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ASH Daily news for 08 June 2011

HEADLINES

  • Renault colour scheme cleared for Canadian GP

    The Renault Formula One team have been cleared to race in their black-and-gold colours in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix after fears that they would fall foul of tobacco advertising laws.

    Principal Eric Boullier said that the Lotus-sponsored team, had contacted the Quebec authorities to discuss the livery and the legislation. "The Quebec authorities noted that the current livery makes a reference to images from the 1980s when the car was sponsored by the tobacco industry, but it has also accepted the fact that Lotus Renault GP receives no direct or indirect financing from the industry in question," he said.
     
    The team's 2011 black-and-gold livery harks back to the days when the old Lotus team were sponsored by cigarette brand John Player Special, whose packs are still sold in the distinctive colors.
     
    Source: Reuters Canada, 06 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/kf6Z5q

  • Spain: More people going to bars following smoking ban

    A new study shows that more people are going out now that establishments are smoke-free.

    In a survey carried out by the Spanish Society for Family and Community Medicine, 70 per cent of respondents said they go out to bars and restaurants with the same frequency as before the ban, while 18 per cent said they go out more and just 12 per cent said they go out less. 
     
    86 per cent of respondents believe that the smoking ban will result in improved health for the general public.  Even 50 per cent of smokers say they would be against going back to allowing smoking in bars and restaurants.
     
    The number of smokers attempting to quit the habit has continued rising, according to SemFYC's Vidal Barchilón. "This year some 36 per cent of smokers have attempted to quit, compared to 31 per cent last year and 25 per cent the year before. "

    Despite the study's findings, bar and restaurant owners continue to maintain that the smoking ban is costing them money in lost business.
     
    Source: Costa News, 07 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/jgJGbq

  • Smoking increases a woman’s risk for peripheral artery disease

    A new study found that smoking is a potent risk factor for women for symptomatic peripheral artery disease, or PAD. PAD is a serious, often debilitating disorder, caused by narrowing of the arteries in the lower extremities.

    Researchers followed 38,825 women aged 45 and over for an average of 12.7 years.

    The researchers found that smoking increased a woman’s risk for PAD ten-fold. Smoking cessation reduced the risk, but even after abstaining from cigarettes for 20 years, the risk did not lower to that of a woman who had never smoked.
    Source: Bio Portfolio, 7 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/lvmU7V

  • USA: Tobacco companies adjusting strategies to remain prominent political players

    After weathering legal wranglings and widespread health concerns, tobacco companies have attempted to transform their image in the eyes of Americans.

    Once seen as corporate giants who could use their money for political favors, the biggest tobacco companies now often approach politics more discreetly.

    Campaign contributions, which once totaled more than $10 million in a single election cycle, added up to just $3.2 million during the 2010 election cycle. And federal-level lobbying expenditures in 2010 represented less than a quarter of what they were a dozen years before.
     
    The industry has taken to channeling money through harder-to-track organizations connected to candidates. These include leadership Political Action Committees (PACs), which members of Congress may sponsor, and 527 committees.  During the 2010 cycle, the industry gave more than $740,000 to leadership PACs.  The industry also gave about $5.4 million to the 527 committees. 
     
    In the wake of last year's Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission ruling, tobacco companies and other corporations may now contribute unlimited amounts of money to non-profit organizations that in turn may advertise for or against political candidates without revealing their source donors.
     
    "One thing the tobacco industry has done is stay out of the public view and disguise its efforts in politics," Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco.  "With the rise of this undisclosed money, it is hard to know what they're doing."
    Source: OpenSecrets.com, 7 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/jc9Y76

  • Jamaica: Tobacco bill goes before parliament

    After more than a decade in the making, the Tobacco Bill, which seeks to control the use of tobacco in the island, is about to be put before Parliament.

    Health Minister Rudyard Spencer says the chief parliamentary counsel is now making final amendments to the document and he expects it to be tabled within the next three weeks.  Provisions of the Bill include a total ban on tobacco advertising, sponsorship and promotion, the prohibition of the sale of tobacco products to minors and a clamp down on the illicit trading of tobacco products.
     
    "Our country, like many other countries around the world, is facing a silent epidemic," Spencer said. Approximately one out of every six deaths is due mainly to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer."

    Spencer stressed that the state cannot combat the problem on its own and called on the private sector, non-governmental organisations, community and faith-based organisations to pull together to tackle the issue.
     
    Source: Jamaica Observer, 08 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/lpgldL

  • Zimbabwe: Tobacco Research Board in $60 million move to increase tobacco production

    The Tobacco Research Board says it will soon unveil a  $60 million strategy aimed at increasing Zimbabwe’s tobacco productivity.

    The strategy will be implemented over a five-year period beginning next month. The Board said seed production and statistical services improvements would provide innovative and accurate data analysis and interpretation from gene to ecosystem level as a basis for recommending new crop management practices.

    The MVS replaces the Consolidation, Continuity and Growth Strategy of  2006, in a move aimed at advancing science-based management of tobacco by growers.
     
    Source: The Zimbabwean, 08 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/ldwrgO