FREE THE EARTH FROM DEVIL SMOKE

Failed intellectuals, arm-chair revolutionaries, frustrated utopians, tyrannical tycoons, spoilt spitritualists, profiteers, corrupt capitalists, lecherous leftists- all have ganged up against humanity in an unholy alliance.

whatever your views, whatever your religion, language, caste, color, creed, credo, nationality, profession, ideology, culture or any idiocyncracy --remember one thing that you will have to live, breathe, drink and eat on this planet EARTH. Therefore you have an obligation and equal right like anyone else to keep this planet livable and breathable. Cigarette smoking is one of the major causes that are making this planet unlivable. Rid yourself of this satanic evil if you are gripped by it and stand up against it. Join my blog and let our voices become one. Let there be synergy in our efforts.

Your non-smoking, non-drinking friend
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Monday, November 19, 2012

MAKE CIGARETTE PACK 60 CENT COSTLIER: ANTI-SMOKING CAMPAIGNERS

 Irish anti-smoking campaigners call for another 60c Tax on packet of cigarettes

DUBLIN :
ANTI-smoking campaigners in Ireland have called on Finance Minister Michael Noonan to put an extra 60c on the price of a pack of 20 cigarettes in the next Budget.
ASH Ireland also said it wants to bring the taxation on “roll-your-own-tobacco” into line with other tobacco products when Mr Noonan delivers his Budget package for 2013.
ASH Chairman Dr Ross Morgan said: “Significant price increase is established and accepted as the most potent weapon against smoking.
“It encourages smokers to quit and discourages young people from commencing the habit. Regrettably we have over 900,000 smokers in this country who consume roughly six billion cigarettes annually.
“This of course leads to addiction, significant tobacco related illness and the death of 5,700 of our citizens every year. One in two people who smoke will die because of this and it is incumbent on the government to take a leadership role and increase price and in doing so reduce prevalence.”

RELATED ARTICLES:


1. http://devilsmoke.blogspot.in/search/label/taxation
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Noonan
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ireland 
4. http://www.independent.ie 
5. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10268368
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Monday, November 5, 2012

