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ASH Daily News

28 October 2005

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HEADLINES

Complete ban 'a matter of time', Hewitt says

Pub industry slams 'unworkable exemptions', demands total ban

BAT claims 'bans don't affect smoking rates' as profits fall

Dr Reid's prescription for smokers: Letters

Swearing and smoking outlawed by Latvian lawmakers

FULL TEXT

Complete ban 'a matter of time', Hewitt says

A complete ban on smoking in the workplace is "only a matter of time", Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, said yesterday in spite of announcing legislation that will exempt pubs that do not serve food.

Appearing before the Commons health select committee, Ms Hewitt admitted that there had been disagreements within the cabinet about the extent of smoking restrictions and she made no secret of her sympathy for a more comprehensive ban.

The extraordinary dispute arose earlier this week when John Reid, the defence secretary, blocked moves, led by Ms Hewitt and Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, to extend the ban to all pubs and private clubs. They were given a dressing down at yesterday's cabinet meeting.

John Prescott, deputy prime minister, warned colleagues they needed to show more discipline in keeping private their differences over policy.

Labour backbenchers pressing for a full ban on smoking are planning to amend the bill and will demand a free vote in the Commons after the Conservatives said their MPs would be allowed to vote according to their consciences.

Andrew Mackinlay, the MP for Thurrock, said the bill was "potty" and he would table changes if the government did not give way. David Taylor, chairman of the all-party group on smoking on health, said MPs would meet next month to try and draw up an amendment to the bill that could enjoy cross-party support.

"As the smoke clears, we find John Reid's fingerprints all over a reversion to a bill that was in our manifesto - but the clear message we got during the general election campaign was that it would be unworkable and unenforceable,' Mr Taylor said.

There will be a consultation on how to prohibit smoking in bar areas, which will apply in all establishments.

The disagreement over the remaining one per cent - staff in pubs and members' clubs - "should not blind people to the enormous step forward", said Ms Hewitt.

Pressed on whether she had "rolled over" on the extent of the ban, Ms Hewitt said: "I think it is only a matter of time before there is a complete ban and that1 per cent of workers in non-food pubs will also be included.'

Source: Financial Times, 28 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/ajrj6
Health Bill: http://tinyurl.com/9d5mx


Pub industry slams 'unworkable exemptions', demands total ban

The English and Welsh pub industry, which has been rapidly expanding its food trade in recent years, has called the government's health bill exempting non-food pubs from a proposed smoking ban "unworkable and grossly unfair".

Karen Jones, chief executive of Spirit Group, has written to all MPs calling on them to oppose the exemption, which would create a "tilted playing field".

On exempting private members' clubs, Ms Jones said: "We cannot understand how such an exemption can be justified on public health grounds, the very reason that this bill exists. We believe that it is clearly anti-competitive and could threaten the future of many small rural and suburban community pubs."

The Portman Group, an industry-funded safe drinking organisation, said: "We strongly believe that alcohol consumed with food is much more responsible. We feel quite strongly about that."

One senior pub industry director, who declined to be named, said: "This [bill] is driven by political expediency rather than the rights of pub workers to live longer. They [ministers] are playing fast and loose with public health."

Scotland will introduce an outright smoking ban next year while Northern Ireland will have a complete ban from 2007. The Welsh Assembly hopes to be granted powers allowing it to follow suit. Just days ago, advisers to Ms Hewitt are said to have described the exemption as "unworkable". Following cabinet talks, however, she backtracked, reverting to the partial ban as set out in the Labour manifesto.

The British Beer and Pub Association said: "This is groundhog day. We are back to square one, with a proposal that is unworkable and grossly unfair on Britain's pubs. I hope further consultation will make the government think again."

The bill as it stands is likely to create a North-South divide as poorer pubs choose smoking over food, a survey carried out by the Publican magazine found.

Source: Guardian, Times, Publican, Pharmafocus, 28 October 2005
Article link: (G) http://tinyurl.com/daa5b: (T) http://tinyurl.com/9ljww: (P) http://tinyurl.com/c3whh: (PF) http://tinyurl.com/ajrj6



BAT claims 'bans don't affect smoking rates' as profits fall

British American Tobacco (BAT), the maker of Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes, said yesterday the introduction of smoking bans across a number of European countries had not caused people to kick the habit.

On the day the British Government backed off from an all-out ban on smoking in public places, and instead unveiled plans to allow smoking in pubs that do not serve food, BAT revealed it had commissioned research in to the impact of smoking bans in Ireland, Italy and Norway.

