ASH Daily News for 03 July 2008

USA: Low-income households opt for cigarettes over food

A new study from Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has revealed that low-income households with a smoking family head or spouse lack consistent access to food, spending more on cigarettes.

Such families purchase, on average, 10 packs of cigarettes per week, spending around 33.70 dollars, which could otherwise add two pounds of ground beef, two pounds of chicken breasts, 64 ounces of fresh orange juice and 10 pounds of frozen vegetables to the weekly menu, at current supermarket prices.

The team led by Brian Armour analyzed the data from the 2001 Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a long-term study of U.S. men, women, and children and families.

They examined the connection between smoking and the lack of consistent and dependable access to nutritious food.

Terry Pechacek, associate director of science for the CDCs Office on Smoking and Health said that the choice between smoking and having more food might seem like a no-brainer, but this is not the case.

Smoking is an addiction that gets established in adolescence, before individuals fully understand the long-term implications of their behaviour. Poor families suffer the long-term health impact, Pechacek added.

Sonia Duffy, a research investigator for the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System and University of Michigan Schools of Nursing and Medicine said, "Our research has shown that poor health behaviours do cluster together."

Providing access to cessation services will help people quit, Armour said. The most important things are the health benefits associated with quitting, and a byproduct might be to free up funds to end food insecurity.

Source: Thandian News, 02 July 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5ppgn4
 

Belgians buy 750 million fewer cigarettes

Sales in cigarettes were down by 12 percent or 750 million cigarettes during the first half of 2008. 

This is the first significant drop in cigarette sales in Belgium.

There has also been a decrease in tobacco sales. Nearly 3,400 tonnes of tobacco were sold during the first six months of 2008. Tobacco sales are down 8.5 percent in comparison with 2007.

The Health Ministry identifies several factors that triggered the fall in sales: legislation banning smoking in restaurants and public places and 2007's price rise.

Source: Expactica, 03 July 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5df22t

New Zealand: Cigarette displays encourage teen smoking

New research by ASH NZ found that the more teenagers visit shops where cigarettes are on display, the more likely they are to start smoking.

A survey has been conducted among thousands of students around the country each year since 1999.

Last year 27,000 Year 10 students from 238 schools were asked questions which indicated their susceptibility to smoking such as "If your best friend offered you a cigarette, would you smoke it?" and "At any time in the next year do you think you will smoke a cigarette?". With four possible responses, anyone not choosing "definitely not" was deemed at risk.

Researchers found teens who visited shops such as dairies two or three times a week rated twice as likely to start or experiment with smoking than those who visited less than weekly.

Researcher, Dr Janine Paynter said,  " It's a dose response. The more visits they are making the higher the likelihood of their susceptibility to smoke,"

Those who visit the dairy daily recorded three times the risk of the sub-weekly shoppers.

Dr Paynter said the size of the survey meant it could be adjusted for other factors such as parental smoking, peer smoking, decile, and ethnicity.

The survey was carried out before cigarette packets began carrying pictures of various smoking-related diseases, but Dr Paynter did not believe their introduction would have much effect.

"My feeling is not enough of the packet is taken up with graphic warnings. They don't disrupt the brand imagery enough."

ASH said the research proves a "significant" association between the displays and smoking.

"Our recommendation is that tobacco displays are removed. It is not going to stop all teens smoking, but we believe it will stop a proportion of them," Dr Paynter said.

"Anything that can be done to protect children from an addictive and deadly habit like smoking is worthwhile. It is important teens get the message that tobacco products are not everyday, normal products like the bread and milk alongside which they are sold." 

Source: nzherald, 03 July 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/59jshk

Uganda: BAT Ordered to Pay Farmers Sh3 Billion

British American Tobacco Uganda (BATU) has been ordered to pay SH3 Billion to tobacco farmers as compensation for failure to buy their crop.

Justice Fred Egonda-Ntende of the High Court Commercial Division made the ruling on Thursday.

The suit was filed three years ago by 3,000 farmers, mainly from Hoima and Masindi districts.

This is the first case in Ugandan history where peasants have taken a multinational corporation to court and succeeded.

The judge ruled, "I am satisfied that BAT was in breach of the contract with the farmers when it failed to buy their tobacco, which it was obliged to under the contract as well as under the Tobacco (Control and Marketing) Regulations."

"BAT is liable to pay the farmers for the value of the tobacco delivered to its marketing sheds. It is appropriate to take the price provided by the defendant, which puts the average price at sh1,200 per kilo."

The court also ordered the tobacco firm to pay the costs of the suit and 26% interest per annum to each of the farmers on daily balances.

This would bring the total amount to sh3.7billion, one of the farmers' lawyers said.

The farmers, through Muwema and Mugerwa Advocates, sued the company in March 2005, seeking to recover sh4 billion in compensation for breach of contract.

One of the farmers, Sedrach Mwijakubi said, "BAT made us suffer when it abandoned us with the tobacco, which it contracted us to grow and we had nowhere else to sell it."

Source: New Vision, 29 June 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6hr9qd