Page 12 - TOB Magazine Jan/Feb 2013

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TOBACCO OUTLET BUSINESS

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013

TMA REPORT

on PMI in china…

who smoked 30 or more cigarettes per day declined

significantly from 12.6 percent in 2005 to 9.1 percent in

2011, while the proportion that smoked 1-9 cigarettes

per day increased significantly from 16.4 percent to 22

percent.

…CDC researchers say an assessment of its

nationwide anti-smoking media campaign called “Tips

From Former Smokers,” which ran from March-June 2012

and depicted about a dozen ex-smokers offering harrowing

testimonials on the consequences of their habit, indicates

that the public health initiative boosted the number of calls

to the CDC’s 1-800-QUIT-NOW line to 365,000 from158,000

in 2011, while traffic to

www.smokefree.gov

increased to

630,000 during the campaign from under 120,000 visits in

2011.

…The World Health Organization released its findings

on November 6 from a survey conducted in 2010 by

China’s centers for disease control and prevention, the US

and the WHO, reporting that nearly two-thirds of women

of reproductive age in China are exposed to environmental

tobacco smoke at home and over half are exposed to ETS

in the workplace, raising their risk of “adverse reproductive

health outcomes.”

…Angela Pratt, technical officer at WHO’s Tobacco Free

Initiative in China, said the Chinese government should

increase the excise tax on cigarettes to curtail smoking

since about 50 percent of smokers in the country spend

5 yuan (US$ 0.80) or less to buy a cigarette pack, which

Pratt said is “much, much lower than the average cost in

developed countries.”

…PhilipMorris International’s strategies to grow in China

include a plan to license rights fromCanada’s Medicago Inc

tomanufacture and sell the biotech company’s flu vaccines

in China and another plan to develop and sell “less harmful”

cigarettes there, as COO Andre Calantzopoulos told

investors that CNTC and Chinese officials “are extremely

interested” in PMI’s next-generation plans.

…Responding to

former European Union health

commissioner John Dalli’s

claim that he was forced to

resign from his post after the EU’s anti-fraud agency

OLAF’s investigation linked him to corruption allegations

concerning the EU Tobacco Products Directive, European

Commission President José Manuel Barroso on October

24 warned him to stop “insinuations” surrounding his

resignation and “behave with integrity” in line with the

EU Treaty, under which, Barroso noted, no written form

is required for a declaration of resignation, which was

“irrevocable.”

…Dalli met with Maltese businessman Silvio Zammit

in Dalli’s private office in Malta on February 10—just

before Zammit reportedly approached

Swedish Match

on February 13 requesting 60 million (U.S.$ 78.3 million)

to have the EU’s prohibition on the sale of snus outside

Sweden ended—an accusation raised by people familiar

with the case, which Dalli first denied and then reportedly

acknowledged during the investigation by OLAF. Dalli told

reporters on October 23 that he will sue the European

Commission and Swedish Match’s vice president of

public affairs Patrik Hildingsson for their allegations.

…Contrary to Dalli’s statement that the

EU Tobacco

Products Directive

was twice delayed internally by EC

officials, Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said

October 25 that it still intends to move forward in the

“coming weeks” with a draft revision of the directive, and

insisted that no EU executive is seeking to block the rules.

…Following John Dalli’s resignation, Sweden is

reportedly stepping up efforts to get the

EU ban on

snus

lifted. Swedish Minister for Trade Ewa Björling

and Minister for Public Health Maria Larsson, in a joint

letter to the European Commission, called for greater

transparency in the work on the new directive, which

they said should benefit both public health and free trade

by introducing uniform EU-wide product regulation that

would cover permitted levels of harmful substances and

additives in tobacco products.

…In a related development,

Christiaan Timmermans

resigned as president of the supervisory committee that

oversees the work of OLAF, reportedly due to his failure to

properly inform the committee about the details of Dalli’s

alleged misconduct before handing the information to

Maltese authorities, in an alleged breach of procedure,

though OLAF said the change of presidency does not

change the “contents or conclusions” of its report on the

Dalli case.

…Expressing concerns about Dalli’s sudden departure,

Nessa Childers, member of the European Parliament

for Ireland, said on October 24 that she and eight other

Irish MEPs have written to EC President José Manuel

Barroso, urging him to “act with urgency” on the revision

of the directive, which “is a major priority” for the Irish

Presidency of the EU Council that began January 1, 2013,

and continues for the first half of the year.

TOB

on dalli scandal developments…