Without Nicotine Crutch, C. Miers Still Stay Smarter Than Rest of Thailand, And World.

[OldChinaHam]

Maybe you recall a Topic made by one of TV's foremost pollsters a few months ago which may have inadvertently biased the results of the poll, and seemed to suggest what is known anyway, that in Chiang Mai you will find the pure intellectuals of Thailand, as well as people of intelligence and taste.

Then we had another good informal poll, which was much less biased, trying to get to the bottom of why members on TV were so unthinking as to light-up their first few fags, and whether it was to be 'cool' or not.

Recently there has been research demonstrating that nicotine may boost intellectual performance and make users smarter for a time, smarter in that they score higher on IQ tests, as well as other similar tests.

This is why I want to know, what would happen if we combine this knowledge, and what does it prove?

Here is the last fact we need to add to the puzzle before the gestalt of what I am driving at suddenly will gel for all readers:

FACT: I have been in Chiang Mai for less than a year. But in all the time I have been in Chiang Mai, and strolling around, taking my Rot Deeng, riding in my Taxi, or looking out my windows, I have honestly NEVER seen anyone smoking tobacco of any kind, and let us not mention any other smoking which I also HAVE NOT seen, truthfully.

.....(AND, TO ALL YOU WHO I KNOW LOVE TO SIDETRACK OR DERAIL TOPICS to talk of things like Reefer Madness, such digressions will NOT be tolerated here. This is a serious topic, which might teach us something about tobacco smoking behavior in Thailand. So Don't Start with your Talk about Toking here, or Toking there. We are not prudes, but this Topic is not the place for your dreamy off-topic comments.)

Now We Have all the facts about smoking and intelligence in Thailand, plus Chiang Mai, and we can also compare what we know about Thailand to the rest of the world at large.

Here is the premise and the questions:

1. Knowing that smoking tobacco in public in Chiang Mai is extremely rare, this shows more than an inordinate amount of intelligence and restraint, and public support for anti-smoking campaigns, and positive peer pressure to encourage non-smoking, and all good anti-smoking things, among the youth of Chiang Mai, the elders of Chiang Mai, the Farang Community of Chiang Mai, no doubt they are really old, too, as well as whatever unique thing makes smoking numbers in Chiang Mai almost Crazy Low!

Congratulations to you all. This is a filthy habit with no redeeming qualities. (Again, this MY opinion. To all MY FELLOW SMOKERS: (yes I am one myself, but have just stopped for a while. So please do not get bent out of shape and start spouting off here. THIS IS NOT ABOUT if tobacco smoking is good, not good, whether it should, should not be allowed in Thailand, or any where. If you slide down this slippery slope, you are OFF TOPIC.)

2. My guess is that CM tobacco smoking in public is far lower than in any other major city or smaller city, or village in Thailand. Do you all agree with me that this is true?

3. Since we know that CMers are smarter, as was demonstrated in an earlier article, post, or comment from somebody, Now we have PROOF of this simple fact, ie, eg, that is:

Since there is a lower incidence of smoking behavior among the Thai and Farang population in CM, then we know we are smarter, and also healthier. But mostly smarter than others in Thailand, and the rest of the world, at this basic non-smoking level. Do you agree that CM people are smarter because they do not smoke, or smoke less than those of other cities in Thailand, and the rest of the world?

4. But why is this topic important?:

Obviously, Chiang Mai can be a SHINING BEACON ON A MOUNTAIN, or in the highlands, to demonstrate to the world, and people in Thailand, just how great life can be when a City as beautiful as Chiang Mai has so very, almost none, public puffers.

This is no laughing matter.

I was out for a stroll this day, and I did not see one butt on the sidewalk,

Neither did I see one butt out on the street smoking butts.

Kids, PLEASE NEVER START SMOKING.

I smoked for 30 years like a m--------------- and no doubt I took off about 10 years or more from the length and quality of my life. Not so smart, and I can no longer climb above 15 thousand feet, which I never could anyway, but certainly cannot now.

