March 8, 2011 -Here are a few facts about women in the work place and in education as International Women's Day is observed on Tuesday: March 8, 2011.
There has been an International Women's Day since the early 1900s, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialised world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.
International Women's Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.
VIDEO - ABOUT INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY (8 March), video was kindly provided by Russia Today..
SOME FACTS
SMOKING:
* Women comprise 20 per cent of the world's 1 billion
smokers.
* Of the more than 5 million people who die each year from tobacco use, approximately 1.5 million are women.
* Worldwide, of more than 600,000 deaths caused every year by second-hand smoke, 64 per cent occur among women.
* If current conditions continue, tobacco use will kill 8
million people each year by 2030, of whom 2.5 million will be women.
* Three-quarters of these deaths would be women in low- and middle-income countries. Each of these deaths would have been avoidable.
HEALTH:
* On average, women live six to eight years longer than men globally.
* In 2007, women's life expectancy at birth was more than 80 years in 35 countries, but only 54 years in the WHO African Region.
* Girls are far more likely than boys to suffer sexual
abuse.
* Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among adolescent girls in high- and middle-income countries
* Essentially all (99 per cent) of the half a million
maternal deaths every year occur in developing countries.
* Breast cancer is the leading cancer killer among women aged 20-59 years in high-income countries.
* Globally, cardiovascular disease, often thought to be a
"male" problem, is the leading killer of women.
EDUCATION:
* The ratio of girls to boys enrolment has steadily improved, reaching 97 girls per 100 boys at primary level, 96 girls per 100 boys at secondary level and 108 women per 100 men at tertiary level in 2008.
* Women make up nearly two thirds of the worlds 759 million illiterate adults.
* Access to university-level education remains highly unequal, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. In these regions, only 67 and 76 girls per 100 boys, respectively, are enrolled in tertiary education. Completion rates also tend to be lower among women than men. Poverty is the main cause of unequal access.
* On average, across 121 countries with available data, women account for 29 percent of researchers, and only 15 percent of countries have achieved gender parity.
POLITICAL PARITY:
* Between 1995 and 2010, the share of women in parliament, on a global level, increased from 11 per cent to 19 per cent a gain of 73 per cent, but far short of gender parity.
* Parliamentary elections in 2009 contributed to rising gains for women in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, where 29 per cent and 25 per cent of the renewed seats went to women, respectively. But 58 countries still have 10 per cent or fewer female members of parliament.
* Progress in women's representation in the executive branches of government is even slower. In 2010, just nine of 151 elected heads of state and 11 of 192 heads of government were women. Globally, women hold only 16 per cent of ministerial posts.
Reference: FACTBOX: International Womens Day, Manoramaonline.com, 3/8/2011.
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FACTS International Womens Day - Tuesday, March 8, 2011..
Univera Healthcare report - teen smoking on the rise in Upstate New York..
“This is a disturbing set of findings because of its implications for the future,” said Dr. Robert Holzhauer, vice president and chief medical officer for Univera Healthcare, which prepared a fact sheet on cigarette smoking in New York. “Lives are shortened unnecessarily, and billions of dollars are spent to treat illnesses caused by this deadly habit,” Holzhauer added. “Those dollars could be better used to treat less preventable conditions.”
Univera’s report shows that nearly 15 percent of high school students in 2009 smoked cigarettes on at least one of 30 days prior to a survey, up from nearly 14 percent two years prior. In addition, 13.3 percent smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day over the survey period, an increase from 12.4 percent in 2007.
Smoking rates among New York state adults peak in the 18- to 24-year old demographic, at 28.7 percent.
Univera’s report also shows that approximately 815,000 adults across all of upstate — or 21.3 percent, a slight increase from previous years — are smokers, compared to 18 percent for the state and 17.9 percent for the nation. In Western New York, the rate is 20.5 percent.
Simply put, Univera’s report says “national, state and local data indicate that progress toward reduced smoking rates has stalled. Although U.S. adult smoking rates declined from 1998 to 2008, there was no significant change from 2008 to 2009.”
There is some positive news, the report says, noting that upstate New York adults are cutting back as the percentage who reported smoking every day dropped to 15 percent last year from 19.4 percent in 2000.
