HEADLINES

• Co-operative Group among companies successful in overturning Office of Fair Trading fines
• Doctors critical of image showing Daniel Craig smoking
• Tobacco industry dying? Not so fast, says Stanford expert
• Welsh Secretary criticised over trip to Chelsea Flower Show with tobacco firm
• Linda Robson: I'll never light up again

• Co-operative Group among companies successful in overturning Office of Fair Trading fines

  A ruling by the Office of Fair Trading that certain retailers and tobacco companies acted in an anti-competitive manner has been over-turned on appeal. 

  Imperial Tobacco has had its penalty of £112.3m reversed, while the Co-op, Morrisons, Asda and Shell were also successful in overturning their cases before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

  Tobacco retailers and manufacturers were fined a record £225m after the OFT's allegations of unlawful pricing.

  Source: Business (Manchester Evening News) 13 Dec. 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/vvQUts

• Doctors critical of image showing Daniel Craig smoking

  The following letter from a group of doctors has been published in this week's issue of the listing magazine, Time Out.

  "It is unfortunate that in the week that The British Thoracic Society is holding its annual meeting in London, Time Out has chosen to put an image of Daniel Craig smoking a cigarette with the brand visible on its cover.

  As health professionals treating people with lung disease, we see the consequences of tobacco addiction daily. The tobacco industry kills its consumers and constantly needs to attract children and young people to start smoking.

  In the face of an advertising ban, 'glamorous' images like this are a part of its strategy. Three recent papers published in the leading scientific journal Thorax show that children are influenced to take up smoking by seeing images of smoking in films. 

  Time Out's editors had a choice whether to run this tobacco branded image or not. They have made the wrong choice."
   

  Dr Nicholas Hopkinson
  Consultant Respiratory Physician
  Royal Brompton Hospital

  Professor Mike Morgan,
  Chair, British Thoracic Society

  Dr Myra Stern
  Consultant Respiratory Physician
  Whittington Hospital

  Professor John Moxham
  Professor of Respiratory Medicine
  Kings College Hospital

  Professor Andy Bush
  Professor of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Royal Brompton Hospital

  Professor Ian Pavord
  Editor in Chief, Thorax

  Source: Time Out, 15-21 Dec 2011
  Link:

• Tobacco industry dying? Not so fast, says Stanford expert

  The cigarette industry is not dying. It continues to reap unimaginable profits. It's still winning lawsuits. And cigarettes still kill millions every year.

  These are the observations of Stanford's Robert Proctor, author of the new study: "Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition", a book the tobacco industry tried to stop with subpoenas and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

  Proctor, the first historian to testify in court against the tobacco industry (in 1998), warns that the worst of the health catastrophe is still ahead of us: Thanks to the long-term effects of cigarettes, "If everyone stopped smoking today, there would still be millions of deaths a year for decades to come."

   

  Source: Stanford University News, 12 Dec 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/vJmNH1

• Welsh Secretary criticised over trip to Chelsea Flower Show with tobacco firm

  
  Welsh  Secretary Cheryl Gillan has been criticised for accepting two tickets to the Chelsea Flower Show and lunch by Japan Tobacco International.

  Health charities described her acceptance of the tobacco giant’s hospitality as “disappointing”.

  A spokeswoman for Mrs Gillan said she did not accept all the hospitality on offer and attended to “pay tribute to the Welsh horticultural expertise on show”.

  
   

  Source: Wales Online, 12 Dec 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/vbYaWo

• Linda Robson: I'll never light up again

  Actress Linda Robson, who is helping a Department of Health campaign aimed at helping loved ones to quit smoking, reveals her own smoking history and that of her family. She explains why she will never smoke again. 

  Source: Scottish Sunday Express, 13 Dec. 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/th4iJS