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ASH Daily News

1 November 2005

[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]

HEADLINES

New anti smoking campaign: "I've got you under my skin"

'Smirting': the latest rage in Ireland

The place of cigarettes in popular culture

The costs of passive smoking and new DIY cotinine kit


FULL TEXT

New anti smoking campaign: "I've got you under my skin"


The British Heart Foundation (BHF) and advertising agency Lowe London
have created a new anti smoking campaign which shows how every cigarette
damages a smoker's heart.

The advert is set to Frank Sinatra's tune 'Under my skin' with an
unnerving twist. The lyrics "I've got you under my skin, I've got you
deep in the heart of me" are accompanied by images of a blood clot
moving under a smoker's skin to convey the damage being done.

Campaign 28/10/05
http://www.brandrepublic.com/login/index.cfm?fuseaction=Login&resource=B
R_News&articleType=news&article=525172 (full text available to
subscribers)

Information on the BHF campaign http://www.bhf.org.uk/smoking/why_ad.asp





'Smirting': the latest rage in Ireland


A new practice has emerged in Ireland known as 'smirting' (smoking and
flirting), since the introduction of the smoking bans in pubs and
restaurants.

Enterprising pubs and bars introduced outside areas for smokers to
gather and this has led to a more relaxed attitude to meeting people.
David Conlon, 24, said of the ban's unexpected side-effect "There's
nothing sleazy about asking for or giving someone a light or a
cigarette, so you don't feel as stupid as you would just going up to a
girl in a pub."

The Observer 30/10/05
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1604620,00.htm
l




The place of cigarettes in popular culture


An article in the Independent by Nicholas Lezard examines the place of
cigarettes in popular culture.

There is an approaching reality of smoking being airbrushed from popular
culture. This has started with the removal of the cigarette from Paul
McCartney's hand in the re-released album cover of Abbey Road and in
France where cigarettes have been removed from images of Jean-Paul
Sartre and Albert Camus who appear on stamps.

The association of cigarettes in popular culture is rather more complex.
In films cigarettes solved ambiguous inner turmoil without having to use
dialogue. The cigarette smoked at such moments expresses not only
nonchalance but also unease and therefore feigned nonchalance.

There is a fascination of images of smoking in popular culture: they
turn us quickly into instant and high competent decoders of images. We
know, at once, without having to have it spelled out for us, what is
going on beneath the surface when someone lights up on screen.
Rebellion, sex, bravery, cerebral activity or a combination of all or
some of them: all interesting things. No wonder the images entrances us.


The danger is that images of smoking in popular culture make it seem
glamorous, while there is nothing glamorous about emphysema or lung
cancer. That is to take "glamorous" in the wrong way. I refer to glamour
in its more ancient meaning as "enchantment" in the sense of a magical
spell, the kind that makes you act contrary to your nature or your own
best interest. In the light of that, the glamour of smoking makes
perfect, circular sense.

The Independent 29/10/05
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article323198.ece (full
text available to subscribers)



The costs of passive smoking and new DIY cotinine kit


Passive smoking causes about one death a week among people who work in
pubs, restaurants and hotels, according to Professor Konrad Jamrozik of
Imperial College, London. The annual death toll caused by other people's
smoke rises to at least 3,600 if you include everyone exposed to smoke
at home, as well as those who breathe in smoke fumes at work, the
professor calculates.

Robert West, Professor of health psychology at University College London
said "people should worry about the effects of passive smoking, even if
they only go to the pub three nights a week - and especially if they are
middle aged and already at risk of heart attack because they are
overweight or have high cholesterol."

Reporters from the Daily Express undertook cotinine tests (which the
body produces from the nicotine in cigarette smoke) after visiting a
pub. The results showed a clear increase in the amount of cotinine in
the saliva of the three people attending (who were non-smokers).

A DIY test kit has been recently launched that claims it can gauge
exactly how much cigarette smoke non-smokers have breathed in.
TobacAlert works by measuring levels of cotinine levels which is dipped
in a urine sample. Smoking experts have expressed doubts as to whether
TobacAlert is sensitive enough to detect the amounts of cotinine passive
smokers produce with Ruth Bosworth of QUIT saying "We would be keen to
see further evidence."

Daily Express 1/11/05



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Sarah Ward
Information Manager
Action on Smoking & Health (ASH)
102 Clifton Street
London
EC2A 4HW

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