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ASH Daily News

15 November 2006

[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]

HEADLINES

15k smoking shelter draws criticism

Smoking in the home, letter

Council bans smoking breaks

US study finds everyday activities trigger smoking cravings

FULL TEXT

15k smoking shelter draws criticism

Health campaigners condemned today a hospital's plan to build a £15,000 shelter for smokers.

The project comes in advance of a government ban on smoking in public places and as the hospital is making cuts of £7.5million and laying off staff. Kingston Hospital said the weather-proof shelter was being built in response to complaints from residents who objected to staff and patients congregating to smoke in the streets. They began smoking outside after the hospital banned smoking in its buildings at the start of the year. There will be an NHS-wide ban from the New Year.

But health campaigners said providing an outdoor space for smokers was not the answer. Amanda Sandford of ASH said: "This is not a good use of money. Hospitals are over-stretched already, with limited resources.

"A better use of the money would be to put it into 'stop smoking' projects for staff and patients.

"There's very little need for provision for short-term visitors because the general expectation is that if you visit a hospital you don't smoke.

"It's more difficult for longer-term patients and staff but even so it should be a basic requirement that anyone working in the health sector does not smoke.

"It's so detrimental to everyone's health that it sends out the wrong message. This is just totally inappropriate."

But Geoff Martin of London Health Emergency said: "It's a fact that a lot of people smoke in the health service. While plenty would like to stop, to deny them their one vice is not really going to help. You need to look at the root cause of why health service workers are smokers.

"It's a very stressful job and Kingston is making £7.5 million of cuts and getting rid of 100 staff so people are really worried about their futures."

A spokeswoman for Kingston Hospital said: "We became a smokefree site in January this year, which means that smoking isn't allowed in our building or on our grounds. This applies to patients, visitors and staff and is in line with government policy.

"However, this meant that visitors and members of staff started going off-site to smoke and were using neighbouring roads as a regular place for smoking.

"After receiving some complaints from local residents we held a public meeting last month to discuss the best way to resolve the situation. We decided to apply for planning permission for a shelter to be constructed with appropriate seating and waste bins on the very edge of the site, just inside the perimeter wall.

"This was felt to be a reasonable solution to preventing staff and visitors from smoking in neighbouring roads but still complying with a smoke-free hospital site."

Source: Daily Mail, Evening Standard, 15 November 2006
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/y6bxh5


Smoking in the home, letter

The following letter on the subject of smoking in the home was published in yesterday's Times:

'While public opinion is overwhelmingly in favour of banning smoking in public places, many people would draw the line at trying to prevent people from smoking in their own home (In the professional press, Nov 7).

A legal ban would certainly be seen as an invasion of privacy and would be virtually impossible to enforce. And ASH has always defended the right to smoke among consenting adults in a private place. However, tobacco smoke is difficult to confine to a specific place and the fact is that many council and other low-cost housing is of such poor standard that gaps in floors, walls or ceilings allow tobacco smoke to seep into neighbours' homes. For many non-smoking residents, smoke seepage is not simply a nuisance but can pose a significant health threat and seriously impairs their quality of life.

In some North American cities there is already a move towards making apartment blocks smokefree with the consent of residents. It may now be time for a similar move in Britain'.

Amanda Sandford, research manager, ASH, London

Source: Times, Daily Mail, 14/15 November 2006
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/y767tm


Council bans smoking breaks

A district council is set to ban its staff from taking paid smoking breaks at work.
Cabinet members on West Lancashire District Council approved a complete ban on smoking in its buildings and outside council premises.

Workers who ignore the ban will face disciplinary action and could lose their jobs, the council said.

The tobacco industry funded agitators, Forest, condemned the council's decision.

The ban is intended to come into force in March next year, with help offered to those who want to give up.

All council-owned premises will come under the legislation along with council-owned cars, which the proposed policy said "must not be used as smoking shelters".

Smoking will be banned at communal areas of sheltered housing, but will be allowed in private accommodation.

The policy said employees can smoke in their lunch breaks, "however it must take place away from council premises and buildings and outside the grounds".

Leader of the council, Geoff Roberts, said the proposal had been approved unanimously and should be agreed by the full council next month.

He added: "We are going to do all we can to help them cope with this.

"The whole issue is based upon the care and concern for our staff."

Source: BBC, 15 November 2006
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/v4jfb


US study finds everyday activities trigger smoking cravings

While most smokers are well aware that quitting can be an intense battle, many underestimate the severity of cravings and the role cravings play in putting them at risk for relapse.

A recent survey found that almost nine out of ten smokers (87 percent) who quit smoking started again because of everyday "situational cravings" and more than three quarters of smokers (80 percent) believe they could quit if they were able to get through their cravings.

"These survey findings are an important reminder that situational cravings can occur anytime and in any place a smoker associates with smoking," Dr. Raymond Niaura, professor of psychiatry and human behaviour at Brown Medical School said. "Situational cravings are triggered by events that the brain has associated with smoking and if left untreated, can cause a lapse to smoking in as quickly as 10-15 minutes."

According to Dr. Niaura, years of smoking cause an increase in the number of receptors in the brain which thrive on nicotine, essentially "re-wiring" a smoker's brain to crave nicotine. When the brain receptors stop getting nicotine they "call out" for it, something smokers then feel as a craving.

Many smokers may not fully understand their addiction and the effects of tobacco-delivered nicotine on the brain. The recent survey findings indicate that most smokers (67 percent) believe that sheer willpower is the way out of their smoking addiction with fewer than half aware of the brain chemistry behind it. Fifty-one percent admitted they were not sure or disagreed that smoking causes these changes in the brain that make it difficult to quit.

These attitudes may help to explain why among the smokers surveyed who have tried to quit smoking:

More than three-quarters (83 percent) have tried to quit by going "cold turkey," the least effective smoking cessation method

Less than half of smokers (47 percent) have tried therapeutic nicotine (gum, patch or lozenge), which has been shown to double chances of success versus cold turkey.

Studies have demonstrated that the administration of oral forms of therapeutic nicotine including Nicorette gum or Commit lozenge, can significantly reduce cravings within minutes and in those situations that remind someone of smoking.

Source: Medical News Today, 15 November 2006
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/yaqgjx

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