[GLOBALink EuroNews] Europen News Bulletin EU9938 - 11 October 1999

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

EUROPEAN BULLETIN EU9938 – 11 October 1999

Headlines

Europe:

ANDORRA: Smuggling now an offence

FRANCE/SPAIN: Seita and Tabacalera agree merger

IRELAND: Doctor says lip service paid to tobacco control 

UK: 15million cigarettes seized on ship


International:

CHINA: Cigarette gifts give rise to new cigarette trade 

INDIA: Cigarettes cheaper than betel nut

USA: RJ Reynolds to present research on modified tobacco 



Full Text

ANDORRA: Smuggling now an offence

Andorra has introduced a new law to make smuggling illegal in a bid to
reverse its reputation as a bootlegger’s paradise. Until recently,
smuggling had not been a crime in the principality but a modification of
its Penal code now makes smuggling an offence. At the same time, it has
tightened its law on fraud in customs matters and its law on the control
of sensitive goods. Cigarette smuggling from Andorra into neighbouring
states peaked in 1997, causing the loss of about 400m Euro in EU duties.

Source: World Tobacco, September 1999


FRANCE/SPAIN: Seita and Tabacalera agree merger

Spanish tobacco firm Tabacalera and France's Seita have agreed a merger
that will create the world's fourth largest tobacco group. Tabacalera,
said the merger "between equals" would create a group with operational
headquarters in Paris and legal headquarters in Madrid, with stock market
listings in both. It will also be the biggest cigar producer in the world.
The new merged company is to be called Altadis.


In the face of rapid consolidation in the world tobacco industry, the two
mid-sized tobacco groups had been expected to merge after years of limited
co-operation. "It is very important for both of them because, to start
with, it allows them to be big enough to fend off an eventual predator,"
one Paris-based sector analyst said. An alliance could save money through
plant closures, but the driving force behind the talks was the threat both
companies felt from recent mergers in the industry, analysts said.

The merged firm will rank the fourth largest tobacco group in the world,
excluding China, in terms of product volume after Philip Morris, BAT and
Japan Tobacco. It will be the world leader in cigar manufacturing. It will
create a European tobacco giant with combined market capitalisation of 6.7
billion euros ($7.18 billion).


Source: Reuters 5/10/99


IRELAND: Doctor says lip service paid to tobacco control

The State pays lip service to the notion of tobacco control but does
little to prevent smoking, an Irish public health specialist has said.

It was not that the State didn't have strategies to control smoking,
particularly among teenagers, stated Dr Fenton Howell of the North Eastern
Health Board. There were strategies to reduce teen smoking, to stop
smoking in public areas and encourage companies to introduce no-smoking
regimes. The strategy for youth smoking, he said, was meant to bring down
tobacco use among the young by a percentage point per year, but rather
than going down, tobacco use actually went up by a percentage point a year
from 1994. "While we pay lip service, we don't do anything much about it."

A great deal of legislation had been introduced in the past 10 years
controlling tobacco company sponsorship and regulating where smoking might
occur. However these tended to say that public health officials "may"
enforce the regulations. They should be changed to read "shall", he said.

"There is a real problem with the legislation because it is not enforced.
While the legislation looks good in one sense, it is a bit ridiculous on
the other." Ireland needed to begin prosecuting offenders, he said, for
example, those who sold cigarettes to children.

Dr Howell presented statistics of the smoking population which showed that
32 per cent of males and 31 per cent of females were regular smokers.
There was also a large social gradient for smoking in Ireland, with a
higher percentage of smokers from lower socio-economic groupings.

The smoking totals for young women between 18 and 34 years were
particularly bad, he said with about 40 per cent of this group smoking
regularly. This was despite years of education programmes warning of the
dangers of smoking, an activity which was responsible for about 6,500
deaths each year in Ireland.

Education was not helping, although it was well known what "works on young
people - price and advertising.

