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BRUSSELS- The European Commission on Wednesday proposed the increase of minimum taxation on tobacco products in the European Union, aimed at narrowing the gap existing in the prices of cigarettes in the member-states, but also the reduction of cigarette consumption by 10% over the next five years. In Greece, the price of cigarettes must gradually increase by at least 21.2% by 2014. The Commission proposes that by 2014, minimum taxation on cigarettes must increase from 57% which is valid at present, to 63%. At the same time it proposes an increase in the minimum tax from 64 euros per 1,000 cigarettes which is valid at present, to 90 euros per 1,000 cigarettes by 2014.

The ban on indoor tobacco smoking in Holland affects the country’s coffee shops where patrons have been smoking marijuana with relative freedom since the mid 1970s. Following the ban, patrons of these bars cannot smoke marijuana mixed with tobacco; they can only smoke pure unadulterated marijuana.

The nation’s 720 coffee shops sell drinks, food, rolling paper and - more important to their patrons - pre-rolled marijuana joints at about 3.50 Euros each as well as hashish for as much as 18 Euros a gram. The law permits stocks of up to 500 grams on the premises, while individuals found with less than 5 grams are not prosecuted.

The Dutch have to tolerate some cynicism and possible bemusement from people around the world who are scratching their heads to figure out what seems to be one ingredient missing elsewhere that flourishes in Dutch society. In most countries the possession of a grain of marijuana will send someone to jail. The Dutch policy on marijuana is twofold.

First, drug use, including the use of marijuana is a health matter, not a justification for convicting a fellow citizen. You don’t send an alcoholic to jail; at the very least, you introduce him to Alcoholics Anonymous or help him to overcome the addiction in some other manner.

The second aspect of this policy distinguishes soft drugs and hard drugs. Marijuana is categorised as a soft drug and little law enforcement energy is directed against it.

In addition, most Dutch policymakers seem to be convinced that the problem of drug use has proved unsolvable, and therefore the best approach is to attempt to control it rather than throw resources into measures that have produced mixed results.

In other words, if you can’t beat them, tolerate them. The interesting fact is the policies seem to be working. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Holland ranks in the middle, lower than the United States, France, and England.

This partly explains the existence of the coffee shops in the Netherlands, where although, technically, cannabis is an illegal substance the authorities choose what is called a pragmatic drug policy that concentrates on control of hard drugs such as heroin.

But whatever the motives driving Dutch policy on drug use, it still seems odd that someone in Holland can get into more trouble smoking tobacco than marijuana.

In defending the decision to ban smoking in public places Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said, “It would have been wrong to move towards a smoke-free catering industry and then make an exception for coffee shops. People would not have understood that."

The Dutch would not have understood that, but the rest of the world is desperately trying to make sense of a country that is a signatory to the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances which requires states to criminalize drug possession, and yet in 2001 allowed the sale of cannabis worth $US1.86 billion.

Legal experts say there are enough loopholes in various conventions against illegal drugs to allow countries such as Holland some creativity in how it deals with drug possession. The conventions state that possession of drugs should be an offence under domestic criminal law. However, the conventions do not say that the law has to be enforced.

It would appear that prevailing Dutch policies, set by past and the current dministration,were geared at catering to the various needs of its citizens: in one instance allowing use of soft drugs to those who are addicted, and in another protecting the health of those who may be affected by passive tobacco smoke by imposing the smoking ban although the ban was also complying to EU regulations.

But there is fear that the current government is trying to reverse the existing relaxed attitude on drugs; when coffee shops close the government has not renewed licences.

On the other hand, the country is the second largest spender on anti-drug related programmes, after Sweden, in the European Union apportioning 75 percent of funds to law enforcement including police,army, and customs and finance guards.

If our parliament should pass legislation banning beer drinking effective today and yet continue to licence Tanzanians to operate bars, it would create considerable confusion among many except perhaps to the drinkers, the brewers, and the bar owners. I suspect similar sentiments are felt in Holland.

RICHMOND, Virginia: Philip Morris USA, the No. 1 U.S. tobacco company, said Monday it has ended test markets of Marlboro-branded cigarettes that use a high-technology filter.

The operating company of Altria Group Inc. said it pulled the plug on Marlboro Ultra Smooth and Marlboro Ultra Light cigarettes, which used an activated carbon filter to deliver nicotine with potentially less exposure to carcinogens than in conventional cigarettes.

Philip Morris said it stopped making new shipments of Marlboro Ultra Smooth to wholesalers on April 1. Those cigarettes were being tested in Atlanta, Tampa (Florida), and Salt Lake City for more than three years. Marlboro Ultra Lights in Phoenix and North Dakota, and Basic Ultra Lights in Washington state also were discontinued, the company said.

"We did see lower consumer acceptance of those products in some of the test markets," said spokesman Bill Phelps. "These are test markets and they’re designed to help us learn a lot of things. In the case of Ultra Smooth, it was designed to help us understand consumer acceptance of those particular products’ taste and flavor."

Phelps said the company had made no claims that the products reduced health risks.

Shares of Altria rose 18 cents to $20.96 in midday trading.

Philip Morris saw a 4.6 percent decline in cigarette sales volume last year, but said that is estimated to be down 3.6 percent when adjusted for calendar differences and other factors. The industrywide decline is estimated at 4 percent in the United States.

The company has projected that cigarette sales volume will fall between 2.5 percent to 3 percent in the U.S. over the next few years because of concerns about health, smoking bans and price increases.

In turn, Philip Morris is looking to growing its business in other tobacco categories and reduced-risk products, Phelps said.

"We remain committed to our overall objective of reducing the harm caused by cigarette smoking," Phelps said. "That work will continue both for conventional lit-end cigarettes as well as what we would describe as noncombustible tobacco products."

Last year, the company began testing of its Marlboro-branded moist smokeless tobacco product — cut tobacco placed in the mouth — in Atlanta and recently expanded to counties in the surrounding metropolitan area. It also began testing a moist powdered tobacco called Marlboro Snus in Dallas last year, and also has expanded the test to Indianapolis.

As part of the ongoing progress towards the establishment of the Ma’an Development Area (MDA), the Ma’an Development Company (MDC), a subsidiary of the South Company for Construction and Development (SCCD), reached an agreement with Taj Company For Manufacturing Tobacco and Cigarettes for the lease of land and production space in MDA.