Paul Adams, the chief executive, welcomed the Government's decision, saying smokers deserved to be accommodated alongside non-smokers.

He added that he wanted the Government to pursue a strategy of segregation and ventilation, and had invited ministers to inspect the company's ventilation systems which it says reduces the effects of cigarette smoke. The Government has declined its invitation.

British American Tobacco reported a 66 per cent plunge in pre-tax profits for the third quarter as the Government prepared to ban smoking in public places.

BAT refused to be drawn on the potential impact of a partial smoking ban in the UK, where it has only 6 per cent market share.

While its market share in Japan is growing, "conditions in Canada continue to concern us," BAT said.

Mr Adams warned the company faces a lengthy legal battle in Canada over claims to recoup the health costs of treating ill smokers. British Colombia is leading the lawsuit, with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland also expressing interest in mounting legal action.

Source: Independent, Life Style Extra, Times, 28 October 2005
Article links: (I) http://tinyurl.com/dzd6v: (LSE) http://tinyurl.com/bms4g
Dr Reid's prescription for smokers: Letters

Today's Guardian carries the following letters on the subject of the smoking ban debacle:

'Why can't we wage effective wars on major public health threats (Blair insists on "unworkable" smoking ban, October 27) when the evidence is so strong? Britain can wage a war, using enormous resources but a feeble evidence base, on Iraq because of Tony Blair's belief that that country had "weapons of mass destruction" which did not exist.

Yet when it comes to waging war on the major public-health killers that claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year in the UK through products supplied by the tobacco, alcohol and food industries, what did we find yesterday? The government will apparently propose a ban on smoking in some workplaces, yet leave the most vulnerable communities and workers unprotected.

Many low-paid pub and club workers in England and Wales will not have the freedom to work in smoke-free environments. There will shortly be, however, protection from tobacco exposure for all Scottish and Northern Irish workers.

Oh yes, and those Labour party commitments and manifesto promises which must apparently be honoured to protect smoking in private clubs and pubs not serving food? In 1997 the Labour party conference promised to bring in a law on corporate killing; a commitment that was repeated in the 2001 Labour party manifesto. We are still waiting. It seems that negligent employers will be free to kill employees at work with impunity, but only in England and Wales, with tobacco smoke. So much for individual rights, Dr Reid.'

Prof Andrew Watterson
Stirling

'It is unbelievable that, following a consultation that was overwhelmingly in support of a total ban on smoking, the government has finally put forward a crass, partial bill. It will be unworkable in practice and will leave many bar workers with no protection. If Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales can have total bans, why can't we? Do the people of England not deserve better?'

Dr Anna Gilmore
Prof Martin McKee
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

'John Reid was honoured by Forest with the 1999 Scotland's Champion Smoker award and presumably he still burns an empathic candle (though no longer a fag) for other addicts. On our sink estates, many enjoy the pleasure of smoking heroin, crack cocaine and other pleasurable substances, and I'm wondering why we haven't heard more from him on maintaining their right to make pleasurable, lethal choices. How many more working-class children will now have to grieve for the 50% of their smoking parents who will be killed by their habit, how many will become the 20% who suffer respiratory diseases because their parents smoke, and how many will go on to die as hardened smokers for Dr Reid's cabinet blocking? The whole thing brings a lump to my lung.'

Phil Wolsey
Wallingford, Oxon

'Let me see if I've got this right: the MP for St Helens South, in his role as health minister for Northern Ireland, has banned all smoking in pubs in the province, but the people in his own constituency will still be exposed to other people's smoke in pubs because the MP for Airdrie and Shotts has in effect vetoed similar legislation for England, while his constituents north of the border will experience a total ban because the policy in Scotland has been devolved to the Scottish parliament. And we lecture the world on democracy.'

Colin Burke
Manchester

Source: Guardian, 28 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/84u34


Swearing and smoking outlawed by Latvian lawmakers

Latvian lawmakers endorsed a new code of ethics designed to burnish the legislature's reputation that would prohibit deputies swearing and smoking in public.

The code, supported by over three-quarters of lawmakers, also obliges them to be polite in public and advises them to shun events where their presence could undermine the prestige of parliament.

The code was developed to raise the tone of parliamentary debates from "bawling and squawking in a marketplace," according to its author, Janis Strazdins, a member of centrist Greens and Farmers Union.

Repeat violators of the code will be named and shamed in an official publication.

The code of conduct has to be approved in a final reading, expected in the coming months.

Source: Times, 28 October 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/b8rgj

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