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ASH Daily News

14 December 2000

Headlines
'Top Student snubs prize over tobacco money'
Further coverage of 'MEPs back tough smoking rules'
Bush wins US Presidency: 'Light up a cigar, pick up a phone'
'Support grows for smoking restrictions'
'Mothers' smoking harms babies' lungs'
'No Smoking programme is now available from 200 Boots shops'
Ken Clarke: 'I've never been happier'

Full Text

'Top Student snubs prize over tobacco money'

The Independent reports that, 'Nottingham University came under renewed
pressure to refuse a £3.8m grant from the tobacco industry yesterday after
its star business graduate turned down the Student of the Year award in
protest. The university faces humiliation at a graduation ceremony on Friday
when John Rouse, 32, is planning a public renunciation of the award on the
basis that accepting sponsorship from British American Tobacco is
"unethical".
The MBA student, a former ministerial adviser, has asked the university to
read out a statement condemning the sponsorship; he also wants the
university to donate the £50 prize money to the Imperial Cancer Research
Fund.
The university plans to create Britain's first International Centre for
Corporate Social Responsibility using the BAT grant, but the move has
provoked condemnation from health charities and may be investigated by the
House of Commons Education committee as part of a wider inquiry into higher
education and corporate sponsorship.
Mr Rouse, who took a year off from his job as chief executive of the
Commission for Architecture to do an MBA, has written to the university
authorities to say he believes it is wrong for "any academic institution to
be building bridges with the tobacco industry".

Source: Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, 14
December 2000
Links:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Education/2000-12/tobacco141200.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/newsid_1069000/1069261.stm

Further coverage of 'MEPs back tough smoking rules'

There is further coverage of the EU Parliament's decision to approve the EU
directive on tobacco product regulation. The Guardian reports, 'Europe's
powerful tobacco lobby suffered a big setback yesterday after Euro MPs
backed tough new rules forcing manufacturers to put shocking images of
cancerous lungs and rotting teeth on cigarette packets.
In a vote in Strasbourg, the parliament approved legislation obliging the
industry, by 2003, to cover 30% of the front of every packet sold in the EU
with a health warning. At the moment, in the UK, 6% of a packet's surface is
taken up with a warning.'
The Guardian adds, 'MEPs also predicted that the tobacco industry's attempts
to wreck the legislation would fail. "We have come under unprecedented
pressure from a tobacco lobby which is vehemently opposed to these new
rules. Tobacco giants like Marlboro, Benson and Hedges, and Rothmans, have
had their own way for far too long," said the Labour Euro MP Catherine
Stihler. "They overturned Europe's tobacco advert ban on a technicality, but
they will not get rid of these health warnings through legal loopholes."
John Bowis, the Conservatives' health spokesman, yesterday said that the
directive as agreed could be challenged in the courts and argued that the
decision to extend the rules to cigarettes earmarked for export was a step
too far.'
Source: The Guardian, Financial Times, The Sun, Wall Street Journal Europe,
Daily Mail, Mirror and other newspapers, 14 December 2000
Link: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/smoking/Story/0,2763,411142,00.html

Bush wins US Presidency: 'Light up a cigar, pick up a phone'
The Financial Times reports that, 'With George W. Bush heading for the White
House, certain sectors of US business are already breathing a sigh of
relief. Not only has a period of uncertainty ended, but Mr Bush is seen as
friendlier to big business than Al Gore would have been.'
The article adds, 'Investors seem to agree: throughout the long legal saga,
they have tended to buy shares when court battles have gone Mr Bush's way.
Yesterday morning tobacco and healthcare stocks - two sectors expected to
benefit from a Republican victory - rallied in what analysts described as a
"Bush bounce"'
The article further reports that, 'A change in the administration should
mean tobacco makers can look forward to a less hostile environment. The
slight Republican majority in Congress also bodes well for the industry.
Most immediately, Mr Bush has indicated that he will drop the Justice
Department's lawsuit against the industry, which seeks to recover Medicare
costs of treating tobacco-related diseases. The trial is scheduled for 2003.
Mr Bush is also likely to push for reforms in the federal court system that
would favour tobacco manufacturers as they confront various lawsuits.'

