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ASH Daily News

1 December 2003

HEADLINES

+ Even smokers now back cigarette bans
+ The Lancet: Ban smoking in public
+ Public 'ignoring facts on risks to life'
+ Cancer rise despite billions spent on research
+ It a breath of fresh air or last orders for old-style pubs
+ Debate at the Times: Does smoke get in your eyes
+ Warning to Saturday night 'binge smokers'
+ Smoking ban on trains

FULL TEXT


+ Even smokers now back cigarette bans

The civil war that most Britons are too polite to fight openly - the one between smokers and non-smokers - could soon find a peaceful resolution, according to a YouGov survey for The Telegraph.

Last week the heads of all 13 royal colleges of medicine called for a total ban on smoking in all public places and YouGov's findings suggest that the public - smokers and non-smokers alike - broadly agrees, subject to qualifications.

Large majorities on both sides of the great tobacco divide clearly support the idea that shops, restaurants, indoor shopping centres and the great majority of workplaces should become tobacco-free zones.

Substantial majorities also have no difficulty distinguishing between indoor and outdoor smoking.
Opposition would be widespread to any idea that open-air smoking should be banned - for example, on outdoor railway platforms or in the street.

Even substantial numbers of non-smokers clearly believe such a sweeping restriction would be an unwarranted invasion of personal liberty.

However, two disputed border areas remain, comprising pubs and a combination of airports and indoor train stations. Here opinion is more evenly divided and the differences between smokers and non-smokers are acute.

Any attempt to ban smoking in these areas would be widely applauded but might also provoke waves of spontaneous "smoke-ins" by those who felt hard done by. YouGov's detailed findings are set out in the chart. They largely explain themselves.

As can be seen, overwhelming majorities - and even substantial majorities of smokers - favour a law that would ban smoking where there was a clear risk it could damage the health and well-being of others.

On these grounds, more than 80 per cent of people believe shops, restaurants and indoor shopping centres should be rendered smoke-free zones; so should factories and offices.

Opposition to a ban in these areas comes only from minorities of smokers.

YouGov poll:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2003/12/01/nsmok01big.gif
Full article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/12/01/nsmok01 .xml
Source: Daily Telegraph, 1 December 2003



+ The Lancet: Ban smoking in public

A leading medical publication attacks the government today for failing to ban smoking in public places.

The Lancet Oncology says it insistence sticking to a voluntary ban is "difficult to comprehend". Editor David Collingridge said: "Simply stating a commitment to reduce the incidence of cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke is not sufficient. Positive intervention is needed."

Source: Daily Mail: 1 December 2003



+ Public 'ignoring facts on risks to life'

The public and politicians are irrationally ignoring important facts about dangers to life and the cost of protecting people, when making important decisions.

A report from the Royal Statistical Society yesterday explained that the actions of people and policy-makers seemed to ignore the fact that smoking was by far the most dangerous legal activity - killing half of 20-year-olds who went on to smoke throughout their lives.

The statisticians say it is "ludicrous" that the new train protection warning system now required by law is being installed "without regard for the risk data". At a cost of about £10m per fatality prevented, it is about 100 times more than the cost of saving a life from a road accident.

No modern society could function meaningfully as a democracy if its electorate remained in the dark on the effect of risk on policy decisions, the statisticians said. The RSS says that good decisions in - and public acceptance of - many policy areas such as vaccination, transport and genetics depend on understanding risk.

Full FT article:
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031129001356
Source: Financial Times, 29 November 2003



+ Cancer rise despite billions spent on research

The number of cancer cases is rising, despite the billions of pounds spent on trying to understand and control the disease.

Figures published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that an extra 25,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2000, compared with nine years earlier.

The incidence of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, has soared by 64 per cent among men and 45 per cent among women. Melanoma is still more common in women with 3,300 cases in 2000 compared with 2,500 cases in men.

Full article:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health/story.jsp?story=468324
Source: The Independent, 29 November 2003


+ It a breath of fresh air or last orders for old-style pubs

More traditional freehold boozers face going to the wall unless they make concessions to non-smokers.

New research shows pubs with smoke-free areas see their average monthly profits soar by £872 a month. Major chains are already offering no-smoking areas and have installed high-tech ventilation systems, which are shown to pay for themselves in under 11 weeks.

But Doctor John Pratten, a business studies lecturer, believes landlords with the freeholds and leaseholds of traditional pubs are failing to change with the times.

The findings come from studies brought together by Dr Pratten, a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, which has campuses in Alsager and Crewe, to consider the business implications of smoking policies in UK pubs.

One of the studies conducted a trial in 10 Staffordshire pubs to assess the financial impact of smoke-free areas.

In addition a number of pubs in the region have won awards for their clean air policy.

Tony Cradduck, the manager of the Yew Tree Country Inn near Stafford, an award winner, said: "We are predominantly non-smoking, and our smoke-free areas are more popular with customers than the smoking areas.

"We have had our smoke-free policy for the past four-and-a-half years and I'm pretty sure it has helped improve our trade. It attracts people, especially those with a family."

The competitive hospitality industry means pub landlords are under pressure to increase trade or face extinction. On average, one pub is closing every day across the country.

Full article linked from:
http://www.tobacco.org/news/145023.html
Source: The Sentinel, 30 November 2003



+ Debate at the Times: Does smoke get in your eyes

The Times had asked: Is smoking in public places a drag - and should it be banned. Click the following link to read contributions to the debate.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-210-915606,00.html



+ Warning to Saturday night 'binge smokers'

Doctors have warned that so called 'part-time' smokers are at much risk as those on the weed all week.

"I'm not a smoker", says James, 27, as he lights up yet another cigarette. "I just smoke when I go out." Trouble is, he goes out a lot.

James, drinking with a group of friends in a noisy London bar, reckons he will get through "about 20" cigarettes on a night out like this - but then won't smoke again for the rest of the week. He is part of the new phenomenon of "binge smokers", people who overdose on nicotine once or twice a week, but do not otherwise smoke.

When ministers rejected a call by the country's most senior doctors last week for a ban on smoking in public places, they may not have known the extent of binge smoking, which has been highlighted as one of the more dangerous, and growing, forms of nicotine abuse.

Professor Stephen Spiro, of the British Lung Foundation, says: "People go out and smoke socially on a Friday or Saturday night and get through about 20 or 30 cigarettes.


+ Smoking ban on trains

Smokers are to be stopped in their tracks after South West Trains announced a smoking ban to improve journeys for passengers and prevent damage to trains.

The ban starts on its modern trains " the 442 carriages which have push-button doors " from Monday.

This includes many of the busy commuter services on the Portsmouth-to-London Waterloo line.

Full article linked from:
http://www.tobacco.org/news/144940.html
Source: Portsmouth News, 29 November 2003


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