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ASH Daily News for 02 September 2011

HEADLINES

  • Tobacco giants tell Whitehall to hand over its secret minutes

    The tobacco industry is targeting the Department of Health to extract information about meetings between government officials and researchers who are investigating the public-health implications of new smoking policies.

    One leading tobacco company has asked for – and been given access to – the minutes of a confidential meeting between health department officials, cancer experts and foreign government officials – to the surprise of those who attended the private discussions.

    The Freedom of Information requests are part of a global campaign by tobacco companies to fight any further legal restrictions on cigarette sales and promotion, particularly the introduction of plain cigarette packets devoid of company logos and branding.

    Earlier this year, Philip Morris also submitted FOI requests to the Department of Health in order to access government documents related to "tobacco regulation", according to Anne Edwards, director of external communications at Philip Morris International, the makers of Marlboro cigarettes.

    Imperial Tobacco, the makers of the UK's best-selling brand Lambert & Butler, said that its vending business Sinclair Collis, a wholly-owned subsidiary, has also made an FOI request to the Department of Health because of concerns over a ban on the sale of cigarettes from vending machines.

    In its FOI request, Gallaher wanted all information that the health department kept that could be viewed as evidence in favour of introducing plain-packaging legislation. It also wanted all correspondence between the department and outside organisations, such as the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies – a consortium of nine UK universities – and the scientific research charities Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation.

    The Department of Health tried to block giving out the minutes of a June 2009 meeting between its officials, cancer experts and overseas government representatives to discuss the possibility of introducing plain, logo-free cigarette packets that would contain only a warning and the brand name written in a plain typeface.

    However, the Information Commissioner ruled that the minutes should be released to Gallaher, despite the fact that the meeting was held under the "Chatham House rule", which states that the identify or affiliation of the speakers should not be revealed.

    Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of ASH, who attended the meeting, said: "We are concerned that this is a one-way street and that the tobacco industry is not in return being either transparent or honest. The industry wants access to government documents and academic research for one purpose only: to help it fight regulation – regulation which is essential to reduce the numbers smoking and dying from their addiction."

    Source: The Independent - 02 September 2011
    Link: http://ind.pn/pizxCm

  • Professor defiant in tobacco-giant battle

    A university researcher at the centre of a row with the world's biggest tobacco company has accused the firm of being part of a "pariah industry" intent on undermining his research into smoking.

    Professor Gerard Hastings, of Stirling University's Centre for Tobacco Control Research, spoke out after it emerged Philip Morris International (PMI) is attempting to gain access to his research into young people's smoking habits.

    Prof Hastings, who has vowed not to release the information, said repeated information requests from PMI were undermining his team's ability to carry out research.

    He said: "It's a big pain in the neck and takes a lot of time and effort for us to deal with. We don't have the spare capacity for all the time this takes up, and that's before you consider the stress involved."

    When asked about how the information request reflected on the tobacco company, he said: "It's not bad PR we're talking about, it's people dying in their droves. This is a pariah industry which is doing the most appalling things. This is not new - Philip Morris has been doing this (submitting FoIs] for a long time. It's a well-established modus operandi to try and find out as much as possible."

    He said it would be "catastrophic" if the centre lost its fight and was forced to hand over the data.

    Source: The Scotsman - 02 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/q1anUv

  • Steve Connor: Big Tobacco's big fear is a brand-free packaging law

    The next big battle for the tobacco industry – some might say the final battle – will be waged around the issue of legislation that forces their cancer-causing products into plain cigarette packets that are free of company logos and branding.

    Tobacco advertising and promotion has been progressively curbed over the past few decades, which has led to greater emphasis on the fag packet. With no advertising on television, billboards, magazines, sporting events and, from next year, shop displays, the cigarette packet itself has become the only place where companies can freely advertise their brands.

    Tobacco companies have until now successfully fought off attempts at introducing legislation that forces them to abandon the distinctive colours, brand imagery, corporate logos and trademarks that distinguish one cigarette packet from another.

    However, mounting scientific evidence suggests that packet branding could be an important and possibly decisive factor that leads teenagers to take up the smoking habit. 

    Source: The Independent - 02 September 2011
    Link: http://ind.pn/qrHHbX

  • Colin Farrell wrote a break-up letter to tobacco

    Actor Colin Farrell has admitted he wrote a break-up letter to tobacco when he quit smoking.

    Farrell told ShortList magazine: "I did it the Sunday before I turned 34. I spent the whole day with a packet of cigarettes. I didn't really see anyone and with every cigarette I smoked, I smoked with as much awareness as I could. And then I wrote a little letter to tobacco."

    Asked what the letter said, the 35-year-old added: "Oh, just the usual. 'I remember the first time we met and all that we've been through together. That time you helped me through such-and-such a situation...' and yada-yadda.

    "It was very much the kind of letter you'd write to a person you were breaking up with. Because that's what it was - a break-up. It was the first time I'd ever broken up via letter, so it was strange."

    The full interview can be found on the Shortlist website here.

    Source: Entertainment.ie - 01 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qvFMuC

  • Carine Roitfeld: "I will never use a cigarette again in a photo shoot"

    Carine Roitfeld regrets using cigarettes in so many of her fashion shoots.

    Roitfeld was the editor of French Vogue magazine for ten years, leaving her post in January. Since then she’s embarked on a number of new projects, including penning a tome called Irreverent.

    She explained she wishes she’d never shown models smoking in her pictures as she knows it probably had a profound effect on many young women.

    “The book is dedicated to my husband, who quit smoking seven months ago. When he decided to stop smoking, I said, ‘My God, it’s too bad I didn’t try to help him to stop before.’ Now I decide I will never use a cigarette again in any shoot,” she explains.

    “When you’re doing fashion pictures, you’re talking to lots of figures; some are very young, and they’re like sponges. So if your girl is smoking a cigarette, they can say, ‘Oh, my God, it’s smart to smoke a cigarette, it’s good for the look, so I’m going to have one, too.’ And it’s totally stupid.”

    Source: Independent.ie - 01 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/orSj5M

  • Colleges across U.S. impose smoking ban on campuses

    Over 500 colleges across the country have created a smoking ban on college campuses.

    Increasingly, colleges around the country are instituting policies that create 100 percent smoke-free environments.

    The new smoking-ban trend started in the early 2000s. The first school that enacted the ban was Ozarks Technical Community College in Springfield, Missouri.

    The exact parameters of the smoke-free environments vary from school to school. Generally anti-smoking policies prohibit smoking on campus grounds, athletic stadiums, restaurants, and parking lots.

    The smoking-ban trend seems to be picking up. American Nonsmoker’s Right Foundation Project Manager Liz Williams, told CNN that in the past year alone, 120 campuses have adopted non-smoking policies.

    A video of a local news talk show on the subject is available here.

    Source: The Christian Post - 01 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/rnWj82

  • Ireland: Lung cancer is now a bigger killer of women than breast cancer

    Years of smoking have now taken their toll, and while lung cancer in men fell between 1994 and 2008, the reverse is happening for women.

    Instead, the rate is rising by 2pc a year in women and, in a worrying trend, the largest increase of 4pc a year is seen in younger groups under 55 years of age, the annual report of the National Cancer Registry revealed.

    The report shows that 1,059 men and 652 women were diagnosed with lung cancer each year on average between 1994 and 2008.

    An average of 571 women are dying annually of the disease, which claims the lives of 966 men.

    Source: Herald.ie - 01 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qPKBZy