Tobacco Control: Major initiative launched in Africa

International leaders in cancer and tobacco control have announced the launch of an unprecedented multinational effort to promote tobacco control measures across sub-Saharan Africa.

Known as The Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI), the effort will seek to promote the adoption, implementation and enforcement of effective in-country tobacco control policies, legislation and programmes.

ATCRI is being supported by Cancer Research UK and American Cancer Society (ACS) and will be hosted by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN). Executive Director of ERA/FoEN, Nnimmo Bassey, said in a statement: "This is an important and long-overdue initiative. There is significant concern that if current smoking patterns continue, Africa will be faced with the loss of millions of her people to tobacco-related disease within the next few years and also be faced with major infrastructure challenges to manage and treat these chronic diseases."

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco currently kills about 5.5 million people every year with seventy percent of the deaths occurring in developing countries.

Tobacco companies have in the recent past targeted African countries for development, distribution and marketing of tobacco products because of the limited tobacco control legislation to date.

The launch of ATCRI comes as the World Health Organisation hosts the third Conference of the Parties of the WHO-initiated Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in Durban from 17 -22 November. 

John R. Seffrin, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of American Cancer Society, is optimistic that ATCRI will go a long way in helping to reduce the burden of diseases, deaths and other costs associated with tobacco use.

He noted, "This effort represents the first major coordinated, multinational effort in Africa to specifically address tobacco control. It's a crucial step forward to contain a growing health crisis in Africa and one that promises to have a positive health impact in various countries throughout the continent."ERA/FoEN, the hosting organization is also collaborating with other sub-regional institutions such as Observatoire du Tabac en Afrique Francophone (OTAF) and the Mozambique Public Health Association to ensure linguistic and geographical coverage of ATCRI activities.

Source: This Day, 11 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6z9bx7

AMA Past-President Davis dies of pancreatic cancer

Ronald M. Davis, M.D., immediate past president of the American Medical Association and a relentless anti-tobacco advocate, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 52. 

"The healthcare community has lost an extraordinary leader," said AMA President Nancy Nielsen, M.D. "To his fellow physicians and the patients they serve, Ron's legacy as a public health advocate will not be forgotten."

Dr. Davis, a preventive medicine specialist, served as the 162nd president of the AMA from June 2007-2008, leading the organization in its historic apology for racial inequality to African-Americans.

His career was marked by a passionate crusade against tobacco. He was the first editor of the Journal of Tobacco Control.

Dr. Davis helped change AMA policy toward the tobacco industry, said Alan Blum, M.D., director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama and an anti-tobacco activist.

"Ron is really like the Barack Obama of the AMA because he brought a breath of fresh air to an organization I didn't think could change," Dr. Blum said.

Dr. Blum said Dr. Davis was initially an outsider who worked "to change the organization from within."

In 2008, Dr. Davis was recognised for his career-long fight against tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs when he was awarded the American Public Health Association's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Davis served three terms on the AMA Board of Trustees, beginning in 1984, when he served three years as the first resident physician member of the AMA Board.

He completed his medical degree and Master's degree in public policy studies from the University of Chicago, and completed epidemiology training and the preventive medicine residency program at the CDC.

Dr. Davis died at his home outside of East Lansing, Mich., after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last February. He is survived by his wife, Nadine, and three sons

Source: MedPage Today, 07 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6bplmu

Greece: Smoking ban to start in 2010

Greeks, among the heaviest smokers in the world, have just over a year to go before a blanket ban outlaws smoking in public places, including restaurants, bars and offices, the Health Ministry revealed yesterday.

The ministry bill submitted in Parliament yesterday foresees the adoption of European Union guidelines designed to protect people from passive smoking as of January 1, 2010.

Practically, this means that smoking will be banned in public places, including all bars and restaurants, offices, hospitals and on all forms of public transport. The restrictions will also apply in all outlets that produce and sell food.

In offices – and in certain other public spaces – there will be designated areas set aside for smokers, according to the bill. Restrictions on smoking have been adopted in many offices already following protests by non-smokers worried about the impact on their health of passive smoking.

Additionally the bill aims to keep minors from smoking, and the consumption of alcohol, by banning their access to bars and clubs and imposing large fines on the managers of establishments that fail to respect these restrictions.

According to the bill, the managers or owners of bars or nightclubs found to have granted access to minors face fines of 1,000 euros. Repeat offenders will face fines of up to 20,000 euros and the possible revocation of their licenses.

Another provision of the bill foresees the same fines for those caught selling cigarettes to minors. It is unclear whether this provision will also apply to the sale of tobacco from other outlets such as street kiosks and convenience stores.

It is unclear what kind of reception the ministry’s initiative will provoke..

However, Greece is one of the few EU countries where smoking is still permitted in virtually all public places.

Source: ekathimerini, 07 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6z9kdh

Smoking while pregnant raises risk of Orofacial Clefts

Smoking during pregnancy raises the risk of orofacial clefts but may be associated with a reduced risk of neural tube defects, according to a report published online Nov. 6 in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Gary M. Shaw, of the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute in Oakland, Calif., and colleagues analysed over 180,000 mid-pregnancy serum specimens for which there was also delivery outcome information available, and from this sample identified 89 orofacial cleft-associated pregnancies and 80 pregnancies affected by neural tube defects, as well as 409 controls without malformations.

Serum cotinine levels were measured using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, and revealed that the odds ratios were 2.1 for orofacial clefts and 0.4 for neural tube defects associated with exposure to smoke, the researchers report. After the researchers adjusted for race/ethnicity, age and serum folate levels, the odds ratios were 2.4 for clefts and 0.6 for neural tube defects.

"Observing a positive relation between cotinine and risk of cleft lip with/without cleft palate extends the relatively consistent findings in the literature that periconceptional smoking increases clefting risk," the authors write. "Several hypothesised mechanisms have been put forward to explain associations observed between cigarette smoke exposures and orofacial clefts. These include hypoxia from carbon monoxide, teratogenic effects of nicotine, cadmium or myriad amines, and alterations to folate metabolism."

Source: Modern Medicine, 07 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5hv7e9