Cigarettes Taxes and Smoking Rates

In a surprise move last night, Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz signed an amendment to the excise and purchase tax order, which immediately raises taxes on cigarettes and beer. A 10% tax is also being imposed on stocks of cigarettes already held by businesses. The new taxes will earn the government extra annual revenues of between NIS 700 million and NIS 1 billion. Under the terms of the order, tax rates on cigarettes will rise from 260.6% to 278.6%. The expected influence of the tax will be to add NIS 2.4-2.9 per pack of cigarettes.

Pennsylvania Smoke-Free Parks

Pennsylvania is considering a ban on cigarette smoking at state parks. The plan is still on the drawing board. But officials say it’s a possibility after complaints from park goers about smoking and cigarette butts littering the landscape. After weeks of warm weather, the beach at Ricketts Glen State Park in Luzerne County has been a popular place and the remains of smoking park-goers are easy to find. There are cigarette butts on the beach. There are butts in the picnic areas. There are butts in many parts of the park. “They clean it and you can still see some around and it’s just not like, it doesn’t fit the environment, you know,” said Nicholas Kinney of Forty Fort. A state spokesperson said complaints about all the butts are the main reason a smoking ban is under consideration. Second hand smoke is a concern too.

Cigarette Sales Prohibited in Schools

Retail sale of cigarettes or “yosi by tingi” should not be allowed in schools, said an official of the Catholic Church. Father Conegundo Garganta, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines Episcopal Commission on Youth (CBCP-ECY), said the ban on cigarette sale, especially its retail sale, should have been implemented a long time ago in schools for it exposes and encourages the youth to smoke. “This should have been done long ago. This should have been included in banning around schools practices and vices that exposes the youth to vulnerability,” Garganta said. Garganta said since cigarette sticks only cost around R2.50 each, any student can very well afford to buy it.

Tobacco Companies are Ceducing Women

Women and girls are lured into the habit by ‘superslim’ branding. The Irish Cancer Society held a conference in Dublin yesterday and told how one in three Irish women are believed to be smokers. They said females are key targets in an industry that needs to recruit new smokers to replace those killed by fags. Tobacco companies have developed brands to appeal specifically to ladies. Superslim cigarettes have been a key product — and packaging using light, feminine colors and names seen to be less harmful and more attractive. Kathleen O’Meara of the ICS said: “Big tobacco firms are misleading women with products which link smoking to femininity and sophistication. “We’re warning women and young girls that the tobacco industry is manipulating them into an addiction that kills one in two smokers. “We are now facing a lung cancer crisis.” More women are now dying in Ireland from lung cancer than from breast cancer. The disease killed 702 women in 2010 compared to 634 from breast cancer.