HEADLINES

• Scotland needs to move beyond smokefree
• Banning 'light' from cigarette packs may not be enough
• Time surrounding pediatric surgery provides excellent opportunity to help parents quit smoking
• Ban on electronic cigarettes would be step too far
• Ireland: Blitz raids targetted at cigarette smugglers

• Scotland needs to move beyond smokefree

  Members of the Scottish Tobacco Control Alliance (STCA) gather today for their Annual Meeting to discuss the way forward for a new national tobacco strategy for Scotland. Giving a presentation to delegates, ASH Scotland Chief Executive Sheila Duffy said:

   “I am delighted that our campaign for Scotland to have a new tobacco control strategy resulted in cross party support during the election.

   

  “In this time of cuts and reduced resources, working together to pool our shared knowledge and resources will be the best way of ensuring a new tobacco control strategy is practical and effective. By building on existing, and forming new, partnerships and alliances through the STCA we can also ensure that a new strategy is one that front line services are ready and willing to deliver.

   

  “It is very encouraging that we have a government that is committed to developing a new strategy for our country. Reducing the impact of smoking will make Scotland a much healthier place to live and work.”
  Source: ASH Scotland, 24 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/mANvwl

• Banning 'light' from cigarette packs may not be enough

  More and more countries are banning the words "light" and "mild" from cigarette packs, but a new study suggests that may not be enough to dispel smokers' misbeliefs that the products are safer.

  Researchers  reporting in the journal Addiction, found that after Australia and Canada banned the terms as deceptive, there was a dip in the number of people who mistakenly believed that cigarettes marketed as "light" or "mild" carried fewer health risks, but  the false beliefs began to creep back in within a couple of years.

   

  However,In the UK, which banned the terms in 2003, misperceptions remained consistently higher compared to the other two countries, as well as the U.S. On average UK smokers had a higher level of agreement with statements extolling the advantages of light cigarettes over regulars.

   

  The current findings underscore the fact that no single step is enough to combat years of misleading tobacco marketing, according to Erika Sward, director of national policy and advocacy at the American Lung Association.  She said the ALA hopes that the Food and Drug Administration, which has new powers to regulate tobacco products,  will conduct research to see whether package colouring affects consumers' choices.

  
  Australia recently introduced legislation to become the first country in the world to require all tobacco products to be sold in "plain packaging."
   
  Source: Reuters, 23 June 2011
  Link: http://reut.rs/lgjOIz

• Time surrounding pediatric surgery provides excellent opportunity to help parents quit smoking

  A study published in the July issue of Anesthesiology has found that parents who smoke are more likely to attempt to quit during the time of their child's surgery - but that they are not more likely to succeed. The study suggests that physicians could play an important role in assisting smokers with kicking the habit during this time.

  The researchers evaluated 1,112 children who lived with at least one person who smoked inside the home in a typical week. When surgery occurred in either the parent or child during a 12-month span, there was an increased likelihood that the parent would attempt to quit smoking. However, the attempts were more likely to succeed only if the parents themselves had the surgery.

  
  "Our current findings suggest that having a child undergo surgery can serve as a teachable moment for quit attempts," said Dr. Warner.
   
  Source: Medical News Today, 22 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/lEH72H

• Ban on electronic cigarettes would be step too far

  In an opinion piece, Peter Guillam, a regular poster on the Guardian's Comment is Free section, argues that a ban on e-cigarettes is a step too far.

  "The news that some American states want to ban electronic cigarettes and the practice known as "vaping" is the latest illustration of what has become a moral crusade against smokers.

  "Why, if health is really the issue, should alternative forms of nicotine ingestion, such as vaping, be banned? Unless, of course, health is not really what is at issue at all, and smokers have become an acceptable scapegoat for the moralistic impulses of all societies and the death-denial peculiar to our own."
   
  Source: The Guardian, 24 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/lZvbMk

• Ireland: Blitz raids targetted at cigarette smugglers

  Revenue's customs officers are conducting a major investigation into cigarette smuggling and are carrying out an average of one “blitz raid” every day with a view to securing a record 150 smuggling convictions this year.

  The extent of the heightened activity aimed at gangs smuggling contraband and counterfeit cigarettes was revealed yesterday by senior Revenue official Tom Talbot at a conference in Dublin on cigarette smuggling. He said Revenue this year planned to carry out at least six “national blitzes”, which would each involve periods of up to six days of intense raids and search operations on suspected smugglers and their premises.

   

  A further 100 blitz operations would go ahead this year at airports around the country, involving Customs staff carrying out saturation-level searches on selected days.  Another 200 regional blitz operations would also be conducted by the end of the year at locations such as open air markets where cigarettes were being sold.

   

  Mr Talbot told the Retailers Against Smuggling conference the exchequer was losing an estimated €250 million in taxes and duties every year as a result of the black market in cigarettes.
  Source: Irish Times, 23 June 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/mEMteo