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ASH Daily news for 24 May 2011

HEADLINES

  • Smoke-Free South West launches “Outside” campaign

    Smoke-Free South West has launched a new campaign to urge smokers to protect their families by taking their smoke outside.

    The multi-media campaign is part of an ongoing programme which aims to halve the number of people that allow smoking in their home by the year 2015.

    The campaign focuses on the danger of smoking in the home and the poisonous chemicals left behind, and the harm that it can cause to the health of families and in particular, children.

    An image of one of the posters for the campaign is available by clicking on the link below. The TV ad can be viewed on Brand Republic's website here.

    Source: The Drum - 23 May 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/j8gmwc

  • Campaigners lobby MPs to change smoking ban

    Greg Knight, Conservative MP for East Yorkshire, Roger Godsiff, Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green, and John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP for Birmingham Yardley, will host a reception for the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign at the House of Commons on June 29.

    The event, which marks the fourth anniversary of the smoking ban in England, will kick start the organisers' plans to lobby MPs for a review of the ban and an amendment to the legislation.

    Knight said: "This is a unique opportunity for people to show how strongly they feel on this important issue. A modest change in the law, not a repeal of the smoking ban, is all we seek."

    Simon Clark, director of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign and FOREST, added: "Looking at the dramatic increase in pub closures since the introduction of smoking bans in Scotland, Wales and England, it is clear that the ban has been a big factor in the closure of many pubs and clubs throughout Britain.

    "The government must review the ban and consider a change in the law that would allow separate smoking rooms in pubs and clubs."

    Source: Harpers Wine & Spirits - 24 May 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/l48Hbi

  • Scotland: Pub bosses to hold talks on relaxing smoking ban

    The Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA) will take the advice of licensees from the Netherlands, Croatia and Hungary - all of which have a more relaxed system - at a meeting in Edinburgh.

    The body said more than 800 pubs have shut since Scotland adopted "extreme" anti-smoking regulations.

    Paul Waterson, chief executive of the SLTA, said: "We think it's appropriate, five years since the ban, to have a look at how it's working and perhaps re-evaluate it.

    "We're flying some people over who are in the trade who have a far more relaxed system.

    "Since the ban was brought in, about 800 pubs have closed their doors.

    "It's not about going back to the old days, there's no appetite for that at all. But we think there's room for accommodation."

    Source: STV - 24 May 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/iZIGJC

  • New York's outdoor smoking ban: Will the world follow?

    New York is introducing an outdoor smoking ban. But could the UK and other countries follow suit, asks Tom de Castella.

    This July will be the fourth anniversary of the ban on smoking in public places having reached all parts of the UK.

    In the year following its introduction, more than two billion fewer cigarettes were smoked and 400,000 people quit, according to researchers at University College London.

    As a result, the UK smoking lobby is watching developments across the Atlantic with trepidation.

    Martin Dockrell, director of research and policy at the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), acknowledges that there is no clear evidence of a significant harm to health from second-hand outdoor tobacco smoke.

    But he says there are compelling reasons for banning smoking in some outdoor areas, such as children's play parks, as a means of shifting long-term attitudes.

    And he argues that if such a ban is put into place, it will not be due to the influence of New York - but because the tide of UK public opinion has hardened against smoking.

    "It already has happened in the UK," he says. "Glasgow has smoke-free parks. In the north-west of England there are a number of parks that have gone smoke-free.

    "We'll see more of this incrementally as more and more communities become non-smoking."

    Smokers and non-smokers alike will make up their own minds in the months ahead.

    What remains to be seen is not just whether the new ban can make it in New York, but whether it can make it anywhere.

    Source: BBC News - 23 May 2011
    Link: http://bbc.in/lRUmwG

  • Australia: New Calls for licensing smoking

    There has been a call to license smoking, and to have a system similar to the one proposed for gamblers, to limit the number of cigarettes people can smoke in a set time.

    The Sunday Age reports this morning Professor Simon Chapman, an anti-smoking campaigner from the University of Sydney says a smoking ban could be a reality within 10 to 15 years, and he believes a licensing scheme, using a swipe card for authorised smokers, would pave the way.

    Meanwhile, Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has admited there is no proof plain cigarette packaging will cut smoking rates but said she was convinced the measure would remove one of big tobacco's last remaining promotional tools.

    "This is a world first," she told reporters.

    Ms Roxon said tobacco companies' "huffing and puffing" about the damage the measure would cause them suggested it would be effective at further reducing smoking rates.

    "I don't believe their threat that they will cut their own profits to make a point," she said.

    "They've never done that before when the excise has been increased (and) I think it would be a foolish and irresponsible approach for them to take."

    Tobacco companies have also promised to spend 'whatever it takes' to fight the Government's plans to remove branding from cigarette packets. A video by ABC (with transcript) is available here. 

    Source: Sky News AU - 22 May 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/kPYYpH

  • South Africa: Tobacco ads ban upheld

    South Africa’s ban on the advertising and promotion of tobacco products was reasonable and justifiable, a North Gauteng High Court Judge has ruled.

    Judge Legodi Phatudi dismissed an application by British American Tobacco South Africa, the leading manufacturer and distributor of 24 tobacco brands in the country, to declare the ban unconstitutional.

    He also dismissed their application for an order declaring the ban did not apply to one-to-one communications between tobacco manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers and consenting adult tobacco consumers.

    Judge Phatudi said he found this proposed method of communication “unpalatable, untenable and impractical”. He said it would interrupt a relaxed date or business meeting between a tobacco product user and non- user.

    The Judge said it was clear from the wording of the prohibition that Parliament intended to protect public health.

    “I am of the strong view that protection of public health interest is one of the fundamental rights that override the interest of an individual, including that of the applicant. The right to freedom of expression is not absolute and cannot override the interests of the democratic society.

    “Advertising of a tobacco product is made solely for the interest of a person with a sole purpose of persuading or enticing members of the public to patronise the product.

    “The main purpose of advertising tobacco products is to promote the use of the harmful product which often becomes fatal even to the consenting adult tobacco consumers.

    Tobacco is more harmful to passive smokers, especially children who find themselves, without choice, in motor vehicles in which a smoker is a passenger and smoking.”

    Source: The Citizen - 22 May 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/lwGB5E