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March, 2010:

WHO latest document on tobacco regulation

who-logoWHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation:
Report on the Scientific Basis of Tobacco Product Regulation: Third Report of a WHO Study Group

Download it here. (more…)

Tax increase an optimum tobacco control measure

guy-and-girl-smokingFirst published: March 13, 2010

Source: Thanh Nien News

The country’s population has been increasing at 1.5 percent per year and a large proportion of the population will belong to the highly smoking-susceptible age group of between 25 and 55 in the next 15 years, according to the World Health Organization’s Vietnam Country Office (WHO Vietnam).

“Nearly half of Vietnamese men smoke and the rate is even higher, at 65 percent, among men between 25-45 years old,” said Nguyen Tuan Lam, National Professional Officer of WHO Vietnam’s Tobacco Free Initiative.

Around 40,000 people in Vietnam die every year to tobacco-related diseases and the low price of cigarettes and water-pipe was among the causes of the high smoking rate among men, he said.

“The most effective measure to reduce smoking in Vietnam is increasing tobacco prices through taxation,” he said.

(more…)

Smokers could win £500 for quitting

women for smoking cessationFirst published: 16 March 2010

Source: The Shields Gazette

SOUTH Tyneside smokers are being urged to stub out the habit – and win a cash prize.

South Tyneside Council has teamed up with South Tyneside Primary Care Trust to launch the Team Stop Smoking Challenge, which encourages people to quit as a group.

The challenge also urges smokers to take advantage of the help and support available from local NHS stop smoking services, pharmacies and GPs across South Tyneside.

The competition involves teams setting days to quit smoking and going smoke-free for at least four weeks.

And the team with the highest number of successful quitters after a month will land a £500 prize.
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Smoking impairs women’s mental function–study

woman-smoking

First published: March 17, 2010

Source: The Med Guru

A novel study published in the journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that women given to long term smoking may suffer from a decline in mental functioning, but the same pattern was not evident in their male counter-parts.

On the other hand, moderate alcohol abuse in both the sexes did not exhibit any impairment in the brain power.

Kristin Caspers, a researcher at the department of psychiatry at the University of Iowa and the lead author of the study stated, “I expected smoking to show similar effects in men and women.
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Tobacco executive defends right to smoke

tobacco executive defends right to smokeFirst published: March 11, 2010

Source: Earth Times

A tobacco company executive defended adults’ right to smoke when he appeared Thursday before a New Zealand parliamentary inquiry at which Maori leaders have said smoking is killing their people. Graeme Amey, managing director of British American Tobacco (NZ) Ltd, told the inquiry in Auckland that banning tobacco, as Maori legislators have urged, would merely provoke an illicit trade in the product.

But Amey, who said he had quit the habit after smoking cigarettes for 10 years, evaded answering when asked if there was any such thing as a safe cigarette.
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Clear the Air says :Companies that kill their customers can never be Socially Responsible

impossible

The International Standards Ooganization (ISO) is set to release the 26000 standard later this year. The document is full of information and choice quotes for the picking. Below is one of them:

ISO 26000 will add value to existing initiatives for social responsibility
by providing harmonized, globally relevant guidance based
on international consensus among expert representatives
of the main stakeholder groups and so encourage the implementation
of best practice in social responsibility worldwide.

It is Clear The Air’s opinion – and the international consensus – that corporations selling products that kill its customers cannot, by definition, be socially responsible.

The ISO document is after the jump.

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Older non-smokers gain most from tobacco ban, study suggests

uncle-samFirst published: March 17, 2010

Source: The University of Edinburgh

PRESS RELEASE
Older people who have never smoked benefit most from smoking bans, a study suggests.

A study in New Zealand showed that, three years after a smoking ban on all workplaces was introduced, hospital admissions for heart attacks among men and women aged 55-74 fell by 9 per cent. This figure rose to 13 per cent for 55-74 year olds who had never smoked.

Overall, the research showed heart attacks among people aged 30 and over fell by an average of 5 per cent in the three years following the ban.

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Indonesia’s fatwa against smoking

jihadLast updated: March 17, 2010

Source: Radio Australia

Indonesia suffers some of the heaviest health impacts from smoking in Asia – and now it’s become a religious target. The country’s second-largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, has issued a fatwa or ruling, saying that smoking is prohibited under Islamic law. But other religious groups say Muhammadiyah has gone too far.

The full story and audio are after the jump.

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Japan Tobacco Seeks to Expand Production in India

harvesting-tobaccoLast updated: March 17, 2010

Source: BusinessWeek via Bloomberg

Japan Tobacco Inc., the world’s third-largest publicly traded cigarette maker by volume, wants to expand production in India as the smoking rate declines in its home market.

The company has been waiting for government approval to make additional investments in its venture in India since June 2008, Executive Deputy President Masakazu Shimizu said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday. “It’s to expand production and sales locally,” he said, declining to provide details or the planned investment amount.
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Upcoming Muhammadiyah congress smoke free

muhammadiyahFirst published: March 15, 2010

Source: Jakarta Post

Muhammadiyah is trying to live up to its commitment to making
cigarette smoking haram, starting with its upcoming congress in July.

Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization after
Nahdlatul Ulama, will deploy sharia police to enforce the ban on smoking at
the national gathering in Yogyakarta, whose main agenda is to elect new
leaders.
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