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FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK
In breaking news, the Government has formally announced that it will not be introducing legislation to ban retail tobacco displays. Read the details, and the reactions, in this issue of the Update.
Last week we learned that Executive Director of The Quit Group, Helen Glasgow, will be stepping down in August. Helen, a former Chair of the Smokefree Coalition
and founding Board member, has worked tirelessly for the tobacco control cause for decades.
She contributed to the passage of the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990, which required smokefree offices and a ban on tobacco product advertising and sponsorship. There was bitter opposition to the legislation, and advocates were subject to scathing comments from politicians, sports organisations worried at losing their tobacco company sponsorship, the media and the public.
As a member of the group Coalition against Tobacco Advertising and Promotion, Helen provided key communications advice that resulted in a skilful programme to garner public support and influence stakeholders. With the passage of this legislation, New Zealand was considered a world leader in tobacco control.
 In 1998, Helen and HSC's Iain Potter worked with Te Hotu Manawa Māori to set up The Quit Group to demonstrate the benefits of a smoking cessation television campaign with a linked Quitline. The three organisations set up a pilot in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty areas. The Quit Group gained Ministry of Health funding for a national smoking cessation service and Helen became Executive Director in 2000.
In 2004, Helen received the Queen's Service Medal, and in 2006, Hone Harawira's Black Rock award for her work in reducing smoking rates among Māori.
Helen was also heavily involved in supporting the passage of the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 2003, which banned smoking in workplaces, including bars and restaurants.
Anthropologist Margaret Mead said Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does. Helen Glasgow is one of those people who has made a real difference.
We wish her all the best in the future, as she undertakes consultancy and board work.
Have a good fortnight.
Mark Peck
Director
Smokefree Coalition
IN THIS ISSUE:
- No ban on tobacco displays – Government
- The Ban Cigarette Displays campaign responds to John Key's Sunrise appearance
- Roger award goes to tobacco firm
- Self-dousing cigarettes to cut bushfire risk
- Oceania Tobacco Control 09
- Decreased aortic elasticity in healthy children exposed to tobacco smoke
- Through the smoke
- Smokefree shorts
- Quotable quotes
No ban on tobacco displays – Government
The Government has confirmed it will not be introducing legislation to ban retail tobacco displays, at the moment.
A report from the Health Select Committee recommended new legislation to force retailers to have tobacco products stored out of sight.
In a media release issued late yesterday afternoon, Health Minister Tony Ryall noted the Select Committee reported that evidence could not directly link the banning of displays with decreasing smoking rates.
Responding to the Health Committee's report, the Government also commended the efforts of health and other groups whose efforts have contributed to the recent declines in tobacco use.
Mr Ryall said, "We are committed to continuing efforts to reduce smoking rates and tobacco use, and to exploring new effective initiatives to support this.
"The Government will consider any options, including legislation, if international or domestic research gives us a compelling case that it would lead to a significant decrease in tobacco use.
"I have asked the Ministry to keep monitoring international moves in this area, and if research suggests that a ban on displays would result in a significant reduction in tobacco use, then the Government would give the issue further consideration."
What they say:
"Stopping the tobacco industry from advertising its products at point of sale is a vital step towards ensuring that the next generation of young New Zealanders don't get hooked on an addictive product which kills half of its long-term users."
Peter Foley, New Zealand Medical Association Chair
"Smoking is often called a paediatric disease because nicotine addiction invariably begins in childhood and adolescence. We need to do everything in our power as a community to protect children from starting smoking."
Dr Philip Pattemore, Paediatric Society of New Zealand
"We can't afford to continue to send mixed messages to young people. There are plenty of anti-smoking messages around, yet to see tobacco sitting alongside bread and milk in shops like it is a normal everyday product contradicts those messages."
High profile sports doctor John Mayhew
"The mum and dad family retailers around New Zealand thank the National-led Government for the commonsense approach to the display of tobacco products in dairies and convenience stores."
Stay Display Coalition media release
"John Key said there's no international evidence that removing tobacco displays would affect smoking rates. Clearly the National Government has capitulated to the tobacco lobby, favouring their interests ahead of the national interest."
