Fire Destroys Two Arturo Fuente Tobacco Warehouses

An early Tuesday morning fire burned down two large tobacco warehouses of Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia., the manufacturer of Fuente Fuente Opus X and Arturo Fuente cigars. The fire in Villa Gonzalez, near the company's main offices in Santiago, Dominican Republic, completely destroyed large inventories of aged tobacco and possibly caused smoke damage to some other nearby storage facilities.

"We don't really know how much tobacco we have lost," said Carlos Fuente Jr. in a telephone interview from the Dominican Republic today. "But it was a lot—a lot of tobacco."

Fuente Jr. declined to give any specific figures about the quantity or the dollar value of the tobacco lost. But, he said that it included bales of some irreplaceable tobacco that had been purchased in 1990 from a Connecticut grower and may have been harvested as long ago as 1960. Fuente Jr. said the tobacco was still being saved for some special projects. He added, however, that the bulk of the tobacco was regular filler leaves, and that there was very little wrapper tobacco in the burned buildings.

"It's just so sad. You save it. You wait. You save it some more. In my lifetime, we won't be able to recreate some of this tobacco," Fuente Jr. said.

He said that the company had been moving tobacco around to different warehouses in recent months to be sure that the leaves used in their products weren't all in the same place. But he admitted that fire would force them to cut back production for the next year, possibly even for two years. The company also makes cigars for the Ashton and J.C. Newman brands.

"At our current production levels, we just have to cut back so that we can maintain the consistency of our cigars," Fuente Jr. said. He added that they still had plenty of aged tobacco spread around other warehouses throughout the Dominican Republic, but the cutbacks were going to be necessary to ensure the consistency and quality of all the company's cigars.

Fuente Jr. said that Tabacalera A. Fuente production for 2011 was going to be in the range of 22 to 23 million cigars.

The company, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012, has suffered nine fires during its history.

"Thank God, every one is okay, and no one was hurt," Fuente Jr. said. "So, we're doing pretty well. You just hate to see all that hard work lost."

Tobacco display ban set for spring

A ban on displaying cigarettes in shops will not begin until next spring at the earliest, the health minister has said.
Edwin Poots wants to introduce regulations barring the tobacco products from view in stores and scrapping vending machines.
Mr Poots said: "Despite all the available evidence on the harm caused by smoking, hundreds of children and young people are still taking up this life-limiting habit each year. By removing displays of tobacco products from view in shops, and preventing children from accessing them through vending machines, we are building upon measures already in place aimed at reducing the prevalence of smoking."
Shop owners have highlighted the time it will take them to be ready for the new legislation. There are also legal challenges to the equivalent regulations in England.
Mr Poots said the ban will not commence in Northern Ireland until next spring at the earliest. Vending machine sales should end from February 1 next year.
In March 2009 the Assembly approved the ban on the display of tobacco items in shops in Northern Ireland. Then health minister Michael McGimpsey wanted to introduce the prohibition in 2010 but the DUP argued for a delay to 2013 to give retailers time to fund changes to their premises.
Following delays caused by ongoing legal action, England and Scotland are now proposing an introduction date of April 6 2012 for large stores and April 6 2015 for small stores. Wales has yet to announce a new date. The Republic of Ireland introduced a display ban and further restrictions on underage access to vending machines from July 1 2009.
The latest survey results available show that almost 9% of 11 to 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland are regular smokers.

Tobacco companies tout orbs' ease of use, lower nicotine doses

Bite-size dissolvable "orbs" that look like breath mints and melt in your mouth are the tobacco industry's latest attempt to fight falling U.S. cigarette sales.

Charlotte is one of two test markets for Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Reynolds American Inc.'s newest products: dissolvable, smokeless tobacco lozenges that come as orbs, sticks or strips.

The products all contain less nicotine than cigarettes, between 0.5 and 3 milligrams instead of 12 to 15. And, Reynolds spokesman David Howard said, they meet a "societal expectation."

"There's no secondhand smoke, no spitting and no cigarette butt litter," Howard said.

But health officials still worry about the risks of smokeless options. Smokeless tobacco users may not get lung cancer, health experts say, but they risk mouth cancer, gum disease and tooth loss. Prenatal dangers for pregnant women also still exist.

