[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
28 September 1998 - EU9836 (fwd)
!# ---------------------------------
!# GLOBALink Tobacco - Weekly European News Bulletin
!# ---------------------------------
EUROPEAN NEWS BULLETIN - EU9836 28 SEPTEMBER 1998
CONTENTS:
EUROPE
DENMARK: Life expectancy reduced by smoking.
GERMANY: More non-smoking seats at Deutsche Bahn.
GERMANY: Joint advertisement of Reemtsma and Yamaha.
IRELAND: Rise in smoking.
ITALY: Profile of the smoking population.
SPAIN: Smokers want to quit says study.
UK: Tobacco groups to challenge EU ban.
EASTERN EUROPE
RUSSIA: RJ Reynolds halts production
TADZHIKISTAN: Tobacco to be grown in Badakhshan.
INTERNATIONAL
USA: Lawyer cites pressure over safer-cigarette plan.
EUROPE - SPECIFIC COUNTRIES
DENMARK: Life expectancy reduced by smoking.
Life expectancy among Danes is 75.3 years - far
lower than that found in other Nordic countries.
The reason behind this is mainly due to
diseases caused by smoking, and to a lesser
extent, to alcohol consumption. Denmark has the
highest prevalence of smoking among women in
Europe: 37 per cent of Danish women smoke. This
is about the same rate as it was in the 1950s,
whereas smoking among men has halved from 80
per cent in the 1950s. According to the Danish
Health Ministry, lung cancer will be the most
common fatal disease among Danish women in the
near future.
Source: Information Access Company 11/9/98
GERMANY: More non-smoking seats at Deutsche Bahn.
The German railway company Deutsche Bahn AG is to
reduce the proportion of seats allocated for
smokers from 60-70 per cent down to 8-20 per
cent, depending on the kind of train. According
to surveys, about 75 per cent of rail passengers
would prefer a non-smoking carriage. Smoking
will be prohibited in the restaurant cars.
Source: Information Access Company, 12/9/98
GERMANY: Joint advertisement of Reemtsma and Yamaha.
The German cigarette manufacturer Reemtsma and
Japanese motorbike producer Yamaha have started
a joint advertising campaign for their products
by the name of R1. The first stage of the
campaign consists of print ads and billboard
posters. Advertising is planned to take place
in six German cities. The Reemtsma "light"
cigarette is being compared with the new light
weight Yamaha motorbike. The two products, both
called R1, are being promoted as "sensationally
light, extremely powerful, super-modern, and
future-oriented".
Source: Tobacco International, September 1998
IRELAND: Rise in smoking.
Smoking is again on the rise across Ireland,
with young girls the fastest growing group of
cigarette users. Thirty percent of adults now
smoke after dropping to 28% at the beginning of
the decade and 29% of all school children
between 12 and 18 smoke. The legal age for the
purchase of cigarettes is 16, although a recent
survey conducted by ASH Ireland found that nine
out of ten shops sold cigarettes to 12-year
olds.
Source: Sunday People, 20/9/98
ITALY: Profile of the smoking population.
According to the Italian Tobacco Federation,
(Federazione Italiani Tabaaci)there were nearly
12 million smokers in Italy in 1997,
representing 26 per cent of the population. The
proportion who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a
day has declined by 700,000. A further 700,000
are believed to have stopped smoking, while
those who have never smoked number some 1.7m.
Thirty two per cent of men smoke, compared with
20 per cent of women. There are more smokers in
urban areas and in the north-west regions. The
tobacco companies and trade bodies are launching
a campaign against the sale of tobacco products
to young people under the age of 16.
Source Information Access Company, 16/9/98
SPAIN: Smokers want to quit says study.
According to a study conducted at Complutense
university in Seville, 70 per cent of smokers
have tried to kick the habit at least once in
their lives. The success rate is around 15 per
cent in smokers who have sought the advice of
family, friends, or a doctor. The success rate
among those who try to quit on their own is only
5 per cent. Professor Jose Ramon Benegas, who
led the study, said the figures reflected the
addictiveness of smoking.
Source: Information Access Company, 12/9/98
UK: Tobacco groups to challenge EU ban.
UK tobacco companies have announced that they
are to issue a legal challenge to the European
Union ban on tobacco advertising. The Tobacco
Manufacturers Association said it would appeal
to the European Court against the measure.
The association believes the ban violates
several principles of European law, and is a
health measure pretending to be a harmonisation
measure under the single market provisions. The
German government is expected to take a similar
approach in its appeal.
Source: Financial Times, 22/9/98
EASTERN EUROPE:
RUSSIA: RJ Reynolds halts production
RJR NABISCO halted production at its new Russian
plant on the 18th of September 1998, blaming the
crash of the rouble and technical problems. The
stoppage comes less than a month after RJR
promised to invest another $120 million in its
St Petersburg plant in an attempt to become the
dominant foreign producer in the world's fourth
largest cigarette market. The rouble was close
to a low of 20 to the American dollar, 60 per
cent down over the past month. About 37 billion
cigarettes a year are made at that plant, but
experts reckon RJR was forced to shut down
because much of its product is held up in the
distribution chain.
Source: The Guardian, 19/9/98
TADZHIKISTAN: Tobacco to be grown in Badakhshan.
Tobacco growing is to be extended to the
mountain region of Badakhshan. The Tajik food
and processing company announced that 800,000
hectares will be given over to tobacco
production in 1999.
Source: Information Access Company, 8/9/98
INTERNATIONAL
USA: Lawyer cites pressure over safer-cigarette plan.
Lawrence G. Meyer, a former lawyer for Liggett
Group has testified in a sworn deposition that a
top in-house lawyer at Brown & Williamson
Tobacco Corp. pressured him in the late 1970s to
have his client drop a project aimed at
developing a safer cigarette. A spokesman for
Brown and Williamson, a unit of BAT PLC, said
that the company lawyer identified by Mr Meyer
denies the allegation. Dan Webb, a lawyer for
Philip Morris, denies that PM threatened to
retaliate against Liggett, and plans to argue
that the Liggett "safer" cigarette was in fact
not safe at all. According to Mr Webb, the
Liggett cigarette used toxic metals, which
"would have killed people".
Source: Wall Street Journal Europe, 24/9/98
!#
!#
!#
!# GLOBALink EUROPE - Tobacco-Control News Bulletin - Weekly
!# Editor: Bunmi Akinade - ASH London
!# Support: Ruben Israel - UICC - mailto:israel@globalink.org
!# Join GLOBALink ! http://www.globalink.org/glob/appl.html