As a result of the agreement, Taj Tobacco and Cigarettes Company will establish a factory to manufacture tobacco and cigarettes in the ‘Industrial Park’ of the Ma’an Development Area.

The Tobacco and Cigarettes factory is expected to contribute to the job market in Ma’an by creating 150 job opportunities, once operational in 2009. The factory will be set up to accommodate a production capacity of up to 100 tons per month.

The agreement is one of the many steps being initiated by SCCD to attract investments and stimulate economic and social developments in the South of Jordan, through the mounting of projects that can provide job opportunities, and increase economic and social prosperity in the southern regions of the Kingdom.

Awni Motee’ commented during the signing: ‘We are pleased to institute this partnership, which will enhance the capacity building of workers in the Ma’an area while contributing to secure job opportunities and support the goals for the development of this vital region.’ He added: ‘We look forward to additional investments in the near future within Ma’an Development Area’s Industrial Park which we strongly believe will serve as a regional hub for industrial investments.’

Additionally, Mr. Motee’, who is also Chairman of the Health Aid Society that sponsors around 25 thousand patients through 14 health clinics in the Kingdom, announced his plan to establish health clinics in the Area of Ma’an which would treat ill patients free of charge.

Consisting of four complementary clusters including a residential community, an industrial zone, a Hajj city, and a vocational training center, the Ma’an Development Area (MDA) is set to become a regional hub for industrial activity and a centre of excellence for vocational training, as well as a religious landmark for pilgrims on their way to the Holy cities, offering them the ideal environment for their rest, relaxation and prayer.

MDA will also be home to a thriving and self-sustained city providing its residents and visitors with a quality living and working environment to fulfill their potential.

The specifics on Christensen’s proposal are not yet clear, but it is clear that the tobacco industry plans to fight it. Tobacco company lobbyists are already fighting against the regulation, said Christensen. She said the only company in favor of the menthol ban is Phillip Morris. But Lorillard, the cigarettes company that produces Newport cigarettes, is mounting what the Times called a "counteroffensive," sending out an email message to customers recently urging them to call their Congressional representatives.
"Urgent! Urgent!…Congress wants to make it illegal to smoke Newports and other menthol cigarettes. Call your member of Congress now and tell them to oppose any amendment to ban menthol cigarettes," the email said. Newport is the number one selling menthol cigarette in the U.S.
Located in Greensboro, North Carolina, Lorillard is the nation’s oldest and third largest tobacco company. It was started in 1760 by Pierre Lorillard and now manufactures a wide range of brands, including Kent, True, Old Gold, Maverick, Satin and Max.
Television ads from decades ago depict menthol cigarettes as harmless additives that enhanced the flavor of cigarettes. "Newport is smoother," according to the jingle of one popular television commercial (shown below), "than any other menthol cigarette." All the people depicted in the ads are, of course, white.
But as times changed, Newport’s demographics seem to have changed too, and now African Americans are among the biggest consumers of the menthol cigarettes sold by the company that produces Newport. Blacks have also been the target of the industry’s advertising efforts, as seen by the two print ads in this article.
Perhaps as a result of the marketing efforts, Newport cigarettes have become popular in the black community. Just walk down 125th Street in Harlem or some other black inner city neighborhoods, and you might hear a familiar refrain: "Newport, Newport!" That’s the call of unlicensed cigarette dealers selling the cigarettes by the pack. With the cost of Newports at $8 in New York City, sometimes the cigarettes are even sold individually as "loosies" on the black market.
The combination of high cigarette prices and high demand have also fueled the black market. In Kansas City over the weekend, a robber broke into a convenience store and stole thousands of dollars of cigarettes, mostly Marlboros and Newports. In another incident a few weeks ago, a robber broke into a store and stole Newport and Kool cigarettes. And in Florida last month, a gas station was robbed and a thief again stole Newport cigarettes.
The debate over menthol cigarettes, like the debate over malt liquor — a beer with a high alcohol content — has been going on for years. Both are popular in the African American community, and many health advocates are concerned about the racial health disparities that may be caused by the use of these controversial products.

Yesterday’s gasp is tomorrow’s ho-hum and things move continually in and out of style — acceptance too.

Take the young in their swanky watering holes, downing quarts of the hard liquor the rest of us took a lifetime to kick, convinced at last it was bad for us.

Ot the magazine ad for St. Germaine’s Delice Du Sureau, a liquor billed as "the new absinthe." It shows a sepia-tinted 1890s photo of two young women faced away from the camera in filmy garments that would be decent in an ancient Rome kind of way, but for the two absolute peep-show windows in the back, exposing the twin peaches of their bare bottoms. Also, each girl has an arm draped around the other’s waist in such a way that her fingers ever so lightly dent the tender flesh of her friend’s derrière.

Now I’m a member of the generation that threw away its own undergarments, donned body paint and kicked over every sacred cow it could find, but this picture shocked me to my Reeboks - though I frankly thought I COULDN’T be shocked anymore with the way the young dress today, the girls in tops the size of potholders, the girls and guys alike in beltlines worn so low the bones flanking their bellies jut like tiny Mount Rushmores.

You can see this picture for yourself, either by getting the June issue of Vanity Fair or by following the link to my blog Exit Only, directions below, but let’s get back to the way trends change - so much that you come to wonder if there’s ANYTHING once banished that isn’t later welcomed back and celebrated.

This Delice Du Sureau likens itself to absinthe, a commodity that perfectly illustrates this principle: In the past everyone loved it. Then it was banned. Everyone loved it over here. Then it was banned over there.

A powerful brew made of wormwood, anise and fennel, it was THE drink of choice among all kinds of 19th century "artistes." I’m talkin’ about fun-lovin’ guys like Charlie-the-Chuckles Baudelaire. Crazy Vinny Van-Gogh-Gogh. Polly-Wolly-Doodle Verlaine. And of course my own personal hero, Oscar the Wilde Man, that rock-star of an author who took America by storm when he came here in the 1880s in his ankle-length greatcoat with the green fur trim.

Oscar himself said absinthe made him feel as though tulips were sprouting from his lips. Others claimed it gave them a "lucid drunk."

But many others lined up against it, like several giants of 19th century art who depicted its evil effects: See Degas’s "The Absinthe Drinker" in which a hatted lady in a bar sits staring stupidly at nothing. See Maignan’s "Green Muse," in which a cruelly grinning fairy in lime chiffon squeezes the temples of a tortured-looking poet.

