Craig David and Lisa Stansfield Accused to Support Big Tobacco

Three famous British performers have been blamed of supporting the goals of "Big Tobacco" by agreeing to

participate at an Indonesian music festivity financed by one of the country's biggest cigarette companies.
Multi-platinum selling artist Joss Stone should participate at the Java Jazz Festival this week in the billing which also features Craig David and Lisa Stansfield as performers at a three-day festival estimated to be visited by more than 100,000 people in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
The event's principal sponsor is Djarum, the country's third largest cigarette company, which similar to some other producers specializes in the manufacture of clove-flavored cigarettes called “kreteks”. All invited British stars should perform on a stage advertising one of Djarum's major brands.
Campaigners called on the artists to not take part in the festival, blaming Indonesia of not being able to eradicate on tobacco advertising and permitting companies to advertise their products and lure new young smokers by means of an affiliation with worldwide stars and diverse cultural events. David, who several weeks ago agreed upon a new deal with Universal records and is planning to start a world tour, declined the statements, stating he promoted healthy lifestyle and was against smoking but legal guidelines against tobacco was an issue for the Indonesian regulators.
Indonesia has the world's greatest smoking rate for men, about 66%. Additionally Indonesian research found a year ago that more than 400,000 children are regular smokers.
The British singers do not have a special agreement with Djarum, which is a component of a conglomerate held by two of Indonesia's wealthiest men and the most notable of some corporate beneficiaries of the three-day festival. But critics claim that the stars are even so promoting the advertising of cigarettes implying strategies long-since prohibited in other places. The Marlboro Man is still advertised on Indonesian billboards hiking mountains while young women in branded clothes are frequently to be observed at corporate events giving out free samples of Marlboro cigarettes. Cigarette sponsorship has been taken away from latest shows by well known American performers. Advertising by Djarum for a Kelly Clarkson concert was removed after strong protests by fans and anti-tobacco organizations while Grammy-winner Alicia Keys required that sponsorship of one of her concerts by another company be eliminated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pass the Largest Crackdown on Cigarettes

Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering to pass the largest public health drive in the history of tobacco industry since former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev didn’t realize to break his county of the habit to consume alcohol with a strong crackdown on tobacco and drink.
An anti-smoking regulation presented to parliament on Friday will prohibit smoking in public places, any tobacco advertising and kiosk sales. That follows the actions to restrain the world’s fourth-highest alcohol use per capita with tax increases and by reducing trade. Russia is the world’s second-leading market for cigarettes and alcohol, according to recent estimates. The country with a population of 143 million is 5 million less than it was registered in 1991, when the Soviet Union ruined. Alcohol and tobacco use costs the Russian economy approximately $104 billion per year, or about 5% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to the government estimates.
The crackdown risks encouraging Russians to look for counterfeit cigarettes and drinks, according to cigarette manufacturers and alcohol industry experts. Illicit sale of vodka which is priced as little as $1 for a half-liter (0.13 gallon) will increase to about 60% from 30% of the market by 2014, according to the Center for Federal and Regional Alcohol Market Studies. Illegal cigarette trade may expand to about 45% of the market from 1%, the lobby group Tabakprom informs.
This year, Russia boosted the minimum price of a half-liter of vodka to about 125 rubles or $4 and plans to increase it further to 200 rubles by 2015, according to the government representative Dmitriy Fedorov. As about beer taxes, which were raised in 2010 they should be six times higher in 2015 than in comparison to 2009. “We are already used to smoke, drink and eat poor diet and doing less sport and then falling ill, and take pills in order to get better. But all these should be stopped, and as sooner as better,” stated Nikolai Gerasimenko, deputy head of the lower house of parliament’s ministry of health.

Slogans for new anti smoking ads

The believing we do something when we do nothing is the first illusion of tobacco.

