Research and Markets has announced the addition of the “China Foods, Beverages & Tobacco Production Equipment Market Report” report to their offering. This report presents a clear picture on the overall development of the foods, beverages & tobacco production equipment market in China and the trend in recent years based on detailed data analysis. This report includes an analysis of the circuit printing market size and market share in China, a study on major hot areas in this market, an introduction to key data and a comparison of the top 10 enterprises in terms of sales r ... Jump to full article >>

California will not fix its fiscal woes by blocking rational budget decisions. The Legislature should reject new taxes to pay for pet programs while basic public services struggle for funding. Legislators should be setting careful priorities for public spending, not diverting tax money away from more pressing needs. A state less than halfway to closing a $26.6 billion shortfall through mid-2012 needs all the financial flexibility it can manage. Yet legislators continue to propose additional arbitrary budget formulas that would only hinder efforts to end the state’s chronic deficits. The ... Jump to full article >>

One of Europe’s biggest taxi firms today lost a legal battle over its unauthorised installation of cigarette “adbins” outside pubs and restaurants. For more than three years, Addison Lee has sponsored more than 19,000 “adbins” outside businesses across London where smokers could leave their discarded butts. Today, a judge ruled that the business – which has more than 2,500 minicabs – acted illegally by erecting some of the bins without planning permission. Westminster City Council brought the legal action over 21 advertisements at seven sites – s ... Jump to full article >>

The California Medical Association (CMA) filed a brief last week in U.S. District Court supporting the City and County of San Francisco’s ban on the sale of tobacco products in retail stores with pharmacies. “Unlike other retail outlets that sell cigarettes, stores that provide pharmacy services pose a unique problem if they also sell tobacco products,” CMA’s brief states. “Stores such as Safeway that contain a pharmacy are an integral part of the health care delivery system. “Selling tobacco products in such institutions creates a conflict of interest and s ... Jump to full article >>

Soaring petrol prices were a key factor behind a 0.8 percent rise in the consumers’ price index (CPI) in the March quarter and a 4.5 percent rise for the year to March, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) figures show. The rise was slightly less than expected, with the median forecasts in a Reuters survey having been for a 1 percent rise over the quarter and a 4.6 percent gain on the year. The result knocked back the high flying New Zealand dollar which had briefly topped US80c for the first time in three years earlier, but fell from around US79.85c to US79.55c in the minutes after the data wa ... Jump to full article >>

The development of two buildings in Brooklyn has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge, who ordered Friday that the mid-19th-century structures be returned to a designation of federally protected parkland. New York City had approved a proposal to allow one of the buildings, the Tobacco Warehouse, to be used by St. Ann’s Warehouse, a theater company based in the Dumbo neighborhood that has been looking for a new home. The city was planning to take proposals for the Empire Stores building this spring, city officials said. But Judge Eric N. Vitaliano said that the National Park Service b ... Jump to full article >>

Tobacco products are very hazardous to your health, so the City Council wants to take them off the shelf, but the ironic thing is they decided that they only want to take them out of stores that have pharmacies. I understand that cigarettes and other tobacco products are very unhealthy and dangerous, but taking them off the shelf in just pharmacies isn’t going to really make a difference in the percentages of people using these products every day. Some people may not even buy their cigarettes at a store with a pharmacy in it so they will continue to buy them from wherever they normally get ... Jump to full article >>

A statewide smoking ban with key exemptions has passed the Indiana House and now awaits action in the Senate. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association is urging its members and their cigar loving customers to ensure that the exemptions stay in place. A statewide smoking ban with key exemptions has passed the Indiana House and now awaits action in the Senate. The International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association is urging its members and their cigar loving customers to ensure that the exemptions stay in place. Indiana House Bill 1018 exempts casinos and ho ... Jump to full article >>

The Pennsylvania government has been digging into the extra $300 million that tobacco companies have been sending to the state each year for health costs resulting from tobacco use. Most other states receiving the 1998 Tobacco Settlement funds have been doing the same. This year, Gov. Tom Corbett has taken a step that worries health advocates even more. He has proposed depositing the tobacco funds directly into the state general fund, starting in fiscal 2012. “It’s like putting it into a black hole,” said Jen Ebersole, government relations director for the Pennsylvania Ameri ... Jump to full article >>

Government parties are however resisting the move due to lack of available data connecting a ban with a decrease in tobacco sales. Eva Olofsson, of the Left Party, is one of the advocates for a ban. “The aim is to get less people overall to smoke and less children and young people to start smoking. To achieve that, sales must decrease. This might be one way to tackle that,“ she said to Sveriges Radio (SR). The UK Health Department decided earlier this month to ban tobacco displays from large stores in England from April 2012, with smaller shops following suit by 2015 at the latest. Scotla ... Jump to full article >>

National grocery store chain Safeway Inc. has filed a federal lawsuit claiming that San Francisco’s ban on the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies and stores that contain pharmacies is unconstitutional. Safeway says the prohibition should be lifted because it discriminates against retailers that have in-store pharmacies. In August 2008 San Francisco passed a law that prohibited the sale of tobacco at pharmacies but exempted grocery stores like Safeway and “big box” retailers such as Wal-Mart and Costco that happen to contain pharmacies. San Francisco is the first U.S. city to ini ... Jump to full article >>