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Former boss of Vietnam state tobacco firm detained  

• Culture Ministry tightens rules after supermodel smokes on the catwalk 

After many scandals related to the behavior of artists, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued an instruction to address performing art organization activities.

It is said that the latest case, associated with supermodel Thanh Hang, has urged the Ministry to tighten control over performing art activities.

Thanh Hang has stirred a public debate after she smoked during the Elle Spring Summer 2012 Fashion Show in HCM City one week ago.

The model, who walked as the leading model for the collection by famous designer Do Manh Cuong, stunned audiences watching the show by smoking during her time on the stage.

Designer Do Manh Cuong explained that Hang’s smoking was an expression for the collection’s concept of the lonely and desperate mood of a young girl who broke up with her boyfriend.

He also said that the model used an e-cigarette, not a real one

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Smoking passenger on Vietnam Airlines flight pleads fine waiver 

A Vietnamese passenger found smoking in the toilet on a Vietnam Airlines flight Tuesday has pleaded he cannot afford to pay the fine.

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Vietnam’s income per capita far lagging behind regional countries  

The fact that Vietnamese are extravagant consumers has become well-known in the world. Nguyen Tran Bat, a well-known economist, said on Doanh Nhan that his foreign friends, including billionaires, many times expressed their surprise about the spending money like water of Vietnamese people.

A friend of Bat’s, a French professor, who arrived in Vietnam in 1970s, saw a taxi driver smoking a 555 cigarette and asked how many 555 cigarettes could he buy with his salary. The driver said that his salary was just enough to buy 3-4 cigarettes only. The French professor then said that Vietnamese people even spend more than American.

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Zero duty on Cambodia rice, tobacco  

Imported Cigarettes Seized At Dulles Airport  

An American passenger clearing customs at Dulles Airport Monday following a flight from Japan admitted in his declarations that he was bringing a carton or two of cigarettes across the border, however, inspectors found 924 packs concealed in his luggage.

Because of his failure to declare the value of the goods and his lack of an import permit, the 18,480 cigarettes were seized. The passenger, identified by Customs and Border Protection as a Washington, DC, resident, was released.

CBP officers suspected that the passenger intended to import the cigarettes for resale in the U.S., action that requires an import permit from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Bureau as required by the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act.

“There are completely legal options to import large quantities of commercial goods into the United States, but concealing 924 loose packs of cigarettes inside luggage, and importing it without appropriate permits isn’t one,” . . .

The cigarette brand names included Marlboro, Kent, Craven, White Horse, Mild Seven and Esse. They were purchased in Vietnam.

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• Canadian asbestos poses a health risk in Vietnam 

Many workers in Vietnam will "suffer debilitating diseases" over the coming decades from handling asbestos — some of which is imported from Canada, a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks says.

The January 2008 cable calls asbestos "a carcinogen in humans." It was sent from the American embassy in Hanoi to the State Department in Washington, D.C. and to several American embassies, including the one in Ottawa.

Canada is cited as one of the major exporters of asbestos — along with Russia and China — to Vietnam, which has increasingly turned to the material for use in low-cost roofing material, the cable says. Vietnam is described as having one of the world's highest per-capita consumption rates of asbestos.

"Existing safety and health standards [in Vietnamese factories] are inadequate to protect worker health and few companies follow even these minimal standards….Vietnamese attempts to limit the health effects of asbestos seem doomed to fail due to lack of manufacturing and technical capacity, weak political will, and limited funding and investment," the cable says.

It also states that because more than half of Vietnamese men over 15 years old smoke, the combined health effects of smoking and exposure to asbestos over time will probably be severe. Illnesses could include lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma, and asbestosis. . . .

The cable notes that in 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, Vietnam imported over 74,000 tonnes of asbestos.

In June, 2011, Vietnam voted with Canada to block the inclusion of asbestos on the hazardous materials list for a United Nations treaty known as the Rotterdam Convention.

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• A Vietnam delegation in Sri Lanka to study tobacco and alcohol control 

A high-powered delegation from Vietnam that includes parliamentarians, provincial authorities, health, finance and police officials will be visiting Sri Lanka from 25 to 28 February on a study tour on tobacco and alcohol control. They will be received in Sri Lanka by Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Chairman National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA).

During their stay in Sri Lanka the delegation is expected to have meetings with the Ministry of Health, Police and Excise officials - the main implementers of the NATA Act. In addition they will meet with the WHO officials and the civil society representatives. Modeled on Sri Lankan experience, Vietnam is also expected to develop structures and policies for tobacco and alcohol control in their country.

