Cheap cigarettes store

Thirty per cent of all cancer deaths can be attributed to smoking. Cancers other than lung cancer which are linked to

But cigarettes are not just made of tar, tobacco and nicotine.

More than 600 additives can legally be added to tobacco products.

These include coffee extract, sugar, vanilla, cocoa, menthol, oil from clove stems, caramel and chorophyll, the compound

that gives plants their green colour.

Many appear to be present simply to add flavour.

But they may also have more sinister effects. For example, cocoa when burned in a cigarette produces bromine gas that

Thompson said Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who chaired the committee, was coming up with a recommendation for him.
"I haven't made a decision on the tax but I like the concept of a fund," Thompson told reporters. "I think the general premise of setting up some sort of fund to give dollars back to people who want to quit smoking is good."
Thompson said 70 percent of smokers wanted to quit but could not get the support, including drugs, to do so.
He said he raised cigarette taxes while governor of Wisconsin, but added the issue of a tax was problematic politically.
Several studies have shown that raising the price of cigarettes can deter smokers, especially teen-agers.
In 1998, states reached a settlement with tobacco companies in which they received $246 billion over 25 years to pay for the costs of smoking-related illnesses.
Anti-smoking campaigners say states have recently been raiding those and other tobacco-prevention funds to cover budget deficits.
On Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty suggested eliminating the state's youth tobacco prevention fund, using the cash to cover the state's budget deficit.

Customs officials are cracking down on a new breed of website which claims to offer imported cigarettes and tobacco at cheap prices.

The websites offer consumers the chance to buy the products at cheaper duty rates than in the UK and the fear is that they may extend to alcohol and cause problems for the pub trade.
One internet site, Cheap Cigarettes UK, claims: Legally import cigarettes and tobacco from Spain into the UK all the top brands available.
The sites are cropping up following th Chancellor,s duty rise on beer and cigarettes last month. But Customs and Excise has warned consumers that UK duty must be paid on any goods posted from Europe. If there is any doubt, goods will be seized at postal depots.
However, new proposals being debated by the EU could open the floodgates for UK consumers to buy alcohol and tobacco over the internet at the lowest duty rates in Europe.
If new distance selling regulations are approved, it would mean that duty on goods bought over the internet within the EU would be paid at the rate in the country where they are sold.
Mark Hastings, spokesperson for the British Beer & Pub Association, said the rules would allow a UK consumer to order cases of beer from countries such as Spain, where beer duty is around a tenth that of the UK.
He said: This undermines the government's entire stance on maintaining higher duty levels.
UK customs officials have been acting to shut down websites which sell cheap cigarettes from EU states to British consumers.
A spokesman said: Customs is well aware of these sites and we are vigorously pursuing action against them. Our officers at postal depots are actively targeting importations of cigarettes.
Regulations say that duty and VAT must be paid on all items bought over the internet and imported into the UK. In the mid-1990s the Enlightened Tobacco Company lost a test case in the European Court after it set up a mail order business importing cigarettes from Luxembourg.

dilates the airways of the lung, and increases the body's ability to absorb nicotine.

Menthol is also suspected of enabling the smoker to inhale more easily by numbing the throat.

Researchers claim that other additives have been expertly developed by tobacco companies to manipulate the delivery of

nicotine with extreme precision.

Techniques employed by tobacco companies include:

Addition of ammonia compounds, which speed the delivery of nicotine to smokers by raising the alkalinity of tobacco smoke.

The tobacco companies have also developed ways to increase the nicotine content of cigarettes. These include:

Adjustment of tobacco blends by using high-nicotine tobaccos and higher nicotine parts of tobacco leaves to raise the

nicotine concentration in lower tar cigarettes;
Addition of nicotine to fortify tobacco stems, scraps and other waste materials, which are processed into reconstituted

tobacco - a product that is used in signficant quantities in most major cigarette brands;
The genetic engineering of tobacco plants to substantially boost nicotine content.

We want to make sure all tobacco retailers are playing by the same rules, said Allison Shulman, a lobbyist for the National Association of Convenience Stores, a trade group with members who rely heavily on cigarette sales for profits. All tobacco retailers, no matter where theyre located, [should] bear the same tax burdens and abide by the same regulatory obligations.

Many online sellers are able to exploit considerable differences from state to state in rates of tobacco excise taxes. New Jersey charges $2.05 per pack, the highest in the nation, while Virginia brings in only 3 cents per pack.A Senate bill (S. 1177) on this issue passed by unanimous consent in the closing moments of the last session after the bills sponsors, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and committee member Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), worked out a compromise with the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), and the panels ranking Democrat, Sen. Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), over provisions that would affect Indian tribes.

Campbell and Inouye voiced concerns raised by tribes that the bill would broaden states abilities to enforce laws on Indian lands.
We''re not opposed to enforcement of tobacco taxes, said John Dossett, a lobbyist for the National Congress of American Indians. Were objecting to state governments enforcing federal laws in Indian country.

Lobbyists and congressional aides expect tribal issues to dominate debate over the House bill much as they did on the Senate side. The 2002 GAO report found that 59 percent of the Internet tobacco sites surveyed with Web addresses such as www.notaxsmokes.com and www.senecasmokeshop.com were connected with Indian tribes.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Resources Committee, which has jurisdiction over Indian issues, already has sent a letter to House Republican leadership requesting that the bill be referred to his committee.

Backers of Green-Meehan would like to avoid Resources, where they expect the bill to be modified to favor tribes.

In the Senate, the Judiciary and Indian Affairs committees were able to achieve agreement among tribes, public health groups and industry representatives by inserting language explicitly stating that the bill would not alter tribal sovereignty and by placing a greater emphasis on federal enforcement over state enforcement.

We think the bill passed by the Senate is a good, strong bill that will address tobacco-tax evasion and prevent and reduce underage smoking, said Eric Lindblom, manager for policy research at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Public-health groups favor enforcing state tobacco taxes to discourage smoking through higher prices.

A spokesperson for Meehan said that he was hoping to work out an agreement with tribal groups either during consideration of the bill in the Judiciary Committee or during conference. He also wanted to add a provision that elevated the penalty for violations of the Jenkins Act which allows states to enforce tobacco excise taxes from a misdemeanor to a felony, which would parallel a measure in the Senate-passed bill.

The Senate bill contained provisions that would ban commercial shipping of tobacco products through the U.S. mails and would require private shippers such as United Parcel Service and FedEx to verify that appropriate state taxes had been paid on tobacco shipments.

The Online Tobacco Retailers Association (OLTRA), which represents 25 Internet cigarette sellers and a handful of small tobacco manufacturers, has consistently opposed the tobacco tax legislation. We think the Jenkins Act is outdated, said Ali Davoudi, executive director of the group. Smokers are always being unduly burdened by additional taxes.

Smaller cigarette manufacturers, including some OLTRA members, are concerned that tobacco tax legislation will solidify the dominant market position of Philip Morris USA, maker of the best-selling Marlboro brand. Online retailers typically offer a broader selection of cigarette brands, including those made by independent manufacturers, than do convenience stores or gas stations.

Mark Berlind, legislative counsel for Philip Morris''s parent company, Altria, did not specify whether the company supports H.R. 2824 but said it favored enhanced enforcement of state excise taxes.

Philip Morris also has been active on a separate issue related to escrow payments made by small cigarette manufacturers that did not participate in the landmark 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between tobacco manufacturers and the states. The Senate bill beefs up the states abilities to enforce escrow payments, a measure Philip Morris had sought.

Davoudi called the provision a death sentence for small manufacturers