Another Good Point, I mean who wants to pay more tax to the government? Yeah, we know in every country the smart guys, like the CM guys, never smoke or stop smoking, and just let the proles funnel money to the world governments from their daily wages, instead. (BUT I DO NOT THINK THIS IS TRUE IN THAILAND. NO!)

(NO, THIS TOPIC IS ALSO NOT ABOUT dumb adzes funneling their daily wages to the gov, just because these adzes do not know statistics, and dumbly play the government lotteries to try to win impossible wins, and gamble with their health sucking on the coffin nails, not to mention rot gut vodka subsidized by the Russian gov/Soviets somewhere other than Thailand. THIS IS NOT THE TOPIC, so please do not get sidetracked by these issues.)

So, THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE and your forbearance in reading to this point, as you obviously did. Please answer the above questions, and tell us why you know CMers are smartest.

And, hopefully at least one of you might chime in on the other questions above, listed here and intimated or implied, as long at we STAY ON TOPIC.

So far, I have not started smoking again.

But it must be peer pressure from other smart people in CM.

I have never lived among people as smart as the Chiang Mai people.

And that is a fact.

Maybe where you live is just about as smart, and please tell us if there is also almost no public smoking where you are. Bravo I say. The holdouts will be has-beens soon enough.

Krap.

[soi41]

After reading your whole post: Please start smoking again!

At least you have got one point right! People in CM are smarter, they don't have to pay for their smoke!

Just inhale the haze. Free

[OldChinaHam]

soi41, when you say I should start smoking again, of course you mean AFTER I leave Chiang Mai. RIght?

Truly, it is still daily astounding to me how I see no people lighting up around me.

What GOOD IS IT to even post those no smoking placards on the Chiang Mai beaneries?

Obviously there is no point to it.

No one wants to smoke anyway.

If you stay in CM, then you will know I am right.

I come from places where you MUST smoke to do business.

Drink gallons of white lightning as well.

And everyone knows that you can't drink White Spirits without cooling yourself down with a few smokes.

But this is also a topic in which I have asked my serious question:

Why is it that I really don't see anyone around here smoking?

And is it like this all over Thailand?

And why?

Because I would like to see every government do whatever Thailand's government is doing if it means that I do not need to see a lot of young kids hanging around with cigarettes hanging from their droopy lips.

Where I come from, or have been, like 60 percent of men smoke

The ladies are quickly catching up.

So the lack of smoke from tobacco is just another thing that I like about Thailand.

Thailand is a great place.

I highly recommend it for people who wish to quit smoking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the punctuation.

But as you say, I am a recovering nicotine nut.

[pomchop]

So what town in Thailand has the MOST cig smokers per thousand? My guess would be Pattaya??????

[Chittychangchang]

Smoking chills the intellectual out giving a moment for clarity and reflection.

[nisakiman]

The brain works better when it gets nicotine - almost like an optimized computer. Nicotine is a "work-drug" that enables its consumers to focus better and think faster. The brain also becomes more enduring, especially in smokers: Nicotine experiments show that smokers in prolonged working situations are able to maintain concentration for many hours longer than non-smokers.

http://dengulenegl.dk/English/Nicotine.html

One recent study has found that one of nicotine's metabolites, cotinine, may improve memory and protect brain cells from diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Another new study shows that nicotine can help improve some of the learning and memory problems associated with hypothyroidism.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031112072839.htm

Cigarette smoking may improve attention and short--term memory in persons with schizophrenia by stimulating nicotine receptors in the brain, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050710202418.htm

[Neeranam]

The brain works better when it gets nicotine - almost like an optimized computer. Nicotine is a "work-drug" that enables its consumers to focus better and think faster. The brain also becomes more enduring, especially in smokers: Nicotine experiments show that smokers in prolonged working situations are able to maintain concentration for many hours longer than non-smokers.

http://dengulenegl.dk/English/Nicotine.html

One recent study has found that one of nicotine's metabolites, cotinine, may improve memory and protect brain cells from diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Another new study shows that nicotine can help improve some of the learning and memory problems associated with hypothyroidism.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031112072839.htm

Cigarette smoking may improve attention and short--term memory in persons with schizophrenia by stimulating nicotine receptors in the brain, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050710202418.htm

I'll continue to take my snus then - nicotine without all the crap that's in cigs.

