Commodity Trading

Calgary, Alberta, Canada (AHN) – PetroChina International Investments Co. invested $5.4 billion in Encana Corp.’s natural gas venture. The amount involved made it the largest ever Chinese investment in Canada’s energy sector.

The investment is an indicator of the increasing volume of Asian investment in North American energy assets in anticipation of rising demand for fuel by China and South Korea.

However, unlike Australian mining giant BHP Billiton, which attempted but failed to purchase lock-stock-and-barrel the Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, PetroChina took a more cautious approach and just opted to purchase a substantial stake in Encana. Large buy-ins by foreign companies are subject to Ottawa approval under the Investment Act.

PetroChina has apparently learned the lessons of other Chinese firms that had previously attempted to buy large blocks of North American businesses. China National Offshore Oil Corp. initially entered an $18.5 billion bid for oil firm Unocal in 2005, but eventually withdrew the offer after the transaction created furor in Washington. China MinMetals likewise withdrew its bid for Canadian mining firm Noranda after concerns were aired by the government.

The investment provided PetroChina a 50 percent stake in Encana’s Cutbank Ridge business assets in British Columbia and Alberta. The two firms signed Wednesday a Cooperation Agreement to establish a 50-50 joint venture to develop natural gas production in Cutbank Ridge. The deal ended nine months of discussions between the two energy giants.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Bone chilling cold settled onto America’s snow-covered heartland as the massive winter storm continued moving out of the country and into Canada on Thursday. However, it was still dumping snow in some areas.

National weather forecasts called for more snow Thursday in Maine and New Hampshire, along with snow, freezing rain and sleet across southern states from Texas to Alabama.

The storm has already covered 30 states with snow, freezing rain and sleet, dumping almost 2 feet of snow in some parts of the U.S.

Residents in dozens of snowy states from Texas to Wisconsin woke Thursday to cold temperatures, including Chicagoans who were digging out from under 20 inches of snow in zero degree temperatures. Wisconsin is also forecast to have a wind chill value of 20 to 25 degrees below zero overnight.

At least 10 people across the country died of storm-related causes, officials said.

Along with the cold temperatures, many residents found themselves coping with power outages.

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Feature Story, Nepal (AHN) – Last September, American couple Haydn Hilling and his wife Edvige desperately wanted to take home their adopted Nepali child, Kailash. Though the American couple that hails from Louisiana spent more than one-and-a-half years getting the necessary paperwork required for the adoption, the process has come to a standstill following the United States’ decision to halt adoptions of abandoned children from Nepal.

The U.S. administration halted the adoption of Nepali children due to growing allegations of child trafficking and falsification of documents, often in connivance with government authorities.

A joint statement issued by the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the first week of August said the step was taken to protect the rights and interests of Nepali children and their families after field visits to orphanages and police departments showed that documents describing children up for adoption as abandoned were often unreliable.

Another 10 countries–Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom–have also halted inter-country adoptions from Nepal.

According to Nepal’s Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, new rules were put in place last December and some stern measures have been added to the process.

“The Hague Secretariat also wants the smooth resumption of child adoption here,” chief of the ministry’s legal section, Sher Jung Karki said. The new set of policies allows local placement agencies to charge US$5,000 to adopting parents, while the government charges US$3,000.

Any foreign placement agency must set up a liaison office in Nepal and pay the government US$10,000 that will be handed over to an organization working for the welfare of children. Subsequently, the process of inter-country adoption of street children is subject to widespread abuses, the government has banned the adoption effective from Jan. 5.

The new policy also allows Nobel laureates, heads of states/governments, foreign ministers, celebrities, or a couple with an annual income of over US$300,000 to become foster parents, while others cannot.

Largely, a vulnerable adoption process that had been taking place in Nepal since several years has compelled the US government more alerted and posed a ban. That was the reason that they could not adopted two – year – old Kailash which made them running from pillar to post that their call will be heard.

