WEB SITE IDENTIFICATION PROCEDURES

There is currently no standardised method of sampling content featured on the world wide web. In the absence of standardised protocols, we employed a searching strategy similar to those utilised in studies of Ewings sarcoma and herbal remedy web sites. Both of these studies identified their study sample by entering multiple keywords into multiple search engines and by assessing either the first 100 or 250 hits from each search to determine web site eligibility for the study.

We used multiple keywords and search engines for several reasons: (1) approximately 85% of internet users rely on a search engine to locate information; (2) industry studies show that users employ approximately three keywords in a given search session; and (3) the best single search engine only covers about 16% of the web, but combining the results of multiple search engines raises coverage to nearly 42%.

To identify the best keywords we began by first locating approximately a dozen ICVs and examining the words featured on each site's main page and metatags. Metatags provide keywords to help search engines find the site. Most browsers have a feature that allows users to view the underlying source code, including metatags. These approaches yielded a pool of 11 potential search keywords (cheap cigarettes, cheap smokes, cheap tobacco, discount cigarettes, discount smokes, discount tobacco, low price cigarette, inexpensive cigarette, mail order cigarette, online cigarette, and tax free cigarette). All 11 potential keywords were then typed into six major search engines used in an earlier study of search engine coverage to determine which keywords were most efficient in identifying ICVs. “Discount cigarette”, “cheap cigarette”, “mail order cigarette”, and “tax free cigarette” were selected as the four best keywords because they were the most efficient in locating ICVs, and at least one of these four keywords appeared in nearly all of the metatags for sites that were found using the other seven potential keywords.

To identify the search engines, we relied on popularity rankings. Media Metrix (www.mediametrix.com) ratings for August 1999 (the most current ratings at the time of the data collection) were used to identify the top five most widely used internet search engines. The four keywords were entered into these search engines, except for Yahoo! (http://www.yahoo.com), which is a category based internet search catalogue that required a slightly different strategy. Web sites on Yahoo! are organised hierarchically within categories. To identify the Yahoo! categories for cigarette vendors, two keywords—“smoking” and “cigarette”—were searched. The keyword “smoking” yielded 36 category matches and the keyword “cigarette” yielded five category matches. Of these 41 total category matches, only one unique category listed cigarette vendor sites: business and economy> companies>hobbies>smoking.

Tovacco Gifts

Imperial’s Four Key Brands Account for 33% of Sales

Imperial Tobacco’s £1.2bn writing off of amounts of its Spanish business is a surprise. The manufacturer is the giant operator in the recession-hit country, where a half of the personnel is unemployed.
Volumes are declining and companies as Imperial have been raising prices in order to increase profitability. It has also been paying attention on its key brands such as Gauloises, Davidoff and West. These are higher margin products as well as Imperial’s rolling tobacco as Drum and Golden Virginia brands, which have been declining to. Whole sales of these fine cut tobaccos increased by 13%, with premium cigar sales up 10%.

The manufacturer has also been implementing innovation, as for instance its “Glide Tec” packages, which demonstrated positive results and great demand among many smokers. These packages have a little “window” on the front of the package which permits the smoker to slide up the inner package with their thumb, thus opening the pack with only one hand. In the year to September, net profit from tobacco increased 5% at constant currencies, with volumes of cigarettes sold dropped 2.5%. After the write-down, pre-tax revenues declined to £1.1bn from 2.2bn.

Policies to prevent public subsidy of tobacco imagery in youthrated films

Film producers are by no means automatically entitled to public subsidies.
They must apply for them and meet a state’s particular requirements, which are
often quite stringently designed to minimize abuse of these programs. Eligibility
procedures in different states require applicants to submit shooting scripts,
production budgets, and day‐by‐day production schedules for state review before
shooting begins; prove the residency of crew members; contribute to local
educational and training programs; and supply the state with certified accounts
after production. States may require producers and directors to be interviewed, in
person, by program staff before an eligibility ruling. Many states require an
acknowledgment in the film’s final credits; some specify precise wording or size.

