Campus considers going tobacco free

College is when some smokers begin a lifelong habit, but those who attend the University may soon have to take that habit elsewhere. Five University groups are discussing and developing their points of view on the possibility of the campus being tobacco free. The idea of a tobacco use policy on campus came about through an Ohio Board of Regents resolution passed July 23 encouraging colleges and universities to become tobacco free.

The Board of Regents, located in Columbus, serves as a coordinating body for Ohio higher education and is responsible for advising the Chancellor, leader of the University system of Ohio, on issues of statewide importance affecting higher education, according to its website. The five groups, including Administrative Staff Council, Classified Staff Council, Faculty Senate, Undergraduate Student Government and Graduate Student Senate, will hopefully submit their decision to President Mary Ellen Mazey by Thanksgiving, said Jill Carr, senior associate vice president of Student Affairs and dean of students.

The decision to go tobacco free or to stay with the current policy may come down to culture. “I think you’re starting to see a different culture movement,” said USG President Alex Solis. Faith Yingling, director of Wellness, said Ohio culture has shifted to tobacco and smoking policies and that similar initiatives have been going on nationwide for a while now. “As more states and places implement smoking-related policies, it seems only natural that places like college and universities would take up those initiatives as well,” Yingling said.

Twenty-two percent of students at the University use cigarettes, according to the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment data report in Fall 2010. “Certainly there’s more tobacco use than we’d like to see,” Yingling said. Departments at the University have also done surveys of the students. Eric Teske, staff assistant in the department of Recreation and Wellness, surveyed 691 graduate and undergraduate students in a variety of departments and majors. Forty-three percent believe campus should be smoke-free and 21.1 percent are frequently bothered by smoke at the University, according to the survey, which was done in April. Yingling and Teske plan to survey faculty and staff next.

“We try to make sure we’re getting an accurate portrayal of what students want and what faculty and staff want,” Yingling said. The positives of a tobacco-free policy would include protecting the air people breathe, reducing secondhand smoke and improving people’s long term and short term health, Yingling said. Carr said the positives concerning health are obvious, but the way students feel about the possible policy may not be as simple. “I think we’re all aware of the health related issue of a person who makes the decision to smoke,” Carr said. “The cons are that a smoker may feel that they’re losing some personal right on campus.”

There is an emphasis on health and wellness at the University, Mazey said. “Having a no smoking policy really supports that health and wellness focus of our campus,” Mazey said. Yingling said if a policy were to go into place, the University would offer programs to help people quit. “We’d work hand in hand with the counseling center and the Student Health Service to make that happen,” she said. “Certainly we want to provide those resources for those who want to quit.” There are typically a fair amount of smokers who are already trying to quit, and since it’s a long process, Teske said he hopes the policy would be helpful.

"Hopefully it will be extra motivation for them with University support, hopefully they will and be able to get some kind of help,” he said. There is currently an alcohol and other drug specialist at the University with whom students can meet for free to discuss addiction, Teske said. Mazey said she hopes the decision to be tobacco free or to stay with the current policy will be made this academic year.

USG recently had a meeting about the possibility of a tobacco-free campus, Solis said there were mixed opinions. “I think it’s going to be a tough process if the University chooses to go with this initiative,” Solis said. Once the constituent groups have submitted their decisions, depending on the decision, a committee will be formed to draft a policy, Carr said. Carr will chair the committee, which will include two members from each constituent group, she said.

EU tobacco directive 'close to stalling'

EU-wide plans to further regulate tobacco are under threat, according to a commentary in the medical journal The Lancet. A revised Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) is thought to be close to stalling, with the authors of the comment claiming that any more delays "will raise serious questions about whose interest the EU Commission is promoting".

The issues are considered in a special report on The Lancet News podcast, which features an interview with John Dalli - who gave up his position of EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy recently following a complaint from a cigarettes company of financial impropriety.

 His resignation may hold up the revised directive, even though the wording has been cleared both legally and administratively and is ready to move to the next stage. Public health bodies from across Europe and a group MEPs have all called for there to be no further delays in the Commission releasing the draft directive. Just 48 hours after Dalli's resignation, laptops and documents were stolen during a break-in at the Brussels offices of a group of anti-tobacco campaigners. One of the organisations burgled in Brussels was the Smoke free Partnership.