Now the list is long. As many as 56 American families are facing heartbreak due to the US Government decision to ban child adoption from Nepal until Nepal’s legal provision ensures that adopted children were not fraud and claim genuine.

These desperate 56 parents have instituted an alliance and had registered a petition in US Congress. “We respectfully request that the Right Honorable members of the US Senate and House petition the Department of State and USCIS within the Department of Homeland Security to assist the “Nepal Pipeline families” in obtaining visas to bring their children home immediately,” the petition reads.

In response to the petition, 14,398 letters and emails were sent far to support their campaign. Moreover they have internet campaign through blog, http://theywaitnepal.blogspot.com/. One can find the photos of to be adopted Nepali child and their US mother. “These families are struggling to bring home their legally adopted children who are stuck in Nepal awaiting visas that will allow them to enter the US,” they write in their blog.

Many anxious parents are waiting in the US also. Many are stranded since August, 2010.

It seems that child adoption in Nepal has been turned into a profitable business as dozens of websites and privately organizations have claimed that there were many advantages of adopting children from Nepal. “There are many advantages for adopting from Nepal. Even though Nepal is an economically poor country, children are cared for very well with few incidences of abuse or neglect. If you like the idea of adopting a baby or toddler, it would be an excellent country to consider,” claims, adoptionark.

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Calgary, Alberta, Canada (AHN) – Alberta Finance Minister Ted Morton has joined Premier Ed Stelmach in resigning from his post. Morton announced his departure Thursday, just two days after Stelmach said he would step down from office soon and not seek reelection.

Unlike Stelmach who is retiring from politics, Morton plans to move up the political ladder. Morton said his resignation takes effect immediately for him to concentrate on his bid to replace Stelmach as party leader of the Progressive Conservatives in the oil sands-rich province.

Morton added that aside from planning to lead the Tories, he would also merge the ruling party with the Wildrose Alliance. The alliance’s officials dismissed Morton’s ambition to merge the two parties.

Stelmach appointed Lloyd Snelgrove to replace Morton. Snelgrove, being a long-time friend of the premier, is expected to cooperate with Stelmach in proposing a budget with no major cuts. Morton wanted to include deep service cuts to balance Alberta’s books as soon as possible.

A veteran Tory opined that the series of events would probably lead to a provincial election, at the latest by June 15. Stelmach did not provide a timetable for stepping down, except that he would pass a budget before he left office.

Despite Morton’s resignation as Finance Minister, he kept his post as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Canadian clothing store Fairweather Limited filed a $250-million trademark lawsuit against U.S. discount retailer Target. Fairweather claimed it owns the right to use the name Target in Canada.

In its Monday filing with a Federal Court, Fairweather sought an injunction to stop Target from using the name in Canada where it had been running the Target Apparel clothing store in Toronto since 2005. The firm owns the Canadian rights to the name for 10 years after it purchased assets of the bankrupt BiWay, whose former owner Dylex Limited registered the trademark in 1981.

Target announced last week its entry up north after the company purchased Zellers stores from Hudson’s Bay last week.

Fairweather said Target’s entry into Canada would be bad for its business because of the similarity of the store name and loss of control over its trademark and reputation. The U.S. retailer is known for designer fashion collaborations at discount chain prices.

Target said it plans to use the same name, slogan, branding and logo in its Canadian operations and insisted there is nothing that prevents the company from using the name and branding elements in Canada.

In preparation for its entry into Canada, Target named Tony Fisher as president of Target Canada. Fisher has been with Target in 1999 in different executive posts. Until his promotion, Fisher was vice president of merchandise operations, which involved providing shoppers enhanced in-store experience using technology and service.

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada (AHN) – The Quebec Superior Court is scheduled to begin trial Monday of a $200 million class-action lawsuit filed by residents of Shannon against Ottawa and two firms. The lawsuit was filed by resident Marie-Paule Spieser on behalf of her community after she discovered its drinking water contained the toxic chemical trichloroethylene.

The chemical was at levels deemed unsafe by public health authorities, which Spieser said caused various ailments among residents and intestinal and liver cancer among people close to her.