Most states disqualify certain kinds of media productions from subsidies,
such as: news, weather, and sports programs; reality shows and daytime TV;
political commercials and digital gambling projects. All except Louisiana and Puerto
Rico specifically disqualify obscene material, the definition referring either to a state
statute or to the federal age‐recording requirements for performers in sexually
explicit material.

States often allow for administrative discretion in the final decision about
which films to subsidize, based on general economic benefits to the state or, as in
Texas and Utah, how the film portrays the state’s citizens. In Georgia, “NC‐1717 or
unrated movies may not qualify at the sole discretion of the [Georgia Film Office].”
Also, projects “determined not to have positive marketing value for the State and
which are deemed not beneficial to the State of Georgia's branding initiatives and
goals" may be denied use of the “Georgia Entertainment Promotion” logo and the
additional 10 percent tax credit that goes along with it. Florida offers a bonus 2
percent tax credit to “family friendly” films, as determined by “review of the script
and an interview with the director.”

Florida states:
Family‐friendly productions are those that have cross‐generational appeal;
would be considered suitable for viewing by children age 5 and older; are
appropriate in theme, content, and language for a broad family audience;
embody a responsible resolution of issues; and do not exhibit any act of
smoking, sex, nudity, or vulgar or profane language.

Recovery memory suppression

It’s normal to slowly grow complacent during the
months and years after ending nicotine use. Complacency is fueled by quickly failing
memories of the daily captivity stress factors that compelled us to seek freedom. It’s also
fueled by an inability to recall the intensity of early withdrawal anxieties, the power of
cue triggered crave episodes or the duration of conscious fixation.

Most of us failed to keep a detailed record of why we commenced recovery or what those
first two weeks were like. Without a record to remind us, we are forced to rely upon our
memory to accurately and vividly preserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth. But now, the memory in which we placed our trust has failed us.
It isn’t that our memory is bad, faulty or doing anything wrong. In fact, it’s working as
designed to preserve in as much detail as possible the joyful events of life, while
suppressing and helping us forget life’s stressful events, anxieties, trauma and pain. To
do otherwise would make life inside these minds unbearable. In fact, post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) is believed to reflect a breakdown in the mind’s ability to forget.396
If women were forced to remember the agony and pain of childbirth, most would likely
have just one. We are each blessed with the ability to forget.
So how does the recovered nicotine addict who failed to record their journey home revive
their passion for freedom and recall liberty's price? If we forget the past are we destined
to repeat it? Not necessarily. But just as any loving relationship needs nourishment to
flourish, we should not take our recovery for granted or the flame could eventually die
and the fire go out. It’s my dream to protect my freedom until that final breath. If you
feel the same then we need to nourish our desires. If we do, we win. If not, we risk
complacency allowing nicotine back into our bloodstream. We risk dying as slaves.
Whether daily, monthly or just once a year, our recovery benefits from care. But where
do we turn if our recovery memories have been suppressed and we have kept no record?
Our best resource is probably our brothers and sisters still in bondage. Why not enlist
their help in revitalizing our own memories of active dependency? Talk to them. Let
them know what you seek. Encourage them to be as candid and truthful as possible.
Although it may look like they’re enjoying their addiction, their primary objective is to
stay one step ahead of insula driven urges and craves. Tell them the truth about where
you now find yourself. Although not always the case, with most you’ll find their
responses inspiring. Be kind and sincere. It wasn't long ago that those were our shoes.
Try hard to recall those first two weeks without nicotine. Think about earlier uneducated
attempts. What were they like? Can you recall your mind begging to be fed? Feel the
anxieties. Were you able to concentrate? How was your sleep? Did you feel depressed,
angry, irritable, frustrated, restless or anxious? Were there rapidly cycling emotions,
irrational thinking or emotional outbursts? Do you remember these things? Do you
remember the price you paid? Do you recall the reasons you willingly paid it?
We can go on-line if we have access to a computer, visit scores of smoking cessation
support groups and find thousands of battles being fought, hear a multitude of cries and
watch hundreds struggling for survival as they dream of the calmness and quiet you now
call home. They cannot begin to imagine traveling so far that remembering their turmoil
becomes the greatest challenge of all.
If permitted, send a message to those in need. The most important thing you can tell
them is the truth about why you came. If still in the first few days they may be facing
hurricane anxieties. Their mind may have them convinced that their emotional storm will
never end. Don’t pretend that you can feel their anxiety. Instead give them what they
need, the truth! Let them know that you’ve traveled so far that it’s now hard to relate.
Tell them how comfortable and complacent you’ve grown. Describe last week and how
many seconds, if any, that you devoted to thinking about using. Fear of the unknown is
frightening. Teach them what life on Easy Street is like. By aiding them we aid
ourselves.
It may be that complacency has you at a point where thoughts of wanting are again taking
root. But think back. How long had you gone without wanting? If it is happening,
rekindling pride in the amazing journey you once made may silence such chatter. If not
I’d encourage you to re-read Chapters 3 and 12, as I suspect that you’ve either developed
a romantic fixation with using or failed to let go of one during recovery.

