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ASH Daily News

17 October 2003

HEADLINES

Massive show of support for Irish ban
New York smoking ban – stop for a minute and think
NRT for 12-year-olds in a bid to cut youth smoking
French tobacconists in tax protest
Letters

FULL TEXT

Massive show of support for Irish ban

Health groups and unions have joined forces in a massive show of support for the Irish smoking ban, which is due to come into affect next year.

The lobby group met members of the Oireachtas in Dublin yesterday in a bid to rally support for the ban.

The move was in response to a growing campaign among publicans and other members of the hospitality industry to persuade the Irish government to modify the prohibition on workplace smoking.

Seventeen national groups, representing more than 500,000 members, have joined the new lobby group which includes ASH [Ireland], the Irish Cancer Society, the Asthma Society of Ireland and the Irish Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Association.

Source: Irish News, 9 October 2003



New York smoking ban – stop for a minute and think

Six months into New York City’s smoke-free ordinance, there has been a spate of criticism about the wisdom of sticking by such a ban. The most notable came in a roundabout swipe from none other than former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who declared during a trip to Ireland last month that Irish citizens should have the choice to smoke in public places. (Giuliani later tried to distance himself from his comments.)

But if New York — as well as other cities and municipalities — is ever tempted to rescind its smoking ban, it should look at the goings-on in Helena, Montana. The citizens of Helena voted in June 2002 to ban smoking in all public buildings — including restaurants, bars and casinos.

Soon after, doctors at the local hospital noticed that heart-attack admissions were dropping. So they, in conjunction with the University of California-San Francisco, did a study to measure the potential short-term effects of a smoking ban.

Helena is a perfect place for such a study: relatively isolated, with enough people in the region — 66,000 — for a meaningful population sample, and only one cardiac-care hospital within a 60-mile, or 100-kilometer, radius. So it was easy to control the study sample and methodology: if you get a heart attack in Helena, there’s only one place to go for treatment.

The study showed two trends. First, there was no change in heart attack rates for patients who lived outside city limits. But for city residents, the rates plummeted by 58 percent in only six months.

‘‘We know from longer-term studies that the effects of secondhand smoke occur within minutes, and that long-term exposure to secondhand smoke is associated with a 30 percent increased risk in heart-attack rates,’’ says Stanton Glantz, a professor of medicine who conducted the study’s statistical analysis. ‘‘But it was quite stunning to document this large an effect so quickly.’’

Full article:
http://www.iht.com/ihtsearch.php?id=114030
Source: New York Times, 8 October 2003



NRT for 12-year-olds in a bid to cut youth smoking

GPs are prescribing NRT to children as young as 12 in a country-wide move to cut youth smoking, according to the publication Doctor.

Gloucestershire LMC chairman and GPS member Dr Peter Fellows said many doctors in the country were taking advantage of the ability to prescribe nicotine replacement therapy to target children and teenagers. He said patients as young were being prescribed NRT.

“Smoking among young people is certainly a problem. I was very disappointed to see many young people smoking outside the cinema in Gloucester at the weekend,’ Dr Fellows said.

The British National Formulary says NRT is not ‘recommended’ in people under the age of 18. However, Dr Fellows said that he did not regard it as too extreme for children and teenagers.

He said: “If children are smoking, then they are already taking nicotine into their bodies. By prescribing patches, all we are doing is substituting the cigarettes for something which is easier to wean them off.”

Source: Doctor, 16 October 2003



French tobacconists in tax protest

French tobacco shops vowed Thursday to halt cigarette sales across the country for 24 hours on Monday to protest a planned tax increase that they fear will cut into their revenues.

A representative of the estimated 34,000 outlets that sell tobacco under a state-controlled distribution system dismissed a state aid offer of ˆ130m and insisted that president Jacques Chirac intervene “before it is too late.

A 20 percent increase in tobacco tax is set to take effect on Monday.

Source: Reuters, 17 October 2003



Letters

In a stinging missive to the Times, Patrick J Roche makes plain his dismay at the government’s inaction to tackle passive smoking:

“At face value, the government’s initiative [to tackle anti-social behaviour] seems thorough and welcome. It even has an element of understanding how petty nuisances such as graffiti should be greeted with a zero-tolerance response.

There is, however, a glaring omission. The government pretends to be tackling levels of inconsiderateness that amount to anti-social behaviour. Yet it does nothing about murderous anti-social smoking habits, and I only conclude that is because the tobacco industry calls the shots. More than 13 smoking related deaths per hour occur in the UK.

Source: The Times, 17 October 2003

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