Home / Media Room / News / ASH Daily News / ASH Daily News for 11 May 2009 / ASH Daily news for 09 February 2011

ASH Daily news for 09 February 2011

HEADLINES

  • Lung cancer epidemic 'may have peaked' in women

    The fifty-year epidemic of lung cancer which has claimed at least one million lives in Britain may have peaked among women, figures show.

    Female deaths from lung cancer in the UK are the highest in Europe, reflecting high rates of smoking 30 years ago. But the UK is the only country where the death rate is stable or falling – in all other countries it is still rising, European scientists say.

    Death rates among UK men from lung cancer peaked more than 20 years ago, in the mid 1980s. Men took up smoking earlier than women and in the 1940s around 80 per cent of adult men smoked.

    Women did not take up smoking until later, with the numbers peaking in the mid 1960s at around 45 per cent. Growing evidence of the link between smoking and lung cancer from the 1960s onwards, accompanied by advertising bans and tighter restrictions on smoking, gradually persuaded smokers of both sexes to give up the habit.

    Because women took up smoking later, the rise in lung cancer death rates lagged behind that of men and has only begun to level off in the last decade.

    See also: 
    - Leading article: Lung cancer: the only way must be down, The Independent - 09 February 2011
    - Smoking to get slim puts UK women at top of Europe's lung cancer table, Daily Mail - 09 February 2011
    - Cancer to kill 1.3 million in Europe in 2011, Reuters - 09 February 2011
    - 1.3m to die from cancer in Europe, but Britain bucks trend for lung cancer, Metro.co.uk - 09 February 2011  

    Source: The Independent - 09 February 2011
    Link: http://ind.pn/gZ8MHz

  • Fine cut offered to quit smoking in Waveney

    Waveney District Council (Suffolk) is offering to halve smoking-related fines if the recipient is willing to talk to a health professional about stopping smoking.

    The scheme goes before the council's cabinet on 16 February.

    Source: BBC New - 08 February 2011
    Link: http://bbc.in/eH4JR8

  • Warnings over sales of illegal cigarettes in South West

    147 million packets of illegal cigarettes are smuggled into the South West each year, with an estimated street value of more than £104 million.

    Smoke Free SouthWest has joined forces with trading standards and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to form the South of England Tackling Illegal Tobacco for Better Health programme.

    The joint-agency report shows almost 200,000 smokers in the region smoke 442 million illegal cigarettes and more than a third have been offered them to buy.

    Source: Exeter FM 107.3 - 09 February 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/hsntm2

  • Michelle Obama: Barack Obama has quit smoking

    "Yes, he has," the first lady told reporters at the White House when asked whether her husband had finally done what millions of Americans cannot seem to do and quit smoking. "It's been almost a year."

    She said she did not know exactly when he quit "because he never smoked a lot" and she never saw him light up.

    Mrs. Obama said the process of quitting has been a "personal challenge" for the president. She said she was very proud of her husband.

    Source: The Telegraph - 08 February 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/eQBNbC

  • New Zealand: Call for cigarette display ban this year

    Visible cigarette advertising displays will go within nine months following tobacco law changes, if public health officials get their way.

    The Smokefree Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill, which passed its first reading in December proposes banning all point-of-sale tobacco displays and allowing infringement notices to be issued when tobacco is sold to people aged under 18.

    It also proposes the measures come into force six months after the bill becomes law, with a two-year transition period so that shops can be modified.

    But Hutt Valley Regional Public Health adviser Lucy Butler told a Parliament's health committee today shop retailers should hide displays within nine months, not two years, and specialist tobacco retailers within a year.

    Ms Butler also recommended generic plain packaging, amending the health warning to English and Te Reo, and extending infringement notices to cover all breaches of the Smoke-Free Environments Act.

    Source: New Zealand Herald - 08 February 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/h1GwDA

  • Marbella restaurant facing 145,000 € fine and closure for defying the no smoking law

    The owner of the restaurant in San Pedro de Alcántara, Marbella, who has conspicuously been ignoring the ban on smoking in closed public areas from January 2, is being served a 145,000 € fine.

    The fine also considers the possibility of the closure of the restaurant given its failing to meet specific requirements placed by the health authority.

    The owner erected signs saying that the new no-smoking law would not be enforced in his establishment. He has however indicated that he will not pay the fine. 

    Source: Typically Spanish - 08 February 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/gBxB6c