The series of events has "set alarm bells ringing" for one of the authors of the comment piece in The Lancet, Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor McKee said uncovering the truth may not come soon enough for the directive and added, "the only beneficiaries of delay are the tobacco companies". Paul Belcher, senior EU Government affairs advisor at the Royal College of Physicians in London, said the situation was affecting people's confidence in the EU's ability to make decisions and undermining efforts to protect people from the health problems caused by tobacco.

Smoke free Partnership director Florence Berteletti, said: "A few months ago, we exposed the tobacco industry's block, amend and delay tactics on the 2001 Tobacco Products Directive and warned that these tactics are being deployed again in this review process. At the time, we emphasised that policy-makers need to be aware of how the tobacco industry tries to influence the legislation - and when it cannot, to block or delay the process. "We are now witnessing a major potential setback in the TPD review and we call on the Commission, European Parliament and on Member States not to let themselves be detracted from the goal of reviewing legislation to improve public health in Europe.

We strongly urge Vice President Maros Sefcovic to ensure that the TPD review proposal is released before the end of the year as was promised by the Commission." Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said: "Following the resignation of John Dalli, the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Affairs, we are concerned that this development threatens to further delay the review of the TPD. "Cancer Research UK is calling for larger warnings (including pictures) on both sides of the packet, plain packaging and regulation of flavourings and additives, to protect young people from the marketing of this highly addictive and seriously harmful product.

"A stronger Tobacco Products Directive is urgently needed to help protect people from tobacco marketing and reduce youth smoking rates. Tobacco causes 650,000 deaths each year in Europe. We are witnessing a major potential setback in the TPD review and we call on the Commission, European Parliament and Member States to ensure that the TPD review proposal is released before the end of the year as was promised by the Commission."

India's attempts to ban chewing tobacco stymied by black market

India's efforts to ban the sale of chewing tobacco have been stymied by uneven enforcement by states and a thriving black market. Known as gutka in Hindi, chewing tobacco is more popular than cigarettes and is consumed by an estimated 65 million Indians, including many children, according to India's food and health ministry. India banned the sale of gutka in 2001 but it is up to individual states to enforce the ban. So far, 14 of the 28 Indian States have enforced the ban on its sale with five more considering the doing the same.

Last week, the north-east Indian state of Mizoram became the latest state to impose the ban. Delhi, meanwhile, enforced the ban in September. In the capital, Rakesh Kashyap, 22, runs a tobacco shop in Defence Colony and hides a stash of gutka in a drawer under the main table where other products, including cigarettes are on display. Autorickshaw and taxi drivers are the biggest customers of gutka at his stand.

"It helps them to get through their long shifts," said Mr Kashyap. Store owners like Mr Kashyap and the companies that produce chewing tobacco are working to find ways around the ban. Retailers now sell the chewing tobacco and its other contents - known as paan masala - separately. In some cases, manufacturers advertise that their product is tobacco-free, when it is not. "Companies are taking the tobacco out of paan masala, so people who want to continue to use gutka buy the paan masala and the tobacco separately and we mix it for them," said Mr Kashyap. The new mix costs four rupees (Dh0.27) — four times the price of chewing tobacco and equal to the price of a single cigarette.

"The ingredients are not banned and they available locally," Sanjay Bechan, executive director of the Smokeless Tobacco Federation, which represents smokeless tobacco companies that produce gutka. "The government has not banned the cultivation of tobacco, areca nut, or catechu leaf. A shopkeeper can still mix and sell them, this is permitted under law." Mr Bechan warned that without proper manufacturing facilities, the gutka market will remain flush with unregulated, possibly dangerous gutka mixtures. He also warned that the ban could create space for organised crime to being manufacturing the product.

"The ban is not the solution, you're only replacing manufacturers with a mafia," said Mr Bechan. It is estimated the gutka ban will lead to 1.5 to 2 billion rupees in losses to the smokeless tobacco industry. Mr Kumar confirmed that the supply of gutka has not declined in the market. He did say that there is increasingly "a black market" for the pre-mixed packs. They are sold at triple their normal retail prices and are often smuggled from nearby states whether or not the ban was in place.

