say smuggled tobacco bound for Hook

  A cargo of smuggled chewing tobacco was bound for Hook, border agency officials have said.

  Officers from the UK Border Agency seized a total of 870kg of chewing tobacco at Stansted Airport spread over three freight consignments on Thursday, August 5 and Friday, August 6.

  The packages had come from Belgium. Importers had listed the goods not as chewing tobacco but as “chewing products” in a bid to evade duty worth more than £66,000.

  One container, weighing 300kg, was destined for an address in Hook, while the other two were due to go to addresses in London.

  Officers spotted a mistake in the paperwork and authorised a search.

  Sarah Wolstenholme, assistant director for the UK Border Agency at Stansted, said: “From that point on the detection was straightforward, the smugglers made no attempt at concealment and were hoping that the consignments would simply go unchecked.

  “The tobacco was undoubtedly heading for the black market, cheating the British taxpayer and undermining honest traders.”

  The agency was unable to tell The Gazette where in Hook the chewing tobacco was bound.

  A spokesman said the tobacco will be taken to an incinerator plant, where it will be burned to produce energy for the London electricity supply.

  Source: Andover Advertiser, 22 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/c6Ta6D

• BA cabin crew member smuggled cigarettes

  A British Airways cabin crew member has been given a community sentence for smuggling tobacco into the country.

  Christakis Lambrou, from Lansdowne Road in Staines, admitted being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the duty chargeable and was sentenced to 120 hours of community service on August 20 at Isleworth Crown Court.

  Customs officers examined Lambrou's car on August 15 last year and discovered six kilos of hand rolling tobacco and 2,000 cigarettes.

  He was arrested, interviewed and subsequently charged. A further 11,760 cigarettes and five kilos of hand rolling tobacco were found at his house in Staines. He claimed he had bought them for his brother and brother's friend.

  John Cooper, assistant director of criminal investigation for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) , said: “Lambrou abused his position of trust as a cabin crew manager to evade UK duty.

  "Lambrou’s actions cost the UK vital tax revenue, worth around £18,000, and this is why HMRC works closely with UKBA (Border Agency) officers to disrupt this kind of criminal operation."

  The cigarettes have been shredded and burned at a power station to fuel the National Grid.

  Source: GetSurrey, 24 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/cVLKbx

• Nicotine binding to receptor linked to breast cancer Cell Growth

  When nicotine binds to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAchR), it is known to promote smoking addiction and may also directly promote the development of breast cancer, according to a study published online in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

  While smoking is a well-known risk factor for a broad range of cancer types, non-nicotine components of tobacco have generally been thought to be the carcinogens, so little is known about how nicotine acts on cells to promote cancer cell growth. For breast cancer in particular, some large epidemiological studies have suggested that smoking is related to increased breast cancer risk, but they have not been accompanied by molecular biology studies on how that actually works.

  To determine whether nicotine works on the cellular level to promote breast cancer growth, Yuan-Soon Ho, Ph.D., of the Taipei Medical University, and colleagues, looked at 276 breast tumor samples from anonymous donors to the Taipei Medical University Hospital, to see whether subunits of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor were overexpressed in breast cancer cells compared with surrounding normal cells.

  The researchers found that human breast cancer cells consistently overexpressed the alpha 9 subunit of the nAChR (α9-nAchR), and that expression was higher in advanced-stage breast cancer compared with early-stage cancer. They also found that reducing the levels of α9-nAchRs inhibited tumor growth in laboratory experiments, whereas increasing the levels of α9-nAchRs or treating more normal breast cells with nicotine promoted the development of cancer characteristics.

  The authors write: "These results imply that receptor-mediated carcinogenic signals play a decisive role in biological functions related to human breast cancer development."

  The authors say their study was limited by its small sample size, and the fact that it included only Asian patients. Breast cancer in Taiwan is characterized by its low incidence rate and early stage of tumor onset.

  In an accompanying editorial, Ilona Linnoila, M.D., of the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute, writes that the study "suggests not only that smoking could be causally related to breast carcinogenesis but also that nicotine could directly contribute to the molecular mechanism of carcinogenesis in addition to indirectly contributing by promoting addiction to smoking."

  Furthermore, Linnoila writes, "Better understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the cholinergic pathways will lead to more opportunities for intervention and prevention of tobacco toxicity."

  Source: Science Daily, 24 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/8ZznZK