Rebel landlord's battle goes to High Court

A Blackpool landlord's battle against the smoking ban is set to reach the High Court in a landmark case. Hamish Howitt has consistently flouted the ban since the new law was  introduced in July 2007 by allowing people to light up. But attempts by Blackpool Council to shut his bar down have so far failed.

In April this year, Mr Howitt successfully appealed to the magistrates court to keep his pub open after the council revoked his licence. A district judge ruled there was not sufficient reason to take away the licence for Delboy's Sports Bar on Rigby Road. But Blackpool Council is challenging the ruling in the High Court and a date for the hearing has been set for December 2.

If the district judge's decision is upheld, it could set a precedent for other bars to allow smokers in and keep their licences. Blackpool Council's head of licensing Sharon Davies said: "We are appealing the judge's decision to allow Mr Howitt to continue trading. We think that is wrong in law." The council is asking the High Court in London to determine whether the magistrates court was "correct to decide that the evidence of unlawful smoking on licensed premises was not relevant to the licensing objective of promoting the prevention of crime and disorder".

Mr Howitt said he would abide by whatever decision was made by the High Court. He said; "My argument all along is that smoking is not part of licensing because the licensing objective is to prevent crime and disorder, and how can smoking be classed as crime and disorder? It should be part of the health laws. "I'm confident it will go my way but whatever the decision, I will abide by it."

Mr Howitt has been fined the maximum £2,500 on numerous occasions for flouting the anti-smoking laws, but that has not been enough to deter him. Licensing expert Malcolm Ireland said the case would be significant for the industry, but he warned that other licensees would be foolhardy to think they could allow smoking even if the High Court upholds the decision of the district judge.

Mr Ireland, head of licensing for Napthens, said: "The licensing industry is going to be very interested in the outcome because, due to the high cost, there is not that much from the Licensing Act that has reached the High Court for clarification. That's when you will get a proper, binding precedent. However, I think other licensees would be foolhardy to think they can allow smoking and keep their licence, if the ruling is upheld, given that a lot of this is about the definition of crime."

The council revoked Mr Howitt's licence for Delboy's indefinitely following a hearing in November last year but that decision was overturned on appeal in the magistrates court in April this year. He was accused of failing two underage test purchases and failing to prove electrical work and an air conditioning unit were safely maintained. Mr Howitt, himself a non-smoker, was also accused of being in breach of three council licensing objectives. The deputy district judge Jane Goodwin overturned the decision, saying Blackpool Council's submissions in court were not sufficient to take away the licence.

Source: The Clitheroe Advertiser & Times, 23 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/42ged

Stafford man invents 'groundbreaking' device to help smokers quit

A former plumber from Stafford has been shortlisted for a Lord Stafford Award for innovation after developing a groundbreaking device to help smokers kick the habit. Tom Rowley, 61, developed the ‘Six and Out’ device in 2005 after watching friends and family fail in their efforts to quit.

The inventor uses a set of six cigarette holders, which introduce increasing amounts of air when the smoker draws on the cigarette, gradually reducing the quantities of smoke and nicotine being inhaled. Starting with just one vent, the smoker can progress through to number six over a number of weeks, enabling them to wean themselves off cigarettes. Tom – who has never smoked and was forced to retire as a plumber due to ill health – was inspired to develop the product after he watched friends and family failing to quit through methods currently available at the pharmacy. The first version of the product – based on the lid of a biro – was sketched out in his garage before he enlisted the help of Different by Design.

It wasn’t long before the potential of the device benefited from the assistance of the Centre of Healthcare Innovation and Development (CHID) at New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton, who in turn brought in the University of Wolverhampton to help with its development. Now taking on a truly West Midlands’ feel, it was the turn of the Manufacturing Advisory Service to add its expertise to the mix and, after months of planning and tweaking, Powell and Harbour in Worcester produced the first ‘Six and Out’ products. He has now been recognised for his efforts with a short listing for the prestigious Lord Stafford Award.

The awards showcase the best in West Midlands collaboration between universities and businesses, with Tom nominated for an ‘Impact through Innovation Award’ at the glittering ceremony at Worcester Cathedral on November 13. Tom said: “The smoking ban, coupled with the economic situation at the moment, has led to a sharp increase in the number of people trying to stop the habit. There are all kinds of nicotine replacement products out there, such as patches and tablets but all of them are substituting the nicotine from one source to another. Six and Out means that smokers can concentrate their efforts on gradually kicking the habit as they will slowly reduce the amount of nicotine and other harmful chemicals they are inhaling. This has proven to work on friends and family and we are now taking the product to the market where hopefully it can help others.”

Over 400 of the ‘Six and Out’ Devices have been manufactured and, following successful completion of laboratory testing, it will shortly be entering clinical trials. Lasting roughly three months, this next stepping stone is the one the Stafford-based inventor admits could well make the difference to bringing the product to market. “If they pass, and I have every confidence they will, we can start seriously looking at how we sell them to the public,” explained Tom. “There is even talk that the NHS may actually use them as a prescription treatment to act as an alternative to the nicotine replacement help. If this happens, it will be huge!”

