ASH Daily News for 15 July 2009

Driver smoking ban idea welcomed

Smoking and driving: a hot topic that has ignited debate

Nearly two thirds of motorists would like to see smoking in cars completely banned.
According to a new survey by car supermarket Motorpoint, 67% of drivers wanted smokers to extinguish their cigarettes before getting behind the wheel.

In all, some 2,028 people took part in the week-long online study, which looked at smoking in cars - currently the subject of hot debate.

Professor Terence Stephenson, the new president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, has called for a complete end to smoking in cars with children.

It is already outlawed in all company cars and was recently included in the revised version of the Highway Code as a dangerous distraction (complete with a £60 on-the-spot fine).

Said David Shelton, Managing Director of Motorpoint: "It is clear from our poll that it is only a matter of time before smoking in cars follows the same route as mobile phones and drink driving, and becomes totally outlawed."

Source: New Car Net, 14 July 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/l63b8o

JTI launches new pack designs for Berkeley

Berkeley, JTI's premium cigarette brand, is getting a new look, with modern pack designs being introduced across the entire range from August. 

While the product itself remains unchanged, the pack has been updated to give the brand a more contemporary feel and reaffirm its premium proposition.

The brand holds a 4.5% share of the premium cigarette sector - equating to annual sales of over £170m (JTI 2008 full year estimates) for retailers.

Changes to the pack include a simplified crest logo, modernised font for the Berkeley name, and a new two-tone ‘chequered' design across all three Berkeley variants.

Source: Talking Retail, 14 July 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/lrea4t

Smokers stubbed by first cigarette ban in public park

The first ban on smoking in a public park comes into force in London’s East End next week.

Notices are going up this week warning of the ban starting July 20 in the children’s play area at Mile End Park.

The move follows figures which show that record numbers of smokers in Tower Hamlets have managed to quit the habit in an area with one of Britain’s worst heart disease and cancer rates.

NHS Tower Hamlets has helped 2,300 smokers give up since January, beating last year’s total by nearly 300.

Results from NHS London show the area exceeding its set annual target for 2009 with the third highest success rate in London.

It adds weight to campaigners who persuaded Tower Hamlets council to ban smoking in the children’s area at Mile End Park—the first local authority to outlaw smoking in an open public place.

The ban is aimed at preventing youngsters taking up the habit while protecting others from the effects of ‘passive’ smoking.

Tower Hamlets has one of the highest tobacco habits in the UK, with one-in-three adults addicted compared to the one-in-four national average.

Source: East London Advertiser, 14 July 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/njd4rj

Ireland: Customs' sting leads to seizure of eight million illegal cigarettes

Customs officers have seized a massive haul of contraband cigarettes after keeping a container under surveillance at Dublin Port.

The surveillance stemmed from liaison between the Customs in Dublin and agencies overseas and resulted in the seizure of 8.25 million "Regal" cigarettes, with a retail value of about €3.5m and a potential loss to the Exchequer of €2.95m.

The cigarettes, which were declared on the manifest as "aluminium foil trays", were discovered in a container which had arrived in the port from China last Friday.

Officers kept watch on the container at the port and then monitored the cargo as it was transferred to a truck and trailer. They intercepted the load after stopping the truck on the M1 near Swords, in north county Dublin.

A house in the Dublin area was searched and a number of suspects interviewed as part of the investigation, which had been code-named Operation Monarch.

Last night Customs said the seizure involved one of the largest ever single maritime containers.

Further inquiries were under way last night to establish the source of the cargo.

The haul brings the total amount of cigarettes seized by Customs to date to about 53 million, with a retail value of around €22m.

Source: Independent, 15 July 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/lks9o3

USA: Camel violated ban on using cartoons to sell cigarettes

The four-page Camel cigarette advert in Rolling Stone magazine two years ago was a surrealistic journey to a place called "Camel Farm," where a woman with a retro hairdo sprouted from a green field; where a gramophone, a disembodied hand and a trippy tractor drifted through the air.

It was meant to connect Camels with alternative music, and the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company argued it was far from Joe Camel, the Disneyesque spokescharacter of yesteryear that got it in so much trouble.

But a state Appeals Court ruled that the company violated a ban on using cartoons to sell smokes. Now a King County Superior Court judge may have to decide what sanctions the company will face for its advert.

"The Camel Farm imagery depends entirely upon the suspension of the laws of nature," Appeals Court Judge Anne Ellington wrote in the ruling.

"Under a blue sky in a pastoral Eden, roosters hitch rides on floating tractors, speakers grow out of the ground and radios fly. This is in a world where the natural laws do not obtain, where cancer and serious health problems can cease to exist.

"For a product known to cause both, such a world is a potent sales device."

The colorful ad ran in a special anniversary issue of Rolling Stone in November 2007. At the time, Camel was using the Camel Farm promotion, including an elaborate website, to refer to raising rock bands up from underground.

But attorneys general in several states, including Washington, promptly filed suit over the ad. They contended it violated a multibillion-dollar nationwide settlement in 1998 in which tobacco companies agreed not to use cartoon characters like Joe Camel — a lovable-looking dromedary in cool clothes.

Source: The Seattle Times, 14 July 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/noceez