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• 16th Asian Games to be tobacco-free 

The 16th Asian Games, part of the worldwide Olympic movement and governed by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), will be “going smokeless” with firm prohibitions on the sale of tobacco products and tobacco sponsorship of the Games.

The Asian Games are the second largest sports event in the world after the Summer Olympic Games.

Governed by the Olympic Council of Asia, the 16th Asian Games follows all mandates of the International Olympic Committee in which Games’ organizers are prohibited from accepting sponsorship of the Games by tobacco manufactures.

Organizers are also prohibited from allowing the sale of cigarettes or tobacco products at any athletic venue.

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• Ban On Cigarette Sponsorship For Sports To Stay 

The ban on cigarette sponsorship for sports activities, especially football, will not be withdrawn by the government, deputy minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Razali Ibrahim told the Dewan Rakyat Thursday.

Razali said there will be no change in the government's commitment to support the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global ban on cigarette companies sponsoring any kind of sports activities under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

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• Federer fires up anti-smoking emotions  

As Roger Federer sets out to win his fourth consecutive Swiss Indoors title in Basel, a debate has reignited over tobacco sponsorship in sport.

The tournament, which has been sponsored by Swiss luxury brand Davidoff since 1994 and starts on Monday, is one of the last in the world to be sponsored by a tobacco company – and health campaigners aren't happy.

"First of all, linking sport and tobacco is utterly perverse," Jürg Hurter, president of Pro Aere, Switzerland's largest organisation against passive smoking, told swissinfo.ch.

"Second, the tobacco industry – who aren't idiots – try to get around tobacco promotion laws by sponsoring sporting events or by branding various products."

Pascal Diethelm, director of the anti-smoking group OxyRomandie, said last year "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff".

"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 smokers would know which cigarette brand to choose," he said. . . .

"This discussion is like the Loch Ness monster – it comes back every year!" Jürg Vogel, a member of the Swiss Indoors organising committee, told swissinfo.ch.

"Davidoff sells not only tobacco but also perfumes and other accessories. I think you have to see the whole picture.

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• Doctor presses the case against tobacco scholarships 

A San Luis Obispo doctor is continuing to speak out against Cal Poly for allowing students to accept scholarships from the smokeless tobacco industry as prize awards in collegiate rodeo events.

University officials say Cal Poly has no basis to deny students scholarship funds from a legal source, and university officials note that no tobacco-related advertising is allowed at school events under a campus policy. Five years ago, Cal Poly officials supported creating a fund that could be an alternative to tobacco-industry scholarships, but that idea was rejected by tobacco opponents.

Stephen L. Hansen, a physician and representative of the county Tobacco Control Coalition, said he's outraged that the chewing tobacco industry lures students to a cancer-causing product through scholarships

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Michael Jordan caught smoking 

San Francisco is asking basketball superstar Michael Jordan to snuff out the cigars, after he was caught on the front page of The Chronicle's Sporting Green breaking the city's ban on smoking on public golf courses.

City officials sprang into action after seeing the full-color photo Tuesday of the NBA Hall of Famer enjoying a good cigar while teeing off at Harding Park's 14th hole during a Presidents Cup practice round.

In an interview with PGATour.com, Jordan was asked how many cigars he planned to smoke during this week's tournament.

"Well," Jordan replied, "that depends, because I heard this is a public place, so they limit what you can smoke. I'm not even supposed to be smoking, but this was a practice round and no one said anything."

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• Storm at DeMbare 

PREMIERSHIP side Dynamos are set to lose close to US$1 million from their official sponsors — Savanna Tobacco — if they play in an Oya Challenge, which is bankrolled by a rival tobacco company Blend Value on October 4. DeMbare, who are are sponsored by Savanna Tobacco through their Pacific Storm brand have been hand picked to play against CAPS United in the Oya Challenge.

The new kid on the block is using the derby to promote their brand — Oya.