IN ADVERTISING IT'S SPLENDID!

Throughout the Great Depression the major cigarette manufacturers continued to advertise their most popular brands with handsome ads created by talented illustrators. A few of the popular commercial artists received commissions for this work, but advertising agency staff artists were responsible for the bulk of the paintings. Continuity in advertising is a method where an ad is related to the one that preceded it. Usually, a new argument or reason to buy the product is presented. A campaign is finished when all arguments have been exhausted. The series that the wonderful two page magazine ad pictured below was part of, reminds the reader that with Chesterfields "it's Taste!" Other ads in this campaign pointed out that "in polo it's Dash," "at the horse show it's Form," "on the green it's Accuracy!" and "in the dance it's Grace!"

Obama And Cigarettes

In tonight's Web-only Inauguration wrap-up, Katie Couric mentioned a question she asked President Barack Obama in an interview shown in tonight's prime-time special, "Change and Challenge: The Inauguration of Barack Obama." It was about a subject that’s still a little touchy to him: cigarettes smoking.
COURIC: You don't really think of this job as working at home, do you, necessarily (laughter). But speaking of stress, what's going on with the discount cigarettes smoking thing?
PRES. OBAMA: You know, we're doing fine with it. I know everybody likes to poke, you know. I haven't had an interview yet where this one doesn't get raised.
COURIC: Well, I think people just wanna know how it's going. And I think – they feel for you.
PRES. OBAMA: Yeah, we're doing fine. I'll do better if people don't keep on bringing it up
So Couric asked Politico.com's Mike Allen if he could read anything between the lines of Mr. Obama's answer, such as, that he still is wrestling with the habit.
Allen concurred that it's possible, but suggested that perhaps we might all go a bit easier on the new president. After all, he spent an altogether frantic day looking completely cool, poised and collected.
"If you look at the way President Obama has handled himself and the way he's been portrayed, I'm happy he has a few faults, weaknesses," Allen laughed. "That shirtless photo op sure gives guys a lot to worry about. I'm happy he has a few hidden habits like that."
Plus, Couric said: "You also do have to appreciate that the guy's under a lot of pressure."
Allen added a zinger: "If he wants to get in his Audi* and have a cigarette, he ought to be able to."

Tobacco money

BRISTOL, Va. – The Virginia Tobacco Commission is poised to approve spending $12 million to establish a pair of energy research centers in the region, its vice chairman said Monday.
The centers, planned for Abingdon and Wise, would study clean coal and other environmentally friendly technologies, said state Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, vice chairman of the state’s Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission.
The centers are among eight special projects and research center requests previously reviewed by commission members. Other energy research centers – costing a combined $16 million – also are expected to receive funding when the 31-member commission meets here Wednesday and Thursday, Kilgore said.
“This is something the time has come for us to do,” Kilgore said in a phone interview with the Herald Courier. “We need to look at clean energy and clean-coal technologies.”