Green Party media release
"The lobbying power of the anti-tobacco industry had done everything to misrepresent and drown out the voice of retailers, so hearing the Prime Minister's comments [that he didn't favour a ban on tobacco displays] were a sign of common sense coming through."
New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores.
"The simple truth is that we're letting tobacco companies use shop displays to reach children."
Barnardos spokesperson Peter Gerrie
"This is the only product that kills when used as intended – it's not ok to put it in front of our kids as if it is a normal product."
Plunket National Policy Analyst Cathy Kern
"Often times advertising and displays are positioned close to discretionary spend items such as sweets and chocolate and send a strong message to kids that smoking is ok. It certainly appears to undermine the values that many parents aim to communicate to their children."
Parents Centres New Zealand Chief Executive, Viv Gurrey
The Government response document does not yet appear to be online
so the Smokefree Coalition has typed up a copy which you can read
here. Read the New Zealand Government media release
here.
THE BAN CIGARETTE DISPLAYS CAMPAIGN RESPONDS TO JOHN KEY'S SUNRISE APPEARANCE
by Belinda Keenan, Cancer Society of New Zealand
Before the Government made its official announcement on the display ban yesterday, Prime Minister John Key stated on Sunrise (TV3, 24 February) that he did not support a ban on tobacco displays at this point in time. He argued that there was no international evidence and that the move would be "hugely expensive".
You can find the responses to these concerns on the campaign website at
www.protectourchildren.org.nz/index.php?id=175.
Although this stance is disappointing the door has been left open with the
inclusion of the comment 'at this time'. The Government's response
statement to the Health Select Committee also mentions a willingness to consider
legislation in the future, so this by no means signals that we are
giving up. We will achieve a ban on tobacco displays, the only issue is the
amount of time it will take.
We have recently sent a letter to all MPs, signed by 25 major national medical, public health and youth and child advocacy groups calling for their support for this issue. We will be working with supportive MPs to sponsor a private member's bill. We need to continue to lobby MPs to identify more who may be interested in sponsoring a bill so that when it comes to a vote we
will have the numbers.
View the Sunrise interview online here.
Roger award goes to tobacco firm
The annual "Roger Award for Worst Transnational Corporation" operating in New Zealand has gone to British American Tobacco (BAT).
The award, named after former finance minister and ACT Party co-founder Sir Roger Douglas and organised by the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa, was announced in Auckland tonight.
The panel of six judges said BAT's product killed 5000 people every year and ruined the lives of tens of thousands.
"It perennially refuses to take responsibility for the social and economic consequences of its activity, while maintaining a major public relations effort to subvert the efforts of the Government to reduce cigarette consumption."
It was "a conspicuously bad corporate citizen", they said.
The first Roger was awarded in 1997. Past winners include Telecom, supermarket group Progressive Enterprises, Tranz Rail and Monsanto.
The 2008 award judges were former Waikato University vice-chancellor Bryan Gould, Victoria University economist Geoff Bertram, immediate past-president of the Methodist Church Brian Turner, writer Christine Dann and trade unionists Paul Corliss and Cee Payne.
Otago Daily Times, 2 March 2009
Self-dousing cigarettes to cut bushfire risk
Canberra is fast-tracking new laws forcing tobacco companies to make cigarettes that snuff themselves out.
The hi-tech cigarettes, designed with paper "speed bumps" so they extinguish automatically, were debated for four years before the federal Government legislated six months ago to make them mandatory.
Now, in the wake of the Black Saturday blazes that have killed 208 people and left 10,000 homeless, the Government hopes to bring forward the March 2010 deadline so safer cigarettes are in use before next summer's bushfire season.
Consumer Affairs Minister Chris Bowen warned the reduced fire-risk cigarettes were not foolproof in preventing fire.
"Smokers will need to continue to dispose of their cigarettes and ash carefully,"
he said.
Tobacco giant Philip Morris confirmed it was on track to produce the new cigarettes from March next year.
