HEADLINES

• Lincoln MP Karl McCartney under fire over tobacco firm's ticket gift
• Manchester indoor shisha smoking clampdown
• Wales: Loudspeaker alarms used to stub out hospital smoking
• Spain: Six hundred thousand smokers quit in 2011
• Senegal: Philip Morris slashes the price of its Marlboro brand
• Israel: Cigarette vending machines banned near schools

• Lincoln MP Karl McCartney under fire over tobacco firm's ticket gift

  Karl McCartney, MP for Lincoln has been criticised for accepting hospitality totalling more than £1,300 from Japan Tobacco International.

  Health charities described his acceptance of tobacco industry hospitality as "disappointing" and Stephen Williams, the Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, has called on the Government to tighten up the regulation of lobbying.

  Martin Dockrell, director of policy and research at Action on Smoking and Health, said: "The Prime Minister says corporate lobbying goes to the heart of why people are fed up with politics and he is right."

  "The Government's tobacco plan warns of the dangers of tobacco industry attempts to influence health policy. MPs don't always know when they are being lobbied by the big tobacco companies because they often hide behind a smokescreen of lobby firms and front groups."

  Source: thisislincolnshire, 05 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/AkEoQ2

• Manchester indoor shisha smoking clampdown

  Shisha cafes in Manchester have been warned about allowing customers to smoke indoors by health officials.

  Source: BBC News, 04 January 2012
  Link: http://bbc.in/xc5dMc

• Wales: Loudspeaker alarms used to stub out hospital smoking

  Warning systems have been installed outside the main entrances of three Welsh Hospitals. Smokers who light up outside the hospitals will trigger an alarm and loudspeaker message telling them to stop.
  
  Health bosses hope the measures will lead to a "cultural change" whereby people will no longer find it acceptable to smoke outside hospital.
   

  Source: BBC News, 04 January 2012
  Link: http://bbc.in/ysJM3k

• Spain: Six hundred thousand smokers quit in 2011

  According to reports around 600,000 smokers in Spain quit smoking as a result of the 2011 anti-tobacco law which made it illegal to smoke in bars and restaurants and outside of hospitals.

  The Commission for the Tobacco Market (AMT) also confirmed that over the last year tobacco sales have fallen by 17 percent.

  Source: Xinhuanet, 01 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/wVSKKB

• Senegal: Philip Morris slashes the price of its Marlboro brand

  Philip Morris International has sparked outrage among health officials and activists in Senegal by cutting  the price of its Marlboro brand by 40 percent.
  
  In a statement Philip Morris said the move was aimed at making the brand competitive with other cigarettes sold in Senegal.

  Source: Yahoo News, 23 December 2011
  Link: http://yhoo.it/zNvKTL

• Israel: Cigarette vending machines banned near schools

  Israel has banned cigarette vending machines within 1,000 meters of schools and other educational institutions.
  
  The use of tobacco vending machines will be completely banned from 1 January 2014.

  Source: The Jerusalem Post,
  Link: http://bit.ly/wQySlQ