ASH Daily News for 23/11/1999
HEADLINES
ASH, 102 Clifton Street, London EC2A 4HW Tel: 0207 739 5902
Fax: 0207 613 0531
ASH Daily News
Tuesday 23 November 1999
Headlines
Release of BAT documents could lead to legal action against industry
Smoke-free areas in pubs make good economic sense
Lung cancer crisis
Workplace smoking policies
Rothmans ends sponsorship of rugby league book
Full Text
Release of BAT documents could lead to legal action against industry
The Canadian Government yesterday released more than a thousand
internal documents from BAT, which could form the basis of legal
action against Canada’s tobacco industry. The documents suggest
tobacco companies conducted extensive research on how to attract and
retain customers, including young smokers, the health ministry said.
Alan Rock, the Canadian health minister, said: “I find their contents
very disturbing. They reinforce the need for aggressive, sustained
campaigns to inform Canadians not only about the health hazards of
smoking but also about the marketing strategies of the tobacco
industry.” A spokesman for the health ministry added that the
documents would be central to help officials formulate stricter
regulations requiring companies to state more accurately and more
clearly the contents of cigarettes.
Source: Financial Times, 23/11/99
Smoke-free areas in pubs make good economic sense
Research conducted by the Staffordshire Smoke-Free Alliance will show
that pub landlords can boost their takings by 7% when they introduce
no-smoking areas. The study also shows that 74% of pub-goers approve
of no-smoking zones. The pilot study, launched today jointly with
ASH, was conducted in ten pubs in Staffordshire. ASH Director, Clive
Bates, said: “this study provides clear evidence that smoke-free areas
are good for business. He added: “We are not taking a health message
to the pubs and restaurants or lecturing anybody. This is about the
business of catering well for the customers that don’t smoke.”
Source: The Guardian, FT, 23/11/99
Lung cancer crisis
Britain has the second worst rate in Europe for deaths from lung
cancer among women. Only Denmark has a poorer survival rate,
according to figures produced by the International Union Against
Cancer (UICC). Britain has a mortality rate of 21 deaths per 100,000
compared with 24 in Denmark. The survival rates for lung cancer are
also lower in the UK than for other European countries. Data
published in the European Cancer journal show that when death rates
for men and women are combined, Britain comes bottom of the league,
with only four per cent of lung cancer victims surviving for five
years. Professor Gordon McVie, director general of the Cancer
Research Campaign, warned that the NHS would not be able to cope with
the strain of treating the growing number of women lung cancer
patients unless there was concerted action to tackle the epidemic of
tobacco smoking.
Source: Daily Mail, The Express, 23/11/99
Workplace smoking policies
The Evening Standard discusses workplace smoking policies in the light
of FOREST’s recent survey which claimed that smokers are being
discriminated against as employers increasingly demand that staff
should be non-smokers. Reporter Wendy Ledger acknowledges the case
for restricting smoking at work but suggests that discrimination
against someone who smokes in the privacy of their own home is a
different matter.
Source: Evening Standard, 22/11/99
Rothmans ends sponsorship of rugby league book
Rothmans sponsorship of the rugby league year book will end this year.
Headline, the publisher, has informed the author that Rothmans has
withdrawn its financial support following several years of declining
sales.
Source: The Guardian, 23/11/99
Karl Brookes
Project Manager
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