Frankston, Victoria, Australia - outdoor smoking ban in shopping strips starts November 8th..

November 8, 2010 - Frankston's trial outdoor smoking ban in busy shopping strips starts today.

After extensive public consultation with key stakeholders, businesses, community and health experts, the 'Smoke Free Outdoor Area' trial will commence on Monday 8 November in a designated high pedestrian traffic area of Frankston's city centre.

Lighting up in the designated areas during the six-month trial will result in a $110 (111.44 USD) fine.

The council has begun installing 28 cigarette butt canisters in key locations around the Smoke Free Zone, which includes the entrance to Bayside, the intersection of Shannon St and Station St malls, the western side of Young St, Stiebel Place and Gallery Lane.

Mayor Christine Richards said the trial was intended to educate the community about the dangers of smoking. “Smoking takes the lives of 4000 Victorians each year,” Cr Richards said.

“Who would have thought a decade ago that smoking would be banned from inside restaurants, bars and gaming venues? “This is just another step along a public health pathway that Victorians have been building for years.”

The Heart Foundation and Quit Victoria have both applauded Frankston City Council’s decision to trial the smoke-free outdoor area.

Monash City Council is currently consulting with the public about the possibility of introducing smoke free sporting fields, alfresco dining areas and parks, with the consultation period ending November 26th.

This year the Heart Foundation (Victoria) and Quit have started working with local councils to offer encouragement and support for the implementation of smoke free outdoor areas. Since a similar program in NSW (State of New South Wales) started in 2007, the number of councils implementing smoking bans in outdoor areas has almost tripled to 76 - 50% of all councils in NSW.

References: Trial smoking ban begins in Frankston by DONNA CARTON, Hastings Leader, 11/8/2010; Frankston mall butts out, as more smokers than ever support policy, Cancer Council Victoria, 11/8/2010; Smoke Free Outdoor Area Trial, Frankston.Vic.Gov.au, 11/5/2010.

Victoria some related news brief:
Victoria, Australia - govt doesn't want to hear about it - possible smoking ban in outside dining areas..;
Victoria, Australia - hefty fines for adults that smoke in cars when children are present..;
Victoria, Australia - ban on flavored cigarettes../a>;
Victoria, Australia - make cigarettes $20 a pack, doctors urge..;
Victoria, Australia - ban from smoking in cars when children under 18 are present comes into force January 1, 2010..;
Victoria, Australia - 4 in 10 smokers still light up around children..;
Victoria, Australia 5-YR Tobacco Control Strategy..;
State of Victoria Releases 5-Year Tobacco Control Strategy..;
Quit Victoria anti-smoking ad draws controversy..;
Australia - wants to move up date for fire-safe cigarettes..;
Australia - Victoria fires - arson thrown cigarette butt..;
Smoking Device has Quit fuming..;
Victoria May Outlaw Underage Smoking..;
Read more...

Montanans buying fewer cigarettes,,

November 8, 2010 - Cigarette sales in Montana declined from 71 million packs sold in fiscal year 1999 to 46 million packs in fiscal year 2010, a 35 percent drop. The drop mirrors what is happening on the national level. Since 1998, tobacco sales in the United States have declined by 2 percent each year. Still, Montanans spend $230 million annually on cigarettes.

CDC Smoking and Tobacco Use - State Highlights - Montana

Gregory N. Connolly, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, called the decline, specifically in Montana, "very impressive."

Since 1998, the prevalence of smoking among Montana adults has decreased from 22 percent to 17 percent in 2009. Smoking has decreased among youth as well, according to the Prevention Needs Assessment. In 2000, 27 percent of youth were current smokers. In 2008, 16 percent of youth were smokers.

The reasons behind the slide in cigarette sales are numerous, including rising cigarette taxes, increased prices and declining incomes in difficult economic times. A desire for better health and stringent restrictions on where people can smoke also played a role.

The prevalence of smoking-cessation programs such as those offered at Billings Clinic and St. Vincent Healthcare also play a role as many quit just for health reasons. And, there is no mystery that smoking kills. Smoking-related illnesses account for an estimated 443,000 deaths each year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

In Montana, there are several contributing factors to the decline in smokers, including:

— Montana has had a tobacco prevention program in place since 1994. In 2005, it was fully funded by Gov. Brian Schweitzer. The program works to decrease the number of youth who start using tobacco products, helps current tobacco users quit, eliminates exposure to secondhand smoke and eliminates tobacco-related disparities among special populations.

