ASH Daily News for 05/12/2000
HEADLINES
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ASH Daily News
Tuesday 5 December 2000
Headlines
Backlash against tobacco 'blood money'
Young smokers take more time off work than non-smokers
BAT-backed firm develops means of managing property rights
Emphysema - not just a disease of the elderly
Full Text
Backlash against tobacco 'blood money'
Several papers report on the controversy surrounding BAT's £4m sponsorship
of an International Centre for Social Responsibility at Nottingham
University. The Cancer Research Campaign, which funds research at
Nottingham, said the university had "sold out". Professor Gordon Mcvie, CRC
's director general, said: "We understand that universities are short of
money but we feel accepting tainted tobacco cash is a step too far." Clive
Bates, director of ASH, said: "This kind of expenditure by BAT is a brazen
attempt to buy respectability. The only thing more dispiriting than the
offer is the university accepting it." John Toy, the Imperial Cancer
Research Fund's medical director commented, "If you accept money from the
tobacco industry you are partly in cahoots with them. I think that it's a
great shame that Nottingham University has agreed to accept this money."
The Guardian, The Independent, Financial Times, The Mirror, 5/12/00
Young smokers take more time off work than non-smokers
Young male smokers are more likely to take sick leave than non-smokers,
research has shown. A US study has shown that they have a 60 per cent
greater risk of missing work through smoking-related illnesses such as heart
disease and respiratory problems. Women who smoked were 15 per cent more
likely to off work through sickness than their non-smoking counterparts.
The study, involving 88,000 US Army personnel with an average age of 28,
showed smoking was to blame for 7.5 per cent of hospital admissions for men
and five per cent for women, increasing the risks by 30 and 25 per cent
respectively. More than 14 per cent of lost working days among men and
three per cent among women were also linked to the habit, according to the
report published in Tobacco Control.
Source: Daily Mail, 5/12/00. Note: Tobacco Control is due to be published
on 6 December.
BAT-backed firm develops means of managing property rights
The FT reports on Geodesia, a UK firm backed by BAT which has developed a
system for reducing the mounting burden of managing intellectual property
rights for companies. BAT, for example, manages a portfolio of more than
125,000 trademarks registered in 200 countries. At one time, it could be
facing some 3,000 legal disputes. Geodesia aims to make this management
process easier through an internet portal where legal documents can be
jointly accessed and worked on online by both a company and its advisers.
Source: Financial Times, 5/12/00
Emphysema - not just a disease of the elderly
Following on from the news that model Christy Turlington has early-stage
emphysema, The Guardian examines the nature of the illness and points out
that it's not just a disease of the elderly. Dr. Mark Britton, chairman of
the British Lung Foundation said: "Lung disease is the Cinderella of health
care. Everyone knows about heart disease and cancer but we don't do
terribly well talking about lung disease. But I am sure there are quite a
few people out there with emphysema who don't know it. There is little
doubt that there is more emphysema in younger people than we appreciate."
Source: The Guardian, The Independent, 5/12/00
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Action on Smoking and Health
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