Lung cancer campaign launched

Former Hearts and current Scotland manager George Burley is to front an awareness campaign on lung cancer.

He has teamed up with Macmillan Cancer Support to appeal to football fans to look out for the early warning signs of the disease, which is the biggest cancer killer in the country.

His message will appear in the match programmes of football teams across the country throughout November, which is lung cancer awareness month.

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is also on board and the campaign will also try to persuade fans to stop smoking.

Mr Burley, 52, said: "I am delighted to be involved in helping to raise awareness throughout this month. I'd urge anyone who has a concern, no matter how small, to go to their GP and get it checked out.

"Although lung cancer is common, I don't think men tend to worry that they may actually get it if they feel healthy."

Symptoms include a persistent cough, breathlessness, unexplained weight loss and chest pain. 

Source: New Scotsman, 11 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5wfdhy

Study: Light smoking still increases health risks

You don't need to be a pack-a-day smoker to face an increased risk of dying from a smoking-related illness. Research shows that smoking just a few cigarettes per day can still kill you.

Many smokers believe that smoking just a few cigarettes per day doesn't carry the same health risks as heavy smoking. But in a study published in the journal Tobacco Control, a team of Norwegian researchers found that smoking one to four cigarettes per day can significantly increase the risk of dying from heart disease and other causes.

The researchers tracked more than 23,500 men and 19,200 women who were free of heart disease and between the ages of 35 and 49 in the 1970s. At the start of the study, participants were screened for heart disease by checking their history, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and other factors. Participants were also asked about their daily smoking habits and divided into seven categories: zero, 1 to 4, 5 to 9, 10 to 14, 15 to 19, 20 to 24, and 25 or more cigarettes per day. Former and occasional smokers were not included in the study.

The participants were then followed until 2002, during which period more than 9,000 participants died from all causes, including heart disease and lung cancer.

After analysing their data and accounting for differences in such factors as age, blood pressure, physical activity and others, the researchers found significant differences between people who said they didn't smoke at all and people who smoked at a level believed by many to be safe.

For both men and women, the risk of dying from heart disease was nearly tripled among those who reported smoking one to four cigarettes per day, compared to those who didn't smoke at all. As well, the risk of dying from lung cancer was nearly tripled for men who were light smokers, while it was more than five times as high for women who smoked one to four cigarettes per day as it was for women who didn't smoke.

"Smoking control policymakers and health educators should emphasize more strongly that light smokers also endanger their health," wrote the researchers. "Five cigarettes per day is not a threshold value for daily cigarette consumption that must be exceeded before serious health consequences occur."

Source: Canada.com
Link: http://tinyurl.com/5m3fpd

Cigarette smoke could alter shape of heart

Prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke can increase levels of stress hormones and enzymes in the heart that have the potential to reshape the left ventricle, according to new research at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In a study using rats as as animal model, five weeks exposure to cigarette smoke was associated with the activation of enzymes called mitogen-activated protein kinases that govern cell growth and survival in heart muscle. Activation of these enzymes may be a key event in cigarette smoke-induced heart injury, says Mariann Piano, professor of biobehavioural health science in the UIC College of Nursing and lead researcher of the study.

Heart disease probably develops as a result of complex interactions among many elements in cigarette smoke, she said.

"Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 different chemicals, one of which is nicotine," Piano said. "However, the effect of nicotine on the initiation and progression of cigarette smoke-mediated cardiovascular events remains controversial."

To date, small clinical trials of nicotine replacement therapies have not shown increased cardiovascular risk, even in patients with cardiovascular disease, Piano said. This suggested the need to study cigarette smoke as a whole.

In the new study, published in the November issue of the European Journal of Heart Failure, rats were exposed either to cigarette smoke or to normal room air. After five weeks, the animals were examined by echocardiography. Heart tissue was examined under the microscope and by Western blot analysis, used to detect specific proteins in tissue samples.

The results showed exposure to cigarette smoke was associated with significant changes in the shape of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber, and an increase in the levels of the activated forms of the enzymes in the heart muscle. Researchers also found increased levels of norepinephrine, a hormone released when a stressful event causes any of a host of physiological changes, in urine samples taken from the animals.

Piano said this is the first study to demonstrate that cigarette smoke-induced ventricular remodeling is linked to the activation of mitogen-activated protein kinases. She received the American Heart Association's 2008 Katharine A. Lembright Award for excellence in cardiovascular research at the association's annual meeting in New Orleans.