"There are no safe tobacco products," said Matt Carpenter, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the Medical University of South Carolina who is researching the effect of smokeless products on smoking habits.

Huntersville, N.C., resident Joey Hodge, who has smoked for almost five years, sees the appeal of smokeless products that won't be as tough on his lungs or make him smell like smoke. But the 20-year-old isn't sold on Reynolds's newest offering.

Grants promote tobacco-free activities

A provincewide movement to promote a tobacco-free culture is gaining momentum in York Region.
Helping fuel the movement is a new grant program. Non-profit sport and recreation clubs, leagues, teams and organizations can apply for grants up to $2,000 if they submit a plan to develop, implement or enhance and promote a tobacco-free policy. The application deadline is Sept. 15.
Administered by the York Region Community and Health Services with provincial funding, the money can be used for educational and promotional activities to help increase the awareness of tobacco-free sport and recreation.
It means everyone taking part in a sport or recreational activity doesn’t use tobacco products and participants, spectators, coaches and leaders don’t smoke, snuff, dip or chew tobacco while participating in the organization’s activities, York Region public health nurse Samiha Versi said.
The policy can be flexible and plans can be individualized by each group.
“The key is education and awareness,” she said.
The Markham Irish Rugby Club developed a smoke-free policy last year and has since incorporated a smoke-free logo on its rugby shirts.
Board president Pat Hodgins said the club was prompted to develop the initiative as a result of the Play, Live, Be...Tobacco-Free program.
The club’s policy states if young people have not used tobacco products by the age of 18, they most likely will never start.
The prohibition, which includes smokeless tobacco, applies to players, coaches, trainers, managers and game officials during games and other club-sponsored activities.
It’s the club’s view that encouraging a smoke-free environment is a healthy life choice and one that’s particularly beneficial with helping athletes achieve peak performance, Mr. Hodgins said.
The club isn’t alone in going tobacco-free.
The Vaughan-based Ontario Soccer Association recently adopted a similar policy and the York Region Soccer Association is on the cusp of developing its own as well.
A policy is about best practices as opposed to actual enforcement, association executive committee president Russ Turnbull said.
It’s also one of many things to achieving a gold certification for Club Excellence Awards, a provincewide recognition program for clubs that have proven “best practices” and offer a safe, healthy and rewarding environment for all participants.
So far, four of 15 York soccer clubs have received gold and more than half are actively working toward that standard, Mr. Turnbull said.
“It’s about showing respect to everyone at the game, including coaches, players, spectators,” he said. “We are trying to set standards here ... to teach best practices to kids.”
While there’s often resistance to change, Mr. Turnbull said most of the feedback about the policy has been positive.
For the Jr. A Newmarket Hurricanes, none of the players opposed it when the hockey club adopted a tobacco-free policy two seasons ago, head coach Brian Perrin said.
“It’s a pretty good thing,” he said.

Anti-tobacco bill to stub out consumers

A proposed anti-tobacco law will see Russian smokers paying significantly more to light up, with key Ministries looking to reduce smoking numbers and smoking related illness.
Russia’s Health Ministry and Social Development Ministry have jointly introduced an anti-tobacco bill for discussion which will see tobacco excises rise 470%, and make the excise component of the price consumers pay for cigarettes more than 50%. The move will see the minimum price for a packet of cigarettes jumping from the current 17 roubles to as much 60 roubles.
Russia’s cigarette tobacco companies are bracing for the hit. About 56% of Russian men and 16% women smoke, with 22% of them smoking at least 1 packet daily, according to the Russian Public Opinion Research Centre. Kommersant reports that the average outlay of about 500 roubles per month could climb to nearly 2000, or 10% of an average Russian salary, if the law goes ahead.

While the intention of the bill is to restrict Russian smokers with higher price and push them to quit smoking, with an attendant long term reduction in outlays for smoking related illnesses, experts say that the move could spur illegal tobacco businesses. Vyatcheslav Bobkov, head of the All – Russian centre for life quality told Kommersant that people reducing outlays on other consumer items was also likely.