One outraged citizen wrote that it makes "a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant." (Wait, the infant?!) And one of Emile Zola’s novels has reports of an absinthe drinker who stripped himself naked in the street and died doing the polka.

But surely there are worse ways to die. I know I fell down doing the polka at Charlie Potzka’s girl’s wedding and Charlie fell too and the two of us were having a wonderful time.

Anyway, now tolerance for the stuff is "in" and absinthe must be back on the OK Today list because you can buy it again in the States, and also your Delice Du Sureau and even your shocking pictures too.

God knows what’s next. Maybe the revelation that that — wo, hey! — tobacco’s actually GOOD for you!

Yesterday a Chinese couple walked free from charges of possessing uncustomed goods. On November 18, 2007, Jianneng Mai and Bijin Zhong, were busted with $63,000 of un-customed goods – including Winston cigarettes, Wall Street cigarettes and Benson and Hedges cigarettes in a building at 89 Vernon Street. They were charged with recklessly acquiring possession of uncustomed goods but yesterday Revenue Magistrate Ed Usher threw out the charges because the warrant wasn’t signed by a Supreme Court judge or a Magistrate.

But more importantly it wasn’t read properly. It was Mai who read it to her common law husband. He doesn’t speak English well so she translated it for him. But according to the law, the Customs Department should have found a third party who spoke Chinese to translate it and read it to Zhong. The reason is that Mai – was a defendant – and a defendant cannot read a warrant to a co-defendant.

Despite the technicality though, the couple had maintained the goods weren’t theirs. If convicted, the couple would have been charged 3 times the value of the uncustomed goods – that’s roughly $189,000.

The government has approved legislation meant to shock smokers into stubbing their bad habit by placing graphic pictures of the dangers of smoking on cigarette packs.

This week the health portfolio committee approved the Tobacco Amendments Bill, tabled in parliament earlier this year to close the loopholes in the current anti-tobacco laws.

The bill, which is still to go to the National Assembly for a vote and possible debate, also raises the legal smoking age from 16 to 18.

In addition to warning messages already printed on cigarette packs, tobacco companies will now be forced to carry pictures of diseased lungs, gums and other hard-hitting images that might provoke smokers into quitting.

Angela Haygood lives and works in Chattanooga, but after Tennessee raised its tax on cigarettes, she regularly goes to Georgia to buy them.

“I usually buy a carton of cigarettes every couple of weeks, and buying them in Georgia has been saving me more than $3 for every trip,” the St. Elmo resident said while taking a smoke break from her job at Unum Corp. in Chattanooga. “That more than pays for the gas it takes to drive across the border. People I know who smoke in Nashville are driving all the way to Kentucky to buy cigarettes.”

When the Tennessee Legislature voted a year ago to more than triple the state’s tax on cigarettes from 20 cents to 62 cents a pack, the Volunteer State elevated its tobacco tax above all eight of its neighboring states. Tennessee’s higher general sales-tax rate and extra 25-cents-per-pack cigarette tax over neighboring Georgia is encouraging many Chattanooga smokers to head south of the border to feed their nicotine habit.

Proponents of the higher tobacco tax implemented last July insist it is helping limit health-damaging smoking, especially among price-sensitive teens, while also providing extra money to fund the state’s Basic Education Program. Combined with new limits that started last October on indoor smoking in most public places and a $10 million state campaign this year to help smokers quit, Tennessee quickly has emerged as a leading state trying to combat tobacco consumption while also being one of the top cigarette consumption states in the nation.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, nearly one of every four Tennesseans still regularly use some type of tobacco product — the fifth highest rate of any state in the United States.

“We call it the “Tennessee trifecta,’” said Pete Fisher, vice president for state issues for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an anti-smoking advocacy group in Washington, D.C. “For a tobacco-growing state that still has one of the highest smoking rates in the country, the increase in cigarette taxes, smoking restrictions and anti-smoking education coming in the same year is truly historic.”

But critics suggest the higher tax on cigarettes in Tennessee also may be driving more smokers out of the state to buy cigarettes, leaving the state with less-than-expected revenues.

“States all over the country have raised cigarette taxes in the past couple of years and, in virtually every instance, the projected revenue comes out being less than what was forecast,” said Steve Stanek, a research fellow for The Heartland Institute and managing editor of its monthly “Budget & Tax News” publication. “State tax collectors hope people would keep smoking even as health officials hope people stop smoking. Higher cigarette taxes are bad for a host of reasons beyond the absurdity of government relying on smoking even as it tries to stamp out smoking.”

Numbers compiled by the state show cigarette sales in decline at Oneida Indian Nation stores and other Native American shops.

However, these numbers may not tell the whole picture about these locations that do not collect state taxes on tobacco products. Indian tribes do not collect state levies on the grounds that they are sovereign nations.

The Oneidas bought nearly 2.6 million cartons of cigarettes last year from state licensed agents, down from nearly 2.8 million in 2006, according to figures supplied by the state Department of Taxation and Finance. The drop amounts to approximately 7 percent.

The 2005 level was 2.1 million cartons.

Under the new state tax of $2.75 for each pack, the Oneidas’ reported cigarette purchases for last year would represent about $71.3 million in state revenue losses.

Department spokesman Tom Bergin cautions that actual cigarette sales could be higher because his department’s numbers do not include any sales to Indians by vendors not required to report such transactions to the state.

Statewide, the number of cigarette cartons sold to tribes dropped from 36 million in 2006 to 30.4 million last year, a decrease of approximately 18 percent, according to the state data.

The Seneca Indian Nation in Western New York fell from 17.8 million cartons in 2006 to 12.2 million last year. The Senecas sell the most cigarettes of the eight nations.

PENNSYLVANIA — New York smokers are buying lots of cigarettes in Pennsylvania.

"I actually make trips down here once a week or so," said Savona resident Tim Soporowski.

"I always buy my cigarettes in Pennsylvania. Simply because it is a little cheaper," said Big Flats resident Dave Kenyon.

Now it’s a lot cheaper, since a new tax raised the price of a pack in New York by $1.25 to some $5, $6 and even $7 a pack.

"It’s crazy," Soporowski said.