Food and Drug Administration officials in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, some of the first states to impose the ban, complained this month that gutka manufactured in the state of Uttar Pradesh - where the ban was imposed in April - are still being found in their states. Sanjay Kumar, 30, a taxi driver in New Delhi said many of his friends used to consume up to 20 packets of gutka a day. "It is cheap, so they don't have to restrain themselves on how much they use. If they smoke, they can only afford four or five cigarettes a day," he said. "This ban hits the common man hardest, rich people can afford cigarettes."

Is Now the Time to Buy Imperial Tobacco?

I'm always searching for shares that can help ordinary investors like you make money from the stock market. So right now I am trawling through the FTSE 100 (UKX) and giving my verdict on every member of the blue-chip index. Simply put, I'm hoping to pinpoint the very best buying opportunities in today's uncertain market.

Today I am looking at Imperial Tobacco (ISE: IMT.L) (NASDAQOTH: ITYBY.PK) to determine whether you should consider buying the shares at 2,300 pence. The average analyst estimate for this year's earnings per share is 199.6 pence (6.2% growth) and a dividend per share of 104.6 pence (10% growth). Trading on a projected P/E of 11.5, Imperial appears cheap compared with its only London-listed competitor, British American Tobacco, which has a projected P/E of 15.9.

Imperial's low P/E and slowing growth give a PEG ratio of 1.91, which implies Imperial's share price is expensive for the earnings growth the firm is expected to produce. The dividend is strong, boasting a 4.4% yield, which is currently larger than the income from BAT -- with a three-year compounded average dividend increase of 14.7%. The dividend is also twice covered, giving Imperial room for further payout growth. Imperial returned 1.5 billion pounds to shareholders through buybacks and dividends during 2012, and, during the past 10 years, an investment in Imperial has returned more than 150%!

Imperial looks cheap. What about future revenues?

Changing tobacco habits and regulation throughout the world continue to chip away at Imperial's cigarette volumes, though sales have been bolstered by ongoing price increases. Indeed, Imperial is expected to announce a 3% drop in volumes, but a 4% increase in revenues, within its year-end results at the end of October.

The predicted performance is down mostly to the company's product strategy; Imperial is a world leader in the high-margin premium-cigar market and the rolling-tobacco market, giving Imperial more room for product price increases.

At this point I should mention that the tobacco sector has seen many acquisitions over time, and I would not rule out seeing Imperial become prey to a larger rival, thereby providing potential capital growth and possible downside protection. While other investors may have their doubts about Imperial, looking at past performance and the recent share-price weakness, I do not.

Growth is slowing, but Imperial still has the resources to significantly improve shareholder returns. The tobacco industry has faced many challenges over the past decade, yet Imperial has still managed to significantly outperform the wider stock market. Overall, I believe now looks to be a good time to buy Imperial Tobacco at 2,300 pence.

Quit cigarettes by 40 to live extra 10 years

WOMEN who smoke can increase their life expectancy by 10 years if they quit before middle age. A study of more than 1.3 million women found that stopping smoking before the age of 40 avoids more than 90 per cent of the increased risk of dying caused by continuing to smoke. Most of the increased death rate resulted from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease or stroke.

The risk rose steeply with the quantity of tobacco smoked, but even light smokers on fewer than 10 cigarettes a day doubled their likelihood of dying. The research, based on results from the Million Women Study, was published in The Lancet to mark the 100th anniversary yesterday of the birth of Richard Doll, one of the first people to identify the link between lung cancer and smoking. The women were recruited to the study between 1996 and 2001, at ages 50-65. They completed a questionnaire on lifestyle, medical and social factors and were resurveyed by post three years later.

The NHS central register notified the researchers when any participant died, giving the cause of death. Women were traced for an average of 12 years from the time they first joined. So far, 66,000 of the participants have died. Initially, 20 per cent of those who took part were smokers, 28 per cent were former smokers, and 52 per cent had never smoked. Those who still smoked at the three-year resurvey were nearly three times likelier than non-smokers to die over the next nine years.