Source: Financial Times, BBC News Online, 14 December 2000
Link:
http://search.ft.com/Search/MultiSearch/index.jsp?do=basic&query=Light%20up%
20a%20cigar%2C%20pick%20up%20a%20phone (you may have to cut and paste the
link into your web browser)
Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1069000/1069874.stm

'Support grows for smoking restrictions'

BBC News Online reports that, 'Support for restrictions on smoking in public
places is growing, according to official figures. The anti-smoking lobby
said the statistics proved that tough measures to clamp down on smoking in
the workplace would carry the support of the public. Data from the Office
for National Statistics shows that the percentage of people in favour of
restrictions at work rose from 81% in 1996 to 85% in 1999. Support for
similar restrictions in restaurants rose from 85% in 1996 to 88% in 1999.
The proportion of people who favour smoking restrictions in pubs has also
risen over the same time period, from 48% to 54%.'
The article adds, 'The ONS survey was carried out on behalf of the
Department of Health.
Other key findings include:
72% of current smokers would like to give up
Most of these wanted to give up for health-related reasons
52% of smokers said they intended to give up smoking within the next 12
months. Younger smokers were particularly keen to quit
45% of current smokers who intended to give up in the next 12 months thought
they would succeed
77% of current smokers had tried to give up in the past
Clive Bates, director of the anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and
Health, said the statistics showed that the public would support measures to
restrict smoking in the workplace proposed by the Health and Safety
Commission and currently under consideration by the government.
Mr Bates accused ministers of wavering on the issue, and warned any attempt
to introduce a voluntary code of conduct would be a waste of time.
He told BBC News Online: "Number Ten is scared of accusations that the
measures would place additional burdens and red tape on small businesses.
"I fear the government is thinking about how best to craft its anti-red tape
image, rather than about doing the right thing for health reasons."
Juliette Torres, of the smokers' rights group FOREST, told BBC News Online:
"Smokers have to be aware that restrictions are part and parcel of every day
life. We promote the idea that both smokers and non-smokers should be
catered for."
Source: BBC News Online, 14 December 2000
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1070000/1070298.stm

'Mothers' smoking harms babies' lungs'

Babies born to smoking mothers can have breathing problems from the moment
they
are born. The babies can have smaller airways, meaning they cannot breathe
as easily, because their airflow is about 25% lower, an effect evident up to
18 months of
age. The British Thoracic Society is now calling for the government to put
more
effort into helping pregnant women to quit. It has written to Health
Minister Yvette Cooper calling on her to form a "think-tank" to co-ordinate
efforts to get the no-smoking message across to pregnant women.

BBC News Online further reports that, 'Researchers from the Institute of
Child Health, in London and Boston USA, studied 355 women. The results are
being presented at the winter meeting of the BTS in London on Wednesday.'

Source: BBC News Online, 14 December 2000
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_1067000/1067680.stm

'No Smoking programme is now available from 200 Boots shops'

Chemist & Druggist reports that, 'Pro-change, a smoking cessation programme
adopted by Boots the Chemists, has achieved one month quite rates of over 40
percent in a trial in Northumberland.The Pro-Change programme is now
available in 200 Boots stores, and some 800 Boots staff have been trained to
provide advice and support.'

Source: Chemist & Druggist, 9 December 2000

Ken Clarke: 'I've never been happier'

Ken Clarke tells the Daily Mail that, 'since leaving No 11 Downing Street,
he has never been happier.at least financially, "That is the joy of joining
the private sector. I am a non-executive director of several companies these
days, but I do have one problem: how to reconcile the fact that I am
chairman of a pharmaceutical company and at the same time chairman of
British American Tobacco".

Source: Financial Times, BBC News Online, 14 December 2000

Karl Brookes
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London
EC2A 4HW
Tel: +44 (0)20 7739 5902
Fax: + 44 (0)20 7613 0531
http://www.ash.org.uk