HEADLINES

• Co-op store's u-turn on cigarettes display
• ACS launches postcard campaign to end display ban
• Primary school honoured for stubbing out smoking
• Stamping out Shisha Bars!
• Revealed: Smoking killed 811 people in Somerset last year
• No smoking in school: China fights against tobacco

• Co-op store's u-turn on cigarettes display

  A north[ern] Co-op store has been forced to axe a controversial cigarette vending system over fears it would tempt youngsters to light up.

  Customers could use the machine after buying special vouchers which were prominently displayed at the tills of the supermarket in Wrekenton, Gateshead.

  Colourful point-of-sale merchandise flies in the face of current guidelines, which require retailers to behave responsibly by placing tobacco products and advertising material in less prominent locations.

  The Wrekenton store was the only one in the North East chosen to trial the Vend-Safe system, which at the very least exploits a loophole in current legislation. But the Co-op has now withdrawn it amid concerns that it may breach advertising regulations following a probe by Trading Standards officers and the involvement of the Sunday Sun.

  Concerned parents were worried the striking vouchers would encourage children in the area – which has some of the highest underage smoking rates in the country – to light up.

  Father-of-one Graham Martin, 57, who lives near the store, said he was pleased the Co-op had seen sense.

  He said: “I went into the store with my 13-year-old daughter and was horrified to see cigarettes and tobacco products blatantly displayed right at the point where families pass the till.
  “They were making cigarettes more visible and more available and I think that was extremely irresponsible.

  “I’m happy the cards are no longer there. Children can become addicted and have a lifetime of health problems from just one cigarette.

  “For a large company with a reputation for ethical trading to get itself in this position was bizarre, but I’m happy they have admitted their error and corrected it.”

  Tobacco advertising was banned in the UK in 2003, because of evidence that it encouraged young people to take up smoking.

  But the industry tried to get around the restrictions by increasing the size and scale of shop displays.

  Parliament responded by setting limits to how shops can advertise cigarettes, and by proposing legislation to put tobacco out of sight in shops altogether from 2011 onwards.

  Ailsa Rutter, director of Fresh, the North East’s anti-smoking lobby group, said: “There is massive public concern about protecting children from anything that encourages them to start smoking.

  “Eight out of 10 smokers start as children or in their teens, with the vast majority bitterly regretting it.

  “Cigarette displays in shops have got larger and more colourful since advertising was banned.

  “They’re often the most brightly lit, glamorous part of the shop, creating a forbidden fruit effect in the minds of young people.”

  Gateshead Council said the Wrekenton store was an example of a shop pushing the limits too far.

  Before the Co-op display was pulled, a leading North lung specialist described it as “a big backward step” in an area with worryingly high smoking rates. Dr Robert Allcock, a consultant chest physician at Gateshead’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said: “Gateshead is certainly in the top 10 of all the Primary Care areas in the country for lung cancer and chronic pulmonary lung disease.

  A spokeswoman for The Co-operative Group said: “We are currently trialling the vend-safe system in the Wrekenton store on a number of high-value products, but have removed cigarettes from the trial following the concern raised and a review of the system.”

  She added that the cigarette vending system had been removed from six other UK stores on advice from Trading Standards.

  Source: The Sunday Sun - 08 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bJJatv

• ACS launches postcard campaign to end display ban

  The Association of Convenience Stores has launched a nationwide retailer campaign to try and overturn the tobacco display ban.

  The postcard campaign encourages retailers to lobby Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to end the legislation which would force retailers to cover their tobacco displays as the coalition government is currently discussing whether to revoke the legislation.

  ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “The tobacco display ban is a policy which will significantly impact all local retailers.

  “Businesses will be forced to pay significant sums to comply with the legislation which could cost the sector up to £40 million.

  “While the primary justification for the display ban is to discourage youth smoking, there is strong evidence from countries that have already implemented the ban which shows that it does not impact on youth smoking rates.”

  He said in opposition, both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats recognised this lack of evidence and supported retailers' calls to scrap the measure.

  Postcards for retailers to send to the health secretary will be appearing in cash and carry depots across England from next week.

  Retailers will also be able to download the materials from the ACS website.

  Source: Off Licence News - 09 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bRzqy8

• Primary school honoured for stubbing out smoking

  A Doncaster primary school has become the first in the borough to receive an award aimed at stubbing out smoking.

