ASH Daily News for 28 August 2008

Blaze tragedy sparks alert over smoking

A fire chief has warned of the dangers of smoking in bed after an inquest heard a tragic Poole pensioner had accidentally sparked a fatal house fire.

Doris Dunn, 75, died from smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in her bedroom shortly before midnight on June 22 this year.

Firefighters were on the scene in seven minutes but, by the time crews had broken into the property in King John Avenue, Bearwood, Mrs Dunn had been overcome by toxic fumes.

Mrs Dunn's son Bryan told the Bournemouth hearing she had been unable to cope with everyday life and taken to her bed.

Despite warnings about the dangers of smoking in bed, Mrs Dunn persisted.

Mr Dunn said: "She was in bed watching TV and chain smoking, probably between 40 and 60 cigarettes a day.

"Several times we voiced our concern. She used to drink brandy in bed and also smoke there."

DC Vicky Worsdale said the fire had initially been treated as suspicious but there had been no signs of forced entry and nothing had been stolen.

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service group manager Craig Baker said crews had tried, in vain, to rescue Mrs Dunn whose body was found on an upstairs landing.

Investigations showed that the fire had probably started on a bedside cabinet beside her bed. The battery had been removed from a downstairs smoke detector and there was no detector fitted upstairs.

Deputy Coroner Jonathon Morrissey concluded that Mrs Dunn's death had been caused by an accident.

After the hearing Mr Baker said: "We would warn people not to smoke in bed. It is very dangerous. A smoke detector upstairs might have saved Mrs Dunn's life."

Source: Daily Echo, 27 August 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5oawjk

Seven million cigarettes found in grapes cargo

More than than seven million cigarettes, concealed among a cargo of grapes, have been seized at Dover.

Officers from the UK Border Agency made the discovery after stopping a lorry that had arrived on a ferry from France at Dover’s Eastern Docks.

The cigarettes and vehicle have been seized. The revenue evaded was about £1.1million.

The driver of the lorry, Efthymios Galanopolus, 43, from Greece, has been charged with duty evasion.

Georgina Myles, spokesman for HMRC at Dover said: “We take a very serious view of cigarette and tobacco smuggling.

"It is not a harmless tax fiddle. This type of activity harms honest businesses and costs the UK billions of pounds in lost revenue that ends up lining the pockets of criminals instead of funding vital public services.”

Source: East kent Mercury, 28 August 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6zmx3t

New study reveals why giving up smoking is difficult

A new study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University sheds light on why smokers' intentions to quit cold turkey often fizzle out within days or even hours.

If smokers are not yearning for a cigarette when they make the decision to give up then they will not foresee how they will feel when they have a nicotine craving. The new study bolsters the theory that smokers not in a state of craving a cigarette will underestimate and underpredict the intensity of their future urge to smoke.

Michael Sayette the study's lead investigator and University of Pittsburgh professor of psychology  said, "We have observed previously that the idea of smoking a cigarette becomes increasingly attractive to smokers while they are craving nicotine. This study suggests that when smokers are not craving nicotine, they fail to appreciate just how powerful their cravings will be. This lack of insight while not craving nicotine may lead them to make decisions - such as choosing to attend a party where there will be lots of smoking that they may come to regret.”

The study looked at the cold-to-hot empathy gap-that is, the tendency for people in a cold state (not influenced by such visceral factors as hunger, fatigue) to mispredict their own behaviour when in a hot state (hungry, fatigued), in part because they can't remember the intensity of their past cravings.

The researchers gathered 98 male and female smokers for two experimental sessions and placed them in one of three groups: “hot,” “cold,” and a comparison group. Those in a “hot” state were asked to abstain from smoking for 12 hours prior to Session 1 and then were induced to crave a cigarette by holding, but not smoking, a lit one.

During Session 1, “hot” and “cold” participants were asked to indicate the minimum amount of money they would need to delay smoking for five minutes in Session 2, when all participants would be in a “hot” state. Smokers in all three groups were required to abstain from smoking for 12 hours prior to Session 2 and would experience the lit cigarette cue described above.

During Session 2, when the subjects in all three groups were craving a cigarette, they were given the chance to revise the amount of money they would need to delay smoking for five minutes. As expected, the “cold” smokers from Session 1 significantly increased the amount of money they would need to delay smoking for just five minutes, while those originally in a “hot” state during Session 1 did not request an increase.

The study participants from the “cold” group were much less likely to accurately predict the amount of money they would need to put off lighting up. In fact, in Session 2, nearly half of the “cold” smokers requested an amount of money higher than what they had initially predicted, while only a quarter of the “hot” group did the same.

“These findings suggest that smokers are likely to underpredict their own future desire to smoke when they're not craving a cigarette,” said study coauthor George Loewenstein, the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Economics and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon.

“The research not only has implications for helping smokers quit, but it also enlightens us on how nonsmokers may pick up the habit. If smokers can't appreciate the intensity of their need to smoke when they aren't currently craving nicotine, what's the likelihood that people who have never smoked can do so,” said Loewenstein.

Source: Science Daily, 27 August 2008  
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6eg3x7

WHO: Stop smoking to fight cancer

The head of the World Health Organization says anti-smoking campaigns are the world's best weapon in the fight against cancer. 

WHO chief Margaret Chan says ``tobacco control'' efforts such as advertising bans, higher cigarette taxes and help for people wanting to quit would reduce cancer cases.

Chan says prevention measures are the most cost-effective way to limit the impact of the disease that kills almost 8 million people worldwide each year. One example is China, where about 3,000 people, or 1.1 million a year, die every day due to smoking.

Chan says cancer treatment is beyond the means of many of the world's poor. She spoke at the start of an international meeting of 2,500 cancer experts in Geneva.

Source: The Times of India, 27 August 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5w6eky

Spain: Study finds 80 percent of adolescents who play sports don't smoke

According to a new study by researchers in Spain, sports and tobacco consumption are directly related.

The work was carried out by researchers of the University of Granada, the Spanish National Research Council- CSIC, the Universities of Murcia, Zaragoza and Cantabria. Results of the study show that adolescents who play a sport are less likely to smoke (8 of every 10).

In the article "Increase of tobacco consumption and reduction of the physical activity practice level in Spanish adolescents", published in the journal Nutrición Hospitalaria, the researchers analysed the relationship between tobacco and sports in a sample of 3,000 students from Granada, Madrid, Murcia, Santander and Zaragoza.

According to the study, with the participation of the UGR Professors Pablo Tercedor, Palma Chillón, and Manuel Delgado, 59.2% of the adolescents are physically active, although there are significant differences according to sex (71.1% of the boys as against 46.7% of the girls). These percentages coincide with other similar studies carried out in the USA, although the results are below those obtained in France (where 75% of men play a sport, as against 58% of women).

As regards tobacco consumption, the survey has revealed that 15% adolescents are regular smokers, slightly more girls than boys. There is a clear correlation between the practice of physical activity and tobacco consumption, as 80.9 per cent of the active subjects say they do not smoke, as against 71.4% of the non-active.

In the scientists’ opinion, these results show the importance of adopting measures to promote the practice of physical activity and eradicate tobacco consumption, as it has been proved that physical activity, diet and tobacco and alcohol consumption are related to obesity, diabetes, coronary disease, osteoporosis and cancer. Whereas the practice levels of physical activity in adolescents decrease as they get older, tobacco consumption increase, which reveals the importance of adopting intervention strategies on both conducts.

Source: Science Daily, 26 August 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/57f874