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LETTER: Rodeos likely to end tobacco sponsorships  

There is great news for families that enjoy the sport of Rodeo. We are one step closer to tobacco-free rodeo events.

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) announced last week that U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company (and their new parent company ALTRIA - AKA Philip Morris) will be ending their sponsorship agreement with the PRCA at the end of this year.

Hopefully this signals the start of a tobacco-free era for professional rodeo. Rodeo has been around since the 1800's. Tobacco sponsorship of rodeo began in 1986.

A number of organizations including, Buck Tobacco, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Oklahoma Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT), Montana REACT, and many others have been instrumental in sending out the message - Rodeos Are For Families - Not Big Tobacco.

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• No smoking rule enforced 

The third Asian Indoor Games (AIG), to be held in Viet Nam next Thursday, will be a non-smoking Games.

The events' organising board and World Health Organisation (WHO)'s Viet Nam branch office signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the capital yesterday to make this AIG the third one to be non-smoking.

Organisers and the WHO have agreed that cigarette smoking and sports do not belong together; tobacco in any form is not allowed at the events.

No smoking at the event is in alignment with government regulations banning of smoking in public places. Tobacco advertisements and tobacco company sponsors are also not allowed at the events.

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• Tobacco sponsorship of tennis tournament goes ahead because of weak Swiss legislation, says campaigning group  

A Swiss antismoking campaign group is concerned that weak legislation in the country is being exploited by Imperial Tobacco to sponsor a tennis tournament and promote its brand of cigarettes and other products. The company is the fourth largest tobacco company in the world.

Switzerland is a sanctuary for the tobacco industry, said Pascal Diethelm, director of the antismoking group OxyRomandie, ahead of the Davidoff Swiss indoor tournament, which starts on 31 October as part of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour 500. The tournament, which is one of the last tobacco sponsored tennis events in the world, is being used by the company to intensively advertise its Davidoff brand, on court hoardings and the uniforms of line judges and ball girls and boys, said Mr Diethelm.

The last time the tournament was held in Basel in 2008, the "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff," he said.

He added, "At the end of the match the young ball boys and ball girls received a medal from Roger Federer in recognition of having served the cause of Davidoff so well. Each medal bore the Davidoff logo in order to make sure that these potential future smokers will know which cigarette brand to choose when they start smoking."

OxyRomandie is appealing to the federal tribunal, Switzerland’s supreme court, against a ruling from the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television that Swiss television is allowed to show the tournament even though Swiss law bans tobacco advertising on television.

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The Good Life—that is the art of living. A culture of its own that revolves around taking time, perceiving the world with all the senses in order to experience the fine nuances of pleasure.
Davidoff's "The Good Life" campaign. The Davidoff Swiss indoor tennis tournament is under fire.

• New Survey Finds One in Three Sports Fans Smoke, Five Out of Six Smoke While 

A new survey conducted by the American Legacy Foundation(R) (Legacy) finds that the majority (63 percent) of sports fans surveyed are current or former smokers and 76 percent of them have smoked while watching or attending sporting events. The study examines whether sports fans were exposed to secondhand smoke while watching sports; smoked while watching sports at certain venues; or whether those who quit smoking relapsed while watching a game. The survey also examined whether watching sports was a trigger for fans who smoke.

The survey also indicated that 60 percent of sports fans have been exposed to secondhand smoke in the past year while watching or attending sporting events and that 36 percent of sports fans who smoke or used to smoke are extremely or very tempted to smoke while viewing sporting events in their own homes. When the score of the game is close, nearly one third are extremely or very tempted to light up.

Starting this week and through the winter, many smokers will be exposed to new quit smoking messages through the EX(R) national smoking cessation campaign. Legacy, along with the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation (NATC), announced today that the next round of new ads in its two-year old EX campaign are now being featured during FOX Sports' broadcast of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series (ALCS) and World Series.

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姚明受聘出任控烟大使 携手多位名人投身公益 

腾讯体育讯 北京时间10月14日消息，效力于休斯敦火箭的中国球员姚明日前接受中国控烟协会邀请，成为最新控烟形象大使，这是姚明在公益事业上做出的又一贡献。

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全运会正式回函：烟企捐款已全部退还 

上周四，第十一届全运会组委会社会捐赠办公室明确向本报表示，不再接受烟草企业的捐款，并决定退还之前收到的所有来自烟草企业的捐款。昨日，《每日经济新闻》记者从组委会获悉，所有烟企捐款已全部退还。

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十一运会开幕当日 组委会退还烟草公司捐赠资金 

新华网济南10月16日体育专电(记者刘宝森、吴俊宽)在第十一届全运会开幕当日，十一运会组委会有关部门向中国疾病预防控制中心控烟办公室回函，表示已将烟草公司的捐赠资金全部退还有关企业。

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Take Action 

TAKE ACTION AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL

Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association ends its national sponsorship agreement with big tobacco

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) announced in early October that the US Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC) will not renew their national sponsorship agreement with the PRCA after 2009. Take action now: use the language in the materials below to call the media's attention to this historic event, praise the PRCA for this decision, and encourage them to seek a healthy sponsor to replace big tobacco!

