http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/australia.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/political-news/plainpack-case-strong-says-roxon-20120208-1rf02.html http://tobacco.org/news/333630.html In its defence filed with the High Court, the government argues its plain packaging laws do not amount to an acquisition of the companies' property, because they do not deliver to the Commonwealth or anyone else ''any identifiable and measurable benefits or advantages''. It argues that the rights of the companies as trademark owners have always been subject to other laws. It also argues the companies use the trademarks to maintain or increase the consumption of cigarettes, which was harmful to the public and the public interest. High Court judges have previously held that ''just terms'' were not required for laws ''which provide for the creation, modification, extinguishment or transfer of rights'' in ''areas which need to be regulated in the common interest''. Brisbane Times Australia Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.nasdaq.com/article/australia-says-it-has-right-to-restrict-tobacco-packaging-20120208-00054 http://tobacco.org/news/333538.html Australia's government claims in court filings that it has the legal right to enforce plain packaging on the tobacco industry, setting up what's likely to be prolonged legal battle with the world's largest cigarette makers. In a defense filing Tuesday with the High Court of Australia, the government argues it has the power to regulate the marketing and packaging of tobacco and also claims tobacco products are harmful to public health. "The Commonwealth will vigorously defend the validity of the plain packaging laws and does not accept there is any basis for big tobacco's claims that the measures are unconstitutional," said Attorney General Nicola Roxon in a release. . . . Philip Morris is also seeking arbitration from a United Nations tribunal to challenge the Australian government's plan. The company claims that the plain packaging laws breach a trade agreement struck in 1993 between Australia and Hong Kong to protect their respective offshore investments. Rivals Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (IMT.LN), British American Tobacco PLC ( BATS.LN) and Japan Tobacco Inc. (2914.TO) have also filed cases against the Australian government, claiming the laws are unconstitutional. The hearings will run concurrently and hearings are likely to begin in April. NASDAQ Australia Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-childhood-leukaemia-fathers.html http://tobacco.org/news/333531.html Research from Western Australia's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research finds that heavy smoking by fathers around the time of conception greatly increases the risk of the child developing Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer. Published in the prestigious American Journal of Epidemiology, the study investigated the association between parental smoking and the occurrence of ALL in offspring. "The first step towards the development of leukemia is thought to occur in utero in a lot of cases," lead author Dr Elizabeth Milne says. "So we look at prenatal exposures as it has to be something to do with what's happening before the baby's born." "Tobacco is a known carcinogen and, in terms of childhood leukemia, there's a plausible biological pathway whereby paternal smoking could actually contribute to disease risk in the offspring," she says. In a comprehensive exposure questionnaire distributed nationwide to 388 families with cases of ALL and 868 control families, the group asked mothers and fathers to state where they lived, their occupation and how many cigarettes they smoked for every year of their life from the time they were 15. Medical Xpress Australia Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.medpagetoday.com/AllergyImmunology/COPD/31060?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&eun=g220600d0r&userid=220600&email=gborio@gmail.com&mu_id= http://tobacco.org/news/333516.html Action Points People who consumed at least a half a liter of soft drinks a day were more than twice as likely to develop either asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), compared with those who didn't partake at all. Point out that the study design was cross-sectional study and therefore could not prove causality. More bad news for soda lovers: in addition to obesity and heart disease, the sugary drinks may be tied to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Australian researchers found. People who consumed at least a half a liter of soft drinks a day were more than twice as likely to develop either lung condition compared with those who didn't partake at all (OR 2.33, 95% CI 1.51 to 3.60), Zumin Shi, MD, of the University of Adelaide in Australia, and colleagues reported in Respirology. The cross-sectional study, however, couldn't prove causality, and researchers not involved in the study suspect an overall unhealthy diet effect might be at play. MedPage Today Australia Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/cricket-australia-pulls-tobacco-ad-20120207-1r27u.html http://tobacco.org/news/333471.html Cricket Australia has pulled a mouth freshener