— Montana increased the unit price of tobacco products in 2003 and 2005, a strategy to reduce tobacco use. The state tax on a pack of cigarettes is $1.70.

— Montana has a strong clean indoor air law, the Montana Clean Indoor Air Act, which eliminates exposure to secondhand smoke for nearly all workers.

— The Department of Public Health and Human Services also funds local health departments to implement activities to address tobacco prevention among both youth and adults.

— Montana has a successful Quit Line: Of the 46,000 Montanans who have called the Quit Line since 2004, 42,000 callers enrolled and about 30 percent, or 13,000, have successfully quit.

— DPHHS will also implement an outreach program to promote tobacco cessation among people enrolled in Medicaid. Montana Medicaid provides comprehensive coverage for cessation services for enrolled persons.

While Harvard's Connolly wasted no time in calling Montana's decline impressive, he cautions that although cigarette sales are declining nationwide, the sales of noncigarette tobacco products, particularly small cigars, have been on the rise.

Connolly, who directed the Tobacco Control Research Program at Harvard in 2008 for the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked at the phenomenon at the national level. "We found about 30 percent of the decline in U.S. cigarette consumption could be attributable to an increase in small cigars and smokeless tobacco," Connolly said in an interview with The Billings Gazette. "So, the overall decline in tobacco use may be illusory."

To help put that in perspective, more than $11 million was collected in taxes from the sale of other tobacco products, which is everything from cigars to roll-your-own cigarettes, in fiscal year 2010, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Reference: Snuffing out: Montanans buying fewer cigarettes by CINDY UKEN Of The Gazette Staff, The Billings Gazette, 11/6/2010.

Montana - related news brief:
Montana will require fire-safe cigarettes..
Read more...

American Indian Heritage Month - November 2010..

November 8, 2010 -


Indians 101: American Indians and Tobacco by Ojibwa, DailyKos.com, 11/4/2010.

American Indians and Tobacco, The Bacchus Network, TobaccoFreeU.org. Read more...

United Kingdom - Disappointment - cigarette point-of-sale display ban will be weakened..

Click to enlarge..
November 8, 2010 -

Didn't you know this was coming..UK government could scrap tobacco control plans..

Legislation to block British shopkeepers from openly displaying cigarettes for sale, due to come into force early in the new year, is to be weakened after Conservative/Liberal Democrat ministers accepted that it could harm small businesses and encourage black-market sales of cigarettes.

United Kingdom - Cigarette point-of-sale displays ban must go ahead, say leading doctors..

What's wrong with the Brits.. Just about every physician in the Kingdom insists that smoking should be banned in cars when a child is present and yet the government does not do anything about it.

Wales - Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tony Jewell we must protect children from second-hand smoke, especially in cars..;

Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners (GPs), has has stated, parents that smoke in front of their children at home at in cars are "committing a form of child abuse." Professor Field, represents 42,000 GPs across the United Kingdom (UK). (United Kingdom - head GP physician calls smoking in front of children "child abuse"..);

Twenty of Britain’s most senior doctors call today for a ban on smoking in cars as part of a sweeping expansion of laws to protect children against the effects of inhaling smoke. (Senior British Doctors demand banning smoking in vehicles when children are present...)

ASH calls for a debate in England on banning smoking in all cars with kids present..

Retailers and tobacco firms have lobbied to persuade the government not to go ahead with the restrictions, included in legislation passed in 2009 by Labour – citing the growth in illegal sales in Ireland since similar legislation was passed there.

Liberal Democrat business secretary Vince Cable’s department is now negotiating changes to the implementation of the Health Act, which could require House of Commons approval, with the department of health, with one ministerial source insisting that there ‘will be a compromise’.

Opponents of the display ban were cheered recently after public health minister Anne Milton told MPs: “The government, in discussions across Whitehall (UK governmental administration), is developing options around the display of tobacco in shops that seek to ensure an appropriate balance between public health priorities and burdens on business.”

Irish black-market sales have jumped since the shop display ban came into force last year, argues Christopher Ogden, chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association. “We believe, as recent evidence in Ireland proves, that organised crime will exploit the display ban,” Mr Ogden said. This “could encourage some smokers to buy from rogue traders prepared to sell more visible illicit product”.

Prime minister David Cameron, who has portrayed himself as an ally of the British pub, is not, however, to repeal the pubs’ smoking ban introduced in 2007, particularly on foot of health research from the department of health, which suggests that the number of heart attacks fell by 10 per cent in the year after the ban’s introduction.

