Pages

Australia passes plain-packaging cigarette law | CigarettesReporter.com - Your cigarettes guide

Monday, November 14, 2011 2 comments
Australia is to become the first country to enforce the plain packaging of cigarettes but tobacco companies have vowed to fight the new legislation in court.
Marlboro Plain Pack
Marlboro cigarette packs with graphic warning labels on them
From December next year, all cigarettes will be sold in olive green packs, which research has shown is least appealing to smokers.
Under the new laws, approved by the upper house of parliament, no trademark brand logos will be permitted on any packaging of tobacco products, although companies will be able to print their name and the cigarette brand in small, prescribed font on the packets.
The boxes will continue to carry stark health warning messages and pictures, which will cover 75% of the front of the pack and 90% of the back.
“If this legislation stops one young Australian from picking up a shiny, coloured packet and prevents them becoming addicted to cigarettes then in my view it will have been worthwhile,” said John Faulkner, a Labor senator, during the parliamentary debate.
The debate in Australia has been keenly watched around the world, including in Britain, Canada and New Zealand where similar plans to curtail branding are being considered.
Cigarette giant British American Tobacco, which owns 46% of the Australian market, plans to challenge the legislation in the high court on constitutional grounds.
“The government can’t take away valuable property from a legal company without compensation,” said Scott McIntyre, spokesman for British American Tobacco Australia.
McIntyre said the company’s brands, including Winfield and Benson & Hedges, were worth billions of dollars.
“We’re a legal company with legal products selling to adults who know the risks of smoking. We’re taking this to the high court because we believe the removal of our valuable intellectual property is unconstitutional,” he said.
Cigarette makers Philip Morris Australia said the legislation meant it had little option but to pursue its compensation claim “through international arbitration against Australia and to also consider domestic legal action under Australian law”.
The health minister, Nicola Roxon, said the government would not be bullied by the tobacco industry’s threat of a legal challenge.
“We’re ready for that if they take legal action. We hope that they don’t. We believe that this is a measure that’s in the interests of the community and it would be better off for tobacco companies to look at ways they could invest in something that’s not so harmful for the community,” Roxon told reporters in Melbourne.
Cigarette companies also say the plain-packaging legislation will increase the sale of illegal tobacco. “Once the packs all look the same they will be very easy to copy,” said McIntyre.
Fifteen thousand Australians die from smoking-related illnesses each year with the social cost of smoking to the Australian economy estimated to be more than A$30bn (£19bn) a year.
Anti-smoking groups have welcomed the legislation. “We believe that it will reduce smoking in younger people and the fact that tobacco companies have been using packs very effectively as one of the last forms of advertising is one reason why they’re so upset about it,” said Professor Ian Olver, chief executive officer of the Australian Cancer Council.
Fifteen per cent of adults in Australia smoke compared with 23% a decade ago. In Britain about 22% of the adult population smokes, according to Cancer Research UK.
Australia already has some of the toughest smoking regulations in the world. Cigarettes must be sold behind closed doors in retail outlets and advertising and sponsorship deals are banned. It is illegal to smoke in any public places including bars, restaurants or entertainment venues. Some local councils have banned smoking in parks and outdoor areas.

Anti-Smoking Sponsors in Tobacco War

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 3 comments
After a string of setbacks, anti-smoking advocates scored a victory, albeit a small one, when a Las Pinas regional trial court denied a petition of the Philippine Tobacco Institute to stop the Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration from enforcing any form of regulation or supervision on tobacco products.

“This is indeed victory for the country! It’s high time public welfare is prioritized over the profit of an industry that ultimately kills its consumers,” Metro Manila Development Authority General Manager Cora Jimenez told the Manila Standard Monday.

The MMDA’s smoke-free campaign in public places along Metro Manila’s major and secondary roads was stopped by a Mandaluyong City RTC after granting the petition of two security guards nabbed by MMDA enforcers for smoking in a public place last September.

“Imagine how detrimental it will be for Filipinos if the petition of the tobacco industry was granted. The industry wants a government committee where it sits as a member to regulate tobacco products–this is not only ironic, but worse, puts the whole nation’s health at risk.” UN Global Cancer Ambassador Emer Rojas said, who also founded a tobacco control advocacy group of cancer victims.

The case filed by PTI argued the authority and jurisdiction of FDA to regulate tobacco products.

The petition said that based on Republic Act 9211 or the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003, the Inter-Agency Committee on Tobacco has exclusive authority to implement RA 9211, which includes regulation.

The FDA and DoH responded petitioned the court that cigarette falls under their authority because of its impact on health.

“Finally, a victory for health! We eagerly await the actions of DoH and FDA on some violations of the tobacco industry including sale of cigarettes whose packs are without picture warnings,” lawyer Ipat Luna of Health Justice Philippines said.

