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ASH Daily News

30 December 2002

HEADLINES

Name dispute for Roy Castle cancer charity
Public misled over fire-safe cigarettes
Why I am still dying for a cigarette
Joe Strummer et al, smoking, and dying early


FULL TEXT


Name dispute for Roy Castle cancer charity

The cancer charity named after the trumpeter and television presenter Roy
Castle has been asked by his widow to stop using his name following
accusations that it treated its workers like slaves.

Since Castle’s death in 1994 from lung cancer, The Roy Castle Lung Cancer
Foundation has raised millions of pounds to fight the disease and campaign
against smoking. But now Mrs Castle, wants to sever all links with the
charity. “I’ve had enough,” she said. “Staff working in the fund’s charity
shops around the country telephoned me, saying they were unhappy at what was
happening. They told me they were treated like slaves, that there was no
compensation in place if they were injured at work, and that electricity
bills and other fuel bills went unpaid.

Mike Unger, chief executive of the charity said her request would be
examined by trustees in the new year. “I guess she just can’t just do that
from a legal point of view, but that’s not to say that we won’t agree to her
request,” he said.

The foundation was set up in 1990 as the Lung Cancer Fund, but changed its
name after Castle became involved.

Source: The Independent, The Mirror, The Sun, Daily Mail, 28 December 2002


Public misled over fire-safe cigarettes

The tobacco industry misled the public and legislators over cigarettes
designed to pose less of a fire hazard, internal industry documents reveal.
Manufacturers stated publicly that the cigarettes would not sell, even
though their own research showed smokers could not tell them apart from
regular cigarettes.

In all countries where data is available, cigarettes are the leading cause
of fire deaths. In the US alone, a thousand people are killed each year in
smoking-related fires, and a third of them are not the smoker responsible.
At the beginning of January 2003, New York state will achieve a world first
by introducing fire safety regulations for cigarettes to combat the problem.

Full article:
<http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993192>
Source: New Scientist, 21 December 2002



Why I am still dying for a cigarette

Yesterday’s edition of the Observer carries a lengthy personal article by
leading psychologist Oliver James offering some insight into the intricacies
of the nicotine addiction. Oliver James has had a love hate relationship
with the weed for most of his life. No he says smoking is a symptom - treat
the cause.

Full article:
<http://www.observer.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,866130,00.html>
Source: The Observer, 29 December 2002



Joe Strummer et al, smoking, and dying early

Last week saw the untimely death of Joe Strummer, founding member of
influential punk band The Clash. Following newspaper reportage of his
demise, Clive Bates, director of ASH writes to the Guardian, highlighting
the contribution smoking might have made to his premature death. The letter
follows:

++++++++++

This week it's Joe Strummer of the Clash. Cause of death? A heart attack
described as if it was a random act of God. Not one obituary identified
smoking as the likely cause of his untimely death, yet male smokers aged 50
are about four times as likely to die from a heart attack as non-smokers. A
few weeks ago, it was the post-mortem of John Entwistle of the Who. The
coroner decided that 20-a-day Entwistle was killed by a "moderate usage of
cocaine superimposed upon ischaemic heart disease caused by naturally
occurring atherosclerosis". In fact, the heart disease was far more likely
caused by smoking than anything else. I guess the gradual silting of the
arteries due to decades of everyday, banal cigarette smoking isn't quite
such a compelling rock'n'roll exit.

As the Clash might have sung about rock-star obituaries: "You know what they
said, well, some of it was true."

Clive Bates
Director, Action on Smoking and Health

++++++++++


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Naj Dehlavi
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
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