Zimbabwe Has Increased Tobacco Exports

Since the beginning of 2013 Zimbabwe got 94 million US dollars from tobacco exports to different countries. There was sold 25 million kg of tobacco at an average price of 3,74 US dollars per kg.

This is double 59 million dollars obtained from 16 million kg which was exported during the same period of time in 2012  at an average price of 3,58 US dollars per kg.

Latest data provided by Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board reveal that South Africa paid 24,5 million dollars for 8,1 million kg of tobacco at 3,04 dollars  per kg

In 2012 during the same period of time got 1,7 million kg of tobacco to the value of 5,8 million dollars at 3,28 dollars per kg. The second highest importer is China that continues to buy it at very competitive prices. China has paid 16,6 million US dollars for 2 million kg at 8,76 dollars per kg.

During the same period of time in 2012 China paid 14,8 million dollars for 2,3 million kg at 6,35 dollars per kg. Third country that has high tobacco imports is The United Arab Emirates which bought tobacco worth 5,6 million dollars at 2,27 dollars per kg In 2012 the United Arab Emirates bought tobacco worth $1,6 million dollars.

Then comes Belgium with 2 million kg of tobacco worth 5,1 million dollars at a price of 2,56 dollars per kg. Last year they bought 1,6 million kg worth 2,3 million dollars at 1,43 dollars per kg.

Sudan greatly increased its imports of tobacco from Zimbabwe and since the beginning of 2013 it bought 1,5 million kg worth 5,36 million dollars at an average price of 3,46 dollars per kg

Agriculture experts say that consolidation in tobacco sales in Zimbabwe is connected to the high prices on the international tobacco markets. Thus Zimbabwe is able to return status of major tobacco producer in the world.

Should E-cigarettes Be Banned in Washington?

Two memebers of Washington DC council suggest to ban electronic cigarettes saying they may be dangerous for non-smokers. E-cigarettes became very popular today because they are used to help quit smoking tobacco. Smoker may choose among a number of flavors and here tobacco is not used at all. E-cigarettes are equipped with battery-operated inhalers which heat nicotine into vapor which has same effects as tobacco cigarettes do.

E-cigarettes produce no smoke and namely this characteristics helped them avoid state regulations.

In Washington it is a normal thing to see citizens smoking e-cigarettes in such public places as bars and restaurants. However, city councils  Yvette M. Alexander and David Grosso suggest to prohibit that. They want all kinds of cigarettes to be banned in public places. Nowadays, in Washington functionates a law that prohibits smoking in public places.

Alexander says smoking e-cigarettes is similar to smoking tobacco and the difference is that we do not know negative effects of e-cigarettes and therefore we cannot put on risk non-smokers.

Today in the USA many states want to ban e-cigarettes. In 2011 the FDA said it would regulate e-cigarettes as it does tobacco. Specialists say that studies of e-cigarettes effects are needed in order to know if they are dangerous for people who inhale their vapors.

In turn, manufacturers of electronic cigarettes claim that their products have no negative effects on smokers because they do not contain chemicals that tobacco cigarettes have. Big Cigs, the producer of e-cigarettes in the USA, says that with such statements tobacco industry wants to undervalue e-cigs industry.

Alexander says that e-cigarettes do not help stop smoking as they contain nicotine and besides this atrract more people.

Tobacco prevention programs successful in the Bitterroot

 The Ravalli County Tobacco Prevention office reports that the use of tobacco in Montana has decreased significantly over the past decade.

Ravalli County Tobacco Prevention Specialist Lyndsay Stover said that in Montana tobacco use rates have decreased between the ages of 12 and 18. In 2001, the tobacco use rate was 29 percent; in 2011, it dropped to 17 percent.
Stover said that recently the National Institute of Drug Abuse released a study that explains how tobacco products could act as a gateway drug.

Researchers at Columbia University identified a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products possibly act as a gateway drug, increasing a person’s future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well.
The recent study is the first to show that nicotine could prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine.

The National Institutes of Health conducted a survey that showed more than 90 percent of adult cocaine users between the ages of 18 and 34 had smoked cigarettes before they began using cocaine.

Stover said that tobacco is the first drug for kids and if its use is prevented at a younger age it will in turn help prevent further drug use.
“Smoking actually teaches kids how to use drugs. When they smoke, they are becoming aware of how to use drugs,” she said.

Stover said that kids who begin with tobacco often look for a greater thrill.
The researchers found that nicotine makes the brain more susceptible to cocaine addictions. The discovery suggests that lowering smoking rates in young people might help reduce cocaine abuse.

The Department of Education agrees with the Centers for Disease Control that the younger a child starts smoking the more addicted they become.
Smoking prevention efforts are not only preventing the negative health consequences with smoking, but can also decrease the risk of progression and addiction to cocaine and other drugs.

