HEADLINES

• Motivation to reduce smoking may be weakened by taking vitamin pills
• Smoking and alcohol use increase the risk of upper aero-digestive cancers
• Australian government denies threat of cigarette shortage
• French town makes Mediterranean beach smoke free
• Japanese Government proposal to reduce stake in JTI

• Motivation to reduce smoking may be weakened by taking vitamin pills

  A recent study published online in the journal Addiction found that smokers who take multivitamins make up for their healthy habit by smoking more.

  Psychologists call this the licensing effect, which happens when someone makes a good choice which later enables them to make a bad choice such as, when a person feels 'entitled' to a weekend binge drinking by avoiding alcohol all week. In this case, smokers believe that by taking multivitamins it will reduce the risk of cancer and permit them to smoke more. No evidence indicates that multivitamins protect against cancer.

  Smokers who are health-conscious and take multivitamins may activate important but false beliefs that they are immune to major health hazards associated with smoking, leading them to smoke more and increase their overall health risk.
   

  Source: Medical News Today, 01 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/oRoMgl

• Smoking and alcohol use increase the risk of upper aero-digestive cancers

  The combination of heavy alcohol use and cigarette smoking is a key factor in increasing the risk of upper aero-digestive tract cancers (UADT), especially those of the oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx,

  A group of scientists from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IRAC) evaluated the role of alcohol and tobacco consumption, based on 2,252 upper aerodigestive squamous-cell carcinoma cases and 1,707 controls from seven centres in Brazil, Argentina, and Cuba.

  The case-control analysis showed that both alcohol consumption and smoking tended to increase the risk of such cancers. However, the predominant cause of these cancers was the combination of smoking and alcohol consumption, with much higher risk than either exposure alone. The effects on risk were greater for smoking than for alcohol: for non-smokers, there was little effect of alcohol alone on risk. For non-drinkers, the risk of cancer associated with smoking was still increased, but was lower than it was for current drinkers.

  Source: Medical News Today, 04 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/oMGbPM

• Australian government denies threat of cigarette shortage

  The Australian government has dismissed a claim by the tobacco industry that a plan to introduce plain packaging from mid-2012 will result in a cigarette shortage because manufacturers won't be able to meet the deadline.
  
  British American Tobacco Australia (BATA) says it's impossible to produce the olive-brown packs devoid of branding by May as required under Labor's proposal.
  
  Chief executive David Crow told a parliamentary inquiry that illegal cigarettes could flood the market as a result.
  
  He said, "If the bill (draft laws) stands I will be out of stock on July 1. The cigarettes will have to come from China and India - illegal cigarettes would come in and smother the market."
  
  But BATA - whose brands include Winfield, Dunhill and Benson & Hedges - wants until the start of 2013 to make the transition.
  
  Mr Crow reiterated that BATA would challenge the plain packaging legislation in the courts on the grounds that it unlawfully acquired the company's intellectual property rights.
  
  Chris Reid, General Counsel of the health department said, "We are confident that should proceedings of that kind be taken we would expect to win."

  Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 04 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/qoB3sP

• French town makes Mediterranean beach smoke free

  A small town in Provence is attracting more holidaying families by turning a stretch of sun-drenched Mediterranean seafront into the first non-smoking beach in France.

  The smoking ban came into effect earlier this summer, and compliance among the public at the packed beach has surprised even the city official who came up with the idea, deputy mayor for the environment, Noel Collura.

  Collura contends that La Ciotat is the first and so far only no-smoking beach in France –and Europe. The only place he found with a similar law is New York City, which earlier this year banned smoking from all city parks, beaches, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas.

  Source: The Telegraph, 03 August 2011
  Link: http://tgr.ph/orz3SX

• Japanese Government proposal to reduce stake in JTI

  According to a Democratic Party of Japan official, the Japanese government could reduce its stake in Japan Tobacco Inc. to a third from half to raise money for reconstruction from the March earthquake and tsunami.

  The government’s holdings in “Japan Tobacco could be sold down to a third from one-half,” Katsuya Okada, secretary- general of the party, told a news conference in Tokyo. “This is an issue that should be debated extensively.”

  Okada said, “My party is in the midst of discussing how much funds can be raised by selling government assets and reducing unneeded expenses."

  The ruling party is considering ways to secure about 13 trillion yen ($168 billion) more in funds that Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government said is needed for rebuilding over the next five years.

  Source: Bloomberg, 03 August 2011
  Link: http://bloom.bg/pAreMQ