Patron of the Awards, Lord Stafford, said: “The Impact Through Innovation award seeks to recognise those whose efforts could potentially have a profound effect on the world. Although it is still early days, the University of Wolverhampton is enthused about the potential of this innovation and the way it could help thousands of people to stop smoking. Given the damage smoking does to the economy and the UK’s health service, I think Tom deserves huge credit for developing something that could have a massive impact.”

Source: 24dash.com, 23 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/MiG6A

Studies expose tobacco industry

A pair of studies by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health has found that the ban on marketing cigarettes to children has proved ineffective at curbing tobacco advertisements in non-print media, and that tobacco companies are adding nicotine to chewing tobacco in order to make smokeless tobacco more addictive. The studies—by School of Public Health professors Howard K. Koh and Gregory N. Connolly, and researcher Hillel R. Alpert—examine the state of the American tobacco industry in the wake of the 1998 settlement that included a $200-billion payment by tobacco companies and a ban on marketing cigarettes to teens.

The first study, which was published in the journal Health Affairs, found that the 1998 agreement between four tobacco companies and 46 state attorneys general effectively impeded the industry’s targeting of youth in print advertising. The researchers measured spending on and exposure to magazine advertising for cigarettes and other tobacco products, and cigarette and smokeless tobacco preferences among youth and adults.

They found that while the settlement was effective in curtailing youth exposure to print media advertisements for cigarettes, that it was less effective when it came to reducing exposure to cigarettes through other media, or reducing exposure to other tobacco products. The researchers also expressed support for the Family Smoking Prevention Act, legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco promotion, especially advertising campaigns that are aimed at children.

The second study by the three School of Public Health professors, which was published in the journal Tobacco Control, examined whether the manipulation of nicotine content and the use of different flavorings in moist snuff was a strategy employed by tobacco companies to increase chewing tobacco use among youth. The researchers found that tobacco companies have increased the nicotine content in some brands of moist snuff and have employed different approaches to making snuff more palatable. They also found that marketing efforts have increased, and that moist snuff usage among teens has risen.

The professors said that Congress should give the FDA the power to restrict levels of nicotine and to more forcefully regulate the chemical content of snuff in order to ensure that tobacco companies are not engineering their products to increase use among young people or boost addiction in current users. In an interview Wednesday, Connolly said that tobacco remained a major public health problem in the United States and that more legislation is needed to combat its effects. “We are predicting a billion tobacco related deaths this century, unless we do something about it,” said Connolly, who said that he quit smoking after working in a hospital and seeing the effects that tobacco had on patients with lung disease. “We have to look at the tobacco product itself, which is currently exempt from every major health and safety regulation.”

Despite litigation, legislation, and public health campaigns over the past decade, tobacco use among young people has actually increased in recent years. Smoking among high school students increased to 23 percent in 2005 from 21.9 percent in 2003, and use of smokeless tobacco rose to 13.6 percent in 2005 from 11 percent in 2003, according to the article published in Health Affairs.

Source: The Harvard Crimson, 24 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/3AgbS

For anti-tobacco ads to be effective they need to either scare or disgust viewers, not both study reveals

Anti-tobacco public service announcements have been around for decades, designed to encourage people to quit smoking or to refrain from starting. Often these ads try to encourage people to avoid smoking by scaring them with the harmful effects of tobacco use. In a new study, University of Missouri researchers examined the effects of two types of content commonly used in anti-tobacco ads - tobacco health threats that evoke fear and disturbing or disgusting images. The researchers found that ads focused on either fear or disgust increased attention and memory in viewers; however, ads that included both fear and disgust decreased viewers' attention and memory. 

"When fear and disgust are combined in a single television ad, the ad might become too noxious for the viewer," said Glenn Leshner, lead author of the study and co-director of the Psychological Research on Information and Media Effects (PRIME) Lab in the Missouri School of Journalism. "We noticed several ads in our collection of anti-tobacco public service announcements that contained very disturbing images, such as cholesterol being squeezed from a human artery, a diseased lung, or a cancer-riddled tongue. Presumably, these messages are designed to scare people so that they don't smoke. It appears that this strategy may backfire."

There is limited understanding of the cognitive and emotional processes associated with the effects of advertising messages, according to Paul Bolls, co-author of the study and co-director of the PRIME Lab. Bolls said the purpose of the study was to examine key characteristics of anti-tobacco ads that influence viewers' cognitive processes engaged during message exposure, which potentially contribute to the messages' effectiveness.

"This study provides important insight into how young adults process anti-smoking messages, and it offers practical suggestions for designing effective tobacco prevention messages," Bolls said. "The way the human mind perceives and processes information in a persuasive message is the very foundation of any desired effect on targeted individuals. The PRIME lab at MU is dedicated to studying how very specific elements of health campaign messages engage attention and emotion so that messages can be produced that might actually help persuade individuals to adopt healthier attitudes and behaviors."

