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ASH Daily news for 11 January 2012

HEADLINES

  • Anger at Yorkshire Council tobacco investments

    Health organisations have attacked tobacco investments by Yorkshire councils worth  hundreds of millions of pounds, including more than £110m into British American Tobacco (BAT).

    Martin Dockrell, Director of Policy and Research at Action on Smoking and Health, said: “In just a few months Yorkshire’s councils will take on new responsibilities for protecting public health and you have to ask how that squares with such large investments in Britain’s biggest killer. Council pension fund managers have a duty to invest in the best interest of their pension holders but they also have a duty to the best interests of their local tax payers.”
     
    Source: Yorkshire Post, 11 January 2012
    Link: http://bit.ly/xgE48Q

  • Smokers cost Sheffield employers £30 million a year

    Smokers in Sheffield take an average of eight days more sick leave than other workers every year, costing local employers more than £30 million annually and workers’ cigarette breaks are hitting the economy to the tune of £35.9m, according to a report by Sheffield health experts,

    Neville Martin, The Federation of Small Businesses’ development manager for South Yorkshire, said: “Wherever you go these days, you see people standing outside buildings having a crafty fag. All those hours stood outside tot up pretty quickly, which will ultimately hit the bottom line for all companies.”
    Source: Sheffield Telegraph, 11 January 2012
    Link: http://bit.ly/xkkul5

  • Sales of e-cigarettes soar, but do they work?

    Katie Burnetts looks into the growing popularity of electronic cigarettes and asks whether they really work as a quit smoking aid.

    Source: The Guardian, 10 January 2012
    Link: http://bit.ly/zwyiWm

  • Finland: Tobacco display ban does not prevent good customer service

    Since the end of 2011, it has been illegal to display tobacco products in Finish stores.

    The National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (VALVIRA) says that the ban on having tobacco products visible in shops and kiosks does not prevent sales people from offering good customer service to customers who want to buy cigarettes. 
     
    According to VALVIRA, the Tobacco Act regulations have been misrepresented in the media and staff can still answer customers’ queries about the availability of tobacco products.

     
    Source: Helsingin Sanomat, 11 January 2012
    Link: http://bit.ly/ycCYzS

  • New Zealand: Shock of tobacco price rise prompts smokers to quit

    A record number of people have quit smoking in the first week of the New Year, according to Quitline, the New Zealand stop-smoking support service. 

    More than 2400 people used Quitline services in the first week of 2012 - a 5% rise on last year.
     
    Quitline research found that most people decided to give up smoking for family or health reasons, though the recent 10% increase in tobacco tax has also provided another reason to quit.
     
    Source: TVNZ, 09 January 2012
    Link: http://bit.ly/wTK5Oq

  • India: John Terry claims - just a bid to scuttle tobacco warnings say campaigners

    Heath organisations have claimed that recent reports that one of the picture warnings on cigarette packets resembles footballer John Terry could be an attempt by tobacco manufacturers to scuttle the pictorial warnings.

    Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, VHAI executive director, said, “The tobacco lobby is trying to create unnecessary confusion to derail the process of implementation of the new pictorial health warning. More than a month has passed since the warnings have come into effect but most of the leading brands have not printed the new pictures.”
    Source: Deccan Chronicle, 11 January 2012
    Link: http://bit.ly/AgyMPk