During its Thursday meeting, the commission will be asked to approve $8 million to establish the Southwest Virginia Clean Energy Research and Development Center. It would be housed in a 16,000-square-foot building to be constructed at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center on the campus of Virginia Highlands Community College in Abingdon.
The center is expected to employ about 20 by its third year, have an annual operating budget of more than $7 million and generate more than $11 million in annual economic impact, according to commission documents.
“We hope to get that project funded and help it become a reality,” said Kenneth Reynolds, a commission member and chairman of the Washington County Board of Supervisors.
“With energy costs so high, if we can be part of helping develop new sources of energy, I think it has a lot of potential.”
The commission also is expected to consider a $4 million appropriation to design, construct and open an Appalachia America Energy Research Center at the Lonesome Pine Technology Park in Wise.
That center would include nearly 25,000 square feet dedicated to clean-coal technology, converting coal to liquid fuels, mercury remediation and reducing sulfur levels.
Other energy sources, including solar power and the production of hydrogen gas, also might be studied.
NanoChemonics, a firm based in Pulaski, Va., has committed to locating at the facility and towork with universities and corporate partners in mining and energy industries, commission documents show.
The commission’s appropriation equals about half the total funding for that project and follows an earlier $1 million allocation for site development. Additional funding is expected from the Wise County Industrial Development Authority and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority.

Other energy research centers and funding proposals the commission will consider include:

* $8.07 million to establish a sustainable energy research center in Danville.

* $7.69 million to establish a nuclear energy research center in Bedford County.

* $873,845 in additional funding for a Gretna, Va., facility that converts crops into bio-diesel fuel.

Funding requests are expected to go before the full commission at its Thursday meeting. On Wednesday, commissioners are expected to consider a recent report critical of some of its funding decisions, Kilgore said.
The blue ribbon panel’s report was critical because the commission does not have methods in place to measure the overall return on its investments.

“We’ll review the blue ribbon commission’s findings and talk about those concerns,” Kilgore said.
All meetings are open to the public and will be held at the Holiday Inn near Interstate 81’s Exit 7.

