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ASH Daily News

2 December 2003

HEADLINES

Millions exposed to secondhand smoke at work
Women 'at double the risk' of lung cancer
Smoking 'safety scare' sparks SWT ban
JT to launch new brands

FULL TEXT

Millions exposed to secondhand smoke at work

More than half of non-smoking employees are exposed to tobacco smoke in
UK workplaces, new research suggests.

Pressure group SmokeFree London said around eight million non-smokers,
many working in bars and restaurants, breathed in tobacco smoke at work.
Three million of these worked every day in premises were smoking was
permitted.

The survey, of 2,000 people, found 88% of those asked - including 91% of
non-smokers - want legislation to regulate workplace smoking.

At present there is no statutory legislation that directly regulates
smoking during working hours. But employers do have a statutory duty to
maintain and provide a working environment which is safe and free from
health risks.

Judith Watt, a spokeswoman for SmokeFree London, said legislation was
needed to protect employees.

She said: "Second-hand smoke is the only proven human carcinogen that is
unregulated during working hours.

"Thanks to a 1992 EU Directive, all workers are entitled to breathe
smoke-free air during breaks, but are not protected while actually
working. This is a crazy situation and one that needs tackling
urgently."

Full BBC Online coverage:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3253512.stm
Source: Financial Times, BBC Online, November 2003



Women 'at double the risk' of lung cancer

Women are twice as likely as men to develop lung cancer from smoking,
scientists have found.
New research has suggested that gender can determine whether a smoker
contracts the disease - which kills 80 per cent of sufferers within a
year of diagnosis.

A woman smoker's risk of lung cancer is just over double that of a man,
once age and cigarette consumption are taken into account, according to
preliminary results from Cornell University, New York.

But some experts, however, were sceptical of the figures, which are
based on 77 cases. Sir Richard Peto, of Cancer Research UK's Clinical
Trials Service Unit in Oxford, said: "This is a very small study and its
conclusions may well be wrong. It's simply not true that men and women
who smoke have very different lung cancer rates.

"Women have been smoking almost as much as men for some time in Britain
and North America, but while the national death rates from lung cancer
in early middle age are now nearly as high among women as among men,
they are not higher."

In 2001, 20,350 men and 13,040 women died of lung cancer. It is the
second most common male cancer (after prostate) and the third most
common female cancer (after breast and bowel), and the biggest killer of
both sexes.

Full Times article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-210-916780,00.html
Source: The Times, 2 December 2003



Smoking 'safety scare' sparks SWT ban

A smoking ban was today introduced on long-distance commuter services
between Waterloo, Hampshire and Dorset following a "serious safety
incident" involving a discarded cigarette.

The ban, however, while popular with the majority of commuters will
infuriate others, many of whom have pledged defiance and say they will
continue to light up.

Stagecoach-owned SWT, one of the busiest commuter operators, is among
the few remaining which permit smoking on trains. It is only allowed on
certain long-distance routes.

Full ES coverage:
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/7947718
Source: Evening Standard, 1 December 2003



JT to launch new brands

Japan Tobacco, the world's third largest tobacco group, will launch six
new cigarette brands in Japan next month as it prepares for increasing
competition from rival Philip Morris.

It will be the first time JT has launched so many products at once,
reflecting its new strategy of aggressively launching products and
premium brands to increase its share in its mainstay market. JT commands
73 per cent of the Japanese market but its share is steadily declining.

Full FT coverage:
http://search.ft.com/search/article.html?id=031202000947


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