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ASH Daily News

Tuesday 30 November 1999

Headlines
Imperial Tobacco records 23 per cent rise in profits
Poland bans tobacco advertising
Quitline for pregnant smokers
Licensee praises pub smoke-free initiative
Rise in smoking among Canadian youth
Shareholders approve Seita-Tabacalera merger
Monkey business at Thai temple


Full Text

Imperial Tobacco records 23 per cent rise in profits

Imperial Tobacco reported a 23 per cent rise in annual profit, driven
by rising overseas sales, but its shares slipped as UK growth was
reduced by duty increases and higher cigarette imports. The company
said 39 per cent of its profit was now earned from abroad, and Chief
Executive Gareth Davis aims to increase that to 50 per cent as quickly
as possible to counter a 10 per cent annual decline in the duty-paid
UK cigarette market. Despite concerns about tax levels, the company
shrugged of fears that the government’s moves to reduce cigarette
stockpiling ahead of increases in duty would hit its performance.
Imperial estimates that as much as 20 per cent of UK cigarette
consumption is non-UK duty paid but two-thirds of that is made up of
legal imports for personal consumption, with only one third smuggled
illegally.

Source: Financial Times, Wall St Journal Europe, plus all other
papers, 30/11/99


Poland bans tobacco advertising

Polish President Aleksander Kwaniewski has signed a law that will ban
tobacco advertising in Poland within two years. The legislation
brings the law in Poland in line with EU standards. Staring in 2002,
tobacco sponsorship of sport will also be outlawed.

Source: Wall Street Journal Europe, 30/11/99


Labour MP to call for clampdown on tobacco “sweets”

Labour MP Claire Ward is to call for a clampdown on tobacco “sweets”
during an adjournment debate today in the House of Commons. The
products, which are currently on sale in Asian communities in the UK,
are suspected of causing a rise in pre-cancerous lesions in children
as young as 12. There are 2,000 new cases of oral cancer each year in
Britain.

Source: The Independent, 30/11/99


Quitline for pregnant smokers

A new counselling service to help pregnant women give up smoking has
been launched. Pregnant smokers can call the usual QUITline number –
0800 002200 - but will be given more intensive counselling and the
offer of further help throughout the pregnancy and after the child is
born.

Source: The Times, 30/11/99 and correspondence from QUIT


Licensee praises pub smoke-free initiative

The trade journal Licensee reports on the Staffordshire pub study. An
editorial notes that the importance of ‘keeping the smoker and
banishing the smoke’ appears to have won support from all sides but
there is still a lack of comparative information about the
effectiveness of air cleaning equipment and that situation must
change.

Source: Licensee, 25/11/99


Rise in smoking among Canadian youth

Smoking among school students in both Ontario and Quebec continues to
increase, according to two new studies. The first study showed that
the number of students who smoked tripled between the first year they
attended secondary school and the year they graduated. In Ontario, a
report showed that the rate of smoking among teenagers rose from 22
per cent in 1991 to 28 per cent this year.

Source: BMJ 27/11/99 p 1391


Shareholders approve Seita-Tabacalera merger

France’s Seita and Tabacalera of Spain are to proceed with their plan
to merger into the world’s fourth largest tobacco group, after
shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the project. The new
merged company will be called Altadis.

Source: Financial Times, 30/11/99


Monkey business at Thai temple

Several papers report on the sad case of a monkey living in a temple
in Thailand that has become addicted to smoking. The orphaned animal
started picking up discarded cigarette butts and now pesters
passers-by for cigarettes.

Source: Evening Standard 29/11, Daily Telegraph, The Mirror, Daily
Star 30/11/99



Karl Brookes
Project Manager
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London EC2A 4HW
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