ASH Daily News for 07 July 2008

Doctors fume at glamorisation of smoking in films

Film stars who smoke on screen should attract the attention of the censor in the same way as they would if they were engaged in extreme sex or violence, doctors say. Films that show smoking in a way that "condones, encourages or glamorises" the activity should be considered for reclassification – restricting them to an older audience, the British Medical Association said. The association called yesterday for new curbs on the promotion of smoking in the media and said the Government should set a target to make England smoke-free by 2035.

More than one in five adults smokes and most start before they are 18 when they are most vulnerable to images that "increase the allure of the habit", the BMA said in a report from its board of science. The portrayal of smoking in films declined from 1950 to 1990, but has since increased. The poster for the 1994 movie Pulp Fiction, showing a sultry Uma Thurman smoking, was a gift to the tobacco industry and an example of the sort of image the BMA wants to outlaw. In the US, smoking has increased in films targeted at teenagers since 2002, the report says.

The BMA says films showing smoking in a positive light should also be preceded by an anti-smoking advert. A similar strategy to curb the promotion of cigarettes on television led to the voluntary withdrawal of tobacco advertising in the 1970s. Cigarettes should be banned from sale in vending machines, removed from display in shops and supermarkets and presented in plain packaging, the report says. The UK has one of the most comprehensive tobacco control policies in Europe with a ban on smoking in public places, an advertising ban, regular tax increases, an increase in the minimum age for buying cigarettes (from 16 to 18) and health warnings on packets. But further efforts to reduce the appeal of smoking to the young are essential to achieve the goal of eliminating it, the BMA says.

Source: The Independent, 07 July 2008   Also reported in The Guardian The Times BBC News
Link: http://tiny.cc/QTxUC

Ronson to be prosecuted over onstage cigarette?

Superproducer Mark Ronson is facing prosecution after he was caught smoking onstage at a gig last weekend. The Grammy-winner was performing at Britain's Wakestock Festival in the grounds of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England on Saturday night but he broke the UK's strict no smoking laws by sparking a cigarette up during the concert.

And now West Oxfordshire District have confirmed they have launched an investigation into the allegations and will be examining photo evidence of the gig. A council spokeswoman tells the Daily Mirror, "Our environmental health department will be investigating it and meeting with organisers and reviewing what went on. We can't say now whether we're prosecuting him (Ronson) or not." If he is prosecuted over the offence, Ronson will receive a minor £50 penalty but the event's organiser will be fined £2,500.

Source: Yahoo News, 06 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/b35BZ

Harsh school atmosphere may foster student smoking

Students at high schools that value caring and inclusiveness are significantly less likely to be smokers than their peers at schools placing a heavier emphasis on academics, Scottish researchers report. Students' attitudes toward a school and the quality of student-teacher relationships also appeared to play a role in whether or not students chose to smoke cigarettes, especially for boys. "Schools can make a difference," Dr. Marion Henderson of the Medical Research Council Social and Public Health Sciences in Glasgow, who led the study, told Reuters Health. "It's worth schools trying to think about the social environments they're creating."

Current anti-smoking efforts at schools, which usually focus on individuals rather than the school environment, have done little to discourage smoking among teens, Henderson and her colleagues note in the journal BMC Public Health. They sought to investigate whether the quality of the school environment itself might be related to students' likelihood of picking up the habit by looking at 5,092 students at 24 high schools in Scotland. Overall, 25 percent of males and 39 percent of females smoked. But smoking rates varied sharply from school to school, from a low of 8 percent to a high of 33 percent for male students. For girls, the percentage of smokers ranged from 28 percent to 49 percent.

Even after the researchers accounted for factors associated with smoking such as a student's socioeconomic status, the amount of spending money he or she had, or whether a student lived with both parents, school-to-school differences in smoking rates remained. Kids attending schools with worse student-teacher relationships as rated by students, teachers and the researchers themselves were more likely to be smokers. And when more students said they didn't like their school, the percentage of smokers in the student body also was higher. Both factors had a particularly strong influence on whether or not boys smoked.

The researchers also found male students at affluent schools were more likely to be smokers if student-teacher relationships at the school were poor. "The affluent schools, particularly those with poor relationships, may be more likely than deprived schools to have an academic focus, perhaps at the cost of the social climate or health-related goals," the researchers suggest. The findings in this study make it clear that it's not only individual factors such as deprivation that influence the likelihood a student will smoke. "Once you've leveled the playing field for these things, schools can make a difference (in) smoking just by being nicer social environments to be in," Henderson said in an interview.

Schools could build more positive environments by finding ways to make all students feel valued, even if they are not top academic achievers, the researcher said. This might include offering apprenticeships and practical training to those who aren't necessarily "university material," Henderson suggested. And making sure that teachers are people that the students respect and like could ensure that any health-related messages they offer won't be dismissed, she added.

Source: Reuters UK, 04 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/uLBjf

Australia: chop-chop tobacco 'more damaging'?

People addicted to illict chop-chop tobacco are more likely to have bad lungs and other physical ills than those whose smoke the legal variety, a new study claims. Smokers of so-called chop-chop widely believe the unbranded loose tobacco is "healthier" because it does not contain the same chemicals as commercial cigarettes. "We now have a fairly good indication that that's really not the case," says Campbell Aitken, from the Burnet Institute in Melbourne. "In fact people who smoke chop-chop seem to have significantly worse health than smokers of licit tobacco who, as we well know, already have worse health than non-smokers."

