BAT caught in illegal policy deal

By Our Reporter

The British American Tobacco (BAT) and the Kenya government are embroiled in a tussle over an insurance policy for farmers which the nation’s insurance regulator has declared illegal.
Following the introduction of farmer insurance last year, BAT is now offering its 5,000 contracted growers’ crop insurance against extreme weather conditions and pest outbreaks.
While farmers have lauded the move, the Tobacco Control Board has come out with guns blazing and declared the development an attempt to promote tobacco, which they say is against the law.
The policy developed by UAP Insurance in partnership with Chancery Wright has been introduced to farmers in Western Province, and is set to roll out to other regions.
The control board, however, say BAT and UAP have gone against the anti-tobacco legislation introduced in 2007 which bars the promotion of cigarettes.
"We will make sure that BAT and UAP Insurance do not get away with this because we have the law on our side," said Prof Peter Odhiambo, the Chairman of the board.
"We will deal firmly with companies that collude with cigarette manufacturers to break the law. Insuring tobacco farmers is another way of increasing the production of tobacco which is detrimental to public health. Farmers should consider alternative crops," said Odhiambo.
BAT says the board’s move has caused panic among its businesses partners who are asking whether the tobacco business is now illegal and risky.
"Our suppliers are worried and want clarification on what services tobacco manufacturers are allowed, if they cannot sell insurance to farmers," said Julie Adell-Owino, BAT’s Head of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs.
BAT says its farmers sign a binding code of conduct which restricts tobacco growing to one-quarter of the size of the farm while they must grow woodlots for fuel and environmental care.
"We provide the farmers with seedlings to grow trees, which is a condition for getting into a grower-supplier contract," Ms Adell-Owino, said, adding that the farmers are closely supervised by its field officers to ensure they do not employ child labour, that they take their children to school and grow food crops as well.
The possible action the state agency might take includes stopping the marketing of the insurance cover and taking the twin firms to court in what promises to be a protracted legal battle.
Anti-tobacco crusaders say the new insurance product marketed by BAT and UAP Insurance violates Section 24 of the Act which prohibits the promotion of tobacco products by means of testimonials or endorsements.
But Ms Adell-Owino charged: "The Tobacco Control Act does not dictate what crops anyone should grow neither does it dictate the parameters of business association or communication between industry players. It is, therefore, perfectly legitimate for us to engage our contracted farmers and continually work together for their welfare."
Already, about 1,000 farmers contracted by the multinationals have signed up for the product.
BAT says the cover is part of its corporate social responsibility seeking to protect contracted farmers who have incurred financial losses to the magnitude of Ksh150 million ($1.94 million) over the past three years as a result of natural calamities.
"Our contracted tobacco farmers are not compelled to take up the cover. If any party were forcing the hand of the tobacco farmers, then all 5,000 farmers would have had to take it up," said Ms Adell-Owino.
BAT says earnings by its contracted tobacco farmers have been on the increase, pointing to the benefits of the crop to farmers in Nyanza and Western regions.
In 2008, BAT paid its contracted farmers Ksh369 million ($4.79 million) while in 2009, it paid Ksh532 million ($6.9 million) and this year’s projection is pegged at Ksh660 million ($8.57 million).
The company is also among the country’s top tax payers. Last year it paid Ksh8 billion ($102.5 million) in taxes.

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NASS, pass the Tobacco Control Bill

I write, to call on the Senate Committee on health. led by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo Bello, and the leadership of the National Assembly, to move immediately to pass the National Tobacco Control Bill 2009, sponsored by Senator Olorunnibe Mamoora. The bill, which enjoyed the support of many senators is yet to be returned to the Senate Plenary after a public hearing was conducted in July 2009.

It is a fact that dangers are associated with smoking. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 5.4 million people die every year due to a tobacco-related diseases, with majority of these deaths happening in developing countries. Tobacco is the only consumer product that is guaranteed to kill half its consumers if used according to manufacturers intention. It contains more than 4,000 dangerous chemicals harmful to the body.

