HEADLINES

• No Smoking Day and British Heart Foundation to merge
• Scottish health survey shows dramatic fall in second hand smoke exposure at home
• Canada: Shocking health warnings given green light
• Coronation Street star backs smokefree campaign
• USA: Will major league baseball ban tobacco?
• James Morrison to quit smoking

• No Smoking Day and British Heart Foundation to merge

  The charity No Smoking Day (NSD) has announced that it is to merge with the British Heart Foundation (BHF) after suffering a 50% cut in funding.

  NSD, which has helped thousands of organisations across the UK host their own quit-smoking events on a single day for 28 years, approached BHF after hearing that it will lose all of the £250,000 funding it gets from the Department of Health.

  Amit Aggarwal, NSD's chief executive, says the move will give it a stable, long-term future, while the BHF says the merger will strengthen its own lobbying work and extend the reach of the NSD campaign, helping more people quit smoking.
  Source: The Guardian, 28 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/n84MwJ

• Scottish health survey shows dramatic fall in second hand smoke exposure at home

  The results of the latest Scottish Health Survey show that non-smokers' exposure to second-hand smoke in the home has fallen from 18% in 1998 for both sexes to 9% for men and 8% for women in 2010.

  The figures also revealed that children living in a household in which at least one person smoked indoors regularly were almost twice as likely to have doctor-diagnosed asthma as children living in households where no-one smoked indoors.
   
  Source: Deadline news, 27 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/mRJUUV

• Canada: Shocking health warnings given green light

  A tobacco shock campaign featuring graphic images of real-life smoking casualties has been approved by the Canadian government.  Cigarette manufacturers will also have to use large warning labels that cover three-quarters of each cigarette package.

  
  Images include Barb Tarbox, who died nine years ago at the age of 42 from lung cancer, whose image will soon cover cigarette boxes across the country.

   

  Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq, said, “The idea here today is to make the images larger with new photographs and to also put a connection to the image to the people that were impacted."
  Source: Third Age, 27 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/nVolMx

• Coronation Street star backs smokefree campaign

   
  Coronation Street star Kate Ford, who plays Coronation Street's Tracy Barlow, has given her backing to a regional smokefree campaign.

   

  Kate Ford's character Tracy Barlow told her mum Deirdre to 'Take Seven Steps Out' on an episode of the much-loved soap last week.

   

  The Seven Steps campaign, launched by Fresh and Smokefree North West last year saw a nine per cent hike in the number of North East smokers who keep their homes smoke free.

   

  Ailsa Rutter, Fresh director, said: “Just like all the mums and dads who have gone outside to smoke as a result of more awareness about the harm of smoke, Deidre Barlow and the makers of Coronation Street deserve a big well-done."

  
  The Take 7 Steps Out campaign is part of the wider Smokefree Families programme that has so far trained more than 600 front-line health, council and children’s centre staff across the region to give advice to parents on the best ways to protect children from secondhand smoke. Full details at www.fresh.take7stepsout.co.uk
  Source: Sunderland Echo, 27 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/qcJHU0

• USA: Will major league baseball ban tobacco?

  Major League Baseball is deciding whether to ban one of baseball's grittiest traditions and prohibit smokeless tobacco use in the major league. Smokeless tobacco is already banned in the minor leagues.

  However, many players, whose union would have to agree to such a change, are likely to resist the move. Players say once they begin the habit, it's hard to kick.

  Despite greater awareness of its risks, younger players are providing more evidence that addiction occurs long before they reach the major leagues.

   

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  Source: USA Today, 27 September 2011
  Link: http://usat.ly/qy84YM

• James Morrison to quit smoking

   Singer James Morrison has undergone hypnotherapy sessions in a bid to quit smoking.

   

  Morrison admits he is prone to addiction and he is desperate to give up his cigarette habit before it wrecks his singing voice.

  
  He tells Hello! magazine, "My vice is smoking. I am a heavy smoker and I know I need to stop. I've tried hypnotherapy, everything. I think I'll have to tie my hands together and see how that goes."
  Source: Daily Express, 27 September 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/qFTOZo