HEADLINES

• Heart damage in babies twice as likely if mother is overweight smoker
• Wales: Ban on cigarette vending machines starts
• David Hockney should stick to painting
• Imperial Tobacco sees sales drag
• Quitting 40 a day habit enough to pay for first home
• Australia: Tobacco companies are the biggest political spenders
• Dutch unease over cigarette lobbying

• Heart damage in babies twice as likely if mother is overweight smoker

  The risk of heart damage in unborn babies is doubled if the mother is both overweight and a smoker, according to an article in the journal 'Heart'.  The researchers believe an imbalance of good and bad cholesterol could be to blame.

  Lead researcher Dr Maria Bakker from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, recommended that women should take action before trying for a child. "Overweight women who wish to become pregnant should be strongly encouraged to stop smoking and to lose weight."
   
  Source: Daily Mail, 31 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/zr7dy1

• Wales: Ban on cigarette vending machines starts

  A ban on cigarette vending machines has come into force in Wales to make it harder for young people to buy tobacco.

  The Welsh government imposed the ban after it emerged 10% of smokers aged 11-15 in the UK said they bought cigarettes from the machines. A similar ban began in England in October last year. Businesses found to be selling cigarettes to the public directly from a vending machine face a fine of up to £2,500. 

   

  Carole Morgan-Jones, campaign manager at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)  Wales, said the ban was the most "comprehensive measure" to tackle children's access to cigarettes. "The rationale behind it is that vending machines are easily accessible to children to purchase cigarettes and they often aren't challenged by staff where they are at the moment and this is a vital measure," she told the Good Morning Wales programme.
  Source: BBC online, 01 February 2012
  Link: http://bbc.in/Ahgvlr

• David Hockney should stick to painting

  In a letter to the Guardian, Professor Simon Chapman from the Sydney School of Public Health responds to an article last week by artist David Hockney in which he attacked Australian plans to introduce plain packaging of tobacco products.

  "Like some Russian roulette survivor convinced the game is safe and that it makes him all interesting and insightful, he apparently cannot see past his own longevity as evidence that the case against smoking is exaggerated.

  "Yes, we all die. But Richard Doll's 50-year British doctors cohort study showed half of long-term smokers die from a tobacco-caused disease, with those dying losing an average 12 years off normal life expectancy. Many who die from smoking, like those with emphysema, live wretched lives for years with their lungs shredded. They could not walk up gallery steps to share Hockney's aesthetic sensibilities."

  Source: The Guardian, 31 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/wzc4vG

• Imperial Tobacco sees sales drag

  Imperial Tobacco, the Bristol-based cigarette maker of Lambert & Butler and JPS cigarettes, reported that its sales fell1 per cent in the last quarter of 2011.

  The  group has been particularly hard hit by a  decline in the Spanish market.
   
   
  Source: London Evening Standard, 01 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/x2Oapj

• Quitting 40 a day habit enough to pay for first home

  Smoker Julie Parnell  realised that giving up smoking would enable her to buy her first home.

  "I was spending around £13 a day on cigarettes,’ says Julie, who had a 40 cigarettes a day habit, ‘When I realised that was almost £400 a month, it was the wake-up call I needed."

  
  "I’d dreamed of owning my own place but never thought I would have the means," she said, "but after giving up smoking I had so much more disposable income.  My monthly repayments are now £350 – less than I spent on cigarettes."

  
   
  Source: Daily Mail, 29 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/yKxoIm

• Australia: Tobacco companies are the biggest political spenders

  The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has released financial disclosure returns showing that large tobacco companies spent about $14 million in the past financial year as they fought against the Federal Government's plain packaging laws.

   

  British American Tobacco, Phillip Morris and Imperial Tobacco gave a total of $9 million to the Alliance of Australian Retailers, which led the campaign against the laws. Imperial Tobacco also spent more than $4 million fighting the move with printed material and broadcast advertising and Philip Morris added to that with nearly $500,000. The opposition Coalition also received donations worth $184,000 from British American Tobacco and $79,000 from Philip Morris.
  Source: ABC Melbourne, 01 February 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/yOQNJN

• Dutch unease over cigarette lobbying

  Politicians in the Netherlands are being accused of allowing the tobacco lobby to exercise undue influence over smoking policy. In recent years while most of the world has been tightening anti-smoking legislation, the Netherlands has partially reversed some of its laws - allowing people to smoke in some bars again and cutting funding for anti-smoking organisations.

  Now there are allegations that this could be due to improper links between the politicians and the tobacco industry, and experts are warning it could have a potentially deadly impact on the nation's health.

  
  The World Health Organisation's international tobacco control treaty bans any communication that might allow the tobacco industry to influence government policy. But Anne Mulder, a member of the ruling VVD party in the Dutch Parliament involved in designing the Dutch health policy, admits the health department does hold meetings with the tobacco lobby. 

    
  Source: BBC online, 01 February 2012
  Link: http://bbc.in/ybzj5g