ASH Daily News for 12 November 2007
HEADLINES
Move for ban on cigarette vending machines
Advert aims to win smokers’ hearts
New research suggest smoking may be adding to global TB burden
Phillipines: WHO urges the government to increase cigarette tax
Dubai: Second phase of smoking regulation programme announced
Move for ban on cigarette vending machines
Cigarette vending machines could be banned to stop them being used by child smokers.
As many as 50,000 children are feared to use the machines to acquire cigarettes, and there are fears that these figures will rise after increasing the legal age at which tobacco can be bought.
The British Heart Foundation is attempting to secure a Private Member's Bill to introduce legislation banning the sale of cigarettes through the machines, in the hope it will help reduce the number of children smoking.
The proposed ban is likely to gain widespread support among politicians following the success of the ban on smoking in public places and last month's raising of the legal age from 16 to 18.
Research suggest that one in six child smokers uses vending machines, but the true figure could be much higher. The recent increase in the legal age is likely to have forced many more under age smokers into pubs and clubs to try to buy cigarettes from vending machines after being turned down in shops.
The British Medical Association also called for a ban on the machines earlier this year alongside a ban on the sale of packs of 10 and a proposal that tobacco products should not be displayed in shops.
Source: The Telegraph, 12 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/yvmsgn
Advert aims to win smokers’ hearts
An explicit anti smoking campaign aims to get to the heart of how damaging cigarettes are to health.
A new TV commercial, tying in with a series of newspaper adverts is being launched by Fresh, Smokefree North East.
The TV advert, which will be shown from Tuesday, shows smoke from a discarded cigarette strangling somebody, illustrating how cigarette smoke can restrict the amount of oxygen to your heart.
Dr Ian Purcell, a heart specialist at Freeman Hospital, said: “The incidence of heart disease due to smoking is still worryingly high and I fear that the destructive effects of smoking on the heart are not fully appreciated."
“Most of us are well aware that tobacco represents a major threat to our general health, but this campaign will put the spotlight onto the heart."
“Continual exposure to secondhand smoke has been shown to nearly double the chance of a heart attack, with thousands of people dying each year, including life long non-smokers.”
Source: icNewcastle, 11 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/yom3v8
New research suggest smoking may be adding to global TB burden
According to research presented at a global lung health conference in Cape Town, smoking may be responsible for up to a fifth of tuberculosis (TB) infections and deaths worldwide.
Karen Slama, head of operational research at the union's tobacco control department said, "More than 20 percent of the global TB burden may be attributable to smoking. Smoking may increase the risk by about 20 percent of either getting infected or dying."
She added that three separate reviews into tobacco use and TB infection, yielded sufficient evidence of a link.
The research also found a significant link between passive smoking and TB infection.
"Among people infected with TB, effective tobacco control can lower the number of people that go from (latent) infection to disease to death," Slama said.
"Tobacco control can also reduce the pool of people that have TB. You can save millions of dollars in TB treatment costs."
Source: AFP, 10 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xw2qr
Phillipines: WHO urges the government to increase cigarette tax
The World Health Organization has urged the Philippine government to raise the excise tax on cigarettes, saying the low tax in the country was not helping the cause of fighting tobacco related diseases.
In a letter to the Department of Finance, the health agency noted that the Philippines had the lowest excise tax on cigarettes among Southeast Asian countries.
Finance undersecretary, Gil Beltran said, "The WHO asked us if we could increase tax because it is true that taxation is low compared with what is imposed in neighbouring countries."
Beltran said the Department of Finance was willing to work for the proposal to raise the excise tax on cigarettes, agreeing that the current tax rates were outdated. He said, increasing cigarette taxes would not be easy as industry players were expected to lobby strongly against it.
Beltran noted that most cigarettes are taxed based on their 1997 prices. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is prohibited from automatically raising the tax to match a corresponding increase in price. An increase in the tax rate may only be done through legislation.
Earlier, the Department of Finance submitted a position paper to the Senate that sought for an amendment to the Sin Tax Law of 2005. They said an ideal way of taxing cigarettes was to automatically put a cigarette brand in a higher tax bracket if its price increases.
Source: Inquirer, 11 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2b2tmn
Dubai: Second phase of smoking regulation programme announced
The second phase of the programme to regulate smoking in public places from 18 November 2007 has been announced by the Dubai Municipality.
During the first phase smoking regulation was implemented in shopping malls.
Eng. Salem Bin Mesmar, Director of Public Health Department in the Municipality said the programme is being implemented in line with the Dubai Strategic Plan (2007-2015). It seeks to protect public health and improve quality of life for nationals and expatriates residing in Dubai and in line with the Strategic Plan of Dubai Municipality, which ensures purity of interior air quality and prevention of smoking in public buildings.
The municipality will undertake a massive public awareness campaign involving media advertisements ahead of the enforcement of the programme to regulate smoking in public places which includes restaurants, cafes and shisha bars.
The meeting on Thursday also discussed different aspects of the manual on regulation of smoking in public places, which provides the rules and regulations for smoking in public places.
Source: AME Info, 12 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/youaow
