South Korea Before Price Hikes

Why a sudden increase of blows at South Korea’s many convenience stores in the run up to the government’s sweeping measure to hike tobacco prices starting January 1st of next year?

Hint: Convenience stores are the most favorite destination for smokers to buy cigarettes in South Korea.

With Seoul nearly doubling the price of cigarettes in its aim to lower the nation-wide smoking rate while raising tax revenue, a growing number of smokers are rushing to nearby convenience stores – apparently hoarding cheap tobacco products before the price increases go into affect.

As the demand for tobacco at lower prices surged, many display stands stood empty, resulting in government’s latest guideline to limit the number of cigarette packs per customer.

This lead to bickering between store clerks and customers who wanted to stock up on their cigarettes in advance, and in some cases, they ended up exchanging blows.

On December 22 in Miah-dong in northern Seoul, a customer surnamed Kim wanted to buy cigarettes at a local store only to find there were none available. When the store staff’s apologized for the inconvenience, saying, “All sold out,” he was driven to fury and hit the store manager in the face two times.

A similar incident also occurred in northern Seoul on December 15, when a customer surnamed Jeong resorted to violence upon hearing about cigarette purchasing limits at a local convenience store.

While there is much upheaval in the tobacco industry in the run up to the nation-wide price hikes, it seems that the electronic-cigarette or e-cigar manufacturers might enjoy benefits due to the policy shift.

City Council in Gadsden, AL, Reconsidering Smoking Ban

In June 2014, authorities in the city of Gadsden, Alabama, passed an ordinance which prohibits smoking in all enclosed working spaces. Now the city council consider to make some ajustments to the ordinance. Councilman Ben Reed participated in creating the initial version of the ordinance. He says that new council members want more time to

Hookah Popular Among Students

A new study found that American college students think that using hookah is safer than smoking cigarettes. Scientists from the University of South Florida College of Public Health analyzed hookah use among young people and described behavioural and social factors connected to hookah smoking among students. Jaime Corvin, USF assistant professor of global health and

Altria and Reynolds American; Report 2014

Altria and Reynolds American, the maker of Winston cigarettes http://cigarette-deals.com/winston-cheap-cigarettes regularly raise their prices to offset declining cigarette shipment volumes. Bearish arguments against both companies usually declare that rising prices, exacerbated by higher excise taxes, will hit a ceiling and cause revenues to decline.

That argument initially makes sense when we compare the price of cigarettes in the U.S. to other nations. Forty percent of adults smoke in Russia, where a pack of cigarettes costs $1.74 with taxes included. By comparison, 18% of adults smoke in the U.S., where an average pack of cigarettes (averaged across all states) costs $6.36.

But when we calculate the price of cigarettes as a percentage of average monthly income (based on UNECE and ILO statistics), the average Russian spends 0.17% on one pack of cigarettes, compared with 0.14% for the average American.

Meanwhile, smokers in the U.K. spend $10.99 (0.32% of their monthly income) on a pack of cigarettes, yet the country has a higher smoking rate of 19%. In Australia, where a pack of cigarettes costs $12.14 (0.47% of monthly income), 17.5% of adults still smoke. These comparisons suggest that Altria and Reynolds American can probably afford to nearly double their U.S. prices over the next decade without any noticeable impact on smoking rates.

However, increased health awareness and public bans against smoking could reduce the nationwide smoking rate. Higher federal and state excise taxes, which rose over 120 times between 2000 and 2013, could also throttle tobacco companies' ability to raise their own wholesale prices.

South Korea approves cigarette price hike

South Korea's parliament has approved an 80% hike in the price of cigarettes, a move aimed at curbing consumption.

A rise from 2,500 won ($2.25; £1.43) per pack to 4,500 won from 1 January was part of the 2015 budget adopted late on Tuesday.

South Korea has among the highest male smoking rates among OECD countries at 43.7%, according to the Health Ministry.

The government hopes the hike will bring that down to 29% by 2020.

South Korea has one of the lowest prices of cigarettes in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group of countries and it has remained unchanged since 2004.

The government has also won approval to link cigarette prices to consumer price rises so that cigarette prices move with inflation growth.

Previous measures to try and curb consumption have included banning lighting up in public places, pictures of the harm caused by smoking on packaging and a ban on tobacco ads in retail stores.

University of Alaska Anchorage Considers Smoking Ban

The University of Alaska Anchorage wants to adopt an anti-smoking policy which would prohibit use of tobacco on all university property. It is proposed to ban use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. The proposed policy will be discussed this week by the University of Alaska Board of Regents at its meeting in Anchorage.

Less Smokers Reported in the USA

New data released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrates that in 2013 in the USA the number of adult smokers achieved a record low level. Today only 17.8% smoke which makes 42.1 million adult Americans. Health experts say that numbers of today are a great progress since 18.1% smoked in 2012 and 20.9%

Research on tobacco usage at San Jose leads to campus change

Change is coming to San Jose State University's campus, with President Mohammad Qayoumi issuing a directive Nov. 20 to make San Jose State a smoke- and tobacco-free place by Aug. 1, 2015. There are many smokers in the university who oppose the ban. All of them choose cheapest cigarettes http://www.cigarettestrade.com/buy/blood

This directive was based on research and a survey that Milpitas High School class of 2009 graduate Isra Ahmad worked on as part of Campuses Organized & United for Good Health, or COUGH, at San Jose State while she was a student. The research involved asking students, staff and administration about their attitudes toward smoking and whether they would support a smoke-free campus. She said 65 percent of the 2,300 participants favored a campus without smoke.

In January 2013, shortly after graduating as a health science major, Ahmad was named one of four youth activism fellows for Legacy, a national nonprofit dedicated to reducing tobacco usage among youth and helping smokers quit.

Since then she has been working to gauge student, staff and faculty opinion and awareness of new and emerging tobacco product usage on campus. Between April and June 2014 she returned to San Jose State and worked with COUGH to question students and staff using paper and online surveys.

The data collected from 1,160 individuals on the campus of 23,881 undergraduates indicated that hookah, a waterpipe used to pass charcoal-heated air through a tobacco mixture and a water-filled chamber, and electronic cigarettes, are growing in popularity.

Of those polled, 9.85 percent said they smoked cigarettes; 6.33 percent smoked small cigars/cigarillos; 8.79 percent said they smoked hookah (water pipe, shisha); and 10.73 percent said they smoked e-cigarettes.

About 40.72 percent of respondents said they used tobacco products because they are experimenting; 36.49 percent said they used it for flavor; 33.76 used it as a stress reliever; 11.10 percent used it because of peer pressure; and 3.95 percent used it because of family influence.

Smoking Ban in Beijing

Authorities in Beijing, the capital of China, want to introduce a smoking ban in all indoor public spaces, thus smokers will have to seek other places to light up. Also cigarettes will be banned from advertising in magazines, movies, newspapers and public transport. Data shows that today in China there are around 300 million smokers.