[smokie36]

You are indeed observant Old China Ham.....I have noticed less smokers....especially around the expat bars...certainly less than the islands and Bangkok. Same is true in Chiang Rai.

Smarter? Quite possibly....peer pressure? I hope so.

Less smoking? Don't start....smoke less....give up. Simple.

Edit: sp.

[nisakiman]

The brain works better when it gets nicotine - almost like an optimized computer. Nicotine is a "work-drug" that enables its consumers to focus better and think faster. The brain also becomes more enduring, especially in smokers: Nicotine experiments show that smokers in prolonged working situations are able to maintain concentration for many hours longer than non-smokers.

http://dengulenegl.dk/English/Nicotine.html

One recent study has found that one of nicotine's metabolites, cotinine, may improve memory and protect brain cells from diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Another new study shows that nicotine can help improve some of the learning and memory problems associated with hypothyroidism.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/11/031112072839.htm

Cigarette smoking may improve attention and short--term memory in persons with schizophrenia by stimulating nicotine receptors in the brain, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050710202418.htm

I'll continue to take my snus then - nicotine without all the crap that's in cigs.

Good for you. Mind you, they are trying to ban that too, along with e-cigs.

The problem is that it has never actually been about health.

The whole anti-smoking crusade is purely ideological, as is abundantly apparent in the anti-smoker's stance vis-a-vis the new phenomenon of e-cigs.

Completely harmless, no by-products (that mythical toxin, second-hand smoke), odourless - but.....IT LOOKS LIKE SMOKING! AND PEOPLE ARE AVOIDING THE SANCTIONS (PUNISHMENTS IN THE FORM OF BANS) AS LAID DOWN BY TOBACCO CONTROL!

So regardless of the fact that it is (according to the current orthodoxy) a much less harmful product than tobacco (as is snus), they want to ban it.

Because it offends them.

I could go on. I have much knowledge on this subject, most of it exposing a network of lies, skulduggery and profit.

But that is for another time.

[MAJIC]

You may very well be right,that there are fewer Smokers in Changmai. But as a study to prove it,you have not followed,or given any evidence to back up your Hypothesis,such as a poll,or created a null group,such the reason one groups smokes and another doesn't, and come up with a reason,all studies need to prove to the Academics a conclusion to your Study/Theory.In order that that it can be seen,that your Argument/Observance has some credibility. Up to now what would you write in your Essay, "I noticed there are not many smokers in Changmai,so they must all be intelligent" well it just so happens they may not like smoking? or close members of their families may have died from smoking,or they can't afford to smoke,they work in an environment that discourages smoking,the list is endless..............

Sorry OldChinaHam a casual observation is not necessarily a Scientific fact!until you can prove it.And as far as I am aware of Non smokers have never been proven to be smarter than Smokers,or not,so again you will most certainly need facts to back up your observations!

You also said: there is "no redeeming qualities to be said for smoking",in an abstract sense, I don't think the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer would want to have too much to say on this subject,because Tobacco smoking brings in £7,000,000,000 (7 Billion)in Taxes,and Tobacco smokers cost the National Health Service £500,000,000 (£500 Million) so a profit of £6,500,0000,0000 (£6.5 Billion)at the last figures from the UK Office of Central Statistics.which was many years ago,so what the exact figures are now would be anybodies guess?

[OldChinaHam]

Yes, sorry for my negligence and lack of proper preparation, I did most of my research first hand.

Please post any science data proving my points here, if you wish.

I have also been wondering if the reason we see so few smokers on the street in CM might be that they are secret users of smokeless tobacco?

Well, then, here is a chart which speaks to that question:

Smokeless tobacco: A major public health problem in the SEA region: A review

The above is a chart showing numbers of users of Smokeless Tobacco in the countries shown.

I have never used this product, glad too.

[OldChinaHam]

And I think this chart above is really quite TELLING about Thailand and norms for women and men when it comes to Tobacco use.