The Mirror reveals top ten smoking football players

Monday, October 31, 2011 1 comments

10. Socrates
The legendary Brazilian captain and World Cup winner got through two packets of cigarettes a day during his playing career and continued to smoke after he retired. He’s now a medical doctor.
The Mirror reveals top ten smoking football players
Zinedine Zidane in action during football match game
9. Gazza and Teddy Sheringham
In the run up to Euro ’96 both Gazza and Teddy Sheringham were spotted with tabs on the go. We suspect the reason why they weren’t collared by the FA, or indeed the press, for this misdemeanour was because it occurred on the same night as the infamous ‘dentist’s chair’ incident.
8. Robert Prosinečki
Ex-Crotaian international Robert Prosinečki was famous in his homeland for being a heavy smoker. He was as well known for his ability to chug away on more than 40 ciggies a day as he was for his midfield prowess. When he was joined Portsmouth in 2001 word is that he cut down… to 20 a day. He lasted one season.
7. David Ginola
The French love a smoke – if it was an Olympic sport they’d take gold in Beijing – which is probably why ex-Spurs head-turner and shampoo hawker David Ginola enjoyed the odd Gitanes during his playing career. Who says smoking isn’t sexy?
6. Zinedine Zidane
Another Frenchie caught with a salmon between his lips was Zinedine Zidane who was snapped puffing away ahead of France’s 2006 World Cup semi-final against Portugal. The thing is Zizou fronted an anti-smoking campaign in 2002. D’oh!
5. Maradona
Maradona, one of the most prolific footballers in history, began to smoke after he retired from the game. He spent 10 days in intensive care in 2004 with breathing problems, which may or may not have been down to smoking. But probably was. Maradona recognised in 2005 that Wayne Rooney was a closely cut copy of himself, which may not have been a bad observation.
4. Johann Cruyff
Johann Cruyff was smoking 20 cigarettes a day, prior to heart surgery in 1991, at a time when he was coaching Barcelona. He was also often seen lighting up in the RFK locker room as he talked to reporters. Nowadays, the legendary Dutchman fronts a campaign by the Health Department of the Catalan autonomous government against smoking. And to think, it only took him a double heart bypass to see the error of his ways.
3. Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews was not a smoker himself, but in 1954 he nonetheless backed an advertisement for Craven A cheap cigarettes, who put his “smooth ball control” down to the “smoothness of Craven A”.
2. Fabien Barthez
Fabien Barthez was a high-profile smoker during his time in the Prem. After a game for Man United against Southampton in 2003, defeated manager Gordon Strachan was furious when he returned to his non-smoking office and found cigarettes stubbed out in an ashtray. It seemed that the injured Barthez had been in the room after being stretchered off in the second half. The Scottish manager later said that he “must have been taken off for smoker’s cough”.
1. David James
England’s number one confessed to a 15 year 20-a-day smoking habit earlier this year in his newspaper column. “I spent most of my career puffing away on fags: after training, before matches and even on the team coach,” he wrote. We’re surprised his afro never caught fire.

U.S. Smoking Rates Drop to 20 %

Monday, August 1, 2011 5 comments
Girl smoking cigarette
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said America has seen a decline in the number of current smokers to below 20 %. 43.3 million, or just under one-fifth of the population smoked in 2007 while in 2006 the figure stood at 20.8 %.

As a part of the Healthy People 2010 project America had set a goal of bringing adult smoking down to 12 % and although that goal still remains a distant dream there has been a slight decline in the smoking rates.

Dr. Matthew McKenna, the director of the Office on Smoking and Health at the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “If we want to see far more people quit smoking, we need expanded access to stop-smoking programs, continued progress in eliminating secondhand smoke exposure and ongoing investment in programs that work.” There was a decline though in the number of people trying to give up smoking. In 1993 47 % people tried to give up smoking while in 2007 it dropped to 40 %.
The report also said that those most likely to quit smoking were between the ages of 18-24 as compared to the older smokers.

Whites came in second at 21 %, blacks at 20 %, Hispanics at 13 % and Asian Americans were the lowest at 10 %. McKenna said, “If, starting in 2009, all states were to fully implement tobacco-control programs at CDC-recommended levels of investment, an estimated 5 million fewer people in this country would smoke within five years, and hundreds of thousands of premature tobacco-related deaths would be prevented each year.”

Smoking-related diseases claim nearly 438,000 Americans’ lives each year and it is costs $193 billion a year which includes $97 billion in lost productivity and $96 billion in direct health care expenditures. Dr. McKenna said, “Even though we’ve come a long way, there’s a long way to go.”

Mint cigarettes fire up collectors

Monday, July 25, 2011 5 comments
A tobacconist in Reading is about to sell some cigarettes which are at least 100 years past their sell-by date. Paul Gilmour, who owns Shave and Coster in Harris Arcade, was given a pack of five Paymaster cigarettes which he said dated back to somewhere between 1897 and 1913. He said: “An elderly couple came into the shop and asked me to find a good home for these cigarettes. “The woman said they had belonged to her mother and she had had them in a drawer for years.


