HEADLINES

• MP launches Commons motion to review smoking ban
• Flint grandad died after smoking in bed
• Customs seize more than 24,000 cigarettes in raids
• Campaign for smokefree Germany gathers steam

• MP launches Commons motion to review smoking ban

  Northampton South MP Brian Binley has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) calling for a review of the smoking ban to stop the closure of so many pubs and clubs.

  More than 2,000 pubs and clubs have gone to the wall in the past year and many are under huge pressure to keep afloat.
  
  Mr Binley said that when the smoking ban was implemented on July 1, 2007, the Government promised to review the ban within three years.
  
  He said: "I want to consider a balanced and proportionate amendment to the legislation, which allows for segregated smoking rooms or areas within pubs, bars and clubs provided that effective smoke extraction systems of an authorised standard are installed."
  
  The EDM calls on the Government to conduct a thorough review supported by consultation with all affected business sectors on the impact the smoking ban has had on public houses and private members clubs.
  
  Mr Binley added: "I understand that the Government has no plans to review the smoking ban at the present time and that makes me angry.
  
  "The then Health Minister, John Reid, promised a review would be held three years afterwards, but the Government is now saying that it has no plans to do so.
  
  "That denial is simply unacceptable."

  Source: Northampton Chronicle and Echo, 07 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/dx98qw

• Flint grandad died after smoking in bed

  A grandad died after a fire caused by smoking in bed while he was using an oxygen cylinder.

  An inquest into the death of Ronald Evan Jones, of Albert Avenue, Flint, found that the 75-year-old died of complications after a cigarette started the fire last December.

  He suffered 6% burns to his arms and legs as well as smoke inhalation.

  The former JCB driver was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital, but was later transferred to the specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside.

  He survived in hospital for several days before dying in the early hours of December 21.

  A fire investigation discovered that Mr Jones was smoking in bed while using oxygen equipment for an underlying medical problem when the fire started.

  Coroner for North East Wales, John Hughes, said that Mr Jones had previously suffered a stroke that partly paralysed him.

  The inquest heard that the oxygen concentrator that Mr Jones relied on had probably saturated the mattress and made it easy for flames to take hold.

  Mr Jones managed to roll out of bed and onto the floor as fire gutted the room at the semi-detached property.

  The court heard that Mr Jones’ carer and grandson Damien had gone round to make sure his grandad was okay and had briefly left Mr Jones with a rolled up cigarette.

  Minutes later the fire broke out.

  Mr Hughes asked the grandson whether anyone had told him about the dangers of smoking in bed.

  Mr Jones said: “The whole family had told him about it. After my Gran died he didn’t care if he lived or died.

  “The question of having a cigarette in bed was irrelevant to him.”

  The pensioner died of pneumonia and an underlying chronic lung condition that was worsened by smoke inhalation the coroner ruled.

  He recorded a verdict of accidental death saying the fire had caused the final illnesses which claimed Mr Jones’ life.

  Damien, who acted a live-in carer for Mr Jones for more than a year, said: “My dad died when was seven so I went to live with my grandfather. We were very close.

  “He was a wonderful man and this has closed off a very difficult period for us all.”

  Source: Daily Post North Wales, 07 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bHhPrh

• Customs seize more than 24,000 cigarettes in raids

  More than 24,000 cigarettes were seized in a series of raids by customs officers on premises in Birmingham.

  Six separate retail premises were targeted in the Handsworth area of the city with 2.3 kilos of hand rolling tobacco and 10.75 kilos of flavoured tobacco also confiscated in the operation.

  Revenue loss on the goods was estimated to be around £6,500 by HM Revenue and Customs.

  The cigarettes were branded Jin Ling, Marlboro Gold and L&Ms.

  Source: The Business Desk, 6 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bcac9E

• Campaign for smokefree Germany gathers steam

  Buoyed by a referendum victory for a total ban on smoking in public places in Bavaria, Germany's anti-smoking lobby was pushing for the habit to be stubbed out across the country.

  Sixty-one percent of people who voted in the southern state were in favour of the ban, meaning the tents at the world-famous Oktoberfest beer festival will be smokefree from 2011.

  In the wake of the result, campaigners called for similar votes in other German regions, including the city-states of Berlin and Hamburg, and opposition deputies said a strict nationwide ban in bars and restaurants could be considered.

  "Either we ban smoking or we don't ban smoking. If we do ban it, it should be done at the national level like it was in Bavaria, i.e. without exceptions," said the health spokesman for the Social Democrats (SPD), Karl Lauterbach.

  Carola Reimann, also from the centre-left SPD and a member of the health committee in the German parliament, said the vote in Bavaria was a "very, very clear signal."

  However, smoking legislation is a matter for Germany's 16 states and the federal health minister has already said the issue does not fall within his remit.

  Around one-quarter of Germans are smokers - around average for the European Union according to Eurostat figures - and the tobacco lobby has a strong influence in the country.

  The last of Germany's 16 states made lighting up in bars and restaurants largely illegal from July 2008, driving many smokers out of pubs.

  However, the law was riddled with loopholes and many pub owners managed to circumvent it.

  Source: The Independent, 07 July 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bapZxb