The lawsuit was filed against the Attorney General of Canada, General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems Canada Inc. and Societe immobiliere Valcartier. SiV, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin, owned the land where plants pumped out munitions during the second World War. SNC-Lavalin bought the factories in the 1980s, which were eventually purchased by General Dynamics.

The lawsuit charges Ottawa and the two companies with negligence in handling and disposing of TCE and in informing the residents of the chemical’s dangers. Medical experts said Shannon has cancers and other health problems at a rate higher than the national average because of the residents’ exposure to TCE.

Reports said TCE was buried or thrown into garbage pits and lagoons for decades that test results showed water supplied to factories which were running until 1991 had up to 71 milligrams of TCE per liter. That is 1,500 times above recommended safe level for drinking.

Unsafe drinking water is not a problem of Shannon alone. In mid-December, the Environmental Working Group in the U.S. declared that 31 of 35 U.S. cities had the probable carcinogen hexavalent chromium in drinking water, with the highest concentration in Norman, OK, Honolulu, HI, and Riverdale, CA.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Many Canadian workers would begin 2011 paying higher personal income and payroll taxes, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation warned Tuesday.

For personal income taxes, the federation said all the 16 income and family groups in each Canadian province would pay 2 percent higher taxes.

For business payroll taxes, because of hikes in payroll tax thresholds, workers earning more than $44,200 a year would shell out $76 more, while their employers would have to pay $110 more.

The federation blamed the increase to the federal government’s hike in the Canadian Pension Plan premiums and the creation of new, non-insurance based programs funded by Employment Insurance premiums, which caused the program to create a deficit to be covered by higher rates.

The federation pointed out that income tax and payroll tax increases in previous years evened out because some groups enjoyed cuts, while others had to pay more. In 2011, all income levels, family scenarios and geographical location would be affected negatively.

Worst hit will be residents of Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia because inflation rates in these provinces are higher than national average. As a consequence, Ontario residents would be hit with a 4.3 percent increase, BC residents 2.9 percent and Nova Scotians 2.8 percent.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Only 14 percent of Canadians believe air pollution is very dangerous to their health, according to a study released Tuesday by the Environics Research Group.

While they admit that poor air quality causes some health risks, they think the danger would happen if they had been exposed on a long-term basis or the threat is more on weaker members of the community.

The survey said those Canadians would only change their outlook if they or a member of their household became ill because of poor air quality.

The survey found that 48 percent of the 1,400 respondents view air pollution as a somewhat serious hazard, while 32 percent did not even consider it a serious hazard.

The survey supports an earlier Environics study that Canadians are not focused on climate change issues as they were in 2007 and 2008, according to Environics Group Vice President for Public Affairs Dr. Keith Neuman.

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Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – The board of directors of BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion named Thursday co-chief executives Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as co-chairmen. On the same day, RIM announced its third quarter results which featured a 40 percent rise in sales.

Because of the higher-than-expected performance, RIM’s sales jumped to $5.49 billion, fueled mainly by its BlackBerry smart phone sales in North America and internationally. As a result, Q3 net income rose to $911.1 million from $628.4 million. It translates into $1.10 per share.

RIM declared earnings per share of $1.74, which is higher than analysts’ forecast of $1.65.

RIM’s financial performance sent shares of the firm climbing in New York trading after hours.

On Thursday also, the RIM board announced that member James Estill left the technology firm because of a business conflict and John Richardson would be retained as lead independent board director. Estill has been with RIM since 1997.

Almost two years ago, the Ontario Securities Commission prohibited Basillie from serving on RIM’s board for one year because of wrongly priced stock options given to all company workers from 1996 to 2006. The OSC also mandated Lazaridis and Estill to pay penalties for the same error.

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St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada (AHN) – Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale said Monday she will initiate talks with Ottawa to establish a stand-alone offshore oil safety regulator for the province.