Do you notice the use of smokeless for women is exceedingly high compared to usage for men in Thailand?

This says a lot about women in Thai society, I think.

Could be wrong, but think not.

[MAJIC]

soi41, when you say I should start smoking again, of course you mean AFTER I leave Chiang Mai. RIght?

Truly, it is still daily astounding to me how I see no people lighting up around me.

What GOOD IS IT to even post those no smoking placards on the Chiang Mai beaneries?

Obviously there is no point to it.

No one wants to smoke anyway.

If you stay in CM, then you will know I am right.

I come from places where you MUST smoke to do business.

Drink gallons of white lightning as well.

And everyone knows that you can't drink White Spirits without cooling yourself down with a few smokes.

But this is also a topic in which I have asked my serious question:

Why is it that I really don't see anyone around here smoking?

And is it like this all over Thailand?

And why?

Because I would like to see every government do whatever Thailand's government is doing if it means that I do not need to see a lot of young kids hanging around with cigarettes hanging from their droopy lips.

Where I come from, or have been, like 60 percent of men smoke

The ladies are quickly catching up.

So the lack of smoke from tobacco is just another thing that I like about Thailand.

Thailand is a great place.

I highly recommend it for people who wish to quit smoking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry for the punctuation.

But as you say, I am a recovering nicotine nut.

Obviously like me you have some way to go yet before you escape from nicotine!

[MAJIC]

Yes, sorry for my negligence and lack of proper preparation, I did most of my research first hand.

Please post any science data proving my points here, if you wish.

I have also been wondering if the reason we see so few smokers on the street in CM might be that they are secret users of smokeless tobacco?

Well, then, here is a chart which speaks to that question:

Smokeless tobacco: A major public health problem in the SEA region: A review[/size]

The above is a chart showing numbers of users of Smokeless Tobacco in the countries shown.

I have never used this product, glad too.

I think there is so much smoke created in Changmai from burning the rice fields,that they are disguising the real Tobacco smokers,and creating a smoke screen so to speak.

[OldChinaHam]

"Obviously like me you have some way to go yet before you escape from nicotine! "

Thanks to brain chemistry, we never escape.

Still, Does anyone know where I can find a graph, map or chart showing incidence of smoking broken down by province and city in Thailand?

Probably I would need to enter the query into a search engine using Thai, because using English has not worked for me so far.

Say the incidence from 1995 to present.

[OldChinaHam]

Getting closer to the chart we/I want.

Yes, getting closer...

But no cigar!

[OldChinaHam]

Not Chiang Mai

Karen Hilltribe

[OldChinaHam]

Not from Chiang Mai, either, I know.

But Asian, and here are a few strange facts from the WSJ, Washington Post, New Scientist re Young Asians as Targets for Tobacco Companies

Smoking In Asia: A Looming Health Epidemic

By David Tan | Editorials
August 22, 2012

In the wake of Australia’s landmark ban on cigarette package advertising, Asian Scientist Magazine casts an eye over smoking in Asia.

• AsianScientist (Aug. 22, 2012) – All across Asia countries are bucking gloomy global economic trends with positive growth, a phenomenon also observed in its smoking rates. While smokers in the West are stubbing out for good, increasing numbers in Asia are lighting up.

The world’s two most populous nations – India and China – are home to more smokers than the entire population of the European Union. In China, more than 300 million people are tobacco users, while India adds another 275 million to the tally.

A study by the George Institute of Global Health in 2010 revealed that the Asia-Pacific region is home to 30 percent of the world’s smokers, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has found that almost 80 percent of smokers live in low to middle-income countries. The impact of smoking is greatest in these countries because smokers who develop lung cancer are diagnosed at later stages of the disease and receive less effective treatment.

Should developing countries in the region continue to smoke at the current rate, the number of people dying from smoking-related lung cancer would double over the next 20 years, the WHO study found.


