'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

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”.

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.

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.

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.