Cheap cigarettes hindering health agenda

Cheaper illegal cigarettes are hindering the government's health agenda of encouraging people to stop smoking.
The Confederation of Malaysian Tobacco Manufacturers (CMTM) chief executive Shahrul Abdullah said many of these illegal brands are sold at relatively low prices, far below the limits set by the government.
He said these cigarettes are easily available and is appealing to schoolchildren who can afford them.
"Schoolchildren are able to buy these illegal cigarettes for about RM3 per pack which is far below the tax threshold of RM4.80 set by the government," he added. Pall Mall cigarettes.
Shahrul said the Illegal Cigarettes Study (ICS) commissioned by CMTM and conducted this year between March to May, showed that even though the number of smuggled illegal cigarettes has declined from 2009 to this year, sales of local illegal brands have increased since the beginning of 2011.
"The top five illegal brands are Gudang Garam, John, Canyon, Era and League. The survey revealed that local illegal brands have increased to a total of 6.2% within a period of three years," said Shahrul
He believed that the illegal brands sold could even be more hazardous due to the lack of regulations that were being followed.
On clamping down on sales of illegal cigarettes, Shahrul said a holistic approach was needed.
"We need to look at better enforcement and making penalties more severe for starters," he said, adding smugglers will continue to be involved in the illegal trade as it was lucrative for them.
The ICS was carried out for a period of three months between March and May this year with a sample size of 44,000 consumed cigarette packets.

British American Tobacco stumbles into new e-cigarette row as advert appears on children's computer game

A tobacco giant has apologised after an advert for an electronic cigarette appeared in an online computer game aimed at children.

British American Tobacco, which owns Lucky Strike and Dunhill brands as well as Vype e-cigarettes, said the advert had been placed by mistake by a third party and was removed as soon as it knew of the problem.
BAT said: ‘We pulled all our online advertising while we investigated. We found that a third party used by one of our suppliers had not adhered to the full protocol required when placing Vype adverts.’ Glamour cigarettes.

Many employers have taken initiative to ban smoking in their workplaces in order to reduce second-hand smoke and to encourage their employees to stop smoking. A new study suggests that let alone prohibiting smoking habits at work will not ensure the reduction or quitting of smoking because smokers may be influenced by another smoker at home.
"De-normalizing smoking in any environment is likely to make it easier to be successful at quitting," Laurent Huber, MS, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health in Washington, DC, said in a news release. "This study demonstrates how important it is to ban smoking in all workplaces and public spaces."
Huber added, "People have a right to their health, and should not have to choose between a job and being able to breathe clean air."
For the study, researchers surveyed 627 current or former smokers. Researchers asked the participants if they worked with fellow smokers or lived with a smoker.
Researchers found that those who worked with smokers and lived with one increased the odds that the participant was a current smoker.
"Working with a smoker was linked to almost three times greater odds of smoking, whereas living with a smoker was linked to more than six-fold greater odds of smoking," reported the Health Behavior News Service. "For those people living with a smoker, their smoking was unrelated to whether or not their work colleagues smoked."
Lead author Carole K. Holahan, Ph.D., professor of kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas, Austin said, "Our findings suggest that worksite smoking interventions could be made more effective if they included a focus on educating workers' families about the health effects of smoking and the benefits of home smoking bans."

No Smoking In Vehicles With Kids.

A lawmaker wants to limit the use of tobacco products in motor vehicles in Michigan when children are present.

Legislation announced Wednesday by Democratic state Rep. Sam Singh of East Lansing would make it illegal for any tobacco product to be lit in a vehicle when a person under the age of 18 is inside.

As proposed, a violation could result in a $500 fine. Singh says he wants a yearlong grace period so people can get used to the change.

Singh told MLive.com that the bill would amend the Michigan Vehicle Code to make smoking in the presence of a minor a primary offense, meaning an officer could pull over a motorist if they spot a violation. A number of other states have similar laws.