HEADLINES

• Ban smoking in cars says BMA
• Wales: Smoker vows to risk jail rather than pay litter fine
• Goldman Sachs downgrades Imperial Tobacco Shares
• Pakistan: Smoking and pollution responsible for rise in lung conditions
• Two jailed over cigarette row killing

• Ban smoking in cars says BMA

  The British Medical Association has called for smoking in cars to be banned across the UK to protect people from secondhand smoke. 

   

  The BMA report highlighted research showing the high levels of toxins caused by smoking in a car. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health also published a report today on smoking in private vehicles, which calls on the government to launch a public consultation on policy options including legislation to reduce the harm of smoking in private vehicles to adults as well as children.

  
  Although smoking is already prohibited in all commercial and work vehicles no part of the UK has yet implemented legislation to prohibit smoking in private vehicles, although the Northern Ireland health minister has announced a consultation on the issue.  Countries elsewhere in the world have introduced bans on smoking in cars where children are present including states in Canada, the US and Australia, as well as the whole of South Africa.

  
  A spokesman for the Department of Health said that a marketing campaign would be launched in the spring which would focus on the dangers of smoking in the home and car.

   

  The APPG on Smoking and Health report is available from: www.ash.org.uk/appg

   

  See also:

   

  Daily Mail: http://bit.ly/ui40Qd

   

  Daily Telegraph: http://tgr.ph/tSl5pP

   

  The Guardian: http://bit.ly/vy8IUD

   

  The Independent: http://ind.pn/rFxNm9

   

  Daily Mirror: http://bit.ly/su5KIg
  Source: BBC online, 16 November 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/tMydCy

• Wales: Smoker vows to risk jail rather than pay litter fine

  A woman is willing to go to prison rather than pay a fine for dropping a cigarette. Tracey John, 48, from Pontypridd, was fined £350 by local magistrates plus £100 costs after refusing to pay a £75 on the spot penalty.

  She was spotted smoking on the doorstep of her home in Maesycoed by a passing litter enforcement officer. After she refused to pay the fine, the case was sent to Pontypridd magistrates where she was convicted in her absence. 

  Responding to the verdict, Ms John said she had no intention of paying the fine, insisting she had been harshly treated.  She said: "I'll go to jail if I have to - there is no way I'm paying the fine for dropping a fag end outside my own front door."

  A Rhondda Cynon Taf council spokesman said litter would not be tolerated but issuing a fine was a "last resort".

  
  
   
  Source: BBC online, 15 November 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/uSoLNW

• Goldman Sachs downgrades Imperial Tobacco Shares

  Goldman Sachs has downgraded Imperial Tobacco from neutral to sell, with the target price cut from 2190p to 2170p.

  The shares were previously downgraded from buy to neutral on 7 September this year.

  Source: Stockmarketwire.com, 16 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/ryQfo2

• Pakistan: Smoking and pollution responsible for rise in lung conditions

  Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) poses a major health hazard but unfortunately remains largely under-diagnosed and under-treated in Pakistan, said experts at a seminar held to commemorate World COPD Day at Aga Khan University (AKU).

  Passive smoking and habitual shisha smoking can result in an exponential increase in the number of people suffering from the condition, according to Professor Javaid Khan, the chief of pulmonology at AKU. He called for clean air laws in the country, similar to the one banning shisha in restaurants, which was passed earlier this year by the Sindh Assembly.

  
  Bushra Masood, a smoking-cessation expert from the UK, said that quitting smoking is the best way to prevent the disease.
  Source: Express Herald Tribune, 16 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/srv2Rj

• Two jailed over cigarette row killing

  Two people have been jailed over the killing of a housemate in north London.

  Paul Duffy, 40, of Craven Park Road, Stoke Newington, was struck around the head with a hammer by his pregnant girlfriend, Nadia Boukhari and stabbed in the chest by John Green, 48, following a drunken row about a cigarette in a friend's living room in January.

   

  The Old Bailey heard that Mr Duffy attacked Boukhari after she refused to give him a cigarette.

   

  Boukhari, 43, received seven years for manslaughter while Green will serve at least 14 years for murder.
  Source: BBC online, 14 November 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/v8W0Iq