Tobacco Advertising

If advocates of bans on tobacco advertising had their complete way, most would prohibit this product outright. But this is not (yet) politically feasible. Instead, they have focussed their efforts on restricting information flows about this product. They rely on the doctrine that free speech rights apply only indirectly, if at all, to such matters of commerce. In this paper several arguments in behalf of bans on tobacco advertising are considered, and all are found invalid. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Assessing Exposures to Environmental Tobacco Smoke

The combustion of tobacco indoors results in the emission of a wide range of air contaminants that are associated with a variety of acute and chronic health and comfort effects. Exposures to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) are assessed for epidemiologic studies and risk assessment and risk management applications. An individual's or population's exposure to ETS can be assessed by direct methods, which employ personal air monitoring and biomarkers, and indirect methods, which utilize various degrees of microenvironmental measurements of spaces, models, and questionnaires in combination with time-activity information. The major issues related to assessing exposures to ETS are summarized and discussed, including the physical-chemical nature of ETS air contaminants, use of proxy air contaminants to represent ETS, use of biomarkers, models for estimating ETS concentrations indoors, and the application of questionnaires.     

Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Science vs. Rhetoric

After an extensive review and analysis of the scientific evidence on the respiratory health effects of passive smoking, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded that environmental tobacco smoke causes lung cancer in adult nonsmokers and increases the risk of a variety of non-cancer respiratory disorders, especially in children. This article is a response to claims in Dr. Gio Gori's article "Policy Against Science: The Case of Environmental Tobacco Smoke," appearing in the same issue of this journal, that such conclusions are unwarranted. This response focuses only on the respiratory health effects of environmental tobacco smoke.     

A Method for Comparing the Impact on Carcinogenicity of Tobacco Products: A Case Study on Heated Tobacco Versus Cigarettes

Comparing the harmful health effects related to two different tobacco products by applying common risk assessment methods to each individual compound is problematic. We developed a method that circumvents some of these problems by focusing on the change in cumulative exposure (CCE) of the compounds emitted by the two products considered. The method consists of six steps. The first three steps encompass dose-response analysis of cancer data, resulting in relative potency factors with confidence intervals. The fourth step evaluates emission data, resulting in confidence intervals for the expected emission of each compound. The fifth step calculates the change in CCE, probabilistically, resulting in an uncertainty range for the CCE. The sixth step estimates the associated health impact by combining the CCE with relevant dose-response information. As an illustrative case study, we applied the method to eight carcinogens occurring both in the emissions of heated tobacco products (HTPs), a novel class of tobacco products, and tobacco smoke. The CCE was estimated to be 10- to 25-fold lower when using HTPs instead of cigarettes. Such a change indicates a substantially smaller reduction in expected life span, based on available dose-response information in smokers. However, this is a preliminary conclusion, as only eight carcinogens were considered so far. Furthermore, an unfavorable health impact related to HTPs remains as compared to complete abstinence. Our method results in useful information that may help policy makers in better understanding the potential health impact of new tobacco and related products. A similar approach can be used to compare the carcinogenicity of other mixtures.     

以"小"赢"大"

赢得国际市场的份额，是国内众多企业梦寐以求的。但很多企业认为小产品价廉利薄，难以做大规模，能出口的产品必须是高、精、尖的。其实不然，有不少企业仅凭着一些价格不过几毛钱甚至几分钱的小产品，在国际大市场上创出了品牌。宜兴兴达集团的文具胶，每支最高不过２元钱，却被认为是亚洲第一品牌，曾接下美国埃尔默公司１亿元的大订单；驰马拉链公司的一条拉链平均不过１元钱，目前年生产拉链上亿条，长度能绕地球两圈，在很多国际知名品牌服饰上都可见到驰马拉链；海门市以四分钱一根的机针做成了一个创汇大产业，其中的白鹤公司是目前…     

Public Trust in Government Concerning Tobacco Control in Japan

This study investigated public trust and its determinants concerning the government's control of tobacco in Japan. We focused on the two issues of government policies to ban smoking by minors and increase taxes on tobacco. We conducted a questionnaire survey in which respondents were asked to assess their trust in the government, the government's fairness and competency, and their value similarity with the government. One thousand three hundred and ninety-four respondents agreed to participate in the survey out of 2,600 randomly sampled adults over 20 years old from all over Japan. The results of multiple regression analysis confirmed that value similarity is the strongest predictor of public trust in the government. On the affirmatively supported issue of prohibiting smoking among minors, the results further indicated that assessment of competency is a stronger predictor than assessment of fairness. In contrast, assessment of fairness is a stronger predictor than assessment of competency for the still divided issue of increasing tobacco tax. Respondents who had low concern and had not formed clear opinions on the issues showed a weak link between assessment of value similarity and trust. Based on these findings, we considered the implications for the government's implementation of tobacco controls.     