Many studies had shown that most smokers, 80 per cent, expressed a desire
to stop and 74 per cent had tried to quit at some time in the past. This
he said was like a "cry for help". The Government should answer by
providing nicotine replacement treatments - the familiar nicotine patch,
gum or inhalers - free of charge.  "We give insulin to diabetics, we
should do the same thing for nicotine replacement therapy," Dr Howell
said.

Source: Irish Times, 5/10/99

UK: 15million cigarettes seized on ship


Customs officers have seized more than 15 million cigarettes which were
hidden on a container ship. The Benson & Hedges cigarettes, worth £2
million in duty and tax, were discovered at Southampton docks. Officers
uncovered them during an examination of two 40ft containers which had
arrived on the vessel Oriental Bay. The containers had been shipped from
China but had been routed via Hong Kong and Singapore before being loaded
on to the vessel. It is believed that their final destination may have
been the Republic of Ireland. The 15.8 million cigarettes were hidden
behind a layer of audio cassettes, which the smugglers had claimed were
the real contents of the containers. Customs officers have seized 135
million cigarettes in Southampton in the last 11 months, worth £17 million
in tax and duty.

Source: Associated Newspapers, 6/1099



INTERNATIONAL

CHINA: Cigarette gifts give rise to new cigarette trade

Gift giving has fostered a new trade in Beijing. Cigarette vendors are
buying up cigarettes given as gifts to non-smokers at prices lower than
wholesale and reselling them for profit. Cartons of cigarettes have long
been a gift of goodwill among the Chinese. The China Economic Times
reported that signs offering to buy cigarettes are a common sight on the
streets of Beijing. One vendor whose stall is located near a large
hospital said many doctors who have received cigarettes as gifts from
patients sell them to her.

Source: Tobacco Reporter, September 1999



INDIA: Cigarettes cheaper than betel nut

The price of cigarettes has fallen relative to the betel nut, making
cigarettes a more attractive option. Betel nut is a mild stimulant chewed
in many Asian countries. The Financial Express of India reported that a
single cigarette costs only RE.1.50 (US$0.03) compared to the price of a
unit of betel which has recently risen to about RE2.50.

Source: Tobacco Reporter, September 1999



USA: RJ Reynolds to present research on modified tobacco

On Oct. 13, during an international tobacco science conference in China,
RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company will present research indicating that a
simple, practical, tobacco- curing process that can use existing curing
barns significantly reduces certain compounds, called tobacco-specific
nitrosamines (TSNAs), in flue-cured tobacco.

RJR announced the discovery of this process earlier this year and
indicated they were conducting ongoing tests to confirm that their lab
results could be reproduced under real-world growing conditions.

At the conference, David M. Peele, senior manager - research and
development for Reynolds Tobacco, will summarise findings from six years
of research conducted by RJ Reynolds to investigate how TSNAs form in
tobacco and how they might be reduced or removed. That research, as well
as preliminary findings from ongoing research, indicates that using heat
exchangers instead of direct-fire burners in tobacco curing barns could
reduce the levels of nitrosamines in flue-cured tobacco by an average of
90%.

"TSNAs have been identified as carcinogens at very high doses in some
animal experiments," said Peele. "Because of that, RJR’s
product-stewardship philosophy demands that we actively pursue ways to
reduce their occurrence in cigarette smoke. If our test results confirm
that we can reduce TSNAs, Reynolds Tobacco will study methods for
potential use of reduced-TSNA tobacco in all of our brands.

"Unfortunately," he said, "there is no scientific basis at this time to
conclude that reducing nitrosamines or any other single class of compounds
will reduce the risks associated with smoking. So even if we found a way
to totally eliminate TSNAs from all tobacco, it would be impossible to
conclude that there had been a potential reduction in health risks without
substantiation from a comprehensive battery of appropriate toxicological
and biological tests. With the available scientific information, not
making health claims about low- nitrosamine tobacco is the responsible
approach."


Source: PR Newswire via NewsEdge Corporation, 8/10/99


Amanda Sandford Research Manager ASH 102 Clifton Street LONDON EC2A 4HW
tel: 0171 739 5902 fax: 0171 613 0531