Source:  http://www.ravallirepublic.com

Bloomberg Seeks End to Cheap Cigarettes

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg opened a new front in his antismoking campaign last week when he proposed new legislation that would require stores to keep tobacco products out of sight, making New York the first city in the nation to do so.
 Its companion bill, however, has the potential to be just as groundbreaking, experts on tobacco control said. Along with strengthening the penalties on retailers that evade tobacco taxes, the second bill establishes a minimum price for cigarettes and cigarillos, or little cigars, of $10.50 a pack, the first time such a strategy has been used to combat smoking. The bill also prohibits retailers from redeeming coupons or offering other discounts, like two-for-one deals.

“This is kind of a landmark set of proposals here,” said Kurt Ribisl, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, whose research on tobacco control influenced Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal. “For someone like me, who’s spent 18 years studying point-of-sale issues, this is kind of big.”

Dr. Ribisl studies what happens at the retail counter, where a customer at a typical convenience store sees a colorful array of signs, packaging and “shelf talkers” — the small tags that flutter from shelves — promoting two-for-one, dollar-off and other types of deals. According to a Federal Trade Commission report issued last year, the tobacco industry spent $6.5 billion on discounts in 2010, and Dr. Ribisl said they are one of the major ways cigarette makers encourage price-conscious customers like teenagers and low-income smokers to buy.

New York’s price-regulation bill would, in effect, close off the remaining means of access to cheap cigarettes and little cigars, which make it easier for teenagers to experiment with smoking, and progress to smoking regularly, said Brett Loomis, a researcher at RTI International, a nonprofit institute that offers research and technical services to governments and businesses.

City and state taxes already add $5.85 to the cost of every pack, the highest cigarette taxes in the country. About half of all states, including New York, also require wholesalers and retailers to mark the price of cigarettes up by a certain percentage. The laws were generally intended to protect business in small stores by preventing large chains from selling cigarettes below cost, as so-called loss leaders, which draw in customers.

Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal, which will be taken up by the City Council, goes beyond those laws by specifying a minimum price. The health department said $10.50 was the median price of the lowest-priced packs in more than 300 city stores. That, and the prohibition on coupons or discounts, will “thwart the tobacco companies’ ability to prey on low-income and minority smokers,” Dr. Ribisl said.

David Sutton, a spokesman for Altria, parent company of Philip Morris USA, said the city should focus on eradicating the illegal cigarette trade, rather than further restricting retailers, who are already required to perform age checks on customers.

“Piling on additional regulations designed to get at youth access when the sales compliance rate at licensed retailers is very, very high already — we just don’t think that’s the right approach,” Mr. Sutton said.

As for the ban on discounts, Mr. Bloomberg, who is accustomed to setting an example for other municipalities in public-health initiatives, from smoking bans to calorie counts, may have looked to Providence, R.I., which passed an ordinance forbidding retailers from honoring coupons and discounts last January.

Tobacco companies sued, but the federal district judge ruled for Providence, which defended its right to regulate sales and prices within the city. Though the tobacco companies have appealed, the ban went into effect on Jan. 3. Mr. Bloomberg’s tobacco-control bills are also almost certain to be challenged in court.

“We felt that these coupons and multipack discounts were a loophole,” said Providence’s mayor, Angel Taveras, “and we felt it was important to close this loophole, especially because it was a matter of life and death. We anticipated getting sued, but it was worth the fight.”

As for Mr. Bloomberg’s announcement, Mr. Taveras said he wished his crusading counterpart all the best.

“I’m not sure that he needs any advice from me,” he said.

Source: The New York Times

Bloomberg's Plan Challenges Tobacco Industry

Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York City came this week with a new plan to ban tobacco products from display in stores. Smoking displays are considered to be a bad example for young people who may acquire this habit. Several countries banned cigarettes from displays in the stores and this prevents youth from buying them.

Studies have shown that keeping cigarettes displays out of children helps to restrain them from smoking and besides this helps individuals who are trying to quit. A study that was published in January in Pediatrics magazine showed that teenagers were less likely to buy cigarettes if they shopped in stores where tobacco products were not displayed. In the USA tobacco products advertising is widely spread in ordinary retail stores and open displays of cigarettes stimulate unplanned purchases.

Kerry M. Schneider, key staff attorney for the Center for Public Health and Tobacco Policy at New England Law in Boston, said that such countries as Canada, Ireland and New Zealand have brought into action bans and it has little impact to tobacco sales at stores. It greatly helped to reduce the number of smokers among youth.

The New York city’s ban on smoking in such public places as restaurants and bars resulted in the state’s ban. Thus in 2011, the city became the largest municipality where smoking is prohibited in parks and beaches.

The WHO Worried About Tobacco Fair in Philippines

 

The World Health Organization has expressed anxiety about tobacco trade shows that take place in Philippines. The WHO says it encourages smokers to consume more tobacco products.

The tobacco trade fair in Philippines is called ProTobEx ASIA and it it world's largest fair of tobacco products. It will take place in Manila this week and it is organized the second year in a row

Philippines was chosen among other Asian countries due to its highly developed tobacco industry and the support of the local government, which has refused a ban on smoking in public places.

Eigil Sorensen, Senior WHO adviser, told that the Philippine government has signed an international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which prohibits to advertise and promote tobacco products.

He also said that latest data show that 14 million adult Filipinos smoke daily.