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ASH Daily news for 18 October 2011

HEADLINES

  • Plymouth MP defends £700 cricket trip paid for by tobacco firm

    Tory MP Oliver Colvile has defended his decision to attend an England cricket match as a guest of cigarette giants Japan Tobacco International.

    Critics are urging him to “cough up” and hand to charity nearly £700 the corporation splashed on hosting him at the Oval in August.

    The Benson and Hedges, Silk Cut and Hamlet makers invited Mr Colvile to a test match against India less than a year after he voted in Parliament to overturn the smoking ban on pubs.

    But he told The Herald the trip was not a ‘thank you’ from the world’s third-largest tobacco company – but a chance for him to probe bosses on their marketing and manufacturing strategies.

    Outraged constituent Iain Slade has set up a ‘Cough Up Colvile MP’ protest page on Facebook.

    Source: This is Plymouth - 18 October 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/o2F3yW

  • Scotland: Retailers attack health levy plan

    Scottish retailers have branded a proposed retail tax as an "unjustifiable raid" on their coffers.

    The Scottish Retail Consortium's (SRC) comments followed a meeting with Finance Secretary John Swinney.

    SRC said it was disappointed ministers had ruled out a full impact assessment of a planned public health levy on large retailers of alcohol and tobacco.

    But Mr Swinney said the levy would only affect "the very largest" retailers in Scotland.

    The Scottish government plans to use the levy to tackle the cost of problems associated with drinking and smoking.

    Following the meeting with Mr Swinney - which was also attended by a range of business organisations - SRC said it believed the levy was "simply a revenue-raiser dressed up in the guise of public health".

    Mr Swinney said he told business representatives at the meeting that he intended to lay legislation setting out full details of the levy in the new year.

    He added: "I also confirmed that the supplement will apply at a set rate across all retail properties with a rateable value of over £300,000 and will only impact on a very small number of large retailers.

    Source: BBC News - 17 October 2011
    Link: http://bbc.in/nH9zQq

  • Salford councillor joins fight to tackle tobacco harm

    Cllr Adrian Brocklehurst, the Labour councillor for Walkden North attended a national conference on 11th October and pledged to join the fight to tackle tobacco harm in Salford and make smoking history for children.

    The conference was attended by Public Health Minister Anne Milton and leading local authority figures and discussions focused on how they can tackle tobacco in our local communities.

    From April 2013 local authorities will be wholly responsible for public health and tackling tobacco will be a key priority. Smoking costs communities hugely, not only in terms of health impacts and costs to the NHS, but also in terms of fires, litter, lost days at work and productivity.

    A tool that has been developed by ASH to calculate the impacts estimates that the cost to Salford is £83.5million.

    Source: Salford online - 17 October 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/oWIQkG

  • Job rolling tobacco sickens India's women

    Tuberculosis, bronchitis and cancer are common among the low-paid Indian women who sit rolling raw tobacco in dry tendu leaves to earn pocket money for the thousands of "beedis" they produce weekly.

    Namita Bag was first diagnosed with tuberculosis 10 years ago, when she was just 15.

    Doctors warned her that her condition was the result of seven years of rolling beedis, a job that entails placing raw tobacco in dry tendu leaves.

    In the past decade she has been hospitalized three times.

    Source: WE News - 18 October 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/nwFmuf

  • Turkey: Cigarette prices increase by up to 44 percent following latest tax hikes

    Recent tax hikes introduced by the Turkish government last week prompted a major Turkish-US consortium cigarette producer to increase cigarette prices by between 28 and 44 percent.

    Philsa Philip Morris, a consortium of US cigarette producing giant Philip Morris and Turkish giant conglomerate Sabancı Holding, announced on Monday that the company had to revise cigarette prices due to new high taxes announced by the government.

    The Turkish government on Thursday raised the private consumption tax (ÖTV) on cars and mobile phones as well as on tobacco and alcoholic products in the hope of collecting $3 billion in extra revenue per year. 

    Source: Todays Zaman - 17 October 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/p4048p

  • Korea: Anti-tobacco civic group gathers steam

    Medical doctors and others opposing the manufacture and sale of cigarettes will launch a civic group today to press government officials and lawmakers for the ban on what they believe are ``cancer-causing and highly-addictive’’ products.

    The organization will stage a public signature-collecting campaign and file a petition with the Constitutional Court to have tobacco products banned from being made and sold here.

    Park Jae-gahb, professor of College of Medicine at Seoul National University, is leading the anti-cigarette movement.

    ``We set up the Clean Air & Good Health Society in 2009 to create a world without cigarettes. It is more like a friendly society, not a well-organized civic organization,” Park said. “To more effectively pursue our goals, we have decided to launch a full-scale organization, tentatively named ``Movement Headquarters against Production & Sale of Tobacco in Korea.’’

    Over the years, some civic groups have jointly appealed to the President and lawmakers to prohibit the production and sale of tobacco goods, but to no avail. It will be the first time for a civic organization fully dedicated to pursuing such a cause to be launched.

    Park said the planned group will also play a role as a Korean branch of the Tobacco Free World Alliance. 

    Source: The Korea Times - 17 October 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/ojJCI9