ASH Daily News for 18 July 2008

Customs officers in running battle with cigarette smugglers

The true extent of smuggling has been revealed as customs officers say they are still being forced to play cat and mouse with cigarette smugglers on the Lincolnshire coast. 

HM Revenue & Customs officers recently raided a shop, believed to be in the lower part of Lincoln High Street, and seized more than 14,000 cigarettes.

The modern twist to smuggling is that ships from the former Eastern Bloc countries laden with illicit cigarettes drop anchor in international waters 12 miles off the Lincolnshire coast, beyond the jurisdiction of sea patrols.

Smaller vessels meet the boats in the North Sea and return with their booty and it is these that officials raid, or lie in wait as the smuggling network is revealed.

Counterfeit cigarettes are landed in isolated locations along the Lincolnshire coast, the south bank of the River Humber and the Wash, or along inland rivers including the Trent and the Witham.

From there, they are loaded into vans and driven to depots before being sold on the black market.

Alternatively, smuggled goods arrive in port towns including Grimsby, Immingham and Boston, hidden in consignments of fruit and veg.

About £3bn in duty is evaded by tobacco smugglers in Britain each year.

"Smugglers weigh up the risks involved and smuggling cigarettes is less risky than smuggling drugs or people as the maximum prison sentence is seven years," said Customs & Revenue spokesman Maddy Ratnett.

"Nooks and crannies along the Lincolnshire coast or any river that has wharves are perfect landing places for smugglers.

"Even if we had unlimited numbers of officers I don't think we would ever stop smuggling completely but we remain vigilant and we are out and about in the area."

Source: thisislincolnshire,17 July 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5gbrym

Smoking ban couple ordered to pay £8,000

A couple, who flouted the smoking ban at their East Wretham pub, have been ordered to pay costs of more than £8,000.

Martin and Karen Turver, landlords of the Dog and Partridge, appeared at Thetford Magistrates' Court on Thursday following a prosecution by Breckland Council for smoking offences under the 2006 Health Act.

Magistrates found they had clearly and deliberately flouted the ban and gave the couple a conditional discharge and ordered them to pay costs of £8,302.

A spokeswoman for Breckland Council said: "The council had considerable communication with Mr and Mrs Turver between May and July 2007, offering advice on the law and prosecution was the last resort for Breckland after they failed to respond to verbal and written requests to comply with the law.

"Breckland's Environmental Health Department received numerous complaints about smoking in the Dog and Partridge from customers, local residents and other licensed premises who were fully complying with the law."

Ann Steward, Breckland executive member for planning and environment, said: "I am disappointed that this case ever came to court, as we have done everything possible to avoid this prosecution and to help with the smooth introduction of this new government legislation, but in this case we had to act on the numerous complaints from the public."

Source: Bury Free Press, 17 July 2008  
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5jl37r

USA: New studies on menthol and polonium-210 show need for regulation of tobacco products

Two new studies published in the American Journal of Public Health demonstrate the critical need for Congress to enact pending legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco products. One study found that tobacco companies manipulate levels of menthol in cigarettes to recruit new, young smokers. The second study found that tobacco companies, because of public relations and litigation concerns, suppressed their own internal research about the presence of polonium-210, a radioactive, cancer-causing chemical, in cigarettes and cigarette smoke.

These studies demonstrate how the current lack of regulation allows tobacco companies to manipulate their products in ways harmful to health and to control what is in their products and what they disclose about them. Currently, no government agency has the authority to regulate menthol, polonium-210 or any of the more than 4,000 chemicals in a cigarette. The legislation before Congress would fundamentally change this harmful status quo by granting the FDA authority over the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products.

Under this legislation, the FDA would gain critical authority to curtail the tobacco industry's harmful practices.

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic and Stanford University, found that tobacco companies suppressed publication of their own internal research about the presence and potential health effects of radioactive, cancer-causing polonium-210 in cigarettes and cigarette smoke. Based on a review of internal tobacco industry documents, the study found that for 40 years tobacco companies have been concerned about the public relations and litigation problems posed by polonium-210 in cigarettes and sought to avoid public attention of the issue for fear of "waking a sleeping giant," as one Philip Morris document put it.
 
The study found that tobacco companies continue to minimize its polonium-210's importance in smoking and health litigation and remain silent on the issue on their web sites and in their messages to consumers.

Citing prior research, the study states, "It is estimated that smokers of 1.5 packs of cigarettes a day are exposed to as much radiation as they would receive from 300 chest x-rays.

March 2007 polling conducted for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that 92 percent of teens and 91 percent of adults did not know that polonium-210 was found in cigarettes and cigarette smoke. When presented with a list of chemicals in cigarette smoke and asked to choose which they feared most, 30 percent of teens and 29 percent of adults chose polonium-210, more than any other chemical. 

Source: The Wall Street Journal, 16 July 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5cb4vj

China: Underage smokers reach 15 million

According to the 2008 report on tobacco control by the Ministry of Public Heath, there are 15 million underage smokers in China and the number is rising.

Roughly 40 million of the country's 130 million children aged between 13 and 18 have tried smoking, 60 million are exposed to the harms of secondhand smoke and 15 million are addicted to nicotine.

The number of youths that have tried smoking and who smoke increases annually. Male students are the main smokers among school children, and in big cities, the number of female students who have tried smoking or who smoke is increasing, the report said.

According to the report, 67 percent of those that had tried tobacco products did so before they were 13 years old, a 15 percent increase from 1998.

China has an estimated 350 million smokers, about a quarter of its population and one-third of the world's smokers. It is also the world's largest tobacco production and consumption country, the report said.

Tobacco adverts were partly to blame for the rising rate of young tobacco addicts because they target youths by associating smoking with independence and sex appeal.

Also, indirect advertisements, such as tobacco firms sponsoring sporting events, are three times more likely to influence children than adults, the report said.

Smoking scenes in TV series or films were also blamed. The Beijing-based non-profit organization, the Think Tank Research Center for Health Development, submitted a formal complaint to the State Administration of Radio Film and Television last July, criticising TV series for showing too many scenes with characters smoking. Think Tank found that 36 percent of Chinese TV dramas made in the past two years showed actors smoking in an average of 30 scenes, with one appearing at an average interval of 12 minutes.

It is estimated that by 2025, two million people will die from tobacco related diseases every year.
 

Source: The Shanghai Daily, 17 July 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5dblp7