brieftly introduction

Standards of evidence, both scientific and medical, must be met in cases involving large-scale, serious dangers to public health. A strong case can be made for imposing restrictions on the sale, promotion, and even consumption of a certain products, such as cigarettes, which harm public health and the global economy. There is now a substantial body of evidence demonstrating how damaging tobacco use is on individual nations and on the global economy. Because there are now laws restricting tobacco adverting in the U.S, the tobacco market has diminished in the U.S. Therefore, tobacco companies are focusing marketing on Asian countries. In many Asian countries, smoking is fashionable. And, Asian smokers seem to be susceptible to glitzy advertising campaigns. Smoking American or European cigarettes is seen as "cool." According to The New York Times article "No gift is more appreciated in Vietnam than British-made ‘555' cigarettes. In China, the choice is Marlboro. Among the gentry of Thailand, it is Dunhill"(Shenon, 1994, p.10). “Rates of smoking are extremely high among Asian men: 60 percent in Japan and China, for example, and a whopping 73 percent in Vietnam” (Pollack, 1997. p.1). Physicians and scientists are concerned about how increased smoking will affect the health of the Asian people. One scientist estimates that "because of increasing tobacco consumption in Asia, the annual worldwide death toll from tobacco-related illnesses will more than triple over the next two or three decades, from about 3 million a year to 10 million a year, a fifth of them in China. His calculations suggest that 50 million Chinese children alive today will eventually die from diseases linked to cigarette smoking" (Shenon, 1994, p.16). History of the Problem The tobacco industry, in general, and individual companies, in particular, conduct themselves to ensure a profit from smokers. But, this industry does have many enemies, and the issue that unites these various groups is health. Cigarette smoking has been linked with heart and lung disease and many forms of cancer. Are the giant multinational tobacco companies in financial danger? Probably not, because cigarette use is growing in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and in the former Soviet Union. “In Asia alone, the World Health Organization estimated at the beginning of the 1990s that smoking would increase by one-third during the decade” (Allin, Mossialos, McKee and Holland, 2004, p.82). While some Asian governments have followed the lead of Western nations and banned tobacco advertising on television and radio, the tobacco companies find ways to get their message to the people-at sporting events, for example, or through clothing that sports cigarette logos. In Japan, the tobacco industry and four multinational tobacco companies have voluntarily developed new, tough advertising standards, effective April 1, 1998. These standards are designed to control smoking by young people (Nakagawa, 1998). In strict Singapore, anti-smoking laws, such as laws against selling cigarettes to minors, carry heavy penalties. Such laws indicate that anti-smoking attitudes of Western countries are finding their way to some Asian countries, (Nakagawa, 1998). Scope of the problem The multinational tobacco companies say that they are not trying to get nonsmokers in Asia to start smoking. Instead, they say, they are trying to get Asian people who already smoke to change brands. The evidence suggests otherwise, however. “In previous years, the ministry had tried to include such a section but had been overruled by the more powerful Ministry of Finance, which represents the interests of the tobacco industry (note that the Japanese government owns a major share of Japan Tobacco),” (Pollack, 1997, p.16). In Hong Kong, very few women smoke. Thus, if companies are not interested in creating new smokers, Hong Kong would not appear to be a good market for a cigarette brand aimed at women. “Yet Philip Morris introduced their Virginia Slims brand aimed specifically at women in Hong Kong a few years ago (Shannon, 1994, p.17). Under the Bush Administration particularly, the US government pushed for agreements that allow free trade in cigarettes, thus ensuring that Asian countries would be open markets for American-based tobacco companies. The 1993 annual report of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco claimed that "today, Reynolds has access to 90 percent of the world's markets, a decade ago, only 40 percent." (Greenberg, 2001, p.101). Clearly, trade negotiators' efforts to support the American tobacco industry have been successful. Population China is an especially attractive market to the multinationals because it has “a huge population (1.2 billion people) and a growing economy. The number of smokers in China is greater than the population of the United States” (Shenon, 1994, p.17). Other market groups targeted by the tobacco companies are Asian women and young people. While adult males have been the most common smokers in Asia, advertising aimed particularly at women and young people seek to change that. “Increasing numbers of Asian women see smoking as a sign of their liberation” (Pollack, 199, p.1). Rationale There are served reasons why this subject is important to me. It involves large-scale serious danger to public health in Asia and affects my family, and friends, as well as, the health of the next generation. This paper attempts to examine in the case of “cigarette companies who have promoted tobacco use, which is the number one cause of cancer-related death globally” (Williams, 1992, p.74.). The paper also focuses on the efforts to the tobacco companies to target Asian women and young people, and the dangers of passive smoke. This paper also reflects on the lessons learned from the history of England and its use of drugs in China in the nineteenth century. Because China was richly resources that England did not have, England wanted to have China in its colonial plan. Therefore, “their plans failed Chinese Scholars recognized England’s intention and the result was the opium war” (Waley, 1979, p.15). Now again, Western tobacco companies and politicians uses cigarettes to exploit an in Asian market. Thus, it may be said that the cigarettes companies which have harmed public health in the past continue to the present have been were among the pioneers in the processes of market globalization that we are witnessing today.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Substitutes for Tobacco Expansion
Ozone Protection Hotline (800) 296-1996
Substitutes are reviewed on the basis of ozone depletion potential, global warming potential, toxicity, flammability, and exposure potential. Lists of acceptable and unacceptable substitutes are updated several times each year. A chronological list of SNAP updates is available from the hotline. If your browser is unable to display tables, please call the hotline for a free paper copy.
Note: SNAP Notices and Final Rules published in the Federal Register take precedence over all information on the web site.
Acceptable Substitutes for CFC-11
Substitute
Comments
Carbon Dioxide
New equipment only.
Propane
Propane tobacco expansion is a patented process. Flammability may be of concern for workers. Major sources of VOC emissions are subject to the New Source Review (NSR) program under the CAA.

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