Posts from — February 2010

Nick Hogan, 43, from Chorley, was sentenced to six months in prison for failing to pay fines for smoking ban breaches at his two Bolton pubs.

Hogan was found guilty of breaching the smoking ban in January 2008 at the Swan and the Barristers pubs he ran.

He fought the law and the law won.

Read full story on the BBC here

Sorry, got no time to write about this news. This is a great pledge by the UK government – lets hope they stick to it.

A plan to halve the number of smokers in England over the next 10 years has been unveiled by ministers.

The number of people smoking has fallen by a quarter in the past decade to 21%, and the proposed target is 10% by 2020.

Measures being considered include removing branding from packets and banning cigarette vending machines, as will happen in Scotland next year.

Smokers’ lobby group Forest criticised the proposals for eroding people’s ability to make lifestyle choices.

Health charity Ash said that while it supported the plans in principle, there was a need for more detail and stronger pledges.

Read full story

Graph showing proportion of people smoking in Great Britain

The government said each year smoking caused 80,000 deaths and cost the NHS £2.7bn.

Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said the strategy would “discourage children from taking up smoking and prevent a great number of unnecessary and early deaths”.

The smoking ban in enclosed public places was introduced in Scotland in 2006, and in England, Wales and Northern Ireland separately in 2007.