Malaysia: Smoking offenders ignore House rules

Smoking is banned in Parliament except for a designated area be­­hind the MPs' lounge but asking the MPs and even Government officers to comply with the rules seems to be a difficult task. Several “no-smoking” signs placed at various public areas in the august House since last year have also disappeared. Both backbenchers and opposition MPS can be seen violating no-smoking rules.

Yesterday, Loh Gwo Burne (PKR-Kelana Jaya) was puffing away when speaking to Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) at the back of the MPs lounge while Da­­tuk Kamarul Bahrin Abbas (PKR - Telok Kemang) was “caught” smoking in the lounge by The Star photographer. Loh said he hardly smoked inside the lounge.

“Only on rare occasions. But there are many other MPs who also smoke in the lounge,” he said. It was the same at the cafeteria. A source in the Parliament administration said even enforcement officers from the Health Ministry did not dare come to issue compounds. “How do you tell a minister or an MP not to smoke?” an officer asked.

Source: The Star, 04 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/yBFdL

Smoking can impair ability to smell

People who smoke are at an increased risk of losing their ability to smell even the most common odours, say researchers. The research team also found that second hand smokers were at an increased to developing laryngitis, leading to hoarseness, cough, and chronic clearing of the throat. 

The first study led by Norwegian researchers involving 2,294 patients showed that smokers were 12 to 27 percent more likely than non-smokers to experience the symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, snoring, or nose-related issues. They suggest that quitting smoking should be a primary therapeutic measure for patients with these upper airway ailments. The second study led by researchers from Brazil found a link between smoking and loss of smell.

The study examining 56 healthy volunteers, current and former smokers in the group had greater trouble smelling butanol, an alcohol used widely in odour testing because of its distinct and powerful smell. The authors believe this confirms that smokers will experience altered ability to smell as they continue the habit. In the third study revealed second-hand tobacco smoke as one of the primary causes of what the authors term "environmental laryngitis," along with allergens and air pollution.

The study led by researchers at the University of California-Davis, on animal models showed that exposure to second-hand smoke triggered laryngitis symptoms, including hoarseness, cough, and chronic clearing of the throat. Researchers and physicians have generally attributed laryngitis to a viral infection and overuse of the voice; however, the new research has important implications to the concerns surrounding the condition.

These studies were presented at American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) annual meeting.

Source: Sify News, 04 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/HE1ia

Living with smokers may be associated with inadequate access to food

Children and adults living with adult smokers appear less likely to have daily access to enough healthy food compared with those living with non-smoking adults, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. 

About 13 million U.S. children live in food-insecure households, according to background information in the article. “Food insecurity is the inability to access enough food in a socially acceptable way for every day of the year. In households with the most severe food insecurity, there are multiple involuntary reductions in food intake and disruptions of usual eating patterns.” Studies have shown that food insecurity is strongly associated with household income. Since families with at least one smoker spend 2 percent to 20 percent of their income on tobacco, it is likely that smokers are affecting the financial resources needed to provide adequate food.

Cynthia Cutler-Triggs, M.D., of the New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center, and colleagues analyzed 8,817 households with children age 17 and younger from 1999 to 2002 to see if the presence or absence of adult smokers in the household affected the food security of those living in the home. Age, sex, race of the child and poverty index ratios were also noted.

At least one smoker lived in 23 percent of the children’s households “and 32 percent of children in low-income households lived with a smoker compared with 15 percent of those in more affluent households.” Fifteen percent of adults and 11 percent of children reported having experienced food insecurity within the last year, with 6 percent of adults and 1 percent of children experiencing severe food insecurity.

“Food insecurity was more common and severe in children and adults in households with smokers,” the authors write. “Of children in households with smokers, 17 percent were food insecure vs. 8.7 percent in households without smokers,” with rates of severe child food insecurity at 3.2 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively. “For adults, 25.7 percent in households with smokers and 11.6 percent in households without smokers were food insecure, and rates of severe food insecurity were 11.8 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively.” The highest rates of food insecurity were in children living in low-income households with smokers. Additionally, compared with white families, black and Hispanic families had higher rates of child food insecurity in both smoking and non-smoking homes.

