Stop Smoking Way

THE Government faces a major battle over its plans to ban the display of cigarettes in shops and remove the logos from cigarette packets.

Despite initial hints from David Cameron that he supported it, both the Tories and Liberal Democrats are now planning to block the move when it comes before Parliament on the grounds that it will have no effect on sales to children and will cost retailers thousands of pounds.

Ministers are also planning to ban vending machines in pubs and to stop manufacturers selling packs of ten – measures which a growing band of critics say are draconian.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – British anti-smoking pressure group ASH has asked the government to consider a ban on smoking in cars in an attempt to protect children and young people from second-hand smoke.

The appeal comes in a report by the group, Action on Smoking and Health, that said smoking now costs Britain’s state-run National Health Service (NHS) 2.7 billion pounds ($4.74 billion) a year, a billion more than a decade ago.

The cost would have risen to more than 3 billion pounds annually had action not led to a fall in the number of smokers from 12 to nine million, it added.

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) latest report, “Global Tobacco Epidemic 2008-MPOWER Package”, has thrown up interesting facts and figures about passive smoking in Qatar. WHO’s country report shows that a large number of womenfolk in Qatar are passive smokers.

The report says an estimated 33.8 percent of youth in Qatar are active smokers. Of this 12.7 percent are female.

But the proportion of Qatar’s passive female smokers is an alarming 46.8 percent. This is the percentage of women who are exposed to smoke inside their homes. The rate may even touch 50.3 percent, the report states.

Dutch ban smoking tobacco — but rules on marijuana are still hazy.

Coughing and spluttering resonated around Tweede Kamer coffeeshop in Amsterdam yesterday as customers got to grips with new Dutch smoking regulations that prohibit tobacco but not marijuana.

“They’re having to smoke pure weed now and they’re not used to it,” Frank, working behind the counter, said. “That’s why there’s all this coughing. It’s going to be quite tricky.”

The Netherlands’ unique approach to smoking was much in evidence yesterday as it became the latest European country after the likes of Britain and France to introduce a ban on lighting-up in public places.