University of Sydney health professor Simon Chapman, who was a member of the World Health Organization's expert advisory panel on tobacco and health for 18 years, said there was no excuse to wait any longer to introduce cigarettes already mandatory in Canada and parts of the US.
"There is no God-given reason why this proposal cannot be introduced before the next bushfire season," he said.
"All the firms have the technology to do it. It is appalling that governments allow the tobacco industry to push them around in terms of implementation."
A lobby of 40 anti-smoking organisations is writing to Attorney-General Robert McClelland to demand the cigarettes become mandatory by September. "The recent devastating fires have highlighted the urgency of all sections of society doing their utmost to minimise further risk of fire," says the letter, on behalf of the Protecting Children from Tobacco coalition.
"Cigarettes are conservatively estimated to cause an average of 14 bushfires a year in Australia, and smouldering butts also start many fires in houses and cars – with children often the victims."
The Australian, 20 February 2009
 OCEANIA TOBACCO CONTROL 09
Mark it in your diary now! The Oceania Tobacco Control Conference 2009 will be held in Darwin, Australia 7-9 October.
The theme for this year's conference is 'Reducing inequality through tobacco control'.
DECREASED AORTIC ELASTICITY IN HEALTHY CHILDREN EXPOSED TO TOBACCO SMOKE
Almost 400 11-year-old children from an artherosclerosis prevention trial were studied, their aortic and carotid elasticities were measured as was their exposure to tobacco smoke.
The study, by University of Turku (Finland) researchers found that the more exposure to tobacco smoke the children experienced the stiffer their aorta.
Previous research has made the link between a stiff aorta and an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Read more of the study.
THROUGH THE SMOKE
Tobacco displays – the facts
-
 Tobacco displays are an anomaly. While the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990 banned most types of advertising and sponsorship, an exemption was made for tobacco displays.
- The tobacco industry actively uses displays to promote tobacco products.
- Tobacco displays increase the likelihood a child will start to smoke.
- Tobacco displays trigger impulse purchasing and relapse.
- There is growing international momentum to ban tobacco displays.
- There is no evidence of a negative economic impact on retailers, associated with a ban on tobacco displays.
- The more often young people see tobacco displays the more likely they are to smoke.
- The more tobacco outlets there are, and in-store advertising there is, the more likely young people are to smoke.
- The more heavily tobacco brands are promoted in shops, the more likely young people are to smoke them.
Source: Tobacco Displays Fact Sheet. Cancer Society and ASH, January 2009.
SMOKEFREE SHORTS
New Zealand
No evidence tobacco ad ban works: NZ PM
 A call to ban tobacco displays from shops has not got the support of the National Government at this stage, Prime Minister John Key says.
Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) NZ and other lobbyists have been pushing for tobacco displays to go, but a retail coalition has argued it would be expensive and ineffective.
High profile sports team doctor John Mayhew last week said the displays were essentially mini-billboards.
"We can't afford to continue to send mixed messages to young people. There are plenty of anti-smoking messages around, yet to see tobacco sitting alongside bread and milk in shops like it is a normal everyday product contradicts those messages," Dr Mayhew said.
NZPA, 24 February 2009
Park smoking ban leaves councillor fuming
A drive to "denormalise" smoking has got one Horowhenua District Councillor fuming.
At a council meeting this month, councillors voted to work with MidCentral District Health Board on implementing a smokefree policy that would see smokefree signs in playgrounds, sports grounds, parks and reserves.
Levin Ward councillor Tony Rush denounced the way smokers were treated in the document and the way language had been used. He said language like "denormalising" smoking was an example of political correctness gone wrong.
Horowhenua Mail, 19 February 2009
Smokefree dairy gets warm reception
Vise and Soifua Peni's dairy stocks nearly everything you need – unless you're a smoker. The Samoan dairy owners do not stock cigarettes or alcohol in their store, called Blessing from God, located in the Maraenui shopping centre.
The Christian couple said their religious beliefs meant they did not drink or smoke and therefore did not want to promote it either.
"We don't care about the money, we care about the people."
The pair has received praise from fellow churchgoers.