• Be Cool - Don't Be a Smoking Fool.
• Be smart don't start.
• Breathe healthily, live happily.
• Cancer cures smoking.
• Cigarettes burn holes in your pocket.
• Cough twice for Philip Morris.
• Did you know your mouth is on fire?
• Don't be a butthead. Smoking kills.
• Don't be a Kool Fool.
• Don't puff your life away.
• Don't smoke you will choke!
• Don't smoke - there are cooler ways to die.
• Everyone has a right to clean air.
• Hang Tough, Don't Puff!
• Health is wealth.
• How the Tobacco Industry Killed American Soldiers
• I like smoking. It kills off a lot of stupid people.
• I quit because my kids love me.
• I would give up smoking but I’m not a quitter.
• If God had wanted us to smoke, he would have given us a separate hole for it.
• If we see smoke, we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action. (in a non-smoking area)
• If you can’t stop smoking, cancer will.
• If you don’t smoke, I won’t fart!
• If you smoke, you're a joke.
• If you think smoking is cool, you're a fool.
• Is smoking good for business? Not if you want long-term customers.
• Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.
• Live it or Burn it...
• Make your choices, it's your life.
• No smoke no life, but No life with smoke.
• Please keep smoking. Our planet is overcrowded.
• Put it out before it puts you out.
• Put your money where your butt is.
• Quit smoking. It kills!
• Quit smoking before smoking quits you.
• Save Money - Quit Smoking!

 

Movies with Smoking Scenes Should Have R- rating

Brad Pitt’s personage in Snatch, Mickey O'Neil, possesses all traits of classic Hollywood film. He is fully confident and attacks as a real professional, and as Al Pacino in Scarface, he smokes. It is already proved that children imitate media. The Surgeon General declared that smoking really makes teens smoke. It is prohibited to light up in TV commercials, so why can we smoke in movies?

Actions to prohibit smoking in movies have started several years ago; however no formal policy is currently in place. James Sargent, representative of the Cancer Control Research Program at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, analyzed the consequences of exposing teenagers to any movie showing smoking scenes. The results demonstrated that after watching such films, children were more likely to pick the habit. There was an evident link between the film industry’s use of smoking scenes in films and the increasing number of youngsters trying as well as regularly smoking. And after another study, Mr. Sargent and his team found all answers – the movie rating.

Film smoking exposure (FSE) was evaluated basing on the monitoring of 530 block busters. Each movie was divided according to the respective ratings fixed by the Motion Picture Association of America as: G/PG, PG-13, and R respectively. Despite the fact that median FSE was higher for PG-13 movies in comparison to that of R-rated films, their relation to smoking was similar. All these results provided scientists with an amazing conclusion – it was the smoking itself that prompted teenagers to smoke, and not the vulgar behavior often associated with adult movies. Thus, Mr. Sargent and his colleagues concluded that allowing R rating for any movie depicting smoking “could significantly decrease adolescent smoking.” He adds that it might even guarantee a 16% drop. So, Mr. Sargent calls on the film industry to undertake similar actions as they did in considering scenes of violence and sex.

A new R rating could decrease smoking among youngsters, but wouldn’t it just delay the eventual affirmation of tobacco use? Such a rating might prevent some things, but it is unable to prevent the inevitable. Mr. Sargent agreed with the above statement; however he added that older teens of 17 years old and higher are more likely to make right choices, than children at 12 or 14, as they have a higher maturity level.

40% of All Cigarettes Sold in New Jersey are Smuggled Illegally

According to statistics 40% of all tobacco products smoked in New Jersey is brought illegally into the state, this is the highest percentage of any state in the nation, leading to a loss of more than $500 million in uncollected tax revenue annually.
The reason is evident: New Jersey set a $2.70 tax on each package of cigarettes sold, which is one of the highest rates in the nation.
Criminal gangs and various people operating with terrorist groups obtain a quick profit by smuggling a great number of cigarettes from other states and selling them in New Jersey. So, each day, smokers in New Jersey try to evade the high tax by ordering smoking products on the internet stores or go to the neighboring states, usually Delaware, where the price is very low.
“New Jersey faces a consequential problem from tobacco tax avoidance and smuggling. A growth in the rate of tax assessment will lead to fewer legal and even completely illicit sales of tobacco products,” said the author of report, Eric Friedman.
The given report which is the first official data on the financial toll tobacco smuggling takes on the state also raises questions about whether New Jersey is doing enough to fight this problem.
The calculated $519 million in uncollected tax revenue, approximately 1.5% of the 2012 budget, is similar to the amount increased by the controversial millionaire’s tax in 2009.
The great amount of cigarettes, smuggled into the state, nearly 75%, is brought by those who want to get into big money, the report said. Very often, retailers of illicit tobacco products use lower-priced, counterfeit tax stamps in order to evade detection.
Charles Giblin, a police officer at the Office of Criminal Investigation, declared that smuggling arrests have increased from 40 in 2009 to 187 last year.
Currently police officers arrested a 63- year-old man, who was buying cigarettes in Virginia for approximately $35 per carton and sold them at his shop for already $58. On the average, a carton of cigarettes is sold for $80 in New Jersey.
According to County Prosecutor’s Office, this man was selling about 500 cartons per week, which cost the state about $13,500 in lost tax revenue. When police screened his car, there were found more than $80,000 in cash.
“We are going to use whatever means and powers we have in order to eradicate smuggling once and for all. We also plan to introduce modern tax stamps, which will conceal codes that include information of each package of cigarettes. At present, retailers and enforcement officials use hand-held scanners, which show if a stamp is authentic, and also where the pack came from and where it has been,” Giblin said.

