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Fri, 27 Nov 2020
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The Netherlands to ban cigarette sales in supermarkets from 2024, vending machines from 2022

Bart Meijer
Reuters
Fri, 20 Nov 2020 02:07 UTC
Cigarettes
© ESM Magazine
The Netherlands will ban the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in supermarkets from 2024 in a drive to get more people to give up smoking, the government said on Friday.

Together with a ban on cigarette vending machines from 2022, the supermarket ban will remove around 11,000 of the current 16,000 tobacco vending points in the country, the government said.

Supermarkets currently make up 55% of all tobacco sales in the Netherlands.

"This will prevent a lot of unnecessary deaths and medical suffering," deputy health minister Paul Blokhuis said of the supermarket move in a statement.

Comment: See also: Smoke, Lies And The Nanny State

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Smoking

Turkey bans smoking in public areas amid surge of COVID-19 patients

Tuvan Gumrukcu;
Reuters
Wed, 11 Nov 2020 01:53 UTC
No smoking!
© Fotolia/vege
Turkey on Wednesday banned smoking in crowded public places to slow a recent surge in symptomatic coronavirus patients, the Interior Minister said, as the government warned citizens to abide by protective measures.

Daily coronavirus cases in Turkey have recently spiked, with 2,693 patients identified on Wednesday. Ankara only reports the number of those who show symptoms, a decision which critics have said hides the true scale of the outbreak in the country.

In a nationwide notice, the Interior Ministry said the smoking ban aimed to ensure citizens comply with rules to wear protective masks properly in public because people were seen to lower them while smoking.
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Smoking

Wales bans smoking in playgrounds, school grounds and hospitals


BBC
Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:10 UTC
Smoking ban in Wales
© Getty Images
A ban on smoking in playgrounds, school grounds and hospital sites in Wales will begin next March.

Councils will have powers to issue fixed-penalty notices for breaches of the law, the Welsh Government said.

It means smokers at hospital will need to leave the grounds to have a cigarette. Smoking rooms in hotels will also be banned in 2022.

Senedd members backed the measure in a vote on Tuesday night, with 45 politicians voting for the regulations.

The law makes Wales the first country in the UK to ban smoking in playgrounds and school grounds.
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Smoking

The fascist antismoking crusade rides on: Smokers may be forced to get prescription for cigarettes as part of plan to stop Aussies smoking forever

Levi Parsons
Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 12 Oct 2020 08:25 UTC
Smokers
Smokers could be forced to get their cigarettes from pharmacies using a prescription under a new plan from anti smoking advocates.

The hardline proposal is part of a university's plan to end smoking forever, and includes cutting off cigarette sales permanently to anyone born after a certain date.

Associate Professor Coral Gartner, from the University of Queensland's Centre for Research Excellence on Achieving the Tobacco Endgame (CREATE), says smoking may never be outlawed but there must be an 'endgame' goal to permanently reduce the use of tobacco which causes nearly 'one in seven deaths' in Australia and is responsible for 'nine percent of the disease burden'.

Comment: See also:

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Stop

Wales bans smoking on sidelines of children's football

Fraser Watson
Western Telegraph
Mon, 28 Sep 2020 18:33 UTC
Smoking man
© Western Telegraph
Wales is to become the first country in the UK to see smoking banned on the sidelines of children's football games in a historic move by the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and FAW Trust.

The decision by the FAW to introduce a no smoking policy on the side-lines of its small-sided, children's football games has been welcomed by Health Minister Vaughan Gething and follows a campaign by ASH Wales aimed at de-normalising smoking and preventing children from ever taking up the habit, particularly in light of the Covid-19 pandemic and increased risks faced by smokers.

It launched the policy on Monday to mark World Heart Day which is run by the World Heart Federation and supported by UEFA and Healthy Stadia.

In the first grass-roots country-wide initiative of its kind in the UK, FAW and FAW Trust will ask all small-sided football teams to apply the policy during games and training sessions for 522 junior clubs, 3,159 teams and 42,232 players across Wales.

Comment: See also: Let's All Light Up!

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Smoking

Now they want to ban smoking at home in the UK

Josie Appleton
Spiked
Wed, 30 Sep 2020 17:40 UTC
Cigarette smoke
© spiked
Some UK councils restrict smoking in your place of residence. How much further will this go?

As people are once again told to work from home, our freedoms in this realm become more crucial than ever.

One freedom that is being progressively eroded is the choice of whether or not to smoke in your home. The home - or place of residence - was until relatively recently considered immune from any public smoking regulations. The UK's 2006 ban on smoking in enclosed public places restrictions explicitly excluded places of residence.

Yet now, with bans on smoking indoors and outdoors in mental-health institutions, prisons, and other state institutions, the mood is shifting.