In the Netherlands, the newly-elected coalition government has decided partially to reverse for small pubs a smoking ban introduced in 2008. (Netherlands - smoking ban lifted in small cafes with no staff..)

Meanwhile, there is opposition as well in Spain to a smoking ban in public places due to come into law in January. (A study conducted at Spain's Polytechnic University of Cartagena found that once you factor in health-care and early-death costs of smoking, each pack of cigarettes costs up to $150.)

However, the authorities in Jersey – where lung cancer rates are 30 per cent higher than in England – are to go even further to discourage smoking with ministers there proposing to ban it in cars and public places, as well as outlawing vending machines.
(Jersey and Guernsey - graphic warnings on cigarette packs..)

Meanwhile, a district council in Norfolk in the east of England has said – with the support of unions and management – that workers will have to “clock out” if they are going outside for a cigarette. (Breckland District, Norfolk County, England - eliminates paid smoke breaks..)

Reference: UK law to ban shop cigarette displays faces compromise due to illegal sales, MARK HENNESSY, London Editor, IrishTimes.com, 11/8/2010.
Read more...

Saudi Arabia - starting to enforce smoking ban..

Signs warn passengers and visitors
against smoking at King Abdulaziz
International Airport in Jeddah.(SPA)
Click to enlarge..
November 8, 2010 - Back on August 10, 2010 the Ministry of Health announced that a nationwide anti-smoking campaign will begin to coincide with Ramadan. (Saudi Arabia - to launch a nationwide anti-smoking campaign..)

The General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) will start imposing its long-anticipated no-smoking policy at all its airports in Saudi Arabia Sunday, November 7th. Violators face a SR200 fine. “The fine will also be applicable to airport staff members, employees working inside the airport, and those whose nature of job requires their presence inside the airport if they were found violating the no-smoking policy,” said King Abdulaziz International Airport Director General Mazen Khashoggi.

On Sunday twelve (12) people were fined SR200 (53.33 USD) each for smoking at King Abdulaziz International Airport’s north terminal on Sunday morning, the first day of a nationwide smoking ban in the Kingdom’s airports. All 12 people were caught smoking between 9 a.m. and 12 p.m.

Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation and chairman of the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA), issued the ban. Airports across the Kingdom were asked to implement it starting Dul Hijjah 1 (Nov. 7).

To make people aware of the ban, GACA launched an awareness campaign in cooperation with travel agencies and government offices. “We used loudspeakers to announce the ban many times in different languages, in addition to distributing brochures for airport visitors and staff. Pilgrims who have no idea about the decision will be allowed to continue their journey without paying fines, but they could be stopped in the future,” said Al-Khaibari, a GACA spokesman.

Serafi Mega Mall has implemented a similar smoking ban at its premises in Jeddah. Anas Al-Serafi, director of Serafi Mega Mall, banned smoking inside the mall as of Sunday. “This decision is the first of its kind in the Kingdom. Our aim is to create a healthy, clean and smoke-free environment at the mall,” said Al-Serafi.

References: Smoking at airport to land you a SR200 fine by SULTAN AL-TAMIMI, ARAB NEWS, 11/7/2010; Smokers fined at Jeddah airport by DIANA AL-JASSEM, ARAB NEWS, 11/8/2010.

Saudi Arabia - some related news briefs:
Saudi Arabia - Haj pilgrims flock to the Kingdom, anti-smoking effort intensified this year..;
Saudi Arabia - smokers give up smoking prior to entering smoke-free holy cities of Mecca and Medina..;
Saudi Arabia - to launch a nationwide anti-smoking campaign..;
Saudi Arabia - campaign underway to educate the public especially targeting young people..;
Saudi Arabia - Shoura Council to provide advice on Anti-Smoking Law..;
Saudi Arabia - number of smokers has increased..;
Hajj (Pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina) - possible healthier environment this year..;
Saudi Arabia - anti-smoking regulations approved in August 2003 not yet implemented..;
Saudi Arabia - rid country of public smoking zones..;
Saudi Arabia - bans use of cessation drugs Champix and Zyban..;
Saudi Arabia - banning sales of electronic (e) cigarettes..;
Saudi Arabia - smokers to pay higher health insurance premium..;
50 lashes for smoker on Saudia Arabian Airlines..;
Saudi court set to hear tobacco compensation case..;
Saudis to sue tobacco firms for more than $2.7 billion Ryadh, Saudi Arabia..
Read more...