Paymaster cigarettes dated back to somewhere between 1897 and 1913.

“I wasn’t familiar with the brand but I told her that some specialist museums took things like this so she gave them to me.”

Mr Gilmour looked up the Paymaster brand and discovered they were made by Cohen Weenen and Co of London. He said he believed the company started up in 1897 and had closed down by the beginning of the First World War.

He added: “What is absolutely amazing is that the packet is intact with all five cigarettes inside.

“These were the days when practically everybody smoked, so it is extraordinary that no-one smoked them in all that time.

“You wouldn’t want to smoke them now of course.”

Mr Gilmour made further inquiries and found the Cigarette Packet Collectors’ Club of Great Britain. He said: “I contacted them and discovered that the cigarette pack was extremely rare.

“They have offered me £120 and I expect they will auction it among their members.”

He has not been able to get in contact with the original owner and will be donating the money when he gets it to the Berkshire Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Centre in West Reading.

He said: “I believe I have discharged my duty in finding a good home for them.”

Barry Russell, secretary of the Cigarette Packet Collectors’ Club of Great Britain, said the puffs could be even older than Mr Gilmour believes.

He told the Reading Post Cohen Weenen was in fact founded in 1864 and converted into a limited company in 1927. It produced popular cigarette cards from 1891 until 1923.

He said of the Reading find: “It’s a very uncommon pack and doesn’t turn up very often, although I have one.”

High Taxes Less Smokers in Canada

Tuesday, July 19, 2011 1 comments

discount prima lux  cigarettes onlineHigh taxes on tobacco products have reduced the number of Pall Mall cigarette smokers in Canada. According to a study by economists at the Concordia University in Montreal, between 1998 to 2008, for every 10 percent hike in cigarette tax, the number of Canadians who lit up went down by 2.3 percent.
However, one group appears to be least affected by higher taxes on cigarettes. These are people in the age group 25 to 44. According to Sunday Azagba, the author of the study, these middle-aged smokers are not responsive to tax increases on tobacco products.
The younger age group of 12 to 24 are more sensitive to price increases caused by tax hike on cigarettes because majority of them are dependent on their allowance to finance their habit. However, majority of the middle-aged group are employed and at the peak of their earning capacity.
The study also found that the propensity to smoke was higher among Canadians who had only high school education compared with those who have post-secondary education.
Tax increases on cigarettes caused a carton of cigarette to have a price tag of $33.35 in 2008 in Ontario from $12.65 in 1998. The amount factored out inflation based on constant 2000 dollars. The increase was lesser in the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador, where cigarettes sold at an average of mid-$40 in 2008 from $30 in 1998 per carton.

Buy cheap Camel cigarettes online at low price

Monday, July 11, 2011 6 comments
Looking for cheap Camel cigarettes online? And who isn’t. Camel Cigarettes are one of the most popular domestic brands of cigarettes worldwide with millions of smokers looking to purchase them online. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company introduced camel cigarettes back in 1913. Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virginia tobacco.
Nowadays being a smoker is a very costly habit with all this cigarette taxation keep increasing and people tend to try to find alternative ways to find cheap cigarettes but of the same high quality like they used to get from their local tobacco stores. More and more people nowadays try their luck and consider buying camel cigarettes online in really cheap prices from online discount tobacco shops.
One of the most frequent question arise during this process is how can someone find a trusted online cigarette store that is selling camel cigarettes People that need to purchase Camel cigarettes of the highest quality but are not ready to overpay for it must consider buying those cigarettes online from some discount tobacco shop with international fame and thousands of customers. How to find such a place and make sure it can be trusted? This is perhaps the most important aspect to the online purchase since people are giving to the store personal information like credit cards, addresses etc and they need to be 100% sure that the cigarette company they are going to buy camel cigarettes from is a trusted one.
There are several parameters a smoker needs to consider before making his choice. Obviously people are looking for cheap cigarette prices so an online tobacco store with the best deals on Camel cigarettes the lowest prices big discount and regular camel cigarette offers is always on the top of someone list. In addition the payment options offered by each store as well as the delivery time are just few of the things someone needs to be aware before placing an order.
Having all the above on mind someone can start looking for high quality cheap Camel cigarettes online. That way you can be sure that you are going to save lots of money up to 70% less of the price you were going to pay in your local store.
As it turns out, buying cigarettes online can be quite profitable for your pocket if you know the right stores. Just join the millions of people that buy cigarettes online and experience a fast, cheap and secure way of getting your tobacco products over the internet. Order now and enjoy your cheap camel cigarettes without a delay.

 
Cigarettes at lowest price © 2011