"We don’t like it," said Phyllis Gurnsey, a Campbell resident.

"Taxes on gas and cigarettes are already to the point where they’re really affecting the economy. It’s too much," Kenyon said.

Cigarettes typically are cheaper in Pennsylvania than in New York. But the new additional tax has more people leaving stores in New York and going into ones in Pennsylvania.

"I am buying mine strictly in Pennsylvania because New York’s prices are outrageous," Elkland resident Holly Allen said.

New York State health officials expect the tax will get some smokers to quit. People on the border have other plans.

"Everything is going to kill you someday or another. The air can kill you. People do what they want to do," Soporowski said.

One smoker says the tax actually may deter him from lighting up.

"No, it’ll probably force me to quit," said Elmira resident Charles White.

White said the drive to Pennsylvania saps the savings.

"It’s not worth it with the gas and all. It’ll be inefficient," White said.

Others disagree.

"We enjoy the ride down to Pennsylvania. It’s nice down here," Gurnsey said.

A
nd at least for now, it’s cheaper, too.

One gas station owner in Pennsylvania says more customers have been coming in over the past couple of days. A New York gas station owner says business is down and he expects it’ll stay that way.

According to the World Health Organization, Russia has the largest number of smokers after China, India and Indonesia.
Russia has the largest number of male smokers in the world (70.2 percent). This is actually the limit, since others will not start smoking because of their education, principles, state of health and other reasons. That said, tobacco producers have found new customers in Russia – women and children. The nation has already witnessed an increasing number of smoking women: from 15.5 percent in 2001 to 23.2 percent in 2007. The new target audience for light Davidoff cigarettes is women aged between 14 and 40.
Unfortunately, under the influence of advertising most Russians think that light cigarettes are less harmful. The Levada Center public opinion poll showed that 24.4 percent of respondents consider that light cigarettes cause less damage to health than ordinary cigarettes. Moreover, this illusion is much more popular among smokers – 34 percent of smokers agree with this statement.
“However, the usage of such terms as “light cigarettes” or “cigarettes with low tar content” and other deluding statements is banned in 46 countries,” said Dmitry Yanin, the Chairman of the Board of the International Consumer Society of Russia. Among these countries are EU nations, China, India, Iran, Turkey, Thailand, Israel, Canada, Australia, Norway, Switzerland, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru, Uruguay, Chili and Panama. Armenia and Ukraine have also introduced the ban on the usage of the term “light”.
International scientific data showed that light cigarettes are not less harmful than other types and they are as addictive as ordinary cigarettes. In 2001 the US National Cancer Institute published the analysis of in-house documents of producers which showed that tobacco producers hide the truth about light cigarettes.
The level of tar and nicotine is measured with the help of “smoking devices”. Light cigarettes are not less harmful, for the apparatuses used to measure the level of tar and nicotine give wrong readings. In light cigarettes filter paper has small vent holes. When inhaling air is tested with a device, the air gets through these holes and triggers smoke formation.
But people smoke cigarettes in another way, differently from that used with smoking devices. A smoker pressures vent holes with fingers or lips during smoking.
Thus, the measurements taken by the above-mentioned devices show a lower level of tar and nicotine and the level of tar, nicotine and carbon oxide measure by ISO/FTC methods and indicated on cigarette packs are unreliable. This is the conclusion made by the WHO Scientific Consulting Committee on Smoking Production Regulation and the Canadian Ministry Consulting Council on Tobacco Control.
Addiction to nicotine is another argument against light and low tar cigarettes. Smokers become addicted to nicotine. The depth and frequency of inhalations changes to make up the lack of nicotine caused by the smoke rarefaction. To satisfy this addiction smokers take more light cigarettes every day, and inhale deeper and more often than they do when smoking ordinary cigarettes. The smoke from one light or low tar cigarette inhaled by a man or a woman may contain two or three times more tar and nicotine in comparison with the smoke inhaled by “the smoking device”. The same attitude is taken by Russian scientists of oncology.
The Federal Service for Consumer Rights Protection currently works on a legal opportunity to ban the use of such terms as “light”, “super light”, “ultra light”, “mild flavour and delicate odour”, because the usage of unreliable information violates the law on protection of consumer rights.

I never thought there’d come a time when lighting up a cigarettes would mean looking for an outlet rather than a lighter. Electronic cigarettes aren’t anything new though–remember Crown7’s battery-operated cigarettes? The Gamucci Micro Electronic Cigarette basically works the way as the Crown7 cigarettes do. To provide an even closer semblance to reality, Gamucci looks the same as ordinary cigarettes–the tip lights up too. Inside the stick is a chamber housing the cartridge which contains liquid, part of which is nicotine. When you take a drag at the e-cigarette, an atomizing chamber vaporizes the liquid to give users that "nicotine hit."
Gamucci claims that nicotine is the only ingredient, so you get to enjoy smoking sans the carcinogens. You can also supposedly use it in non-smoking areas as it does not have fire and only produces vapor, not smoke and hence, is not a cigarette. The electronic cigarettes is powered with a 3.7 volt battery, a single charge of which could last the whole day. The cartridges loaded into the electronic cigarettes could be "low" with only 6mg of nicotine, "medium" with 11mg, or "high" with 16mg. You can pick a package of the Gamucci Micro Electronic Cigarette up in I Want One of Those for $89.91 which includes two sticks, 5 "high" cartridges, and the charger, of course. You can also pick up a pack of 5 cartridges from the Gamucci web site for $14. A single cartridge, by the way, is equivalent to 20 normal cigarettes. Oh, and if you’re interested in puffing flavored smoke, Gamucci is also planning to release electronic cigarettes in Apple, Chocolate, Cherry, Mint, and Coffee variations.

Everyone has known for decades that that smoking can kill, but until now no one really understood how cigarette smoke causes healthy lung cells to become cancerous. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, show that hydrogen peroxide in cigarette smoke is the culprit. This finding may help the tobacco industry develop "safer" Marlboro cigarettes by eliminating such substances in the smoke, while giving medical researchers a new avenue to developing lung cancer treatments.
"With the five-year survival rate for people with lung cancer at a dismally low 15.5 percent, we hope this study will provide better insight into the identification of new therapeutic targets," said Tzipora Goldkorn, senior author of the report.
In the research study, Goldkorn and colleagues describe how they exposed different sets of human lung airway cells (in the laboratory) to Marlboro cigarettes smoke and hydrogen peroxide. After exposure, these cells were then incubated for one to two days. Then they, along with unexposed airway cells, were assessed for signs of cancer development. The cells exposed to cigarettes smoke and the cells exposed to hydrogen peroxide showed the same molecular signatures of cancer development, while the unexposed cells did not.

