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ASH Daily news for 09 July 2010

HEADLINES

  • ASH Responds To MPs' Call For Reintroduction Of Smoking In Pubs And Clubs, UK

    Responding to a call by a group of MPs for the re-introduction of smoking in pubs, ASH said that there was little public support for such a measure. In fact, ASH research suggests the opposite to be true - ie that smokers would welcome an extension of the smoking ban rather than a relaxation of the law. 

    ASH highlighted four reasons why returning to the bad old days of smoky pubs would be a disastrous move: 

    - Recent research from the University of Bath shows how smokefree legislation has accelerated the reduction inheart attacks (a drop of 2.5% on top of the long term trend) and saved the NHS in England more than £8 million in the first year.

    - With every passing year the smokefree law gets more and more popular and now commands the support of 80% of English adults with support growing fastest among smokers.

    - In response to claims that the law has been bad for the licensed trade, government figures show the number of premises licensed for "on sales" actually increased by 5% the year England and Wales went smokefree.

    - This is a law that has worked well and if anything we should be looking at ways to strengthen it. 

    Martin Dockrell, ASH's Director of Policy and Research commented: 

    "All the evidence points to high and growing support for the smokefree law, including among smokers. There just isn't the evidence to support a return to the bad old days of smoky pubs and clubs. Instead of rolling back a law that is working well, we would urge the Government to focus on a comprehensive tobacco control strategy that will continue to drive down smoking rates and improve public health." 

    [references available by clicking on the link below]

    Source: Medical News Today - 08 July 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9fHFRb

  • BMA fears tobacco laws may be exploited

    Medical chiefs claim that new tobacco display regulations do not go far enough and must be tightened up to discourage young people from taking up smoking.

    The British Medical Association in Scotland is concerned that draft rules under the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act could lead to loopholes in the law being exploited by “cynical” tobacco firms.

    The organisation’s board of science wants tighter controls introduced for specialist tobacconist shops, cash-and-carry businesses, and duty-free shops so they are subject to the same restrictions as other retail outlets.

    It argues that such premises should not be exempt from the rules as currently laid out because anyone under 18 can enter, creating a situation whereby children and young people are not adequately protected from exposure to tobacco marketing.

    Doctors, in a response to a consultation on the draft regulations, are also concerned about the effectiveness of rules permitting the use of three different price lists in shops that include pictures of tobacco products.

    They argue that the device will provide marketing opportunities for retailers and manufacturers and a single standard price list that uses a uniform font size should be used instead.

    Science board member Dr Andrew Thomson, a GP who practices at Academy Medical Centre, Forfar, said: “The tobacco industry is known for its cynical and highly-targeted marketing techniques but maintaining strong regulations will help to protect children and prevent them from starting to smoke.

    “One of the most effective ways of recruiting new customers is to attract children and young people to take up smoking.

    “We need to break the tobacco trap because young smokers will become tomorrow’s parents who smoke and they will continue the cycle of smoking-related ill health.”

    Large retailers have until 2011 to implement the display ban and smaller shops have until 2013.

    The legislation also includes a ban on cigarette vending machines which comes into force next year.

    But Jim Maitland, of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents, claimed a ban on tobacco displays could backfire and encourage children to smoke.

    Cigarette firms also said the move could be exploited by organised crime.

    Imperial Tobacco has launched a legal bid against the law on the basis it falls outside the legislative scope of the Scottish Parliament and strays into territory reserved to Westminster.

    A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Making cigarettes less attractive and less available to children and young people is the key aim of the act.”

    Source: The Press and Journal - 09 July 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/aDAf89

  • Genetics May Personalize Quit-Smoking Methods

    A new, personalized approach to quitting smoking may one day help boost success rates by taking some of the guesswork out of matching smokers with available tools.

    New research in the July-August issue of Molecular Medicine shows that your genetic profile combined with your level of nicotine dependence can help guide treatment decisions and maximize your chances of kicking the habit for good.

    As any former smoker or wannabe former smoker can attest, quitting smoking is not easy. Fully 70% of 46 million U.S. smokers say they want to kick the habit, yet less than 5% who try to do so cold turkey are successful after a year. When a smoker uses available smoking-cessation tools such as nicotine patches, gum, inhalers, or medications, their success rate can increase to less than 25%.

    "There are nicotine replacement therapies such as gum, patches, lozenges, and prescription aids, but there is very little guidance as to which is best and for whom," says study researcher Jed E. Rose, PhD, director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research in Durham, N.C. "Different treatments will work differently for different smokers, and this is the first step toward being able to predict which treatments would be more successful in which smokers."

    The researchers scanned 520,000 genetic blood markers of smokers participating in several studies. Using this genetic information, they created a "quit success score" or a number that can be combined with a smoker's level of nicotine dependence to help predict whether a 42-miiligram/24-hour nicotine patch or a 21-milligram/24-hour nicotine patch is best suited. Nicotine dependence was assessed via questionnaire.

    They tested this on 479 smokers with at least a half-a-pack-a-day habit who wanted to quit. Participants were categorized as having a high or low dependence on nicotine. Individuals with a high dependence and low "quit scores" based on their genetic profile did better with the high-dose patch, the study showed. By comparison, individuals with a low dependence on nicotine can quit using the lower-dose patch.

    "People who were highly dependent on nicotine and had a certain genotype did better on the higher-dose patch," Rose says.

    The next step is to expand the work and see how -- and in whom -- prescription smoking-cessation medications such as Chantix and Zyban fit in.

    In the future, "all of the available aids could be brought into an algorithm that could determine what combination or individual modality would be best by using genetic information and other characteristics of smoking behavior," he says.

