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ASH Daily news for 22 March 2011

HEADLINES

  • 10 PCTs supports call to increase tobacco tax

    NHS Portsmouth is one of 10 primary care trusts nationally to endorse a call to increase taxation on tobacco in Wednesday's Budget.

    ASH has written to the Chancellor urging him to increase taxation on tobacco - from 2% to 5% above inflation - until 2014.

    Prof Lindsey Davies, president of the Faculty of Public Health, another organisation endorsing ASH s submission to the Chancellor, said: “Work at local level by councils and directors of public health to support and motivate smokers to quit must be backed up at national level by making smoking less affordable. “

    For more information, visit
    www.ash.org.uk/about-ash/ash-publications/submissions/taxation-smuggling

    Source: Portsmouth News - 22 march 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/eR1DaJ

  • Comment: Tobacco control plan is a victory for public health

    Ella Jackson, policy and public affairs intern, and Robin Hewings, the tobacco control policy manager at Cancer Research UK, explain how the action on tobacco displays, a review of plain packaging and a tough approach to the tobacco industry add up to a good start.

    Source: Politics.co.uk - 21 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/flq6DT

  • Scotland: Five years of the smoking ban

    With the fifth anniversary of the most radical public health legislation since devolution, the Scotsman gauges how Scots have reacted and tries to discover what the next step might be.

    Five years on from its implementation on 26 March, 2006, the success or otherwise of the ban very much depends on who you ask. Research in Glasgow has suggested almost immediate health benefits. One study in 2007 concluded heart attacks among non-smokers had fallen by a fifth since the ban came in.

    And last year more research found that the rate of hospitalisations for children with asthmatic symptoms had dropped by more than 18 per cent year-on-year since the ban, the assumption being smoker parents are also cutting down at home. 

    So what is the next target to encourage cutting down on smoking in Scotland?

    Some experts have their eye on passive smoking in the home, while others have suggested a ban on smoking in cars carrying children. 

    ---------------

    The latest Health Behaviours in School-aged Children (HBSC) Scotland report, which was funded by NHS Health Scotland and is published by the University of Edinburgh found that drinking, drug use and smoking among schoolchildren have fallen to the lowest level in two decades

    Source: The Scotsman - 22 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/dS9jyA

  • Snuffing out toxic tobacco waste

    According to environmental cleanup reports, nearly 2.2 million cigarettes and cigarette filters are picked up internationally from beaches and inland waterways every year. There are more than 1 million in the United States alone. Thousands of cigarette lighters, cigar tips and tobacco packages or wrappers are also found. Cigarette trash is the No. 1 littered item found on U.S. beaches and waterways as well as on roadways and streets. Tobacco products comprise roughly 38 percent of litter found along U.S. roadways.

    Cigarette filters are not biodegradable. Under ideal conditions, the sun breaks down the filter but only into smaller particles of toxic waste. 

    There are other environmental consequences of tobacco use, including:

    • Deforestation as a result of tobacco production: Wood is used in the curing process (drying the leaves), and land used for tobacco farming is devalued for other crop uses.

    • Wild fires are often caused by cigarette smoking.

    • Solid, liquid and airborne wastes, several considered hazardous, are produced during the manufacturing process.  

    Source: Health News Digest - 20 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/eNVMm7

  • Nigeria: National Tobacco Control Bill passed by Senate

    The Nigerian Senate last week passed a bill that will eventually give the county one of the strongest anti-tobacco laws on the African continent.

    Called the Nigerian Tobacco Control Bill, the bill's essential components include: establishing a National Tobacco Control Committee to shape the future of tobacco control policies and guide implementation; A comprehensive ban on smoking in public places, and the sale of cigarettes by or to minors; and detailed specifications on points of sale notice. That is not all, however. The bill has finally given legal backing to a directive by the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) which a few years ago banned all sorts of advertisement, sponsorship, promotion, testimonials and brand stretching of tobacco products across the country.

    The bill will also ensure that health messages cover 50 per cent of the areas where tobacco products are to be displayed, while the minister of health is empowered to prescribe pictures or pictograms and ensure that the law is effectively implemented.

    As it is now, the bill has only been passed by the Senate. It is to be sent to the House of Representatives which will hopefully pass it before it goes to Goodluck Jonathan for his assent. 

    Source: Next - 22 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/hBrCFh

  • Ireland: Minister urged to clamp down on smoking

    The Government must put anti-smoking services under a central body and provide training for all healthcare professionals, anti-smoking campaigner Prof Luke Clancy said on Monday.

    Prof Clancy, a leading advocate of the 2004 workplace smoking ban, said Ireland had underachieved in relation to tobacco addiction since the ban.

    He accused the last government of a misplaced concern for exchequer revenue in not increasing the price of cigarettes. 

    He also criticised former minister for health Mary Harney.

    Speaking at the launch of international research on smoking sponsored by healthcare company Pfizer, Prof Clancy called on Minister for Health James Reilly to reinvigorate anti-smoking measures.

    Source: Irish Times - 22 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/e980ZC