The high tobacco tax of Ush26 (US$0.012) per stick continues to press more people into the dangerous but lucrative trade of selling un-customed cigarettes that bring in bigger profits, according to analysts.
On the backdrop of mounting pressure to improve revenue collections among others, Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) although continues to play ‘cat and mouse’ with the often cunning smugglers, has also scored to the delight of complaint businessmen.
The latest show of strength by URA was the April 18 incineration of over 19 million Marlboro cigarettes valued at about Ush423 million ($251,785) at the Bank of Uganda incinerator outside Jinja town in Eastern Uganda. Smuggled cigarettes in the 2005/06 financial year caused a loss of over Ush8 billion ($4.8 million) to the state in unpaid taxes. Polythene bags, electrical appliances and fuel are the other smuggled items.
Thousands of cartoons of Marlboro cigarettes valued at billions of Uganda shillings from Kenya and DR Congo bearing fake Ugandan tax stamps and serial numbers have in the past been incinerated at the central bank facility. Of the Supermatch brand, the cigarettes manufactured by Mastermind Kenya and destined for Sudan and Somalia based on tax stamps embedded on the packets, found their way into Uganda.
Without providing names, Mr. Enoch Walugembe, URA’s assistant commissioner for enforcement told East African Business Week in Jinja that some very influential people were involved in the smuggling where government would have lost Ush511.42million ($304,416) in revenue had URA acted.
Although the incinerated cigarettes originated from Kenya, a finger has been pointed at the DR Congo as a source of uncustomed Supermatch. Ironically, supermatch is also manufactured by Leaf Tobacco Uganda Limited (LTC) and CTC Congo, sister companies to Mastermind Kenya. The other problematic cigarette brands include SM from Rwanda and Pakistan’s Boss.
In a peculiar incident in the past, officials from LTC were questioned, without any success over the continued smuggling of super match cigarettes into the country after consignments with the signage, "Made in Uganda by LTC" were intercepted.
Of recent, the taxman’s fingers seem to have stopped pointing at DR Congo following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with URA in January this year to check laxity exhibited in monitoring movement of cargo across the two borders. Unlike before, DR Congo now insists that cigarettes manufactured in the country have local tax stamps just like the EAC countries demand.
"There is a drop in transit consignments from Kenya to DR Congo," Walugembe said. While the tax on cigarettes in the region is 120% of the invoice value, Sudan levies a tax of 10% of the invoice value. Investigations by URA enforcement have showed that the Kenyan made Supermatch is transported to Sudan where taxes (10% of invoice value) are paid before being offloaded and brought into neighbouring Uganda.
Much as the supermatch problem has continued to taunt URA, British American Tobacco Uganda (BATU), the second local manufacturer is most frustrated over the increasing arrivals of smuggled cigarettes into the country. Although BATU paid Ush40 billion ($23.81 million) in taxes in 2005, it a year later announced a structural shift from manufacturing cigarettes in Uganda, leaving LTC as sole manufacturer in a sector that generated over Ush79billion ($47.02 million) in exchange earnings in 2005.

Smoking bans appear to have little impact on the number of smokers according to a survey by the Federal Health Office. Despite moves by the federal and cantonal authorities to outlaw smoking in public buildings and restaurants nearly three out of ten respondents said they smoked.
The number of smokers remained unchanged compared with 2006, with 33 per cent of men and 24 per cent of women saying they were cigarettes consumers.
However, the number of those wanting to kick the habit rose marginally to 54 per cent.
The survey – funded by a tobacco prevention fund and published on Monday - is based on 2,500 interviews. In a related move, the health authorities have launched a new series of anti-smoking posters and adverts.
Officials said the aim was to encourage discount cigarettesconsumers to reduce health hazards.
About 1,900 companies have pledged to provide smoke-free work places for a total of 200,000 employees as part of a campaign that started in 2006.

PRAGUE - Philip Morris CR (PMCR) saw its Czech market share fall 4.7 percentage points year-on-year to 57.9 percent in 2007 and expects a shift toward cheaper brands once the government’s excise tax hike from January is reflected fully in prices, the Czech tobacco group said in its annual report.

The company also said high year-end 2007 stocks of cigarettes at old excise rates will negatively impact the company’s 2008 shipments in the Czech Republic, confirming many analysts assumptions.

‘Given the magnitude of the Jan. 1, 2008, excise tax increase, once reflected in the selling price, we may witness a contraction of the Czech duty paid cigarette market with a continued and even accelerated consumer shift to lower priced products,’ PMCR said in its annual report released on its website.

PMCR earned 1.97 billion crowns in consolidated net profit last year, up 3.3 percent, on a 3.4 percent rise in revenues to 10.4 billion crowns on the back of higher shipments in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

‘Assuming that there will not be another excise tax increase in 2009 that could trigger an inventory build-up in 2008, our shipments in 2008 will be negatively impacted by the high 2007 year-end stocks of product at old excise tax rates,’ PMCR said.

The tobacco group’s Czech market share has eroded in recent years amid fiercer competition and tax hikes on cigarettes, and analysts expect the company to face challenges in 2008 due to strong stockpiling from competitors.

