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ASH Daily news for 12 November 2010

HEADLINES

  • Tobacco display ban will apply to pubs and clubs

    Plymouth bar bosses are being warned new laws banning tobacco displays will apply to them too – and could hit trade.

    The ban is due to be implemented in England next year when supermarkets will have to put cigarettes out of customers' sight and only sell them from under the counter.

    The measure is then planned to be extended to small shops too in October 2013 – and this will include pubs and clubs.

    Representatives of small businesses and the tobacco industry have told ministers that proceeding with the ban will hit their livelihoods and lead to a flourishing black market in tobacco products.

    The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) is running a 'Stop the Tobacco Display Ban' campaign and urging businesses to write to Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley.

    This week ACS attacked European Union plans to introduce a tobacco display ban across the EU.

    The 26,000-member Tobacco Retailers Alliance said 56 per cent of shopkeepers believed the ban would increase contraband sales.

    But a legal challenge brought by Imperial Tobacco against the ban in Scotland was thrown out by a judge who said it does not stop a sale being made.

    Health campaigners – including the Royal College of Physicians, the UK Faculty of Public Health and the anti-smoking pressure group Ash – have backed the ban and claim retailers have not been effected in Ireland where a point-of-sale restriction is already in place.

    Source: South West Business - 12 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9P5nK5

  • Tobacco display ban may be delayed

    The implementation of the tobacco display ban is likely to be delayed by a year, C-Store has learned.

    A number of sources close to the issue claim that continued discussions between government departments and continued pressure from retailers and their representatives about the impact of the ban would have on local shops, will see the start dates pushed back to October 1, 2012 for larger outlets and 2014 for smaller stores.

    The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is known to be concerned about the cost burden and operational difficulties that a display ban would heap on small shops. Speaking at a parliamentary reception for local stores last week, business minister Mark Prisk said that the BIS had been actively lobbying the Health Secretary to overturn the ban. 

    It is also expected that the government will soften its stance on the procedure for restocking and on the requested display area, the segment of gantry that retailers will be permitted to show while retrieving a product.

    Source: The Grocer - 11 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9pbatW

  • Leeds: Ex-landlords fined for flouting smoking ban

    Ray and Gillian McHale were each fined £350 and ordered to pay a combined £4,540 in costs after pleading guilty at Leeds Magistrates' Court to repeated breaches of the law on lighting up in enclosed public places.

    The offences occurred while the couple were running the Painters Arms on Bradford Road in Drighlington.

    Source: Yorkshire Evening Post - 12 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/aaZSZT

  • Texas: Grandson of tobacco magnate campaigns against smoking

    Patrick Reynolds, former actor, author and grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds, has recalled the catalyst that would turn him into an anti-smoking crusader.

    “My only memories of my father, R.J. Reynolds Jr., are of a man lying down, dying of smoking,” he said. “He died of emphysema when I was 15, and I remember him coughing and gasping for breath and looking more and more sick and frail every time I saw him.”

    In 1986, Reynolds, who already had sold his tobacco stock in 1979, made the decision to speak out about an industry his family helped build.

    Now, he serves as an advocate, campaigning for smoke-free laws, higher cigarette taxes, limitations on tobacco advertising and marketing, and regulation of tobacco by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, he said.

    In 1989, Reynolds founded the Foundation for a Smokefree America, a nonprofit group with a mission to motivate youths to stay tobacco free and empower smokers to quit successfully.

    Source: Reporter News - 10 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/dd4Qt4

  • Serbs grumble at new smoking curbs

    Serbia's new anti-smoking law which went into effect Thursday caused grumbling among the one third of the population who are smokers but few were letting it interfere with their habits.

    The new law bans smoking in state institutions and buildings, schools, social care institutions, cultural and sports venues and media offices.

    The ban covers all public and work spaces as well as many entertainment venues, with fines from 5,000 dinars (47 euros, 64 dollars) for individuals to one million dinars for companies and managers breaching the law.

    Smaller bars and cafes can decide to be smoke-free or not, while bigger ones, as well as restaurants, have to provide a non-smoking space occupying more than half the premises and properly ventilated.

    In a dozen cafes on Obilic Square in central Belgrade, only two had decided to ban smoking inside the premises.

    The popular Greenet chain decided to have one of its cafes smoking and the other non-smoking on opposite sides of the street. In the first there were no free tables, but only two people in the second.

    Serbia, like most of the Balkans, is home to Europe's most inveterate smokers, with 30 to 40 percent of all adults hooked on the habit, according to the World Health Organisation.

    Tobacco is blamed for killing some 16,000 people each year, according to the Serbian health ministry, while around 76.9 percent children live in families that include at least one smoker.

    Source: Yahoo!/AFP - 11 November 2010
    Link: http://yhoo.it/8ZLZWq

  • Chicago renters willing to pay more for smoke-free housing

    A recent citywide survey commissioned by the Chicago Tobacco Prevention Project shows that nearly a third of all renters (32 percent) in Chicago would be willing to pay more rent to live in smoke-free buildings.

    These findings coincide with an emerging trend in the Chicago rental market whereby landlords and property managers are converting their rental properties to "non-smoking," according to Maurice Ortiz, marketing director of the Apartment People, an apartment-finding and listing service with nearly 30,000 rental clients each year.

    Studies have revealed that the cost of turning over an apartment at the end of the lease can be as much as 90 percent higher when the unit has been occupied by a smoking tenant. But it's not just the cost savings that have property managers' attention: "Environmentally-friendly and health conscious properties are simply easier to rent," says Ortiz.

    The Chicago study reflects a growing awareness among prospective renters of the dangers of secondhand smoke, with 88 percent of those surveyed ranking secondhand smoke as a serious health hazard. This poll involved a random sampling of 400 adult renters within the city of Chicago.

    The survey also found that nearly half of all renters say they would be more likely to rent an apartment or unit in a completely smoke-free building where smoking is prohibited in indoor common areas and individual units (47 percent). By comparison, 31 percent say it would make no difference and only 20 percent would be less likely to rent on those terms.

    Source: Melodika - 11 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9AJoMc