EUROPE'S ANTI-TOBACCO LEGISLATION HIT BY SCANDAL


EUROPE'S ANTI-TOBACCO LEGISLATION HIT BY SCANDAL


Health Commissioner Resigns In Disgrace

    LONDON, UK — Corruption allegations, unexplained break-ins, dark conspiracy theories and Swedish snuff: Those aren’t the elements of a Hollywood film, but developments in a plot surrounding Europe’s efforts to get tough on nicotine.
    At stake are billions of dollars of potential tobacco trade and the career of one of the European Union’s senior figures. Also on the line is a long-awaited piece of legislation health campaigners hope will score a major victory in a long battle to cut cigarette consumption.
    Given the cloud of disapproval that has enveloped big tobacco at least since the days US manufacturers denied their products were addictive, the scandal has predictably generated allegations the industry is resorting to underhanded tactics to protect its steadily shrinking market.
    The controversy erupted earlier this year when Swedish Match, which produces a snuff-based chewing tobacco popular in parts of Scandinavia, claimed it had been propositioned by a lobbyist with connections to John Dalli, a veteran Maltese politician serving as the EU’s health commissioner.
    The manufacturer said businessman Silvio Zammit, also from Malta, had suggested he could persuade Dalli to alter forthcoming legislation on tobacco products by lifting an EU export and marketing ban on its snus chewing tobacco — for a consideration of $78 million.
    Swedish Match said it refused the offer and called in OLAF, the EU’s fraud investigators. OLAF found “unambiguous circumstantial pieces of evidence” indicating Dalli was aware of — but not involved in — Zammit’s activities and referred the matter to the Maltese authorities.
    Dalli denies the accusation. “There is no evidence that I was in any way involved in this issue,” he told the Times of Malta. “I have consistently stated that I was unaware of communication passing between Silvio Zammit and the snus people.”
    Nevertheless, Dalli left office last week insisting OLAF and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso forced him out against EU protocols.
    “This is a very serious decision that Mr. Barroso took, very serious,” he told a news conference on Wednesday. “It will damage my whole future and it will damage the future of my family.”
    Barroso denies the charge and says Dalli resigned voluntarily. Earlier in the day, he wrote to him saying that "you have yourself unambiguously declared your immediate resignation, before the director general of the legal service and the head of my private office,” the BBC reported. He called Dalli’s accusation “incomprehensible.”
    The scandal has put the tobacco legislation’s future in doubt. Under Dalli, it had been beefed up with proposals to strip cigarette packages of almost all branding and tighten regulations on smokeless products such as electronic cigarettes and snuff.
    Those measures — similar to a groundbreaking new Australian law that from December will require cigarettes to be sold in plain packs — have drawn condemnation from the tobacco industry. Retail lobbyists say they could cause a $26 billion loss in European tax revenues.
    Dalli has hinted at dark forces at play.
    Since his departure, he’s expressed concerns his legislation will be “diluted” or swept away, saying he’d been subjected to “an attempt to dissuade me from going ahead with certain measures” even before allegations had been lodged against him.
    Others share his worries. "This was going to be the mainstay of tobacco policy for the European Union over the coming years and the danger now is that it is dead in the water," said Anna Gilmore, professor of public health at the UK’s University of Bath.
    Dalli has written to EU lawmakers claiming that Swedish Match had tried to set up meetings with him through middlemen in July, according to the EUObserver.com website. He said “it had passed my mind” that the tobacco industry had conspired in his demise.
    Swedish Match has denied all claims of impropriety and highlighted its own prompt involvement with OLAF. The tobacco firm, which stands to gain a $2.3 billion market if snus restrictions are lifted, says it wants the new laws introduced via a “transparent and legally fair process.”
    But Dalli, a reformed smoker, isn’t alone in his pessimistic outlook or his view that sinister hands may be at work, particularly given an unusual series of events that took place in the days following the scandal’s development.
    First there were the burglaries. Last week, two days after Dalli left his job, the premises of three anti-smoking groups — the European Public Health Alliance, the European Respiratory Society and the Smoke Free Partnership — in a building in Brussels were broken into.
    Laptops and information relating to their campaign work are understood to have been taken. But although the organizations viewed the raids as the work of determined professionals, none of them blamed tobacco companies.
    “We do not subscribe to conspiracy theories,” said a spokesman for the European Public Health Alliance. “However, in light of the evidence we feel we have legitimate reason to suspect the intrusion was well-planned, researched and targeted.”
    As the plot continues to thicken, there have been claims tobacco lobbyists are trying to steer journalists covering the story. Meanwhile, the electronic cigarette industry has wasted no time posting a scurrilous blog about alleged skeletons in Dalli’s closet.
    It coincided with an equally timely publication of an essay by Steve Stotesbury, a scientist working for Imperial Tobacco, outlining positive health effects of snus use. He claims countries exempt from the current EU ban show lower rates of smoking-related disease.
    Other conspiracy theories point elsewhere, including to OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler, who some believe lacks the impartiality required for investigating Dalli because he’s previously testified plain cigarette packaging could aid counterfeiting.
    Whether or not the smoke surrounding what happened before and after Dalli’s exit clears, it’s certain the EU tobacco legislation, if it ever emerges, could reshape the continent’s nicotine habits.
    Smoking across EU countries is already in retreat: Adult consumers fell from 28.15 percent of the population to 25.57 percent between 2002 and 2009, according to the World Health Organization. But experts say new impetus is needed because the rate of decline is slowing.
    "Evidence suggests that the anticipated legislation would have an impact,” said Gilmore, the public health professor. Without it, she said, the tobacco industry will adapt to existing restrictions such as taxes, marketing and workplace smoking bans, and recruit new customers.
    “Right now it is increasingly relying on the cigarette pack to promote its products and, in particular, to recruit young new smokers,” she added. “Policies that reduce the marketing potential of the pack through plain packaging or large warning labels are therefore very important."