The researchers measured the physiological responses of 58 viewers while the viewers watched a series of 30-second anti-tobacco ads. The ads included fear messages that communicated health threats resulting from tobacco use (lung cancer, heart disease, etc.) or disgust content that focused on negative graphic images (dirty insects, blood, organs, etc.) or both fear and disgust content.

Electrodes were placed on the viewers' facial muscles to measure emotional responses. Attention, which was defined as the amount of mental effort participants expended to interpret the messages, was measured by taking participants' heart rates. To measure recognition, the participants completed a visual recognition task that consisted of watching brief video scenes (1 second) while pressing computer keys to indicate whether or not they believed the scene was from one of the ads they viewed during the experiment.

The study, "Scare 'em or Disgust 'em: the effect of graphic health promotion messages," will be published in the journal Health Communication. Erika Thomas, MU graduate and MU Discovery Fellow, also is a co-author of the study.

Source: mediLexicon, 23 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/U6ljD

US: CDC panel recommends vaccination for smokers

A federal health panel for the first time has singled out smokers for vaccination because of their high risk of infection from a pneumonia-causing bacterium. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already recommends the pneumococcal vaccine for children, adults over 65 and those with chronic illnesses and weakened immune systems. The panel's new recommendation, proposed Wednesday and expected to be formally adopted by the CDC, would expand the group to smokers ages 19 to 64.

About one-fifth of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes, according to CDC spokesman Curtis Allen. Studies consistently find that smokers account for approximately half of otherwise healthy adults with invasive pneumococcal disease, Allen said. "The risk of getting pneumococcal pneumonia among smokers is substantially greater than among nonsmokers, so it makes sense to recommend that smokers get the vaccine," said Dr. Norman H. Edelman, chief medical officer for the American Lung Assn. "But that in no way protects you from all of the terrible things that smoking will do."

The CDC committee also recommended that smokers who receive the pneumococcal vaccine be advised to stop smoking. About 50% of regular smokers will die of a smoking-related disease, usually lung cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis or cardiovascular disease, Edelman said. The vaccine protects against several strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae, a group of bacteria also known as pneumococci. They live intermittently in the noses and throats of people of all ages, usually without causing harm. But in the wrong place, they can cause middle-ear and sinus infections as well as less common but more serious infections of the lungs, central nervous system and blood.

Smoking makes it easier for the bacteria to get to the wrong place by damaging protective mucous membranes and tiny, hair-like cilia in the back of the nose and throat, said Dr. Lisa Jackson, senior investigator for the Seattle-based Group Health Center for Health Studies. Smoking also damages the ability of white blood cells to fight off infections, she said. The bacterium is the most common cause of pneumonia acquired outside hospitals. It can also infect blood and the lining of the brain, causing meningitis. Studies have shown that the vaccine is effective at preventing those infections, Jackson said.

Pneumococcal blood infections are so severe that 15% to 20% of patients die, even with treatment, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease expert at the Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. Treatment is complicated because the bacteria have become resistant to some first-line antibiotics. "We used to be able to just wave a bottle of penicillin at pneumococci and they would roll over and die," Schaffner said. "Prevention from infection becomes more important when treatment becomes more difficult."

A single dose of pneumococcal vaccine for adults protects against 23 types of Streptococcus pneumoniae. Also Wednesday, the immunization committee heard reports on the safety of the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil based on studies conducted since it came on the market in June 2006. A review of more than 375,000 doses administered over two years did not find increased risk for blood clots, seizures, Guillain-Barre syndrome or other serious medical problems, according to the CDC's Allen. The vaccine, which the CDC recommends for females between the ages of 11 and 26, protects against four types of human papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer and is spread through sexual contact.

Source: BlueCross BlueShield Association, 23 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/Y0Ubs

Praise for pubs that ditch cigarette machines

Pubs are being urged to remove cigarette vending machines from their premises in a bid to stop youngsters smoking. A government consultation considered this option as part of a review of its tobacco strategy. But pubs in Middlesbrough have been asked by the mayor to voluntarily remove the machines after trading standards tests revealed only two out of 10 pubs stopped a 13-year-old using them. Pubs that agree to take part will be given a certificate and placed on a roll of honour.

However, there has been a mixed response from licensees to the scheme. Charlie Seed, licensee of the Navigation Inn, in North Ormesby, said: “It wouldn’t bother me at all because we don’t make any money from those machines but you won’t find youngsters in here anyway because we would get huge fines.” Frances McKy of the Tavern in Middlesbrough said she welcomed the move. “It is our responsibility to make sure youngsters do not get in. That is not always easy when, like us, you have five entrances and are busy, this helps so I am in favour.”

Middlesbrough Council has teamed-up with the local Primary Care Trust to launch the drive. Mayor Ray Mallon said: “The government has recognised that there is a problem here but where children’s health is concerned we can’t afford to wait for laws to be introduced. He added: “The vast majority of local pub owners have acted responsibly and enforced the ban on smoking in public buildings. I hope that faced with the evidence we have, everyone will support this latest initiative.”

Source: The Publican, 23 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/DPRD9