HEADLINES

• OFT in final showdown in tobacco case
• ‘D-Day’ opportunity for independents
• Cumbria: Play park smoking ban plan
• Scotland: Smoke free initiative launched in Shotts
• USA: Most smokers want to quit; few succeed
• Tiger skin rug made from 500,000 cigarettes

• OFT in final showdown in tobacco case

  Britain’s antitrust regulator will attempt to salvage its case against retailers and tobacco companies on Friday as a challenge to the price-fixing investigation and its record £225m fine comes to a head.

  The Office of Fair Trading was told last week by the Competition Appeals Tribunal, which hears challenges to antitrust decisions, that the seven-week hearing would be adjourned to give the watchdog time to decide how to proceed after key witnesses undermined the regulator’s case.

  Having been asked to make a decision, the regulator has chosen to streamline its case, people familiar with the situation said, as it believes that anti-competitive behaviour took place, even if its original stance must be revised. It will present its arguments on Friday to the tribunal, which will then decide whether to throw the case out or not. The OFT declined to comment on the legal proceedings.

  Source: Financial Times - 10 November 2011
  Link: http://on.ft.com/tqTxtM

• ‘D-Day’ opportunity for independents

  The impending tobacco display ban represents the "greatest opportunity since the National Lottery" for retailers, according to Booker chief executive Charles Wilson.

  He believes that the three-year gap between when larger stores have to cover their gantries and when smaller stores have to follow suit will mean an additional £1bn per year in revenue for the sector.Under the terms of the ban, stores over 3,000sq ft in size will have to cover up their gantry by April 6, 2012, dubbed 'D-Day' by Booker, while stores smaller than this will be able to display their tobacco products until the ban comes into effect in April 2015.

  Booker estimates that £500m-worth of tobacco sales could move into the independent sector in 2012 with footfall in the channel increasing by two million additional customers per week.On top of this, Wilson believes that the migration of tobacco sales in the independent sector will drive an additional £500m worth of grocery sales.  

  Source: The Grocer - 09 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/s9dvOi

• Cumbria: Play park smoking ban plan

  Smoking could be banned in children’s play parks in Cumbria after the county council called on all districts to consider it.

  The health and wellbeing scrutiny committee made the call after hearing market research showed 70 per cent of people supported a ban on smoking in playgrounds.

  The research also indicated three quarters of those asked agreed children had the right not to be exposed to second-hand smoke outdoors.

  Coun Bill Wearing, chairman of the committee, has raised the issue in the past and said he was in favour of a voluntary ban.

  Source: The Whitehaven News - 10 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/tdBTMC

• Scotland: Smoke free initiative launched in Shotts

  A new initiative to prevent people smoking around babies and children has been launched in the greater Shotts area.

  “Smoke Free Homes and Cars Lanarkshire” is being led by volunteers from the town and surrounding villages and aims to raise awareness of the dangers of second-hand smoke and support people who are determined to have smoke-free homes and cars.

  Source: Wishaw Press - 09 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/sbv42c

• USA: Most smokers want to quit; few succeed

  Most smokers want to quit and a majority have tried, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. The CDC numbers show that most tobacco users know that they should stop— but still struggle to kick the habit.

  In 2010, 68.8 percent of American adult smokers said they wanted to quit and 52 percent said they have tried to within the past year, according to the CDC report. Nearly 32 percent had used counseling or medications in their efforts, and 48 percent got advice from a health care provider in the past year.
  Yet only 6 percent had recently managed to quit smoking altogether.

  “More than two-thirds of smokers want to quit smoking and more than half tried to quit last year,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement. “Smokers who try to quit can double or triple their chances by getting counseling, medicine, or both. Other measures of increasing the likelihood that smokers will quit as they want to include hard–hitting media campaigns, 100 percent smoke–free policies, and higher tobacco prices.”

  The CDC used data from more than 27,000 people interviewed as part of the National Health Interview Survey in 2010.

  Source: Yahoo! News - 09 November 2011
  Link: http://yhoo.it/v1vTcg

• Tiger skin rug made from 500,000 cigarettes

  Chinese contemporary artist Xu Bing has been working on tobacco-related art projects for the past decade, and his cigarette tiger skin rug is the third in his series of three works of art called the Tobacco Project.

  This 440-pound rug is currently on display at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

  Click on the link below to view pictures of the art work.

  Source: technabob - 09 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/sgfmiP