HEADLINES

• Let's support the Bill to stamp out smoking in cars
• Olympic fans to stub it out
• Scotland: Youth group honoured for its anti-smoking advice
• Taking up sport helped me to quit smoking
• New Zealand to follow Australian plain packs ban
• USA: Baseball contract limits tobacco use

• Let's support the Bill to stamp out smoking in cars

  Alex Cunningham MP explains why he is calling for a ban on smoking in cars with children.

  When the ban on smoking in public places was introduced in 2007, in many quarters there was a general feeling of scepticism amongst the British public. However, four years later and the ban is seen by the public and businesses alike as an undisputed success.

  This Private Members Bill which calls for a ban on smoking in cars where there are children present aims to have the same transformational effect. Research from the British Lung Foundation has found that around half of all children have experienced smoke in a car and nearly all wanted it banned.

   

  Some 300,000 children have to see their GP every year with smoking related problems, anything from chronic asthma to sudden infant death syndrome. In the longer term, children exposed to high levels of smoke are more likely to suffer life-threatening illnesses such as emphysema and lung cancer.

   

  Quite simply, this is a serious public health issue. We have a duty to protect children from such harm, and the most effective way we can do that is through a ban on smoking in cars.

  
  There is strong support for this bill from a number of health charities, but it is now parliament that needs to take the lead. I hope the Government will accept the recommendation from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, and launch a consultation on policy options and help us build consensus support for an all out ban.
  Source: Politics.com, 23 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/twRZeM

• Olympic fans to stub it out

  Olympics chiefs are sparking controversy by banning smoking in outdoor areas. Fans in non-covered areas watching events including rowing at Dorney Lake, Bucks, sailing off the Dorset coast and beach volleyball at Horse Guards Parade will be hit by the ban.

  The ban will cover spectators standing up as well as those in seats and is expected to cover the entire 102-hectare London Olympic Park.

  An Olympics spokesman said last night that smoking would not be allowed in any ticketed areas. He added: “Whether we will have any designated smoking areas is still under discussion.”

   

  A spokesman for ASH, which campaigns to “eliminate harm caused by tobacco”, said the ban made “perfect sense”.
   
  Source: Daily Star, 22 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/tT4PBg

• Scotland: Youth group honoured for its anti-smoking advice

  Youngsters who run a group to educate their peers about the dangers of smoking have scooped an award which will help take them to the other side of the world.

  W-WEST– which stands for Why Waste Everything Smoking Tobacco? was set up by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as the first of its kind in Scotland, and is run by six young members. The group's aim is to get the message out to the youth about the dangers of smoking.

   

  The group has been handed the Crofton Award by the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) in partnership with anti-smoking charity ASH Scotland. It aims to recognise the contribution made by young people towards reducing the harm caused by smoking.

   

  W-WEST Group member Michael Caine, 19, from Cessnock, said:  “The aim is to get information out there to the youth about the dangers of smoking. It’s pro-choice – we’re not going to grab you by the throat and say stop smoking.”

   

  Now, with the help of the £1000 prize money, W-WEST are taking their work to South America. They’ll head to Uruguay as part of a partnership with Durham University, to develop a Scottish version of an exhibition called Uruguay Breathes, which compares the life paths of a smoker and a non-smoker. They hope to display their version at Glasgow Science Centre and will work with groups in Uruguay to help them set up their own youth advocacy groups on smoking.
   
  Source: Evening Times, 22 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/uBLkrH

• Taking up sport helped me to quit smoking

  Zoe Griffin explains how taking up rugby helped her to quit smoking.

  I started off as a social smoker ten years ago, aged 18; my job as a showbiz reporter involves going to parties and there’s nothing better for getting gossip than going outside with a celebrity and sharing a cigarette, but before I knew it I was getting through six packets a week.

  I’d tried quitting – nicotine patches, gum, counselling and hypnotism – but everything failed. Could rugby be the push I needed to clean up my act? The theory is that sport is a ‘displacement activity’, taking your mind off that desire for a cigarette. And intense exercise releases chemicals in the body similar to those from nicotine, satisfying cravings. With this in mind I decided to go to a training evening with Hampstead Ladies rugby team.

  Gradually, I started to get fitter. Mostly I noticed it in training, but things such as running for the bus stopped leaving me out of breath.  I also found I was waking up earlier, had more energy, and friends said how well I looked (which could be to do with the fact that I quickly dropped a dress size).   
   

  After a year of non-smoking a person’s risk of heart disease and smoking-related illnesses halves. And an 80-minute game no longer leaves me about to faint with exhaustion. One Australian study found 80 per cent of prospective quitters who exercised were not smoking after three months, compared with 50 per cent who tried to give up and didn’t exercise.

   

  I’d say I scored all round.
  Source: Daily Mail, 22 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/uaQxVh

• New Zealand to follow Australian plain packs ban

  New Zealand will introduce plain packaging laws for tobacco products in the next government after this weekend's election, following Australia's lead.

  On Monday, Australia became the first country in the world to introduce plain packaging of tobacco.  Under the new law, cigarette packets must print their brand and product names in a uniform colour, position, font size and style on standard green packages with graphic health warnings.

  "It is a fantastic achievement which means that from December next year cigarettes will have to be sold in generic dark green packets with tobacco industry logos, brand imagery, colours and promotional text banned from each packet," said Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia. Turia said she was looking forward to New Zealand following the lead of Australia and introducing plain packaging laws in the next government, which will be formed after the general election on Saturday.
  Source: Investors.com, 21 November 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/tNFDGv

• USA: Baseball contract limits tobacco use

  Baseball's new labour deal will limit the use of smokeless tobacco by players, but not ban it during games.

  Players have agreed not to carry tobacco packages and tins in their back pockets or use tobacco during pregame or postgame interviews, and at team functions. But this falls short of the call by some advocates, including members of Congress, who argued that a ban on chewing tobacco and dip during games was needed to protect impressionable kids watching on TV.

   

  Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, one of the groups that led the anti-tobacco push, said that while he would have preferred a ban at games and on camera, the restrictions represent real progress.

   

  "The new Major League Baseball contract takes an historic first step toward getting smokeless tobacco out of the ballgame, and makes significant progress toward protecting the health of big-league players and millions of young fans who look up to them," he said.
  Source: Wall Street Journal, 22 November 2011
  Link: http://on.wsj.com/svvUyf