Racial Discrepancies in Smoking-Related Morbidity

It was estimated that approximately 443,000 deaths in the United States happen each year because of smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke. All these deaths cost the nation $97 billion on lost productivity and $96 billion in health-care costs. Only in Missouri smoking lead to 9,600 deaths during 2000-2004. In order to restrict the dangerous health consequences of smoking, states decided to introduce comprehensive tobacco cessation programs which would detect inequalities among population and target those incommensurable affected by secondhand smoke.

The given report also compares the national health burden of smoking among whites and Afro-Americans in Missouri by evaluating the number of smoking related deaths in these population groups within 2003-2007. The data show that the average annual smoking related morbidity level in the state constituted 18% higher for Afro-Americans than for whites. The relative difference in smoking related morbidity levels between Afro-Americans and whites was higher for men – 28% than women 11%. For Missouri, these findings are an important criterion for estimating the success of tobacco control programs in lowering the consequences of tobacco use.

During 2003-2007, smoking lead to 9,377 deaths - 8,400 among whites and 853 among Afro-Americans. For instance in Missouri were registered 18% (51,856) of deaths among persons aged 35. Smoking caused 32% of deaths from cancer, 15% circulatory deaths, and 46 % of all respiratory deaths in Missouri within this time. For both Afro-Americans and whites, the major cause of smoking related deaths was cancer.

However smoking related mortality for Afro-Americans constituted only 9% of the total number of deaths, the same rate for Afro-Americans in Missouri was 18% higher than for whites. Also was registered a significant discrepancy, 28% of death among black men and 11% among Afro-American women.

The smoking – related years of potential life lost (YPLL) level for Afro-Americans also constituted 18%, this is higher than for whites and differed most for men. Afro-American men had an YPLL rate 25% higher than white men, and the same was for women.

Differences in smoking-related morbidity exist all over the world and happen because of variations in population demographics and smoking. Also differences in tobacco cessation programs, policies and tobacco industry occur in this field. Racial and ethnic discrepancies in smoking-related mortality are also associated with social status, levels of cigarette smoking and not the least but the last the differences in genetic factors.

Essential racial discrepancies in smoking-related morbidity existed in Missouri during 2003—2007, with a number of 52 per 100,000 more Afro-American dying each year from smoking.

Smoking Ban Significantly Improves Indoor Air Quality

Air quality inside several selected bars, restaurants and other public places in Madison County has improved significantly since June 2007 when the country’s Board of Health prohibited smoking in public places.

Invisible particles produced by smoking have been lowered by 94.5% in 11 locations selected for research, according to data presented by the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy and provided to the Madison County Board of Health on Wednesday evening.

Samples were taken carefully using a small, easily hidden quality control attachment in
2005 and then again between October 2009 and May 2010, stated Hillarie Sidney officer of the policy center. No one in these locations knew about this quality control attachment that is why there is no possibility that they could change their behavior in order to improve the received data, she stated.

The quality control attachment may detect even the smallest particles as for instance 2.5 microns in diameter. A micron is about 1/100th, which is the diameter of human hair, Sidney said.
Before the Madison County ban was adopted, the particle quantity averaged about 200 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Later on, it had dropped to 11. The average particle quantity for outdoor air is 35 per cubic meter.