The key finding was that both the hazards of smoking and the benefits of stopping were bigger than previous studies suggested. Smokers who stopped at about age 30 avoided 97 per cent of their excess risk of premature death. Although serious excess hazards remained for decades among those who smoked until 40 before stopping, the excess hazards among those still smoking after 40 were 10 times bigger. Professor Richard Peto, from the University of Oxford, a co-author of the study, said: "Smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra 10 years of life."

Illicit cigarettes burn holes in SA

A large tanker truck with a tanker trailer stops at the Beit Bridge border post. It has just crossed the border from Zimbabwe. The driver presents his credentials to the border officials and declares his tanker truck empty. But customs agents are ready. They have had a tip-off and leap into action. The truck is full of illicit cigarettes - thousands upon thousands of them. The smugglers had gone to great lengths to keep their cargo hidden.

They had cut open the truck and trailer’s petroleum tanks, stacked in the cigarettes and carefully closed everything up again, repainting the truck. They also left open spaces at the inspection hatches so that a dip stick check would show the tanks were empty. That is the sort of effort smugglers will make to keep their trade going. The larger the scale of the operation, the greater the effort. And the scale is huge. On Wednesday last week, R6.5 million worth of illicit and counterfeit cigarettes were shredded, pulverised and dumped. The 800 cases were seized from smugglers during an attempt to bring them into the country. That is why it is easy to categorise cigarette smuggling as organised crime.

Because organised crime has structures and systems in place that provide the infrastructure for such illegal ventures, the same infrastructure could be used for moving drugs, stolen goods, hijacked cars and human trafficking. Police liaison officer Andre Traut said cigarette smuggling was a very serious problem. “We do not turn a blind eye to any crime, and although I do not want to attribute other crimes to the situation, it is a fact that there are a lot of illegal cigarettes being sold here… ” he said. “If you support the sale of illegal cigarettes, you are supporting a crime. And, in the end, you are supporting other serious crimes.”

Illicit trade damages the businesses of the legal tobacco industry and the market is better off being entirely free of it, said the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa. “It deprives the government of revenues, promotes criminal activity, misleads consumers into buying products of dubious quality and hampers efforts to block underage sales,” the institute said. “Illicit trade harms brands and prevents the legal trade from competing fairly and openly and undermines the regulations governing the legitimate industry.” But only governments could tackle illegal trade effectively through policy and enforcement, it said.

“Illicit trade should be treated as a serious offence and adequate resources should be dedicated to ensuring effective enforcement. We are committed to working with the government in public/private partnership to develop and implement strategies to combat the problem.” The sale of illicit cigarettes was not a problem in formal retail, said Henry Bam, owner of the Uitzicht Spar in Kraaifontein. “Franchises and large retailers get their cigarettes through formal structures and systems and centralised buying helps to avoid any problems with this kind of thing,” he explained.

“Formal retailers will only buy through regular channels, because they have to properly account for sales. Bam said the greatest problem lay with informal retailers and sidewalk stalls. “Sometimes, these people do not even realise what they are buying, they just like the price,” he said.

New York’s kicking butts

Smokers with low incomes who continue to spend on cigarettes, despite NY’s high taxes. The “Great Cigarette-Tax Lie” (Patrick Basham and John Luik, PostOpinion, Oct. 8) promotes a novel idea: Cut taxes on cigarettes to take the financial burden off of lower-income people. Then, when they get sick, we can hospitalize them on the public’s dime. Maybe we should approve butts through food stamps, too.

Cigarette taxes have helped to address big- picture problems in a significant way, like reducing smoking rates. New York has reduced adult smoking rates to 14 percent . Big Tobacco spends millions of dollars on manipulative marketing in New York every day, and low-income communities are heavily targeted. These communities also have less access to continual cessation resources.

It’s not easy to quit, and even harder if you’re being treated in sporadic intervals. New York is able to find such success in reducing smoking rates because of the state’s comprehensive and effective cessation strategies, of which taxes are only one.