Tag: wales

Don’t mention taxes
Organized criminals are targeting Wales with illicit cigarettes because of a lack of investment in enforcement, according to a BBC Online story quoting a senior investigator.
Clive Jones of Powys Council Trading Standards said tobacco control strategies would be undermined unless central enforcement were introduced.
New figures were said to show that about 150,000 illicit tobacco products had been seized in Wales since 2013.
Jones said the threat was that Wales would become a dumping ground for criminals involved in the illegal trade in cigarettes – that criminals would see Wales as an open door.
And this presented a challenge to the Welsh Government.
“It’s great having tobacco control strategies but the enforcement arm of that needs to be in place, and if it’s not it completely undermines the wider strategy,” said Jones.
Meanwhile, Suzanne Cass, chief executive of Ash Wales, said the Welsh Government should back the antismoking charity’s plan to tackle the illegal trade via a central communication and enforcement program.
And Steve Wilkins, a former Dyfed-Powys police detective chief superintendent who is now anti-illegal trade operations director at Japan Tobacco International was quoted as saying that there were “vast amounts” to be made from illicit tobacco.
“It is the commodity of choice for organised crime because the profits are high, the chances of getting caught are low and the actual sanctions are very, very low,” he said.
January 10, 2019
No room for smokers
Campaigners have condemned plans to extend the smoking ban to all hotel bedrooms and mental health units in Wales.
In a submission to a Welsh Government consultation that closes today, the smokers’ group Forest has criticized proposals to prohibit smoking rooms in mental health units and to remove the exemption that allows designated smoking bedrooms in hotels, guesthouses, inns and members’ clubs.
‘After being admitted to a mental health unit, some patients, who may be suffering from great anxiety or stress, consider smoking to be one of their few remaining liberties or pleasures,’ Forest said as part of its submission.
‘A designated smoking room can help vulnerable patients who smoke adapt to an environment that may be very alien to them.
‘Denying them the chance to light up in comfort in a designated smoking room is not only unreasonable, it’s a curtailment of a freedom they previously enjoyed at home.’
In response to the proposal to ban designated smoking bedrooms in hotels, guesthouses, inns, hostels and members’ clubs, Forest said in its submission that if owners and proprietors wanted to offer bedrooms where guests could smoke they should be allowed to do so. ‘Likewise the designated smoking bedroom policy in members’ clubs should be a matter for members not government,’ it said.
‘The 2007 regulations permitted hotels, guesthouses, inns, hostels and members’ clubs to provide designated bedrooms where guests could smoke because it was argued that, however briefly, they are a place of residence and should be treated as such.
‘Removing the exemption would be an unnecessary and unwelcome imposition on the few remaining businesses that choose to accommodate guests who like to book a bedroom where they can smoke in comfort.’
Simon Clark, the director of Forest, said that none of these proposals had anything to do with public health because non-smokers were already very well protected from the exaggerated risks of other people’s smoke.
“Extending the smoking ban by prohibiting the few remaining smoking rooms that were exempt from the 2007 regulations is an unwarranted abuse of power,” he said.
“We urge ministers to think again and respect the fact that tobacco is a legal product. If adults choose to smoke in full knowledge of the health risks that’s a matter for them, not government.”
August 17, 2018
Animal welfare makes sense
A dog lover in Wales is calling for a ban on smoking in vehicles when animals are present, according to a story by Hywel Trewyn for the Daily Post North Wales.
Megan Pleasant, 22, of Bangor, Gwynedd, is suggesting that a ban on smoking in vehicles when ‘children’ are present should be extended to include the presence of animals.
In October 2015 it became illegal in Wales and England for people to smoke in vehicles when anyone under the age of 18 was present. Under the law, both the driver and smoker can be fined £50.
Pleasant began her campaign with a petition after seeing a man smoking in his car with two dogs in the back.
The man was said to have had his window open, but even so the dogs were ‘looking unhappy’.
“Dogs as well as humans are affected by second hand smoking,” Pleasant was reported to have said. “It can cause cancer in humans and animals.
“One study found that cats living with smokers are twice as likely to develop malignant lymphoma – the most common feline cancer – as those in non-smoking households.
“Another found a higher incidence of nasal tumors and cancer of the sinus in dogs living in a home with smokers, compared to those living in a smoke-free environment. These tumors were specifically found in long-nosed breeds such as retrievers and German shepherds.