It is also a fact that stringent measures aimed at reducing smoking in Europe and America have driven the tobacco industry to developing countries like Nigeria, where the industry continues to flout regulations, marketing to young and impressionable youths, and hooking them on smoking.

Recent surveys suggested that more young people are becoming smokers every day, while a survey conducted in Lagos hospitals reveal that two persons die each day from a tobacco-related disease.

Governments all over the world are putting measures in place to combat the epidemic through enactment of bills, like the one Senator Mamoora is proposing.It will be to the credit of the National Assembly to expedite action on the bill and pass it before the expiration of this democratic dispensation.

Nigeria played a major part in shaping global health policies, especially in tobacco control. The world is watching and waiting. The National Assembly cannot afford to fail Nigerians.

Seun Akioye,
1, Balogun Street, Off Awolowo way,
Ikeja, Lagos.

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BAT gets new MD

Ms Beverley Spencer-Obatoyinbo has been appointed Managing Director of the British American Tobacco (BAT) West Africa.
She will be based at the BAT head office in Lagos.
Ms Spencer-Obatoyinbo joined the Rothmans Group in 1997 from the pharmaceutical industry and moved to BAT following a merger of the two companies in 1999.
She has since held various marketing and general management roles across Africa. These included Marketing Director, Nigeria, and for the last three years, the General Manager, Egypt.


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Blacks hit hardest by lung cancer

Blacks are hit the hardest when it comes to both developing and dying from lung cancer.
A new report from the American Lung Association paints a grim picture of how environmental factors, biological factors, cultural attitudes and biases in the health-care system conspire to make this deadly disease even deadlier among members of this minority group.
”Despite lower smoking rates, African-Americans are more likely to develop and die from lung cancer than whites. African-Americans are more likely to be diagnosed later when the cancer is more advanced. Also, African-Americans are more likely to wait longer after the diagnosis to receive treatment or perhaps to refuse treatment and to die in the hospital after surgery,” Dr. William J. Hicks, professor of clinical medicine at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute in Columbus, said during a Monday news conference.
Black men bear an even more disproportionate share of the burden, being 37 per cent more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer and 22 per cent more likely to die of the disease than white men.
Only 12 per cent of blacks will be alive five years after their lung cancer diagnosis, compared with 16 per cent of whites, the ALA report notes.
The report points to a number of factors that could explain the disparity, including differences in socioeconomic status, big business behavior and environmental exposure.
For instance, thanks to concerted marketing efforts by the tobacco industry, blacks have higher rates of smoking menthol cigarettes than other groups. Smokers of menthol cigarettes tend to have higher blood levels of cotinine, an indicator of how much nicotine a person is absorbing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to issue a report on the public health impact of menthol cigarettes in March of 2011.
Education and income levels also play a role. Not only do these factors impact lifestyle choices and access to health care, including health insurance, but they largely determine where blacks are likely to work and live.
According to one study, predominantly black neighborhoods have noticeably higher levels of air pollution than other communities. And a greater proportion of blacks work in the transportation industry, where they are exposed to diesel fumes, known to contribute to lung cancer risk.
Meanwhile, blacks are less likely to have a gene variant that is targeted by a widely used cancer drug.
The good news is that if individuals, regardless of race, receive equal treatment for lung cancer, their outcomes are likely to be similar.
However, as Hicks pointed out, ”the sad truth is that not all patients receive equal treatment and for those who do not, their health outcomes are poorer.”
Blacks are also less likely to be seen by experienced or credentialed doctors and hospitals, less likely to have their disease staged, less likely to have surgery and less likely to undergo chemotherapy.
These problems have to do with both patient and provider attitudes.
”We‘re looking not just at system failures but also at issues that are deeply rooted in the history, culture and beliefs of African-Americans,” Hicks said. ”This is not post-racial America. For people of color in the United States, race and discrimination are facts of everyday life, and clearly take a toll both mentally and with regard to one‘s physical health.”
There is, first of all, the legacy of the Tuskegee (syphilis) and other medical experiments of the past, in which blacks were exploited by the U.S. health-care establishment. That‘s made trust in the medical establishment an ongoing issue, the experts said.
And while doctors appear less likely to funnel black patients to the right kind of specialists, blacks are more likely to refuse gold-standard treatment even when it is offered and available, they added.
”This is not an issue that can be solved overnight,” said Chuck D. Connor, president and CEO of the American Lung Association. ”We‘ve made progress in reducing smoking rates and exposure to secondhand smoke, but there is still much work that needs to be done.”
Hicks said he hoped experts and community members could arrive at a new approach that will ”hopefully render this very preventable form of cancer to its state of 125 years ago, when it was a very rarely encountered medical issue, primarily before the advent of widespread cigarette smoking.”

