UK backs cigarette vending machine ban

The majority of adults in the UK support new proposals to protect children from tobacco by putting it out of sight in shops and to ban vending machines, latest survey results suggest.

The YouGov poll of more than 2000 people – carried out on behalf of Cancer Research UK – showed that 70% of adults back the proposed plans, and 76% support abolishing cigarette vending machines.

The survey also revealed that two years after the smoking ban was introduced in the UK, nearly 80% of people support the ban on smoking in the UK’s pubs, clubs and enclosed public places.

Those who had never smoked, especially women, were most supportive of the ban and the new proposals.

‘Smokefree laws have been a real success – not only in protecting UK workers from secondhand smoke but also in helping smokers to quit,’ said Elspeth Lee, Cancer Research UK’s head of tobacco control.

‘These results show there’s huge public support for the new measures to protect young people from tobacco marketing. Stopping the next generation from becoming smokers is a priority if we are to prevent more deaths from a product that has already caused far too many deaths,’ she added.
 

Source: Nursingtimes.net, 1 July 2009
Link: http://www.nursingtimes.net/whats-new-in-nursing/primary-care/uk-backs-cigarette-vending-machine-ban/5003490.article

Former nurse wins first CMO public health award

Former nurse Ailsa Rutter picked up the first prize at the England CMO's first Public Health Awards in London.
Her project Fresh - Smoke Free North East, launched in 2005 as the UK’s first dedicated regional office and programme for tobacco control, won the gold medal at the event at the Royal College of Physicians, Regents Park, London on Tuesday night.

In an emotional acceptance speech, Ms Rutter said: ‘I was a nurse originally and nursed my dad with emphysema, so I've seen what smoking can do.’

The group’s director added: This is fantastic news and a great honour. This award is the result of hard work from many partners involved in the programme. We have had the biggest drop of smoking rates in any region and that is down to taking an evidenced based comprehensive approach to reducing smoking prevalence.’

Source: Healthcare republic, 2 July 2009
Link: http://www.healthcarerepublic.com//news/index.cfm?fuseaction=HCR.News.PRACTICESTAFF.Article&nNewsID=917312&sHashCode=#AddComment

Greece acts to stub out smoking

Greece has introduced a ban on smoking in hospitals, schools, vehicles and all public places.

Those who break the new law face fines of up to 500 euros (£428), and businesses risk losing licences after several offences.

Greece is the EU's heaviest-smoking nation - 40% of the population smokes.

But defying the authorities is a national sport and there is no guarantee the ban will succeed, a BBC correspondent in Athens says.

Small cafes and restaurants with premises measuring less than 70 square metres can choose either to be tobacco-free or to admit only patrons who smoke, our correspondent Malcolm Brabant says.

Bigger establishments can have clearly identified and ventilated smoking areas.

In order to give teeth to the new regulations, which came into force on 1 July, smokers who break the law can be fined up to 500 euros.

On the first offence, businesses will be fined 1,000 euros. Repeat offenders will face even bigger fines, and ultimately, on the fourth violation, could risk losing their licence.

Each year, 20,000 Greeks die from tobacco-related illnesses and the cost in terms of health care amounts to some 1.5bn euros.

Many workers are exposed to passive smoking.

Greek Health Minister Dimitris Avromopoulos has said the moment of truth has arrived, with the ban aiming to revolutionise people's outlook.

But many Greeks regard the new law as an infringement of civil liberties, our correspondent says.

He says that in the face of widespread civil disobedience, successive governments have always had a problem enforcing new legislation.

And so despite the tough talk, there is no guarantee that the new measures will succeed.
 

Source: BBC News online 2 July 2009
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8127854.stm

USA: Panel suggests eliminating tobacco from military within 20 years

A complete ban on tobacco in the military is needed but would likely take about 20 years, according to a new Institute of Medicine study commissioned by the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.

The ban is possible if the DOD begins to "close the pipeline of new tobacco users entering the military" and slowly cuts off supplies of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, the Committee on Smoking Cessation in Military and Veteran Populations found in its study, which was released Friday.

The DOD and VA asked the institute for recommendations on how to deal with smoking among servicemembers.

The study gives a bleak account of the health and financial toll tobacco takes on the military, which has nearly twice the smoking rate of the civilian population.

More than 30 percent of service members smoke or use tobacco, though smokeless tobacco use is less certain. Those people are more likely to drop out of basic training, have poor vision, leave the service within the first year, get sick and miss work, according to the study findings.

The 15-member committee of doctors and health care professionals said the best way to reduce the problem is to eliminate it through a phased-in tobacco ban across the services.

First, officer academies and basic training should go smoke-free and enforce the rule through urine screening. Those who test positive for nicotine could be required to take smoking cessation therapy.

All services could be free of tobacco in 20 years — if the recruit screening begins within one year, the committee said.

The study also recommended that all military installations should move toward a ban on tobacco sales by barring Army and Air Force grocery stores from selling tobacco products and increasing prices at exchange stores. The Navy and Marine Corps already have stopped selling tobacco in their commissaries.

“At the same time that tobacco results in high health care costs and productivity losses for DOD, the department earns substantial net revenues from the sale of tobacco products in military commissaries and exchanges,” the committee wrote.

The conflict of interest has made changing tobacco sales policies difficult.

In 2005, the military sold $611 million worth of tobacco and $88 million was pumped back into community programs at military installations.

But those proceeds are dwarfed by the health care costs of treating sick smokers.

The military health system spent $564 million on smoking-related illnesses in 2006. The VA spent over $5 billion in 2005 to treat a common respiratory ailment that is caused by smoking, the study said.
 

Source: Stars and Stripes
Link: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63542te

Public back the cigarette ban

Two years on from the changes in the smoking law, a national survey shows that banning cigarettes in public places has been a popular move.
On July 1, 2007, all public places and workplaces became smokefree, including shops, offices, factories, pubs, cafes, restaurants, membership clubs and work vehicles.

The 2009 national YouGov survey of 13,000 people, broken down by region, found that in the North-East:

* 80 per cent of people in the region say they support the smokefree law, with just 15 per cent opposing;

* 90 per cent of people say the law is good for the health of workers;

* 82 per cent of people say the law is good for their own health;

The Health Act was aimed at protecting workers from the effects of exposure to secondhand smoke, which increases the risks of heart disease and lung cancer.

Before the smokefree campaign was launched, the North-East had the worst health equalities in the whole country, resulting in lower levels of life expectancy.

Ailsa Rutter, the director of Fresh, said: "This new research highlights just how popular smokefree law is.

"The vast majority of people do not want themselves or their children to breathe in other people's smoke.

"But nationally around 300,000 children try smoking each year and we need to do more to make cigarettes less attractive.

"That is why we are urging MPs to back the current Health Bill in Parliament to put cigarettes out of sight and out of reach for youngsters."

Source: Hartlepool Mail, 1 July 2009
Link: http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/Public-back-the-cigarette-ban.5417174.jp