Fewer smokers quit despite record £51m spend by NHS

The number of people giving up smoking has dropped sharply despite the NHS spending more than ever on helping them quit.

Almost 415,000 people tried to give up last year, compared with 490,000 the year before — a drop of 15 per cent. Over the same period the amount of money the NHS spent increased by 26 per cent, from £41 million in 2007 to £51 million last year.

The NHS now spends £249 on every smoker who tries to quit. Last year the figure was £165.

A Department of Health spokesman said there was a big rise in people quitting in 2007 when smoking in public places was banned, so it was unfair to compare those with last year's figures.

The NHS Information Centre figures show in London last year 59,000 people attempted to give up smoking with just over 28,000 successful after four weeks.

The spokesman added: “NHS Stop Smoking Services remain extremely cost-effective, despite increases in the costs reported per quitter.”

Smoking-related diseases cost the NHS £2.7 billion a year.

Source: The Evening Standard, 16 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/denxk7

Prolific cigarette smugglers jailed

Two men have been sentenced to a total of seven years in prison for their part in a criminal organisation which attempted to smuggle over four million cigarettes through Liverpool docks. 

Kevin Kearney (54) of Crosby described in court as a prolific and repetitive cigarette smuggler; and his sidekick Gabriel McLaughlin (51) from Warrington were sentenced at Warrington Crown Court following in-depth investigations by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) over a seven-year period.

In late 2007, HMRC officers arrested and charged Kearney, and McLaughlin, with involvement in a conspiracy to smuggle the cigarettes. The revenue due on the cigarettes, had they been successfully imported, was £815,514.

On sentencing, Judge Hale QC, said he believed Kearney was obviously "a man of considerable capability and clear talent who should have put his abilities to better use" to provide for his family and wife and McLaughlin was "a chancer who had made some bad decisions" adding that "both men were driven by greed".

Andrew Pavlinic, Assistant Director of Investigation, HMRC said:

"Cigarettes smugglers cheat the country of vital revenue to fund vital public services like hospitals and schools. Smuggling also has a devastating impact on honest retailers forced to compete with the shadow economy."

"Cigarette smugglers don't care about the damage they cause by undercutting honest retailers and tobacconists - all smugglers care about is profit. We will continue to work closely with other law enforcement agencies to root out these criminals."

"Working with our colleagues in the UK Border Agency and Revenue and Prosecutions Office we will not hesitate to take action against those smuggling cigarettes into the country. These sentences will serve as a deterrent to others."

Source: HM Revenue & Customs, 16 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/ce4spq

USA: Tough laws, higher prices mean fewer kids smoke

American adolescents who live in states that comply with tobacco sales laws are less likely to pick up a smoking habit than are those who live where the laws are not vigorously enforced, a new study has found. 

And raising the price of a pack of cigarettes might have an equal, if not greater, effect, the study also showed.

"Efforts to prevent the sale of tobacco to children pay off," said study author Dr. Joseph R. DiFranza, a professor of family medicine and community health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "It's very effective at reducing the number of children who smoke."

Since 1992, states have been required to prohibit the sale and distribution of tobacco to minors. But in 1996, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration issued a regulation that, in essence, put some teeth into the legislation that requires states to pass and enforce so-called no-sale laws.

Though there has been some debate about the effectiveness of the congressional mandate, a growing body of evidence demonstrates that enforcing existing laws reduces the number of adolescent smokers.

DiFranza and his colleagues analyzed data from a 2003 survey of 16,244 adolescents, to obtain information on smoking habits. In addition, they looked at state-collected data on merchants' compliance with anti-tobacco laws. Then they correlated the data, taking into account such factors as cigarette prices, restaurant smoking policies, anti-smoking campaigns and demographic information that included age, gender, race, ethnicity and parents' education level.

The researchers found that, as merchants more diligently enforced the ban on tobacco sales to minors and as the price of cigarettes rose, the likelihood of teens smoking dropped.

Improved compliance with the laws from 1997 to 2003 was credited with about a 21 percent decline in the likelihood of a teen smoking. Price increases for a pack of cigarettes during that time reduced the odds by about 47 percent, the study found.

"Cigarette smoking is a major contributor to many of the chronic diseases that we see in society today -- cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia and other forms of cognitive decline and low birth weight," said Dr. Ted Schettler, science director at the Science & Environmental Health Network in Ames, Iowa. "And adolescent smoking increases the risk of lifelong smoking."

The finding from DiFranza's study mirrors that from a study published this month on the effect of laws targeting the sale of alcohol to minors.

"In the past, we've had success in reducing the number of teens who smoke by enforcing these laws in communities, but this is the first study to show that it works at the national level," DiFranza said. "It's important to show that this strategy works across the whole geography of the United States, in rural and urban areas."

Schettler said that it's important to note "that many of these strategies go well beyond just advising people not to smoke and really get into more systemic public health interventions and trying to create, at the societal level, barriers to smoking."

Source: Forbes, 15 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/dg7a8n

Japan: Vending machine 'face identification technology' fault

A 10-year-old boy in Kyoto was able to purchase cigarettes from a vending machine equipped with face identification technology.

Kyoto Prefectural Police conducted an experiment with the cooperation of the boy, who had bought cigarettes from a vending machine this February. Neither the Ministry of Finance, which had approved the use of such machines in lieu of those that read Taspo I.C. cards stored with personal identification information, nor the manufacturer of face identification vending machines have heard of other instances in which elementary school children have been misidentified as adults.

According to police, the boy confessed that he had purchased cigarettes from a vending machine when he was questioned by his father about the cigarettes he had in his possession, and the father then contacted the juvenile division of Kyoto police. Early this month, police asked the boy to re-enact what he had done at the vending machine in question. The boy stood on the frame of his bicycle to move closer to the camera installed in the machine, pressed the "confirm" button, and was identified as an adult.

Face identification vending machines determine a person's approximate age from the size of their eyes and mouth and their bone structure. If a buyer is not identified as an adult, they must present a driver's license. Designed to prevent minors from buying cigarettes, 5,200 such vending machines have been in operation across Japan since the system's use was approved in July.

Kyoto police know of at least five instances in which junior high school students were misidentified as adults. "We plan to push the Ministry of Finance and vending machine manufacturers to make efforts to prevent minors from buying cigarettes from vending machines," said police.

Source: The Mainichi Daily News, 17 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/dx45rs