Hawkes Bay Today, 24 February 2009
Drop in smoking challenged
Smoking rates have not dropped by as much as the Health Ministry has reported, a study published in the New Zealand Medical Journal suggests.
Health researcher Murray Laugesen says the implication that the number of smokers had dropped from 22.8 per cent to 18.1 per cent of the population in four years is "highly doubtful".
Dominion Post, 27 February 2009
International
Scotland to ban cigarette displays in stores
 Cigarette
sales in Scotland will be further restricted after ministers announced plans
today to outlaw cigarette vending machines and ban shops from openly displaying
tobacco.
The sweeping measures will include a new registration scheme for shops
selling tobacco products, on-the-spot fines for retailers who sell to under-18s
and sales bans against retailers who continually sell to underage smokers.
The tobacco control bill, unveiled by the Scottish Public Health Minister, Shona
Robison is expected to get cross-party support in the
devolved parliament in Edinburgh.
The Guardian, 26 February 2009
Second-hand smoke linked to dementia, diabetes
Exposure to second-hand smoke boosts the risk of dementia and other cognitive problems, even among people who have never smoked, the largest study of its kind says.
A team led by Cambridge University professor David Llewellyn found that even people who had never smoked but kept constant company with smokers performed less well in cognitive tests.
In the most exposed group, the risk of cognitive impairment was 44 percent higher than a benchmark group.
Wanganui Chronicle, 18 February 2009
Researchers investigate prenatal smoking link with antisocial behaviour
A Cardiff University research project has for the first time studied whether smoking during pregnancy can directly make children more likely to behave anti-socially.
The unique study by scientists at the University's Schools of Medicine and Psychology found a link between anti-social behaviour in children whose mothers smoked in pregnancy – but only when the mother was genetically linked to the child.
Science Daily, 10 February 2009
Children worry about parents' smoking
Parents who smoke are causing huge emotional distress to their teenage children, a poll for the British Department of Health has revealed. It says 46
percent of secondary school pupils with smoking parents said one of their main worries was their parents' inability or unwillingness to stop.
This compared with 37 percent who were worried about money, 29 percent about bullying and 17
percent about the possibility of divorce.
The Guardian, 18 February 2009
Kids who watch R-rated movies are more likely to smoke
 A new study finds that kids who are allowed to watch R-rated movies are much more likely to believe it's easy to get a cigarette than those who aren't allowed to watch such films.
"We don't know why this is so. It may have to do with a parenting style that is permissive of activities that are not age-appropriate. Or it may be an outcome of all the smoking scenes in R-rated movies," says lead author of the study Chyke Doubeni, PhD, with the University of Massachusetts Medical School. The study appears in the
21 February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
EurekAlert, 23 February 2009
How the tobacco business got it right from the start
A CDC report earlier this month said Marlboro cigarettes were the No. 1 choice of teen smokers, which prompted critics to once again blame marketing as the cause. A company spokesman countered that the influence of adult smokers was far more likely to blame for teenagers' brand preference.
I think he's right.
Advertising Age, 25 February 2009
Teens from smokefree homes carry on tradition
Teens who live in homes with smoking bans are apt to choose a similar living arrangement when they move into their own place, a new study has found.
Researchers from the Boston University School of Public Health tracked 693 adolescents, 12 to 17 years old at the start of the study. Eventually, all the youths moved out of their parents' houses and lived independently, some at colleges or universities and others in apartments or other types of residences.
Yahoo News, 27 February 2009
QUOTABLE QUOTES
"It's putting out one fire for another."
Tauranga City Councillor Murray Guy, who has stayed smokefree for nine months, collecting $5 bets from his fellow councillors that he wouldn't do it, and donating the money to the appeal for the Australia bushfire victims.
Bay of Plenty Times, 20 February 2009
"Parks are places for children to be active, play sport and keep fit and healthy. It's not appropriate they should also be places where children are exposed to people smoking."
Manukau Mayor Len Brown welcomes the launch of his council's smokefree parks policy, at the 2009 ASB Polyfest, which starts on 18 March.
New Zealand Herald, 2 March 2009
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