Altria Group Inc., which spun off its overseas unit last month, said first-quarter profit fell less than analysts estimated on demand for Marlboro cigarettes and cigars.
Net income declined 11 percent to $2.45 billion, or $1.16 a share, because of costs related to the spinoff and the closing of its New York headquarters. Excluding those items, profit of 37 cents exceeded the average analyst estimate by 1 cent.
Altria affirmed its previous profit forecast for the year of $1.63 to $1.67 a share. That’s an increase of as much as 11 percent from 2007 profit of $1.50.
Spinning off its international division sent two-thirds of profit overseas, leaving Altria dependent on the shrinking U.S. cigarettes market. It raised prices in the quarter to mute shipments that fell 1.2 percent while increasing top-selling Marlboro’s share of U.S. smokers to 41.5 percent. Last year’s acquisition of John Middleton Inc., the maker of Black & Mild cigars, lifted revenue by $91 million.
“Marlboro is the dominant brand of tobacco, giving Altria pricing power that nobody else has,'’ said Brian Barish, who oversees $8 billion including 4.5 million Altria shares as president of Cambiar Investors in Denver.
Separately today, Altria said in a securities filing former Chief Executive Officer Louis Camilleri received compensation in 2007 valued by the company at $24 million. He took charge of Philip Morris International Inc., the overseas unit, after last month’s spinoff.
Extending Brand
Altria rose 23 cents, or 1 percent, to $22.53 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has advanced 1.5 percent since March 31, the first day it traded after spinning off its overseas division. A year earlier, net income was $2.75 billion, or $1.30 a share. Revenue advanced 2.8 percent to $4.41 billion, the Richmond, Virginia-based company said today in a statement.
Michael Szymanczyk, who took over Altria after running its U.S. tobacco unit, is trying to boost Marlboro’s share of U.S. smokers with new varieties such as Marlboro Virginia Blend and Marlboro Smooth, a menthol cigarette introduced last year. He’s also extending the brand into snuff. “Altria will need to continue its innovation efforts through line extensions and promotional activity around Marlboro,'’ Erik Bloomquist, a J.P. Morgan Securities Ltd. analyst in London, wrote in an April 16 report to clients. He rates the stock as “neutral.'’

Council members suspended discussions yesterday over an anti-smoking law, saying it was too confusing. Councillors were lost in speculations as they discussed the law, which is a combination of a new parliamentary proposal and an original draft proposed by the Health Ministry 14 years ago. It was presented to the council then, but was left in the file until the parliament reactivated it.
Council members initially approved the proposal two weeks ago, but last week decided to refer it back to the services committee for complete re-working.
Some objected to part of the draft, which stipulated that adults who smoke in cars with children aboard be prosecuted, saying it was not workable. Others said prosecuting people who smoke in malls and other closed areas would be even tougher, as courts demand that offenders be caught red-handed.
Health Ministry Assistant Under-Secretary for Primary Health Care and Public Health Dr Mariam Al Jalahma warned councillors that the law did not take into consideration any future advancements in the tobacco field, such as e-cigarettes, the sale of which has been restricted in some countries. These are gaining popularity amongst the young people of the Gulf and the law should be amended to deal with them, she said.
Councillors were also upset with the punishments directed towards major outlets that violated the law, saying that they were too light. Under the proposed law, traders who sell tobacco to children under 14 years could face up to six months in jail. Places which fail to properly separate smoking and non-smoking areas or violate smoking restrictions would be fined from BD100 to BD1,000 and closed for up to three months for repeated offences. People who smoke in closed areas, including buses and malls would face fines of BD50 to BD100.
A national anti-smoking authority, chaired by the Health Minister, would be formed to implement and supervise the law. Parliament voted in favour of the new law in February and if approved by the council, it will be ratified by His Majesty King Hamad.
The law will be referred back to parliament, once the council finalises its draft. Council public utilities and environment affairs committee’s Faoud Al Hajji said the law stipulated that shops could only sell cigarettesin packs of 20s. "The ban is illogical, because those who are used to buying four cigarettes, would be now forced to buy a pack," he said. "Do we want to kill people faster?"

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RICHMOND — Philip Morris USA filed two lawsuits in federal court yesterday in Los Angeles, Ca., aimed at stopping the importation, distribution, and sale of counterfeit cigarettes and the unauthorized use of PM USA’s trademarks.
The suits arise from two seizures by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection at the Port of Los Angeles. Sorensen Lighted Controls of Hartford, Conn., was listed on Customs’ Notice of Seizure as the importer of record of 47,378 cartons of counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes, with a date of entry into the port of January 8, 2008. Similarly, Damakali S.A. de CV of Queretaro, Mexico, was named on a Customs’ Notice of Seizure as the importer of 28,260 cartons of counterfeit Marlboro and Marlboro Lights cigarettes with a date of entry into the port of December 20, 2007.
Speaking on behalf of PM USA, Charlie Whitaker, vice president, Compliance and Brand Integrity for Altria Client Services said, "Importing and selling counterfeit cigarettes is illegal, and the Marlboro brand is a frequent target of counterfeiters. These lawsuits are the latest in a series of actions that demonstrate our resolve to protecting PM USA’s valuable trademarks."
PM USA pursues numerous strategies to address the sale of counterfeit, illegally imported, stolen and untaxed or under-taxed cigarettes. The company actively supports the efforts of authorities to enforce laws related to the cigarette trade; advocates for enhanced federal and state legislation to address the sale of contraband cigarettes; and pursues litigation or other actions against those who violate PM USA’s trademark rights, contracts or trade policies.
This action is part of the company’s continuing civil litigation effort against importers of counterfeit cigarettes. Over the past four years, PM USA has filed 30 other cases against counterfeit importers in federal courts in California, Florida, New York and Texas. In these cases, PM USA has prevailed against dozens of individuals and entities involved in the importation of counterfeit cigarettes.

All cigarettes sold in Kentucky will now be "fire-safe", thanks to a law that went in effect last week.
Many people hope the law will mean less cigarette-related fires in the Bluegrass. "We’re almost all the way there now and that’s why we’ve got the tags on everything, so we can rotate and get it right," says Mary Baird, manager of "Tobacco America".
Baird has spent the last six weeks transitioning her store from regular cigarettes to the newly-mandated "fire-safe" ones. "The paper has like speed bumps on it and that makes the cigarette go out if you lay it down or even stop smoking on it, it’ll go out and you have to re-light it," explains Baird. The idea is to slow down the cigarette’s burning speed.
Which Bowling Green Fire Department official, Marlee Boenig, hopes will reduce the likelihood of fires emanating from unattended cigarettes. "Hopefully these new cigarettes will be a benefit for us because they will cut down on those fires and the fire deaths," notes Boenig. While these cigarettes are believed to lessen the chance of fires… they don’t completely eliminate the risk. "People don’t need to become complacent about them, its only if you use them with care and common sense," encourages Boenig.
Fire officials are giving the "fire-safe" cigarettes a thumbs up but customers we talked to aren’t happy about the change. "They don’t like it," exclaims Baird. "It ain’t too bad, but it ain’t worth a diddly when you have to keep lighting them over and over," says smoker, Charles Sanford.
"I’ve thought about quitting over it," smoker Kimberly Daigre. Still, Boenig and Baird say smokers need to look past all the negativity and give the cigarettes a chance. "Even if you have to relight it once or twice, its a lot better than having those cigarettes that start fires," encourages Boenig.
"They say they’ll quit smoking but I really don’t believe that. It’s either they’ll have that or nothing, you know," comments Baird, with a laugh. Kentucky is the 9th state to enact the "Fire-Safe" cigarette law.