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OSUN BANS SMOKING IN INSTITUTIONS

OSUN STATE government has outlawed smoking of tobacco in all its health institutions across the 3-0 local government areas and Modakeke-Ife Area office of the state.
A statement issued by the Permanent Secretary of the Hospital Management Board, Mr. Adunade Amoo, explained that that law banning smoking in public places in the states is being enforced in the state.
He also cautioned that no tobacco or tobacco products shall be displayed for sale in and around health facilities in the state, adding that there shall be no access to tobacco products within the 500 metres radius of such facilities.

By Gbenga Faturoti, Daily Independent Correspondent, Oshogbo.

Thursday, May 20, 2010 Page 19

Study shows cigarette butts can be useful

By SEMIU OKANLAWON

Scientists in China have discovered good uses for cigarette butts reducing what could be the destructive tendencies of smoking on the environment, writes SEMIU OKANLAWON

On a daily basis, how many butts of cigarette can you count as you go about the streets? Or if you are a smoker, how many of such butts do you contribute to the littering of the environment on a daily basis? And if you happen to fling such items into a river, do you know how much damage you cause the natural habitat of fishes? But rather than allow such negative effects of those items, scientists are saying that cigarette butts, as waste elements as they appear, have capacities for some good uses. Welcome to the laboratory of some Chinese scholars who have discovered the good uses to which cigarette butts can be put.
“Chemical extracts from cigarette butts – so toxic they kill fish – can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found,” reports Reuters.
In a paper said to have been published in the American Chemical Society’s bi-weekly journal, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they found nine chemicals “after immersing cigarette butts in water.”
In trying to detect the good uses of the chemicals, the scientists were reported to have applied the extracts to a type of steel used in oil pipes, called N80, finding out after the experiment that they protected the steel from rusting.
The scientists wrote in their report, “The metal surface can be protected and the iron atom’s further dissolution can be prevented.”
In their report, it was observed that the chemicals, including nicotine, appear to be responsible for the anti-corrosion effect.
The research, which was reportedly funded by China’s state oil firm, China National Petroleum Corporation, was led by Jun Zhao at Xi‘an Jiaotong University’s School of Energy and Power Engineering. Of course, the report readily becomes a source of interests to environmental campaigners in other parts of the world, Nigeria most especially.
Corrosion of steel pipes used by the oil industry costs oil producers millions of dollars annually to repair or replace.
Of course, in a country like Nigeria with the combined environmental problems of smoking and oil spillage in the oil-bearing communities in the Niger Delta, the study becomes very germane.
Interestingly, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria had been at the vanguard of the battles in the two areas. While the organisation, since its establishment, has been noted for its crusade against environmental degradation caused substantially by oil exploration activities in the Niger Delta, it has added to its body of campaigns, the battle to regulate smoking, especially in public places. Over the years, it has raised awareness on the dangers posed to human health by cigarette.
The group has worked with the World Health Organisation to promote its anti-smoking campaigns. Article 11 of WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control demands each party to the protocol to adopt and implement, within three years after entry into force of the FCTC for that party, adequate measures to ensure that tobacco product packaging and labelling carry large, rotating health warnings and do not promote tobacco products by false, misleading or deceptive means.
It also requires that tobacco product packaging and labelling contain information on relevant constituents and emissions of tobacco products as defined by national authorities.
Definitely, parts of the constituents in question are those the Chinese scientists have discovered to be of good use.
As part of ERA’s battle in Nigeria, The National Tobacco Control Bill was sponsored by Deputy Minority Leader, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora. The bill scaled the second reading in February 2009.
A public hearing on the bill was also held on July 20 and 21 last year by the Senate Committee on Health, chaired by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello.
