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ASH Daily news for 14 March 2011

HEADLINES

  • Plainly put, cigarette packaging matters

    Ben Goldacre author of the Saturday's Guardian column "Bad Science" reviews the evidence on plain packaging of tobacco products and concludes:

    There's no real doubt that the extended, complex, interlocking branding and packaging machinations of cigarette companies play a big role in misleading smokers about the risks, by downplaying them, and sadly nothing from Unite –for shame –or some Tory MP will change that.

    If you don't care about this evidence, or you think jobs are more important than people killed by cigarettes, or you think libertarian principles are more important than both, then that's a different matter. But if you say the evidence doesn't show evidence of harm from branded packaging, you are simply wrong.

    Source: The Guardian, 12 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/dUzm37

  • Want to stub out smoking? Put Kate's mug on every pack

    Below is an extract from an article by Jan Moir, a columnist with the Daily Mail:

    When Kate first appeared at the show on Wednesday, blowing insouciant clouds of fag reek as she marched down the Paris catwalk for designer Marc Jacobs, many in the fashion audience gasped and then applauded. Really.

    Just when you think the health message sent out by the fashion world couldn’t get any more corroded or perverse, Moss lights a spark under a whole new bonfire of vanities.

    Well fair enough if the 37-year-old chooses to smoke in her private life. It’s her choice. She’s an adult. So puff away to your creaking heart’s content, darling. But please, just don’t do it on a catwalk in front of a barrage of cameras, in the full smirking knowledge that your smoking face will be all over the newspapers the following day.

    It might be good for the profit margins of Kate Moss plc, but it’s a very bad business for the world at large. Not to mention setting a bad example to all the wide-eyed kids who worship you.

    Right now, the Government is desperate to stop young people becoming smokers.

    If Kate Moss carries on smoking her good looks away, perhaps they should put a picture of her kippered Croydon pram face on the front of every packet? It might be the most effective deterrent ever.

    Smoking kills women. It massacres mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and friends. It scythes through families, it is the harbinger of early death and unnecessary bereavement. And, of course, it kills men, too. It endangers children’s health and it puts a strain on the NHS, costing £2.7 billion in smoking-related illnesses every year.

    You still think it’s cool to smoke on the catwalk, Kate? Then you really are pathetic.

    Source: The Daily Mail, 11 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/gQubB6

  • Kate Moss's catwalk cigarette does more for the anti smoking lobby than the Government has in a decade

    Fiona McIntosh a columnist for the Sunday Mirror writes:

    Kate Moss walked down the catwalk in Paris merrily sucking on a fag, and did more for the anti-smoking lobby in five minutes than the Health Department has managed in a decade.

    Take a look at that face, kids. If smoking can transform a supermodel into an extra from ­Shameless, then what’s it going to do to you?

    It’s not Kate’s looks which are the problem. She is still ­fabulous, if a little worn around the edges.

    It’s her “look” which is all wrong because for someone who prides herself on being cool, openly tugging on a fag is not cool at all. Smoking has officially lost its glamour. A fag now looks bad enough hanging from the lips of a 20-year-old, but it looks ­pathetic on a 37-year-old mother who should know better.

    It screams of someone clinging on to her youth and “bad girl” image long after its sell-by date. That fag says Kate doesn’t care about being a role model to all the young women who look up to her, and it doesn’t say a lot about the ­example she is setting her own daughter Lila. Ruin your own health in private, Kate, but don’t you dare encourage our daughters to take up a habit which could kill them. By lighting up so publicly on No Smoking Day, Kate Moss has put two fingers up to our kids.

    Source: The Sunday Mirror, 13 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/eWpCmd

  • Passive smoking increases stillbirth risk, says study

    Researchers found that fathers-to-be should stop smoking to protect their unborn children from the risk of stillbirth or birth defects.

    Researchers from the University of Nottingham looked at 19 previous studies from around the world and found that pregnant women exposed to smoke at work or home increased their risk of stillbirth by 23% and of having a baby with defects by 13%.

    The combined data from the studies suggests that being exposed to more than 10 cigarettes a day is enough for the risks to be increased.

    Andrew Shennan, professor of obstetrics at St. Thomas' Hospital in London and spokesperson for baby charity Tommy's, said: "It is vital that women are made aware of the possible risks associated with second-hand smoke and alert those around them of the impact it could potentially have on the health of their unborn baby.

    "The chemicals in cigarettes are known to significantly increase the risk of serious pregnancy complications."

    Source: BBC News, 12 March 2011
    Link: http://bbc.in/gM3h4T

  • Cigarettes cause most house fire fatalities

    One in three (36 percent) of all accidental house fires resulting in death are caused by smoking whilst drinking alcohol in the home or lighting up in bed.

    With a steady decline in the number of smokers in England, the overall number of fires triggered by cigarettes is small, but with over a third of all fire deaths in the country attributed to cigarettes the proportion of fatalities is staggering.

    The Government's Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Sir Ken Knight said:

    "Without an early alarm system in place you could lose valuable escape time in a fire. Just two to three breaths of toxic smoke can render a person unconscious. As well as the health dangers, people need to be aware of the deadly risks of smoking in the home and how smoking materials can very quickly and easily lead to a fire.  When extinguishing cigarettes smokers must make sure they 'put it out, right out' and if possible refrain from smoking in the home at all."

    Source: Property Talk, 14 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/gNma9p

  • New Zealand: Government commits to smokefree NZ by 2025

    The New Zealand Government has committed to a goal of making New Zealand smokefree by 2025.

    The government will look into legal changes around the promotion, packaging and display of tobacco products and investigate regulating the use of additives and nicotine levels in tobacco products.

    Associate Health Minister, Tariana Turia said it was a landmark moment in New Zealand.
    "It is about us asserting our own identity as a nation and defining for ourselves the role tobacco is allowed to play in the life of this country - this is not something we are just going to leave in the hands of the tobacco industry."

    Source: TVNZ, 14 March 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/hmoR0m