HEADLINES

• Nicotine treatment 'could control obesity'
• Reading: Elderly smoker sparks fire alarm
• Birmingham: Four jailed for tobacco thefts
• Ex-train driver denies part in £200,000 international fraud
• Australia: Developing nations hit at tobacco pack plan
• East Harlem neighborhood becomes New York City's first smoke-free block

• Nicotine treatment 'could control obesity'

  In an article in the journal Science, Yale University researchers describe experiments on mice which found nicotine activates neurons to send signals the body has had enough to eat.

  However they are not the same neurons which trigger a craving for tobacco.

  As a result, the researchers say nicotine-based treatments could help control obesity.

  Prof Marina Picciotto, senior study researcher and professor of psychiatry at Yale University, cautioned that the impact of a nicotine-based medication would be limited because smokers who are leaner when they give up smoking only gain 2.5 kilos of weight on average.

  Clinical trials in humans would also be necessary to explore the side effects on blood pressure.

  Amanda Sandford, research manager for ASH, Action on Smoking and Health, said it was already known that pure nicotine could be safely used to wean smokers off their tobacco habit.

  "If nicotine could also be used to tackle obesity then it could be a valuable tool in tackling two of the most critical public health problems that we face today," she said.

  Source: BBC News - 10 June 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/iYu8Hh

• Reading: Elderly smoker sparks fire alarm

  A crew from Wokingham Road fire station was called to reports of a suspected flat fire on Friday.

  When they got there smoke was coming out of the door but turned out to be just cigarette smoke and inside there were ashtrays overflowing with butts.

  The occupier, a woman thought to be in her 70s, refused to leave the flat until she had her cigarettes with her and was taken by paramedics to Royal Berkshire Hospital to be checked over.

  Source: Get Wokingham - 09 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/jLkHDC

• Birmingham: Four jailed for tobacco thefts

  Four men from Birmingham have been jailed for their part in a conspiracy to steal tens of thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes and tobacco from dozens of delivery drivers across the West Midlands.

  They were each sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment for conspiracy to steal.

  The convictions relate to 13 offences including three at Blakemore premises, and the total value stolen was calculated to be around £53,000.

  Detective constable Max Voyce from West Mercia Police's Serious Organised Crime Unit, who led the investigation, said: "A couple of years ago, so many cigarette thefts were taking place across the West Midlands region, we were registering almost one a day.

  "It was having a massive impact on our local distribution companies: one firm was losing in the region of £750,000 a year because of crime.

  "The four local police forces – West Mercia, West Midlands, Staffordshire and Warwickshire – put together a joint operation to tackle the problem and our investigations led us to O'Reilly Donnelly, Taylor and Malloy.

  "Now that they, and another group of offenders, have been taken out of action, cigarette thefts in the West Midlands have almost completely stopped."
   

  Source: Wholesale News - 09 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/jiTtPN

• Ex-train driver denies part in £200,000 international fraud

  A former Whitehaven train driver masterminded a £200,000 international fraud by sending illicit drugs and tobacco home to his friends in West Cumbria after emigrating to Thailand, a court has heard.

  Peter Farquhar, 52 – who is also said to have been illegally claiming UK state benefits during two of the years he was living in the Far East – allegedly sent huge boxes of contraband goods to addresses in Egremont, Cumbria.

  Prosecuting counsel Craig Hassall said that from 2005 to 2009 Farquhar’s friends paid more than £200,000 into his accounts – making so many visits to the CBS offices that “it became a source of some suspicion”, he said.

  He told the jury that when questioned by the police Farquhar insisted all the money paid into his accounts was his.

  Source: The Whitehaven News - 09 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/mkO9El

• Australia: Developing nations hit at tobacco pack plan

  Australia's plan for plain cigarette packaging has drawn fire from a bloc of poor countries, many of them reliant on money from growing tobacco.

  The Dominican Republic has led a push backed by eight countries at a meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva, saying it had ''serious and grave concerns'' that the plain packs would hurt tobacco producers in small and vulnerable economies.

  An official WTO report of proceedings said ''support or sympathy'' for the Dominican Republic argument came from Honduras, Nicaragua, Ukraine, the Philippines, Zambia, Mexico, Cuba and Ecuador.

  New Zealand, Uruguay and Norway said Australia's move was justified. India did not comment on the law specifically but said studies showed that plain packaging did reduce smoking.

  The World Health Organisation also effectively supported the Australian stance by providing information on its convention on tobacco control, which supports plain packs.

  The Dominican representative expressed arguments also used by tobacco companies in Australia that the move would fail to reduce smoking.

  It was revealed last month that Malaysia had been targeted by Peter Allgeier, a former US ambassador to the WTO, to oppose the Australian move.

  Source: The Age - 09 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/jpWyfR

• East Harlem neighborhood becomes New York City's first smoke-free block

  The bustling street - home to the East Harlem Asthma Center and several businesses - became the city's first "smoke-free" block this week with a novel approach to do away with secondhand smoke.

  Most residents and workers along the street have agreed to kick themselves to the curb - 15 feet away from their building entrance, which puts them in the street - if they have to light up.

  The only holdout was the U.S. Post Office branch, where many workers smoke, organizers said.

  Signs in Spanish and English reading, "NO SMOKING - SUPPORTERS OF 110th ST. SMOKE FREE BLOCK" went up in store windows and will be placed on lampposts on the block this month.

  "Kids are coming here to the clinic all day long and have had to walk near people smoking all along the block. We are telling smokers to go elsewhere," said asthma center Director Dr. Betty Perez-Rivera, who launched the idea with the Manhattan Smoke-Free Partnership and hopes to get other East Harlem blocks to sign on. "We want to make sure our kids are in a smoke-free environment."

  Source: NY Daily News - 09 June 2011
  Link: http://nydn.us/m51kdi