ASH Daily News for 01/10/2004
HEADLINES
ASH, 102 Clifton Street, LONDON, EC2A 4HW.
Tel 020 7739 5902 Fax 020 7613 0531
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ASH Daily News
1 October 2004
HEADLINES
£50 fine will hit litter bugs in the butt
Parisian cafes to go smoke-free?
Pub chains agree to partial ban
Film biopic about tobacco baron
FULL TEXT
£50 fine will hit litter bugs in the butt
Smokers who toss their cigarette ends onto the street face a possible £50 fine.
The Major of London Ken Livingstone has reportedly ordered the new clampdown. The number of enforcement officers who can issue tickets is expected to treble in number to 750.
Mr Livingstone has written to 300 companies warning them that staff who smoke outside should not throw away their cigarette ends. To assist their compliance, 15,000 heat-resistant cigarette butt pouches are to be distributed.
The Major's officials claim that 2,700 tons of cigarette waste - including packaging, cellophane, foil and matches as well as butts are dumped on London's pavements annually.
Mr Livingstone said: "People think their cigarette butt is fairly harmless and will not make a difference to London's litter problem but in reality, smoking litter is one of the most commonly occurring forms of litter and cigarette filters do not degrade easily. Smokers need to start taking more responsibility for their litter."
Under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, council enforcement officers have the power to issue £50 fixed penalty notices for littering.
Simon Clark, Director of pro-smoking group Forest attributed the blame of increased smoking litter to an "inevitable consequence" of firms banning smoking.
Writing in the Daily Express John Kampfner, editor of the New Statesman asks if the Major's new fines risk turning Britain into Singapore.
Commenting on different countries' legal oddities, Mr Kampfner writes that Singapore, (where he was born) is a country not to be emulated.
Source: Evening Standard (Sept 30), Daily Express, Daily Mail, October 1, 2004
Parisian cafes to go smoke-free?
The days of the Parisian intellectual sitting at cafes and puffing away with cigarette or pipe might be at an end. The Major of Paris has proposed the unthinkable: cigarette-free cafes and restaurants.
Aware of the strength of public feeling on the matter Bertrand Delanoe has resisted the outright ban favoured by New York and Ireland. Instead, he has offered the city's 12,000 cafes, bistros, restaurants and hotels a "smoke free" quality badge if they banish all smoking from their premises.
The proposed scheme has met opposition from café owners who believe it will drive customers away. "We will never take part in this scheme", said manager of the Café de Flore, Carole Chretiennot. "It is unbelievable stupidity", she continued. This flies in the face of individual liberty. When you come into Flore, you have the smell of coffee and a cloud of smoke. That makes the ambience."
Source: Times, October 1, 2004
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1288598,00.html
Pub chains agree to partial ban
Eighteen more pub chains announced partial curbs on smoking in their 6,000 outlets.
They intend to end smoking at the bar by the end of next year and restrict it to just 20 percent of floor space by the end of 2009.
The latest announcement will mean approximately 40 percent of pubs and bars will be covered by the new rules, which pub owners hope will persuade the Government not to impose an outright ban.
Rob Hayward, Chief Executive of British Beer and Pub Association said: "The initiative has clearly gained support across the sector."
New signatories to the scheme include Youngs brewery and the Laurel Pub group.
However, smoke-free campaigners pointed out smoking areas fail to prevent passive smoking. They prefer a total ban. A government announcement is expected soon.
Source: Daily Mirror, Daily Star, October 1, 2004
Rambling film biopic about tobacco baron
Documentary film-maker and Michael Moore mentor Ross McElwee's new film is released next week.
McElwee began shooting the documentary in 1997 and purports to be about his research into the story behind a 1950 Hollywood movie, Bright Leaf, starring Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall and Patricia Neal.
The film, Bright Leaves, depicts rival North Carolina tobacco barons, and McElwee who hails from North Carolina, believed the Cooper character was based on the biography of his great-grandfather.
In fact the film is a more diverse and rambling project about lovely green countryside; "beautiful green tobacco plants" that go on to kill half a million people in the US each year; the pleasures of smoking; shrinking beauty queens; charming people aging;
a cat, a dog and a rat.
The film-maker went in search of cancer patients, like the one who in the film recommends morphine to everybody who is trying to quit smoking. He also sought tobacco farmers, such as the woman whose mother, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer (she says: "My growing tobacco has nothing to do with anyone who dies.")
However, McElwee tells the Guardian that it was purely chance that he came across the last ever tobacco festival in a small North Carolina town, and met the last Miss Tobacco.
Source: Guardian, October 1, 2004
Article link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,,1316292,00.html
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Harold Wilson
ASH
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
http://www.ash.org.uk
Tel: 020 7739 5902
Tel 020 7739 5902 Fax 020 7613 0531
[VIEW HTML VERSION
http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]
ASH Daily News
1 October 2004
HEADLINES
£50 fine will hit litter bugs in the butt
Parisian cafes to go smoke-free?
