EUROPEAN NEWS BULLETIN - EU9819 11 MAY 1998 (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

Globalink's European News Bulletin. Check out Globalink's web site at
<www.globalink.org>

Robert Weissman
Essential Information			|   Internet:	rob@essential.org

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!#  GLOBALink Tobacco - Weekly European News Bulletin
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EUROPEAN NEWS BULLETIN - EU9819 11 MAY 1998

CONTENTS:

EUROPE - SPECIFIC COUNTRIES

FINLAND: Cigarette sales pick up slightly in 1997.
FRANCE: Air France bans smoking.
FRANCE: Bonus for not smoking.
FRANCE: Cigarettes in the first quarter of 1998.
NORWAY: Smoking banned at home.
SPAIN: New board members for Tabacalera.
SPAIN: Tabacalera posts 42% advance.
SWEDEN: Newspapers to stop anti-tobacco ad.
SWEDEN: 'No' to lower tobacco tax.
UK: Nurse sues over passive smoking.

INTERNATIONAL - SPECIFIC COUNTRIES

USA: Early experiences with tobacco among women smokers, 
     ex-smokers, and never-smokers.
USA: Minnesota tobacco settlement sets new mark for suits in US.


EUROPE - SPECIFIC COUNTRIES

FINLAND: Cigarette sales pick up slightly in 1997.

Cigarette sales in Finland increased slightly in 1997. A total 
of 4.7bn cigarettes were sold last year, up approximately 5% 
from the previous year. Amer Tobacco's (Amer-Tupakka) sales in
the domestic market increased by 15% and the company increased 
its market share from 66.9% to 73.8%. Sales amounted to Fmk 3.3bn 
(US$ 600mn), up 18% on the previous year. The growth is attributed 
to the 20-hour rule imposed on tourist imports, which reduced
the personal imports of tobacco as well as alcohol. However, 
sales of pipe tobacco declined significantly. Amer Tobacco hopes 
to experience further growth in Russia where it has signed a 
licensing agreement with the St. Petersburg company Nevo. The 
aim is to increase Russian sales to a billion cigarettes within 
a period of three years. Sales in Russia currently amount to 
approximately 100,000 cigarettes.  British American Tobacco Nordic
increased net sales of its products by 11% to Fmk 264mn in 1997, 
marketing a total of 28 billion cigarettes in Sweden, Norway, 
Finland and the Baltics as well as to tax free outlets. Jari 
Mether was recently appointed managing director of British 
American Tobacco Nordic. His predecessor, Thomas Westerberg, 
has transferred to British American Tobacco, London. 

Source: Kauppalehti (XFD) 28 Apr 1998 p.13 
Language: FINNISH No. 06619924
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


FRANCE: Air France bans smoking.

In the last three years, French airline, Air France, retained a 
small smoking area close to the bar. However, the airline has now 
decided to implement a total ban on smoking on its flights to 
Canada, the US, Tahiti and other long distances. 

Source: Voyages d'Affaires (XOK) Apr/May 1998 p.6
Language: FRENCH No. 06618458
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


FRANCE: Bonus for not smoking.

It seems that after one of its employees died from lung cancer, a 
chemical company located in Rouen has decided to offer a bonus to 
its 18 employees in order to encourage them to stop smoking. Those 
who have never smoked and those who have decided to stop will 
receive a FFr 500mn bonus every month, and those who make a 
commitment to never smoke on the company premises will receive FFr 
400. The number of smokers in this company has decreased by 90%
since this bonus was provided. 

Source: Le Quotidien du MZdecin (XNV)  28 Apr 1998 p.24 
Language: FRENCH No. 06618628
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


FRANCE: Cigarettes in the first quarter of 1998.

According to the CDIT, the French Tobacco Information and 
Documentation Centre, there were 19.57bn units of cigarettes sold 
in the first quarter of 1998, up 3.8% from 18.849bn in 1997, for
a turnover of FFr 18.403bn (apparently, 75% goes to the Government 
in the form of tax revenue), up 7.8% compared with the same period 
in 1997. Sales of pipe tobacco and rolling tobacco held steady at 
1,691 tonnes, and sales of cigars and cigarillos represented 
374.4mn units, up 8.9%. Tobacco sales represented 21,718 tonnes,
up 3.5% compared with 20,970 tonnes for the same period in 1997. 

Source: Le Figaro (XMV) 29 Apr 1998 p.36 Language: FRENCH No. 06619275
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


NORWAY: Smoking banned at home.

According to the newspaper, Arbeiderbladet, 66% of Norwegians ban 
smoking in their homes if children are present. In 1993, the number 
was 53%. 