The report also lauds action taken to allow the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco manufacturing and marketing. It’s all in an effort to meet the objectives of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-sponsored Healthy People 2020, an initiative whose aim is to lower adult smoking rates to 12 percent.
Reference: Report says teen smoking on the rise, Staff Reports Niagara Gazette, 3/6/2011.
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EcoTech Displays - collecting cigarette butts for future use..
Made from Recycled
Cigarette butts..
To this end EcoTech Displays has mounted hundreds of advertising-covered ashtrays outside bars and restaurants. All those filthy butts don't go in the trash, however. After a day of emptying ashtrays around the city, Gabbidon and his colleagues bring the filters to a warehouse in Staten Island and carefully store them away.
"It's our mission to make sure they don't go into the landfill and don't go into the water stream," said EcoTech's spokesman, Larry Dell, as he wrinkled his nose at bags full of about 26,000 sodden filters. "When you see it in this form, it really gets to you what a polluting substance it is. We don't want to add to the pollution."
Queens Assemblyman Michael DenDekker hopes to spur that industry by requiring them to be recycled in New York.
He has introduced a bill to set up statewide recycling centers for cigarette butts, with a penny-per-smoke deposit added to the cost of every pack - hoping that creates a financial incentive for people to collect and return them. "We have to look at it and see if it's feasible," DenDekker said.
According to Mr. DenDekker’s office, more than 176 million pounds of cigarette butts are discarded each year in this country (USA).
Reference: New cigarette filter recycling program can significantly reduce pollutants in local landfills by Adam Lisberg, NY Daily News, 3/6/2011.
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Spain - hostelry sector to present 1 million signatures against smoking ban..
Directly related news briefs:
February 22, 2011 - Spain - the govt is serious - smoking ban holding this time..;
Februaryu 14, 2011 - Spain - Spanish Hotel and Catering Association (FEHR) complains about loss of business.suiness..;
January 28, 2011 - Palencia, Spain - hotels and restaurants protest anti-smoking law..;
December 18, 2009 - Spain - hotel and catering industry protests plan to ban smoking next year...
The extended smoking ban in force since January 2 this year bans smoking in all closed public spaces, and the sector maintains it has had a serious effect on their business.
The Andalucía Hostelry Federation, the FAH, told Europa Press on Monday that, in Andalucía, the owner of the now-notorious Asador Guadalmina in Marbella has collected 150,000 signatures. And in Córdoba province, the owner of a business in Cabra who is also opposed to the law, has collected 70,000.
It’s understood the petition will be sent to Madrid at the beginning of March.
The sector in the Basque Country met to discuss the situation in Bilbao on Sunday, and say they are considering stopping selling lottery tickets on their premises in protest. Another move would be to close down their establishments on May 22, when municipal and regional elections take place in Spain.
They claim their income has dropped by 15% since the ban came into effect.
Reference: Spain's hostelry sector say they will present 1 million signatures against smoking ban, typicallyspanish.com, 2/28/2011.
Spain - related news briefs:
Spain - the govt is serious - smoking ban holding this time..:
Spain - Spanish Hotel and Catering Association (FEHR) complains about loss of business..;
Palencia, Spain - hotels and restaurants protest anti-smoking law..;
Spain - anti-smoking law goes into effect Sunday, January 2, 2010.;
Spain - new smoking ban goes into effect January 2, 2011 - how many jobs will be lost??;
Paper: Spain - cost of each pack of cigarettes up to $150..;
Spain - doctors call for tobacco sales banned in vending machine in bars and from kiosks..;
Spain - the Basque Governing Council gives green to the latest anti-smoking bill..:
Spain - ban smoking legislation wins unanimous support in parliament..;
Spain - tougher smoking restrictions not until 2011..;
Spain - Indonesia`s clove cigarettes popular in Spain..;
Spain - health minister believes society mature enough to accept total smoking ban..;
Spain - cigarette sales are up - so what else is new!!;
Spain - zero tolerence smoking ban this year or next??:
Spain - in June 2010 government will present a law to congress to ban smoking in closed public places..;
Spain - government postpones debate on tougher smoking legislation..;
Spain - smoking ban to be implemented on January 1, 2010 still being delayed..;
Spain - still some hesitation on total smoking ban for country..;
Spain - hotel and catering industry protests plan to ban smoking next year..;
Spain - hopes next year to expand ban on smoking in enclosed public places..;
Spain - impact of 2006 law banning smoking in public places..;
Spain - ready for expansion and enforcement of Anti-Smoking Act..;
Spain - ready for full smoking ban in public places..;
Spain - ban smoking public places - a lot of talk no action..;
Spain plans gruesome images on cigarette packs sometime in future..
