HEADLINES

• Plain packaging campaign launch
• Investors kick the tobacco habit
• Northern Ireland: Tobacco vending machine ban from 1 March
• Royal yacht seeks BAT backing
• Norway may ban smoking during work
• Argentina: President says that quitting smoking helped her conceive

• Plain packaging campaign launch

  Campaigners are calling for glitzy and glamorous packaging on cigarettes to be replaced by packets with bigger health warnings.

  A new drive to encourage people to support proposals for tobacco to only be sold in “plain” packaging to reduce its appeal was launched in Bristol on Monday.  Professor Simon Chapman from Sydney University was among the speakers, having been involved with the successful campaign for plain packaging in Australia.

   

  Kate Knight of Smokefree SouthWest said, “We feel the tobacco industry is using packaging as a way of marketing their product.  Using hologram effects and make-up style packaging targets young women."

   

  Smokefree South West is encouraging people to share their views about tobacco packaging through a dedicated new website www.plainpacksprotect.co.uk.
   
  Source: Bristol Evening Post, 17 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/wwIuqg

• Investors kick the tobacco habit

  City Reporter Rachel Cooper reports that following gains last year, shares in British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Tobacco  have both fallen around 3 per cent in 2012.

  Analysts Cazenove still see “material upside for investors in the sector," but yesterday at least, investors were still defiantly attempting to curb their habit and BAT fell 22p to £29.68 while Imperial eased a penny to £23.60.
   
  Source: The Telegraph, 18 January 2012
  Link: http://tgr.ph/xbhpGR

• Northern Ireland: Tobacco vending machine ban from 1 March

  In a debate in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Health Minister Edwin Poots announced that as of 1 March 2012 cigarettes will no longer be sold in vending machines in Northern Ireland.

  A similar ban was implemented in England in October last year and a ban will take effect in Wales from 1 February.

  
  Mr Poots said that the ban "will remove an easily accessible source of tobacco from underage children, as well as support the thousands of smokers who try to quit each year."
  Source: BBC online, 17 January 2012
  Link: http://bbc.in/ydeY7a

• Royal yacht seeks BAT backing

  The backers of a new national flagship to be used by the royal family are to launch a public appeal for funds after they decided against seeking government money.

  The £80m project originated as a replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia is to be entirely funded by members of the public and corporate sponsors.

  
  However, the companies listed as possible funders include British American Tobacco (BAT). 
   
  Source: The Guardian, 17 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/xgFs0p

• Norway may ban smoking during work

  Employers in Norway are likely to ban smoking for employees during work hours, according to Minister of Health Anne-Grethe Strom-Erichsen during a hearing in Norway's Parliament.

  The government is also considering legislation that would ban the sale of 10-packs of cigarettes, ban students from smoking during school hours and make all entrances of public buildings smoke-free.

  Source: United Press International, 16 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/xP5KmC

• Argentina: President says that quitting smoking helped her conceive

  As she signed the smoking ban Bill into law, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner recalled that after suffering a miscarriage back in 1984 she could not get pregnant for several years, until she stopped smoking in 1988, which she believes helped her conceive her daughter Florencia.

  The new Act completely bans smoking in all public venues and in the workplace.  A previous ban, passed in 2005, allowed bars and restaurants to operate with smoking sections.
  Source: Buenos Aires Herald, 18 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/jU1vkm