HEADLINES

• Smoking increases heart risk more in women than men
• Resistance training may aid smoking cessation
• New Zealand: Super Fund caught out investing in tobacco
• China:Cigarette health warnings to change

• Smoking increases heart risk more in women than men

  Female smokers are significantly more likely to suffer heart disease than men. The risk of developing coronary heart disease is 25 per cent higher for women, despite the fact they generally smoke fewer cigarettes than men, according to research published in The Lancet.

  Previous research has shown that female smokers are twice as likely to develop lung cancer as men.

  The British Heart Foundation said the findings were "alarming" as it seemed to show that women are biologically more susceptible to the dangers of smoking and passive smoking at a time when tobacco companies are increasingly targeting women with slim brands and slick packaging.

  The researchers, from the University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins University, warn that the risk to women could actually be much higher as they tend to smoke fewer cigarettes per day. In many countries the smoking habit started later in women so the full impact is not yet known.

  Dr Rachel Huxley and Dr Mark Woodward conclude: "Present trends in female smoking suggest that inclusion of a female perspective in tobacco-control policies is crucial."
  
  Links to further coverage:
  
  BBC - http://bbc.in/oHel7S

  The Guardian - http://bit.ly/oThZvU

  The Daily Mail - http://bit.ly/pmDVnM

  The Mirror -  http://bit.ly/oovnpb
  
  

  Source: BBC News, 11 August 2011
  Link: http://ind.pn/o9xLY0

• Resistance training may aid smoking cessation

  New research suggests that smokers who want to quit may benefit from weight training.
  
  Scientists at the Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island, US, studied 25 male and female smokers, aged 18 to 65, who smoked at least five cigarettes a day and were keen to quit.
  
  Participants were given a counselling session and an eight-week supply of nicotine patches. Half were assigned to a resistance training group while the others merely watched a health and wellness video twice a week.
  
  The researchers found that people who did weight training were twice as likely to quit as those who did not.
  
  The findings, which are published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, could have important implications for the 21 per cent of adults in England who still smoke.

  Source: Netdoctor, 10 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/o7LXsq

• New Zealand: Super Fund caught out investing in tobacco

  The Super Fund has been criticised for complacency after it was caught holding shares in a tobacco company despite a policy banning such investments.
  
  It was revealed that the Superannuation Fund holds 80,000 shares worth about $333,000 in Shanghai Industrial Holdings Ltd, whose Nanyang Brothers Tobacco subsidiary is involved in the manufacture of tobacco.
  
  The investment, revealed in response to a written question from the Green Party, goes against the fund's 2007 promise to divest from tobacco-related industries.
  
  Finance Minister Bill English said the fund had one of the world's most developed ethical investment policies.
  
  "The Super Fund has quite a complicated ethical investment policy and I'm sure if there's any concern about the nature of this investment, superannuation fund will be on top of it,'' he said.
  
  The fund said its responsible investment programme relied on a number of sources of information, including third parties like the Green Party, and it appreciated such matters being brought to its attention.

  Source: New Zealand Herald, 11 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/nncOqZ

• China:Cigarette health warnings to change

  From April 2012, cigarettes produced and sold in China will bear a new warning label containing letters that will be no less than 4 millimeters in height. That will be twice the size of the current minimum, which stipulates that the letters be at least 2 mm from bottom to top, according to a notice written by the China National Tobacco Corp and published on the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration's website.
  
  Despite the intentions, many tobacco control experts said the step is "minor" and that it fails to deal with the chief issue.
  
  Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Think Tank Research Center for Health Development, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization that advocates for the adoption of stronger smoking-control measures said, "There is no use in making the font size even 100 times bigger if the warning is pointless."
  
  Both Wu and Yang Gonghuan, director of the tobacco control office of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the warning that now appears on cigarette packs is too weak. It says: "Smoking is harmful to your health. Quitting early is good for your health."
  
  "The package should inform consumers of the dangers of smoking in accordance with requirements adopted by the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. (It should say that) smoking causes lung cancer and coronary disease." Yang said.
  
  Both Wu and Yang said the fundamental barrier to better control of tobacco use in the country is the fact that the China National Tobacco Corp, the country's largest cigarette-maker, is a subsidiary of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, China's tobacco regulatory body.

  Source: China Daily, 11 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/qZ8Dpm