Home / Media Room / News / ASH Daily News / ASH Daily News for 30 November 2006

ASH Daily News for 30 November 2006

[View html version: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/adn]

ASH, 102 Clifton Street, LONDON, EC2A 4HW.   
Tel 020 7739 5902 Fax 020 7613 0531
 
ASH Daily News
 
30 November 2006
  
HEADLINES
 
Irish teenagers spend 40 euro per week on cigarettes
 
Tobacco regulation in the US may be possible with the new Congress
 
Tobacco will kill 6.4million people a year by 2015
 
Saudi Arabia to sue tobacco manufacturers
 
FULL TEXT
 
Irish teenagers spend 40 euro per week on cigarettes
 
Teenagers in Ireland are spending an average of €40 a week on cigarettes.  New figures also show that 16% of 12 to 17-year-olds are smoking around 10 cigarettes per day.
 
The data, released by the Office of Tobacco Control, also found almost four fifths of smokers started before the age of 18.  It also found that more than 90% of young people were not asked for identification last time they bought cigarettes from a shop.
 
The organisation is calling for a €2 hike on the price of a packet of 20 cigarettes and for packs of 10 to be abolished.
 
Eamonn Rossi, chief executive of the Office of Tobacco Control, said the figures were very disturbing. “Young smokers aged between 16 and 17 years spend an average of €200 per week, with almost 20% of this being spent on tobacco,” he said.
 
“For many young smokers, the 20 pack of cigarettes which is priced almost double the price of a 10 pack will be a major disincentive to purchasing cigarettes.”
 
Source: Eircom 29 November 2006
Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/u8e9b
 
 
Tobacco regulation in the US may be possible with the new Congress
 
The newly elected Democratic Congress in the US is likely to take up a controversial issue in the New Year that proposes federal regulation of tobacco products, including cigarettes and smokeless tobacco. Lawmakers will also grapple with the increasing number of tobacco-free nicotine-based products.
 
In 2000 the Supreme Court ruled that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) did not have the authority to regulate tobacco as a drug. It was made clear that Congress would have to change the law if it wanted the agency to regulate cigarettes.
 
Two years ago, the Senate twice approved a bill giving the FDA power to regulate but not ban, cigarettes and tobacco products. But the legislation failed in the House of Representatives. With Democrats in control of both houses from January, many in the political and public health arenas see this as a renewed opportunity.
 
Senator Edward Kennedy, an advocate of FDA regulation, outlined his priorities for the 110th Congress: “Empowering the FDA to regulate tobacco products is long overdue. Enacting this important public health legislation should be a top priority for the new Congress.”
 
Many proponents of federal oversight believe any regulatory framework should include smokeless products. Regulation advocates say government oversight would hold companies accountable and they would new to verify claims of fewer toxins or less harm. It would also create a scientific gatekeeper to monitor new products.
 
One such product, Blue Whale, is made from a blend of tea leaves and a nicotine additive called NicoDip: it is not made with tobacco, but it does contain nicotine.
 
Launched in September in Texas and Nebraska, Blue Whale is touted as a “smokeless alternative” with the “look, feel, taste, and smell of premium smokeless tobacco without the 28 cancer causing agents found in tobacco leaves”.
 
Blue Whale currently sits in a grey area. It is not regulated by the FDA as the FDA regulates smoking cessation aids that contain nicotine but not tobacco products. Under possible new regulations it would tax it as a tobacco product.
 
Bill Whalen, chief executive of Blue Whale Worldwide, said the company had been in discussions with the FDA. He said: “It is really important to me that we are doing the right thing; not to do harm but to do good.”
 
The rise in the number of nicotine alternatives comes as more public places go smokefree. “There is a nicotine war between different products and companies,” said Scott Ballin, a tobacco and health policy consultant. “It all begs the need for a level playing field with regulation so that the consumer can understand the risk and relative risk of the products and what they do and don’t do, and you can’t do that if companies are all playing by a different set of rules.”
 
Source: Financial Times 29 November 2006
Link to article: http://tinyurl.com/y9bqn2
 
 
Tobacco will kill 6.4million people a year by 2015
 
A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) has shown that tobacco-related diseases including cancers and heart disease will kill 6.4 million people a year by 2015. This will be 50% more than deaths caused by HIV/AIDS.
 
“According to our baseline projection, smoking will kill 50% more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS and will be responsible for 10 percent of all deaths globally,” said their study in the Public Library of Science Medicine (PLoS Medicine).
 
By 2030, more people will survive childhood diseases and live longer, but the proportion dying from chronic diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes will rise to 70%, according to the study.
 
Global deaths from the main infectious diseases including malaria, tuberculosis and respiratory infections are on track to decline by then.
 
Tobacco, currently blamed for some 5.4 million deaths a year, is set to kill 6.5 million in 2015 and 8.3 million in 2030, with the biggest rise in low-and middle-income countries.
 
Deaths attributable to tobacco are projected to double to 6.8 million in low-and middle-income countries in 2030. However, they will decline by 9 percent between now and then in rich countries, which will account for the remaining 1.5 million.
 
The WHO has accused cigarette makers of targeting youth in poorer countries as their markets shrink in the Western world.
 
Source: Reuters 28 November 2006
Link to article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L23317943.htm
 
 
Saudi Arabia to sue tobacco manufacturers
 
Saudi Arabia has warned that it will sue global tobacco firms unless they pay the full cost of treating patients suffering from smoking-related illness.  The health ministry said it had rejected a lower offer from the tobacco firms, though did not say the level of compensation sought.
 
According to local data, Saudis spend 5bn riyals (£683m) a year on tobacco and smoking-related goods.  A royal decree has banned smoking in all government and state buildings, while there is also a ban on advertising cigarettes in the local press or on television.
 
Health Minister Hamad al-Manie said: “Representatives of tobacco companies have to pay both the patients and the health ministry for the costs of treatment.  Otherwise, the ministry will go ahead with the lawsuit.”
 
Source: BBC News 29 November 2006
Link to article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6194972.stm


----------------------------------
To unsubscribe from ASH Daily News, simple follow the link below:

Public subscribers: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/maillist/unsubscribe.php
Globalink members: http://member.globalink.org/nbuk
----------------------------------