Source: EurekAlert, 13 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6jextf

Australia: Health experts decry British American Tobacco plea for tax breaks

One of Australia's biggest tobacco companies has asked the Federal Government for a tax cut.

In a submission to the Treasury's review of the tax system, British American Tobacco Australia has called for a reduction in the corporate tax rate and the abolition of state payroll taxes.

The cigarette manufacturer also warned the Government against increasing tobacco taxes.

It said rises in excise above regular six-monthly increases linked to inflation could encourage poorer smokers to buy black-market products and reduce Government revenue.

"It is estimated that the illicit tobacco market was around 1.8 billion cigarettes in 2007, which equates to about $450 million in lost excise revenue," the company said.

"The regressive nature of indirect taxes means any sudden increases impact those in lower socioeconomic groups more. Which in the case of tobacco only further fuels the growth in illicit tobacco consumption."

BAT Australia said current excises and taxes made up 70 per cent of the price of a packet of cigarettes.

But Prof Simon Chapman of the University of Sydney School of Health accused the company of displaying "naked self-interest."

He said more tax rises on cigarettes were needed to drive down smoking rates.

"When the price of cigarettes rises through tax we know that it is the single most effective means of reducing consumption. Documents from the tobacco companies say that," he said.

Quit Victoria executive director Fiona Sharkie said Australia had among the lowest taxes on cigarettes in the first world.

She said Australia had not increased tobacco excise above the inflation rate since 2001, despite the World Health Organisation recommending annual 5 per cent rises.

"If we had kept up with the WHO guidelines we would be at $19.30 per pack," she said.

Ms Sharkie said lifting the price of a packet of cigarettes from around $12 to $15 would result in 35,000 fewer children taking up smoking and 131,000 smokers quitting.

Source: Herald Sun, 14 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6aggr8
 

U.S. Won't meet 2010 no-smoking goals

It's unlikely the United States will meet its Healthy People 2010 objective of reducing the adult smoking rate to 12 percent or less, experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say.

According to a number of CDC studies that failure will mean continued high levels of smoking-related health problems, deaths and lost productivity will still plague the nation.

Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States, but comprehensive tobacco control programs could prevent millions of premature deaths and save the nation billions.

In one study, researchers analysed data from the 2007 National Health Interview Survey. They found that 19.8 percent (43.4 million) of American adults were current cigarette smokers, a level somewhat lower than in 2006 (20.8 percent), 2005 (20.9 percent), and 2004 (20.9 percent).

However, based on that trend, it's doubtful the United States will achieve its 2010 target, the researchers said.

In 2007, 39.8 percent (13.4 million) adult smokers who wanted to quit did stop smoking for one day or more in the previous 12 months, the same study found. Among the 86.8 million adults who smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime (defined as "ever smokers"), 52.1 percent (47.3 million) no longer smoked by the time they were interviewed in 2007.

Another study found that between 2000-2004, about 443,000 people in the United States died prematurely each year due to smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke. That number is higher than the average estimate of 438,000 deaths per year from 1997 to 2001 and is predominately the result of population growth, the researchers said.

This analysis of the CDC's Adult and Child Health Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity and Economic Cost data also showed that average smoking related health-care costs in the United States totaled about $96 billion a year from 2001 to 2004. When that's combined with lost productivity, the total economic burden of smoking is about $193 billion a year, the researchers said.

In comparison, spending on comprehensive, state-based tobacco prevention and control programs in fiscal year 2007 were about 325 times less than that $193 billion, according to the study.

The authors of a third study suggested that efforts to reduce exposure to tobacco smoke (including secondhand smoke) could help reverse increases in costs and deaths caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a preventable and treatable condition that's the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. In 2005, COPD accounted for one in 20 deaths in the United States. Smoking and exposure to air pollution are major risk factors for COPD.

Between 2000 and 2005, the COPD death rate in the United States increased 8 percent -- from 116,494 to 126,005, the study noted. The analysis of data from the U.S. National Vital Statistics System found that more women (65,193) than men (60,812) died from COPD in 2005, while the number of female and male deaths in 2000 was about the same -- 58,436 and 58,058, respectively.

Source: Health Day, 13 November 2008
Link: http://tinyurl.com/6s4dt3