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During a recent tobacco enforcement “sting” in Delta County, slightly more than 90 percent of Delta County businesses passed with flying colors — refusing to sell cigarettes or chewing tobacco without proper identification.

On July 1, a state law goes into effect requiring employees to card anyone who appears to be under the age of 30.
The new legislation clarifies previous regulations which stated that anyone who “knowingly” sells tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18 could be held criminally liable.
According to Larry Mullen, a criminal investigator with the state liquor/tobacco enforcement unit, a Palisade woman who was cited for unlawfully selling tobacco to a minor claimed she did not do so “knowingly” because she never asked the customer for identification.
The employee who violates the law can be fined for the sale, as well as the failure to ask for ID, Mullen said.
Mullen was a speaker at a Delta County Tobacco Education Coalition meeting on Friday, June 20.
Earlier in the meeting, Karen O’Brien, tobacco education coordinator for Delta County, gave an overview of the many incentives offered to teens, new moms and adults who want to quit smoking.
“Those are the carrots,” Mullen said. “My job is the stick side.”
During the course of his career with the Colorado Department of Revenue, the former cop has visited virtually every store on the Western Slope which sells tobacco products. He uses teens under the legal age of 18 as decoys in his “sting” operations. In Delta County, he sent females into the stores to try to purchase cigarettes.
“Delta County did much better than I expected,” he said, adding that females tend to be turned down more than males.
As a state, Colorado has to demonstrate that 80 percent of the time underage purchases of tobacco products are denied. The requirement stems from the tobacco litigation which resulted in billions of dollars targeted for tobacco education and cessation. The states involved in the settlement, including Colorado, must demonstrate that a significant portion of the settlement funds are being used to attack the public health problem posed by tobacco use.
Mullen says his enforcement team visits every store in Delta County at least once year, and returns in 90 days to re-check violators.
According to the Healthy Kids survey conducted in Delta County last fall, 50 percent of middle and high schoolers find it’s pretty easy to purchase tobacco.

LONDON— Imperial Tobacco Group PLC said Thursday that it plans to slash its work force by around 6 percent as part of its restructuring plans after its recent takeover of Spanish rival Altadis SA.

Imperial, Europe’s second largest tobacco company, said it will close six of its 58 factories around the world and “reorganize operations at a number of other sites.” Two of the plants being closed are in France and there is one each in Britain, Germany, Spain and Slovakia.

The maker of brands including Lambert & Butler, West and Gauloises said the plans are an attempt to address overcapacity and improve efficiencies in a “challenging and highly regulated operating environment.”

The restructuring will potentially cut the number of jobs at the enlarged company by around 2,440 from the current 40,000, Imperial said.

Several tobacco manufacturers are cutting jobs and streamlining their businesses as cigarette sales decline in Western European markets amid smoking bans. Britain — a key market for Imperial — became the latest country to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces, including restaurants and pubs, last year and is also considering banning vending machines and requiring shops to stock cigarettes below the counter.

Most of the job cuts will come in France, where Imperial will lose around 1,060 staff, nearly a quarter of that country’s work force of 4,700. Its factories in Metz and Strasbourg will be closed.

In Britain, where the company employs 1,700 people, Imperial will shut its historic Bristol cigar factory and restructure its Nottingham plant resulting in a total loss of 260 jobs. The Bristol factory, which has been making tobacco products since 1901, will transfer production to Spain.

In Spain, 830 jobs will be lost and the Alicante cigarette factory closed. In Germany 250 jobs will go and the Berlin cigarette factory will be shut. In Russia 100 jobs will be cut.

Another 140 jobs will be lost across Belgium, Italy, the Ukraine and Slovakia, where the company’s cigar and fine cut tobacco factory will close.

However, the company plans to add around 200 jobs in Poland where it plans to upgrade its factories in Tarnowo and Radom.

Imperial said it is consulting with unions and employee councils on the plans, and added it would look to offset the job cuts through internal redeployment, early retirement and voluntary departures.

“The projects are a necessary step in the process of integrating Imperial Tobacco and Altadis, and will ensure that we create a strong and sustainable future for the enlarged group,” said chief executive Gareth Davis.

Imperial bought Altadis last year in a deal worth 12.6 billion euros. It earlier this year made a 4.9 billion pound rights issue to help finance the acquisition, after reporting a 45 percent drop in profit for the first half of the year.

Two tobacco companies are battling it out at Competition Commission Tribunal hearings.

At issue is access to retail channels.

The tribunal’s ruling is likely to affect the cigarette brands that are immediately visible to consumers at retail outlets.

Japan Tobacco International South Africa (JTISA) has accused British American Tobacco South Africa (Batsa) of being involved in conduct aimed at denying its competitors access to various retail channels.

These include hotels, restaurants and cafes.

JTISA manufactures brands that include Winston, Camel and Benson & Hedges.

Batsa’s flagship brands include Peter Stuyvesant, Dunhill and Kent.

JTISA lodged a complaint with the Competition Commission in 2003, saying Batsa was the dominant cigarette manufacturer in the country.

METROPOLIS, Ill. —  Illinois’ adopted home of Superman considers cigarettes an enemy, and it’s ready to pay a handsome reward to any city employee who can vanquish their smoking habit.

The southern Illinois tourist trap said it will pay city workers $1,000 apiece if they can stay off smokes for a year.

Mayor Billy McDaniel said the city has been looking for a way to get its employees off cigarettes for good. So far, McDaniel said, 15 people have signed up for the program that began Monday.

The plan calls for random nicotine tests to identify cheaters. Nicotine patches and gum will not affect those tests.

McDaniel hopes the program leads to healthier employees, lower insurance premiums and lower labor costs.

New York now has the highest tax on cigarettes in the nation.

Tuesday it went up by $1.25.

That pushes the tax to $2.75 per pack.

As Action News Reporter Caitlin Nuclo tells us, the move is getting mixed reactions today from smokers, and non-smokers alike.

Smokers can now expect to pay as much as 6 or 7 dollars for a pack of cigarettes.

The increase has some smokers angry, but many people are happy with the change.
“Having the highest tax in the country we have the lowest number of smokers, said “Dr. Richard Terry from United Health Services.

Anti-smoking groups say every state that has increased their cigarette tax has seen a drop in both teens starting to smoke and in daily smokers.

They say about 140,000 people will stop smoking because of the added cost.

“We don’t want our kids to start smoking and even smokers who have been smoking for all of their lives agree that they don’t want their children to start smoking, said Christie Finch with the Tobacco Free Broome Coalition.

“Health officials hope that the tax hike will help smokers kick the habit”

And it has for some.

Gregory Winnick says he couldn’t afford to buy cigarettes anymore.

He was smoking 6 to 7 packs a week, spending about 35 dollars.

He says he feels ten times healthier since he quit, and offers some advice to smokers.

“Just find that one emotional push to get you over the edge to quit. Everybody has one,” said Winnick.

For Winnick, the extra $1.25 was enough for him to kick his habit.

But Steven Gradijan says he’s been smoking for 30 years, and the tax increase isn’t going to make him stop anytime soon.

“I don’t think that raising the price is going to make anyone quit just because of the price. You want to quit you are going to quit on your own and cost is not a factor,” he said.

Gradijan says until he’s ready to quit, he’ll look for ways to save, like buying his cigarettes online.