When I asked UK councils about their current policy on employees' smoking, Hammersmith and Fulham replied to my Freedom-of-Information request with a document (produced in alliance with Kensington and Chelsea council in 2015) that said council home workers were banned from smoking in their private offices. The document stated that: 'any part of a private dwelling used solely for work purposes will be required to be smoke-free... home workers are expected to have the same set-up at home as they do in the office. Smoking is not allowed in any of the council's offices and home workers should not smoke at their workstation during office hours.' It even said that 'family members should not be allowed to smoke in the home worker's office'.

Comment: See also:

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Smoking

English Councils banned staff from smoking at their desks at HOME

Christopher Hope
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 20 Sep 2020 17:37 UTC
No smoking sign
© Zest Magazine
A leading Labour-run council banned staff from smoking at their desks if they were working from home in what campaigners say is an emerging "moral crusade" by local authorities against tobacco lovers.

Hammersmith and Fulham council, which represents one of the country's richest areas in London, told its staff in guidance that "any part of a private dwelling used solely for work purposes will be required to be smoke-free".

The guidance was issued in 2015 in a joint "bi-borough corporate health and safety "document setting out the council's no smoking policy with Royal Kensington and Chelsea.

A spokesman for Kensington and Chelsea, which had told its staff that "home workers should not smoke at their workstation during office hours", dropped the smoking ban on home workers when it issued new guidance in February this year.

Comment: See also:

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Smoking

The war on tobacco is just making criminals rich

Paul Wallis
Digital Journal
Mon, 14 Sep 2020 15:50 UTC
Tobacco farm
© Kotoviski (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Prohibition of any kind simply does not work. The original Prohibition on liquor didn't work. The War on Drugs was lost. The prohibition by pricing of tobacco has handed billions of dollars to organized crime.

The tobacco black market is booming thanks to incredible retail prices. In Australia, you can pay $265 for an 8x25 pack of smokes. The rest of the world is pretty much the same.

It doesn't take a genius, or a fence post, to see that the billions of dollars of sales in black market tobacco are the result. At nearly $50 per pack, anyone will be happy to pay $10. I've seen boxes of 100 cigarettes for $10.

Guess who's making the money. Yep, organized crime. The instant solution whenever you want something cheaper. Apparently not content with making billions for criminal organizations with drugs, governments seem obsessed with finding new sources of income for them.

Comment: See also:

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Eye 2

Prohibition by another name: Australia hikes cigarette taxes for second time this year, most expensive place on the planet for smokers


RT
Tue, 01 Sep 2020 17:23 UTC
smoking
© Alamy
It costs AU$1.75 (US$1.29) per cigarette in Australia after the country slapped a second tax increase on tobacco in a bid to discourage the unhealthy (if lucrative) act, making them the most expensive anywhere in the world.

Australian cigarette smokers were hit with a 12.5 percent tax increase on Tuesday, the second tobacco excise tax hike Canberra has leveled against consumers this year. A package of 20 cigarettes now costs AU$35 (US$25) and brand-name smokes are even more dear, at upwards of AU$40 per pack.

Cigarette taxes are a bonanza for the Australian government, which makes about AU$17 billion annually from the levy. However, as taxes rise, so does the black market trade in tobacco. According to the Australian border force, the illegal business is worth more than AU$546 million.


Comment: It's not like greedy governments to give up a cash cow like smoking taxes so easily, and yet they are intending to do so, which should give one pause for thought.


Comment: These extortionate taxes aren't about 'discouraging' smoking, this insidious agenda is ultimately intended to prohibit smoking for all but the wealthy. For decades governments have propagandized the public with warped science, banned smoking throughout the land - from outdoor areas to public housing - and used tobacco as a scape goat for their other deadly policies - from the damage caused by Big Pharma, inverted dietary guidelines, and pollution - and those who have yet to be coerced into submission and still choose to smoke are now being targeted in an arena where their knowledge and will are less likely to prevail.

As we have repeatedly seen numerous times over, and this is becoming more blatant with the baseless and relentless tyrannical lockdown measures, governments given such powers over citizenry won't stop until they control every inch; smokers are just the beginning, 'non-essential' food is next; there are even hints that the disabled are in the line up.

Considering the numerous benefits of tobacco, including against plagues, and that many great thinkers were smokers, it's no wonder ponerized governments want it banned: For more, check out SOTT radio's:

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Smoking

WHO partners with Johnson & Johnson, Amazon & Google to launch new AI-based anti-tobacco program

Gloria Methri
Republic World
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 16:57 UTC
No smoking
© republicworld.com
The World Health Organisation has partnered with Johnson & Johnson, Amazon and Google in its new anti-tobacco program aimed at introducing new tools to quit smoking. The WHO has been warning that the globe's 1.3 billion tobacco users are at higher risk during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative includes developing nicotine patches and artificial-intelligence-fuelled support to tackle both the physical and mental challenges to quitting tobacco at once.

The Access Initiative for Quitting Tobacco program will begin with Jordan, which has the highest rates of tobacco users in the world and will eventually be rolled out to other countries. Dr Ruediger Krech of WHO said that the partnership with tech and pharmaceutical industries will improve people's health and save lives during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Comment: See also:

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