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ASH Daily News

4 November 2005

[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]

HEADLINES

UK will review partial smoking ban in 2010

Are class distinctions the reason for partial smoking ban?

UK government has been condemned for compromise on smoking ban

Reid acclaimed as the smokers' champion

UK smoking ban is unlikely to affect sales claims TMA

Asthma: the epidemic of our times


FULL TEXT

UK will review partial smoking ban in 2010


The government will review its policy on a partial ban on smoking in
public places three years after the new legislation is introduced in
summer 2007, MPs were told last week.

Speaking to the parliamentary select committee on health, the secretary
of state for health, Patricia Hewitt, said the bill would mean smoking
is banned in "virtually" every enclosed work place and public place in
England.

"We will monitor the impact from day one, and we will have a full review
at the end of three years," she told the MPs. "This is a very
significant step for public health and a very, very significant step
towards the complete ban that I know you and many others would like to
see."

"It will mean that 99% of the workforce will be able to enjoy a
completely smoke-free environment," she said.

Ms Hewitt said that because of concerns for staff working in bars that
would be exempt from the ban as they didn't serve food, smoking would
not be allowed near the bar areas, and a consultation would be held on
the possibility of creating separate smoking rooms or areas in these
places.

British Medical Journal 5/11/05
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7524/1039-a



Are class distinctions the reason for partial smoking ban?


Why the distinction for pubs serving food? Obviously no-one argues that
secondhand smoke is more deadly when you are eating scampi and chips -
it is arguably more annoying, but surely government policy on smoking
should be based on health outcomes rather than etiquette.

It seems obvious that the issue is class and the fear that too many
labour voters will be annoyed if they are not given places in which they
can drink and smoke simultaneously.

A major survey of directors of public health (to be launched by Health
Service Journal on 17 Nov) shows the fall in confidence of being able to
cut the smoking rates for manual workers by 2010 compared to other
workers. Experts say that the partial ban will only worsen health
inequalities that exist at the moment and will not meet government
targets to reduce overall smoking rates.

Health Service Journal 3/11/05 http://www.hsj.co.uk/ (article available
to subscribers only)



UK government has been condemned for compromise on smoking ban


The decision for only a partial ban on smoking has drawn condemnation
from Labour MPs, doctors, antismoking groups, and the pub industry.
Labour MPs blamed the defence secretary, John Reid, for derailing a
total ban.

Deborah Arnott, Director of ASH said "It is outrageous that one rogue
cabinet minister can stomp around Whitehall trying to wreck the most
important public health reform for 30 years."

British Medical Journal 5/11/05
http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/331/7524/1039



Reid acclaimed as the smokers' champion


John Reid is to be nominated as the smokers' champion of the year by
lobby group FOREST (the pro-smoking lobby). Although the former health
secretary no long smokes, FOREST said it was considering giving him a
special award.

The organisation has proclaimed Mr Reid 'hero of the hour' after he was
able to force the health secretary Patricia Hewitt to accept what he'd
called a 'British compromise'.

Health Service Journal 3/11/05 http://www.hsj.co.uk/ (article available
to subscribers only)



UK smoking ban is unlikely to affect sales claims TMA


The Tobacco Manufacturers Association (TMA) said it was pleased with the
announcement on smoking bans and that it reflects public opinion. "A
minimum of people want a complete ban and we are pleased that choice is
permitted," said Chris Ogden, director of trade and industry affairs,
TMA. "But there is no logic behind the fact that food is the deciding
factor."

Retailers are unlikely to suffer significant sales losses, he said,
based on the evidence from the Republic of Ireland. The TMA has said
that the number of smokers in Ireland is increasing again 19 months
after a ban was introduced, suggesting sales will not be severely
affected by the proposed ban in England.

Editorial Note: the total percentage of smokers dropped from 25.5% in
February 2004 to 23.24% in March 2005 and had risen again to 23.59% by
August 2005. This rise been March and August is hardly statistically
significant.

Retail Newsagent 4/11/05



Asthma: the epidemic of our times


The Guardian has a special report on the asthma epidemic in the United
Kingdom.

Stephen Holgate, clinical professor of immuno-pharmacology at
Southampton University, says that in the past few years scientists have
found evidence that the airways of chronic asthma sufferers are either
permanently altered by the disease or possibly develop differently in
the womb.

In 2002, Holgate and his team published a paper in the journal Nature,
implicating a gene called ADAM33. "This was the first new gene
discovered in asthma," says Holgate. "We think it controls the way the
muscle develops in the airways."

Holgate believes that environmental factors may be taking their toll at
a much earlier stage than anybody used to imagine. They could be
influencing the expression of genes in the development of the foetus. He
has already shown that cigarette smoke can affect the ADAM33 gene in
cultured lung tissue from mice. "I think cigarette smoke is probably the
single most important so-far identified western risk factor for asthma
as opposed to allergy," he says. Maybe cigarettes cause genetic changes
in a baby's lungs in the womb to make it susceptible to asthma.

The Guardian 4/11/05
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1627517,00.html


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Sarah Ward
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