On a global scale, the researchers estimated that 4.5 trillion cigarette butts find their way into the environment each year. “Apart from being an eyesore, they contain toxins that can kill fish,” they stated.
Kill fish? This then becomes more worrisome for those who had engaged in environmental campaigns for the Niger Delta. Oil exploration constitutes its major headache for the people of the area. At the moment, issue of compensation by oil majors for degradations caused by spills is a vexed one. And with the toxic nature of butts, there is the additional burden of coping with the smoking habits of Niger Deltans, who may have been unwittingly contributing to their woes by killing their fishing businesses through toxic substances. What the scientists are preaching is an encouragement of recycling, which, according to them, could bring an end to indiscriminate disposal of cigarette wastes.
“Recycling could solve those problems, but finding practical uses for cigarette butts has been difficult,” the researchers wrote.
China is said to have about 300 million smokers. Reportedly the world’s largest smoking nation consuming a third of the world’s cigarettes, nearly 60 per cent of men in China smoke, “puffing an average of 15 cigarettes per day.”
Even if the smoking population in Nigeria does not present that kind of threat to fishing, the discovery that substances cigarette butts contain can help a great deal in tackling corrosion is a welcome relief.
“It is ERA’s conviction that tobacco is harmful in all ramification – from planting where farmers are exposed to hazardous chemicals, and deforestation since wood will be cut down for tobacco leaf curing, to actual smoking by an individual or second-hand smoke by the unintended consumer.
“Most times, cigarette is discarded just anywhere by smokers and of course can find its way into open drains etc and ultimately in the lagoon or rivers where we get our artisanal fish. If the scientists confirmed the danger of fish consuming the stub, then it adds to the overall dangers posed by cigarettes.”
With the incessant pipeline bursts, leading to oil spillage in oil communities and consequently aggravating tension, the new discovery might interest oil majors in their efforts to curb pipeline damages which are caused not only by vandalisation by aggrieved militants, but also by corrosion due to long years of usage.
According to ERA’s Media Officer, Mr. Phillip Jakpor, a survey carried out by the Federal Ministry of Health in 1990-91 showed that 4.14 million (representing 10 per cent) Nigerians over the age of 15 years smoked and that 1.26 million were heavy smokers. Heavy smokers, by the ministry’s definition, are those who consume more than 10 cigarettes per day.
By the end of 2001 when the British American Tobacco entered the Nigerian market, the smoking rate for youths of the 13–15 age bracket had increased to 18.1 per cent.
“A more recent survey conducted in 2006 showed that 13 million out of Nigeria’s estimated 140 million people smoke cigarettes. That survey also revealed that smoking among the youth is on a 20 per cent annual increase,” Jakpor stated.
ERA has accused the Nigeria government of failing to follow up after signing the FCTC in 2004 and ratifying it in 2005.

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China scientists find use for cigarette butts

Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Chemical extracts from cigarette butts -- so toxic they kill fish -- can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found.

In a paper published in the American Chemical Society's bi-weekly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they identified nine chemicals after immersing cigarette butts in water.
They applied the extracts to N80, a type of steel used in oil pipes, and found that they protected the steel from rusting.
"The metal surface can be protected and the iron atom's further dissolution can be prevented," they wrote.
The chemicals, including nicotine, appear to be responsible for this anti-corrosion effect, they added.
The research was led by Jun Zhao at Xi'an Jiaotong University's School of Energy and Power Engineering and funded by China's state oil firm China National Petroleum Corporation.
Corrosion of steel pipes used by the oil industry costs oil producers millions of dollars annually to repair or replace.
According to the paper, 4.5 trillion cigarette butts find their way into the environment each year. Apart from being an eyesore, they contain toxins that can kill fish.
"Recycling could solve those problems, but finding practical uses for cigarette butts has been difficult," the researchers wrote.
China, which has 300 million smokers, is the world's largest smoking nation and it consumes a third of the world's cigarettes. Nearly 60 percent of men in China smoke, puffing an average of 15 cigarettes per day.

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