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ASH Daily news for 13 September 2011

HEADLINES

  • Employees get more help to quit smoking and get active

    Typhoo, McCain and Centrica – who between them employ more than 35,000 people - have signed up to help their employees to quit smoking by providing workplace stop smoking services or encouraging them to go to appointments during working hours without losing any pay.

    In addition, the Co-operative has unveiled a new individual pledge to encourage more people to become more physically active.

    The pledges are part of the Government’s Responsibility Deal, which is working with business and charities to make changes to help make the population healthier. So far, 285 organisations have signed up to be part of the deal.

    Companies are being encouraged to get their staff to use online tools such as NHS Lifecheck to help improve their health and well being. They will also be encouraging their employees to take part in more formal screening programmes.

    Source: COI - 12 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/rdLRNc

  • 'Stop the Drop' butt trays targeted by homeless in Dorchester

    Homeless people desperate for a nicotine hit are believed to be stealing public cigarette bins in Dorchester to get at tobacco from discarded butts.

    Dorchester litter campaigners have overseen the installation of 90 stainless steal wall-mounted cigarette butt bins across the town in a bid to reduce the amount of litter caused by cigarette butts.

    However, the Stop the Drop team found on a recent maintenance check, that 14 inner trays had been removed from their bins 

    Six further trays had already been removed earlier in the year, taking the number of stolen trays to 20.

    The 20 trays were taken from outside 10 different premises, six of which are pubs and one a restaurant.

    Source: The Dorset Echo - 12 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qKINEH

  • Noel Gallagher: "I would abolish the smoking ban"

    Singer Noel Gallagher claims that he'd abolish the smoking ban in London if he was in charge. Asked by the Evening Standard what he'd do if he were Mayor Of London for a day, Noel said: "Abolish the smoking ban. I've smoked since I was a teenager and now poor souls like me have to stand outside.

    "What really annoys me is that in the winter we're all outside shivering, with all the squares inside, and then in the summer the squares come outside and it's like, This is for smokers, get back inside with your Birkenstocks."

    Source: Xfm - 12 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/pSvx4R

  • No more cigarettes for smoking Malaysian orangutan

    A captive orangutan often spotted smoking cigarettes given to her by zoo visitors is being forced to kick the habit.

    Government authorities seized the adult ape named Shirley from a state-run zoo in Malaysia's southern Johor state last week after she and several other animals there were deemed to be living in poor conditions.

    Shirley is now being quarantined at another zoo in a neighboring state and is expected to be sent to a Malaysian wildlife center on Borneo island within weeks.

    Melaka Zoo Director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed said Shirley is not being provided with any more cigarettes because "smoking is not normal behavior for orangutans".

    "I would say she is not addicted ... but she might have formed a habit after mimicking human beings who were smoking around her," Ahmad told The Associated Press.

    A video of Shirley smoking is available on YouTube, here.

    Source: Google/Associated Press - 12 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qRkscq

  • Australia: Foreign industry groups issue fresh threats on cigarette plain packaging bill

    Tobacco companies and industry groups from Europe and Kenya have issued a fresh warning against a bill requiring plain packaging of cigarettes in Australia.

    Camel and More cigarettes manufacturer JTI said Australia risks facing intellectual property disputes before the World Trade Organization (WTO) while the British American Tobacco Australia (BATA) threatened to sue the government if the legislature passes the bill.

    The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) also warned of political backlash from countries to be impacted by the legislation.

    Industry groups from Quebec, the Ukraine, Chile, Brazil, Peru and East Africa have also criticized the controversial bill being supported by political parties and health experts.

    Source: International Business Times - 13 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/pCdCIC

  • Be happy, no butts, Bhutan's smokers told

    Anyone in Bhutan selling tobacco or found with cigarettes that have not been declared to customs has committed a non-bailable offence that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.

    Bhutan brought in the strictest anti-smoking laws in the world this year in a bid to stub out the damaging habit.

    The sale of tobacco in Buddhist-majority Bhutan was already banned, as was smoking in public places, but the new law sought to crack down on smuggling by introducing a prison term for offenders.

    Known as the Tobacco Control Act, the legislation does not make smoking illegal, but it restricts smokers to private use of a maximum of 200 grams of tobacco and 200 cigarettes per month that can be legally imported.

    Users have to keep the customs receipts to prove that duties of up to 200 percent have been paid.

    Under the law more than 50 people have been arrested, including an 81-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy.

    But faced with hostile media coverage and public dissent - unheard of in Bhutan during the days of absolute monarchy which came to an end in 2008 - the government has introduced new guidelines recommending fines rather than prison for small-time users.

    The government argues that the law will ease the tobacco-related burden on the country's free healthcare system and ultimately help users, many of whom confess to wanting to give up anyway.

    In some areas the law appears to be having an effect.

    Source: The Independent - 11 September 2011
    Link: http://ind.pn/n9WmrF