What the papers say - July 18, 2007

An administrative mistake by Fareham Borough Council in Hampshire means that the national smoking ban does not yet apply in its pubs and workplaces. It failed to agree the bylaw at last month's full council meeting, so it cannot come into force until July 27. The local authority has not publicised the fact that the town is an exception to the ban, which was introduced nationwide on July 1 - The Times​

Smokers who cut down rather than quit in the hope of improving their health might be wasting their time, researchers said yesterday. They reviewed a series of studies and found there was no evidence that smoking fewer cigarettes reduced the risk of developing potentially fatal diseases. Lindsay Stead, the lead researcher from the Department of Primary Care at Oxford University, said that people who cut down tended to smoke harder, deeper and longer than before to get the nicotine fix they needed - Daily Telegraph​

Kenny MacAskill, Scotland's new justice minister, unveiled a series of initiatives to tackle alcohol abuse, including a change in the law which would ensure defendants could not use drunkenness as mitigation in court cases - The Scotsman​

More than one motorist in ten sent on a drink-drive rehabilitation course is from Eastern Europe (Ben Webster writes). Eastern Europeans given roadside breath tests are also twice as likely as the average drink-driver to be 2½ times over the legal alcohol limit, according to TTC, Britain's largest provider of drink-drive rehabilitation courses - The Times​

Surging sales of Coca-Cola in China and India led the world's biggest manufacturer of soft drinks yesterday to unveil its best sales growth for almost nine years. During the second quarter of the year, sales rose 19 per cent compared with the year before. Sales of soft drinks in China - such as Diet Coke and Qoo, a vitamin C children's drink - represented the best-performing part of the group's business, but sales of carbonated drinks in America slipped 3 per cent during the period - The Times, Financial Times​

UK pub group JD Wetherspoon firmed 4.6 per cent to 580p after it said it was on track to meet its financial forecasts. Sales in the last 11 weeks rose 4.9 per cent But it said the outlook for the current year involves "more uncertainty than usual". The pub chain, the first to report since the implementation of the smoking ban in England on July 1, said pubs were becoming more attractive to the majority of customers, although there may be an initial impact on margins - Financial Times​

A group of food companies will announce on Wednesday new voluntary controls on marketing to children in the US, as the industry seeks to fend off the threat of regulation or litigation to stem an epidemic of childhood obesity. The move, by 11 companies including Coca-Cola, General Mills, McDonald's and Kraft, coincides with a public hearing in Washington of the Federal Trade Commission on the links between child marketing and obesity, amid increasing concern in Congress - Financial Times​