    It is not one gene that says this smoker will do better with this smoking cessation tool, but a group of genes that when taken together help better guide treatment decisions, explains study co-researcher George Uhl, MD, PhD, chief of molecular neurobiology research at National Institute on Drug Abuse in Baltimore.

    "Some people have an easier time quitting than others, and this one set of markers helps to match people with the right medication," he says.

    "The individual differences in the ability to quit smoking are half genetic," he says. "There are several behavioral and pharmacological smoking-cessation tools that are each effective, but none are totally effective [and] it would be nice to know which [genetic] variants are selective for behavioral or medical approaches or both," he says. 

    Scott McIntosh, PhD, director of the Greater Rochester Area Tobacco Cessation Center and an associate professor of community and preventive medicine at University of Rochester Medical Center, is all for this new, individualized approach to smoking cessation.

    "This is an excellent direction to go in because you can tailor quit attempts by making sure that you have the best medication for that person," he says.

    There may be other genetic markers that can help point smokers toward the most effective therapies, he says.

    For example, "someone who is very social might do better with a telephone quit line or group counseling, whereas someone who is not as social may do better if they just received information on how to quit," he says.

    "There will be genetic markers for that sort of thing," McIntosh predicts. "There is no one-size-fits-all approach to smoking cessation, and this type of treatment matching can help physicians further tailor their approach," he says. 

    Source: WebMD - 07 July 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9in1xn

  • Ireland: Campaign to focus on young smokers

    The Irish Cancer Society has created a fictional character representing cigarette companies to run the Teens Are Stupid initiative.

    The campaign's Corporate Tobacco Man is to appear on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr from Thursday with teens also urged to upload their own responses to the ads and their views on smoking.

    He will also appear on his own website and in cinema ads.

    Jane Curtin, the society's spokeswoman, said the new-media drive would show how big tobacco firms need to attract young smokers to stay in business.

    "In Ireland, the tobacco industry needs over 50 young people to start smoking every day to remain viable," she said.

    Statistics from the Irish Cancer Society estimate 15% of 12-17-year-olds smoke and about 29% of the population. More than half of all smokers start before the age of 15, and 83% start before they turn 18, the charity said.

    The main focus of the campaign is to stop teens taking up the habit or encourage those who have to quit.

    Ms Curtin said the ad campaign will show how young people can take up a dangerous and expensive addiction to nicotine and a lifelong habit that often leads to ill-health and premature death.

    The new drive also includes special art installations, one of which features a teenage girl mannequin that will appear in shopping centres from Friday. She is trapped in a glass box full of smoke, with a handle on the inside of the box allowing her to free herself but she doesn't - like many people who continue to smoke, the society said.

    Source: Yahoo!/Press Association - 08 July 2010
    Link: http://yhoo.it/9SoU1U

  • Namibia: Nudo wants evidence of new tobacco law implementation

    The new law that bans smoking in public areas, which include pubs, coffee shops and restaurants, was gazetted a few weeks ago, but has not been implemented yet.

    Arnold Tjihuiko of the Nudo party wanted to know why in Parliament yesterday.

    "The law has been signed by President Hifikepunye Pohamba and it was gazetted and the Health Minister should determine a date when it becomes operational. This has not been done yet - why?" Tjihuiko asked Health Minister Richard Kamwi.

    "As the Act stipulates, smoking zones and areas are not allowed, which will have a serious effect on business and tourism," Tjihuiko said.

    "Why should we exclude such internationally accepted practices (smoking areas)? Should all smokers leave the premises to go and smoke outside?" he asked.

    Minister Kamwi is expected to reply tomorrow.

    One major supermarket at Windhoek's Maerua Lifestyle shopping centre has already banned all smoking in its coffee shop.

    Source: All Africa - 07 July 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/ajU2hl

  • Slowdown in rate of US teens who shun smoking: study

    The rate at which US teens are shunning smoking has slowed sharply, with health authorities calling for an advertising counter-attack to spur US high school students to stop or not try cigarettes, a study showed Thursday.

    After rising between 1991 and 1997, the rate at which US high school students used cigarettes fell from more than 36 percent in 1997 to nearly 22 percent in 2003, but then the rate of decline slowed sharply, a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

    Between 2003 and 2009, teen smoking fell by less than three percentage points, with 19.5 percent of high school students reporting last year that they had tried cigarettes or smoked regularly, the study showed.

    To fight the slower rate of decline, officials should launch "counter-advertising" campaigns against promotions by the tobacco industry and take steps to reduce tobacco advertising and product availability, the study said.

    It pointed out that the rise in teen smoking in the 1990s was blamed in part on "expanded promotional efforts by tobacco companies," including showing smoking in movies, distributing items like hats and T-shirts with tobacco company logos and symbols on them, and sponsoring youth-focused events like concerts.

    The study also suggested increasing the number of tobacco-free environments and hiking the cost of a smoke by increasing taxes on cigarettes to get teens to kick the habit or never start it.

    CDC director Thomas Frieden lamented the slow-down in the rate of decline of teen smoking.

    "Although four of five (teens) don't smoke, it's discouraging to see that current smoking did not continue to decline more rapidly among youth," Frieden said in a statement.

    "Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in this country, and nine out of 10 adults started smoking in their teens or earlier," he said.

    Frieden was New York city's health commissioner before being named to head the CDC last year.

    During his seven years shepherding New Yorkers' health habits, Frieden spearheaded a campaign to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, which has led to a sharp fall in the number of adults who smoke in the city -- down from 21.5 percent in 2002 to 6.9 percent last year.

    Source: Yahoo!/AFP - 08 July 2010
    Link: http://yhoo.it/dfetUB