Big Tobacco targets women and youth

And why not target women in a region where female smokers are vastly outnumbered by men? In China, only four percent of women smoke compared to 60 percent of men, a situation that is similar in Indonesia and Malaysia. Women and girls form an enticing market with large growth potential and Big Tobacco is now starting to target this demographic with fancy cigarette packages, such as packaging in the form of lipsticks.

“In many Asian countries like China and India where men already smoke at an incredibly high rate, women and young people are now being targeted by the tobacco industry,” said Edouard Tursan D’Espaignet of the WHO tobacco control program in an interview with German radio broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.

The youth also represent a ‘cash-disposable’ crowd, and have been wooed heavily by big tobacco companies.

In Singapore, despite overall falling smoking numbers over the past few decades to the current 14.3 percent, the incidence of smoking in Singaporeans aged 18 to 29 jumped by 33 percent between 2004 and 2010, and more under-18s were caught smoking in 2010 than in previous years.

Indonesia, which has 240 million people of whom 57 million are smokers, has the dubious honor of producing a YouTube sensation in Ardi Rizal, a two-year old, two-pack-a-day chain-smoking toddler.

A year-long investigation by ABC News into the expansion of Big Tobacco into Indonesia has documented the huge success of Philip Morris International (PMI) in enticing youth smokers. The Indonesian government recently reported that since PMI entered the market in 2005, youth smoking rates have doubled.

Not surprisingly, the CEO of PMI, Louis Camilleri, said in an interview with ABC News that “there are marketing freedoms that we don’t have in a number of other places, and we need to compete.”

Women represent an untapped demographic for tobacco companies in Asia (Photo: Thomas Hawk/Flickr).

Big Tobacco versus the state

Governments have certainly not remained idle against the looming health threat. Measures adopted by various governments against smoking include banning smoking in public spaces, advertising bans, and graphic health warnings on cigarette packaging.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), which was established in 2003 and adopted by more than 170 countries, has also called on governments to continue combating tobacco industry interference.

Driving home the WHO message on World No Tobacco Day this year, WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said: “Multinational tobacco companies have been shamelessly fueling legal actions against governments at the forefront of the war against tobacco.”

One country has heeded WHO’s call to action. The recent upholding of Australia’s plain tobacco packaging law by the Australian High Court set an important precedent in the global war against tobacco.

Here, four tobacco giants (British American Tobacco (BAT), Japan Tobacco International, Imperial Tobacco, and Philip Morris) had claimed the law infringed their intellectual property rights and was unconstitutional. In a move that has been lauded by organizations such as the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA), the Australian High Court dismissed the case on August 15, 2012.

Indeed, there is a clear need for Asian governments to adopt stronger initiatives to reduce tobacco use, the world’s number one cause of preventable death. One such step would be the banning of tobacco advertising.

Asian countries that currently ban tobacco advertising include Hong Kong, Malaysia, Pakistan, and Singapore. Four ASEAN countries (Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand) require graphic warnings on cigarette packaging, while the remaining six (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam) require only text warnings.

But in Pakistan, where tobacco companies have been exploiting legal loopholes to pursue aggressive marketing strategies, Nadeem Iqbal, an executive coordinator at the consumer protection agency TheNetwork, told The News International that “although Pakistan’s tobacco control laws restrict mass media advertisement, the tobacco industries are showing their marketing aggression at shops that are decorated with promotional material.”


Out of sight, out of mind?

Although several Asian countries such as China, India, Indonesia, and Singapore are considering introducing plain packaging laws, these laws form only a small part of the state’s arsenal against Big Tobacco.

Taxing tobacco is the most effective way to target smoking, says the WHO. Raising tobacco prices by ten percent due to tax increases leads to a reduction in smoking by up to eight percent in low- and middle-income countries, it says.

In addition to pricing cigarettes out of reach of the poor and the young, some countries are aiming to put cigarettes out of sight and hence out of mind of would-be smokers.

“Increasing taxes to make tobacco products as unaffordable as possible is the best way to go,” said WHO’s Tursan D’Espaignet.

Last month in New Zealand, a ban on the display of cigarettes in shops came into force. The ban is aimed at reducing the connection made by youth between sweets and cigarettes.

