HEADLINES

• Call to ban smoking in cars carrying children
• Ex-Halesowen chief jailed for £4.5m cigarette tax fraud
• Films with smoking to get an 18 certificate
• Australia: Tobacco tax hike passes Senate

• Call to ban smoking in cars carrying children

  Adults should be banned from smoking in their own cars when children are passengers, a leading charity said today.

  The British Lung Foundation said a ban on smoking in cars would be a “natural” progression to the ban on smoking in public places, which came into force in Wales in 2007.

  The calls come amid growing concern about the number of children regularly exposed to passive smoking.

  Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the BLF said: “We see this as the next step forward from the smoking ban, which was done pretty much with universal acceptance.

  “But if you are a child in a smoky car you can’t fight for yourself.

  “This is a way on concentrating people’s minds about the impact of passive smoking, because the vast majority of people who smoke in front of their children don’t understand what they are doing.”

  The call for a ban comes after a BLF survey on website mumsnet found 88% of mothers were in favour of the move.

  The survey also found that 13% of smoking parents have smoked in the car with the window open when travelling with their children.

  And the same number thought lighting up near their children had no impact on their health, despite evidence showing the opposite.

  Chris Mulholland, head of the BLF in Wales, said: “Smoking just one cigarette, even with the car window open, creates a greater concentration of second-hand smoke than a whole evening’s smoking in a pub or a bar.

  “A ban on smoking in the car with children would prevent some of the 22,000 new cases each year of asthma, caused as a direct result of passive smoking.

  “This overwhelming evidence and public support can no longer be ignored and as the only UK charity supporting everyone affected by lung disease, we are calling for this legislation.”

  Ms Shovelton suggested the threat of three penalty points for motorists caught smoking in their cars while carrying children, could be sufficient to deter the majority.

  Tanya Buchanan, chief executive of Ash Wales, said: “Breathing in second-hand smoke is known to cause a range of health problems and children are especially vulnerable as they breathe faster than adults as their lungs are still developing. Levels of second-hand smoke in cars can be extremely high – as much as 27 times greater than in a smoker’s home.

  “The call from the BLF to ban smoking in cars carrying children echoes what has already been implemented in other parts of the world. It is possible to successfully implement such a ban.

  “In Wales public support for banning smoking in cars carrying children has been consistently high for the last three years, with support growing from 75% in 2007 to 81% in 2010.”

  Dr Tony Jewell, Wales’ chief medical officer, said: “I welcome the BLF’s efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke.

  “This complements our work to discourage people from starting to smoke and to provide help and support for smokers to quit.

  “We will be developing a Tobacco Control Strategy and as part of this, a group with expertise in tobacco control will look at the issue of children and young people’s exposure to tobacco smoke in private cars and will advise the Assembly Government on a way forward.”

  Simon Clark of smokers’ rights group Forest, said: “We don’t condone smoking in cars with children but we think introducing legislation to ban it would be a like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

  “To introduce legislation that needs to be enforced seems to be a gross over-reaction.”

  Source: Wales Online, 16 June 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/dxntNr

• Ex-Halesowen chief jailed for £4.5m cigarette tax fraud

  A former football club chief executive who admitted not paying duty on £4.5m worth of cigarettes has been jailed.
  
  Guy Simpson, who used to be in charge of the West Midlands non-league team Halesowen Town, admitted tax evasion.
  
  The 52-year-old, of Heath Charnock, Lancashire, was charged after he tried to smuggle 21 million fake Regal cigarettes through Southampton port in 2008.
  
  Simpson was jailed at Southampton Crown Court for five-and-a-half years.
  
  The cigarettes were on board a ship which arrived from China on 13 December, 2008.
  
  Simpson, who changed his plea to guilty on the first day of his trial, was in debt at the time of the offence, the court heard.
  
  Counterfeit cigarettes The cigarettes were crammed into two 40ft (12m) containers
  
  Customs said it was the largest cigarette haul ever uncovered in Southampton.
  
  The cigarettes, falsely branded as Regals, were boxed and wrapped in brown paper packages and crammed into two 40ft (12m) containers that arrived by cargo vessel from China.
  
  Import documents suggested the consignment contained exercise gym balls, customs said.
  
  The cigarettes were seized and then shredded and burnt at a power station to help power the national grid.

  Source: BBC News, 15 June 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/ccNDhK

• Films with smoking to get an 18 certificate

  Movies which feature smoking are to be given an 18 certificate by a council for the first time.

  As part of a campaign to tackle addiction, officials in Plymouth have drawn up proposals to prevent children seeing films which show actors lighting up.

  The local authority has the power to change certificates for films shown in its area.

  The move would mean classics such as Casablanca - in which Humphrey Bogart always has a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth - being screened with an 18 certificate.

  NHS figures show 27% of adults smoke in Plymouth - compared to a national figure of 21% - and 63% of under-16s have tried cigs. In deprived areas, 54% of adults smoke.

  Russ Moody, manager of Plymouth NHS Stop Smoking Service, said: "This is about shaping the culture that surrounds the use of tobacco. The driving force is the protection of young people."

  Source: The Mirror, 15 June 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/cqD5Xw

• Australia: Tobacco tax hike passes Senate

  A government decision to hike the tax on cigarettes has passed the Senate with broad support from all parties.

   

  The coalition backed the measure with Liberal frontbencher Concetta Fierravanti-Wells saying the move would reduce the long-term strain on hospitals and healthcare services.

  "This coalition, when elected at the next election, will continue this commitment to the Australian people," she told parliament on Tuesday.

  Independent Nick Xenophon said he supported the government's decision to increase the excise.

  He said, "I do welcome that cigarettes are more expensive," Senator Xenophon. However, the measure should be seen as one plank only in a policy to reduce smoking.

  Subsidising nicotine replacement therapies and improving prevention methods needed to be funded.

  Senator Xenophon called for details about the uptake of teenage smoking to be published annually and better surveying of the indigenous population to assess the effectiveness of the move.

  The Australian Greens also supported the legislation.

  Greens senator Rachel Siewert said more should be done to target the most vulnerable groups of smokers, including Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who smoked at more than double the rate of the rest of the population.

  A proportion of the revenue should be made available for people to quit and discourage those considering taking it up.

  The federal government is waiting on recommendations on which nicotine replacement medications will be available through its Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

  The Excise Tariff Amendment (Tobacco) Bill 2010 and a related bill now await royal assent.

  Source: Brisbane Times, 15 June 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9USJh3