Tobacco Articles: country uk

Hi-tech tool spots child drinkers

Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

The supermarket chain Budgens has installed face recognition cameras in one of its stores to stop children buying alcohol and cigarettes. It is thought to be the first time a UK retailer has used the technology to identify underage customers. The scheme is being piloted at an unnamed branch of Budgens in London. If the system recognises someone who has previously been unable to prove they are 18, a signal alerts the cashier who will refuse to serve them.

Should I design a tobacco firm’s new HQ? : In the first of a new series, Irena Bauman, author of How to be a Happy Architect, tackles your ethical dilemmas

Fri, 16 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

A tobacco firm has asked me to design its new headquarters and the brief looks exciting. But I have ethical objections to its business. Should I accept the commission?

. . . My advice is: resist the vanity of the compliment and refuse the commission. Architects lack direct political or financial powers to shape society’s ethics. But we can help shape social values by deciding who we will or will not work for. In accepting commissions, we sign up to the values they represent.

Blackburn shopkeeper 'in £3.2million tobacco scam'

dwatkinson@lancashire.newsquest.co.uk (David Watkinson) — Thu, 15 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

A SHOPKEEPER has been accused of cheating the Government out of £3.2million in duty as part of a tobacco smuggling scam. Saiful Chowdhury, 39, used his position as a clothing company boss for SA Chowdhury to bring more than 30 tonnes of hand-rolled tobacco into the country, a jury has been told. Prosecutor Paul Valder claimed that Chowdhury regularly drove his van from his shop in Accrington Road, Blackburn, through Dover, to shops in Belgium. There, he allegedly bought vast quantities of tobacco which he stashed underneath boxes of clothing - but never declared it to customs officials.

Smoking 'triggers deadly changes'

Wed, 14 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

A key mechanism by which smoking triggers genetic changes that cause lung cancer has been unravelled. Researchers have shown exposure to cigarette smoke slows production of a protein called FANCD2 in lung cells. This protein plays a key role in repairing damage to DNA, and causing faulty cells to commit suicide before they go on to become cancerous. The study, led by Oregon Health and Science University, appears in the British Journal of Cancer.

Enterprise Inns boss calls new low for pub trade : Smoking ban, spending downturn and rising costs have combined to produce 'worst conditions ever experienced'

Tue, 13 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

The chief executive of Enterprise Inns, Britain's second-biggest pub company, said today that trading conditions in the past six months had been the worst he could remember. Ted Tuppen, who founded the tenanted pub group in 1991, said that the smoking ban, the consumer spending downturn and rising costs had combined to ensure "the worst six months the industry has probably ever experienced".

Smoker in court for cigarette drop

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

A smoker ended up in court - for dropping a cigarette butt in a Telford street. David Jinks was hauled before magistrates after refusing to pay a £50 penalty for littering. He admitted the offence when he appeared in court yesterday and was hit with an £80 fine and ordered to pay £50 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Smoking dangers DVD

Mon, 12 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

A DVD to teach children about the dangers of smoking is set to be launched in East Sussex. The East Sussex Youth Cabinet is making an anti-smoking film after the topic was identified as a main issue which needs to be addressed to young people.

Smoke ban creates opportunity for wine

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

A survey of wine lists at venues across the UK has shown that many are not giving customers enough choice. A poll of 500 sites by CGA, on behalf of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA), revealed that wine sales have risen 13% since the smoke ban, mainly due to 58% of hosts seeing a uplift in food sales post ban. The trade body said that operators need to capitalise on the growing popularity of the product. The survey found that 57% of sites have a wine list with 10 or less wines, with just 12% offering a choice of more than 25 wines.

New taxes kill UK's passion for bingo night: Halls close as levies and the smoking ban bite

reader@observer.co.uk — Sun, 11 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

It is not just a business, she insists, but provides a 'safe, sociable night out' for its thousands of members. More than three million people across the country regularly play bingo, a pastime with its roots in the tombola fund-raisers of nearly a century ago. But the major commercial chains such as Gala and Rank's Mecca bingo have seen their profits slashed by political and economic constraints - with little sign until recently that the industry's cries for help are being heard in Whitehall. 'The smoking ban hit us badly,' says Milton, 'particularly when the cold weather set in last winter.' But the industry bosses' main gripe is that, alone among gaming businesses, bingo faces 'double taxation' - the gambling profits' levy as well as VAT. And under the government's new gambling legislation, bingo halls have also had to cut back drastically on the number of their profitable £500 jackpot machines.

Tobacco display ban could cost retailers £252 million

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

The ACS (Association of Convenience Stores) has submitted to the Department of Health detailed estimates of the potential costs to a convenience store retailer of implementing a tobacco display ban. It is estimated that the new equipment required to safely remove tobacco from customers view could cost the convenience industry as much as �252 million. The minimum a single store could expect to pay is �1,850 but this could rise to as much as �4,985 depending on the detailed requirements in any regulation. ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: "What we have found is that changing tobacco displays will bring significant and damaging costs to convenience stores. As the picture becomes clearer about what the likely harm to business will be, we have still not seen the convincing evidence that a ban would have the desired effect on underage smoking. If the costs are high and the benefits not clear then the Government should not press ahead.