Innovative proposals are also being put forward where traditional approaches are believed to have reached their limit of efficacy.

“Retail displays, innocently positioned alongside everyday confectionery and sweets, are a key component to making cigarettes attractive to recruit young smokers,” said the New Zealand Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia, as reported in the New Zealand Herald.

For example, a campaign in Singapore promotes the gradual phasing-in of a complete ban on tobacco sales from 2018 by prohibiting sale of tobacco to Singaporeans born from the year 2000 onwards.

In China, a country where leading brands of cigarettes are de rigour at wedding banquets, tobacco-free weddings are being promoted to raise awareness. According to tradition, when the newlyweds toast each guest table, the bride lights a cigarette for each male guest.

In India earlier this year, where public cigarette lighters are common, the Cancer Patients Aid Association launched a campaign by rigging public lighters with an Indian “death chant.” Each time someone tried to light a cigarette, the lighter would play a chant associated with funerals.

But despite the best efforts by governments, a recent study published in The Lancet medical journal found that most developing countries have very low quit rates of less than 20 percent overall in countries such as China and India.

After a spate of tobacco-related policy changes in China and across Asia, governments can only hope that these will be enough to stem the looming health epidemic that threatens to reverse the socioeconomic gains of the past decade.

——

[OldChinaHam]

Abstract

Thailand has some of the world's strongest anti-tobacco legislation. This paper examines the political economy of tobacco control in Thailand, emphasising the identification of forces which have supported and opposed the passage of strong anti-tobacco measures. It argues that while a powerful tobacco control coalition was created in the late 1980s, the gains won by this coalition are now under threat from systematic attempts by transnational tobacco companies to strengthen their share of the Thai cigarette market. The possible privatisation of the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly could threaten the tobacco control cause, but the pro-control alliance is fighting back with a proposed Health Promotion Act which would challenge the tobacco industry with a hypothecated excise tax dedicated to health awareness campaigns."

2001 Abstract

Old But Pertinent

Seems that CM remains relatively impervious to international tobacco companies attempt to subvert actions by government and other groups to minimize smoking in Thailand. (Judging by what I can "see")

[OldChinaHam]

Thailand sued over new cigarette warnings

• 
  

Japan Tobacco has sued the Thai government over a plan to increase the size of health warnings on cigarette packages, and two more lawsuits will soon follow.

Graphic shows a sample of the new, authorised cigarette packets, with 85% warning and 15% left for the brand name. (Provided by Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance - Seatca)

"Japan Tobacco filed a lawsuit in the Administrative Court on June 19 to block the plan," spokesman Hisashi Sekiguchi said in a phone interview on Tuesday.

The measure violates Thailand's constitutional provisions guaranteeing freedom of expression, the Tokyo-based firm said.

The new regulation pushed by the Public Health Ministry and anti-smoking campaigners requires the graphic warnings on cigarette packs to cover 85% of the package space, up from the current 55%, in an effort to further curb smoking.

The new regulations were published in the Royal Gazette on April 5 and will become effective 180 days after that, or on Oct 2. The size of the graphic image will make it the world's largest graphic warnings on cigarette packs, topping Australia, which mandates 82.5% coverage.

All producers or importers have to use images provided by the Disease Control Department, which has prepared 10 designs. They are also required to show an advert for the 1600 hotline for people who want to quit smoking.

The Thai Tobacco Trade Association (TTTA), a group of 1,400 retailers, wholesalers and distributors, and the Philip Morris Thailand unit will file separate lawsuits before July 4 with the court.

TTTA executive director Varaporn Namatra said the regulation will lead to problems for retailers, including higher operational costs. They say it will also likely cause a consumer shift towards cheaper roll-your-own tobacco which is not subject to the new warning regulations, and already makes up about 50% of all tobacco sold in Thailand.

Onanong Pratakphiriya, a spokeswoman for Philip Morris (Thailand), said: "Given negative impacts this policy will bring about on our trademarks and packaging, and the fact that the ministry ignored our voices and the voices of thousands of retailers in enacting this rule, we have no choice but to ask the court to intervene."