  Toll Bar Primary School received the Smokefree Excellence Award which recognises businesses and organisations that go beyond the requirements of the law with regard to smoking.

  Nearly a third of adults smoke in Doncaster. Each year the cost to the NHS in Doncaster alone to treat smoking-related illness is around £90 million and nearly one in five deaths are smoking-related.

  The newly-accredited school has totally smoke free grounds where smoking is not permitted at all and steps are taken to minimise cigarette litter from staff and visitors.

  There is also a zero tolerance policy towards sales of illicit and illegal tobacco on the premises.

  The school provides information and support for smokers to quit and leaflets are available on notice boards and on the school's website.

  Teachers have access to anti-smoking literature and staff members are allowed time off to attend stop smoking clinics that can be held in the school.

  Pat Nobbs, healthy schools coordinator for NHS Doncaster, said: "It is great news that Toll Bar Primary School has been recognised with the Smokefree Excellence Award.

  "Going smokefree and supporting staff to stop smoking pays organisations back in increased productivity, a healthier workforce and reduced absence due to ill health.

  "Hopefully this will now encourage other schools in the borough to apply for Smokefree status."

  Source: The Evening Telegraph - 10 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9szNSL

• Stamping out Shisha Bars!

  Cash has gone up in smoke for two of Tower Hamlets’ illegal Shisha Bars after they were fined nearly £3,500.

  On the 23 July Thames Magistrates’ Court heard how two Shisha Bars, Café Fresh in Commercial Road and Shakes Limited in Bethnal Green Roadwere permitting smoking Shisha within an enclosed public space. The Shisha Bars were caught out after a raid by council and police officers.

  The owner of Café Fresh, Mohammed Abdul Kashim pleaded guilty for permitting the use of shisha pipes within the basement. He was fined a total of £1329.97. He had previously been prosecuted for the same offences in December 2009 and was fined £465.

  The owner of Shakes Limited, Babru Miah did not appear in court, but the council successfully applied for the case to be heard in his absence. The court agreed to this and Miah was fined a total of £2121.44.

  Councillor Shahed Ali, Lead Member for the Environment at Tower Hamlets Council, said: “The council, along with NHS Tower Hamlets, has been working tirelessly to stamp out illegal smoking dens in the run up to the summer holidays.

  “It has been predominately younger people visiting and paying for the hire of shisha pipes. The idea that shisha is a safe alternative to cigarettes is a myth.”

  Shisha fact sheets have been provided to people in bars warning them of the health hazards connected with smoking, which includes a higher risk of cancer, heart disease and lung disease. The fact sheets also highlight the legislation around illegal smoking. 

  Source: Tower Hamlets Council - 09 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/drGFd8

• Revealed: Smoking killed 811 people in Somerset last year

  Smoking killed 811 people in Somerset last year, according to new statistics.

  Twenty per cent of Somerset's 16-year-olds smoke, compared with 22 per cent nationwide.

  NHS Somerset is working with Smokefree South West to drive down smoking rates and tobacco-related harm including cancer and heart disease.

  Smoking is the biggest preventable killer.

  Source: This is Somerset - 09 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/cMK7Wr

• No smoking in school: China fights against tobacco

  In China, tobacco companies sponsor schools. Almost half of all male doctors smoke. And one wedding dinner ritual involves the bride lighting cigarettes for each of her male guests.

  China has committed to banning smoking at public indoor venues by Jan. 9 next year, in accordance with a global anti-tobacco treaty backed by the World Health Organization. But smoking is such a way of life that China is unlikely to meet the deadline, and even the government seems resigned to failure.

  "There are only some months left," said Jiang Yuan, deputy director of the National Office of Tobacco Control. "And I feel that it is extremely difficult to reach that goal...China is facing a tremendous challenge in tobacco control."

  Smoking is linked to the deaths of at least 1 million people in China every year. The WHO cites a projection by Oxford University professor Sir Richard Peto that of the young Chinese men alive today, one in three will die from tobacco.

  "You're talking about one in three of the Tsinghua University male graduates, one in three of the male CEOs of high-tech businesses, one in three engineers, one in three scientists, one in three policymakers and military leaders," said Dr. Sarah England, who runs the WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative in China. "It becomes a question of national interest."

