HEADLINES

• BAT denies allegations that it funded anti-tobacco ban lobby
• BAT admits bankrolling newsagents' tobacco campaign
• Passive smoking raises blood pressure in boys, study reveals
• China bans smoking in indoor spaces – but won't penalise smokers
• Secondhand smoke derails quit-smoking efforts
• Women more likely to quit smoking

• BAT denies allegations that it funded anti-tobacco ban lobby

  British American Tobacco is under pressure to disclose whether it was involved in covertly lobbying MPs to persuade the government not to ban cigarettes from being displayed for sale in shops.

  It is under pressure to disclose whether it secretly funded a campaign against the plan instigated by the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN). The plan, which led to tensions in the coalition, involved efforts over many months by the London public affairs firm Hume Brophy to influence MPs and the media.

  Parminder Singh, the president of the NFRN, which represents 16,500 small shopkeepers, recently wrote in its magazine that: "There is no way that the NFRN could afford the resources and expertise to mount such a high profile campaign to fight on its members' behalf to oppose the tobacco ban without some help towards funding. We are grateful, therefore, to have some help from the tobacco manufacturers to do this.”

  Deborah Arnott, the chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said, "For any major company to seek to covertly lobby MPs through the back door is disgraceful, but particularly when it comes to tobacco. The Government has legal obligations to protect public health policy from the vested interests of the tobacco industry and it can only do this if the tobacco industry is transparent about its lobbying activities. Lobbying by the NFRN was effective in significantly delaying the implementation of the legislation in small shops and it has already admitted that it received support from tobacco manufacturers for this campaign. The question is which tobacco manufacturers. If BAT was involved it needs to come clean."

  BAT, which stresses its commitment to "high standards of behaviour and integrity wherever our businesses operate", denied it had paid for the NFRN's campaign. "To accuse us of underhand tactics and the funding of an independent retailer organisation (the NFRN), via a PR agency that we use solely for work related to the European wide problem of tobacco smuggling, is untrue," said a spokeswoman."

  Source: The Guardian, 27 April 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/kFZuKB

• BAT admits bankrolling newsagents' tobacco campaign

  British American Tobacco has admitted bankrolling an organisation of small shopkeepers that led the fight against the coalition government's plans to force cigarettes to be sold only from under shop counters. Speaking at BAT's annual meeting in London on Thursday 28th April, company chairman Richard Burrows confirmed that the tobacco group had funded the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) and attended meetings with the group and its lobbyists Hume Brophy to discuss the campaign against the point-of-sale move.

  Their relationship raises questions about Hume Brophy's tactics when it was lobbying MPs against the plan, as it said it was representing the NFRN and did not disclose BAT's role.

  Activists, among them the Labour MP Kevin Barron and Action on Smoking and Health, have voiced fears over "covert lobbying" of MPs by big tobacco companies. The day before BAT told the Guardian that claims that it was involved in "underhand tactics and the funding of an independent retailer organisation, via a PR agency" were "untrue".

  Source: The Guardian, 28 April 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/jw8O4f

• Passive smoking raises blood pressure in boys, study reveals

  A study which involved more than 6,400 young people has found that boys who inhale secondhand tobacco smoke may experience significant levels of raised blood pressure. This will put them at higher risk in later life of hypertension – which is itself associated with a greater chance of developing heart and kidney disease.

  Jill Baumgartner, who presented her study at the annual meeting of the Paediatric Academic Societies in Denver, Colorado, said more than a third of children in the US and globally were exposed to secondhand smoke levels similar to those associated with adverse cardiovascular effects in her study.

  Baumgartner's work showed that, unlike boys, girls exposed to secondhand smoke had lower systolic blood pressures than girls who were not – by 1.8 mmHg on average.

  "These findings support several previous studies suggesting that something about female gender may provide protection from harmful vascular changes due to secondhand smoke exposure," she said. "An important next step is to understand why."

  Mike Knapton, Associated Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation said, "For that individual child, it won't have a huge impact. But, if you've got two million kids with a 1% increase, you start to see changes in the prevalence of respiratory disease, heart disease and cancer."

  Source: The Guardian, 01 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/k35Paa

• China bans smoking in indoor spaces – but won't penalise smokers

  China has introduced a ban on smoking in indoor public spaces. The regulation, issued by the ministry of health, bans smoking in places such as hotels, restaurants, theatres and waiting rooms at railway stations and airports. Most workplaces are not included.

  The new regulations do not specify any penalties for smokers who infringe the ban or business owners who let them. Instead, they say owners should put up conspicuous non-smoking signs, promote non-smoking and designate staff members to tell customers not to smoke.

  China should have introduced the measure in January under the commitment it made when it signed the World Health Organisation's framework convention on tobacco control several years ago.

  Many believe that efforts to tackle the country's tobacco habit have been hindered by the vast profits it yields for parts of the government. The tobacco monopoly is state-owned and, according to state media, as much as a 10th of the country's tax revenues come from the industry.

  Source: The Guardian, 01 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/mBvWaT

• Secondhand smoke derails quit-smoking efforts

  A study has found that secondhand smoke may make it harder for smokers to quit as it delivers a "priming" dose of nicotine to the brain that increases nicotine cravings in smokers.

  Arthur Brody and colleagues in the Archives of General Psychiatry write, "This mechanism may explain why adult smokers exposed to multiple sources of secondhand smoke have difficulty initiating and maintaining abstinence compared with smokers without such exposure."

  The results showed that exposure to secondhand smoke led to an increase in plasma nicotine concentration of about 0.2 ng/mL and a 19% increase in nicotine receptor occupancy in the brain.

  In addition, smokers had an average 23% increase in nicotine cravings with exposure to secondhand smoke, which were alleviated by subsequent cigarette smoking."

  Source: WebMD, 02 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/itJvtK

• Women more likely to quit smoking

  According to a new survey from GfK NOP, women were twice as likely to stop smoking on No Smoking Day this year than men.
  
  Almost two million smokers made a positive step towards quitting on the day.
  
  Chief executive of the No Smoking Day charity, Amit Aggarwal, said: "Congratulations to all those people who managed to quit smoking on March 9."

  Source: thisisgloucestershire
  Link: http://bit.ly/lWFCUp