Smokers cost businesses £2.1bn a year due to 'fag breaks' and sickness

Smokers are costing businesses £2.1billion each year through sickness and cigarette breaks, a report claimed.

It found that 1.77 extra sick days a year are taken by each smoker at a cost of £1.1billion to firms and smoking breaks during the working day were found to be just as costly, amounting to almost £1billion. 

The report, by the London School of Economics, described the costs as ‘staggering’ and said that firms could make major savings by helping the staff to quit smoking.

Professor Alistair Mcguire, of the LSE, said: "The formula reveals just how much of businesses’ bottom line is going up in smoke every year. The £2.1billion doesn’t even include the indirect costs to company image from employees smoking outside the premises, or the dissatisfaction felt by non-smoking workers who perceive smoking colleagues to be shirking as they take smoke-breaks."

"These costs are attributed to the cost of productivity losses due to both excess sickness-absence in smoking employees and from smoking breaks taken by smoking employees, the cost of commercial fire damage attributable to smoking at work and the indirect costs imposed on employers from employee smoking."

Dr Linda Bauld, of Bath University and the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, said: ‘Research has shown that offering "stop smoking" support in the workplace is an effective way to help smokers to quit.

"What works best is a combination of support from a trained adviser, either in groups or one-to-one, and access to stop smoking medication."

Source: The Daily Mail, 05 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/oq97jn

Smoking link with increased type of heart disease in younger and female patients

Tobacco smoking is a major risk factor for the development of a particular type of heart disease known as ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), with the greatest impact seen in younger patients and women, warn Swedish investigators.

The observed increase in the proportion of milder, non-STEMI cases in recent years may be a result of improved patient management and more sensitive diagnostic tools, argues Lean Björk, from Sahlgrenska Academy University of Gothenburg, and colleagues.

Noting, however, that there have also been changes in risk factors, the team examined data on 93,416 patients aged 25–84 years who were admitted to hospital between 1996 and 2004 with acute MI, extracting information on demographic and clinical characteristics, presentation, investigations, management, and tobacco status.

Overall, 64.4% of the patients were men and 38% presented with STEMI. The proportion of patients with STEMI decreased from approximately 43% in 1996 to 35% in 2004. Over the same period, the proportion of patients who were current smokers at the time of admission increased from 29.2% to 35.0% among STEMI patients and from 21.5% to 23.5% among non-STEMI patients.

Smoking was more common among STEMI than non-STEMI patients, at 31.0% versus 22.9%, and an odds ratio of 1.40. Among men aged over 50 years, 58% of STEMI patients were smokers, compared with 47% of non-STEMI patients. In women, the corresponding figures were 67% and 50%.

The team found that smokers over 65 years were significantly more likely to present with STEMI than non-STEMI, at an odds ratio of 2.01 in women and 1.33 in men. Among patients aged under 65 years, smoking was still significantly associated with STEMI presentation, but the odds ratios were lower, at 1.33 in women and 1.14 in men.

Interestingly, the results, published in the journal Heart, also show that, among patients over 65 years, hypertension and diabetes were associated with an increased risk for STEMI, but only in women.

The team concludes: “Overall, tobacco smoking was associated with an increased risk for presenting with ST-elevation, particularly among younger patients and women patients. These results underline the importance of smoking as a major risk factor for presenting with more severe acute MIs.”

Source: MedWire News, 02 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/p3q87n

Alcohol and cigarettes increase bowel cancer risk

A new study conducted by an international team, led by the George Institute for International Health in Australia, revealed the harmful effect of alcohol and cigarettes.

The researchers said that alcohol and cigarettes can cause bowel cancer.

The researchers discovered that smokers who take more than seven drinks on a weekly basis are 60 per cent more prone to risk of having bowel cancer, compared with non-drinkers.

It is the most commonly occurring internal cancer and the second most common reason of cancer linked death, after lung cancer.

Study’s lead author Rachel Huxley commented on the strong, and largely, unknown association between high intakes of alcoholic beverages with risk of colorectal cancer.

“Most people probably know that being overweight and having poor dietary habits are risk factors for the disease, but most are probably unaware that other lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and diabetes are also important culprits,” Huxley added.

To come up with a solution, the researchers analysed 100 published researches, which had reported on the relationship between major and modifiable risk factors for colorectal cancer that comprises alcohol, smoking, diabetes, physical activity and a variety of dietary components.

Source: Top News, 03 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/pqnjt2