“Unfortunately, dogs with nasal cancer do not usually survive more than one year.”
Pleasant said she hoped that a ban could become law in Wales and be extended internationally in the future.
March 12, 2018
What smoking bans?
A prisoner has lost his attempt to enforce the smoking ban in English and Welsh jails after the supreme court ruled that crown premises are effectively exempt from the enforcement of health regulations, according to a story in The Guardian.
The unanimous judgment from the UK’s highest court will prevent the inmate from calling the National Health Service’s smoke-free compliance line to report breaches of the ban.
Lady Hale, the president of the supreme court, said she was driven with “considerable reluctance” to conclude that when parliament passed the 2006 Health Act, prohibiting smoking in offices, bars and enclosed areas, it did not mean to extend it to government or crown sites.
Sean Humber, head of the prison law team at the law firm Leigh Day who represented the inmate, said: “Why shouldn’t those living, working or visiting government properties be subject to the same laws, and indeed benefit from the same legal protections, as the rest of us?
“This judgment has far wider implications than simply the issue of smoking in prisons. It confirms that thousands of government properties, including, for example, courts and jobcentres, are not covered by the provisions of the Health Act prohibiting smoking in enclosed places. While many of these buildings even have signs saying it is against the law to smoke in them, these turn out to be incorrect.”
The Guardian’s story is at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/19/jails-exempt-smoking-ban-uk-supreme-court-rules.
December 20, 2017
Poor dying too soon
People living in the most deprived parts of England and Wales are more than twice as likely to succumb to avoidable deaths than are those living in the most well-off areas, according to a story by May Bulman for The Independent citing new statistics.
Smoking is said to be a likely contributor to the higher rates of avoidable deaths in deprived regions.
Bulman said that figures collated by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed that in areas with the highest levels of social deprivation there were 18,794 deaths from causes that were considered avoidable, compared with 7,756 in the least-deprived areas. It was not clear what period these figures referred to.
The ONS report comes four years after Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said there was “shocking” local variation in ‘early death rates’ which could “not continue unchecked”.
But the new figures appear to indicate that social deprivation is still closely linked to deaths that could have been avoided with timely and effective public health interventions.
September 1, 2017
Anti-tobacco funding
Photo by Leshaines123
The Welsh government has said that it is to spend £417,000 in trying to reduce the incidence of tobacco smoking by three percentage points to 16 percent by 2020, according to a bbc.com story.
The money will be channelled through Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Cymru [Wales].
The chief executive of ASH Cymru, Suzanne Cass, said the funding would help it support the remaining 19 percent still addicted to tobacco ‘to choose’ to become smoke-free and lead “healthier, happier lives”.
But Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said any further anti-smoking measures would be “fiercely resisted” as adults were entitled to smoke without “unreasonable restrictions on their habit”.
“Instead of punishing smokers the Welsh government should engage with consumers,” he was quoted as saying.
“A carrot is far better than a stick and the best way to reduce smoking rates is to embrace choice and encourage smokers to switch to alternative nicotine products such as e-cigarettes.”
The new campaign follows what the authorities see as the success of the smoking ban that was introduced a decade ago and that is seen as having been responsible for reducing smoking rates from 24 percent to 19 percent.
April 4, 2017
E-cigs a health benefit
Photo by dullhunk
Public Health Wales (PHW) says that smokers who can’t or won’t quit will ‘significantly benefit their health’ if they switch completely to using electronic cigarettes.
PHW on Thursday published an updated position statement providing advice to the public about the potential impacts of electronic cigarettes on health. The updated advice says that, for children, young people and non-smoking adults, the use of electronic cigarettes is likely to be harmful to health.
‘Current smokers who want to quit are advised to find out about the range of help available to them and choose the approach that is best for them,’ PHW said. ‘This help includes proven NHS [National Health Service] services like Stop Smoking Wales and community pharmacies.
‘The advice for committed smokers who can’t or won’t quit is that switching completely to e-cigarettes will significantly benefit their health.’
“We recognise that there are a lot of confusing and contradictory messages around e-cigarettes,” said Dr. Julie Bishop, director of health improvement for PHW. “This is because there isn’t one simple answer – it is different for different groups of the population.
“In simple terms, if you don’t smoke, don’t vape. But if you are a committed smoker who is unwilling or unable to quit, switching completely to e-cigarettes will be beneficial to your health.”
PHW said it was committed to a smoke-free and nicotine-free Wales in the longer term.
January 30, 2017