Pornthep Siriwanarangsun, director-general of the department, said she was ready to fight the lawsuit.

She said that the TTTA had their right to launch a lawsuit against the ministry but the ministry has the legal right to announce the [tobacco package] regulation.

"It is for the protection of people's health," she said. "We aren't concerned about the lawsuits."

The measure is in line with the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which allows the ministry to implement the measure without getting feedback from tobacco traders, Dr Pornthep said.

The National Statistic Office's data shows that 11.5 million people aged over 15 years old in Thailand were smokers in 2011, or 21.4% of the population. Of the total, 9.9 million of them - 86% - are male.

[OldChinaHam]

Prevalence of smoking and other smoking-related behaviors reported by the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) in Thailand Abstract

Introduction

Thailand ratified the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) on November 8, 2004. The WHO FCTC requires all parties to inform all persons of the health consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. Each party has agreed to develop, implement and evaluate effective tobacco control programs to measure progress in reaching the goals of the WHO FCTC.

Methods

The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) was developed to provide data on youth tobacco use to countries for their development of youth-based tobacco control programs. Data in this report can be used as baseline measures for future evaluation of the tobacco control programs implemented by the Ministry of Public Health.

Results

Overall, about 1 in 10 Thai students are current smokers, this number including 4 times more boys than girls (17% versus 3.9%). Almost 2 in 10 Thai students start smoking before the age of 10, and almost 7 in 10 students are reported to have been exposed to smoke from others in public places. About 4 in 10 students are reported to have an object with a cigarette brand logo on it.

Conclusion

The key for Thailand is to implement and enforce the provisions on indirect tobacco advertising, smoking in public places, selling tobacco to youths under 18 years of age, and to use the data from the GYTS to monitor progress toward achieving the goals of the WHO FCTC. When these goals are met, tobacco consumption and exposure in Thailand will have declined substantially.

[OldChinaHam]

Phillip Morris fumes at Thailand cigarette pack rules

BANGKOK: Tobacco giant Philip Morris and hundreds of Thai retailers vowed Tuesday to sue the kingdom’s health authorities over new rules introducing bigger and more prominent anti-smoking warnings on cigarette packets.

The Tobacco firm, which makes the Marlboro brand, says the industry was not consulted before an April decision by Thailand’s Health Ministry to extend health warnings from 50 to 85 percent on both sides of every cigarette packet sold in the country.

“Given the negative impact this policy will have on our trademarks and the fact the Ministry ignored our voice and the voices of thousands of retailers enacting this rule, we have no choice but to ask the court to intervene,” company spokesman Onanong Pratakphiriya said in a statement, adding the lawsuit will be brought before July 4.

Philip Morris has fought bitter legal battles with governments before, most famously losing an action against a pioneering Australian government policy to introduce entirely plain cigarette packaging with the same typeface and graphic images of diseased smokers.

The Thai Tobacco Trade Association (TTTA), which represents 1,400 retailers across the kingdom, said it will also ask the courts to overturn the new rules.

“Everyone already knows that smoking is dangerous Thailand has some of the biggest health warnings in the world, I can’t see why the new requirement is necessary,” said Varaporn Namatra of the TTTA.

The ruling is due to come into force in October. Thailand’s Deputy Health MinisterCholnan Srikaew swatted away the threat of legal action.

“We have the authority to do it the law allows the ministry to do it,” he said.

“We decided to enlarge the warning and picture because the number of new smokers is high and the age is younger,” he said, adding that he hoped the enlarged pictures “will make new smokers rethink before they decide to smoke”.

Thailand bans smoking in public places but figures from its Office of Tobacco Control said smoking rates among those 15 years and older remained roughly unchanged from 27.2 percent in 2009 to 26.9 in 2011.

The tobacco lobby has systematically tried to block laws curbing their ability to advertise their products or raise taxes on cigarettes, but more and more countries are adopting the approach as the health costs of smoking mount.

Last week European Union member states agreed to cover 65 percent of packaging with health warnings, but the new rule needs approval from the European Parliament to come into force.

