Australian Tobacco Companies Forced Into Unappealing Cigarette Packaging

Tobacco companies in Australia have some surprises coming, as well as some demands by the Australian government under legislation revealed Thursday that probably won’t make the Tobacco industry very happy.

This move, according to the government, will make Australia the toughest country worldwide on tobacco advertising.

Cigarette tax uneven, says player

Mastermind Tobacco says that the Treasury’s failed attempt to amend tax rules on cigarettes should not be blamed for lower-than expected tax revenues collected by Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA).

The company on Wednesday said that the Treasury’s hybrid system meant to introduce taxes based on physical size of cigarettes and retail selling price of cigarettes could not work because it created discrimination among cigarettes.

Big Tobacco gets snuffed out

President Richard Nixon didn’t think cigarettes were anything to joke about when he signed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act into law on April 1, 1970.

Warnings on cigarette packages had started appearing in 1965 following the 1964 report, “Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States.”

The report, released on a Saturday to minimize impact on the stock market and to maximize the coverage by the press in Sunday’s edition, offered one of the first official damning pieces of evidence against big tobacco. Findings concluded that smokers had a much higher mortality rate than non-smokers, greater incidences of heart disease, emphysema and lung cancer. It also concluded that pregnant smokers were more likely to give birth to underweight babies and that smoking was the primary cause of chronic bronchitis.

Imperatives for a smoke free Nigeria

On March 15, 2011, the Senate had in a unanimous vote passed the National Tobacco Control bill which was sponsored by Senator Olorunimbe Mamora representing Lagos East Senatorial District. By this act, it is now a punishable offence to engaged in smoking in public places. The current bill is a comprehensive law providing for regulations of supply and demand measures of tobacco products. The bill was presented on the floor of the senate for second reading in February 2009 and a public hearing was conducted in July 2009 before its eventual passage. The National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) repeals the Tobacco Control smoking Act of 1990, which was promulgated under the military and championed by former Health Minister, late Olikoye Ransome Kuti.

35t of tobacco seized from tyre shop

THE Municipality of Abu Dhabi City has seized a large quantity of tobacco, estimated at 35,000kg, from a tyre sales and repairs shop on Al Diffaa Road, near Al Saadah Bridge in Abu Dhabi.

The quantity seized comprises 700 sacks, each weighing 50kg in addition to 20 large barrels of raw tobacco, and 20 cartons comprising hundreds of bottles used for packing tobacco as well as processing, wrapping and grinding utensils. All the seized tobacco, processing equipment and packing tools from the site were confiscated.