HEADLINES

• Prescribe smoking cessation drugs 'for at least three months'
• North East gang smuggled 10m cigarettes
• USA: Data released on smokeless tobacco use among smokers
• Northern Ireland: 300 shops offered smuggled tobacco

• Prescribe smoking cessation drugs 'for at least three months'

  An NHS cost-effectiveness evaluation concluded that to prevent a relapse ex-smokers should be kept on medication for much longer.
  
  The systematic analysis of trials found the current system - where quitters were supported for four weeks should be extended - with medication prescribed for at least three months.
  
  The new analysis estimates that stop smoking services could potentially increase 12 - monthly quit rates by between 10% to 20% if they were to use nicotine-replacement therapy, varenicline or bupropion drug theray for over three months.
  
  Bupropion was the most cost-effective therapy, with relapse prevention saving an additional £86.
  
  Lead author, Dr Tim Coleman, a smoking cessation researcher at the school of community health sciences, University of Nottingham said that using drug therapy for longer was cost effective as judged by the NICE £20,000 QALY threshold.
  
  ‘Guidance would be needed to encourage the adoption of the most effective relapse prevention interventions as would incentives that focussed on the importance of sustaining quit attempts beyond the currently monitored four-week targets,’ he said.

  Source: Pulse, 04 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/aO92PS

• North East gang smuggled 10m cigarettes

  Newcastle Crown Court has heard how a gang of North East smugglers were caught trafficking more than 10 million black market cigarettes into the UK.
  
  Six men pleaded guilty to their part in the conspiracy and await sentencing and four others have gone on trial accused of conspiracy to evade duty. The huge consignment of cigarettes and rolling tobacco had been brought into the country at various ports around the UK and would have deprived the country of £1.7 million in duty.

  Source: Journal Live, 04 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/9T4kwB

• USA: Data released on smokeless tobacco use among smokers

  According to new data compiled by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention many smokers also use smokeless tobacco.

  The research found that smokeless tobacco is predominantly a problem among men, young adults, those with a high school education or less, and in some states with higher smoking rates.

  Smokeless tobacco use was highest in Wyoming (9.1 percent) and West Virginia (8.5 percent) and lowest in the U.S. Virgin Islands (0.8 percent) and California (1.3 percent). Among adult male smokers, 23.4 percent in Wyoming and 20.8 percent in Arkansas reported smokeless tobacco use.

  Tim McAfee, M.D., M.P.H., Director of CDC's Office on Smoking and Health said, "These new numbers are concerning. But progress is possible. We need to fully put into practice effective strategies such as strong state laws that protect non-smokers from secondhand smoke, higher tobacco prices, aggressive ad campaigns that show the human impact of tobacco use, and well-funded tobacco control programs, while stepping up our work to help people quit using all forms of tobacco."

  Source: Health News, 05 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/bL1jH9

• Northern Ireland: 300 shops offered smuggled tobacco

  Research reveals that three hundred corner stores have been offered black-market tobacco to sell.
  
  Research commissioned by retailers uncovered a worrying trend in Dublin with more than one in six shops been offered counterfeit cigarettes to sell - up from 10% last year.
  
  Benny Gilsenan, spokesman for lobby group Retailers Against smuggling, said members were powerless to protect their small business.
  
  The research carried out by Behaviours and Attitudes, a market research company reveals that two thirds of shop owners said illegal tobacco was readily available in their area. The survey of 500 stores across the country found the vast majority, 81%, feel the Government is not doing enough to tackle the lucrative black market trade. It also warned that just over a quarter of cigarettes smoked in Ireland are illegal.
   

  Source: Belfast Telegraph, 04 November 2010
  Link: http://bit.ly/cmZ0US