Increasing the cost of cigarettes may actually force smokers to smoke more intensely, an international researcher says.
Francesca Cornaglia from the University of London will speak at the Australian National University in Canberra today to challenge several policies aimed at reducing the harm associated with smoking.
Dr Cornaglia has measured cigarette exposure by examining the level of a by-product of nicotine, called coniine, found in saliva.
She says smokers may buy fewer cigarettes when the price goes up, but they inhale more deeply or smoke more of the cigarette to ensure nicotine levels in the body remain constant.
"When that happens, the filter doesn’t really work for the second half of the cigarette as good as it does for the first half because it has already absorbed tar and substances," she said.
"So the second half of the cigarettes actually gets filtered less properly than the first half."

Tonight we’ve got BREAKING news that St. Barack of Obama "fell off the wagon a few times" since he quit the cigarettes a year ago. This means he still has some "regular human" genes and that Hillary is sure to announce that she has started smoking weed again, at 3 a.m.
Obama told Chris Matthews on Hardball just now, "I fell off the wagon a couple times during the course of it, and then was able to get back on. But it is a struggle like everything else."
And then Our Barack turned the whole thing into a sweet discussion of middle age and walking his daughters down the aisle when they are married in the Rose Garden, during his fifth term, and how the issue is really about health care, which is so expensive, because people with no Hope just keep smoking cigarettes because really, what else do poor people have to enjoy in life? Other than meth and car races on the teevee, we mean?

Cui Dalin, China’s deputy sports minister, told legislators that the Beijing Olympics would inspire Chinese to live healthier lives.
Then he stepped out into a nonsmoking hallway — and lit a cigarette.
The recent incident illustrates the uphill battle China faces as it prepares to take what health advocates hope will be a big step against smoking in what is the world’s biggest tobacco market. A ban on smoking in most Beijing public places, similar to efforts in major North American, European and Asian cities, is expected to take effect in May, aimed at meeting China’s pledge of a smoke-free Olympics.
China is home to 350 million smokers — a third of the global total. More than 150 Chinese cities already have limited restrictions, but the capital would be the first to ban smoking in all restaurants, offices and schools, said health expert Cui Xiaobo, who helped draft the regulations. The restaurant ban may be limited at first.
"There’s no way it will work!" said Jin Xianchun, a co-owner of Little Jin’s Seafood Restaurant, where diners were smoking up a storm as they chose live fish and shrimp from tanks. "Of course it will affect my business … We will try our best to enforce, it but really…." She shook her head.
Cigarettes are woven into Chinese daily life. They’re an icebreaker, a way of greeting a friend, and a means of bribery. A night out typically means a good meal and cigarettes paired with baijiu, a clear sorghum liquor with a vicious kick.
Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the late communist founding fathers, were heavy smokers, and their favorite brands are as well known as they are: Panda for Deng and Zhonghua (China) for Mao.
Almost 2 trillion cigarettes are sold every year, at prices as low as 1.50 yuan ($0.20) for a pack of 20, complete with a discreet warning on the side of the box that says "Smoking is harmful to your health." The government estimates 1 million Chinese die smoking-related deaths annually — projected to double by 2020.
Beijing has had some smoking restrictions since 1995, when the municipal government prohibited lighting up in large public venues such as schools, sports arenas and movie theaters.
The new rules, which City Hall is expected to unveil soon, expand the scope to include restaurants, bars, hotels, offices, vacation resorts and all indoor areas of medical facilities, according to a draft released earlier this year.
"The whole world will be watching Beijing, because its success means a big step toward the success of the whole world, given the large smoking population of China," said Cui, an associate professor at the Capital University of Medical Sciences in Beijing.
Organizers of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics have said they want smoking cigarettes bans in all hotels serving athletes and all competition venues and restaurants in the Olympic Village by June.
Last October, Beijing banned smoking in the city’s 66,000 taxis, threatening drivers with a 200 yuan ($28) fine if they are caught.
After a branch of the Meizhou Dongpo restaurant chain went smoke-free, revenues dropped by 5 to 8 percent in the first two months, but picked up as word got out to nonsmokers, said deputy manager Guo Xiaodong.
"Smoke-free restaurant: A mountain forest in the city," say posters in the restaurant. A man with a pack of cigarettes by his plate grumpily relents when his friend reminds him he can’t light up.
"Some customers didn’t understand why there was a ban in a restaurant, a public place. They think cigarettes and liquor can’t be separated," Guo said.
In 2005 China ratified World Health Organization rules that urge it, within three years, to restrict tobacco advertising and sponsorship, put tougher health warnings on cigarettes, raise tobacco prices and taxes, curb secondhand smoke, prohibit cigarette sales to minors and clamp down on smuggling.
"The problem is that there are commercial interests that make it hard," said Sarah England, who heads the tobacco control department of the WHO’s Beijing office. She means the state-run tobacco industry, which made $53.6 billion last year, up 25 percent from a year earlier.
Meng Qiliang, a vice governor in the tobacco-rich southern province of Guizhou, is willing to try kicking his pack-a-day habit.
"I’ve been smoking since I was 26. It’s hard to give up," said Meng, 50, taking a deep drag from the metallic blue filter of his cigarette.
But if push comes to shove? "I’ll just eat some chocolate instead."