Dunderdale told the province’s House of Assembly that she also supports the 28 other recommendations that the Offshore Helicopter Safety Inquiry made. The separate agency to regulate safety needs amendments to the Atlantic Accord Acts, so the federal government’s hand is required.

Newfoundland jointly manages offshore resources with the federal government under the Atlantic Accord.

The investigation was the result of the March 12, 2009, crash of a helicopter that took the lives of 17 of 18 people aboard the chopper. The commission tasked to probe the incident issued a report eight months after the tragedy.

An existing agency, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, oversees offshore safety. The board promised to work on the 27 recommendations of the commission, but maintained it is a strong, independent regulator.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – A survey made by Harris/Decima for Canada Post found out that 80 percent of Canadians prefer to receive Christmas cards sent by snail mail.

In 2008, only 71 percent of Canadians said they still look forward to receiving traditional holiday greeting cards by post.

The survey indicated many Canadians still prefer to older ways of sending greetings during the Yuletide season based on the average of 15 Christmas cards they plan to send this year.

About 60 percent said they will not send electronic greeting cards this year, while those who plan to send one gave an average of only five digital cards.

Seventy-five percent of Canadian women will send Christmas cards this year by post, compared to only 62 percent of men.

In anticipation of higher volume of Christmas mail, Canada Post started on the first week of December weekend deliveries, while during weekdays the postmen will delivery letters and parcels until 9 p.m.

According to Doug Jones, Canada Post senior vice president for operations, the agency added extra flights to its national air network and 50 more highway services to complement the over 1,400 Canada Post trucks that delivery mail daily throughout Canada. Aside from road and air routes, Canada Post also moves 10 tractor loads of mail each business day by rail.

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Cancun, Mexico (AHN) – Despite key agreements to create building blocks for a binding climate change deal, Canadian Environment Minister John Baird foresees difficult talks ahead to convince all major polluting countries to agree to binding targets.

Speaking at the close of the yearly United Nations summit on global warming, Baird said Saturday without a strong and effective agreement including mandatory commitments from large polluters such as the U.S., China, India and Brazil, it would be impossible to keep stable or cut greenhouse gas emissions in the next 10 years.

The Union of Concerned Scientists argued that while the Cancun decision creates a chance for the world to raise the collective level of emission-reduction targets in the coming months and years, it is not a guarantee of success due to the lack of agreement.

Summit delegates only agreed that a new round of Kyoto emission-reduction obligations must cover the post-2012 period despite clear statements from Japan, Russia and Canada that these nations are not ready to make such commitments.

Ottawa initially committed to the Kyoto Protocol, but backed out of it in 2006 due to economic concerns, including the U.S. failure to sign the protocol. Baird said Canada opposed extension of Kyoto Protocol targets to ensure that the next round of commitments will address the emerging economic giants and their carbon footprints.

The next climate change summit will be held in Durban, South Africa.

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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (AHN) – Sixty-one aboriginal Canadian communities joined forces on Thursday to oppose the proposed $5.5 billion Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines Project that would transport petroleum through pipelines from Canada’s oil sands.

Included in the 61 communities are 54 British Columbia First Nations bands such as the Haida Nation and Gitga’at who live along the marine part of the pipeline’s route.

The native communities released a declaration of opposition, signed by their band leaders, to the planned 1,170-kilometer (727 mile) pipeline linking Alberta oil sands facilities to Kitimat in British Columbia. The oil sands would then be transferred to oil tankers from Kitimat.

The natives said they are against the pipeline project to cross their lands, territories and watershed because of the risk of oil spill on their waterways and lands, which would destroy their food supply, livelihood and cultures. They added aboriginal laws do not allow crude pipelines into First Nations territories.

An Enbridge spokesperson said the energy firm is confident the pipeline project would still continue through despite the aboriginal opposition. The spokesperson said the 61 opposing bands do not represent all aboriginal communities because Enbridge has inked working protocols with 30 other First Nations bands in BC and Alberta.