Source: Arbeiderbladet (XSE) 20 Apr 1998 p.16 
Language: NORWEGIAN No. 06618528
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


SPAIN: New board members for Tabacalera.

Spanish cigarette company Tabacalera has appointed three new board
members, and reduced the total number of board members to 15. The 
new members replacing five representatives of the State and Alfredo 
Lafita, are JoseFernandez Olano, Carlos Gomez Anuarbe and Carlos
Colomer. 

Source: Expansion(EXN) 28 Apr 1998 p.4 Language: SPANISH No. 06618784
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


SPAIN: Tabacalera posts 42% advance.

The Spanish tobacco group Tabacalera has announced a 42 per cent 
increase in first-quarter net profits to Pta5.7bn ($37.9m), following 
its recent privatisation.

Source: Financial Times 06/5/98; Wall Street Journal (Europe) 06/5/98


SWEDEN: Newspapers to stop anti-tobacco ad.

The Swedish Cancer Foundation's anti-tobacco advertisement directed 
against the Swedish tobacco producer Swedish Match has been stopped 
by three daily newspaper, Dagens Nyheter (DN), Svenska Dagbladet 
(SvD) and Dagens Industri (DI). The text on the advertisement reads:
"Help the children in Eastern Europe to start smoking. Buy shares 
in Swedish Match." It seems that DN and SvD stopped running the 
advertisement not because of the message but because the three stars 
which also featured in the advertisement resembled Swedish Match's 
logotype. DI, on the other hand, objected to the message of the
advertisement claiming that it urged readers to help children start
 moking. The lawyers who examined the advertisement before it was 
sent to the newspapers did not raise any legal objections to its 
content or design. Brit-Marie Lindblad of the Swedish Cancer 
Foundation said the aim of the advertisement was to make Swedish 
Match shareholders aware of the type of shares they actually owned.

Source: Dagens Nyheter (XSU) 29 Apr 1998 p.A05 
Language: SWEDISH No. 06619560
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


SWEDEN: 'No' to lower tobacco tax.

The latest report indicates that the Liberal Party in Sweden is 
against the Government's proposal to reduce tobacco taxes. Party 
representatives said that instead of cutting tobacco taxes, customs
authorities should be given increased powers in order to combat 
tobacco smuggling. In a press release Karin PilsUter of the Liberal 
Party noted the positive function of high tobacco taxes, that is, 
to reduce tobacco consumption. 

Source: Dagens Nyheter (XSU) 25 Apr 1998 p.A10 
Language: SWEDISH No. 06619958
Source: Information Access Company 08/5/98


UK: Nurse sues over passive smoking.

A nurse, Sylvia Sparrow, is suing her former employers for injury 
and loss of earnings due to illness caused by passive smoking, 
in the first case of its kind in the UK. Mrs Sparrow, a non-smoker, 
blames her chronic asthma on inhaling tobacco smoke from elderly 
patients' cigarettes when she worked in the communal lounge of 
Worsley Lodge nursing home in Manchester. This is the first 
passive smoking case to be heard in a British court. Mrs Sparrow
was employed at the nursing home in 1986 when she was assigned to 
work in the communal lounge. She said that the lounge was used by 
the heaviest smokers among the 72 residents. Two years later she 
began to suffer respiratory problems. Her doctor diagnosed asthma 
and wrote to the nursing home warning that Mrs Sparrow's health 
problems were "exacerbated by smoke". She was then transferred to 
another section for a short while and her health improved. However, 
she was put back on permanent duty in the lounge used by smokers 
because of staff shortages. Mrs Sparrow's health again deteriorated 
to the point where she has been on sick leave since February 1992. 
Mrs Sparrow's action, being funded by the Royal College of Nursing, 
alleges that her employers, St. Andrew's Homes, failed to provide 
a safe environment for her to work. In court, Mrs Sparrow's counsel, 
Alan Rawley QC, said that by the late 1980s and early 1990s the dangers 
of passive smoking were known. He said: "They (her employers) should 
have provided a smoking room in which she need not have gone. There 
are smoking rooms in many institutions and non-smoking compartments 
on railway trains. It is not beyond the wit of man to devise a system 
which would keep her away from smoking, particularly once she had 
given notice of her disabilities." Commenting on the case, Clive 
Bates, Director of ASH, said: "If this action is successful, it 
could open the floodgates for other cases. The Health and Safety 
at Work Act says that employers have a duty to protect their work-
force from hazardous substances. If you have asthma or other breathing
difficulties, then passive smoking may be hazardous."