  Over the past several years, China has banned tobacco advertising on radio, television and newspapers and outlawed smoking in some places, such as on airplanes. During the 2008 Olympics, Beijing and other host cities in China went smoke-free.

  In recent months, China banned smoking at pavilions and restaurants in the Shanghai Expo, as well as the Health Ministry's own 19-story office building in Beijing — the first central government agency to prohibit puffing indoors. Weeks ago, authorities also instructed kindergartens and elementary, secondary and vocational schools to ban smoking on campus and bar teachers from lighting up in front of students.

  But health authorities are still losing the fight against a habit that has wafted into nearly every corner of society, backed by a powerful state-owned tobacco monopoly. The rate of smoking has not changed significantly, and tobacco production has actually gone up.

  Earlier this year, the Chinese media buzzed with reports of a 3-year-old girl hooked on smoking. Photos posted on the Internet showed round-cheeked Xing Yawen sitting on a chair taking a drag from a cigarette.

  The child's mother said Yawen started smoking possibly due to trauma after being hit by a truck in February last year. "In the past, we worked too hard and maybe we neglected her," 33-year-old Gao Shuli said by phone. "The child is too small and knows nothing, but smoking will affect her entire future."

  The WHO agreement requires countries to fight smoking through measures that include raising cigarette prices and taxes, mandating health warnings on cigarette packs and banning tobacco advertising. Parties are also expected to ensure that all indoor public places, workplaces and public transport are smoke-free within five years of the treaty coming into force — which in China's case was on Jan. 9, 2006.

  Parties must periodically report to one another on their efforts, and China is due to do so in January. Nearly 170 countries are signatories to the treaty, including the United States, although it has not yet ratified it.

  Making public spaces smoke-free is a challenge for many countries — only 17 have policies that provide effective protection from secondhand smoke, the WHO says, including New Zealand, Colombia, the United Kingdom and Iran. In China, cigarettes are handed out as gifts to family and bribes to officials. Even in large cities like Beijing, people light up in bars and restaurants, elevators, hotel lobbies and government buildings.

  Forty percent of civil servants recently surveyed in eastern Jiangsu province smoke, lighting an average of 12.4 cigarettes a day. And all but 5 percent do so at work, according to the provincial center for disease control and prevention. Meanwhile, nearly half of male doctors in China smoke, according to Jiang, who conducted a recent study in 31 provinces and cities.

  "The biggest obstacle is the lack of awareness," Jiang said. "If people realize passive smoking will also cause lung cancer, will they still allow people around them to smoke?"

  There is also an apparent conflict of interest: China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, which sets tobacco policy and enforces rules, is the same federal agency that controls the China National Tobacco Corp. — the world's largest cigarette maker.

  One result of this paradox is that control efforts are piecemeal. Warnings on Chinese cigarette packages are in tiny characters and take up only a third of the design — which critics say falls short of the WHO agreement's requirements. Tobacco tax increases are absorbed by companies and never passed down to smokers.

  "The tobacco industry has traditionally been central within government and really very important," said Judith Mackay, a World Lung Foundation senior policy adviser. "It's a really serious problem."

  The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration did not respond to a request for comment. Mackay says its position has always focused on the possible economic impact of raising cigarette taxes, arguing that it would reduce revenue to the government and put tobacco farmers out of work.

  Many experts say otherwise. Raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes by 1 yuan ($0.15) would increase the Chinese government's revenue by $17 billion and reduce the number of smokers by 3.4 million, according to a study led by Teh-wei Hu, professor emeritus in health economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

  China National Tobacco Corp.'s general manager Jiang Chengkang said in January that the company made 513 billion yuan ($76 billion) in profit and taxes last year, a 12 percent increase over the previous year. Tobacco companies say school sponsorship is their way of giving back to society.

  In celebration of Children's Day in June, students from an elementary school sponsored by the famous Hongta cigarette company were taken on a tour of a cigarette-rolling factory in northeastern Shenyang, according to a report on TobaccoChina Online, a website catering to the tobacco industry. Prominently displayed on the grounds of another such school is the slogan: "Talent stems from hard work, tobacco helps you become accomplished."

  Source: Google/Associated Press - 09 August 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9w1Z09