“These data also demonstrate how pervasive this combination of child health risks is in low-income families,” the authors conclude. “The burden of food insecurity is a previously unrecognized danger of adult tobacco use to be added to the ever-growing list of negative effects of adult tobacco use on children in the United States.”

Source: Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2008;162[11]:1096-1097, 03 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/Rqqkd

Namibia: tobacco control law coming soon

Cabinet has given the Ministry of Health the green light to table the long-awaited Tobacco Products Control Bill in the National Assembly soon. The Bill aims to make Namibia comply with the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which requires parties to "adopt and implement effective legislative, executive, administrative and/or other measures for preventing and reducing tobacco consumption, nicotine addiction and exposure to tobacco smoke".

The FCTC was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2003 in Geneva, Switzerland. It is an international instrument aimed at controlling and reducing tobacco use and its negative effects on health, the economy and the environment, according to a press release from Cabinet this week.

Namibia was among the first African countries to sign up to the Treaty in November 2005 and became one of the first members of the Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco after the Treaty was ratified by the National Assembly. Wide consultations took place during the development of the Bill, including consultations with the Office of the Attorney General and other Government institutions, the Cancer Association of Namibia, the Hospitality Association of Namibia (HAN), British American Tobacco and other non-governmental organisations.

The Tobacco Products Control Bill is aimed at establishing a Tobacco Products Control Committee to advise the Minister on matters related to the use of tobacco products; to provide for the constitution, powers, duties and functions of the Committee; to provide for the reduction of demand for and supply of tobacco products; to provide for protection from exposure to tobacco smoke; to provide for the establishment of a fund for the control of tobacco products and to provide for related and incidental matters.

A survey by the Ministry of Health indicated that it is too easy for young people to buy single cigarettes in Namibia. While a packet of cigarettes costs between N$20 and N$25, single cigarettes are sold by many vendors at a price of up to N$2,50 per cigarette, leading to profits of more than N$1,50 per cigarette. The Ministry also found that it is mainly the youth who are targeted by tobacco advertising and once hooked and nicotine dependent, the youth will become "loyal smokers" for many years.

Source: allAfrica.com, 31 October 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/qJaKv

India: Smoking parents yield impulsive kids, study

Parents who smoke are likely to have impulsive kids, says a new study. The new study led by researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital has found that children of parents who smoke are likely to share a tendency to act impulsively, a trait that could be linked to a decision to become a smoker.

Lead researcher Brady Reynolds focused his study on the connection between smoking and impulsivity, or more specifically, delay discounting. Delay discounting describes a person’s preference for a smaller, more immediate reward over a larger reward that is delayed for a period of time. It also has been shown to play an important role in the behaviour of cigarette smoking.

The research team found that cigarette-smoking mothers chose the immediate reward (discounted) significantly more than non-smoking mothers. Similarly, children of mothers who smoked discounted significantly more than children of non-smokers. “Based on our findings, campaigns to prevent adolescents from smoking are likely to be more effective if they emphasize short-term consequences to smoking, as opposed to long-term consequences,” said Reynolds, also a member of the faculty at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. This strategy would seem to be especially important for those adolescents most at risk of nicotine addiction,” Reynolds added.

During the study, the researchers examined 60 participants in the central Ohio community and included half of the mothers who reported currently smoking, and the other half reported never smoking. All of the children (12-13-years-old) were non-smokers. “Our study is significant in that it indicates most adolescent smokers, or children at risk of smoking, respond to more immediate consequences when making choices,” said Reynolds.

“Therefore, prevention programs that stress the long-term negative effects of smoking are going to be less effective for those adolescents most at risk of smoking. Also, cessation programs focused on long-term outcomes will likely be less effective for adolescent smokers attempting to quit.” The study appears in anuary issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence and currently available online at ScienceDirect.

Source: The Times of India, 01 November 2008
Link: http://tiny.cc/jsAX4