Sold under the counter through tobacconists and markets in poorer suburbs and on the internet, chop-chop is about a quarter the price of commercial tobacco. The survey, released at a national public health conference in Brisbane today, shows that about seven per cent of Australian smokers usually smoke this variety, while a quarter said they had tried it at least once. Dr Aitken said this estimate was conservative as those believed to most widely smoke the product, younger people and the homeless, were poorly represented in the phone survey of 1500 smokers.

Those who had smoked it had started smoking at an earlier age, smoked more heavily and had worse mental health, physical health, and poorer social functioning. Dr Aitken said while chop-chop smokers tended to have a lower socio-economic status, this alone did not account for their poorer health. "We can't say exactly what is responsible but there are some issues with chop-chop that suggest the tobacco itself could be contributing to their poorer health," Dr Aitken said.

It was possible the product could be cut with other substances like hay, bark, or more harsh materials, that could cause health problems, he said. "It is also often sold quite moist, making it a potential breeding ground for fungi that can cause lung problems," the researcher said. The report calls for a targeted campaign that urges smokers away from illicit tobacco but, says Dr Aitken, this would not be ideal. "I hate to encourage people to stick to (commercially-made) cigarettes when these too have terrible, although less damaging, effects on the body," he said. A tax office report from 2004/05 estimated that the illegal tobacco industry cost the country $98 million annually - a 56 per cent increase on three years earlier.

Source: news.com.au, 07 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/lDWeB

Japan Tobacco: difficult to raise cigarette prices

Most Japanese smokers would quit if the price of cigarettes were to triple, as could happen under a proposed tax scheme, the chief executive of Japan Tobacco told Reuters in an interview on Monday. Japan Tobacco, the world's third-largest cigarette maker and half-owned by the government, is facing the threat of potential tax hikes, which could more than triple cigarette prices to 1,000 yen ($9.34) a pack. Chief Executive Hiroshi Kimura also said other price hikes would be difficult given the current business climate.

The company has already seen costs rise even as it grapples with a declining domestic market, where the population is shrinking and consumers are becoming more health-conscious, resulting in a market that has contracted for nine straight years. "Given the fact that demand is on a decreasing trend, the impact of this would be incalculable," Kimura said. "If prices reached 1,000 yen, 80 to 90 percent of smokers would quit and the rest would probably cut back."

Japan Tobacco makes Mild Seven cigarettes and owns the Camel, Winston and Salem brands outside the United States. A pack of Mild Seven currently costs 300 yen ($2.80), while other brands such as Marlboro set consumers back around 320 yen -- a far cry from the 5.66 pounds ($11.19) a pack costs in Britain. Rising costs in everything from tobacco to transport and the material used for packages have put the company under additional pressure, but Kimura said that hiking prices -- which the company had previously said was one option -- would be tough. While declining to comment directly on whether a decision on a price hike would be made in the current business year that ends March 2009, he said: "It would be extremely difficult."

The company sees domestic demand falling by 5.2 percent compared to the previous year, of which 1 percent will be due to the influence of newly introduced age-identifying smart cards now required to buy cigarettes from vending machines. Kimura said he expects this negative influence to fade as more smokers acquire the cards, which were introduced on July 1 to prevent underage smokers from buying cigarettes. "Overall, we can't stop things falling. The question is just how much it falls," he said.

Japan Tobacco last year acquired Britain's Gallaher Group for about $15 billion to vastly increase its international sales. The company's overseas tobacco business more than doubled its operating profit to 205.3 billion yen in the past year, while profit from its domestic operations slipped 9 percent to 222 billion yen as the market shrank for a ninth straight year. Kimura said his company hoped to expand into Asia to take advantage of its huge population, with expansion into India, Indonesia and China being considered, but did not give details.

For the fourth quarter ended March 31, Japan Tobacco's operating profit was 63.8 billion yen, up from 58.5 billion yen a year earlier. For the full year, profit jumped 30 percent to 430.5 billion yen. But Japan Tobacco forecast a 28 percent fall in operating profit this year due to an accounting change, its first drop in eight years. The company said profits would fall this business year as it begins to amortise goodwill -- the excess paid for a company above the value of its assets, which includes intangible assets such as brand names -- related to the Gallaher acquisition. Japan Tobacco shares shed 1.8 percent on Monday, sliding to 434,000 yen. The stock has fallen 35 percent this year, partly due to fallout from a food scare earlier this year involving pesticide-contaminated dumplings the group, which also operates a food business, imported from China.

Source: Reuters, 07 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/kEGSy

Czech Republic: Philip Morris hikes cigarette prices

Philip Morris has increased the prices of its cigarettes in the Czech Republic, reported the Czech News Agency, citing the daily Mlada fronta Dnes as its original source. Prices have been raised by CZK8 per pack. Philip Morris is reportedly the largest cigarette producer in the Czech market. As a result, a price hike by this company is expected to be followed by several others. Kamil Provaznik, executive of Imperial Tobacco, a rival of Philip Morris, said: "I expect the taxes to reflect in all (cigarette) prices in retail shops by end-September."

Source: Datamonitor, 04 July 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/zfiIq