    LINKS:
    1. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/121025/eu-dalli-barroso-tobacco-europe-smoking
    2  http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1851/eu_health_commissioner_john_dalli_resigns_in_disgrace

    WORKERS THINK 'SMOKING BREAKS ARE UNFAIR

    58 percent workers think 'smoking breaks' are unfair

    London,28 October

    More than half of workers dislike colleagues who go out for a cigarette and think that the time should come out of their salaries, a survey has revealed.
    A total of 58 percent are angry over “unfair” breaks while just one in four think that smokers should be paid the same.
    However, 16 percent of people surveyed said that their colleagues should only be paid less if taking more breaks lowered their productivity.
    The survey carried out by consumer website Watch My Wallet, was done during Stoptober, the initiative to quit cigarettes over 28 days this month.
    “We were stunned. It’s amazing to think that a majority of the country is silently seething about the amount of time smokers spend away from their desks,” the Daily Express quoted Watch My Wallet spokesman Sean O’Meara as saying.
    Amanda Sandford, of anti-smoking charity Ash, said that smokers should have shorter lunchtimes or stay late.
    But Simon Clark, of the smokers’ lobby group Forest, said taking time out for a cigarette was no different to taking coffee breaks or making personal calls.

    LINK: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/58-percent-workers-think-smoking-breaks-are-unfair/1020973

    Sunday, November 4, 2012

    268,000 PLEDGED TO QUIT SMOKING DURING ''STOPOBER''


    A LAUDABLE INITIATIVE OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT

    *  More than a quarter of a million people pledged to stub out their last cigarette during the "Stoptober" anti-smoking campaign in Britain.

    *  The month-long NHS (National Health Services) quit drive, which ran until the end of October, aimed to encourage thousands of Britain's eight million smokers to kick the habit.
    Research suggests that those who successfully gave up for weeks, are 5 times more likely to stay smoke-free.
    *   Health minister Anna Soubry said the £5.7 million campaign had "exceeded expectations". The figures were announced as a new study suggested women smokers can earn themselves 10 years of extra life by quitting the habit before middle age.
    *  The study of 1.3 million women found that smoking tripled the chances of dying over 9 years compared with non-smokers. Most of the increased death rate resulted from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease or stroke.
    *   Smokers who kicked the habit around age 30 avoided 97% of their excess risk of premature death, according to the Million Women Study.
    *   Ms Soubry said: "Stoptober has been a great success - it has exceeded our expectations. But half of all smokers will die because of their habit. We know that most smokers want to give up, which is why we must keep encouraging them to make that step. "I congratulate everyone who gave up for Stoptober - it's a fantastic achievement. They are 5 times more likely to give up for good after 28 days and I hope they will. For those who didn't manage to stop for Stoptober, I would urge them to keep at it. People can start their own 28 day quit challenge at any time."
    *   More than 268,000 people registered to take part in Stoptober - the UK's first ever mass stop smoking event, the Department of Health (DoH) said.
    *   Almost 200,000 support packs were ordered which included a Stoptober guide, an addiction test, patches and gum. There were 205,885 registrations for the Stoptober online app and 72,347 text service registrations.
    *   More than 1.2 million visits to the Smokefree website were recorded, along with 150,000 Stoptober tweets and more than 50,000 fans joined the Facebook page in the campaign period.
    *   Smoking remains the biggest killer in England with half of long-term smokers dying from smoking related diseases.
    More than 8 million people still smoke in England each year and 300,000 children under 16 try their first cigarette, the DoH said.
    *   Exposure to second-hand smoke results in 300,000 GP visits and 9,500 hospital admissions for children each year.