Savanna Tobacco have threatened to pull the rug on Dynamos if they go aheadand play as the contract forbids them from associating with rival tobacco companies.

DeMbare are set to lose US$370 000 which is expected to go towards the purchase of a luxurious team bus. In addition to this, the Glamour Boys will lose their branded kit and the payment of salaries for the players.

Savanna Tobacco dropped the bombshell on DeMbare, in a letter to Zifa chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya on Friday.

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• Laos launches smoke-free city 

Laos government officials have launched a smoke-free Vientiane to help address health and environmental concerns in the lead-up to the 25th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in December.

Vientiane Vice-Mayor Somvandy Nathavong said the new initiative will target local businesses and people, in particular students and teenagers. . . .

The Vientiane Administration office worked in conjunction with the ministry of public health to organise the ceremony, which was supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Laos, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance and Lao-Vietnam Insurance company in Vientiane.

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• Sweet Kiss of Life  

MONOMOTAPA have received a major boost in their tough battle to turn around a Champions League campaign that has gone off the rails with a local tobacco company, Blend Value, injecting US$50 000 into their coffers ahead of their showdown against Congolese giants TP Mazembe at Rufaro tomorrow.

The cash injection by the company a new player in the local tobacco industr is meant to boost morale among the Monomotapa players and help them focus on their assignment against the former African champions. . . .

Mugavazi and Sibanda certainly have friends and, among the people they can call their partners, are the directors of Blend Value Tobacco, who yesterday unveiled a US$50 000 package to help Monomotapa in their hour of need.

Blend Value Tobacco are the manufacturers of the Oya! brand, which they want to dominate the domestic market, and they have already announced that this is just the start of their big partnership with Zimbabwean football.

Blend Value director Tawanda Chitapi, a prominent Harare lawyer, said his company decided to help Monomotapa because the Harare side was representing the country and needed the help of everyone in their bid to try and conquer the continent. . . .

"If Blend Value are the tobacco company that is sponsoring football, we believe that football should also appreciate that support with the fans choosing their products ahead of their competition which might not be playing a part in the game.

"We decided to help Monomotapa so that they can sort out some of the challenges that they have been facing of late," said Chitapi.

The Harare lawyer is also a passionate football fan who has worked, mostly behind the scenes, resolving some of the wrangles that have beset the national game.

"It's important, in our small way, to play our part in the area of social responsibility. "After reading about Monomotapa, and the challenges they were facing with regard the need to raise money for their campaign, we decided to partner Zifa and assist the team. . . .

The Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters' Association yesterday issued a rallying cry to the country's football fans to come in their thousands and back the Monomotapa cause at Rufaro tomorrow.

ZNSSA security chief Fortune Bgwoni also hailed Blend Value for leading the way in helping Monomotapa in their hour of need.

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• Many College Athletes Reject Cigarettes But Smoke Hookah, Pitt Study Finds 

College students who participate in intramural or club sports are less likely to smoke cigarettes than non-athletes, but are more likely than non-athletes to smoke from a hookah, according to a University of Pittsburgh study online now in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"This study demonstrates that many athletes clearly perceive hookah smoking as less of a concern than cigarette smoking," said Brian Primack, M.D., Ed.M., M.S., assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Pitt's School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "What they don't realize, however, is that they are exposing themselves to many of the same toxic chemicals contained in cigarettes."

A hookah, or waterpipe, is used to inhale tobacco that usually is flavored or sweetened. The opening of hundreds of hookah cafes in the U.S. over the past decade demonstrates the increasing popularity of hookah smoking. Although the aesthetic appeal of the practice suggests that it is not harmful, studies show that hookah tobacco smoke is just as toxic as cigarette smoke and is associated with substantial harm and addictiveness. For example, one average hookah smoking session exposes the user to 40 times the tar of a single cigarette.

Researchers at Pitt examined survey data from 8,745 college-age individuals who participated in the National College Health Assessment

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