advertisement amid complaints it promoted a company that also sells tobacco products. It says it will withdraw the ads that were displayed on the boundary rope during seven matches between Australia and India after learning they could be promoting tobacco. Spokesman Peter Young said Cricket Australia had sought a translation of the ads, which are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, from the Indian government and had been reassured that they promoted mouthwash. But the majority of Indians who saw the ad would immediately associate it with tobacco, said Dr Nevin Wilson, who heads the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease's Southeast Asian office in New Delhi, India. Dr Wilson said direct or indirect advertising of tobacco products was illegal in India, where there were 900,000 deaths each year related to tobacco. AAP Australia India Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/cricket-chiefs-duped-by-smoky-ads/story-e6freuzi-1226264136337 http://tobacco.org/news/333455.html CRICKET Australia has banned an advertising campaign which appeared in the recent Test series against India after discovering they may have unknowingly been promoting a tobacco brand. The sport's governing body faces losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue after pulling the ads from future one-day games. The Health Department launched an investigation into the Hindi advertisements on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. The ads for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouthwash were aimed at the massive TV audience in India. They also featured at the twenty20 games in Sydney and Melbourne and were due to be shown during the on- going one-day internationals this month. Daily Telegraph/Sunday Telegraph PHOTO@DAILYTELEGRAPH.COM.AU ( Phillip Hudson The Daily Telegraph) Australia India Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/national/cricket-chiefs-draw-line-on-ads/story-e6frea8c-1226264387016?from=public_rss http://tobacco.org/news/333454.html CRICKET Australia will surrender hundreds of thousands of dollars in boundary line advertising after it emerged it may have been illegally promoting tobacco. The snap backdown last night came after the federal Health Department launched an investigation into advertisements in Hindi on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. The ads for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouth-wash were aimed at the massive TV audience in India. Adelaide Now -- The Advertiser and Sunday Mail Australia India Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://consumer.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=661550 http://tobacco.org/news/333449.html Drinking a lot of soft drinks may increase the risk for asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study suggests. Nearly 17,000 people aged 16 and older in South Australia were asked about their consumption of soft drinks such as Coke, flavored mineral water, lemonade, Powerade and Gatorade. . . . Smoking increased the risk even further, especially for COPD. People who smoked and consumed more than half a liter of soft drinks a day had a 6.6 times greater risk of COPD than those who didn't smoke and didn't consume soft drinks. HealthDay [HealthScout] Australia Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/national/national/general/stub-out-tobacco-company-lobbying/2446111.aspx http://tobacco.org/news/333437.html They've been stripped of the right to advertise, will soon be forced to sell their products in plain packaging, at least two political parties refuse to accept their donations and now there is a call to ban tobacco companies from lobbying governments. Anti-tobacco group Action on Smoking and Health wants a crackdown on the tobacco industry's ability to influence public policy. In a submission to a Senate committee inquiry into the Government's Lobbying Code of Conduct and and the Register of Lobbyists, ACOSH said smoking had caused the deaths of more than one million Australians since 1950 and was now responsible for the deaths of 15,000 each year. ''Action to reduce smoking has been consistently and vigorously opposed and undermined by the global tobacco industry through sophisticated and well-funded campaigns in Australia, with the goal of undermining tobacco control and public health initiatives,'' the ACOSH submission said. ''A ban on lobbying activities by the tobacco industry is an appropriate remedy to the tactics utilised by the tobacco industry, which defy accountability or transparency. Canberra Times Australia Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jZupzjWbVPc9xZtleG1Pt-nzQnZw?docId=CNG.013c9d26e5bc6771d8e4bb78654007fe.c1 http://tobacco.org/news/333416.html Cricket Australia has pulled Hindi adverts displayed during the series with India after being alerted that they could be promoting tobacco, which would attract big fines for breaching local laws. Cricket bosses said they were assured by the Indian government that the signage was advertising a brand of mouthwash, but decided to take them down due to their apparent similarity to a brand of chewing tobacco. "We asked (the Indian government's) advice because we are not familiar with the Hindi language," a Cricket Australia spokesman told reporters on Tuesday. "They came back and said it's an Indian mouthwash -- or at least they said it's not a tobacco product. We don't have one million percent certainty about all of the detail. Agence France Presse Australia India Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://sydney.edu.au/ohs/wellbeing/smoke-free.