    LINKS:
     1. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/268000-pledge-to-quit-smoking-for-stoptober-8229016.html
    2.  http://getpocket.com/a/read/244853715 

    Tuesday, October 23, 2012

    'RUSSIANS HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT CHAINS OF SMOKE'

    'RUSSIANS HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT CHAINS OF SMOKE'
    Moscow, 22 October:

    The Russian government is preparing an anti-smoking law and has enlisted the prime minister and badminton lover Dmitry Medvedev to support it, which he did in a video appeal calling for people to kick the habit.

    The legislation will be discussed in parliament by the end of October.

    Medvedev stated that this was a very important bill for non-smokers as well. “For non-smokers this law cannot come soon enough. Some smokers call it an attempt to curtail their right to do whatever they want with their health. But I am sure that the bill serves the interests of our country’s residents,” he said.

    Russia among leaders for smoking

    As of today, the prime minister said, Russia has one of the highest levels of smoking in the world.

    “Forty-four million of our citizens depend on daily doses of nicotine – just think about it, it’s a third of the country, including children! And we are the second largest [smokers] in the world after China.”

    In 2011, Russians spent more than 600 billion rubles on cigarettes, the state secretary and deputy health minister, Sergei Velmyaikin, told RIA Novosti.

    Medvedev said the market is divided between the four major foreign cigarette companies, all of which came to Russia in the early 1990s. “Unfortunately, then, in the 1990s, the state did not consider the risks of foreign tobacco investment in the Russian economy.”

    Numbers rose over 20 years

    He said the number of smoking women tripled in that period – from 7 to 22 percent – and the age of first-time smokers fell from 15 to 11.

    “Currently two-thirds of Russian teenagers from 13 to 16 years old have smoked, and a third smokes regularly. Annually, in Russia, 400,000 pupils aged 10 to 13 try smoking, and almost a third are active smokers.”

    He added that Russia loses almost 400,000 people a year to smoking, a number equivalent to the number of residents of Tver.

    “So, every year a large city disappears from the map of the country due to tobacco use, and this is a long and painful death from cancer, emphysema, or a sudden one from heart attack or stroke,” the prime minister said.

    Gradual ban

    The prime minister explained that the anti-smoking bill provides for a complete ban on smoking in playgrounds, government buildings, schools, and universities – and from 2015, in cafes and restaurants as well.

    The measures would be introduced gradually, and by Jan. 1, 2015, smoking would not be allowed in any public buildings. Taxes on tobacco would also be raised and advertising cut down.

    The extra money from increased taxes on tobacco will be spent on healthcare, he said.

    Not discrimination

    Medvedev contradicted the idea that the bill is discriminatory against smokers, noting that “today, nearly 60 percent of adults and all children, including infants, are subjected to discrimination on the part of smokers: they are forced to inhale the poisonous cigarette smoke, even though they did not choose to be smokers.”

    “I would like to emphasize one simple thing: the government or the state is not at war with smokers, but we are against smoking,” he stressed, adding that over 80 percent of Russians, including two-thirds of regular smokers, support the fight against smoking.

    “Let’s free our country from tobacco,” he concluded.

    LINKS:

    http://indrus.in/articles/2012/10/21/pm_calls_for_nationwide_smoking_ban_18521.html

    Monday, October 22, 2012

    RUSSIA : SECOND LARGEST TOBACCO MARKET

    SECOND LARGEST TOBACCO MARKET OF THE WORLD

     

    * Russia is the second largest tobacco market in the world.
    * Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a video blog on Tuesday that 44 million   Russians, nearly one in three, were hooked on smoking.
    * According to Medvedev’s message, Russia has the highest percentage of smokers in the world.
    * From 1992, the percentage of female smokers tripled from 7 to 22 per cent.