However, the protocols are just expressions of willingness among the bands to sit down and discuss with Enbridge the proposed pipeline, not a sure sign of approval for the controversial project.

The project would deliver 525,000 barrels of oil daily to the West Coast and pipe 193,000 barrels of condensate in the opposite direction. Enbridge said the pipeline would not cross the Fraser River, but cross other major BC rivers such as the Salmon and Stuart Rivers.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Unelected Canadian Tory senators killed the climate change bill Wednesday, voting 43-32 against Bill C-311. The senators voted on the bill without even debating on the legislation, which parliamentary experts said was the first time in seven decades that the Senate disapproved a bill without conducting a hearing.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who appointed the Conservative senators, defended the latter’s action because C-311 was “a completely irresponsible bill.” The measure was supported and passed in the House of Commons by Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois.

Harper claimed the bill failed to include measures to achieve climate change, except to close parts of the Canadian economy and make thousands or millions of residents jobless. The prime minister said instead of a weak legislation, Ottawa would rather collaborate with Washington on a climate change plan for North America.

With this development, Canadian representatives will have nothing to show when they attend an international climate conference next month in Cancun, Mexico, as 200 nations draft an agreement on climate change.

The Tories washed their hands over the defeat of the bill, saying it was the Liberals who forced a vote on it. The Conservatives said it was Liberal Senator Grant Mitchell, who sponsored the bill in the senate, who called for a vote on second reading, which killed the debate.

The Liberals denied it. They said the transcript was unclear who called for the vote, although they pointed to Tory Senator Gerald Comeau as the one who called for the vote.

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Lagos, Nigeria (AHN) – A day after MEND threatened a major military operation, Nigerian troops on Tuesday rescued all 19 hostages in the first successful rescue of foreign captives in the Niger Delta this month.

Hostages included several foreign nationals from the United States, France, Indonesia and Canada. No hostages were killed in the incident, however, it was not clear whether the troops killed any militants.

Unidentified gunmen attacked a London-based Alfren PLC’s oil rig and kidnapped the foreigners on November 8.

A week later, militants seized eight more Nigerians on an ExxonMobil platform Akwa Ibom state. MEND claimed the responsibility of the abductions. The violence in the region has remarkably subsided since last year.

Earlier, militants forced to reduce the country’s oil production by one-third that caused global rise in oil prices.

The halt in spiraling price rise came after the government signed a cease-fire agreement with oil militants last year and agreed to hand them cash pay-out and job training.

Despite the agreement, a small faction of MEND restarted the kidnappings.

“We’ve got confirmed reports that, yes, all 19 have been reported freed,” one of the security sources said. “It was a Joint Task Force operation,” he added because it involved police and military personnel. Another security source also confirmed the release.

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Toronto, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan announced Tuesday that the province’s budget deficit for 2010-11 is projected to go down to $18.7 billion from the $24.7 billion forecast in fall.

The minister said the 25 percent cut in Ontario’s budget deficit is the result of better corporate tax collection and reduced spending. The opposition disputes Duncan’s attribution of the higher corporate tax collection and instead points to the implementation of the 13 percent harmonized sales tax in July as the reason behind the boost in the province’s coffers.

But Duncan said higher HST collections were offset by cuts in personal and corporate taxes.

In the previous budget year, Ontario also reduced its deficit forecast from $24.7 billion to $21.3 billion. Ontario’s annual budget took into account a five-year plan to create new jobs and spur economic growth in the province, while reducing the deficit caused by the global financial crisis.

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YellowKnife, Northwest Territories, Canada (AHN) – A joint Canadian and Japanese team will announce this week details of their frozen gas hydrates discovery in the Arctic region. Gas hydrates looms as a new energy source, produced using conventional techniques.

The team invested $48 million on the venture, which had researchers drilling over two winters over a kilometer into a 150-meter thick layer on the edge of the Beaufort Sea at Mallik. The area has the most known concentrated deposit of frozen fuel in the world.

Previous drilling attempts produced gas from hydrates for only a few hours, but the Mallik drilling provided steady and sustained flow for six days.

