Representatives of the Romanian Network for Smoking Prevention had meetings with Members of the Romanian Parliament on 2 March 2010. The subject of this meeting was "Tobacco Control in Romania: Policies, Strategies, Future Stages" and served i.a. to highlight the benefits of implementing workplace smoke-free legislation and to discuss wider tobacco control strategies.

Their report is available for download below.

The international Jury of the ENSH Global Network for Tobacco-Free Health Care Services announced that three hospitals have been nominated in the 2010 ENSH Gold Level Award process. The hospitals are: the Centre Hospitalari, Althaia (Catalonia, Spain), St. Vincent’s University Hospital (Ireland) and Salus Clinic Lindow (Germany). Gold Level Award Nomination is the second highest recognition of the ENSH and acknowledges hospitals that are on their way to the Gold Level Award, the highest recognition of the ENSH. To be nominated candidates must show excellent marks in the audit process and have demonstrated evidence of significant progress in implementing the ENSH standards on tobacco cessation programmes and tobacco-free policies.

As part of the award process the nominated hospitals will give a formal presentation of their implementation strategy and outcomes achieved during the Pre-Conference on Tobacco Free Health Services on Wednesday 14 April 2010 prior to the 18th International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services (HPH) in Manchester, UK from 14 to 16 April 2010.

The international conference Building Public Health Dialogue and the Role of Health NGOs in the Republic of Slovenia and the EU takes place in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 26 March 2010. The conference will focus on four main areas: policy legislation, the importance of NGOs, health inequalities and the role of stakeholders.

On 26 February 2010 the WHO Frameowrk Convention for Tobacco Control celebrated its fifth anniversary. The FCTC is a remarkable achievement, as it is the first treaty negotiated through the auspices of the WHO and currently counts some 168 Parties. The International Union Against Cancer, the Framework Convention Alliance, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and the World Heart Foundation issued a joint press statement to mark the occasion.

The event report and speakers’ presentations of the European Parliament event Combating the Illicit Trade in Tobacco and consequences for European and Africa are now available online at Smokefree Partnership’s website.

The report "Impact assessment of the Spanish Tobacco Control Law" conducted by the Tobacco Working Group of the Spanish Society of Epidemiology has been presented in public. The document summarises the overall impact of the current Spanish legislation four years after its implementation. The report is based on published scientific research, survey data and official statistics from national and international studies. It assesses the acceptability and perception of the law by the public, its impact on smoking as well as exposure to second-hand smoke, its impact on health and on the hospitality industry, and compliance with the law since it came into force.   The report (in Spanish) can be freely downloaded and distributed:

http://www.seepidemiologia.es/documents/dummy/Monografia-Grupo%20Trabajo%20sobre%20tabaquismo.pdf

The ENSH - Global Network for Tobacco Free Healthcare Services - has arranged a pre-conference on Tobacco-Free Health Services on 14th April 2010 within the frame of the 18th International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH) in Manchester (UK). This pre-conference aims to address how health service tobacco control activities can play an important role in reducing health inequalities.

The programme is available on the ENSH website: www.ensh.eu.

ASH Wales is hosting Smoke Free Futures: Tobacco Control Conference 2010 on the 11th and 12th October 2010 in Cardiff, Wales.


We are offering an early bird rate for registrations received before the 31st March. As places at the conference will be limited to 300 delegates we urge you to register early to secure a place.


The conference is an international two day tobacco control conference focusing on making smoke free futures possible. Confirmed speakers at the conference include Professor Gerard Hastings (University of Stirling), Dr Tony Jewell (Chief Medical Officer for Wales), Mr Chris Tudor Smith (Department of Health and Social Services, Welsh Assembly Government) Professor Ann McNeill (University of Nottingham) and Carwyn Jones AM, First Minister for Wales.


Workshops include presentations on the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the Framework Convention Alliance as well as Launching the No Smoking Day 2011 campaign. A range of highly interactive workshops by tobacco control experts are planned for the two day conference and workshops details will be placed on the website as they are confirmed. We are also pleased to announce that a workshop session conducted by young campaigners has been confirmed.


The call for papers is now open and abstract submission forms can be downloaded from the conference website.


http://www.smoking-conference-wales.org.uk


For further information about the conference please contact chris@ashwales.co.uk or feel free to give us a call on +44 (0)29 2064 1101

The theme for WHO World No Tobacco Day 2010 is: Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women. Controlling the epidemic of tobacco among women is an important part of any comprehensive tobaco control policy. World No Tobacco Day 2010 will draw attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards girls and women. For more information, please consult the WHO-TFI announcements.