     

    * The average age that Russian children begin smoking decreased from age 15 to age 11, Medvedev said.
    * Almost 400,000 die every year of smoking-related causes.
    * "Every year (the equivalent of) a large city disappears," Medvedev said.
    * The habit of lighting up in Russia, where the air in bars, coffee shops and stairwells is thick with smoke, is encouraged by the cheap price of cigarettes. A pack typically costs around 50-60 roubles (less than $2).
    * While President Vladimir Putin is a non-smoker and has reprimanded ministers for smoking, some other top officials, such as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, are heavy smokers.
    * The government hopes the legislation will help improve life expectancy, which at 62 for men and 74 for women in 2009, remains low by the standards of other middle-income countries.
    * The Russian cigarette market, estimated to be worth around $22 billion in 2011 by Euromonitor International, is a significant part of overseas tobacco companies' businesses.
    * Four foreign tobacco companies - Japan Tobacco International, Phillip Morris, British American Tobacco, and Imperial Tobacco - control more than 90 percent of Russian sales and have been lobbying to soften the proposed legislation.
    * Russia's Finance Ministry has previously announced plans to increase the excise duty on tobacco by around 40 percent for 2013 and 2014 and said on Tuesday it plans to hike taxes by 10 percent a year after 2015. The Health Ministry supports a greater increase in duty.
    * The bill would probably become law next spring if submitted to parliament by November 1, Nikolai Gerasimenko, deputy chairman of the State Duma's health committee, was quoted by the state-run Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
    * The proposed legislation follows in the footsteps of other countries, mostly in the West, who have imposed strict controls on the advertising and sales of cigarettes and banned smoking in public places.

    * In an article following Medvedev’s announcement, Russian daily Vedomosti noted that just a year ago then-president Medvedev awarded a state decoration to Pierre de Labouchere, the chief executive of Japan Tobacco, lauding him as a foreign citizen who had helped build “friendship and cooperation with Russia”.

    Saturday, October 20, 2012

    CAMPUS BAN ON TOBACCO AND SMOKING IN GEORGIA STATE

    GEORGIA BANS TOBACCO AND SMOKING ON CAMPUS

    ATLANTA, 19 OCTOBER

    :

    YESTERDAY, the Georgia State University Senate approved a ban on smoking and tobacco use on the majority of the university campus.
    Smoking and tobacco use of any kind is prohibited on all Georgia State-owned or leased locations, indoors and outdoors, in garages and parking lots, and in all Georgia State-owned or leased vehicles.
    University Housing will designate limited exterior smoking and tobacco use areas.
    "The new policy will bring about a better, healthier environment for everyone," said P.C. Tai, the Regents' Professor of Biology and chair of the Planning and Development Committee of the University Senate.
    According to Georgia State, the university joins more than 600 colleges and universities in the United States with campus smoking bans.

     

    A.S.U. BANS SMOKING ON CAMPUS

    ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY BANS SMOKING ON CAMPUS

    Phoenix, 19 October:

    Arizona State University joins a national trend next month when it announces a total ban of on-campus tobacco use effective this coming August. The ban will likely include events at Gammage Auditorium and Sun Devil Stadium. Kathy Staats is a program coordinator for the anti-tobacco effort known as Spark. Staats says it’s important to reach people while they're young.
    "In the Surgeon General’s report that came out this past spring, it noted that 99% of tobacco users start before the age of 25. So, it’s absolutely imperative to get these ollege-age students in an environment that’s healthy, and to keep them away from the tobacco industry that’s targeting their products at them."
    The group A-S-U Students for Liberty is planning to protest the new rule, saying it promotes a "nanny mentality." By some counts, almost 800 college campuses nationwide have banned smoking, with more than 550 prohibiting all tobacco use. In Arizona, the Maricopa Community Colleges banned tobacco this past July 1st.  Both NAU and CCC allow smoking outside on campus.

