HEADLINES

• Hotel cigar evenings for a new generation of female smokers
• Smoking banned from play areas in Wirral
• Cigarette packaging campaign
• Study: Sticking with nicotine patches may prevent relapse
• USA: Study finds youths' smoking influenced by sports teammates
• Australia: Plain-pack case strong, says Roxon
• USA: Big Tobacco whistleblower at ease on camera

• Hotel cigar evenings for a new generation of female smokers

  Cigar smoking is enjoying an unlikely resurgence among women.

  The May Fair hotel in London has announced plans to open a cigar room this spring that will offer a "feminine experience", consigning the gentleman's club atmosphere to the history books, and sprucing the place up with pot plants and a choice of Martinis. The May Fair joins No. Ten Manchester Street, a hotel in Marylebone, which recently launched a regular ladies' cigar evening while The Lanesborough and The Langham also boast cigar rooms or terraces to satisfy a growing demand among a new generation of smokers.

  And the cigar industry is catering to this new market –unsurprisingly, given cigar sales declined by 5.4 per cent last year and were hit severely by the smoking ban. But they're on the up again, as hotels get wise to the limitations of the laws. These new spaces skirt the ban's definition of indoor space as one that is 50 per cent covered, with mesh walls, foliage, tiles and outdoor heaters to create an ambience that is fresh –both literally and metaphorically –and as free of fug as it is of fogies.

  Source: The Independent,
  Link: http://ind.pn/x79g6w

• Smoking banned from play areas in Wirral

  Smoking is now banned from dozens of Merseyside playgrounds. Anyone who lights up in any of Wirral’s 75 play areas will be asked to put it out.

  Heart Of Mersey, the campaign group behind the plan, said smokers will not be forced to stub out or be threatened with fines – but they will be expected to stick to a voluntary code.

  Wirral council is the third in the country to sign up to the voluntary smokefree code after Pendle and Halton.

  Special signs designed by Hayfield school, in Upton, will be put in all council-run play areas requesting that children be allowed to “Play Smokefree”.

  Source: Liverpool Daily Post, 10 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/Ab5nO9

• Cigarette packaging campaign

  Anti-smoking campaigners are urging parents to back a new campaign calling for plain tobacco packaging.

  The Plain Packs Protect campaign is being launched in the North-East by health campaigners FRESH.

  FRESH believes eye-catching and increasingly innovative packs of cigarettes can act as ‘silent salesmen’.

  Plain Packs Protect is supported by FRESH, Action for Smoking and Health (ASH), Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation.

  Source: Peterlee Mail, 10 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/xO9bnN

• Study: Sticking with nicotine patches may prevent relapse

  A new study reported in the journal Addiction concluded that when smokers on nicotine patch therapy lapse, they may have a better chance of avoiding a return to smoking if they continue using the patches instead of giving up their quit attempt.

  The researchers re-analysed a past clinical trial testing the effectiveness of nicotine patches in U.S. smokers.

  Overall, the study found lapsed smokers who were on active patch treatment were more likely than placebo users to "recover" -- which meant that by the sixth to 10th week of treatment, they were off cigarettes again.

  Source: Reuters News, 09 February 2012
  Link: http://reut.rs/zWJ58q

• USA: Study finds youths' smoking influenced by sports teammates

  A new study of middle schoolers and their social networks has found that teammates' smoking plays a big role in youths' decisions about smoking, but adolescents who take part in a lot of sports smoke less.

  The researchers found that youths were more likely to smoke as they were increasingly exposed to teammates who smoked, and that this tendency may be stronger among girls than boys. But they also found that youths who took part in a greater number of sports were less likely to smoke than those who participated in fewer.

  The study was conducted at the University of Southern California (USC) and appears in the journal Child Development.

   

  Source: Medical News Today, 10 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/wTnbRI

• Australia: Plain-pack case strong, says Roxon

  The Australian government has defended the constitutional legitimacy of its plain cigarette packaging laws, arguing that restricting how tobacco companies use their trademarks does not amount to an acquisition of property.

  Four tobacco companies - Phillip Morris, British American Tobacco Australia, Imperial Tobacco Australia and Japan Tobacco International - are challenging the laws in the High Court, relying on a section of the constitution that states an acquisition of property by the Commonwealth must grant ''just terms''.

  Source: Brisbane Times, 09 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/yrzzCg

• USA: Big Tobacco whistleblower at ease on camera

  Victor DeNoble, a former research scientist for cigarette-maker Philip Morris explains his early work with lab rats and nicotine addiction in the new documentary "Addiction Incorporated".

  DeNoble was hired at Philip Morris in 1979 with the understanding that his employer wanted to develop a safer cigarette and reduce the negative effects of nicotine.

  Source: Chicago Tribune, 09 February 2012
  Link: http://trib.in/x1rk50