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/333412.html Thank you to all staff, students and affiliates who provided feedback on the University's proposal to move towards a smoke-free campus. There was very strong support for the University to restrict smoking on campus in order to promote a healthy, smoke-free environment. The Smoke-Free Environment policy was approved by Senate on 5 December 2011 and is effective from Monday, 30 January 2012. The new policy bans smoking on all University campuses, except for within designated smoking areas. The University of Sydney Union, as a sign of good will and in support of the policy, ceased their sale of cigarettes on campus in October last year. Where are the designated smoking areas? Below are campus maps which depict the designated smoking areas. Click on the campus map which applies to you: The University of Sydney Australia Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://sydney-central.whereilive.com.au/news/story/sydney-street-magazine-sparks-interest-of-cancer-council-tobacco-advertising-watchdog-ash/ http://tobacco.org/news/333411.html IT has been many years since tobacco advertising was banned in Australia, which is why multiple images of people smoking and multiple editorial references to smoking in street magazine, The Spitpress 07, have peaked the interest of Cancer Council-affiliated action group, ASH. Based around the ``editorial theme of smoke”, The Spitpress 07 magazine contains the word smoke in six headlines of its 48 pages. The cover image is a man with a pipe in his mouth. The vox pop question is ``Why do you smoke?”. One article is about a photographer who shoots women smoking, and comes with the headline ``Come on kids, die young”. Another article features artwork, with the headline ``Inhale the pain’’ with artwork named ``Smoke gets in your eyes’’ and ``Breath in the fumes”. A cooking article refers to switching off domestic smoke alarms. The magazine is bulk-dropped around the inner city and Sydney Uni, NSW Uni, through Bondi, Randwick, Darlinghurst, Glebe and Newtown. ASH spokesman Stafford Sanders said a tobacco company’s marketing department could not have better-designed an association of smoking with youth culture. ASH has referred the magazine to state and federal health departments to investigate any potential breach of Tobacco Advertising Prohibition laws. ``Our concern is that the whole theme appears to be smoking,’’ Mr Sanders said. ``The magazine has been found where it could easily be read by children, whatever the intentions of the publishers.” Managing editor of The Spitpress, Tym Yee, said there were no funds from the tobacco industry in The Spitpress. Sydney Central Australia Wed, 27 Apr 2011 04:00:00 GMT http://inner-west-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/ban-stirs-students/ http://tobacco.org/news/333410.html SYDNEY University is the latest in a growing number to cut down smoking on its campuses. It recently released a draft "smoke-free environments policy" to extend existing bans to 10m from buildings, prohibit smoking in outdoor and drinking areas and also phase out the sale of cigarettes on campus. Campuses include Camperdown/Darlington and Rozelle. Health Science student Ali Saeed said it's a student's right to smoke anywhere outdoors. Inner West Courier Australia Tue, 13 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT http://asiancorrespondent.com/74909/university-of-sydney-launches-smoke-free-campus/ http://tobacco.org/news/333409.html In a major step to ensure the health and wellbeing of its staff, students and visitors, the University has introduced a new smoke-free policy for all its campuses. The new policy, which comes into operation today, follows an extensive period of consultation and feedback during 2011. Surveys of staff and students showed an overwhelming level of support for the proposed changes. The University of Sydney Union (USU) moved quickly to underline its support for the proposal when it ceased the sale of cigarettes at all USU outlets last October. The Smoke-Free Environment Policy 2012 was approved by the University Senate at its meeting on 5 December 2011 and is effective from today. Asian Correspondent.com Australia Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://inner-west-courier.whereilive.com.au/news/story/smoking-officially-banned-at-sydney-university/ http://tobacco.org/news/333408.html SMOKING is officially banned on Sydney University campuses. The university confirmed a new smoke-free policy for all its campuses, which came into operation today. According to the university, the decision came after consultation and feedback during 2011 with surveys of staff and students showing an ``overwhelming level of support for the proposed changes.'' IS THE BAN UNFAIR? Tell us in the comments section below Inner West Courier Australia Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT