Russia to Introduce a Smoking Ban till the Sochi Olympics

The so expected ban on smoking in public places is approaching with the health ministry publishing its plans to introduce severe laws by 2014.

The law proposed by the government officials plans to prohibit smoking in all public places, including airports, train stations and transports till the Sochi Olympics. The price of a pack of cigarettes is planned to be increased in order to discourage people from this habit.

Smoking also will be banned in bars, cafes and nightclubs in 2015, and it will also include a ban on hookah.

A minimum retail price will be implemented, thus lifting costs up greatly.

Tobacco manufacturers will also be prohibited from sponsoring any events and advertising their smokes.

“Any companies and citizens can make their suggestions during the public debate,” the ministry declared.

Similar bans have been already introduced in many European countries as Finland, France, UK and Norway. The association of restaurants and hotels is ready for the ban, representative of the anti-tobacco coalition Nadejda Khalturina said Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

Examples from all around the world demonstrate that not only their gains did not fall, but sometimes even increased, as people wanted to take children with them, and would sit longer in a room with clean air than in one full of tobacco smoke.

According to a world survey that was realized among Russian adults, 60.2% of men and 21.7% of women in the country light up regularly.

Approximately 43.9 million Russian smoking adults constitute about 40% of the economically active population. According to data an average Russian lights up 17 cigarettes per day, and 400,000 Russians die every year because of serious diseases caused by tobacco usage.

“The solution to the problem of smoking is concealed not in bans, but in helping those people who want to quit this dangerous habit. Those who want to smoke won’t stop even if bans are introduced,” said well-known blogger Anton Nosik.

Several ministers state that such tough measures can only bring to an increase in corruption and counterfeit products.

“In order to have no doubts one can only walk through any train where anyone who feels like it smokes under the ‘no smoking ’sign.

It is not the question of how severe the punishment is, but of its inevitability. And we even do not have that. Who will enforce the law? Those police officers, 99% of whom are heavy smokers.” Nosik said.

“Prohibit the sales and manufacture of tobacco in any form, and I will be the first to stop smoking and begin jogging. But while cigarettes are legally distributed and sold, people are not prohibited to use them and allow millions of smokers to enjoy the great taste and flavor of their favorite smokes,” said blogger Andrei Kuprikov.

Hookah Venues Prospering in Chicago

Three years after the state prohibited smoking in public places, Chicago hookah venues are most spread than ever.

Employing a loophole that permits owners to smoke inside tobacco shops, a lot of exotic smoking dens have raised in the city since the Smoke Free Illinois Act was adopted in 2008, causing enough worries to some health officials.

Concerned by the opening of its first hookah venue, Skokie is the first community to tighten up restrictions in an effort to eradicate the trend.

“We do not want to go back. We don’t want to have smoking in our community,” stated Dr. A. Michael Drachler, chairman of Skokie’s Board of Health.

Becoming more and more popular among teenagers in recent years, hookah originated from India nearly five centuries ago and till now remains a favorite pastime. The often decorated devices use charcoal in order to heat a bowl of flavored tobacco, thus producing smoke that is inhaled through a tube.

About 50 hookah venues are straggling through Chicago and its suburbs.

Illinois law bans smoking in workplaces, restaurants and bars, but tobacco stores are exempt if more than 80% of revenue is received from the sale of tobacco products and accessories. The stores should file annual affidavit with the Illinois Department of Public Health to permit business owners to partake indoors.

“There were cafes and restaurants in town that were permitted to smoke for years and then we ceased them from doing it, and these new venues came in and we stated you can smoke in there. With the urge for smoke-free environments, we just supposed that it was the most appropriate thing to do,” declared Mayor Randy Keller.

About the same time, Palos Hills implemented a tough Cook County ordinance banning smoking in all enclosed public places.

“It became a hangout,” stated Palos Hills Mayor Gerald Bennett.

Often mixed up with fruit and herbs, hookah tobacco is considered safer by adherents, who underline their lower nicotine and tar levels than in regular cigarettes, and the potential filtering advantages of a water pipe.

A regular cigarette possesses more tar and nicotine, but it is burned within five minutes, with about 300 to 500 milliliters of smoke inhaled, according to a research. Hookah session can last for hours, with 10 liters or even more inhaled.

The researches also stated that sharing a water pipe may raise the risk of transmission of tuberculosis and other viruses as herpes or hepatitis.

“It is very pleasant and relaxing. In stead of going to a bar you can simply come here and enjoy it with you friends,” stated Tammy Najjar, a credit analyst.

Washington lawmaker introduces flavored tobacco ban

Washington tobacco-lovers could have to stock up as certain flavored tobacco products could be banned across Washington very soon.

According to Senate Bill 5380, considered last week in Olympia, certain types of tobacco products would be banned throughout the state, a measure that supporters claim will prevent children from trying tobacco, but opponents admit will restrict freedom of choice and harm the economy.

“Restricting tobacco products which are especially appealing to adolescents, such as flavored tobacco, is a vital step in preventing all children from trying tobacco”, claimed Mary Selecky, state Secretary of Health.

She stated minors are interested in tobacco products that smell and taste sweet and those who begin consuming tobacco before the age of 18 are more likely to consume tobacco further on, increasing the expenses on health care in the state.

Under the bill, all tobacco products, which have a certain flavor or aroma, excluding menthol or natural tobacco, or those tobacco products, which are selling in dissolvable form would be banned. The ban also demands all tobacco products to not be displayed so that they are not directly available to the customers and would permit counties to adopt tobacco ordinances that are more rigorous than the ones adopted on state level.

The measure’s fiscal note states the approval of the bill would result in the loss of tax revenue of approximately $20million for the state treasury in the next two years, however supporters of the measure claim public health benefits would more than offset the loss of tax revenue.

