Tobacco.org

• New lung cancer wonder drug offers cure hope for deadliest form of disease  

A new lung cancer drug that can cure the deadliest form of the disease is being developed by scientists.

The treatment, which appears to have no side affects, killed all traces of the 'small cell' version of the cancer in more than 50 per cent of the British trials on laboratory mice. It also blocked the cells' ability to resist standard chemotherapy treatment.

A fifth of lung cancer patients have the 'small cell' form, in which the tumours spread so quickly they can rarely be removed. Only 3 per cent of sufferers can expect to survive five years after diagnosis.

Professor Michael Seckl, head of Molecular Oncology and Lung Cancer Research at Imperial College, which led the research, said he hoped to start clinical trials with human patients as early as next year.

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VOTE: £20,000 scheme to hand out portable ashtrays in Bolton  

Bolton Council has launched a “behavioural change” crackdown on litter louts who drop their cigarette butts in the street.

Town hall bosses hope to combat the problem with a poster campaign aimed at educating smokers and by handing out portable ashtray pouches that people can use to cleanly dispose of their stubs.

The poster contains a simple “Love Bolton, hate litter” message on a black background, with the letter “L” in litter replaced by a cigarette end.

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• VIDEO: Cigarette vending machines banned 

A ban on cigarette vending machines is set to become law across the UK, after it cleared its final Commons hurdle on Tuesday night.

MPs approved Lords amendments to the Health Bill, following the surprise agreement in the Commons to the proposal from Labour former minister Ian McCartney last month.

Health Minister Gillian Merron said it was hoped the ban would dissuade young people from smoking, as these were the "new recruits the tobacco industry needs to replace those who die".

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Cigarette vending machine supplier 'incensed' over ban  

A total ban on cigarette vending machines now looks almost inevitable after Lords rejected an attempt to stop it. Lords also rejected proposals to allow more tightly controlled machines, operated by remote control, to be allowed.

“I am incensed and dismayed that the Lords have betrayed the vending industry by ignoring the technical advances made which effectively stop underage people gaining access to tobacco vending machines," said Kevin Pascall, managing director of Wolverhampton-based vending company Sinclair Collis.

"Yesterday’s decision means a bleak future for 200 British companies and their employees in what are already tough economic times.”

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Leader aims to smoke out machines 

THE leader of the council is urging the public to get behind new laws that will ban cigarette vending machines and the use of enticing multi-coloured displays in shops.

Councillor Alan Taylor started smoking when he was 15 and it took him 25 years to kick the habit.

The government's proposals for new tobacco control laws were recently supported by MPs and now go to public consultation before they are finally made law.

Since the advertising ban in 2002, evidence shows that the tobacco industry has instead invested in promotional displays of tobacco in shops.

And there is evidence these promotional activities encourage children to start smoking.

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Japan Tobacco to raise UK prices by 10p-12p a pack  

Japan Tobacco (2914.T) is to take advantage of the growing popularity of its British cigarette brands, such as number one seller Mayfair, by raising the price of a 20-pack by 10-12 pence from Nov. 24.

"The momentum is with us, the wind is behind us, and we should harvest that," UK managing director of JT International Daniel Torras told reporters on Wednesday, adding higher tobacco leaf costs were behind the price rises.

The maker of Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut cigarettes in Britain said market share gains had prompted it to go ahead with price rises of nearly 3 percent now, as it looks to take the lead on pricing from arch-rival Imperial Tobacco (IMT.L).

"Our goal is to be number one in the UK and we expect to close the gap over the next few years," Torras said.

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UPDATE:Japan Tobacco's UK Unit Closing Gap On Imperial Tobacco  

Japan Tobacco Inc.'s (2914.TO) U.K. business is closing the gap on market leader Imperial Tobacco PLC (IMT.LN) and will retain its recent market share gains, despite pushing up prices at the end of this month, JT's U.K. managing director said Wednesday.

Daniel Torras told reporters at a briefing in London that the company had increased its U.K. cigarette market share to 40.8% in September, up 1.8 percentage points on a year earlier. Imperial Tobacco's share meanwhile fell 1.5 percentage points in the same period to 42.3%, he said.

"Since Oct. 2008, we've seen very dramatic share growth," he said, "we've had share growth in every single segment."

Torras said he was confident these gains can be retained despite the company's planned price increases on Nov. 24. "We don't expect any share loss," he said.

He said the company's momentum in the U.K. allowed it to take a lead with price increases rather than following Imperial's pricing action.

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REECE: Imperial Tobacco profits are still booming, but is that a cause for celebration?  

Since October 1996 – shortly after Davis took the job on the company’s split from Hanson – shareholders have seen the FTSE All Share double . . .

Alcohol consumption, and gambling likewise, show no signs of dramatically abating. Arguably such habits are eventually encouraged by overly nannying states that set out to curb them, either through tax or regulation.

The worst expression of this unintended consequence is the rise of smugglers. High taxes make smuggling worthwhile. Illicit trade in cigarettes robs governments of expected income and creates an illegal market that trades outside regulations supposed to protect sections of society, such as children.

Having quit the weed several years ago, I’m not going to celebrate Imperial or its peers. But their continuing success shows just how ineffectual the current invasive style of government, that we tolerate, really is.

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Fined £700 – for dropping cigarette butt 

A RUGELEY mum-of-two who threw a cigarette butt out of her car window has told of her 'shock' – after a court ordered her to pay a whopping £727 for littering.