    Monday, October 15, 2012

    GRAPHIC AND EMOTIONAL ADS HELP QUIT SMOKING




    Washington, October 14 : Graphic and emotional television anti-smoking advertisements motivate more smokers to try to quit than less intense ads, according to a new study.
    "Harder hitting ads worked equally well, regardless of how much you wanted to quit, irrespective of the income and education levels, said Matthew C. Farrelly, Ph.D., chief scientist at RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and lead author on the study.
    The study evaluated the impact of anti-smoking ads run by the New York Tobacco Control Program from 2003 to 2011. Smokers were surveyed about their smoking habits, their recall of anti-smoking ads, their desire to quit and demographic information, such as income level and race.
    Researchers looked at media market data and determined that the survey participants were exposed to an average of three emotional or graphic anti-smoking commercials and three comparison ads per month during that period. Comparison ads advocated or encouraged quitting but without strong emotional content.
    The survey found that current smokers who recalled seeing at least one emotional or graphic ad were 29 percent more likely to have tried to quit in the prior year.
    Exposure to comparison ads did not increase quit attempts. If the goal is to get smokers to try to quit, ads need to evoke a strongly negative reaction to smoking, the study concluded.
    "It surprised me that it would work so well across the board for different types of smokers," Farrelly said.
    Graphic, emotional ads may work well because they cut through the noise of other advertising, he noted.
    It is known that hard-hitting anti-smoking advertising works, said Erika Sward, director of national advocacy for the American Lung Association in Washington, D.C.
    "This study confirms and highlights that what is missing is the lack of political will on the part of state governments to do what works," she added.
    This piece is based on study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

    Saturday, October 6, 2012

    INCREASING MENACE OF TOBACCO CONSUMPTION IN ARAB WORLD


    GCC TO CURB SMOKING THROUGH HEAVY TAXATION 

    October 6, 2012


      About 40 per cent of teenagers in the GCC (Gulf Co-operation Council) countries  smoke some form of tobacco. In Saudi Arabia, nearly a quarter of children between 13 and 15 smoke regularly. Teenagers in the UAE consume tobacco at roughly the same rate. And this, despite constant warnings that tobacco use is a leading killer of adults in the Arabian Gulf.
      GCC states have, collectively and on an individual basis, tried to combat this deadly habit for years. In 1995, the countries agreed to impose a 100 per cent increase in taxes, and banned production in member states. In recent years, smoking has been banned in many places - from malls to parks to most public spaces. And still, consumption rates continue to climb.
      Gulf finance ministers meeting in Riyadh today are once again discussing a proposal to tackle this problem - by increasing the tobacco tax by 150 per cent. Experts say the step would reduce youth tobacco consumption by making tobacco too expensive for many.
       Such a dramatic tax increase will face opposition from producers. In 2001, the 6 states rejected a similar proposal on the grounds that any hike would lead to increased smuggling, a reasonable worry. Ministers then suggested alternative ways to combat smoking, such as reducing nicotine content in tobacco and producing tobacco locally. But clearly, these measures have failed. A renewed anti-smoking initiative through out the GCC - starting with a steep tax hike - is essential.
        Enforcement of anti-tobacco laws has been delayed regionally due in part to pressure from businesses and producers that worry the ban will cut into their profits. In January, Dr Mahmoud Fikri, the undersecretary for health policy at the Ministry of Health, said the law was in the final stage of approval but "there are a lot of interests" to appease.
    Companies may threaten to cut ties on an individual basis, but passage of a GCC-wide measure would send a strong signal that producers and retailers could not ignore. As Dr Fikri noted, "our main concern is to have legislation in agreement with all countries".
    Costlier legal tobacco products will encourage black markets to emerge. That is all but certain. But smuggling can be policed. Any solution that reduces the prevalence of smoking, and discourages children from starting, is worth consideration.

    Sunday, September 23, 2012

    SWISS VOTERS REJECT FULL BAN ON SMOKING AT PUBLIC PLACES


    'NO' TO  FULL BAN ON SMOKING













    Voters in Switzerland appear to have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places at a referendum.
    * Hotels, restaurants and bars are currently allowed to have rooms for smokers.
    * But critics say this harms the health of those who work in them.
    * Restrictions introduced 2 years ago were watered down after lobbying from the catering trade and tobacco firms.
    With returns from nearly all 26 cantons counted, the full ban seemed to have been rejected convincingly.
    Zurich newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung suggested voters had rejected the ban by nearly two-thirds.
    In some cantons, more than 70% of voters rejected the ban, according to Geneva newspaper 'La Tribune de Geneve'. Strangely, Geneva itself has bucked the trend by supporting the ban by 52% to 48%.
    Geneva and 7 other cantons have already imposed their own comprehensive bans on indoor smoking in places of employment while the remaining, smaller cantons have been less restrictive.

