ASH Daily News for 05 December 2006

Media Room
- News
- ASH Daily News

ASH Daily News for 05 December 2006

[View html version: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/adn]

###################################
######

ASH, 102 Clifton Street, LONDON, EC2A 4HW.

Tel 020 7739 5902 Fax 020 7613 0531

ASH Daily News

5 December 2006

[View html version: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/adn/]

HEADLINES

UK launch of Champix (varenicline)

Give up smoking with The Sun

Tobacco promotions in ads, films snare youth

Shisha cafes to shelve traditional attraction after smoking ban

Doubts raised over Germany’s smoking ban

FULL TEXT

UK launch of Champix (varenicline)

A new drug that almost triples smokers' chances of kicking the habit is available on prescription from today.

Research found that one in seven smokers who took varenicline tartrate, sold as Champix, were still abstaining a year after starting treatment, compared with fewer than one in 20 of those trying to quit while taking a placebo.

Trials also suggest it is up to twice as effective as bupropion (Zyban), the current gold-standard anti-smoking drug.

Varenicline, which works by mimicking the effects of nicotine in the body and which is already in use under the name Chantix in the US, was approved by European drug regulators in September.

The tablets, usually taken for 12 weeks, reduce cravings for tobacco by stimulating the same brain receptors as nicotine. They are also said to reduce withdrawal symptoms.

Deborah Arnott, of the anti-smoking charity ASH, said: "Varenicline appears to be a useful additional aid to stopping smoking.

"We anticipate that there will be significant demand for this new drug, given that more than 70 per cent of smokers say that they would like to stop smoking."

Daily Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/05/nfags05.xml

Daily Mail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=420473&in_page_id=1770

Ed Note: ASH’s guidance on varenicline for health professionals is intended as an interim guide. Official government guidance will be issued by NICE in 2007.

ASH’s guidance can be accessed at:

http://www.ash.org.uk/html/cessation/ASHVareniclineguidance.pdf

Give up smoking with The Sun

The Sun newspaper is looking for heavy smokers who are keen to quit smoking.

English smokers have just seven months until the ban on puffing away in public places kicks in.

If you're a heavy smoker who's eager to quit before then, we want to help.

We're looking for six 50 a day smokers to give up. If you're interested then email us at features@the-sun.co.uk with I WANT TO QUIT SMOKING as your subject line.

The Sun, 4 Dec. 2006

Tobacco promotions in ads, films snare youth

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. youngsters under the age of 18 start using tobacco each year as a direct result of it being featured in films, videos, advertising and give-away samples, a report said on Monday.

Such exposure more than doubles the odds that any given youth will become a tobacco user, said the report from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts.

"A ban on all tobacco promotions is warranted to protect children," concluded the study published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

It was based on an analysis of 51 studies conducted since 1981 covering 141,949 people. It examined exposure to tobacco advertising, promotions and cigarette samples, as well as pro-tobacco depictions in films, television and videos.

"Approximately 1.4 million children under age 18 in the U.S. begin smoking cigarettes each year, and half of these do so as a direct result of their exposure to tobacco advertising," said Dr. Robert Wellman, a co-author of the study.

Wellman said advertising today "fills the pages of magazines whose youth readership exceeds 20 percent, and tobacco use in movies is as pervasive as it was in the 1950s."

Reuters, 4 Dec 2006

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=N04187849&WTmodLoc=World-R5-Alertnet-3

Shisha cafes to shelve traditional attraction after smoking ban

African restaurants are planning to shelve traditional attractions in the wake of the smoking ban.

Restaurant owners said shisha or hookah pipes would be left as merely decorations to hang on walls after the new law comes into effect next year.

The ban will mean the end of shisha cafés, whose clients are mainly Muslims and use shisha as an alternative to drinking alcohol, forbidden in Islam.

But also the use of the pipes in ordinary restaurants which serve hookahs for smoking fruit-flavoured tobacco as a dessert option.

Sherry Eskici, who owns the Mascara Restaurant in Western Road, Brighton, with her sister Bita, said: "I don't think it's very good but what can we do?

“Smoking shisha is very popular here so its going to be a real shame to lose it. People mainly smoke apple here and the fragrance is very nice. It's not like cigarette smoke that fills the room.

"We have many who come especially for the shisha. It's one of the attractions of this place. But the ban won't have an affect on takings."

Smoking will be banned in all enclosed public spaces such as pubs, cinemas and restaurants from July 1, 2007, after MPs voted for the new law in February.

People will still be able to smoke outdoors and in their homes but calls for private clubs and pubs serving food to be exempt were rejected.

Adel Alami, owner of Cous Cous House, Preston Street, Brighton, said: "We don't charge people for smoking shishas, its just something to give people a taste of the tradition of the food they are eating. It will be a shame to lose it because people enjoy it, but I'm not a smoker so I'll be happy. It gives people a flavour of the Middle East but we don't have it in Morocco any more either because its been banned there too."

Others said they thought the ban was unfair as the traditional pipes have less harmful effects.

Bita Eskici said: "Smoking I understand because that's really bad for you but shisha doesn't have all the chemicals that cigarettes have. It's just tobacco leaf pressed with fruit.

"Our customers are going to miss it. We may still display the pipes but obviously we won't be serving it any more. It's a shame.

"A lot of our customers who smoke go outside but they won't be able to do that with the shisha. We just don't have the facilities.

"There's no way we can carry on using the shisha here."

Health campaigners said it was inevitable hookahs would be banned along with cigarettes because they too produce harmful smoke, despite filtering it through water.

Amanda Sandford, of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: "There are a lot of myths around shisha smoking but it could be worse than smoking cigarettes.

"A water pipe smoker may inhale as much smoke as a someone smoking 100 cigarettes because they smoke for longer. The inhalation of smoke is far greater and there are enough studies to show there are short-term health consequences."

Brighton & Hove Argus, 4 Dec. 2006

http://tinyurl.com/yc34dn

Doubts raised over Germany’s smoking ban

Two days after Germany's ruling parties agreed to ban smoking in trains, public buildings and discotheques, but not in bars, officials cautioned that the federal government may lack the legal power to impose such a ban.

The 16 states of Germany have extensive rights that cannot be overridden by Berlin.

The Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel am Sonntag said senior Christian Democrat and Social Democrat officials who agreed Friday to the ban were asking the government to study whether a nationwide smoking ban would survive challenge in the courts from tobacco users.

Rupert Scholz, a Berlin constitutional lawyer and former minister, warned that the federal government could not for example regulate how people behaved in the offices of state or local governments.

On Friday, the federal government's spokesman, Thomas Steg, stressed the federal government also had no authority over schools.

The two coalition parties said Friday they would recommend parliament vote on a compromise ban, applying to public transport and public buildings including schools, hospitals and government offices.

Smoking would be banned in nightclubs, but not in bars and pubs. Restaurants would have to provide no-smoking areas.

In Italy, Ireland and Scotland, smoking has been banned in pubs and bars. France and England are planning similar bans soon.

Expatica.com 5 Dec. 2006

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=52&story_id=34824

PASTE MESSEAGE HERE#######
###################################

----------------------------------
To unsubscribe from ASH Daily News, simple follow the link below:

Public subscribers: http://www.ash.org.uk/html/maillist/unsubscribe.php
Globalink members: http://member.globalink.org/nbuk
----------------------------------