Brett Butler sides with Surgeon General, cuts out tobacco

Reno Aces' manager Brett Butler quit using tobacco partly because he didn't want to get throat cancer. Fifteen years later, it happened anyway.
In the winter of 1995, Butler developed a sore throat. In May of 1996, the former Southeastern Oklahoma State University star was diagnosed with cancer of the tonsils.
Butler said he dipped snuff almost daily while playing minor league baseball.
“I started in A ball,” said Butler, whose team is in Oklahoma City for a four-game series with the RedHawks. “I got two or three hits and dipped for about 2½ years.”
Butler said he quit not long after he arrived in the big leagues when a 10-year-old boy told him that he dipped snuff because Butler did.
“I relished being a positive role model, so I told that little boy that if he promised me that he would quit, I would quit,” Butler said Wednesday before the Aces' game with the RedHawks.
“I haven't had a dip since. I also quit because I didn't want to get throat cancer, ironically enough.”
Butler played 17 seasons in the major leagues with five different clubs. He is a former All-Star and finished his career with .290 batting average and 2,375 hits.
Butler was diagnosed with cancer near the end of his major league career while he was playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After surgery and intensive treatment to combat the disease, Butler returned to finish the '96 season for the Dodgers and played one more year before retiring.
Doctors told Butler that his tobacco use might have caused the throat cancer but it's uncertain.
“I tend to think it probably was, and that is what I preach,” he said.
Tobacco use has always been part of the culture of baseball and still is today, Butler said.
When he was using, Butler said he rarely dipped in the offseason. It was only when he put on the baseball uniform that he felt a need to take a dip.
Tobacco use is banned in baseball's minor leagues but not in the major leagues. Butler said that makes the tobacco ban difficult to enforce, especially at the Triple-A level where players often move back and forth from the major leagues.
“They go to the big leagues they can (use tobacco), then they go down and they tell them they can't,” he said. “I've got a guy 37-years-old, and you are going to tell him he can't dip.
“I know what they are trying to do. I understand what they are trying to do, but it's hard to enforce when you've got guys that have the ability to do it a the big league level and they come down here and they have been dipping their whole lives. It's kind of a catch-22.”
Players in the minor leagues will sneak around and use tobacco anyway, Butler said.
“I tell them what it's done to me, that it could have been a contributing factor, but a lot of times guys don't listen until it hits the house,” Butler said.
“Guys on this team know that I had throat cancer from dipping, and some guys still have done it. The bottom line is until it hits them directly, they really won't take inventory of it.”
Butler, 54, also has recovered from prostate cancer. Butler is in his third season as manager of the Aces, but his ultimate goal, just like his players, is to make the major leagues.

Tobacco compliance checks reduce underage use

In the United States about 3,450 young people between the ages of 12 and 17 will smoke their first cigarette today and around 850 of them will become daily smokers. That's according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The battle to stop underage smoking is being fought on many fronts, including making sure businesses don't sell tobacco to people under age 18.

The North Platte Police Department recently did a tobacco compliance check of 16 local retailers to see if they are complying with the law prohibiting sales to minors.

"One of our goals is to increase compliance with policies prohibiting sales to minors," said Community Connections executive director Jayna Schaaf. "The police department helps meet this goal by conducting compliance checks."

Studies show that enforcing laws against Esse cigarette sales to kids through compliance checks can significantly reduce youth smoking, Schaaf said.
During a compliance check underage "undercover" agents are sent into stores to try and buy tobacco products, according to Jason Gale, investigator with the North Platte police department.

"The compliance checks remind clerks and store managers they need to watch what they are doing when it comes to checking identification and watching for fake IDs," Gale said. "Until we have 100 percent compliance, I'm not going to say the checks are a success."

Of the 16 businesses targeted, three failed the check, Gale said.

An earlier check in April also netted three violations.

"This time we went to every place we didn't hit in April," Gale said. "So we have checked every place that sells tobacco in North Platte."

Compliance checks are funded with help from a grant awarded to Community Connections by Nebraska Health and Human Services System/Tobacco Free Nebraska as a result of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.

"Clerks know we will be doing checks," Gale said. "It keeps them on their toes. Until we reach 100 percent compliance, we have work to do."