ASH Daily News for 12 July 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Blackpool landlord could become the first person in England to be prosecuted under the new anti-smoking legislation. Hamish Howitt faces a fine of £2,500 for ignoring the new smoking legislation and allowing his customers to smoke inside his Happy Scots Bar.

 

Officers from Blackpool Council handed out three £50 fixed penalty notices to smokers over the weekend and the council is planning to interview Mr Howitt and compile evidence for its legal team.   

 

Mr Howitt has been a vocal critic of the smoking ban and has openly defied the legislation since it came into force on 1 July.

 

When officers visited the pub on Friday, they found ashtrays had been provided by the landlord for those customers smoking.  

 

A Blackpool spokeswoman said, “We are hoping to summons him to court to continue legal proceedings against him. We have been approaching the enforcement of the legislation in the resort in a non-confrontational way but we have exhausted all avenues with Mr Howitt.”

 

"So far, we have had a very high level of compliance across the town and businesses are responding positively," a spokeswoman said.

 

"With regards to Mr Howitt, he has been verbally informed that he has been reported for prosecution twice and investigations are ongoing.”

 

Blackpool Council said any prosecution of one of the resort's bars or pubs could lead to a loss of their license.

 

Source: BBC News, 11 July 2007

Article Link: http://tinyurl.com/2j6fks

A ban on smoking in public places is being enforced in Kenya's capital Nairobi, a year after it was blocked by a court. Those found smoking in bus stations, the streets or markets face a fine or six months in jail.

 

Nakuru is already enforcing the smoking ban and it has recently being introduced in the port city of Mombasa.

 

Kenya’s 300,000 tobacco farmers fear the ban is going to seriously affect their incomes. However the Nairobi City Council says the new by-laws are [designed] to reduce the harmful effects of secondhand tobacco smoke.

 

Bars and restaurant owners are now required to provide a secluded area for smokers, under the new laws.

 

Last year, the High Court suspended a ban on smoking which was ordered by the health ministry after tobacco companies challenged the minister's authority to impose the restriction.

 

Under new measures cigarette manufacturers are now required to print health warnings that will cover half of the packets produced.

 

The health ministry said that statistics show tobacco kills 12,000 Kenyans each year and a public ban would reduce that figure.

 

Source: BBC News, 11 July 2007

Article Link: http://tinyurl.com/2kohm5

 

 

Recent studies carried out at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and other institutions worldwide have found that smokers have a 70 percent greater risk of having hearing loss than non-smokers.

 

Deborah Pitcher, doctor of audiology said when the studies were done, researchers tried to pull out other variants, such as people who have been exposed to loud noise, in order to make the connection. "Their conclusions were the same, and that is when people smoke cigarettes, they have a much higher chance of suffering hearing loss.”

 

"The interesting thing that I found in these studies is that a lot of the damage happens in the early years of cigarette smoking. If you look at people who are less than 35 years of age, about four and a half percent of those people in the overall general population will have some hearing loss. If they smoked, it increased substantially to 43 percent, which is a huge difference.”

 

According to Pitcher, the studies do not give a clear reason why cigarette smoking would cause hearing loss, but she said the generally accepted thought is that nicotine is a vasodilator. "This means it restricts blood flow. The inner ear system needs to get blood supply and oxygen supply. If this is denied or it does not get a sufficient quantity, which happens with nicotine, the inner ear therefore does not get necessary nutrients. This results in damage of the delicate hair cells which leads to permanent hearing loss," Pitcher explained.

 

"By the time smokers realise, the damage has already affected important frequency areas for speech. People then start having difficulty distinguishing between whether somebody said seven or 11. They start misunderstanding things because they don't have those sounds coming through clearly."

 

The studies suggest that, while there may be permanent damage, stopping and getting the nutrients back can stop the problem from getting worse. "However, for those people who were also exposed to loud noise, there was a synergistic effect. They had an even higher incidence of hearing loss," Pitcher said.

 

In the study that Karen Cruickshanks carried out in Wisconsin, they found that those who were exposed to secondhand smoke also had a greater increase of hearing loss.

 

Source: The Daily Vidette Online, 11 July 2007

Article Link: http://tinyurl.com/333gna

 

 

A recent study has found that three out of five people believe that drivers should be banned from smoking in their own private cars.

 

More than 60 per cent of those questioned in a survey said motorists should not be allowed to smoke when driving and cited concerns over the effects that passive smoking has for their passengers.

 

The report comes less than two weeks after smoking was banned in public places and in some vehicles including company cars.

 

The survey of 1,000 people was commissioned by car sales company Motorpoint.

 

Current smoking legislations bars drivers of company cars from smoking, but private cars are exempt from the legislation.

 

Source: thislondon.co.uk, 12 July 2007

Article Link: http://tinyurl.com/2vhjqr

 

 

 

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