Thinktank recommends issuing benefit cash on 'prepay' cards

Thinktank recommends issuing benefit cash on 'prepay' cards

Demos analysis of 'cashless' welfare payments fuels moral debate if authorities try to control recipients' spending choices

Lung cancer has become the most lethal form of the disease for women

Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the most lethal form of the disease for women in the UK, research has shown. Scientists predict that by the middle of the decade it will be the main cause of women's cancer death in Europe. New figures show that the lung cancer death rate among women in the UK now stands at 21 per 100,000 women. Lung cancer has bucked the general trend over falling cancer mortality. Since 2009 the proportion of European men dying from cancer has dropped by 6% and of women by 4%.

How will Russians cope with the smoking ban?

Smoking is a ubiquitous Russian habit. Long after much of Europe lost interest, Russians have continued their unhealthy love affair with cigarettes. In restaurants, bars, outside the Bolshoi theatre, and beneath the ornate porticos of Moscow's metro stations, Russians still light up. But now President Putin – the country's bare-chested paragon of clean living – has signed a new law banning smoking in public places. From 1 June smoking will be outlawed in offices, playgrounds and station entrances, with a ban on restaurants, bars and long-distance trains following a year later.

American and European Teen Smokers

The U.S. had the second-lowest proportion of students who smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol in comparison to their counterparts in 36 European countries, a new study indicates. The results originate from coordinated school investigations about substance use from more than 100,000 students in some of the largest countries in Europe like Germany, France and Italy, as well as many smaller ones from both Eastern and Western Europe. Because the methods and new measures are largely simplified after the University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future surveys in this country, comparisons are possible between the U.S. and European results.

Smoking Problems in Europe

For a continent that spearheaded workplace smoking bans and slaps some of the highest tax rates on cigarette sales of any region in the world, Europe has a serious smoking problem. In 2011, according to a report commissioned by the European Union and carried out by auditing firm KPMG, one in ten Winston cigarettes sold in the 27-nation bloc was contraband–that’s around 65 billion cigarettes.
Making matters more difficult is the growing influx of so-called “illicit whites,” which are legally manufactured in places like Ukraine and Russia under brand names like Jin Ling and Raquel, then smuggled into the EU duty-free, according to the study.
The influx of smuggled cigs has implications not just for public health–cheap smoking products which widely thought to establish with high smoking rates–but also for tax revenues. At a time when many member states are desperate for cash, the report estimates the EU’s annual losses from contraband cigarette sales at €11 billion.

Branded Cigarettes More Attractive

As a major tobacco company continues to lobby against plain packaging new research shows smokers find branded packets more appealing, stylish and sophisticated.
British American Tobacco (BAT) - which represents nearly three-quarters of the country's tobacco market - launched a major advertising campaign against plain packaging earlier this month. It is in response to a Government consultation document which proposes stopping tobacco companies using the design of packaging to promote their Lucky Strike discount Cigarettes.
BAT's main focus in the campaign is that plain packaging shows New Zealand has little respect for international brands and says this will cause trade problems.