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ASH Daily News for 14 December 2007

Australia: Concern over mentally ill smokers

Experts say that people with mental illness are three times more likely to smoke and not enough is being done to help them quit.

A new Access Economics report shows almost 1.3 million Australians with a mental illness are smokers with an annual cost of 33 billion Australian dollars.

SANE Australia, which commissioned the report, is calling for urgent action to introduce quit smoking programmes and support for people with a mental illness.

Executive director Barbara Hocking said smokers with a mental illness paid 2.8 billion dollars every year in tobacco taxes, but there was little evidence of equitable funding and few programmes to help the large numbers who wanted to quit.

She added, "Smoking is a huge physical and financial burden for people with a mental illness and our research shows how much it's costing us. Quit programmes have successfully reduced smoking rates generally but people with a mental illness have been largely ignored despite evidence which shows they respone well to targeted campaigns."

The report shows that people with mental illness make up 38 per cent of all smokers. People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are three times more likely to smoke than other Australians.

This group also tends to smoke more heavily than others, buying 42 per cent of the cigarettes sold in Australia each year.

Ms Hocking said while people living with a mental illness were acknowledged in some policy documents, no state governments have developed co-ordinated cessation services to support them. "We welcome the governments commitment to the National Tobacco Strategy and call on all Australian governments, quit organisations, mental health services and relevant health agencies to implement SANE's recommendations."

Source: NZ Herald, 13 December 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/ypg3dj

Japan Tobacco International to sign deal with EU to combat cigarette smuggling

Japan Tobacco International (JTI) will today sign a 15-year agreement with the European Commission to combat cigarette smuggling and counterfeiting, the EC says.

JTI will work together with the commission, its anti-fraud office OLAF, and law enforcement authorities of 26 of the bloc's 27 member states in the fight against contraband and counterfeit cigarettes  

This agreement follows two years of negotiations.  

Source: Euro2day, 14 December 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/24ko6l

Officers seize 121,000 cigarettes

Customs officers have seized more than 120,000 cigarettes from a gang of 13 people trying to smuggle them in via East Midlands Airport.

Officers said cigarettes were seized from a group mostly from Derbyshire on a flight from Riga, Latvia.

The revenue loss to the nation was estimated at £23,000 and no arrests have yet to be made.

John MacMillan, detection manager for HM Revenue & Customs, said: "We will not hesitate to take action against those dealing smuggled goods and evading duty."

"Selling illicit tobacco products is not a harmless tax fiddle, it cheats the nation of about £3bn a year, which could be used to fund vital public services such as hospitals and schools."

He added investigations were still ongoing.

Source: BBC News, 12 December 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/23yla8

Canada: Nova Scotia bans smoking in cars with kids under 19 

Nova Scotia has become the first Canadian province to ban smoking in vehicles with children under the age of 19.

The new law will come into effect in January and it will involve a fine levied through a ticket system.

Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society in Ottawa said, "We're absolutely delighted that this bill has passed. We believe this will have impact in provinces across the country to encourage similar laws to be adopted."

He added, "Since Wolfville adopted their bylaw, it's captured national attention."

Barry Barnet, Nova Scotia's minister of health promotion and protection, believes the law won't be too difficult to enforce and said, "Hopefully, we won't ever see a charge or conviction under this section of the legislation."

"I hope people will understand the consequences of this and the impact it has on their children, he added."

The level of secondhand smoke in vehicles can be far higher than those found in smoky bars, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.

They added that research shows childhood exposure to secondhand smoke is linked to sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections, asthma and respiratory disease.

Brian Day, president of the Canadian Medical Association said,  "By banning smoking in cars carrying children, governments would be removing a substantial threat to the health of Canada's children."

Maureen Summers with the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Cancer Society, said no smoking in cars is just the beginning and that they are looking at protecting people from secondhand smoke in places ranging from playgrounds to sports arenas.

Source: National Post, 13 December 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2u97wt

Australia : BAT loses fight over documents

The family of a Victorian woman who won, then lost, a damages action against the tobacco multi-national she blamed for her lung cancer is a step closer to reopening her case.

Shortly before she died in 2002, Rolah McCabe, 53, sued British American Tobacco Australia Services (BATAS) in a case won after her death when a Victorian Supreme Court case awarded damages of 700,000 Australian dollars.

But the decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal in December 2002, and Ms McCabe's estate was ordered to pay more than two million dollars for BATAS' legal costs, a demand that would bankrupt her estate.

However, in July Justice David Byrne has cleared the way for the McCabe family and law firm Slater and Gordon to use hundreds of confidential BATAS documents in a bid to reopen a case against the tobacco company.

Mrs McCabe's daughter and executor of her estate, Roxanne Cowell, wants to use the disputed documents to prove that BATAS and its lawyers acted illegally.

BATAS went to the Court of Appeal seeking orders to prevent the documents being used against it to revive the case.

One of the disputed documents was an internal inquiry which found that two of law firm Clayton Utz's partners engaged in serious misconduct in order to defeat Mrs McCabe's original claim.

Victorian Court of Appeal judges Alex Chernov, Geoffrey Nettle and Marilyn Warren upheld Justice Byrne's decision and ruled that the McCabe family's lawyers can use the documents.

Outside court the McCabe family's lawyer, Leon Zwier said the decision paved the way for the family to reopen the case against BATAS.

"The McCabe family is obviously very pleased with the Court of Appeal's decision today," Mr Zwier said.

He added, "It takes away some of the delay and we hope that we will be able to move on with expedition. This litigation will proceed, and hopefully it will proceed on a speedy timetable going forward."

BATAS lawyers said that they would consider appealing against the decision in the High Court.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 December 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/22ocqb