HEADLINES

• Death of Malcolm Young, co-founder of ASH
• Bangor: Ciggie challenge goes up in smoke
• Full US smoking ban would curb heart attacks: study
• Florida: Jury awards $30M to widow in tobacco verdict
• Canada can appeal tobacco liability rulings: court
• Bulgaria waters down public smoking ban

• Death of Malcolm Young, co-founder of ASH

  Malcolm Young, who has died aged 91, endured four years as a prisoner of war, one of which he spent wearing handcuffs.

  [...]

  Malcolm Rhondda Young was born at Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on June 27 1918. His father ran a fleet of shrimp boats along the east coast of England. The youngest of eleven children, Malcolm learned music and was taught to sail, trawl for shrimp, whitebait, sprats and, above all, to respect the sea.

  He was educated at King's School, Rochester, and flew there in a four-seater plane from Southend across the estuary for 12s 6d. He captained the rugby XV and was a fine athlete. At Jesus College, Cambridge, he read Economics and Law.

  After being demobilised, he joined Young's Seafoods, the family firm which had originated in Greenwich about 1805. He lived near Annan and, trawling in a small boat in the sometimes freezing waters of the Solway Firth, restarted the business of Young's Potted Shrimps.
  He was a director of the Young Group from 1946 to 1964. With his brother, Douglas, he was co-managing director from 1959 to 1964 and he was chairman and managing director of Ross Foods from 1964 to 1971.

  In 1970, Young moved to Wiltshire and farmed there for the next 40 years but during that period he was active in many other spheres. He co-founded, with Charles Fletcher, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

  After one board meeting at the Royal College of Physicians he offered to show the Duke of Gloucester, at that time the patron of ASH, around the building. Being ignorant of the new gender symbols on the doors, they both ended up in the ladies' lavatory.

  He was chairman of the International Map Collectors Society and a member of the Brotherhood of Greek Veterans. For many years he kept a 25-foot yacht in Chichester harbour.

  Malcolm Young died on March 17. He married, in 1946, Diana Shirley, who survives him with their two sons.

  Source: The Telegraph - 20 May 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/aqXgLl

• Bangor: Ciggie challenge goes up in smoke

  Anti-smoking campaigner Chris Carter has failed in his latest legal challenge against the stub-it-out legislation which put an end to lighting up in public buildings over three years ago.

  But he has vowed not to give up his fight and now says he intends to drag his case out still further - all the way to Europe if he can.

  The Bangor man was in the High Court in Belfast last Thursday (13th) for the latest proceedings in the judicial review he was seeking of the law which has generally forced people to smoke outside.

  However, a judge dismissed the one-time Bangor town centre CCTV operator’s challenge, which is backed by the Smokers’ Rights Appeal Fund, and will deliver his full written judgment on June 7.

  Mr Carter launched his challenge after he was ordered to pay £1,250 in fines and costs for lighting up in the Bangor Castle HQ of North Down Borough Council in 2007.

  He was making an application for leave to seek a judicial review of the anti smoking legislation on the basis that the information which led to the introduction of the ban was incorrect.

  He was further seeking relief to quash his conviction on the basis that he was denied a fair hearing in his County Court Appeal against his conviction by the District Judge in Bangor.

  Source: Anti-smoking campaigner Chris Carter has failed in his latest legal challenge against the stub-it-out legislation which put an end to lighting up in public buildings over three years ago. But he has vowed not to give up his fight and now says he intends
  Link: http://bit.ly/bHc8uo

• Full US smoking ban would curb heart attacks: study

  A ban on smoking in all public places in the United States would prevent 18,000 hospital admissions for heart attacks every year, said a study released Thursday.

  In the first year alone such a ban would prevent 18,596 hospital admissions and save 92 million dollars in health care costs, said the study by the Henry Ford Hospital.

  Presented to an American Heart Association conference in Washington, the study said these benefits would occur if the smoking ban that exists in many states were extended to 13 states without such a law.

  "Even if you avoid one heart attack, it is something significant," said Mouaz Al-Mallah, lead author of the study.

  "When people smoke, they are not only harming themselves, they're harming those around them who are exposed to second-hand smoke."

