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Is it possible that the tobacco industry has met its match? After years of watching public-health groups and governments struggle to rein in the multinational tobacco companies, it was good to hear that Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Bill Gates have joined forces to combat the smoking epidemic threatening many low- and middle-income countries.

When two highly visible billionaire philanthropists put their resources and stature behind a campaign, the results are apt to be good. And their target is a worthy one: tobacco companies and government-owned tobacco enterprises trying to addict hundreds of millions of new customers in the developing world as sales stagnate or shrivel in the industrialized nations.

Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Gates jointly announced commitments from their charitable foundations last week that will raise the money available to roughly $500 million over the next several years. Mr. Bloomberg plans to invest another $250 million over the next four years on top of $125 million that already had been committed. Mr. Gates, who was happy to join the crusade, is to allocate $125 million over five years.

The new funds will dwarf the $20 million a year currently spent on antismoking campaigns in poor and middle-income countries. The money is to be spent to promote strategies whose effectiveness has already been proved to the satisfaction of the World Health Organization. The campaign will urge governments to sharply raise tobacco taxes, prohibit smoking in public places, ban tobacco advertising, start antismoking campaigns and help people quit smoking. It will assist governmental agencies and provide funding for nongovernmental organizations to help press for tobacco controls.

The goal is to reverse the rapid rise of smoking in such countries as China, India and Russia and to head off the epidemic in Africa before it can become entrenched. One big problem is that many countries have become addicted to the revenues generated by tobacco taxes or government-owned tobacco companies. They will have to be persuaded that the long-term health damage caused by tobacco far exceeds any short-term gain from tobacco revenues.

French biotechnological company Biosyntec wants to invest in Zakłady Tytoniowe Lublin (ZTL), the last state-owned company on the tobacco market in the EU. "The first meeting concerning terms for the sale of company shares has been held," announced Agnieszka Żukowska of the Treasury Ministry, which plans to finish the privatization procedure in Q2 2008.

ZTL has been losing its share of the cigarette market over the past few years, however, it is the leading domestic producer of tobacco.

Biosyntec's capital should open ZTL to the global market. The firm has plans to produce a new type of cigarette filter that would reduce the risk of cancer cells caused by cigarette smoke by 80%.

Experts from the tobacco industry unofficially said that if the performance of the filters is confirmed, no tobacco company will be able to ignore them.

The cigarette market in Poland is worth almost zł.20 billion annually.

A new type discount cigarettes has hit the market. "This is one of the hottest items that we're talking about,' says Silva.
Hawaii will soon join twenty-seven other states in requiring only "fire safe" cigarettes to be sold in stores. "As pun, we were a blaze to get this passed," says Representative Ryan Yamane, (D) Mililani, Waphau, Waipio. "To me this was a no brainer on helping and supporting the people of our state."
This is how it works, a fire safe cigarette acts just as a regular cigarettes. But if it's not puffed on every few minutes, the flame will then go out. You can see the difference. When left in an ashtray a "fire safe" cigarette on the right goes out within minutes. While a regular safe cigarette on the left keeps on burning.
"I know first hand that cigarettes and any smoking material is dangerous," says Silva.
Fire safe cigarettes are wrapped in special paper with ultra-thin bands that work like speed bumps...to slow down the burn and self-extinguish.
"If we don't have to go to fires, if we don't expose ourselves to those kinds of risks we're better off also," says Silva. "There will be no additional charge to the cigarettes, so it won't cost more," says Yamanae. "What we heard, it won't change the quality of the cigarettes at all."
Most tobacco companies are already converting all of their brands over to "fire safe" cigarettes. Hawaii stores will see the change by September next year.

