HEADLINES

• Study: Taking smoking cessation medication for several weeks before quitting may make it easier to stay tobacco-free
• Bellingham ex-smoker mum backs campaign for plain cigarette packaging
• USA: $1 spent on smoking cessation saves $3 in health costs
• USA: Study -Tobacco industry hid toxicity of cigarette additives
• Canada: Ontario can sue tobacco companies, court rules
• Australia: Heat on Labor over tobacco investments

• Study: Taking smoking cessation medication for several weeks before quitting may make it easier to stay tobacco-free

  Results of a clinical trial found smokers planning to give up may have more success if they begin using cessation medication several weeks before they try to quit.

  The study found that participants who took the smoking cessation medication varenicline (marketed as Champix) for four weeks prior to trying to quit were more likely to successfully give up smoking than those who took varenicline for just one week before quitting.

  Source: Medical News Today, 09 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/wlg8DK

• Bellingham ex-smoker mum backs campaign for plain cigarette packaging

  In a bid to deter young smokers from taking up the habit, a mother of two who started smoking at the age of nine is supporting a campaign to urge the Government to adopt plain packaging for cigarettes.

  Ailsa Rutter, director of North East anti-smoking group Fresh, said: “The majority of North East smokers start around 15 years old and we are particularly seeing smoking become prevalent among young women, who are being targeted by the tobacco industry with new slim line cigarettes in a bid to exploit and encourage an obsession with fashion and staying slim.

  “Glamorous packaging helps to attract new customers – if it didn’t the tobacco industry wouldn’t spend millions of pounds developing new designs.”

  Source: Journal Live, 05 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/A7oJXQ

• USA: $1 spent on smoking cessation saves $3 in health costs

  According to a new study in the journal PLoS One, a programme that helped low-income Massachusetts residents stop smoking saved three dollars for every dollar spent.

  The researchers from George Washington University found that smokers who quit saved three times the cost of the programme in fewer heart related hospitalisations after one year.

  The study did not take into account the benefits of avoiding cancer or other long term smoking related illnesses.

  Source: WBUR Common Health, 07 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/xXDQrC

• USA: Study -Tobacco industry hid toxicity of cigarette additives

  According to a new analysis of tobacco industry documents by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Philip Morris USA manipulated the public by skewing their protocols for testing the toxic effects of additives and menthol in cigarettes.

  Source: digitaljournal, 07 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/wf3iSM

• Canada: Ontario can sue tobacco companies, court rules

  The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has ruled that the Ontario government can proceed with its lawsuit against a group of 14 Canadian, American and British-based tobacco companies to help recover costs of treating people with smoking-related illnesses.

  Source: CBC News, 06 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/zW3Lnk

• Australia: Heat on Labor over tobacco investments

  The Australian government is under pressure to stop its multibillion-dollar Future Fund from investing in the tobacco industry.

  The Greens, on whom the government depends to pass legislation in the Senate, plan to increase pressure for the fund to disinvest from tobacco.

  Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 09 January 2012
  Link: http://bit.ly/zc5Pue