我国烟叶收购价格问题研究

近年来,由于我国烟叶收购价格不合理,导致农民的种烟积极性下降,对我国烟叶生产的平稳发展带来很大影响。长期以来采用的烟粮比价定价法存在严重的缺陷,无法真正调动农民的种烟积极性。本文从我国烟叶生产的实际出发,把DEA方法、多元回归方法与完全信息动态博弈模型结合起来,提出了制定烟叶收购价格的新思路。该定价方法以烟粮比较收益为基础,制定的烟叶收购价格能够充分调动农民的种烟积极性。     

烟草物流配送中心选址优化问题研究

物流配送是烟草销售业务的重要环节,也是业务成本的主要组成部分.烟草物流大系统中存在很多复杂的优化问题,本文研究了其中的配送中心的数量、配送中心的选址的优化问题的求解方法.对这些问题的深入研究将有利于提高烟草配送业务的效益和服务水平,向精益物流逐步迈进.     

Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Exposure-Response Relationships in Epidemiologic Studies

Demonstration of a dose-response relationship for environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is an important indication of causality. Central to the analysis and interpretation of dose-response relations as described in epidemiological studies is the relationship between dose and exposure. It must be recognized that in studies of ETS we have only surrogate measures of dose, and these surrogate measures (based on exposure) are imperfect. The question-based measures of ETS exposure generally have not been standardized, may have limited validity and reliability, and cannot comprehensively describe total ETS exposure, exposure to individual ETS components, nor doses of biologically relevant agents at target sites. Nevertheless, useful data have been yielded in epidemiologic studies linking ETS exposure to increased respiratory infection and symptoms, reduced lung growth in children, and increased lung cancer in nonsmoking adults. The more consistent exposure-response data for studies on acute health in children may reflect the greater difficulty in measuring exposure in studies of chronic health in adults.     

烟草企业运营体系业务流程重组的研究

本文在对BPR理论分析研究的基础上,对烟草企业运营体系的业务流程重组进行了探索,并以宁波卷烟厂BPR的实施作为案例分析。     

"特赦"

两名机修工在安装设备时一不留心,把刚从外地购来的特种电机滑落在地,端盖砸裂了,连轴摔歪了,厂里原计划明天试车的计划泡汤了.闻讯后我赶紧来到现场.两位机修工如同两尊塑像,正望着摔坏的电机发呆.     

Use of Environmental Tobacco Smoke Constituents as Markers for Exposure

The 16-City Study analyzed for gas-phase environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) constituents (nicotine, 3-ethenyl pyridine [3-EP], and myosmine) and for particulate-phase constituents (respirable particulate matter [RSP], ultraviolet-absorbing particulate matter [UVPM], fluorescing particulate matter [FPM], scopoletin, and solanesol). In this second of three articles, we discuss the merits of each constituent as a marker for ETS and report pair-wise comparisons of the markers. Neither nicotine nor UVPM were good predictors for RSP. However, nicotine and UVPM were good qualitative predictors of each other. Nicotine was correlated with other gas-phase constituents. Comparisons between UVPM and other particulate-phase constituents were performed. Its relation with FPM was excellent, with UVPM approximately 1 1/2 times FPM. The correlation between UVPM and solanesol was good, but the relationship between the two was not linear. The relation between UVPM and scopoletin was not good, largely because of noise in the scopoletin measures around its limit of detection. We considered the relation between nicotine and saliva cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine. The two were highly correlated on the group level. That is, for each cell (smoking home and work, smoking home but nonsmoking work, and so forth), there was high correlation between average cotinine and 24-hour time-weighted average (TWA) nicotine concentrations. However, on the individual level, the correlations, although significant, were not biologically meaningful. A consideration of cotinine and nicotine or 3-EP on a subset of the study whose only exposure to ETS was exclusively at work or exclusively at home showed that home exposure was a more important source of ETS than work exposure.     

Policy Against Science: The Case of Environmental Tobacco Smoke

The grounds for official policy claims that environmental tobacco smoke is a major health risk remain speculative. In scientific terms, the evidence is compatible with either a slight increase or a decrease of risks, but is impotent to certify either conclusion. Official advocacy of unproven hypotheses presented as valid scientific conclusions raises serious ethical questions, and threatens the credibility of risk assessment as a legitimate policy instrument.     

"汇丰"下乡

2007年8月6日,湖北随州曾都汇丰村镇银行获准筹建,"汇丰"由此成为首家获准进入中国农村地区的外资银行.