|
||||
|
I was interested in reports of a research study suggesting that nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) were no more effective in helping smokers to quit their habits than simply going ‘cold turkey’. People had the same probabilities of relapsing into nicotine addiction even were they using NRTs even if they were receiving counseling to help break [...] In 1945 72 per cent of Australian men aged 16 and above and 26 per cent of women smoked. By 1976 male smoking had dropped to 43 per cent of malesbut female smoking had increased to 33 per cent of females. Male smoking has declined ever since and in 2007 (the latest year for which [...] China is the world’s largest tobacco market. The Chinese Government is addressing the tobacco problem but the response is probably not enough. Here is a paper I wrote with Bao Jia Tan on tobacco control policies in China. I am trying to get some thoughts together on the recently passed ‘plain packaging’ legislation in Australia. Comments very welcome on these notes which are based on a relatively quick Goggle search. From December 2012 cigarettes in Australia will only be able to be sold in ‘plain packaging’. Government legislation will force [...] Phillip Morris have sought to reject the ‘plain packaging’ legislation approved by the Australian Parliament today via an appeal to the High Court. If the appeal fails this firm seeks compensation for the loss of the value of its brands of several billion dollars. It is interesting to note that the Coalition joined with the [...] The Chinese government have embarked on an active campaign to reduce the incidence of smoking in China. About 1.2 million Chinese die annually from smoking-related and another 100,000 die from the effects of passive smoking. This paper, co-written with Ms. Bao Jia a student at Peking University, examines some of the main policy issues. [...] Its been a while since I have had much positive to say about Tony Abbott and the Coalition but, if this report is correct, they will do the right thing and support moves to introduce plain packaging of the product that is the leading preventable cause of death in the world today – cigarettes. The [...] The decision of BAT (British American Tobacco) to challenge the Federal Government’s “plain packaging” legislation is wonderful news. This seller of highly carcinogenic products will only take this action – and risk a huge volume of adverse publicity – if it believes these measures will cut heavily into its sales and profitability. Moreover, firms such [...] Big tobacco is fighting back. Apart from relying on increased sales to developing countries - Indonesia a terrible instance – big tobacco is fighting stricter regulations in developed countries. Tomorrow, a conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, will try to add specific terms to a public health treaty known as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, [...] This policy proposal is something I have long advocated. The views of big tobacco – BAT and Phillip Morris – that there “is no credible evidence that plain cigarette packs reduce smoking but the move will instead add time to shop transactions and ultimately cost businesses money” are not plausible. Plain packaging hasn’t been tried [...] The loathesome cads of the Labor Party have done something good! A move to ‘plain packaging’ of legal carcinogens (cigarettes) is a welcome move as is the apparent intention to add an additional 35% excise on cigarette sales. The dummies who do smoke go for pale-coloured rather than (for example) bright red packaging because they [...] It is well-known that the delusionist think-tanks on climate change were also skeptics on the issue of the health damages of cigarettes. In particular they argued, contrary to the claim of the US Surgeon General, that there was no evidence that secondary cigarette smoke caused health damages. One of their leading spokesmen (Fred Singer) argued that [...] The proposals for increasing the tax on cigarettes by 17.5 cents per stick and for introducing a minimum price on booze are worthy of analysis. Proposals are also developed for dealing with obesity but I will not discuss those here. The report by the National Preventative Health Strategy is here. [...] The Foreign Correspondent show on ABC TV tonight spelt it out in relation to the disasterous Indonesian smoking situation. Each year 400,000 die from tobacco-related diseases. Indonesia is one of the few nations on earth not to endorse the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control - another is North Korea. Indonesia has low taxes on cigarettes and seemingly stupid politicians – [...] Despite the global financial crisis sales of carcinogens remain strong with BAT profits growing 20% in the year to December 31. BAT is the world’s second largest producer of carcininogens. Quote, The Financial Times: “Although tobacco consumption is declining worldwide, tobacco companies have continued to grow profits during the past decade. In the US and Europe, [...] This article in The Age suggesting that tobacco companies knew that ciarettes contain a pollonium isotope that makes smoking a packet and a half of cigarettes equivalent in radiation exposure to 300 chest X-rays per year. They kept quiet about it as they have with some many of the other deadly features of this habit. The [...] I found this webpage from the Australian Taxation Office on excise charges on alcohol and tobacco products very useful. Taxes ideally should reflect damages of these products which are presumably related to alcohol and carcinogen content respectively. With respect to alcohol this is volumetric taxation rather than ad valorem taxes levied on product value. [...] I have been working for the last couple of weeks on smoking. If you want to get a good feel about the dimensions of the global smoking epidemic I recommend this site. If you wish to become very well informed about harm reduction approaches to dealing with the smoking catastrophe I recommend this site. It [...] A tax on tobacco will encourage the use of illegal, untaxed sources of tobacco or chop chop*. Smoking chop chop means that the Commonwealth Government loses out on revenue (in 2003 the estimated loss was $500 million) but, more importantly, that the tax on legal tobacco to avoid health problems will indirectly create new health [...] The Australian tobacco-growing industry has ended with an industry-government buyout of all producers. All cigarette products consumed in Australia will now be imported. The advantage for the anti-smoking lobby is that the price of illegally-grown tobacco (‘chop-chop’) will increase so taxes levied on legally-sold cigarettes will have a bigger impact in reducing smoking and its [...] |
||||
|
Copyright © 2012 Harry Clarke - All Rights Reserved |
||||
Recent Comments