The World Health Organization has raised concerns the tobacco lobby is seeking to reach new, mainly young consumers despite widespread bans on billboard and television advertising by sponsoring events, selling branded clothing and product-placement in reality TV shows. -- AFP

[OldChinaHam]

ILLICIT CIGARETTE TRADE IN THAILAND

Pirudee Pavananunt

Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2012 November 29.

Published in final edited form as:

Southeast Asian J Trop Med Public Health. 2011 November;42(6): 1531–1539.

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Abstract

The sale and consumption of illicit tobacco increases consumption, impacts public health, reduces tax revenue and provides an argument against tax increases. Thailand has some of the best tobacco control policies in Southeast Asia with one of the highest tobacco tax rates, but illicit trade has the potential to undermine these policies and needs investigating. Two approaches were used to assess illicit trade between 1991 and 2006: method 1, comparison of tobacco used based on tobacco taxes paid and survey data, and method 2, discrepancies between export data from countries exporting tobacco to Thailand and Thai official data regarding imports. A three year average was used to smooth differences due to lags between exports and imports. For 1991–2006, the estimated manufactured cigarette consumption from survey data was considerably lower than sales tax paid, so method 1 did not provide evidence of cigarette tax avoidance. Using method 2 the trade difference between reported imports and exports, indicates 10% of cigarettes consumed in Thailand (242 million packs per year) between 2004 and 2006 were illicit. The loss of revenue amounted to 4,508 million Baht (2002 prices) in the same year, that was 14% of the total cigarette tax revenue. Cigarette excise tax rates had a negative relationship with consumption trends but no relation with the level of illicit trade. There is a need for improved policies against smuggling to combat the rise in illicit tobacco consumption. Regional coordination and implementation of protocols on illicit trade would help reduce incentives for illegal tax avoidance.

[OldChinaHam]

It has been bothering me that upon closer examination

It seems that this young lady has her cigarette in backwards.

The filter seems to be facing outwards.

Of course every smoker soon or later experiences this phenomenon

When the cigarette inexplicably and mysteriously changes direction.

Normally this happens more often

The more inebriated the smoker.

Maybe she is from CM

After all

[Chittychangchang]

This threads gone up in smoke

[OldChinaHam]

This threads gone up in smoke

No, not really.

I only felt I should point out the reversed filter problem to avoid

Flack from some unsympathetic reader.

I am still seriously searching for the data on incidence of smoking tobacco broken down by Thailand province.

Strange after all this searching still I have found not much in English.

Such a chart would be very interesting.

And could tell us something about the socioeconomic distinctions between various areas in Thailand.

Hopefully I can find a chart with color coding or bars or even a map which might help to

Brighten things up around here.

[Chittychangchang]

This threads gone up in smoke

No, not really.

I only felt I should point out the reversed filter problem to avoid

Flack from some unsympathetic reader.

I am still seriously searching for the data on incidence of smoking tobacco broken down by Thailand province.

Strange after all this searching still I have found not much in English.

Such a chart would be very interesting.

And could tell us something about the socioeconomic distinctions between various areas in Thailand.

Hopefully I can find a chart with color coding or bars or even a map which might help to

Brighten things up around here.

Good luck with your research, i fear it will be looking for a needle in a haystack.

CCC

[rucus7]

I wonder if Old China Ham's fixation with tobacco will dissipate with a longer cessation from smoking.

[OldChinaHam]

I wonder if Old China Ham's fixation with tobacco will dissipate with a longer cessation from smoking.

Fixation or not (which I do agree you are right to some extent) the reason I posted this topic was because I can see that Thailand's government is truly doing things right on the anti-smoking front.

Probably they do not want to be bankrupted by healthcare costs.

Also, for me, even I as a smoking smoker, it is just really nice to walk around without he public puffers everywhere that I am used to in other places.

Of course the Intl Tobacco companies are fighting tooth and claw to get our kids to start smoking and get hooked.

But Thailand gov is fighting back

and so should we.

It is just nice to know that CMers are really smart about this.

And so much else, I think.

Chiang Mai is a great place to live

Because most people are smart here.