  Previous research has shown that smoking bans can cut heart attack rates by 11 percent, the study authors said. By applying this to the 13 states without smoking bans, they came up with the figure of 18,596 fewer heart attack admissions.

  "Second-hand smokers are less exposed and the smokers smoke less because it's more difficult," added Al-Mallah.

  Source: Yahoo!/AFP - 21 May 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/csGPcD

• Florida: Jury awards $30M to widow in tobacco verdict

  A Florida woman who wanted tobacco companies to bear some of the responsibility for her husband's death from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was awarded nearly $30-million dollars on Thursday. 

  R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. must pay $29.1 million to Connie Buonomo, the widow of Matthew Buonomo who started smoking at age 13 and died in 2008.

  The unanimous verdict by a six-person Broward Circuit Court jury on Thursday includes $5 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages for intentionally manufacturing cigarettes to be maximally addictive, and for fraudulently minimizing the risks of smoking for decades.

  The trial lasted for three-weeks and the jury deliberated for five hours. The jurors found R.J. Reynolds 77.5 percent responsible for Matthew Buonomo's illness and death at age 80. They said Buonomo was 22.5 percent responsible.

  The verdict is the latest loss for a cigarette company in Florida, where jurors have delivered more than $230 million in verdicts for smokers and their families since February 2009. The plaintiffs in the cases sued after the Florida Supreme Court decertified a state-wide smokers' class action in 2006.

  Source: CBS4 - 20 May 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9LuBqk

• Canada can appeal tobacco liability rulings: court

  Canada's federal government can appeal court rulings that named it as a defendant in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit launched against tobacco firms, the Supreme Court announced on Thursday.

  The top court did not give any reasons for its decision.

  The province of British Columbia is seeking billions of dollars in health care costs from the tobacco industry in a case that is due to go to trial in September 2011.

  The province's appeal court ruled last December that the federal government should be a third-party defendant, meaning it may have to share in any liability awarded by the province's courts.

  The firms targeted are: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, Japan Tobacco's JTI-Macdonald unit, Rothmans Benson & Hedges Inc., which is partly owned by Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd, a unit of British American Tobacco.

  The tobacco industry argued that government should share in any responsibility for damages because they were partners in the sale of tobacco by keeping it legal and collecting tax revenue from it.

  "We believe it is important that the government be held accountable for its involvement in the tobacco industry," said Eric Gagnon, a spokesman for Imperial Tobacco.

  "They have known about the risk associated with tobacco for more than 50 years."

  Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer Society welcomed the Supreme Court's ruling and said Ottawa should not serve as the insurance company for the tobacco firms.

  "The tobacco industry should be held fully liable for the wrongs it has done," he told Reuters. "The history of the tobacco industry is that they have always tried to blame someone else."

  Several of Canada's provinces have sued the industry for billions in damages, but the British Columbia case -- based on legal action by U.S. states -- was filed first and Canadian courts are using it as the lead case.

  The federal government was also named as a third-party defendant in a separate action by British Columbia smokers against Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. The claimants allege they were misled into believing cigarettes labeled mild or light were safer to smoke.

  (The case is Attorney General of Canada v. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of British Columbia et al, case no 33563)

  Source: Reuters - 20 May 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/aiCdyV

• Bulgaria waters down public smoking ban

  Bulgarian lawmakers voted on Thursday to loosen a smoking ban which would have forbidden smoking in all public spaces from June this year.

  The centre-right GERB party, which won general elections last July, has said a relaxation of the ban will avoid hurting the tourist industry during tough economic times.

  Under the changes, restaurants and cafes smaller than 50 square metres (540 sq ft) in area may decide whether to allow smoking, while larger establishments will be required to designate separate non-smoking halls.

  Smoking will be completely forbidden in public transport, hospitals, schools, universities, cinemas and theatres.

  Last year, the Croatian government was forced to ease a smoking ban after only four months because cafe owners complained it was crippling business.

  Bulgaria has the second highest percentage of smokers in the European Union after Greece. Almost every third person between 10 and 19 years of age is a regular smoker, data from the health ministry show.

  Tourism accounts for 8 percent of GDP in the Balkan country of 7.6 million people, the EU's poorest state.

  Source: Reuters - 20 May 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bL8WqZ