Gov. Jim Doyle dampened the chances of cigarettes starting fires in Wisconsin when he signed a bill into law Tuesday requiring tobacco companies to only sell fire-safe smokes in the state.
City of Beloit employees and local politicians surrounded Doyle in the Beloit Fire Department headquarters as he made what he described as a “very basic safety measure” law.
“It takes a lot of work to get a bill to my desk and ready to be signed,” Doyle said. Indeed, Sen. Judy Robson, D-Beloit, worked for three legislative sessions to get Assembly Bill 717 passed. More than 20 fire and safety organizations eventually supported the bill, and the final work was spent collaborating with tobacco companies.
Robson communicated her enthusiasm about the bill finally reaching the governor's hands. “A lot of fire-related deaths are because of cigarettes,” she said. “Often in cases of home fires non-smokers get caught in the blaze.”
The self-extinguishing cigarettes may be the only cigarettes sold in Wisconsin beginning in October 2009. Robson noted the law will prevent injury, protect property, protect firefighters and save lives.
Cigarette-related fires tend to happen at a higher rate in university towns, Robson said, recalling how, after a public hearing last winter, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student died in a house fire started by a cigarette. “Every time I hear about a fire like that it causes me to catch my breath,” she said.
Robson commended the bill's Assembly sponsor, Rep. J.A. “Doc” Hines, R-Oxford, and recognized the support she received from Beloit Fire Chief Brad Liggett.
The senator invited Liggett to the hearings about the bill, and he provided favorable testimony. Fires sparked by cigarettes is common, he said, explaining many happen once people fall asleep with a lit cigarette near highly inflammable objects, such as sofas, bedding, clothing and petroleum-based cushions that cause rapid acceleration in burning. Such fires typically happen in homes.
Beloit has experienced fatalities due to cigarette-related fires but not in recent history, Liggett said. In 2007 there were four smoking-related fires that caused no injuries but produces $56,000 in damages. The law, Liggett said, will greatly reduce the chance of fires.
“It's a good idea to have a cigarette go out if you're not puffing on it,” he said. Fire-safe cigarettes are double wrapped in paper and have speed bumps that stop the flame when the smoker doesn't puff on it, Robson explained.
New York and California were the first states to adopt such a bill, and more than a dozen have followed suit. The law went into effect in Illinois on Jan. 1, and next year it will be in effect in Minnesota and Iowa.

A meeting of emergency services ministers in Canberra on Wednesday deliberated upon the need for introducing "fire-proof" cigarettes that get extinguished on their own as the smoker drops the butt, a measure that may help reduce the risk of fires in homes and the bush.
New South Wales (NSW) Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees moved the resolution to make the reduced fire risk (RFR) cigarettes, which are already produced overseas in Canada and New York, mandatory under the Trade Practices Act as early as next year.
"We hope this will be law by early 2009, requiring all cigarettes manufactured and sold throughout Australia to be self-extinguishing," the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.
"Every day's delay is another day we live with the risk that someone will be killed or injured or homes or bush land destroyed because cigarettes keep burning when they are dropped or thrown from a car window," he added.
Each year, around 4500 fires are caused by cigarette ignitions in Australia. Fires, directly attributed to cigarettes, claimed about 65 lives between 2000 and 2005.
A significant decline has resulted in fire deaths in New York since the introduction of RFR cigarettes in New York in 2004, according to preliminary data.
According to NSW Fire Brigades, a normal cigarette dropped on furnishings may start a fire in less than 18 minutes, whereas an RFR cigarette extinguishes on its own.
Rees said that some people in the industry had expressed non-acceptance to the introduction of the RFR cigarette, complaining about costs, difficulties in testing, and compliance and production lead times.
"NSW does not accept that the industry needs an 18-month to two-year time frame to introduce these cigarettes, which are already being produced and sold in Canada and a number of states in the US," he said.
The newspaper report says that the Australian tobacco industry is concerned that no testing has been done to ensure that the cigarettes do not pose a further risk to smokers' health.

SMOKERS could soon be lighting up 'fire-proof' cigarettes.
The reduced fire risk cigarettes are already produced overseas in Canada and New York and while Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan will need to rubber stamp the motion, a meeting of emergency services ministers committed to the move.
NSW Emergency Services Minister Nathan Rees moved the resolution to make the cigarettes mandatory under the Trade Practices Act as early as next year.
"We hope this will be law by early 2009, requiring all cigarettes manufactured and sold throughout Australia to be self-extinguishing," he said.
"Every day's delay is another day we live with the risk that someone will be killed or injured or homes or bushland destroyed because cigarettes keep burning when they are dropped or thrown from a car window."
In Australia more than 4500 fires each year are caused by cigarette ignitions and 65 people died in fires directly attributed to cigarettes between 2000 and 2005.
Preliminary data from New York, which introduced RFR cigarettes in 2004, showed a significant decline in fire deaths.
NSW Fire Brigades tests showed a normal cigarette dropped on furnishings could start a fire in less than 18 minutes, while an RFR cigarette self-extinguished.
Mr Rees said some sections of the industry had traditionally baulked at such measures as health warnings and smoking bans, complaining about costs, difficulties in testing and compliance and production lead times.
"NSW does not accept that the industry needs an 18-month to two-year time frame to introduce these cigarettes, which are already being produced and sold in Canada and a number of states in the US," he said.
The Daily Telegraph understands the Australian tobacco industry is concerned that no testing has been done to ensure the cigarettes do not pose a further risk to smokers' health.