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ASH Daily news for 28 June 2011

HEADLINES

  • Passenger, 52, decapitated after tumbling off Tube train as he tried to secretly smoke a cigarette

    A rail passenger was decapitated after being dragged along underneath a Tube train which he had fallen out of while smoking a cigarette.

    The 52-year-old man is believed to have forced open the emergency exit doors between carriages on a late-night Metropolitan Line Tube train between Chorleywood, Herts, and Chesham, Bucks.

    Police said that he fell through a gap and, after tumbling onto the track, he was dragged along at 50mph, gruesomely severing his head from his body.

    Source: Daily Mail - 27 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/kU7il2

  • Liverpool: Man fined for illegal tobacco sales

    A man was fined £8,000 for illegally selling alcohol and counterfeit cigarettes.

    Stephen Henry, 61, was offering the goods as part of his business selling soft drinks and crisps door to door.

    Officers seized almost 44,000 cigarettes, more than 31kg of hand rolling tobacco and 340 litres of alcohol, along with £5,000 in cash. A large quantity of the seized tobacco was counterfeit.

    Source: Liverpool Echo - 27 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/lJKCTG

  • EU uneasy with plain packaging

    The European Union has raised concerns about moves to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, at World Trade Organisation forums in Geneva.

    There are fears plain packaging contravenes the international intellectual property legal framework by placing restrictions on the use of trademarks.

    The Australian understands the EU raised questions about the scientific data considered in preparing the policy, the impact assessment process and other alternatives to stop smoking. It is also understood the EU asked how Australia had taken into consideration its obligations under other WTO treaties such as the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPs, the cornerstone of the international intellectual property regime.

    Trade Minister Craig Emerson justified the Australian government's stand in response to queries from the International Chamber of Commerce and the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific. "Australia's plain packaging policy is entirely consistent with our international obligations," Dr Emerson says in the letters obtained by The Australian.

    "As a member of the World Trade Organisation, Australia has the right to take [any] measure necessary to protect public health. These measures will be implemented in a way that is consistent with our intellectual property, trade and investment obligations."

    Source: The Australian - 28 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/jdDvZO

  • USA: FDA to independently review menthol cigarettes

    The federal agency has announced that members of its Center for Tobacco Products will review studies on menthol cigarettes before submiting its work to an external peer review panel next month. The process is expected to be completed in the fall of 2011. The results of the review will be available for public comment.

    The review comes after the FDA received a report from the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee on the menthol cigarettes. 

    The report, which was mandated under the 2009 law giving the agency the authority to regulate tobacco, said removing menthol cigarettes from the market would benefit public health because the flavoring has led to an increase in smokers - particularly among teens, African Americans, and those with low incomes. It also said that they make it harder for them to quit. The report, however, said menthol smokers are not likely to be at a higher risk of disease or exposed to a greater number of toxins.

    The report concluded that more research is needed and the federal agency should develop a program to monitor marketing of menthol cigarettes. It also suggested that should the FDA choose to recommend a ban or other restrictions, the agency should study the potential for contraband menthol cigarettes, a concern raised by the tobacco industry and other trade groups.

    Source: New York Times - 27 June 2011
    Link: http://nyti.ms/kygSJy

  • New York's ban on smoking in public places branded a joke after just one ticket is issued in the first month

    It was supposed to be sweeping legislation covering 1,700 parks and 14 miles of coastline. But New York’s ban on smoking in public places has been branded an 'absolute joke' after just one ticket was issued in the first month of the law coming into force.

    Newly-released data shows that since May 23, around 700 people have been approached by cops for lighting up where they shouldn't have done.

    Of those just one has actually been given a ticket - and he was a photographer who was goading officers into doing so.

    New York City officials said that 2011 would be the ‘summer of warnings’ to get the message out about the change in the law.

    But residents and campaigners said it had become a farce and was widely being flouted.

    City officials have said that they hope the law will be self-enforcing even if some will be determined to continue puffing away.

    Source: Daily Mail - 28 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/jpepgM

  • Ireland: Warning over further cigarette tax increases

    Tax levels on tobacco have reached the point where any further tax increases will lead to lower tax yields, according to a new Revenue report.

    The report said that further tax hikes would lead to more consumption of untaxed - counterfeit or smuggled - cigarettes.

    While the report does conclude that further tax increases would reduce smoking ‘‘somewhat’’, non-pricing measures, such as the smoking ban, were a more effective way to reduce the level of smoking.

    The Economics of Tobacco report, by Padraic Reidy and Keith Walsh of the Revenue Commissioners’ research and analytics branch, examined the factors affecting cigarette consumption in Ireland between 2002 and 2009.

    It concluded that the price of tobacco products was the most important factor affecting consumption.

    The authors found that a 1 per cent increase in price led to a 3.6 per cent decrease in consumption of taxed cigarettes.

    Source: The Post - 26 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/iNoBoX

  • 'Crumbs!' cried Little Tobacco as Nanny State bit into its gingerbread house

    In this humorous piece, David Campbell explains why the cigarette lobby's freedom-of-choice claims are pure fairytale.

    Once upon a time there was a stunted, weedy, smelly, Gollum-like creature named Little Tobacco that lived in a pretty gingerbread house in a beautiful meadow full of golden buttercups at the edge of a deep, dark wood.

    Little Tobacco had many, many adoring friends who would come to call, because they all loved the carcinogens that Little Tobacco kept in its pretty gingerbread house. And, always generous, Little Tobacco would sell those carcinogens to its friends, who would dance merrily in the meadow full of golden buttercups singing: ''We love you, we want you, we neeeed you!''

    Until, one fateful day, Little Tobacco heard a terrible sound coming from the deep, dark wood...

    Source: Sydney Morning Herald - 28 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/m4QpIp