EU Commissioner eyes smoking ban in work places

EU Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla wants to see a smoking ban in workplaces rolled out across Europe, a spokeswoman said Monday. "We have a duty to ensure all workplaces are safe and secure for workers," Chantal Hughes told reporters in Brussels. "At this stage, we don't think this is the case, this is why the commissioner would like to see a (smoking) ban in all workplaces," she added.

Hughes said that the European Commission aimed to begin discussions about a ban with employers and trade unions and that "there is no legislative proposal at this stage." While legislation would probably not be ready until after the European Commission gets a new mandate in 2009, she said that "it is important to start the debate."

Most EU member countries already have restrictions against smoking in workplaces, although smoking in bars and restaurants is often not covered by those rules. Hughes said: "The scope of the proposal is still to be determined but clearly one of the areas we would like to see covered is bars, restaurants, pubs and so on, where workers are exposed on a daily basis to passive smoking."

Source: EUbusiness.com, 27 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/6s3O8

Speaker rules out parliamentary probe into claims Tony Blair misled MPs over 'Ecclestone affair'

Tony Blair’s answers to Parliament over New Labour’s first sleaze scandal ‘could have been clearer’, the Speaker of the House of Commons has admitted. But Michael Martin has ruled out any further investigation into claims that the former prime minister lied to MPs over how Formula 1 came to be exempt from a ban on tobacco advertising. Senior Tory John Maples, who raised the issue with Mr Martin in the Commons two weeks ago, said he was disappointed by the Speaker's response.

In a letter to Mr Maples, the Speaker said Mr Blair's answers about the timing of his decision 'could have been clearer'. But Mr Martin ruled out taking any further action, and any steps he could take would be hampered by the fact Mr Blair is no longer an MP. Mr Maples said: 'It is clear from the internal notes that a decision was made to do this, but not exactly how to do this. 'It was always rather doubtful that the Speaker was going to take on a former prime minister. There's just that scintilla of ambiguity in here that gives the Government a get-out clause.'

He said it was clear there would be no further investigation of the matter by the Speaker and the response was 'rather disappointing'. The so-called Ecclestone Affair was New Labour's first sleaze scandal, breaking shortly after Mr Blair swept into Downing Street in 1997. The Prime Minister appeared on the BBC's On The Record programme to insist that he was a 'pretty straight kind of guy' in a bid to draw a line under the controversy. And claims that Mr Blair had 'railroaded' the move past ministers were also strongly denied.

Documents released under freedom of information laws reportedly show that Mr Blair instructed his chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, to signal his support for a derogation for F1 just hours after meeting Mr Ecclestone on October 16, 1997. The Government has always maintained that the meeting did not influence the final decision - even though Mr Ecclestone was a major party donor at the time. Mr Blair told the Commons that the decision to exempt Formula One had been made on November 5.

It was Mr Maples' parliamentary question in 1997 which prompted the briefing notes which were eventually released to the Sunday Telegraph earlier this month. He tabled a question in Parliament asking on what date Mr Blair had informed health secretary Frank Dobson of the decision to push for an exemption. A reply was drafted which gave the date as October 29, but a briefing note warned: 'The draft reply is strictly true in terms of the final decision which resulted in the letter to EU colleagues and is consistent with the Prime Minister's references on On The Record to the decision having been taken two or three weeks after the meeting (with) the FIA on 16 October.

'However, if the correspondence were in the public domain, critics could argue that the answer was disingenuous in that the Prime Minister's views had been clearly conveyed by the telephone call on 16 October and the letter on 17 October.' Before the question had been answered, Mr Blair told the Commons, on November 12, that the decision to exempt Formula One had been made on November 5. When the answer to Mr Maples' question was finally given, it referred him to Mr Blair's statement.

Mr Maples today said he would now take the matter to the Commons Procedure Committee in an effort to ensure ministers face tougher sanctions for failing to answer Parliamentary questions properly. Mr Blair's office has insisted that the released documents 'are entirely consistent with Tony Blair's answers at the time'.

Source: The Daily Mail, 27 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/WDoD1

Smoking Behavior - Influenced by what others think

A growing amount of research is finding that smoke-free air laws help smokers quit or reduce the amount that they smoke. Rather than changing smokers' own attitudes about smoking, the influence of the policies, particularly the strong ones, might lie more in changing smokers' perceptions of other people's attitudes about smoking -- changing the perceived social norms, according to an Indiana University study involving smoke-free air laws in four Texas communities.

"Everyone knows it's unhealthy to smoke," said Jon Macy, the study's lead researcher. "Our study suggests that the success of strong smoke-free air policies may be more about changing the social acceptability of smoking."

The IU study used a telephone survey of 407 adults to compare perceived norms about smoking between adults living in two cities with strong smoke-free air laws and adults living in two cities with weak smoke-free air laws. Those who lived in cities with a strong smoke-free air law perceived a lower prevalence of smoking in their city, were less likely to report that other people in their city believed smoking was acceptable, and were more likely to report that people in their city believed that smokers should take measures to not smoke. Macy said that while researchers are aware that smoke-free air policies, which are designed primarily to protect the public from the harm of secondhand tobacco smoke, also influence smoking behavior, the mechanism or cause has not been nailed down.

This study offers one possible explanation. Macy said insights provided by this study could help with public communication messages that accompany smoke-free air policies. The messages, for example, could tap into the impact societal norms have on smoking behavior.

Rachel Gross, with the Center for Applied Behavioral and Evaluation Research at the Academy for Educational Development, will discuss the findings on Monday, Oct. 27, at 4:30 p.m. The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute. Co-authors include Macy, Gross, Susan E. Middestadt, Department of Applied Health Science in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation; Nathan Stupiansky, Department of Applied Health Science in IU's School of HPER; and Jesse Gelwicks, Center for Applied Behavioral and Evaluation Research at the Academy for Educational Development.

Source: mediLexicon, 27 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/fdrky

Eurostar smoker sparks further delays

Just a month after the smoke cleared on the fire in the Channel Tunnel, services were once again thrown into disarray last Friday as a fire broke out on a Eurostar service from London’s St Pancras to the Gare du Nord in Paris. This time around, the fire was caused by a discarded cigarette butt in a lavatory, as an unidentified passenger sought to defy the smoking ban on Eurostar trains.

Reports say the passenger’s cigarette caused a small fire, filling the cubicle with smoke as the train passed the French border. Eurostar crews dealt with the fire onboard, but 700 passengers faced a four-hour delay as French officials directed the train onto emergency sidings in order to check it was safe to proceed. The delays forced Eurostar to compensate passengers with a return journey, taxis and hotel rooms in Paris. Eurostar told AFP that they were in the process of trying to identify the passenger with a view to taking legal action.

Source: FSE, 27 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/HQ4oo