Home / Media Room / News / ASH Daily News / ASH Daily News for 12/11/2004 / ASH Daily News for 15 November 2011

ASH Daily News for 15 November 2011

HEADLINES

  • Northern Ireland: Health Minister launches car smoking ban consultation

    Health Minister Edwin Poots has said he will consider banning smoking in all cars and not just those with children as passengers.

    Mr Poots was speaking on an assembly motion proposing a ban on smoking in cars carrying those under 16.

    He said children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of smoking.

    Mr Poots said his department will launch a public consultation and he urged everyone with an interest on the issue to respond to the consultation.

    Source: BBC News - 14 November 2011
    Link: http://bbc.in/vG6Tlc

  • Lancashire shisha house boss fined over smoke laws

    The boss of a Preston shisha house has become the first in the city to be fined for breaching smoke-free legislation.

    Police and council officers raided SL Sheesha in Manchester Road in the city centre, in March this year.

    Taahir Mohammed Amir, the owner of the business, was arrested on suspicion of failing to prevent smoking in a smoke-free place.

    He pleaded not guilty, saying people inside the cafe were friends and not paying customers.

    But evidence gathered at the scene by Town Hall officers suggested customers had chosen from a menu of tobaccos to smoke in the shisha pipes.

    Council bosses said the premises did not comply with smoke-free legislation and, on a number of previous occasions, Mr Amir had been given advice and warnings.

    Mr Amir, of Queens Park Road, Blackburn, was found guilty of the offence at Preston Magistrates’ Court and was handed a £1,000 fine, £1,091.30 prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

    Source: Lancashire Evening Post - 14 November 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/uSfFPM

  • Tobacco sector wants freeze on cigarette duty

    The tobacco industry has demanded George Osborne freeze cigarette duty in this month's Autumn Statement after landmark research suggested "sin taxes" don't encourage people to give up.

    Academics found the number of smokers in Eastern Europe did not fall when 10 states joined the EU in 2004 – even though the price of cigarettes soared by as much as 100pc ahead of wages when they became subject to Brussels rules on minimum tax levels.

    On average, the affordability of cigarettes, measured by minutes of work needed to buy a pack of 20, fell by 40pc. But there was no fall in smoking prevalance – and in several countries, the number of smokers actually rose, to the bafflement of researchers.

    Cigarette makers say the research shows successive tobacco duty hikes are unjustified.

    "There was no correlation between changes in cigarette affordability and changes in prevalence, either before or after adjustment for unemployment rates or changes in Tobacco Control Scale Scores [the measure of how easily cigarettes are sold]", the researchers wrote in Addiction, the medical journal.

    "We expected to see a marked reduction in smoking prevalence," the team, funded by Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation and the Department of Health, added.

    NB: Authors of the study point out that taxes and prices increased gradually over this time period and there is growing evidence that gradual and regular as opposed to intermittent but larger increases in price are less effective. Also, tax increases can be subverted by smokers downtrading to cheaper cigarettes or handrolled tobacco or switching to illicit tobacco and this was not examined in the paper.

    Source: The Telegraph - 13 November 2011
    Link: http://tgr.ph/vxro7W

  • Europe switches to self-extinguishing cigarettes

    It's lights out in Europe this weekend for old-style cigarettes that manufacturers haven't adapted to burn out if left unattended.

    Come Friday, in a bid to cut down on smoking-induced fire deaths across the continent, all cigarettes sold in the 27-state European Union -- home to half a billion consumers -- will have to be self-extinguishing.

    "Evidence shows that the number of fatalities can be reduced by more than 40 percent with the introduction of 'Reduced Ignition Propensity' (RIP) cigarettes," the executive European Commission said on Monday, citing data from Finland, the first EU state to implement new legislation agreed in 2008.

    Brussels estimates that nearly 500 lives a year can be saved in this way from some 30,000 annual fires started by lit cigarettes that are forgotten.

    On Thursday, a three-year phasing-in period for the legislation will come to an end, meaning all 27 EU states will thereafter have to adopt the same norms as the United States, Canada and Australia.
    The changes do not affect cigars.

    Source: Yahoo!/AFP - 14 November 2011
    Link: http://yhoo.it/sL1usz

  • Minnesota: Smoking bans cut cardiac events 45%

    The incidence of heart attacks and sudden deaths has fallen nearly in half since smoking bans took effect in southeastern Minnesota, according to new research from the Mayo Clinic.

    The Rochester-based organization said the data bolsters its fight to rid the nation's workplaces of second-hand smoke. It found a 45 percent decline in heart attacks and cardiac deaths.

    Mayo researchers examined data beginning 18 months before the first smoke-free law was passed at restaurants in Olmsted County, in 2002, and concluding 18 months after the law was expanded to cover all workplaces in 2007.

    Adult smoking rates also dropped 23 percent during the time period. Other risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity remained stable or increased, according to the study.

    Source: Star Tribune - 14 November 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/sVN0RE

  • Canada: Smoking an addiction, not a habit, lung association says

    Smokers are more likely to seek treatment when they realize it's not a question of willpower, according to an addiction expert.

    In recognition of Addictions Awareness Week, the British Columbia Lung Association is calling for the term "addiction" to replace the word "habit" when referring to tobacco smokers.

    Nicotine dependence is included in the manual used by doctors to diagnose psychiatric disorders and has predictable withdrawal symptoms, including irritability, anxiety and cravings, said Dr. Milan Khara, clinical director of the tobacco dependence clinic for the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. "So really, by many measures, this meets the standard for an addiction and not a habit or a life-style choice."

    And although the withdrawal symptoms experienced by smokers are not as traumatic as for those addicted to "hard" drugs such as heroin or cocaine, nicotine is in many ways more addictive because it enters the brain within seconds of inhalation, Khara said.

    Source: Vancouver Sun - 15 November 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/uGULUe