English: http://www.who.int/tobacco/wntd/2010/announcement/en/index.html

French: http://www.who.int/tobacco/wntd/2010/announcement/fr/index.html

The European Commission has presented a report on measures taken to prevent smoking and to improve tobacco control. The information in the report is based on a questionnaire sent to EU Member States in 2007, and follows on from the ratification by the Commission and national governments of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

The report says that there has been considerable progress in implementing requirements to verify the minimum age for the purchase of tobacco products, the introduction of measures to restrict the use of vending machines by under-age people and the protection from environmental smoke in educational establishments, health care facilities and public transport. However, more needs to be done to increase the price of tobacco products to discourage tobacco consumption.

The report is available at:

http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_determinants/life_style/Tobacco/Documents/tobacco_report09_en.pdf

ENSH (Global Network for Tobacco Free Healthcare Services) opens call for Gold Level Award to be released at 18th International Conference on Health Promoting Hospitals (HPH) in April 2010 (Manchester, UK)

The Gold Level Award is the highest recognition of the ENSH and stands for comprehensive evidence-based counselling and tobacco cessation programmes including a tobacco-free campus. It is defined as a prize obtained by health services which have shown evidence of implementation of all ENSH standards, based on the national level process.

According to Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), health care institutions have an important role on tobacco control and shall take effective measures to promote cessation and adequate treatment for tobacco dependence.

In the European Union there are more than 15,000 hospitals that could play a key role in enforcing tobacco bans, making health professionals a role model, and providing tobacco cessation activities to their users.

The Gold Level Award was piloted in 2009 by six European hospitals from four countries: Belgium, Spain, Ireland and Germany which were evaluated in this conquest. The Reha-Zentrum Todtmoos, Klinik Wehrawald (Germany) was honoured for the first time with this Award by its impressive long history on implementing smoke-free policy and cessation services.

The Gold Level Award process started in October 2009 and the deadline to submit the applications ends on 8th January 2010. All hospitals and health care services from Europe and overseas are encouraged to submit their applications.

For more information on this award, please visit the ENSH website (www.ensh.eu) and/or contact the ENSH Co-ordinating Centre:

Cristina Martínez
ENSH Co-ordinating Centre
Catalan Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: ensh@iconcologia.net
Web site: www.ensh.eu

On 3 December 2009 more than one million Bavarians voted in favour of upholding smoke-free hospitality venues in their state. This is an important victory for both Germany and the region. Bavaria had enacted stringent smoke-free legislation already in 2008 but, due intensive industry lobbying succeeded in having it weakened considerably. Now in a referendum 1,298,746 Bavarians have returned a yes vote for smoke-free hospitality venues in a referendum. Please read the press release of our German colleagues.

The ENSP Network Meeting and General Assembly took place in Athens, Greece from 29 to 31 October 2009. The meeting cncluded in the signing of the Athens Declaration 2009:

ENSP Athens 2009 Declaration

The ENSP confirms once again, on the basis of reports from several eminent tobacco control experts, that laws controlling tobacco smoke which are less than total with numerous exceptions fail to protect the health of citizens or change smoking behaviour.

It also heard scientific proof that total smoke-free laws improve health by preventing heart attacks, improving respiratory health and preventing cancer. It confirmed that ventilation cannot be an effective solution to Secondhand Smoke.

The health benefits, environmental protection and provision of clean air provide safety and health at work and help to reduce inequalities in society.

The ENSP calls on all European countries to give priority to tobacco control and fulfil their obligations to honour the WHO health treaty Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and EU recommendations by introducing fully comprehensive smoke-free laws.

Athens, 31 October 2009

Next fall and winter, the "Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique" (EHESP- School of Public Health, Rennes and Paris) is starting, as part of a Master of Public Health, an "International Course on Tobacco Control", composed of 3 independent modules, each module lasting one week :

- The treatment of tobacco addiction, from 23rd to 27th November 2009 :
It aims at teaching basic knowledge of all aspects of tobacco addiction treatment, and providing students with an understanding of the composition, health effects of the different tobacco products and the necessity to regulate them along with nicotine products.

- Tobacco Control : FCTC, the first global international public health treaty, from 4th to 8th January 2010 :
This module develops knowledge on the tobacco epidemic, mechanisms and obligations contained in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) for the 165 cuntries that have ratified. It will provide students with the essential basic knowledge on the different policy areas covered by the FCTC and with the opportunity to understand the special context tobacco control evolves in.