Mobiles and Cigarettes

Mobiles and Cigarettes refers to the many similarities that I have noticed over this time. Many similarities become obvious as one thinks about the comparison. A phone is compared to the collection of individual cigarettes, the pack and also the matches or lighter.
Topics covered include sociology of cigarette use, social shaping of health scares, industrial structure and political influence, advertising, cultural images, gender and age issues etc.
Phones have replaced cigarettes as the thing people fiddle with
* When nervous, waiting for a to meet or hear from someone, or trying not to look out of place
* They are a distraction from loneliness, insecurity, nervousness
They are used to fill time waiting
* smoking or calling when waiting for the bus
We often have to go outside a building or room to use them.
* We cannot get reception, or, as with cigarettes, we are not allow by explicit or implicit rules to use them indoors.
* The little crowd of smokers and phoners is a common sight. However smokers are united by their activity, phoners separated.
They are displayed in public places
* When put on the table in a pub or café they have brand and model status
* They must be near at hand - for the next call or next smoke.
* A group of smokers all get out their cigarettes packs and put them of the table when the sit down. Phoners do the same thing.
They are associated with certain stereotypes
* The socially successful - the peron everyone wants to know.
* E.g. the sophisticated business person/socialite (advertisers preferred)
* E.g. beautiful people having fun
* Actually used by: many people
* The spotty teenager on the bus
They are used in characteristic ways by different people
* Discretely, hidden in hand, back turned
* Elbow stuck out the side - characteristic of overweight lorry drivers, to use a blatant stereotype!
* If you use two at the same time you probably have a problem.
They are lent and borrowed
* Friends think nothing of letting each other make calls or cigarettes .
* Except when there are hardly any left.
* One person with a phone or pack is enough for a whole group on an outing.
They are seen as antisocial in many public or social contexts
* They both annoy other people around the user.
* There are social codes about when it is appropriate to use
* Those that control social spaces make rules to restrict anti-social behavior, especially banning use, or restricting to certain areas. See below.
They are highly social
* They are an essential part of flirtation
* They are a point to start conversation
* They are used to note phone numbers
Teenagers want them
* Use them to show off/build identity
* They are often one of the few personal possessions of young people.
* Starting smoking and getting a mobile phone, were/are important boundary markers in growing up
* They make/made up a key part of youth culture.
* They can be subversive.
* They are banned in schools (phones), smoke
* Catch 'em young
Their use is banned in many of the same places because of social interference or technical interference, or danger of fire.
* Theatre
* Hospital
* Railway carriages (smoke, phones)
* Petrol stations
* Parliament
They can cause fires - (phones by explosion)
Actually there is no evidence for this with phones, but that does not put off certain 'licensing authorities' from banning them on these grounds, such as in European filling stations.
They have highly disputed health issues.
* There are government studies
* Corporate denials
* Hidden patents and research
* There is a whole range a device to make them 'safer'
* Companies do not like to advertise 'safer' versions as that implies existing versions are dangerous
* Heavy users and children are most at risk
They are dangerous to use when driving
* One takes ones eyes and mind off the road to initiate use, and to hold them
* They both use the in car power socket
* Arkansas has banned smoking in cars with young children
There are important 'class' issues over use
* Different parts of the population prefer different brands
* Nokia - teen, young, more female
* Ericsson - company people, engineers, boring men
* Motorola - more sophisticated
Smaller versions are
* More feminine (packs of cigarettes )
* More discrete
* Are for lighter users (number of cigarettes , battery size, functions)
Gender differentiating in branding and design
They both are associated with small pictures of popular culture
- Logos, cigarettes cards
You go to the newsagent/tobacconist to buy them
They have similar industrial characteristics
* The industries both have huge political lobbies
* They contribute lots of revenue to governments though tax
* The industries are both highly regulated
* The industry is made of multinationals
* The growth markets are in the developing world
* In developing countries tobacco and telecoms have often been state enterprises

Global factors see AP tobacco auction prices at all-time high

BANGALORE: Prices of FCV (Flue-Cured Virginia) tobacco in the ongoing auctions in Andhra Pradesh have touched all-time high. At the end of May 8, the 76th day of the AP auction conducted by the Tobacco Board, 111.33 million kg (mkg) had been sold for an average per kg price of Rs 78.44, almost 63% higher than the average of Rs 47.59 realised from the sale of 110.85 mkg in the corresponding period of last year’s auction.
Industry sources say the steep spurt in prices is because of a global supply constraint following factors like withdrawal of Chinese cigarettes from the export market because of stock adjustments to meet rising domestic demand. All of this has seen auction prices for high grades from AP’s NLS (Northern Light Soil) region crossing the per kg price of Rs 100 for the first time ever.
Prices for NLS high grades are ruling in the range of Rs 105 to Rs 118 per kg. With 111 mkg being auctioned out of this year’s AP crop of 170 mkg, farmers expect the brisk pace of sales to continue and the auction to be completed by the middle of June.

SMOKING CELEBRITIES

There's absolutely no doubt that celebrities have an impact on the rest of us and there's a hot debate currently on whether the influence that fame brings should also demand a certain amount of responsibility.

Is it true that celebrities really desist from endorsing cigarettes of all hues? Is it because they are conscious of their social responsibilities? Pictures of celebrities smoking appear glamorous and civilized, regardless of the context of the scene in a movie and thus it strikes a cord with teens. They are shown at parties with a cigarette which pushes young people to emulate them. The brands they smoke, cigarettes , Camel, Winston, Virginia Slims, Salem etc, become a point of campus discussion.

