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ASH Daily News

15 October 2003

HEADLINES

Health minister tell restaurants to think smokefree...
... but rules out smoking ban
Smoking cessation about choice, not fascism
Smoking under siege: BBC2 7.30pm Wed. 15/10/03


FULL TEXT

Health minister tell restaurants to think smokefree...
... but rules out smoking ban

Restaurant owners today faced calls from a Government minister to ban
smoking on their premises.

Public health minister Melanie Johnson cited Pizza Hut, which in August
became the first major chain to impose an outright smoking ban. She
called on other restaurants to "act accordingly".

Ms Johnson, speaking in the Commons, claimed that public opinion was
shifting in favour of tougher restrictions. But she rejected demands by
MPs for a legally enforced ban on smoking in restaurants.

Polls have shown that four in five diners would prefer to eat in a
smoke-free environment. The Department of Health privately favours a ban
on smoking in public places but Downing Street fears that it would anger
smokers and business.

Today's comments follow the Chief Medical Officer's announcement in July
that he would favour a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces.

Source: Evening Standard, Daily Express, 14 October 2003



Smoking cessation about choice, not fascism

The Society section of the Guardian carries a piece by Alison Benjamin
who works in smoking cessation. She underlines that smoking cessation is
about choice, not fascism.

"I have been called a fascist, taking away people's personal liberty.
What I say to that is that there is no greater loss to personal liberty
than addiction - like having to get up at 3am to find a garage that's
open to buy a packet of fags. Smokers get very defensive; they think
you're marginalising them. But I'm fighting for people not to smoke if
they don't want to. I want them to make a choice.

"Most people come here expecting to fail. They think it will be very
difficult, and they're right. It depends how well prepared they are. If
they make a rash decision and go cold turkey, they are less likely to
succeed...."

Full Guardian article:
http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,7843,1062661,00.ht
ml
Source: The Guardian, 15 October 2003



Smoking under siege: BBC2 7.30pm Wed. 15/10/03

Many smokers looked on in horror when New York imposed a smoking ban in
bars and restaurants earlier this year, thinking it was only a matter of
time before such measures were put in place in Britain. Surely tobacco
companies would have cause to worry? Not according to the first in a new
series of The Money Programme. The chairman of British American Tobacco
knows that whilst smoking has halved in the UK since 1960, it has
doubled around the world. Eastern European markets are particularly
profitable and there's always China to tap into. That's where one third
of the world's cigarettes are smoked.

[NOTE: Worldwide, 4.9m people die each year due to smoking related
diseases. At present the death toll is shared roughly equally between
the developed and developing worlds. However, if current trends persist,
this figure is set to rise to 10m by the year 2010, with the vast
majority of deaths occurring disproportionately in developing countries.
See ASH factsheet:
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets/pdfs/21facts.pdf]

Source: Guardian, 15 October 2003



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