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India State of Goa - stop sale of loose cigarettes and raise tobacco taxes..
March 7, 2011 - PANAJI: The National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE), a body spearheading the cause of tobacco eradication, has urged the Goa Government to increase taxes on different tobacco products and ban the sale of single cigarettes in Goa.
Goa (pronounced /ˈɡoʊ.ə/ ( listen); Konkani: गोंय) is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Goa is India's richest state with a GDP per capita two and a half times that of the country as a whole. Panaji is the state's capital, while Vasco da Gama is the largest city.
In his memorandum submitted to Chief Minister Digambar Kamat ahead of State's annual budget, Shekhar Salkar, general secretary of NOTE, argued that teenagers as well as the unemployed youth were more prone towards buying single cigarette as that was affordable for them.
He said there was a need to take steps to prevent the sale of loose cigarettes in the market as they did not carry any mandatory warnings as per the Supreme Court judgment.
The NOTE congratulated Mr. Kamat for helping Goa emerge on top of the list of States with least tobacco consumption, according to recent GATES survey published by the World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India. The NOTE had suggested a few steps to curb tobacco consumption. He said a ban on retail sale of cigarette would surely deter youths from buying a full packet of cigarette which was expensive for them.
He said that keeping in mind the recent increase in salaries in both public and private sectors, there was an urgent need to raise the tax levels by minimum 10 per cent on cigarettes, “bidis,” and “pan masala.”
Reference: ‘Ban sale of single cigarettes', Special Correspondent, The Hindu, 3/3/2011.
India - some related news briefs:
*Chandigarh, India - a leader in tobacco control..;
*India - Cancer docs take tobacco battle inside parliament..;
*http://snus-news.blogspot.com/2011/02/india-to-introduce-anti-tobacco.html;
*India - 80% of teenagers in metropolitan cities are addicted to smoking cigarettes..;
*India - despite govt ban, sale and advertising of tobacco products is rampant around educational institutions..;
*India - foreign cigarette companies could soon find it harder to sell their products..;
*Maharashtra, India - collecting fines from anti-tobacco drive..;
*India - health ministry formulating policy that is smokeless tobacco specific..;
*India - celebs shy away from endorsing tobacco and liquor..;
*Mumbai, India - students campaign to spread word on the dangers of tobacco products..;
*India - cigarette/bidis companies resume tobacco production..;
*India - will delay for a year the use of scarier pictorial warnings on cigarette and bidi packs..;
*India - cigarettes and bidis manufacturers halt production seek clarification on pictorial health warnings..;
*India - Tobacco Board warns farmers against planting unauthorized crop..;
*India - revised pictorial warnings on tobacco products will be implemented from December 1, 2010..;
*India - captions with pictorial warnings should use local languages..:
*India - pictorial warning will appear on every tobacco pack sold from June 1, 2010..;
*India - government set to ban foreign direct investment in tobacco..;
*India - despite tobacco control measure in place - tobacco sales increase..;
*India - still confusion pictorial warnings on cigarette packs..;
*Mumbai, India - NGO activists want closure of hookah bars..;
*India - gutkha and bidi companies NOT pictorial warnings..;
*India - cigarette packs with pictorial warnings are here..; *India - NO graphic pictorial warnings yet..;
*India - Still no pictorial warnings on cigarette packs..;
*India - pictorial warning on cigarettes and tobacco products effective May 31, 2009..;
*India - pictorial warning on cigarettes and tobacco products will be implemented from May 31 - no doubts about it..;
*India - will pictorial or graphic health warnings be implemented from May 30, 2009..;
*India - placing pictorial warnings on tobacco products delayed again...
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