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ASH Daily News – Saturday 3 – Monday 5 November 2001

HEADLINES

Tobacco stocks fall as Indian smoking ban comes into effect
Breast cancer is most common form of cancer in UK
Customs officers withdraw smugglers’ car display
Britain’s oldest woman dies aged 114.


FULL TEXT

Tobacco stocks fall as Indian smoking ban comes into effect

The Indian supreme court banned smoking in public places on Friday, wiping £375m off the market value of BAT. The UK based multinational owns 32 per cent of the Indian Tobacco Company which sells two out of every three cigarettes sold in India. It is rumoured that BAT was planning to increase that stake but the value of ITC fell almost 10 per cent on the ruling. BAT shares fell 17p to 575p.

The UK’s other cigarette manufacturers were also hit by the ruling since India is on of the biggest potential markets for their products. Imperial Tobacco ended 3p lower at 873p and Gallaher fell 10.25p to 465p, though all three stocks rallied before close of trading. One sceptical dealers said: “How are they going to enforce the no-smoking rule in India. They can’t even manage to enforce it on Connex South-East.” [Note for non-UK readers, Connex South-East runs one of the rail routes covering the south-east of England and is poorly run by even the standards of the rest of Britain’s abysmal train network.]

Source: The Independent, Daily Telegraph, 3/11/01


Breast cancer is most common form of cancer in UK

Breast cancer has overtaken lung cancer as the most common form of the disease in the UK, according to figures prepared by the two leading cancer charities. An estimated 39,500 cases of breast cancer are being diagnosed each year, all but a handful of which are in women, whereas lung cancer is detected in about 38,900 new patients, most of them in men.

The gap is expected to widen mainly because of the fall in the number of male smokers. However, the cancer charities are baffled by the steady rise in breast cancer which had about 25,000 new cases annually in the early 1980s.

While incidence of breast cancer is high, survival rates continue to rise so that around 70% of women are now successfully treated. Lung cancer, meanwhile, remains by far the biggest killer, responsible for the deaths of 21,390 men and 13,110 women in 1999, with only 5% survival rates five years after diagnosis.

The Guardian, The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Express, The Mirror, 5/11/01


Customs officers withdraw smugglers’ car display

Custom officers’ plans to put expensive cars confiscated from tobacco smugglers on display at ferry terminals have been blocked by port authorities who fear it is too “in your face” and will deter innocent customers. The aim of the campaign was to shock drivers before leaving Britain, into thinking twice before breaching customs limits for tobacco and alcohol.

The Guardian, 5/11/01


Britain’s oldest woman dies aged 114.

Amy Hulmes, Britain’s oldest woman, has died aged 114. The ex-weaver from Bury, Lancs, put her long life down to drinking four bottles of Guiness a night. She stopped smoking when she was 84!

The Sun, Daily Express, 3/11/01





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