Marie Elson, aged 42, of Newman Grove, tossed the cigarette end onto the road during a school run to Fair Oak Business and Enterprise College.

But she was spotted by two environmental officers from Cannock Chase Council.

"At the end of the day I do not dispute what I did – but I was just shocked by the amount," Marie told the Mercury this week. . . .

But she admitted she did not realise the seriousness of the offence.

And because of family commitments and health problems, she failed to turn up at Stafford Magistrates' Court on April 30 and did not enter a plea by post.

She was found guilty in her absence and fined £350 for dropping the cigarette end and £200 for failing to pay the fixed penalty notice. She also has to pay £162 in costs and a victim surcharge of £15 – a total of £727.

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UK hopes bill will tackle smoking in children  

23 000 children aged 11—15 years bought cigarettes from vending machines in 2008, estimates the British Heart Foundation. And so the recent vote by members of parliament in the House of Commons for a health bill to ban cigarette vending machines and point of sale tobacco displays in the UK is being applauded by antismoking campaigners.

Smoking costs the UK's National Health Service £5 billion a year. Antismoking efforts in the UK over the past decade have been aggressive and there has been some progress but current statistics indicate that there is still a long way to go. In the past 10 years, the number of smokers has dropped by almost 2·5 million; however, more than 10 million adults in the UK are smokers and 80 000 people still die from smoking-associated diseases every year in England alone.

But the focus has now moved to child and adolescent smokers, particularly as new statistics indicate that 66% of adult smokers started when they were under age.

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Q&A: Duncan Bannatyne 

The entrepreneur discusses his philanthropy and anti-smoking campaigning

Duncan Bannatyne, 60, the Dragons' Den star, is one of the UK's leading entrepreneurs with an estimated �320 million fortune. He is also a leading philanthropist and is a Trustee of Comic Relief. He is president of the charity No Smoking Day, as well as Quit's UK Children's Champion. Here he talks to Sean Carey about cigarette smoking in the UK and Africa.

Not everyone who is a former smoker becomes an anti-smoking activist. What's the motivation?

Well, although I used to smoke I now find that other people's smoking affects me quite a lot - it makes me cough, makes my eyes sting and all the rest of it. So I'm very aware of it at a personal level. But I have long been very concerned about the effect of cigarette smoke on young children's health. So when I was approached to become president of No Smoking Day in 2008, and earlier this year to become Quit's UK Children's Champion, I jumped at the chance. I'm just lucky that I have a public profile because of my television work. It comes in very useful for these sorts of campaigns. . . .

Do you think that the UK government has done enough in terms of anti-smoking initiatives?

No, it hasn't. The authorities in England were a year behind those in Scotland banning smoking in pubs and they're still lagging behind. . . .

In many African countries like Nigeria, Malawi and Mauritius, cigarette smoking is promoted through the use of advertising billboards and sponsorship of music concerts where free cigarettes are handed out. I found when I visited Malawi that often there is no age restriction on those attending these concerts or, if there is, there is no one on the door making sure that young people cannot get in.

What I have also observed in these countries is that among the very poor a single cigarette might be passed around by five or six children which means that they're all likely to develop the habit.

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Flier's anger after tobacco is seized 

THE border control team at Exeter International Airport has been criticised by a city smoker who was quizzed for more than an hour and had his tobacco seized.

Frequent flier and businessman Stephen Alford, 47, who lives in Burnthouse Lane, Wonford, says he was on one of his regular trips through security at the airport after a flight from Palma, Majorca, when he was stopped and searched by custom officials.

The self-employed website designer said he was detained for 90 minutes and interviewed before 3kg of hand-rolling tobacco was confiscated. He said the tobacco was for his own personal use.

Mr Alford, who has abandoned legal action because he fears heavy costs if he loses, says he feels he was treated like a "common criminal".

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• SANDFORD: Forget what the tobacco industry says 

There are many reasons why children take up smoking but youth exposure to tobacco marketing is a key factor. Although most forms of tobacco promotion were outlawed in the UK by the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002, the tobacco industry has continued to use its marketing muscle to lure children to its products through elaborate displays and fancy packaging. . . .

Naturally, the tobacco industry disputes the evidence because of its need to recruit and maintain new customers. The industry has an established track record of contesting research evidence to delay regulation. Tactics include challenging the evidence in order to create uncertainty and using apparently 'independent' researchers to do its dirty work. Such allies include the Cato Institute, for example. . . .

Furthermore there is simply no evidence to support the claim that putting tobacco out of sight at the point of sale leads to an increase in illegal sales. The vast majority of retailers are law-abiding and would not be tempted to try and sell illicit products. The rise in smuggling in both Ireland and Canada predates the implementation of display bans and there is no evidence of any causal association. Tobacco smuggling is clearly a huge problem that requires a strategic response but abandoning a policy that would stop tobacco being promoted to young people is not the answer.

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Berkshire | Drop in illegal cigarette sales 

The number of retailers caught out illegally selling cigarettes to under 18-year-olds in Reading has dropped, new figures reveal.

Undercover test purchases have been carried out in shops by trading standards officers across the town since 2008.

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• Wear | Hospital smoking shelters U-turn 

Sunderland Royal Hospital is "reluctantly" reinstating shelters for smokers in its grounds.

Health bosses admit they are unable to stop people disobeying the no-smoking rule and lighting up just outside the hospital's main doors.

This had led to complaints by patients and staff about second-hand smoke drifting into the building.

Purpose-built shelters, which were dismantled two years ago, are to be set up again.

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