The Madison County figures compare favorably to data in Lexington, where the quantity was 199 before a smoking ban was adopted and 18 later on.
”That we are a little bit better than Lexington is a considerably improvement,” stated Jim Rousey, director of the Board of Health.

In Louisville, the quantity was 338 before an indoor smoking ban came into force, and 9 later on.
According to the U.S. Surgeon General, there is no allowed level of second-hand smoke, Sidney declared.
One of Madison County’s supervised locations had a particle quantity of 54, which might be the result of several people smoking near a doorway, Sidney said.

The smoke-policy center has also supervised air quality in a hookah bar in Lexington and found that particle quantity was of 116 and 179, Sidney stated. Hookahs or also known as water pipes are most popular devices in the Middle East and southern Asia through which tobacco is smoked.
Both the Lexington and Madison County smoking bans permit smoking in businesses that principally sell tobacco products.

Sidney said Lexington toughened its regulations to permit smoking only in stores that gain 75 % or more of their profit from the sale of tobacco products, but the hookah bar there met that requirement.

In this early, the Madison County Board of Health dismissed a hookah bar application, stating that was provided inappropriate information, but the applicant has expressed his intention to apply again.

American Cancer Society to Manage New Effort Against Tobacco in Africa

ATLANTA -The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given a grant of $7 million over five years to the American Cancer Society to lead and coordinate the African Tobacco Control Consortium, a global coalition of public health-oriented organizations focusing on using evidence-based approaches to stem the tobacco epidemic in Africa. In addition to the Society, the consortium includes the Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI), Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).

In a part of the world that is notably affected by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases, cancer is emerging as a serious public health threat. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, much of the rise can be attributed to widespread tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the world, and according to the World Health Organization, if current trends continue, tobacco use will cause one billion deaths worldwide during this century.

As the managing organization, the Society will collaborate with consortium partners to implement an ambitious tobacco control program across the 46 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The overall goal will be to reduce tobacco use in these countries by implementing proven strategies at the national and local level. The consortium will:

• assist national governments and civil society to implement policies such as advertising bans, tobacco tax increases, graphic warning labels, and the promotion of smoke free environments that are in line with the requirements of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first public health treaty;

• advocate for further tobacco control resources in the region;

• protect existing laws from tobacco industry efforts to overturn them and halt crucial progress;

• conduct research to improve/inform future tobacco control work.

“We are excited to be part of this important new effort,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., the organization’s chief executive officer. “Tobacco companies have begun to target developing countries as tobacco control efforts in high-resource countries have yielded tough restrictions, and we will make sure that the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have the information and tools to protect their citizens from preventable diseases and death caused by tobacco.”

“This development will be instrumental to help achieve a coordinated response to the rising rate of tobacco consumption and looming tobacco epidemic in the Africa Region,” said ATCRI’s Acting Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi of Nigeria.

As part of its ongoing efforts to save lives and help people stay well, get well, find cures, and fight back against cancer, the American Cancer Society has expanded its efforts around the world. In December 2009 several leaders attended the largest-ever gathering of health and government leaders in Africa for a conference on preventing a projected cancer epidemic in Africa. The Society also funds more than 75 tobacco prevention and cancer control grants in African countries, and has conducted workshops to educate journalists and advocates about tobacco and cancer control issues. It is also a leading voice in the Global Smokefree Partnership, which recently published a report calling for greater protection of Africans from secondhand smoke, and exposing the efforts of tobacco companies to fight against tobacco control progress in African countries.

The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing about $3.4 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us any time, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.For more information on our global programs, now in more than 20 countries, visit www.cancer.org/international