An informal school-based peer-led intervention for smoking prevention in adolescence (ASSIST): a cluster randomised trial. (PDF): Lancet 2008; 371: 1595–602.

Fri, 09 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

The absence of any effect on young people who were already smoking every week, as well as their sense of addiction, calls for greater attention to programmes for smoking cessation. The processes that affect initiation are probably different from those that affect progression and maintenance of regular smoking,6 and youth-specific cessation programmes need to become more available to adolescents. There is growing evidence for the promise of interventions for tobacco cessation for young people,8 but more high quality, rigorous controlled trials—like ASSIST—are needed to move this area forward. We also need to consider other social influence factors that could have an equal, if not greater, effect on youth smoking than could peers. Adolescents are more likely to smoke if a parent smokes, and sibling smoking might have an even stronger effect on an adolescent’s smoking.9,10 Some family interventions might prevent adolescent smoking,11 but rarely do these programmes include a sibling component. Yet siblings, even those who smoke, could be able to provide powerful antismoking messages, given that anecdotally these young people often state that they hope their younger siblings never smoke or become addicted like they are. Siblings remain an untapped resource for the extension of prevention programmes. Social influence processes also come into effect with marketing and advertising by tobacco companies, and some researchers have noted that teenagers are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure.12 Both bold policy solutions and effective interventions are needed to reduce smoking in adolescents. As encouraging as ASSIST’s findings are, an important message is the need to go beyond the classroom setting and into the many domains of social influence that adolescents encounter.

Training influential school students in anti-smoking messages lowers smoking rates among peers

Rona.Campbell@bristol.ac.uk — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Smoking rates among teenagers can be reduced by training influential students within secondary schools to promote anti-smoking messages in their everyday conversations with their friends and peer group. This is the conclusion of authors of an Article in this week's edition of The Lancet. Whether or not a young person smokes is strongly associated with their friends' smoking behaviour. Peer pressure is often used to explain this finding, although evidence suggests that peer selection, whereby young people choose to associate with like-minded people engaging in similar behaviours, is also a cause, However, peer influence can be protective, leading to attempts to harness it to positive effect through peer education. Professor Rona Campbell, University of Bristol, UK, and Professor Laurence Moore, Cardiff University, UK, and colleagues did the ASSIST* study in 59 schools across western England and Wales.

Training Student Leaders Cuts Peers' Smoking Rates: U.K. study finds overall 25% drop in those who take up the habit

editors@healthday.com — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Training influential students to spread anti-smoking messages in their everyday conversations with peers helps reduce smoking rates, according to a U.K. study. The study included almost 11,000 students, ages 12 to 13, at 59 schools in western England and Wales. At 30 of the schools, certain students were selected to receive training about the risks of smoking, the economic benefits of not smoking, communication skills, group work, negotiation, conflict resolution, sensitivity to others, personal values, and building confidence and self-esteem. The students at the other 29 schools acted as a control group. For 10 weeks after their ASSIST (A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial) training, the peer support students talked with other students in their age groups about the benefits of not smoking.

Influential School Students Can Help Lower Peers' Smoking Rates

Thu, 08 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Reduction of smoking rates among teenagers can be achieved by training more influential students in secondary schools to promote anti-smoking messages in everyday conversations with their friends and peers, according to an article released on May 9, 2008 in The Lancet. A young person's smoking habits are strongly associated with the behaviors their friends perform and usually, this is attributed to peer pressure. However, evidence suggests that peer selection, in which young people tend to choose to associate with like-minded people who engage in similar behaviors to themselves, is also a cause. Peer influence itself is not solely destructive, and can be protective, leading to efforts to harness its positive effects through peer education. To this end, Professor Rona Campbell, University of Bristol, UK, and Professor Laurence Moore, Cardiff University, UK, and colleagues performed A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST).

Rank Sales Drop Eases on Casino, Bingo-Hall Visits (Update1)

lnesbitt@bloomberg.net (Louisa Nesbitt and Loveday Morris) — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Rank Group Plc, owner of the U.K.'s second-largest bingo-hall chain and Grosvenor Casinos, said a sales decline eased after managers took steps to counter a decline in customer numbers caused by a ban on indoor smoking. Revenue fell 8 percent at outlets open at least a year in 2008's first 17 weeks, the Maidenhead, England-based company said today in a statement. That was less than the 10 percent slide in the first eight weeks. Cost-savings have strengthened the company's ``profit performance,'' it said. Rank opened sheltered outdoor gaming areas and installed electronic gear that permits remote play at its bingo halls to counter a fall in sales after England barred indoor smoking in public places in July. The company is vulnerable to prohibitions on tobacco use because about half of bingo players smoke, twice the rate of the general populace, according to executives.