* Press release congratulating the PRCA for ending its sponsorship agreement with USSTC

* Open letter congratulating the PRCA for ending its sponsorship agreement with USSTC, sent to PRCA Commissioner Karl Stressman on October 15, 2009 . . .

Buck Tobacco has partnered with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in a grassroots email campaign to ask PBR to enter the mainstream with the help of partners who better complement their positive message. Visit the Campaign's website where you can send letters to PBR leadership and sports journalists and make your voice heard on this important issue!

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• Grassroots Activists Congratulate Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association for Ending Tobacco Sponsorship  

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) announced last week that the US Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC), which recently merged with Altria Group, will not renew their national sponsorship agreement with the PRCA after 2009.

"We applaud the PRCA for ending tobacco sponsorship of its rodeos," said Andrea Craig Dodge, director of the Buck Tobacco Sponsorship Project. "Tobacco marketing including sampling booths, scoreboards, banners, and ads give young rodeo audience members the message that using tobacco is part of being an adult cowboy or rodeo fan."

For several years, a number of tobacco control advocates and community members have called for an end to tobacco sponsorship of rodeos. "Rodeo has been around since the 1800's - long before tobacco sponsorship of rodeos began in 1986," said "Cowboy Ted" Hallisey, director of Cowboy Ted's Foundation for Kids. "Without big tobacco, rodeos will move into mainstream sports because they will be more comfortable for children and families to attend," he said.

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VIDEO: Anna Kournikova Smoke Break  

Despite recent rumors of pregnancy, Anna Kournikova was spotted on the balcony of her beleaguered home smoking a cigarette and looking at her figure in the reflection of a glass door while chatting with a female friend in Miami, FL.

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• National games to return tobacco sponsorship money ($$) 

Organisers of China's national games have pledged to return 20 million yuan (HK$22.75) in sponsorship fees from tobacco companies after an official complaint, state press said on Thursday.

The pledge came after the tobacco control office of China’s Centre for Disease Control issued an open letter saying the fees violated regulations on accepting sponsorship money from tobacco companies, the Beijing Times said.

As a member of the World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), China is committed to a ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship at domestic and international events, it said.

China’s four-yearly national games, the country’s own mini-Olympics, formally open on Friday in Jinan city, in eastern Shandong province.

The 20 million yuan in sponsorship revenue had been pledged by nine tobacco companies linked to the state-run Shandong Tobacco Wholesale Company, the report said.

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Yao joins China anti-smoking drive 

China's biggest sports star Yao Ming has joined a high profile anti-tobacco campaign aimed at persuading around 350 million Chinese smokers to kick the habit.

Named as an ambassador to the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control (CATC), the Houston Rockets' centre is expected to appear in new TV and poster adverts pushing the anti-smoking message, state media said.

Yao will reportedly appear in the campaign alongside popular singing star Peng Liyuan, who is also the wife of China's vice president, Xi Jinping.

"We hope the celebrities would inspire more people to join in anti-smoking activities," Xu Guihua, deputy director of the CATC, was quoted as saying.

"The public should be advised to lead a healthier life without the influence of tobacco use."

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• Light Up, Michael. We’ll Pay Your Tab! 

The Beverly Hills Cigar Club (BHCC) has offered to pay the $100 fine, if the basketball legend wants another smoke during the President's Cup golf matches, which start today in San Francisco. . . .

"Smoking a fine cigar in the open air landscape of a golf course should be a basic right," says BHCC CEO Vin Lee. "If Jordan wants to enjoy another round with a great cigar, we'll pay the fine. In fact, we'll give him a box of Louixs, our finest Rosado blend, or his favorite cigar, and pick up the tab."

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Football stars urge smokers to quit 

Former top footballers John Barnes, Ian Wright and Gianfranco Zola are joining forces to help people quit smoking.

The stars, together with Premier League football clubs including Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Liverpool and Fulham, are helping the NHS launch a virtual club for quitters called "Smokefree United".

The club will provide coaching and support to help football fans and players stop smoking. People will receive motivational emails from Wright as well as prizes like the chance to play a game on their team's pitch.

A new survey to help promote the website found that 41% of male smokers play football and 82% of those are worried about the effects smoking has on their performance and want to stop.

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Michael Jordan Trades Smoking For Chewing  

Jordan, who was invited to be an honorary assistant captain at the Presidents cup, was pictured smoking a stogie in the San Francisco Chronicle, which is considered a big no-no in the SF world of golf etiquette.

Upon seeing Jordan's picture in the Chronicle, city officials reminded the PGA tournament that Harding Park is city property, and that smoking is prohibited. . . .

On Wedesday, two days after the smoking incident, Jordan was still seen with his cigar, though not smoking-he was chewing it.

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