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** 19 February 2020
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** UK
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** Scotland: Hospital smokers face fines of up to £1,000 (#1)
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** Scotland: Extend smoking ban to cover play parks, Tory MSP urges ministers (#2)
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** Wales: Illicit tobacco seized from Cardiff shop (#3)
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** International
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** Pollution, climate change and tobacco, alcohol and junk food adverts putting every child’s health at risk (#4)
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** UK
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Doctors have backed plans to enforce no-smoking zones around hospitals with fines of up to £1,000 for breaking the rules. The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) said they were supporting the Scottish Government’s enforcement of no-smoking areas around hospitals.
Under the proposed system those caught smoking within 15 metres of a hospital building face financial penalties of up to £1,000 while staff who fail to enforce the ban could have to pay more than twice as much.
NHS Scotland currently has a no-smoking policy for hospital sites, but there are no enforceable penalties and many people break the rules.
Derek Bell, president of the RCPE, said it is “in strong support of a ban on smoking around hospital buildings”, adding: “Our aim is to work with the Scottish government, health boards and services, local authorities and our colleagues to improve public health and we think that no-smoking boundaries outside hospital buildings could help protect the most vulnerable patients.”
Source: The Times, 19 February 2020
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A Conservative MSP has called on the Scottish Government to ban smoking in play parks and outdoor sports facilities. Rachel Hamilton said such a move – as introduced in Wales – would help protect children from harms.
Ms Hamilton, the Conservative MSP for Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, writing on her website, said: “I am calling on the Scottish Government to follow the Welsh Government’s example, by banning smoking in play parks, playgrounds and outdoor sports facilities, where children may be playing or participating in sport.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Smoking remains the single biggest preventable cause of illness in Scotland and we are committed to protecting children from exposure to the harmful effects of secondhand smoke and discouraging young people from adopting the habit.
“The majority of local authorities in Scotland already have policies in place which restrict smoking around schools, playgrounds, play parks and outdoor sports facilities. Our action plan sets out a series of measures which leave no-one in any doubt that we are determined to continue to be a world leader in tobacco control.”
Source: The Sunday Post, 18 February 2020
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A Cardiff shop owner has been prosecuted after trading standards officers found illegal tobacco and cash at his shop. The owner pleaded guilty to one offence under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and to two offences under the Trade Marks Act 1994.
During the visit, officers seized 117 packets of 20 cigarettes and 17 pouches of Snuff, before discovering £7,200 in cash at the premises. The cash was also seized and is now subject to a Proceeds of Crime hearing.
The magistrates, who took into account the owners early guilty plea, fined him £80 and ordered him to pay costs of £400 and a victim surcharge of £30.
Source: Talking retail, 18 February 2020
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** International
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Children in some parts of the world see more than 30,000 junk food adverts each year, putting their health at risk, according to an independent report. The report – commissioned by the World Health Organization, Unicef and The Lancet – found that children’s health, their environment and their futures are not adequately protected in any country.
The report, A future for the world’s children? has found the impacts of excessive carbon emissions, ecological degradation, and exploitative marketing which push heavily processed fast food, alcohol and tobacco, has put every child’s health under threat.
In Brazil, China, India, Pakistan and Nigeria two-thirds of five and six-year-olds can identify a brand of cigarette. While in the USA, the number of youths exposed to vaping advertisements increased by more than 250% over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people – the same group sees over four alcohol adverts each day.
Professor Anthony Costello, the lead author of the report, said: “No country in the world is currently providing the conditions children need to grow up and have a healthy future. They are especially under threat from the marketing of harmful products and harmful inequities, not just the poorest countries.”
Mr Costello said: “Industry self-regulation has failed. Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the USA – among many others – have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.”
Source: The Telegraph, 18 February 2020
Clark et al. A future for the world's children? A WHO–UNICEF–Lancet Commission. ([link removed](19)32540-1/fulltext) The Lancet. 2020 18 Feb
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