Andrew Becker
Director, Media Relations
American Cancer Society

Caring for Our Recovery

First, the good news, the risk of relapse declines with the passage of time! While
roughly 95% of uneducated smokers who attempt to stop smoking relapse within a year,
the relapse rate declines to just 2 to 4% per year from years 2 to 10, and then falls to less
than 1% after 10 years.392 Keep in mind that these rates occurred among ex-users who
generally had little understanding of nicotine dependency and no formal respect for the
Law of Addiction. If compliant with the Law our risk of failure remains zero.
But just one powerful hit of nicotine and the addict is back! While ignorance of the Law
is no excuse, most ex-users do not remain ex-users because of understanding or respect
for “one puff” relapse rates seen in recovery studies. They do so because once home they
discover that life without nicotine is better than when using it.
While the relapse rate for years 2 though 10 may seem small, when added together the
risk becomes significant. One recent study suggests that as many as 17% who succeed
for 1 year may eventually relapse.393 These ex-users do not relapse because they dislike
being home. They do so because they lose sight of how they got there, who they are, and
the captivity they left behind.
Among educated ex-users there appear to be three primary factors associated with
relapse:
(1) a natural suppression of memories of recovery’s early challenges,
(2) the exuser
tries to rewrite or amend the Law and
(3) the ex-user thinks he/she has found a
legitimate excuse to break or ignore it. When these factors combine with an offer of a
cigar, alcohol use around those still using394 or occur in an impulsive-type person,395 the
risk of relapse is magnified.

FDA's tobacco road

For most of the last 15 years, the Food and Drug Administration's authority to regulate tobacco has been either a thwarted promise or a fitful threat, depending on your point of view.

It has been pressed by anti-smoking crusaders and public health groups, put on hold by the Supreme Court and beaten back repeatedly by the tobacco industry and its political allies. Last year, the latest such proposal was left for dead after President Bush threatened he would veto a measure, passed by the House of Representatives, if it made its way to his desk.

But on June 22, a political resurrection occurred in Washington, D.C.: Flanked by lawmakers, anti-smoking advocates and even a tobacco industry executive, President Obama (himself a smoker who's struggled to quit) signed into law a measure giving the FDA all the authority over tobacco that it has periodically sought, and more. That's a measure not only of the doggedness of some lawmakers, but how the American landscape has changed for the makers of tobacco products.

Roughly one in five American adults still smokes cigarettes -- down from a pinnacle of 40% in 1965. Most of the nation's workplaces, public buildings and restaurants no longer allow smoking. Though an estimated 1,100 kids take up smoking every day, tobacco has neither the Hollywood glamour nor ease of access it once did for those under 18. Even tobacco farmers are a vanishing breed, with many states using funds from a $206-billion legal settlement with the tobacco industry to buy them out of the business.

Tobacco use, estimated to kill 443,000 Americans and cost $193 billion in lost productivity and added healthcare costs every year, is something that fewer and fewer politicians dare defend.

Anti-smoking advocates push for R rating to any movie showing smoking

The rate of smoking scenes in the movies permitted to watch by the minors has not dropped although Hollywood executives promised two years ago to avoid showing smoking scenes in the films.

According to the research completed by the American Medical Alliance scientists, showing famous actors smoking encourages adolescents to try cigarettes or other the tobacco products. Therefore the Alliance urged the Motion Picture Association to give an R rating to any film containing smoking scenes.

Dr. Thomas Jefferson from California Public Health Department cited the results of a study that found out that almost a half of all underage smokers throughout the United States might be linked to seeing smoking in movies.

"Overall, 55 percent of the top films containing smoking scenes showed within the last two years were permitted to teen audience since they have been given a G, PG or PG-13 rating," he declared.

Mathew Dow, the vice chairman of the America Motion Picture Association committee that is responsible for film ratings, cited their own numbers, basing on all the 900 movies that have been rated every year, not only the top films from Davenport's statistics.

According to the Association chairman, they have not given G ratings to any film, containing at least one smoking scene after it made a pledge two years ago.

In general, more than a half of all the films rated during the last three years contained smoking scenes, however 70 percent of such movies were rated as R movies, Dow stated. 21 percent of the films with smoking were given PG-13 rating and the rest 9 percent were given PG, he added.

In conformity with the rating system, G-rated filmed is permitted for viewing for all audiences without age restrictions, whereas a PG rating tells parents that such movie can contain some scenes which are unacceptable to see for their children. PG-13, for instance, signals that the movie contains inappropriate scenes for adolescents under 13.

No minor under 17 should be permitted to watch an R-rated film alone without a parent or tutor.

Sandi Frost, chairwoman of American Medical Alliance cited "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," as the most recent and great example of a film with free smoking advertisement. The box-office success blockbuster was given a PG-13 rating since the movie contains numerous scenes of violence.

"Hundreds of thousands of teenagers have seen the principal character in the film with a cigar between his teeth," Frost claimed. "I'm more than confident that no one would have liked that film any less in case he was not dragging."