Source: The Times 04/5/98; The Guardian 4/5/98; Daily Mail 02/5/98;
The Guardian 07/5/98; The Independent 07/5/98; The Times 07/5/98; 
Daily Mail 08/5/98; Daily Telegraph 07/5/98 


INTERNATIONAL - SPECIFIC COUNTRIES

USA: Early experiences with tobacco among women smokers, 
ex-smokers, and never-smokers.

Recent research suggests that people who become smokers may be 
more sensitive to the positive effects of nicotine than those who
do not take up smoking. A study based in the US investigated this 
hypothesis by querying initial experiences with cigarette smoking 
in smokers, ex-smokers and never-smokers recruited from the local 
community (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Subjects were 80 women (23 
highly-dependent smokers, 30 less-dependent smokers, 12 ex-smokers
and 15 never-smokers - the Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire (FTQ) 
was one of the methods used to determine levels of dependency). 
All subjects in the clinical trial provided basic demographic data
and were also asked to fill out a brief questionnaire that included
a smoking history. Additional information from smokers included the 
FTQ and items assessing their initial experiences with smoking: 
pleasurable sensations and unpleasant sensations, rated on a scale 
of 1 = none to 4 = intense; and pleasurable rush or buzz, relaxation,
 ausea, cough and dizziness, rated yes or no. Circumstances under 
which initial experimentation occurred were also queried (alone, 
with peers, and so on). The results revealed that pleasurable 
sensations, pleasurable rush or buzz and relaxation (pleasant 
effects) were significantly more likely to occur in the smoker 
categories than in never-smokers. The ratio of pleasurable to 
unpleasant sensations also significantly favoured the smoker 
categories. By contrast, unpleasant sensations, nausea and cough 
(unpleasant effects) did not differ significantly among groups. 
Dizziness, which did not definitely emerge as either pleasurable 
or unpleasant, was significantly more likely to be reported among 
the smoker groups than among  never-smokers. The study concluded 
that people who become highly dependent cigarette smokers appear 
to have more pleasurable sensations at their initial exposure to 
tobacco; unpleasant reactions to the first cigarette do not seem 
to protect against subsequent smoking. (Author abstract).

Source: Addiction 1998; 93(4): 595-599


USA: Minnesota tobacco settlement sets new mark for suits in US.

The US State of Minnesota has agreed a landmark settlement with 
the tobacco industry, just as jurors were scheduled to hear the
closing arguments in the three-and-a half month trial. Under 
the terms of the settlement, which goes beyond the national 
settlement, the state will receive $6.1bn (L3.5bn) over 25 
years and the state's co-plaintiff, Blue Cross and Blue Shield 
will receive an additional $469 million over five years, marking 
the first time an insurer has recovered damages from the tobacco 
industry to recoup the cost of treating policy holders with smoking
related diseases. The insurance aspect of the settlement could open 
a new front in tobacco litigation and 38 other Blue Cross organisations 
have already filed similar suits nation-wide. The other key terms of 
the settlement are:

The tobacco companies have agreed not to market cigarettes to children 
in the state and not to make any health claims about cigarettes. All 
outdoor cigarette advertising on billboards, buses, bus stops, etc. 
to end within six months. Promotional merchandise with cigarette logos 
such as T-shirts, hats, CD players, etc. to be banned. The companies 
have agreed not to pay film stars to smoke their brands in popular 
movies - a practice the industry contends it stopped in 1989.

The tobacco industry also agreed not to contest Minnesota's existing 
tobacco control laws. That is not to challenge: 
* the state's existing laws against selling cigarettes to children; 
* the state's Clean Indoor Air Act; 
* a state law against the free distribution of cigarettes; and 
* an ingredient disclosure law enacted last year that has not yet 
 come into effect.

Additionally, the settlement provides $102 million for smoke-free 
cessation treatment to Minnesota residents and creates a $650m trust
fund for a non-profit foundation to be established to develop 
programmes to reduce teenage smoking.

Finally, the industry agreed to maintain at their expense the state's
collection of 33 million industry documents for ten years and to ship
selected documents from a separate depository in England to Minneapolis.
The documents not introduced in the trial remain under a protective 
order that Minnesota can seek to have lifted.

Commenting on the settlement, Richard Daynard, President of the 
Tobacco Control Research Center in Boston, said: "No attorney 
general in the future can afford politically to accept anything 
less than what Minnesota got."

Source: Wall Street Journal (Europe) 11/5/98; Financial Times 
09/5/98; International Herald Tribune 09/5/98; The Times 09/5/98; 
Daily Telegraph 09/5/98


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