    Thursday, August 16, 2012

    AUSTRALIAN COURT UPHOLDS LAW ON CIGARETTE PACKAGING


    Australia cigarette plain packaging law upheld by court

    Australia's new cigarette packaging rules have put big manufacturers against the government

    Australia's highest court has upheld a new government law on mandatory packaging for cigarettes that removes brand colours and logos from packaging.
    The law requires cigarettes to be sold in olive green packets, with graphic images warning of the consequences of smoking.
    Leading global tobacco manufacturers, including British American Tobacco and Philip Morris, had challenged the law.
    The new packaging rules are scheduled to be implemented from 1 December 2012.
    "At least a majority of the court is of the opinion that the Act is not contrary to (Australia's constitution)," the court said in a brief statement.
    The full judgement is expected to be published on a later date.
    'Still a bad law'
    The law was passed by the government last year. Authorities have said that plain packaging of cigarettes will help reduce the number of smokers in the country. 

    An example of what cigarette packets in Australia may look like 
     Australian cigarette packets may soon look like this
     
    However, tobacco manufacturers have argued that removing their brand names and company colours from packets will lead to a drastic cut in profits.
    They have also warned that it may result in fake products entering the market.
    "It's still a bad law that will only benefit organised crime groups which sell illegal tobacco on our streets," said Scott McIntyre, spokesman for British American Tobacco (BAT) Australia.
    Sonia Stewart, spokesperson for Imperial Tobacco, added that "the legislation will make the counterfeiters' job both cheaper and easier by mandating exactly how a pack must look".
    Cigarette manufacturers have also claimed that the law is unconstitutional and infringes on their intellectual property rights by banning the use of brands and trademarks.
    However, BAT's Mr McIntyre said the firms will comply with the new rules.
    "Even though we believe the government has taken our property from us, we'll ensure our products comply with the plain packaging requirements and implementation dates."

    'Deluge of legislation'
    Australia's new tough packaging laws are the first of their kind to be implemented in the world.
    However, many other countries such as New Zealand, India, the UK and even some states in the US have been contemplating taking similar measures in a bid to reduce the number of smokers. 

    As a result, the case between the government and the cigarette makers was being watched closely all across the globe.
    Jonathan Liberman, director of the McCabe Center for Law and Cancer, said the ruling was likely to give a boost to other countries looking to take similar steps.
    "It shows to everybody that the only way to deal with the tobacco industry's claims, sabre rattling and legal threats is to stare them down in court," he said.
    The BBC's Sydney correspondent Duncan Kennedy said the decision may have global ramifications for the cigarette makers.
    "Whilst Australia might be a relatively small cigarette market, tobacco companies know that losing here could lead to a deluge of legislation elsewhere in their really big markets."
     
    "A smoker's going to smoke regardless of what the package says"

    LINK:

     

    Monday, June 18, 2012

    NO FUND S FOR THE SMOKING CHILDREN

     NO FUNDS FOR THE SMOKING CHILDREN
    Duncan Bannatyne


    Scottish entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne, star of the TV show Dragons' Den, supposedly once terminated*  his daughter’s interest in a trust because he caught her smoking. The millionaire author has set up trusts for his children with an array of other stipulations requiring them to demonstrate proper moral fiber (drinking is also frowned upon).

    “If they want to smoke, they can, but they'll not get their trust fund," he has said. In the meantime, he’s been giving big chunks of his money away to various causes, including, not surprisingly, No Smoking Day.

     *For detailed article in this context please go to following link:
    http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/233284_No-smoking-for-beneficiaries--No-marriage-either-.html

    Wednesday, April 25, 2012

    ANTI-SMOKING ADVERTISEMENTS-1

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