Bulgaria has decided to sell two factories owned by Bulgaria’s former cigarettes monopolis. Bulgartabac, located in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora, on the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, Economy and Energy Minister Petar Dimitrov said on March 18. “We want the privatisation to be done through the stock market, because that would be the most transparent way,” Dimitrov said.
The bourse sale would include making a number of workers redundant, but the discharged employees will receive severance payments ranging between 30 000 and 36 000 leva. “An agreement between the trade unions and the managing boards of the Plovdiv and Stara Zagora cigarette factories was signed late on March 17,” Dimitrov said. It would be the first time that a privatisation deal has not caused conflict between company managers and labour unions, he added.
In February, Bulgartabac’s managing board tabled its proposal to strip the two plants of their licences to make cigarettes under Bulgartabac proprietary brands, but would be allowed to keep their general tobacco production licences.
The Government decided to sell Bulgartabac to a strategic investor several months ago at a meeting between the leaders of the three-way coalition that took place in the Bulgarian spa resort Hissarya. Soon after the summit the possible bankruptcy of the factories in Plovdiv and Stara Zagora became publicly known.
On March 18, Dimitrov said the potential sale of the two factories has attracted investor interest, but he could not say whether they were more interested in their tobacco business or in land that the factories owned.
Bulgartabac owns two more cigarette factories, in Sofia and Blagoevgrad, which attracted strategic investors. Should they improve their current condition, the state would have no problem selling them. “Four major players in the tobacco industry are interested in the Sofia and Blagoevgrad factories,” Dimitrov said, as quoted by Bulgarian-language daily Dnevnik.
The big multinational companies have demanded a meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Energy to discuss the forthcoming sale of the factories in Sofia and Blagoevgrad. Dimitrov did not name the candidates but specified that they were big tobacco companies. The Bulgartabac privatisation strategy stipulated that those two would be sold to a strategic investor. If the bourse sell-off proposal goes through, that would be followed by changes to either the Privatisation Act or the sell-off strategy itself, Dnevnik reported.
British American Tobacco was one of the potential buyers during the last privatisation procedure for the four Bulgartabac cigarette factories, but the deal never materialised.

Jonathan Miller has performed some strange surgery on the Bard in his time - I still have nightmares about the colonial-era Tempest in which Ariel was an aspiring African dictator flourishing a fly-whisk - but his in-the-round revival of Hamlet in the West Country’s most enterprising theatre is a model for any director and a treat for any playgoer.
Miller trusts the text, cutting little but some of the stuff about Denmark’s fears of invasion, a subject that Shakespeare anyway treats as cursorily as Jay Villiers’s Claudius does when he offhandedly drops the Norwegian king’s reassuring message on to the floor. He ensures that every line has its due meaning and weight. He even sets his production in the Elizabethan era. And is the result academic, pedantic or dull? Quite the contrary.
This Hamlet is grippingly alive from the moment when Philip Buck’s initially scornful Horatio and the royal guards wait in the silvery murk for the dead king’s ghost to an ending in which the exhausted Claudius compliantly takes the poisoned cup and drinks from it, as at some hellish communion service. And, not least at the moment when self-slaughter seems a tempting escape from life’s “fardels”, Jamie Ballard proves well able to bear the theatre’s ultimate fardel, the role of Hamlet.
At first he’s slumped, head hanging down, on one of the old pews that furnish an otherwise bare stage. He’s still in deep grief at his father’s death and shock at his mother’s remarriage and, at times, can’t quite stem his tears.
So the meeting with Andrew Hilton’s ghost - impressively majestic but so lacking in horror-stricken intensity that purgatory might be the Athenaeum - is in a way restorative. Now he can feel what he feels without guilt, shame or a sense of being “unmanly”.
Ballard’s one fault is to get shrill when he rages, making you feel that his fury is coming from the throat, not the belly. But he’s intelligent, incisive, sentient and humorous, using parody gestures and comic voices when he’s disorienting others with what’s here is a mocking and self-mocking pretence of madness. His scenes with Annabel Scholey’s Ophelia are especially strong: he burying his head in her skirts as he seeks comfort, she pushing away the man she loves because she’s being watched by Roland Oliver’s gleefully busybodying Polonius.
Scholey’s hyper-obedient, ultra-repressed Ophelia more than prepares us for the scene in which, dressed in a stained shift, she madly pokes sticks into her dolls’ pudenda. Likewise Villiers, who starts out smiling, confident and supremely rational, becomes tense and angry and ends weary, beaten and suicidal, and always seems much in love with Francesca Ryan’s Gertrude.
Each of these fine performers makes a journey that’s logical, carefully charted yet emotionally true - and, as such, characteristic of Miller’s cigarettes production.

Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of Davidoff and West cigarettes, said costs related to its takeover of Altadis SA will lop 140 million pounds ($281 million) from the current fiscal year’s profit.
The expenses concern the value of inventory, elimination of inter-company sales and depreciation adjustments, Imperial said today in a statement. Sales are meeting its forecast so far in the year, according to the Bristol, England-based company.
Imperial, Europe’s second-largest publicly traded cigarettes maker, bought Altadis to become less reliant on the shrinking U.K. and German markets. Western European tobacco companies are making acquisitions to cut costs and expanding elsewhere as governments in the region toughen restrictions on smoking.
The maker of Lambert & Butler said today it remains “very confident of achieving'’ forecast annual cost savings of 300 million euros ($473 million) from buying Madrid-based Altadis by the close of the fiscal year ending in 2010. Imperial also said it will continue a partnership between Altadis and Cuba’s government for selling cigarettes made in the country. Davidoff cigarettes will go on sale in the U.S. in coming weeks after registration delays, Chief Executive Officer Gareth Davis said. A slowdown by the country’s economy, the world’s largest, may cause a “slight'’ downturn in the premium cigar market as consumers opt to spend less, he said.
Asset Sales
Tobacco and cigarettes assets whose disposal has been ordered by the European Commission as part of the takeover have drawn interest from “a number of parties,'’ Davis also said. The assets should be sold in coming months, according to the CEO, who spoke at an analyst meeting made available on the company’s Web site.
Imperial rose 61 pence, or 2.7 percent, to 2,325 pence in London, the biggest gain since Jan. 31. The shares have slid 14 percent this year, more than the 4.4 percent drop by larger rival British American Tobacco Plc, the maker of Pall Mall cigarettes.
Sales of Altadis assets worth 650 million euros had raised 331 million euros by the end of last month, the statement shows. Most of the remainder consists of real estate, the bulk of which should be sold by September 2009, Imperial said. It generated 275 million euros separately by selling the Spanish cigarette maker’s stake in airport retailer Aldeasa SA.
The Altadis costs will cut first-half profit from operations by about 110 million pounds and lower second-half earnings by 30 million pounds, according to Imperial. The expenses will have no effect on its “underlying business performance'’ or cash flows, the statement shows.