ASH Daily News for 28 September 2007

Drivers who smoke break the rules of the road

In a move to reduce potential distractions, smoking while driving could now result in prosecution for driving without due care and attention.

Under the new Highway Code, which comes into force today, having a cigarette while driving is a breach of the rules of the road.

It means that if a driver crashes his or her car while smoking they could be charged with driving without due care and attention. That could mean a fine of up to £2,500, three to nine penalty points or a ban.

The move is technically regarded as best practice but failing to observe the advice does leave motorists vulnerable to prosecution.

It is one of 29 extra rules issued by the Department for Transport in the Highway Code, which is now 135 pages long, 42 more than the previous version brought out in 1999.

Source: The Telegraph, 28 September 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/38dz8f

Under 16s: one in five smoke

A major survey by trading standards officers in Bury found that one in five under 16s are smoking and half of them buy their own cigarettes from local shops.

Inspectors say they will use the results to crack down on shops who break the law and fines can reach £2,500. The new age of sale law also includes tobacco related sales, such as cigarette papers.

The survey also revealed that many young people buy cigarettes with foreign health warnings, an indication of illegal imports and one in four said they had purchased counterfeit cigarettes.

Peter Jagger, Bury's head of trading standards, said: "Raising the age limit from 16 to 18 will help to reduce the levels of sales of cigarettes to young people."

For the last few years, trading standards officers have shown that, by clamping down on under-age sales, significant reductions in under-age drinking can be achieved now the fight is on to tackle under age smoking."

The figures come from a survey of nearly 12,000 schoolchildren in the North West, the largest of its kind ever carried out in Europe. 

The aim was to identify how and where young people obtain cigarettes to help plan intelligence led operations.

The findings will now go to Government chiefs to inform future tobacco enforcement strategies.

The Department of Health says that someone who starts smoking at 15 is three times as likely to die from cancer than someone who starts smoking in their mid-20s.

Dr Peter Elton, Bury's director of public health, added: "It is vital that fewer children take up smoking."

"Everything we can do to make it more difficult for young people to get hold of cigarettes will help prevent them from getting addicted before they reach adulthood."

Source: Bury Times, 27 September 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2qvze6

Scotland: More women dying of lung cancer despite dramatic fall in the number of men with the disease

More Scottish women are dying of lung cancer despite a dramatic fall in the number of men with the disease.

Figures released yesterday show that female lung cancer deaths have gone up by more than 6 per cent in the past decade.

Overall cancer deaths have fallen by 8 per cent and there has been a drop of almost a quarter in the number of male lung cancer victims.

The statistics suggest women smokers are falling behind men in heeding the warnings about the dangers of tobacco.

Yesterdays NHS figures show that lung cancer was the most common killer of all cancers in Scotland last year, with 2,162 men and 1,900 women dying from the illness.

Women in Scotland are twice as likely to develop lung cancer than those in the rest of Britain, with more females north of the Border smoking regularly.

Source: Newsedge, 27 September 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2lcc8a

New York: Report finds fewer heart attacks since smoking ban

Hospitals have witnessed almost 4,000 fewer admissions for heart attacks following the 2004 ban of smoking in public places.

Researchers concluded that such admissions fell by more than 8 per cent in 2004 from what would have been the expected level of admissions for that year, which was the equivalent to 3,813 fewer hospital admissions.

Researchers said at an average cost of 14,772 US dollars for each heart attack admission, the total savings is about 3 million US dollars.

Ursula Bauer, author of the study said: "The 2003 state ban on smoking in many public places is a public health intervention that hardly costs anything, so to accrue that kind of savings from an inexpensive intervention is really unparalleled."

The study is more comprehensive than similar studies that covered only a few hospitals in a few counties. It analysed 10 years of existing data, from 1994 to 2004, covering all of the state’s 62 counties and more than 250 hospitals. It looked at data for admissions for 462,396 heart attacks.

Researchers focused on the year after the July 2003 enactment of the Clean Indoor Air Act, which prohibited smoking in bars, restaurants, banquet halls and places where workers were paid tips or wages.

Using a statistical model incorporating the 10 years of heart attack data, state health researchers identified factors associated with heart attacks: people suffer more heart attacks in winter; there are different rates in different counties; heart attacks are dropping anyway because of better medical care; and, more important, local governments have been curbing smoking since 1995.

If researchers, in effect, subtract these factors that affect heart attack rates, then what is left is likely to be the effect of the 2003 ban, said Harlan R. Juster, the Health Department’s director of tobacco surveillance, evaluation and research and an author of the study.

By this indirect reasoning, the number of hospital admissions for heart attacks should have been 49,225 for 2004, but was 45,412.

Source: The New York Times, 28 September 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2sw3ww