Pub chains agree to partial ban
Film biopic about tobacco baron
FULL TEXT
£50 fine will hit litter bugs in the butt
Smokers who toss their cigarette ends onto the street face a possible £50 fine.
The Major of London Ken Livingstone has reportedly ordered the new clampdown. The number of enforcement officers who can issue tickets is expected to treble in number to 750.
Mr Livingstone has written to 300 companies warning them that staff who smoke outside should not throw away their cigarette ends. To assist their compliance, 15,000 heat-resistant cigarette butt pouches are to be distributed.
The Major's officials claim that 2,700 tons of cigarette waste - including packaging, cellophane, foil and matches as well as butts are dumped on London's pavements annually.
Mr Livingstone said: "People think their cigarette butt is fairly harmless and will not make a difference to London's litter problem but in reality, smoking litter is one of the most commonly occurring forms of litter and cigarette filters do not degrade easily. Smokers need to start taking more responsibility for their litter."
Under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act, council enforcement officers have the power to issue £50 fixed penalty notices for littering.
Simon Clark, Director of pro-smoking group Forest attributed the blame of increased smoking litter to an "inevitable consequence" of firms banning smoking.
Writing in the Daily Express John Kampfner, editor of the New Statesman asks if the Major's new fines risk turning Britain into Singapore.
Commenting on different countries' legal oddities, Mr Kampfner writes that Singapore, (where he was born) is a country not to be emulated.
Source: Evening Standard (Sept 30), Daily Express, Daily Mail, October 1, 2004
Parisian cafes to go smoke-free?
The days of the Parisian intellectual sitting at cafes and puffing away with cigarette or pipe might be at an end. The Major of Paris has proposed the unthinkable: cigarette-free cafes and restaurants.
Aware of the strength of public feeling on the matter Bertrand Delanoe has resisted the outright ban favoured by New York and Ireland. Instead, he has offered the city's 12,000 cafes, bistros, restaurants and hotels a "smoke free" quality badge if they banish all smoking from their premises.
The proposed scheme has met opposition from café owners who believe it will drive customers away. "We will never take part in this scheme", said manager of the Café de Flore, Carole Chretiennot. "It is unbelievable stupidity", she continued. This flies in the face of individual liberty. When you come into Flore, you have the smell of coffee and a cloud of smoke. That makes the ambience."
Source: Times, October 1, 2004
Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1288598,00.html
Pub chains agree to partial ban
Eighteen more pub chains announced partial curbs on smoking in their 6,000 outlets.
They intend to end smoking at the bar by the end of next year and restrict it to just 20 percent of floor space by the end of 2009.
The latest announcement will mean approximately 40 percent of pubs and bars will be covered by the new rules, which pub owners hope will persuade the Government not to impose an outright ban.
Rob Hayward, Chief Executive of British Beer and Pub Association said: "The initiative has clearly gained support across the sector."
New signatories to the scheme include Youngs brewery and the Laurel Pub group.
However, smoke-free campaigners pointed out smoking areas fail to prevent passive smoking. They prefer a total ban. A government announcement is expected soon.
Source: Daily Mirror, Daily Star, October 1, 2004
Rambling film biopic about tobacco baron
Documentary film-maker and Michael Moore mentor Ross McElwee's new film is released next week.
McElwee began shooting the documentary in 1997 and purports to be about his research into the story behind a 1950 Hollywood movie, Bright Leaf, starring Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall and Patricia Neal.
The film, Bright Leaves, depicts rival North Carolina tobacco barons, and McElwee who hails from North Carolina, believed the Cooper character was based on the biography of his great-grandfather.
In fact the film is a more diverse and rambling project about lovely green countryside; "beautiful green tobacco plants" that go on to kill half a million people in the US each year; the pleasures of smoking; shrinking beauty queens; charming people aging;
a cat, a dog and a rat.
The film-maker went in search of cancer patients, like the one who in the film recommends morphine to everybody who is trying to quit smoking. He also sought tobacco farmers, such as the woman whose mother, a heavy smoker, died of lung cancer (she says: "My growing tobacco has nothing to do with anyone who dies.")
However, McElwee tells the Guardian that it was purely chance that he came across the last ever tobacco festival in a small North Carolina town, and met the last Miss Tobacco.
Source: Guardian, October 1, 2004
Article link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,,1316292,00.html
----------------------------------
Unsubscribe:
Public subscribers: http://www.ash.org.uk/?unsubscribe
Globalink members: http://member.globalink.org
----------------------------------
Harold Wilson
ASH
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
http://www.ash.org.uk
Tel: 020 7739 5902