Could it be that the stars themselves have been influenced by the glamour that was once associated with cigarettes? Perhaps if you spend long enough in the fantasy world of film you start to believe in the celluloid image. Just like Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Boulevard' you lose touch with reality.

After all, it's not so long ago that everybody who was somebody in Hollywood smoked and was proud of it. cigarettes smoking was glamorous and sophisticated. Just think of the iconic image of Audrey Hepburn in 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' as Holly Golightly posing elegantly with her long cigarette holder, upswept chignon and little black dress.

What's not so elegant of course is the way Audrey Hepburn succumbed to the smoking habit herself. Ignoring her mother's 'beauty tip' to: "keep to six cigarettes a day only", Hepburn managed two or three packs at her worst times - even smoking in her nun's habit on the set of 'The Nun's Story' and chain smoking her way through 'My Fair Lady'. Unsurprisingly, she suffered from asthma for most of her life and died of cancer at only 63 - looking frail and old for her years. Not the kind of ending we like to imagine for the sublime Holly Golightly.

There's no doubt that the very nature of the movie business has caused many a celebrity to start treading the nicotine path. Smoking is as common in movies today as it was back in the 1950's although overall smoking in the population at large has reduced. Could it be that a cigarette has become the film prop of choice for actors looking for an easy way to inhabit another skin?

For some celebrities - tired of the constant criticism and the ciggy shots splashed across the tabloids - a kind of smoking defiance has crept in. As Gwyneth Paltrow once said, "I smoke and I'm not going to stop!" Paltrow - famous for getting through a pack of Camel Lights a day in her teens and twenties - has only very recently quit smoking. Perhaps she started to wonder how her fine, fair skin and ethereal beauty would cope with the collagen depletion in her fourties and fifties.

Some celebrities keep going with the smoking habit whatever the consequences and even if it impacts on their relationships. It's well known that smoking was a bone of contention between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston during their marriage. Brad Pitt is on record as saying how much he hated his ex-wife's chain smoking. His disapproval didn't cut much ice with Jennifer though - as recent paparazzi photos show. You have to ask why one of the worlds most loved and naturally attractive women would do this to themselves?

Similarly, iconic top model Kate Moss is regularly photographed with her cigarettes , a lighter and a mobile phone as her only fashion accessory. As a supreme super model its probably not surprising that Moss still manages to appear effortlessly elegant and beautiful however she's photographed - at least for now. She certainly shows no signs of wanting to quit smoking any time soon. Perhaps like so many in her world - she associates smoking with thinness. Or perhaps, for her, it's the least troubling of her addictions.

When celebrities do chose to quit its fascinating that the reasons given are so often not about looks. Catherine Zeta-Jones for instance, quit smoking - so she said - because she didn't want her children to start asking questions. Not as you might have thought - because beauty is her personal trademark and smoking would kick-start skin aging and undermine her potential to earn huge sums of money.

Whatever the reasons celebrities have for smoking or for deciding to quit - the truth about skin damage and smoking very rarely features as a major factor in the debate. Well - we think it should. So our advice to all you celebrity smokers out there - carry on smoking if you want but don't expect your fickle public not to notice the effect on your looks. And when you hit a deluded middle age you may still be able to say, like Gloria Swanson in 'Sunset Boulevard': "I'm ready for my close-up now Mr de Mille" - but only if it's filmed in heavy soft-focus, expertly back-lit and then extensively re-touched afterwards.

Bill Would Mandate Fire-Safe Cigarettes Be Sold In Tennessee

Legislation that would allow only fire-safe cigarettes to be sold in Tennessee is headed to the governor for his consideration.