According to a research conducted last year, every $1 spent on tobacco prevention programs during the last decade returned as $5 saved on healthcare expenses, including the costs to hospitals and patients, not only savings to the state.

Local owners of tobacco businesses stated they have been dealing with many restrictions and bans already and the lawmakers should concentrate efforts on enforcing current legislations, instead of adopting new ones.

Washington Retail Association spokesman Mark Johnson admitted that if passed the bill would be especially damaging to small businesses, who depend on the earnings generated by tobacco sales.

Jeffrey Packer, who runs a tobacco shop in Tacoma stated the bill would destroy his business, as it would reduce the profits and restrict freedom of choice of adult smokers across the state.

“The bill puts in jeopardy personal freedom of adult to select the activity they prefer,” Packer added.
During the hearing, Republican Senators from several Senate Committees supported Parker’s arguments.

“I believe the answer is very simple,” Sen. Curtis King, said about the ban on flavored tobacco. “Instead of outlawing a product, why don’t we simply require it to not be displayed in the stores?”

Supporters of the bill, that include several anti-smoking organizations, such as American Cancer Society, and American Lung Foundation, stated flavored tobacco products sometimes have a direct appeal to minors, particularly the products that have fruit or chocolate flavor.

Smoking Ban is not Observed on Kolkata Stations

It is very difficult to believe that smoking on railway territory has been prohibited for more than two decades, when looking on hundreds of passengers deliberately smoking their cigarettes on trains and railway platforms in suburban Kolkata.

While commuters accuse the railway authorities for not implementing the ban and accepting bribes to let lawbreakers remain unpunished, officials invoke helplessness and declare that all this happens due to the lack of awareness about the law among passengers.

“We often lead anti-smoking inspections and lawbreakers are punished,” declared, Purusottom Guha, divisional railway manager of Eastern Railway’s Sealdah division.

He acknowledged that it was just impossible to effectuate daily inspections on all train compartments and stations as employees of this division have also another duties to perform.

“We check approximately 832 of local trains, each having 10 carriages daily,” he said. More than 1.8 million commuters travel by local trains in Kolkata every day.

During an investigation that was held in some suburban stations as Agarpara, Bidhannagar and Barrackpore were found some hawkers selling cigarettes without any restriction.

At big terminal stations as Howrah and Sealdah, where officials are always present, there is no smoking and also there are no hawkers selling cigarettes. But once trains depart from these stations, commuters quickly light up on the train.

When Guha was asked why his department doesn’t take actions against hawkers, he stated that tobacco products are obtainable only in private stands and not in stands directed by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation.

“That is why we can’t do anything against them,” he stated. Commuters state that the situation hasn’t changed for years, in spite of the Section 167 of the Railways Act 1989 which prohibits smoking on trains and railway stations. Smoking on trains and railway stations is fined according to the Criminal Procedure Code.

A daily passenger on the Howrah station, stated: “At each station you can find hawkers selling various tobacco products. And passengers smoke even in the presence of a check –man.”

“Our primary duty is to protect railway property and assure security to passengers in trains. It is the responsibility of ticket collectors to enforce the ban. The ticket collectors fine passengers for such violations as unbooked luggage or ticketless travel, but they do not punish any passengers for smoking,” stated Railway Protection Force officer in Howrah station.

Ticket collectors on the contrary accuse RPF personnel for not punishing smokers and liberate them after accepting bribes. Eastern Railway representative Samir Goswami stated that RPF personnel and officials of the anti-fraud departments effectuate daily inspections in order to prevent smoking and selling of tobacco products on trains and stations.

Comesa to solicit UN on WHO tobacco ban

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern African (Comesa) is against the World Health Organisation’s actions to prohibit particular ingredients that are used in manufacturing blended tobacco.

These ingredients are produced in specially designed laboratories ranging from sugars, sweeteners and such flavors as vanillin and menthol that are used to improve the palatability of tobacco products.

For example Burnley is a popular tobacco type in British American Tobacco markets, which is the most grown tobacco type in the Comesa region, mainly in eastern and southern African countries of Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe and which requires blending procedure.

The majority of scientists state that smoke from burley tobacco has an unpleasant taste during curing, requiring use of such ingredients as menthol, glucose and ginger or blending it with other types to soften its harsh taste.

A prohibit on the production of blending compounds would mean a loss of market for Comesa grown tobacco, and a significant loss for farmers.

At the recently conducted summit of Comesa in Swaziland, participating countries decided to solicit the UN at the forthcoming UN General Assembly to examine the Millennium Development Goals in New York (MDG).
The economic bloc declared that the WHO and other international agencies try to perpetuate poverty in Africa, bringing health arguments into order to cut down its product – in this case tobacco out from the world market.

It is expected that the bigger economies of bloc as for example Libya, Egypt and Kenya, despite not being the largest manufacturers of tobacco, will try to influence the WHO to change this ban.

The WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) proposed to implement a ban on laboratory-produced tobacco ingredients, according to the guidelines 9 and 10.

For the majority of Comesa members who are fighting to get rid of poverty through agriculture, adopting the WHO guidelines would mean a big loss for many tobacco growers who haven’t another alternative, and consequently a deterioration of national economies.

Poverty reduction is the main task of MDGs and no continent is more affected by poverty than Africa.

“I think that it is a very thrilling situation for many countries, considering the fact that 19 Comesa countries have united to oppose the WHO decision,” stated Francois van der Merwe, chairman of the African chapter of the International Tobacco Growers Association.

The big problem in this situation is that WHO officials in Geneva don’t understand how important the tobacco industry is to many African countries and what unpleasant consequences this ban will have for many of these countries.

For example in Malawi, 70 % of the population gains on its livelihood from the tobacco industry, with 700,000 farmers occupying with tobacco cultivation.