HEADLINES

• Arsenic exposure and cigarette smoking in combination raise risk of heart disease
• No smoking signs may encourage smokers to light up
• Japan Tobacco to close Austria plant with loss of 320 jobs
• Sark to make smoking ban law for public places
• Great Tit has smokers in a flap

• Arsenic exposure and cigarette smoking in combination raise risk of heart disease

  Arsenic exposure and smoking each elevate the risk of disease. But when combined together, the danger of dying from cardiovascular disease is magnified, a new study finds.

  Exposure to high or even moderate levels of the toxin arsenic through drinking water can elevate the risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, according to a new study published in British Medical Journal. Exposed individuals who smoke were hit with a dangerous double whammy: a combined mortality risk that exceeded the influence of either factor alone.

  "Cigarette smoking is pervasive all over the world, and arsenic exposure on top of it creates a major public health problem," said Habibul Ahsan, MD, MMedSc, Professor and Director of the Center for Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention at the University of Chicago Medical Center and senior author of the study. "This tells us that there are some individuals who are dying from cardiovascular disease solely because of the presence of both factors, not because of the presence of one or the other."

  The epidemiological study was part of an ongoing project to measure the health consequences of arsenic exposure in Bangladesh. Millions of people in the South Asian country have been accidentally exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic via drinking water from wells installed by health organizations in the 1970's to fight water-borne infectious disease.

  Source: newsmedical.net , 6 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/ktxZKd

• No smoking signs may encourage smokers to light up

  No smoking signs may be driving more people to light up, a psychological study suggests.

  Scientists say the messages have an 'ironic effect' on smokers that increases their craving for tobacco.
  Without being aware of it, they react to the signs by thinking of and wanting cigarettes.

  'You get ironic effects when you couple information that people perceive with negation,' said researcher Brian Earp, from Oxford University.

  'When I say "don't think of a pink elephant", I've just put the thought of a pink elephant in your head.
  'A lot of public health messages are framed in a negative way - say no to drugs, don't drink and drive, no smoking.

  'No smoking signs in particular are everywhere. If you're a smoker walking down a street you're likely to pass five or six of these signs in windows or on doors. If you have a chronically positive attitude to smoking this could boost your craving.'

  In a series of experiments, the researchers showed that participants who had earlier been shown no smoking signs were more drawn to smoking-related images such as ashtrays and cigarettes.

  Source: The Daily Mail, 6 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/k8ez5P

• Japan Tobacco to close Austria plant with loss of 320 jobs

  Japan Tobacco has announced that it plans to close its Austrian factory by early 2012 and cut related administrative staff, shedding 320 jobs.

  Along with the plant closure, some of the Vienna-based administrative functions are also anticipated to be rationalised.

  The move is "for the purpose of developing the manufacturing structure with greater efficiency in the company's international tobacco business," the company said.

  Production in the Hainburg factory, which makes Benson&Hedges and Memphis brands among others, is planned to cease between the end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012.

  Some of the manufacturing capability will be transferred to other factories in the European Union, such as to the Gostkow factory in Poland and to the Bucharest factory in Romania, the firm said.

  The Hainburg closure will bring the number of factories in JT's international tobacco business to 28.
   

  Source: AFP 6 May 2011
  Link: http://yhoo.it/mDBL40

• Sark to make smoking ban law for public places

  Smoking in Sark's pubs and restaurants will be made illegal in future, the island's government has decided.

  Chief Pleas voted 19-5 in favour of plans to stop people lighting up in enclosed public places.

  Many island establishments already operate a voluntary ban on smoking, but the ban will now be enshrined in law.

  Chief Pleas also decided to introduce laws to licence the retail sale of tobacco and ban its sale to those under 16 years old.

  Currently Sark (one of the Channel Islands) has no legislation that governs the sale of tobacco and tobacco products.

  Source: BBC online 4 May 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/iR28M1

• Great Tit has smokers in a flap

  Office workers in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, got a shock after a great tit decided to nest and lay eggs in their cigarette bin.

  Debbie Survell, a sales worker at Nuffield Press in Nuffield Way, Abingdon, said the nest appeared last week and there were now five eggs in the ashtray.

  She said: “People in the office think it is quite sweet. What bird wants to actually go in a cigarette box? It is going to smell.

  She added: “Everybody should be aware they nest in these places. We are lucky we saw it before anyone put a cigarette in there.”

  Source: Oxfordtimes.co.uk, 5 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/msftbf