- Implementation of Tobacco Control strategies,  from 11th to 15th January 2010 :
This module aims at providing students with necessary skills and knowledge to go through the steps to ensure successful implementation of tobacco control policies. It will lead to knowledge on conducting national capacity assessment, drafting, securing and enforcing tobacco control legislations.

The courses can be followed in the framework of diploma courses as well as professional development courses.

This training organised in Paris may interest you or people working with you. In this respect please find enclosed a brochure including further details. We thank you in advance for circulating this information widely.
We will be pleased to answer any question, should you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact either of us.

Yours sincerely

Pr Yves Martinet                  Mrs Sylviane Ratte            Mrs Emmanuelle Béguinot
President of the CNCT                                                  emmanuelle.beguinot@wanadoo.fr


For practical information, please contact :
EHESP : Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique
Anne-Marie LEMAITRE, assistante FTLV,
Tel : 33 (0)2 99 02 27 46 / anne-marie.lemaitre@ehesp.fr
Avenue du Professeur-Léon-Bernard - CS 74 312
35 043 Rennes Cedex
Site : www.ehesp.fr

The Commission set up a new website in youth friendly design targeted for the young people. The aim of the website is to empower young people to have a real say about their health by offering them a space to air their views. This website will be used as a main source of information about the Youth Health Initiative.
The initiative emphasises dialogue and involvement of young people in tackling the health issues that affect them and invites young people to be active partners in our work on health.

The Commission launched the new Youth Health Initiative website, which will be accessible in 22 language versions. We disseminate this information within our network in order to involve a variety of young people across Europe.

The website is accessible from the EU Health Portal. It has three major parts: a conference page, a Youth Health competition page and a blog page which will be moderated by the European Youth Forum.

The youth health conference website gathers information about the conference which will take place in Brussels on 9 and 10 July 2009.

A main feature of the conference will be close involvement of young people and their organizations in the preparation of the event. The website will be regularly updated in order to gather the latest information including the conference program, the main conference themes, related documents on youth health, and information about the main partners and their activities contributing to the initiative.

This review analyses in detail how the commission and parliament may appear at the end of the year. For the commission, the allocation of portfolios, appointment of commissioners and the reallocation of DG competences are all currently being speculated upon. In the Parliament section we map out how the Parliamentary committees and groups may look after the elections.

DG SANCO: Call 2009 - New funding opportunities in health.
The European Commission has published the Work Plan for 2009 for the implementation of second programme of Community action in the field of health.
The publication of the Work Plan was followed by the calls for proposals. The Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (http://ec.europa.eu/eahc/index.html)

Published calls for proposals for projects, operating grants, conferences and joint actions.
The financial contributions may, where appropriate, include joint financing by the Community and one or more Member states or by the Community and the competent authorities of other participating countries.
The Calls present new funding opportunities for the European organisations active in the area of public health. The total budget available for the execution of the 2009 Work Plan is 48.2 million euro.
All proposals should address important problems in the European public health and be in line with the Commission’s priorities expressed in the Work Plan.
The successful proposals should concentrate on aspects of public health that cannot be achieved on a national level. They should ensure a significant impact across the EU. The deadline for submission of proposals is 20 May 2009.

Re: The role of article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control in protecting public policy from tobacco industry influence
On July 15, the Smokefree Partnership organised a seminar in the European Parliament (Brussels) on the role of article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC in protecting public policy from tobacco industry influence.
The overall aim of the meeting was to inform policy makers, in particular EU Member States and Members of the European Parliament of recent tobacco industry interference across the world and to explore the reasons why normal rules of engagement should not apply to the tobacco industry.
We are pleased to announce that the report of this event (including the verbatim speech of Commissioner Vassiliou) is available on the Smoke Free Partnership website www.smokefreepartnership.eu

Should you not be able to access the PDF file, or to send your feedback, please kindly contact F.Berteletti:  florence.berteletti@ersnet.org

Decree 2006-1386, dated 15 November 2006, outlines the technical aspects of the smoking ban in France: as of 1 February 2007 workplaces became smoke-free; on 1 January 2008 cafés, restaurants, bars, discos, nightclubs, casinos and hotels likewise became smoke-free.

INWAT Europe held an expert seminar on second-hand smoke and women from 30-21 March 2005. The purpose of this seminar was to bring together experts on women’s smoking, inequalities and gender to examine the issues of smoke-free policy changes from a European perspective, as the adverse health effects of second-hand smoke on women are a key issue for women’s health. The seminar concluded with a meeting comprising INWAT Europe Advisory Board members, which drew up recommendations for The Way Forward for future policy development, health promotion and research at European level. The recommendations aim to advance the issue of women and second-hand smoke by effectively developing research, programming and policy.