The measure sponsored by Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Rosalind Kurita, a Clarksville Democrat, unanimously passed the Senate last year and was approved in the House 97-1 earlier this month.

But the bill didn't go to the governor until Thursday because both chambers had to work out some differences.

The law would only allow the sale of cigarettes made with paper that self-extinguishes if left untouched by the smoker.

Supporters say they reduce the risk of accidental fires.

Six states have mandated the sale of fire-safe cigarettes and 20 others are considering it.

Gov. Phil Bredesen could not be immediately reached for comment about whether he will sign the bill.

Tobacco groups, retailers face OFT price fixing allegations

LONDON - The United Kingdom Office of Fair Trade is set to unveil wide-ranging allegations that tobacco companies and retailers fixed cigarettes prices, the Financial Times reported citing people familiar with the tobacco investigation.
The allegations come two days after the OFT was forced to apologise to Wm Morrisons and agreed to pay 100,000 pounds in damages and costs after admitting inaccuracies in another antitrust probe.
cigarettes announcement, expected today, relates to alleged deals between the tobacco companies and a range of retailers, with cigarette suppliers the main focus of the enquiry, the report added.
The OFT launched the probe in 2003 and both Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco have previously said they are complying with requests for information.
Companies involved in price-fixing face fines of up to 10 percent of annual turnover although this is usually lower if companies co-operate with an investigation.

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Curing tobacco with less wood

Malawi has grown tobacco for over 100 years now with the first tobacco seeds introduced in the country in 1893. First tobacco exports from the then Nyasaland are reported to have taken place at the turn of the 20th Century.
Today cigarettes is the biggest forex earner in the country bringing in 60 percent of the country’s export revenue and it is the largest employer in rural areas with 70 percent of the workforce in the industry.
However the boom in the cigarettes industry has brought with it its own negative consequences, especially in matters to do with the environment.
According to Nico Nijenhuis, a research student from the University of Twente in The Netherlands, and currently on an internship with GTZ/ProBEC, Malawi has an estimated 10,000 smallholder tobacco growers, 65 percent of whom use wood to cure tobacco.
Nijenhuis says it takes a single small holder farmer 13.5kilogrammes of wood to cure a single kg of tobacco.
According to German Scholar, Helmut Geist who conducted a Global Assessment of Reforestation Related to Tobacco Farming in 1999, Malawi clears 55,000 hectares of woodlands annually to cure tobacco.
Heist pegged the percentage of tobacco related deforestation in Malawi at 26.1 percent, representing a quarter of all the deforestation that happens in the country.
Today some analysts suggest that these figures might have increased significantly as production has switched away from politically unstable (yet fuel-efficient) Zimbabwe to other Southern African countries like Malawi where wood is the only practical fuel for curing flue cured tobacco.
And again the rise in demand for Malawian Flue Cured Tobacco as evidenced by the rise in prices at the auction floors has encouraged farmers to grow more of it.
This season government has set the minimum selling price for Flue Cured Tobacco at $2.20/kg (K316) while its counterpart, Burley, which is air cured is at a minimum of a $1.61/kg (K231).
Such good prices are not doing the country’s forests any justice. Farmers, most of whom do not have and woodlots of their own, continue to cut down trees wantonly in order to have fuel for curing their tobacco.
And most of the trees that are cut are from indigenous forests, never to be replaced.
Concerned with the alarming levels of deforestation, Alliance One, GTZ, ProBEC and Total Land Care teamed up to look at energy efficient ways of curing tobacco.
The answer to this problem was the rocket barn.

