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ASH Daily News

17 November 2005

[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]

HEADLINES

Most people support a ban - even smokers

Hospital should ban smoking completely, letter

Key US tobacco ruling not to be delivered until 2006

Kids hold tea dance for COPD sufferers

FULL TEXT

Most people support a ban - even smokers

Gavyn Davies does the maths in today's Guardian:

'Best when we are boldest eh, prime minister? Then why on earth take such a timid decision on the smoking ban on public places in England? A massive 85% of the population and even 70% of smokers favour a ban. Yet, unlike Scotland, Wales, Ireland, California, New York, Australia, Uganda, Rwanda, and God knows where else, the poor old English will still be breathing other people's smoke in many pubs and clubs after 2006.

There is no longer any real doubt that passive smoking causes death. Those exposed to passive smoking at home, for example, incur roughly a 25% higher risk of lung cancer and heart disease than other non-smokers, and (with much greater uncertainty) about a 45% higher risk of stroke. These figures are a fraction of the extra risks incurred by fully fledged smokers (20 times that of the rest of the population in the case of lung cancer, for instance). But still they are far too high to ignore.

Other than persuasion, little can be done to prevent exposure to passive smoking in the home. However, in enclosed public places, the problem can be eradicated by banning smoking. Currently, around 11% of the population are exposed to smoke at work, and a study by Professor Konrad Jamrozik estimates that this accounts for 617 extra deaths in the UK each year. Most of these deaths will be prevented by the new health bill, but about 54 of them come in the hospitality industry, where smoking will still be permitted, provided some restrictions are met.

There are no good economic reasons for the government's timidity. Despite the bleatings of the tobacco industry, studies in other countries have shown that business in pubs and restaurants is not permanently dented by a ban.

Well, virtually all of the independently funded studies have shown this. Surprise, surprise - 94% of those studies that concluded the opposite were funded by our old friends, the tobacco companies, and the papers they funded were 20 times less likely to be peer reviewed. By contrast, unbiased studies overwhelmingly show that for every smoker deterred from using pubs or restaurants by a ban, at least one extra non-smoker is drawn into them.

This leaves the freedom argument. It is hard to oppose freedom in the abstract, but as Tony Blair has correctly argued in the context of terrorism, personal liberty is not an absolute. You are not at liberty to do whatever you like, if you are damaging others in the process. Take speeding. Those who speed further their own interests at the cost of increasing risk to others. This is precisely what smokers are doing. Yet none of the smoking "libertarians" would argue that people should be allowed to drive at 70mph down the high street because it takes their fancy.

John Reid's memories of his Scottish upbringing apparently persuaded him to oppose the smoking ban in England. So smoking will be banned in Scotland, while a Scot prevents the ban in England. Such are the charms of devolution'.

Source: Guardian, 17 November 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/bv6ub


Hospital should ban smoking completely, letter

A letter in a West Midlands Newspaper expresses dismay at the current smoking policy adopted by a local hospital:

'It beggars belief that staff at New Cross Hospital (which supposedly has a strict no smoking policy) can allow patients in flimsy nightwear and sporting the latest display of IV tubing to congregate and foul the east entrance with tobacco debris.

Evidence in the past week saw this contamination carried into the main hospital corridor.

With the medical wards fronting this area it is obvious that many of these patients are being treated for the effects of this habit and there needs to be a control of patients being allowed to leave ward areas, which they appear to do at will.

A hark back to the Victoria era saw all patients entering the portals of the former Royal Hospital handing over all tobacco products until discharge. Today of course we live in an era of human rights and political correctness. What nonsense, what cost'.

Roy Stallard, Windsor Avenue, Penn.

Source: Express and Star, 17 November 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/946oe
Related link: http://tinyurl.com/85h3o


Key US tobacco ruling not to be delivered until 2006

A federal judge in New York is not likely to rule until 2006 on whether a case that would let smokers sue the tobacco industry over the promotion of "light" cigarettes can move forward as a class action, attorneys said on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein issued a ruling earlier this week that paves the way for him to make that decision. In the case, tobacco companies are accused of conspiring to defraud consumers into thinking that light cigarettes are safer than regular smokes.

"If he had ruled the other way on this, the case would have pretty much been over," Paul Gallagher, an attorney at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, who represents the plaintiffs, said in an interview on Wednesday. "This lays the foundation, now he has overcome in his mind a huge hurdle to class certification."

Gallagher said it could be early summer before Weinstein decides whether or not to let the case go forward as a class action. If he does, smokers all over the country could seek damages if the defendants lose, as long as the smokers' claims have not already been decided in state courts.

The case is similar to several state court cases in which smokers are using consumer fraud laws to seek damages, including a closely watched Illinois case in which Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris USA unit was ordered to pay $10.1 billion in damages. That case is on appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court.

A lawyer for Altria stressed that Weinstein had not yet decided on whether the multibillion-dollar New York case could proceed as a class action.

Defendants in the case include Philip Morris USA; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which became part of Reynolds American Inc.; British American Tobacco Plc; Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco business; and Vector Group Ltd.'s Liggett Group.

Source: Reuters, 17 November 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/9sr5k


Kids hold tea dance for COPD sufferers

A School project looking at the work of Dundee City Council culminated yesterday in a tea dance for more than 70 former smokers now suffering from breathing problems.

Organised by a class of 30 primary five children at St Vincent's Primary, the dance marked World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Day, and helped push the anti-smoking message.

Class teacher Debbie Gallacher said: "Our environmental studies topic was looking at the work of Dundee City Council, one element of which was the wants and needs of different people in society, and how they are met.

"The children looked at various kinds of people with different needs and discovered the work of physiotherapists running courses for people with COPD."

That tied in with work the class had already done looking at the health issues surrounding smoking, and the idea of the tea dance was born.

COPD is a common lung disease that is usually caused by cigarette smoking and includes conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

The airways become narrowed and distorted leading to the flow of air, to and from the lungs, becoming obstructed.

Janet Winter, COPD facilitator with the Dundee Community Partnership, said: "The kids were amazed at the amount of tar produced by smoking 20 cigarettes a day for a year. What we are trying to do here is raise awareness of this disease and give support for people in Dundee who suffer from this extremely debilitating illness."

Source: This is North Scotland, 17 November 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/drm2p
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