HEADLINES

• Wales: Proposals to relax smoking ban for film and TV productions criticised
• Liverpool: Man banned from city’s markets after selling bogus cigarettes to a trading standards officer
• Male smokers lose brain function faster as they age
• Many US kids still exposed to smoke in cars: study
• Cricket Australia pulls 'tobacco' ad

• Wales: Proposals to relax smoking ban for film and TV productions criticised

  The smoking ban could be relaxed to allow film and television actors to puff on cigarettes.

  The exemption would only apply where the “artistic integrity” of the performance depends on a character smoking.

  The Welsh Government has launched a six-week consultation on amending the 2007 smoking in public places regulations. This exemption already exists in England.

  Source: Wales Online - 07 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/wfpwh9

• Liverpool: Man banned from city’s markets after selling bogus cigarettes to a trading standards officer

  Francis Graham has been sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay £300 costs for selling counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco. 

  The 42-year-old was also ordered to stay away from indoor and outdoor markets in Liverpool.

  Sentence on a second defendant Brian Millea, aged 50, was deferred owing to his ill-health.

  Source: Liverpool Echo - 06 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/xTc1Cc

• Male smokers lose brain function faster as they age

  A study suggests that men who smoke suffer a more rapid decline in brain function as they age than their non-smoking counterparts, with their cognitive decline as rapid as someone 10 years older but who shuns tobacco.

  There seems to be no link between cognitive decline and smoking in women.

  The team of researchers looked for possible links between smoking history and cognitive decline in the transition from midlife to old age using data from 5,099 men and 2,137 women.

  Source: Reuters - 06 February 2012
  Link: http://reut.rs/x52mEG

• Many US kids still exposed to smoke in cars: study

  Fewer U.S. children and teens are being exposed to secondhand smoke while riding in cars, but rates of exposure are still high enough to warrant concern. Health researchers are calling for more states to ban smoking in cars carrying children.

  The researchers analysed data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, covering more than 20,000 children in grades six to twelve every few years between 2000 and 2009.

  Source: Reuters - 06 February 2012
  Link: http://reut.rs/wD0IhY

• Cricket Australia pulls 'tobacco' ad

  Cricket Australia has pulled a mouth freshener advertisement amid complaints it promoted a company that also sells tobacco products.

  It says it will withdraw the ads that were displayed on the boundary rope during seven matches between Australia and India after learning they could be promoting tobacco.

  Source: Sydney Morning Herald - 07 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/A22Dkr