ASH Daily News for 05 September 2008

Cigarette packets 'should be blank'.

A Government consultation has been told that cigarette packets should be just black and white with any distinctive branding removed, in an attempt to stop children being lured into taking up the habit, .

Ministers are considering further restrictions on tobacco after the success of the ban on smoking in public places and raising the legal age to buy products from 16 to 18.

Cancer Research UK has called for cigarette vending machines to be banned, packets to be placed under the counter in shops and all branding on packaging to be removed.

Around 8,000 people have responded to the consultation supporting the proposed changes.

It comes as researchers have found that the likelihood of a child taking up smoking increases by 35 per cent for every tobacco brand they know.

More than 80 per cent of smokers start before the age of 19 and half of all long-term smokers will die of cancer or other smoking-related diseases, Cancer Research UK warned.

Around 22 per cent of the population currently smoke so new measures are needed to help reduce this figure and build on the success of last year's smokefree legislation, a spokesman said.

Professor Gerard Hastings, director of social marketing at the University of Stirling, said: "We know that the younger you are when you start smoking the harder it is to quit."

"Our research shows that the point of sale displays allow tobacco companies to package and market cigarettes with powerful brand imagery to entice new smokers. This turns the pack, or 'silent salesman', into a small advertisement and the wall of cigarettes into a big one. Children are still being exploited and ultimately, they will only be truly protected when tobacco promotion and marketing in all its forms ceases to exist."

Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said: "We've come a long way - introducing smokefree laws and making it illegal to sell cigarettes to under 18's - but the job isn't done."

"The evidence is clear and strong support from the public is there – we need to put tobacco out of sight and out of mind to protect all young people. The Government has the opportunity to act with conviction and further reduce the devastating impact that tobacco has on so many lives." 

Source: The Telegraph, 04 September 2008  
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5wy48c

USA: Tobacco caused 2.4 million cancers

Tobacco use was responsible for 2.4 million cases of cancer in the United States from 1999 to 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)reported.

Lung and bronchial cancer accounted for nearly half the cases but cancers of the larynx, mouth and pharynx, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, kidney, bladder, cervix, as well as acute myelogenous leukemia are also caused by tobacco, the CDC found.

"The data in this report provides additional, strong evidence of the serious harm related to tobacco," said Sherri Stewart of the CDC's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, who led the study.

Stewart's team looked at cancer surveys and registries covering 92 percent of the U.S. population.

Kentucky had the highest rates of lung cancer among men and women, while Western states with low rates of smoking also had low rates of cancer.

"Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States and the most prominent cause of cancer," said the CDC's Dr. Matthew McKenna.

"The tobacco-use epidemic causes a third of the cancers in America."

Tobacco use kills 438,000 people prematurely every year, including 38,000 people who breathe only secondhand smoke, the CDC said. 

"Tobacco use causes more deaths each year than alcohol use, car crashes, suicide, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), homicide, and illegal drug use combined," the report reads.

"In addition, smoking accounts for $167 billion annually in health care expenditures and productivity losses." 

Source: Reuters UK, 04 September 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6xqqbp

Study: Younger smokers on fast track to behaviour problems later

A new study which appears in the October issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health found that teenagers who have tried cigarettes by the seventh grade are much more likely to become regular smokers and have behaviour problems as teens.

"We were struck by the degree to which early smoking appeared to indicate that kids were on the fast track toward a troubled adolescence," said Phyllis Ellickson, Ph.D., who led the team of researchers at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif. "We wanted to find out what factors in early and later adolescence might help these high-risk kids avoid negative consequences."

The researchers collected data at 7th, 10th and 12th grade from 2,000 students in California and Oregon who were early smokers in middle school. They tested the students' saliva samples for tobacco and marijuana to ensure accuracy.

At the beginning of middle school, 30 percent of the early smokers had recently used cigarettes, 14 percent were smoking regularly and 21 percent had multiple school problems, the authors wrote.

Ellickson and her colleagues found that having peers who smoke was a strong risk factor for becoming a regular smoker. At-risk teens were two or more times likely than low-risk teens those who hadn't tried smoking by seventh grade to have peers who smoke and five times more likely to have had two or more problems in school.

"At grade seven, problems in school included being sent out of the classroom more than once, skipping school multiple times and absenteeism," Ellickson said.

According to study, by the end of high school, 36 percent of early smokers were smoking regularly and 58 percent had engaged in two or more problem behaviours, including binge drinking, abusing and selling drugs and dropping out of school.

The researchers found that teens who had not tried smoking by seventh grade were 1.5 times more likely to be those who had good grades and lived in an intact family.

Jeanie Alter, program manager and lead evaluator of the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University's School for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, said that prevention programs can benefit teens at risk and stressed that the parents' role is key.

She added, "Clearly, peers are an influential factor in the lives of young people, particularly as they progress through adolescence. However, it is critical to acknowledge the significant and sustained influence of parents. Though difficult to implement, program planners simply must involve parents and increase their disapproval of drug use."

Source: Medilexicon, 04 September 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6huej8

Canada: Stamp to target illegal tobacco

The federal government has unveiled a new excise stamp to battle illegal tobacco in Canada.

''While the new tobacco stamp will not single-handedly resolve all those issues, it is a key element in the government's overall strategy to combat this illicit activity," said Gordon O'Connor, minister of National Revenue.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the tobacco stamp will strengthen law enforcement efforts to prevent the production and distribution of illicit tobacco.

Source: The Gazette, 05 September 2008  
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6pmtcw