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ASH Daily News

17 October 2006

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HEADLINES

One in four smokers gets lung disease

'Yellow Tooth Fairy' delivers anti-smoking message

Dutch bank to replace Mild Seven in F1 team

Iranian President orders implementation of anti-smoking law


FULL TEXT

One in four smokers gets lung disease

At least a quarter of long-term smokers will develop the incurable lung
condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a study
suggests. COPD describes a range of conditions, including bronchitis
and emphysema, which make it difficult to breathe.

Over 8,000 people aged 30 to 60 were studied by UK and Danish
researchers for 25 years in the Thorax study.

A spokesman for the British Lung Foundation said the study should act as
a "wake-up call" to UK smokers.

Of the people studied, who all lived around Copenhagen, 5,280 were
smokers, 1,513 had never smoked and 1,252 were ex-smokers.

At the end of the study, the researchers found that at least 25% of the
smokers without any initial symptoms of the disease had "clinically
significant" COPD, while up to 40% had some signs of the condition.

Over the 25 years, 2,900 people died, with 109 dying from COPD.

Nine out of 10 of those who died were smokers at the start of the study,
while just two non-smokers died of the disease.

The risk of COPD was reduced in those who gave up smoking early on in
the study - none of the ex-smokers developed severe COPD and only seven
died.

At the end of the study, the lungs of almost all the male non-smokers
continued to function well. However, the same was true for only six out
of 10 of those who continued smoking.

Around nine out of 10 female non-smokers had lungs that functioned well
at the end of the study compared with only seven out of 10 female
smokers.

Writing in Thorax, the researchers who were led by Dr Peter Lange of
Hvidovre Hospital, Hvidovre, Denmark, said: "Our main finding is quite
simple - the longer people smoke, the higher the risk of developing
COPD."

In an editorial in the journal, Dr Nick Anthonisen of the University of
Manitoba in Canada, said: "The message is that many smokers develop
airway obstruction if they live long enough and continue to smoke, and
that the number that do so is increasing.

"An argument can be made therefore that many, perhaps most, smokers are
'susceptible' to COPD if they live long enough."

But he said there were long-term smokers who did not develop the
condition, and more work was needed to find out why there was such a
distinction.

Professor Stephen Spiro, from the British Lung Foundation, said: "This
is an important study showing that people are even more at risk of COPD
than we previously thought.

"It should act as a further wake-up call to smokers to get their lungs
tested and to get help to stop.

"It's also a wake-up call to the UK - COPD is our fifth biggest killer,
yet it's a hidden disease."

BBC News online, 17/10/06
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6054892.stm



'Yellow Tooth Fairy' delivers anti-smoking message

In its latest effort to keep teenagers from smoking, the state
Department of Health introduced the star of its newest kid-targeted TV
ad campaign Monday in Yakima: "The Yellow Tooth Fairy."

In one of about five commercials created for this year's youth
prevention advertising campaign, "The Yellow Tooth Fairy," a large
middle-aged man in a yellow fairy suit, visits a pretty girl one night
to bestow on her one of the less appealing features of smoking: yellow
teeth.

Washington State Secretary of Health Mary Selecky said although
sometimes the campaign's ads seem crude to adults, they're created in
consultation with Washington teenagers who believe they are effective.

"If it works for kids, it works for me," she said.

Selecky and Matthew Myers, the national president of the Campaign for
Tobacco-Free Kids, were at the Yakima Convention Center on Monday for
the state's 13th annual Joint Conference on Health.

At a news conference to announce this year's ad campaign, they said they
hope the new ads discourage teens from smoking and encourage state
lawmakers to continue funding the program.

"There is no question these ads are highly effective," Myers said.
"Every state that runs these kinds of ads sees a decline in smoking
among young people."

Among adults, the national smoking rate is 20.9 percent, according to
Myers' organization. According to the Department of Health, in
Washington that number was 17.8 percent in 2005, down from 22.4 percent
in 1999.

And among high school students -- the fastest-growing smoking
demographic nationally -- Washington's smoking rate is just 13 percent,
Myers said.

Yakima Herald, 17 Oct 2006
http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/314686235576207



Dutch bank to replace Mild Seven in F1 team

Renault has confirmed that Dutch bank ING is to replace Mild Seven in
2007 as the team's new title sponsor.

The three year agreement, resulting in the official team title 'ING
Renault F1 Team' and the likely incorporation of colours orange and
white, was announced to the press at a news conference in Amsterdam on
Monday morning.

Japan Tobacco brand 'Mild Seven' has been title sponsor since 1994.

updatesport.com 16 Oct 2006
http://tinyurl.com/ygwlxq



Iranian President orders implementation of anti-smoking law

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered the implementation of
a newly approved comprehensive anti-smoking, and drug control law.

Under the new law, any kind of advertisement, direct or indirect
support, or encouragement of others to smoke is strictly forbidden,

The law bans the sale of tobacco to persons under the age of 18 and bans
smoking in public places.

Iranmania.com 17 Oct 2006
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=46485&New
sKind=Current%20Affairs




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Amanda Sandford
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