HEADLINES

• Scotland: Tobacco industry loses legal challenge on cigarette vending machines
• Imperial Tobacco ramps up buyback plans
• Nicotine-free plastic inhalers may increase smoker's chance of quitting
• Europol: Climate is right for increased tobacco smuggling
• Some social smokers find it difficult to quit

• Scotland: Tobacco industry loses legal challenge on cigarette vending machines

  Sinclair Collins Ltd, which is owned by Imperial Tobacco has lost a legal challenge to the ban on cigarette vending machines in Scotland.

  The Court of Session rejected an argument by the company, that the legislation was against the European Convention on Human Rights.

  Lord Doherty also found that the measures are within the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

  The Scottish Government welcomed the decision, saying the law is a key part of a drive to improve health.

  A government spokeswoman added: "We robustly defended our proposals to ban cigarette vending machines and are pleased that the Court of Session has today ruled in our favour and that we were successful on the aspects of the case which were before the court."

  Source: The Daily Record, 13 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/iqSlwd

• Imperial Tobacco ramps up buyback plans

  Imperial Tobacco has announced the launch of a programme to repurchase £500m of shares a year.

  Analysts had expected the tobacco group to begin buybacks next year, after it had paid down debt related to its 2007 purchase of Altadis.

  Chris Wickham at Matrix said the earlier-than-expected buybacks showed confidence in both the balance sheet and trading. While the share repurchase “only adds around 1.3 per cent to adjusted earnings per share in a full year, it provides a useful increment to confidence about second-year trading."

  Source: The Financial Times, 10 May 2011
  Link: http://on.ft.com/ja4j6S

• Nicotine-free plastic inhalers may increase smoker's chance of quitting

  According to new research published online in the European Respiratory Journal, nicotine-free plastic inhalers may increase a smoker's chance of quitting.

  The study, which is the first to assess the effectiveness of using a nicotine-free inhaler to help smokers quit, was carried out by scientists at the Universit-di Catania in Italy.

  The results show that for smokers who rely on the handling of a cigarette as a behavioural pattern, nicotine-free inhalers could increase their chance of success when trying to quit smoking.

  Professor Riccardo Polosa, Director of the University Institute of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology at the University of Catania in Italy, said: "By showing a clear predictive association between the measure of behavioural dependence and relapse, our study is the first to reveal that the concept of behavioural addiction can be exploited as a useful clinical tool for many smokers willing to quit. This will open up a potentially novel area of research in smoking cessation."

  Source: News Medical, 12 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/lIZYTa

• Europol: Climate is right for increased tobacco smuggling

  Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency now estimated that cigarette smuggling costs the European Union nations around $12 billion each year.

  Compared with drug trafficking, cigarette smuggling is seen by organized crime groups as low-risk, high profit deal and the agency expects even more smuggling in the coming years.

  According to Europol, tobacco smuggling in the EU will worsen. This is because it’s now easier for clandestine and low-cost manufacturers to import raw tobacco, rather than a container of more conspicuous packaged cigarettes. This has given rise to new, illegal factories in EU states such as Poland and some Baltic States.

  As a consequence, Europol warns that “cheaper and smuggled products also constitute a marked threat to EU efforts on tobacco control, and by extension the objective of reducing consumption.”

  Source: iwatch, 13 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/jnZGMM

• Some social smokers find it difficult to quit

  A study from the American Journal of Public Health found that self-identified "social smokers" may be considered a high-risk group with particular challenges for cessation.

  Researchers found that self-identified social smokers were less likely to have cessation intentions; whereas behaviour social smokers (mainly or only smoked with others) were more likely than self-identified social smokers to have cessation intentions or attempts.

  The study's authors suggest, "Smoking cessation in young adults - particularly among social smokers - is both a challenge and an opportunity. Clinicians and researchers need to address the differences between self-identification and behaviour as a social smoker to develop more effective smoking cessation strategies tailored to these two distinct groups."

  Source: Medical News Today, 12 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/lo1tbL