Hydrates build up in large quantities under oceans and permafrost. The pressure traps gas in small cages or crystals made of water molecules, which when brought to the surface the cages melt and release methane gas that burns when lit with a match and generate a fiery ice.

It produces 40 percent less carbon dioxide than oil or coal when burned.

About 300 scientists and engineers are involved in the Mallik 2002 Gas Hydrate Production Research Program. The lead agency behind the program is Natural Resources Canada. Other agencies participating in the venture are the Japan National Oil Corporation, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, the U.S. Department of Energy, the India Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas-Gas Authority of India and the BP-Chevron Texaco Mackenzie Delta Joint Venture.

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada (AHN) – Mafia godfather Nicolo Rizzuto was killed in his own Montreal mansion Wednesday. Reports said the 86-year old patriarch was shot 5:45 p.m. at his residence on Antoine-Berthelet Avenue. Two women were said to be present when Rizzuto was gunned down.

Rizzuto, an immigrant from Sicily, Italy, arrived in Montreal in the 1950s, but fled to Caracas, Venezuela in the early 1970s to escape a murder attempt on him by rival Italian Mafia boss Paolo Violi. When Violi and his two brothers were assassinated in the late 1970s, Rizzuto became the leader of the clan, known for its drug trafficking activities.

His heir apparent, 64-year old son Vito Rizzuto, is in a New York prison for a 1982 triple murder and is slated for release in 2012. Because of Vito’s jail term, Nicolo had to reassume leading the clan, which earlier this year lost another member when grandson Nick Rizzuto was shot dead while standing beside his car.

Rizzuto has previously been jailed for racketeering and tax evasion.

Mafia experts said that while Vito may stage a comeback after his release from prison, the clan has been decimated and is no longer considered an influential one in the Mafia world. The experts believe criminal groups who had previously clashed with the Rizzuto clan are behind the death of the godfather.

These groups want to seize control of the illegal drug trade, construction industry and extortion business once held firmly by the Rizzutos.

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Delhi, India (Citizen News Service) – Tobacco use, tuberculosis (TB), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are all burgeoning problems in resource poor settings. The evidence of their potentially devastating effects on global public health is increasing and they require a coordinated approach for control.

These diseases all occur in predominantly resource-poor countries. They are perpetuated by poverty and inadequate resources, was the clear mandate from the consultative workshop organized by the TB and Poverty sub-working group of the Stop TB Partnership in India (29-30 October 2010). It is expected that the scientific deliberations at the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health in Berlin, Germany (11-15 November 2010), will address these concerns on a well-coordinated response to these epidemics.

The secretariat of the TB and poverty sub-working group of the Stop TB Partnership has now moved to India, housed at the South-East Asian office of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) since August 2010.

Statistically, there is 1 TB-related death that takes place every 18 seconds, and 1 smoking-related death every 13 seconds. The enormous public challenge posed by the combined epidemics of tobacco smoking, TB and COPD, is undoubtedly alarming. In countries like India where the TB disease burden is the highest, the situation is only grimmer with majority of tobacco use happening in form of either leaf-rolled tobacco (beedi) or chewing tobacco.

But is there a link between TB, COPD and tobacco use? Do they increase the risk of each other?

“At the beginning of 21st century we really are facing convergence of several epidemics like TB, COPD and tobacco smoking among others” had said Richard N van Zyl-Smit to CNS at the 38th Union World Conference on Lung Health in 2007. Dr Richard works with Lung Infection and Immunity Unit, Division of Pulmonology and UCT Lung Institute, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

“Tobacco smoking is unquestionably the primary risk factor for COPD. The importance of “total burden of inhaled particles” (occupational, household, environmental) is increasing” said Richard.

“Smokers have two fold higher risk of developing active TB disease” shared Dr Madhukar Pai from McGill University and Montreal Chest Institute in Canada. Dr Pai was referring to three meta-analysis studies from 2007/2008. “Tobacco smokers have 2 times more risk of dieing of TB” added Dr Pai, referring to the data from India. India has enormous tobacco use and COPD rates, and also the highest TB burden in the world.