Hike Florida cigarette tax by $1 a pack

It’s time for our state to recommit to fighting tobacco use, especially among teens. The dangers of smoking and its toll on lives are not new, but 4,000 kids try their first cigarette every day. We must create ways to keep our young people from lighting up in the first place.
Raising the tax on cigarettes is a proven way to deter kids from starting, and gives current smokers another incentive to quit. Every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by about 7 percent and overall cigarette consumption by about 4 percent.
The District of Columbia and 43 states have raised their cigarettes tax rates more than 75 times since January 2002, more than doubling the national average cigarette tax from 43.4 cents to $1.07 per pack.
Our state is behind the times; Florida last raised its cigarette taxes in 1990. Florida ranks 46th in the nation, as our current taxes are just 34 cents per pack. Even Tennessee, a well-known tobacco-producing state, has introduced cigarette taxes nearly double those in our state.
Budget woes are grabbing headlines these days. Raising the tobacco tax by $1 per pack will raise $822 million annually — a simple solution to our state’s budget deficit and a highly effective way to reduce smoking. It seems like a reasonable solution to me.

Cigar bars, tobacco shops want to bring back smoking

A group of unlikely political activists wants to bring smoking back to some Washington businesses and clubs, more than two years after voters here overwhelmingly approved the nation's most-stringent statewide smoking ban.
A handful of tobacco-dependant and tobacco-friendly businesses recently began gathering signatures for a statewide initiative proposal that would allow smoking in private clubs, cigar bars and tobacco shops. To make the November ballot, they need to collect about 225,000 signatures by the end of June.
"The original initiative went too far," said the sponsor of the latest measure, Joe Arundel, an owner of Rain City cigarettes in Seattle's Georgetown neighborhood. "In other states, when they passed this type of legislation, they usually make exceptions for a few places."
"If this (exception) had been written into the original initiative ... it would have passed by literally the same margin," Arundel said. Voters "didn't want to be unintentionally exposed to secondhand smoke. And the initiative we've crafted here would not do that."
But some worry that it's the latest measure, Initiative 1016, that goes too far.
"It could really create a giant loophole in the law," said Carrie Nyssen, advocacy director for the American Lung Association of Washington. "The authors may have thought it was going to be narrow. But we're really afraid that the private club exemption could create some unintended consequences (that) bars could take advantage of."
Further, the exemptions would put employees of those establishments back at risk of breathing dangerous fumes, Nyssen said. "Our position is all workers deserve protection from secondhand smoke," she said.
Backers of the barely funded campaign behind Initiative 1016 acknowledged that qualifying for the ballot would be an uphill battle. Rarely do campaigns collect enough signatures to make the statewide ballot unless they can afford to hire signature gatherers -- and this one cannot.
"This is as grass roots as you get," Arundel said.
According to the initiative, in order to qualify as a cigar bar, the business' food sales must be incidental and it needs to generate at least $25,000 in annual sales of cigars. Backers have distributed petitions in smoke shops, clubs and former cigarettes bars such as Tini Bigs.
In 2005 state voters approved Initiative 901, which prohibits smoking in indoor public facilities and workplaces with no exceptions -- not even cigar lounges or private clubs. The measure also prohibits lighting up within 25 feet of doors, windows and vents of public places.

Smoking tortoise found in China

BEIJING — A tortoise that smokes and appears to be addicted to nicotine has been discovered in China's northeastern province of Jilin, state media reported on Thursday.
The animal is the pet of a man, identified by his surname Yun, who is himself a smoker, Xinhua news agency said, quoting a local newspaper.
One day, Yun teased the tortoise by putting cigarettes butt into its mouth, and to his surprise it started to smoke it, according to the news agency.
From then on, he shared his cigarettes with his pet, Xinhua said.
"It seems to have become addicted," Yun was quoted as saying.
"Whenever I smoke in front of it, it will stick its head out of the water and fidget about until I give it the stub."
Yun proved his claim by putting a cigarettes in the tortoise's mouth in front the paper's reporter and his neighbours, Xinhua quoted the newspaper as saying.
To everyone's surprise, the tortoise finished it in less than four minutes, the news agency said.
Monkeys have been know to smoke in imitation of human beings, the deputy secretary-general of Jilin's Wildlife Conservation Society told Xinhua.
But he said he had never heard of a tortoise lighting up.