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• HCMC to monitor shisha bars closely 

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have asked local police and inspectors of relevant agencies to keep a close watch on bars and clubs where the hookah (usually known in Vietnam as shisha), a type of fruit-flavored, sweet-scented tobacco, is sold.

The HCMC People’s Committee, the municipal government, said more inspections and checks must be made to ensure no bars and clubs take advantage of the shisha smoking business to cover up illegal drug use and prostitution.

It also asked the HCMC Health Department to report on possible harms of shisha smoking and issue warnings about the medical damage that the tobacco can cause.

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Cigarette smuggler caught red-handed 

Ha Noi Police caught an illegal cigarette smuggler in the city on Thursday.

Nguyen Van Quyen, a resident of Bac Giang Province's Tan Yen District was arrested transporting 400 packets of cigarettes to a place known as the "Nguyen Sieu Cigarette Market." Quyen admitted transporting the cigarettes for brothers Luu Thanh Trung and Luu Quang Lam in Phu Tan Ward.

Police seized nearly 1,600 cigarettes packets of a variety of brands while searching the brother's house, and they admitted to selling more than 37,700 packets of illegally imported cigarettes during the last two months.

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• Lawmakers debate proposed tobacco prevention fund  

National Assembly Standing Committee members yesterday, Dec 13, weighed the pros and cons of establishing a fund to support anti-smoking efforts.

In the committee’s fourth meeting in the capital city yesterday, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said that the National Assembly had not yet come to a final decision on whether to establish the fund.

The purposes of such a fund, how it would be established, and who would oversee it, remained unclear, Hung said.

National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs chairwoman Truong Thi Mai said there remained two schools of thought about such a fund.

Supporters argued that the fund, mobilised from different sources, including smokers and tobacco importers and exporters, would help more effectively disseminate public information about the dangers of tobacco addiction and help tobacco growers shift to other crops.

Opponents, meanwhile, said it would be difficult to ensure the financial transparency of the fund.

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• Two injured in cigarette explosion at café  

A 29-year-old man in Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province was smoking a cigarette at a café when it suddenly exploded, injuring him and another man.

In his report to the local police, Nguyen Xuan Ly said at 12:30 pm on December 13, he went to a café in Phu Tho Commune and ordered a cup of coffee and half a pack of White Horse cigarettes.

A moment later, when he was smoking a cigarette, it suddenly exploded to his astonishment. . . .

He said he had phoned Khanh Hoa Tobacco Company (KHATOCO), the manufacturer of Whiter Horse cigarettes to report the problem.

Ly later received a call from number 0907.356.969 and was told that somebody from the company would meet him to discuss the issue.

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• Lawmakers debate proposed tobacco prevention fund  

National Assembly Standing Committee members yesterday weighed the pros and cons of establishing a fund to support anti-smoking efforts.

In the committee's fouth meeting in the capital city yesterday, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said that the National Assembly had not yet come to a final decision on whether to establish the fund.

The purposes of such a fund, how it would be established, and who would oversee it, remained unclear, Hung said.

National Assembly Committee for Social Affairs chairwoman Truong Thi Mai said there remained two schools of thought about such a fund.

Supporters argued that the fund, mobilised from different sources, including smokers and tobacco importers and exporters, would help more effectively disseminate public information about the dangers of tobacco addiction and help tobacco growers shift to other crops.

Opponents, meanwhile, said it would be difficult to ensure the financial transparency of the fund.

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Police to investigate biggest tobacco smuggling ring 

The Investigation Police for Economic Management Order and Title Offences and the Hanoi Police announced on Wednesday their intention to conduct intensive investigation of the biggest tobacco smuggling ring in Hanoi.

The biggest tobacco smuggling ring so far in Hanoi has recently been uncovered.

Nguyen Hai Huy (born 1978), Huy’s brother Nguyen Duc Hung (born 1974) from Hanoi and Nguyen Van Hiep (born 1983) from the northern province of Hai Duong were caught red handed

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Ha Noi police seize smuggled cigarettes  

The Ha Noi Police have detected a large-scale cigarette trafficking case in Hoan Kiem District's Hang Buom Street.

The police confiscated more than 1,120 packs of foreign cigarettes of different brands, owned by 47-year-old Nguyen Thi Bich Phuong

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