There are studies to show that passive smoking escalates risk of developing active TB disease by three times.

Tobacco smoke increases the risk of pneumonia, influenza, menningococcal meningitis, among others. Evidence is accumulating that smoking is a risk factor for TB.

At least 15 more studies have been published since the three major meta-analyses in 2007/2008. All studies report a positive association between tuberculosis and tobacco smoking. Studies also show that current male smokers have a higher risk for active TB disease than former smokers. In a study conducted in India, 900 non-medical staff monitored 1.1 million people for 3 years for cause of death taking place in this population. TB was the biggest cause of death reported in this study in India, and 66% of those who died of TB during the study, were active smokers.

Mortality rates, particularly from Asian countries suggest that there is an urgent need to target TB patients for smoking cessation interventions.

The second edition of the International Standards of Tuberculosis Care (ISTC), which is an official component of the WHO Stop TB Strategy also mentions tobacco smoking cessation among other measures to improve TB treatment outcomes. The ISTC standard 17 says: “This plan should include assessment of and referrals for treatment of other illnesses with particular attention to those known to affect treatment outcome, for instance care for diabetes mellitus, drug and alcohol treatment programs, tobacco smoking cessation programs, and other psychosocial support services, or to such services as antenatal or well baby care.

Tobacco cessation is an important part of the comprehensive tobacco control programme, but not the only part. So all components of the comprehensive tobacco control measures should be implemented for improving public health outcomes. All countries should implement the global tobacco treaty formally known as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Comprehensive tobacco control programmes can yield major public health outcomes, as 30% of male TB patients die of tobacco smoking.

According to PATH Canada factsheet, “For the poor, daily spending on tobacco represents a daily drain on scant family resources. Yet in many countries it is precisely the poor who use tobacco the most. In Bangladesh, smoking rates are twice as high in the lowest income group as in the highest.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “it is the poorer and the poorest who tend to smoke the most. Globally, 84% of smokers live in developing and transitional economy countries.” The WHO further adds: “Together, tobacco and poverty create a vicious circle. In most countries, tobacco use tends to be higher among the poor. Poor families, in turn, spend a larger proportion of their income on tobacco. Money spent on tobacco cannot be spent on basic human needs such as food, shelter, education and healthcare. Tobacco can also worsen poverty among users and their families since tobacco users are at much higher risk of falling ill and dying prematurely of cancers, heart attacks, respiratory diseases or other tobacco-related diseases, depriving families of much-needed income and imposing additional costs for healthcare.”

The risk to develop active TB disease is higher when tobacco smoking is combined with alcohol.

The poor people are undoubtedly most hard hit by TB, tobacco and COPD, and are least likely to have access to existing services. Collaboration between different single disease or other programmes that are addressing poverty in communities will be truly beneficial and have major public health outcomes.

Reporting by Bobby Ramakant of Citizen News Service

The author serves as the Director of CNS Stop-TB Initiative, and was conferred upon the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General’s WNTD Award in 2008. . Email: bobby@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – It’s a week of resignations for Canadian politicians. One day after British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell quit his post, Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced he had also resigned.

The 54-year old Prentice said he just ended his political career and would shift to the private sector.

In early 2011 Prentice will be the vice chair and senior executive vice president of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, one of the largest banks in Canada.

The minister would also quit his job as an MP representing Calgary Center North by the end of this year, Prentice told the House of Commons.

To temporarily replace Prentice in the Environment Ministry will be Government House Leader John Baird, who once held the same post.

Prentice said he is leaving public service for his family. He explained that when he joined politics in 2001, he gave himself eight to 10 years to serve. Prentice is on his ninth year of public service. Among the posts he had held were Indian Affairs minister and Industry minister.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper thanked Prentice for his work and wished him well in his new career. Prentice is a lawyer, is married and has three children.

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