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ASH Daily news for 22 June 2011

HEADLINES

  • Tory Cabinet Minister enjoys tobacco industry hospitality

    Philip Hammond, the Transport Secretary, was one of five Conservative MPs treated to more than £1,000 worth of hospitality by Japan Tobacco International.

    As a former health spokesman for the Conservatives and the founder of a medical equipment firm, Philip Hammond is all too familiar with the dangers of nicotine. However,  Hammond and his wife, Susan, were treated to more than £1,000 worth of hospitality at the Chelsea Flower Show by Japan Tobacco International (JTI), which owns Benson & Hedges and Silk Cut cigarettes.

    JTI is currently pursuing an application for judicial review of the ban on the display of tobacco by shopkeepers that was announced by Andrew Lansley earlier this year.

    Source: Daily Telegraph, 22 June 2011
    Link: http://tgr.ph/j3qZLp

  • Westminster must lead the way on car smoking ban

    In a 'Viewpoint' on BBC Online, Dame Helena Shovelton, Chief Executive, British Lung Foundation, explains why she supports the 10 Minute Rule Bill brought by Alex Cunningham MP on Wednesday, that proposes a ban on smoking in all cars where there are children present.

    She congratulates Mr Cunningham for his concern on this serious health issue and highlights the reasons behind the Bill:
     
    "Over 300,000 children in the UK present passive smoking related illnesses to their GP every year; an entirely preventable statistic that endangers the nation's future wellbeing, and presents a considerable expense to our healthcare service today.
     
    "The confines of a car, even with the window open, is one environment in which children can be exposed to seriously dangerous concentrations of passive smoke.

    "If we are willing to protect adults in the workplace, then we should protect children from passive smoking when travelling in private vehicles.  Research by the British Lung Foundation shows there is a real concern among children, with 51% of 8 to 15 year-olds surveyed saying they have been exposed to cigarette smoke while they have been in the confines of a car and that almost a quarter were too embarrassed or scared to ask adults smoking in the car with them to stop.

    "Evidence from other countries shows that the extent to which education and awareness campaigns on their own achieve change is limited compared to what can be achieved when supported by legislation."
    Source: BBC online, 22 June 2011
    Link: http://bbc.in/liNCCo

  • Smoking in pregnancy lowers levels of 'good Cholesterol" in children


    Researchers in Australia have discovered that mothers who smoke during pregnancy are causing developmental changes to their unborn babies that lead to them having lower levels of the type of cholesterol that is known to protect against heart disease in later life - high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

    The research, published  in the European Heart Journal, showed that, by the age of eight years, children born to mothers who smoked while they were pregnant had HDL cholesterol levels of about 1.3 millimoles per litre (mmol/L), compared to the more normal level of 1.5 mmol/L in children born to mothers who had not smoked.
     
    The researchers found that this effect was independent of whether the children had been exposed to other people's smoke after birth, suggesting that prenatal exposure had the most impact on the children's subsequent development.

    The researchers believe that the lower levels of HDL cholesterol at this age suggest there could be a serious impact on health in later life, including  a  higher risk for coronary disease in the children of smoking mothers.
    Source: Medical News Today, 21 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/lyKuDX

  • Australia: Tobacco ads to be banned on the net

    A proposed ban on tobacco advertising on the internet will bring the prohibition into the 21st century, the Australian parliament has been told.

    The Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Amendment Bill 2010 aims to align tobacco advertising in the electronic media with restriction in other media and at retail points of sale.
     
    Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said the current ban on tobacco advertising in Australia applied to television, radio, film and print was legislated in 1992.
     
    "The use of internet was not as widely spread as it is now," she told the Senate on Wednesday. Consequently the regulation application of the legislation was designed for more conventional media platforms." "It does not ban sales on the internet, but it bans advertising on the internet," Senator Fierravanti-Wells said.
     
    The proposed ban could aid the drive to lower smoking rates and its related side-effects to people's health.
     
    Source: Herald Sun, 22 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/ij01dz

  • India: Anti-smoking policies for adults also reduce kids' smoking

    A new study in the journal Addiction, has found that comprehensive, well-funded tobacco control programs for adults are also helping adolescents to reduce their smoking.

    The most effective elements of a tobacco control program include taxes on tobacco, well-funded adult-focused tobacco control programmes, well-funded anti-smoking mass media campaigns, and strong indoor smoking restrictions.

    There are three reasons why policies designed to reduce adult smoking can also reduce kids' smoking. First, as adult smoking decreases, young people have a lower tendency to see smoking as an tendency to see smoking as an adult activity. Second, many adult smokers are parents: when parents quit, it reduces the likelihood that their kids will start smoking. And third, many anti-smoking programs and policies directly influence adolescents themselves.

    To be effective, though, a comprehensive tobacco control program must be sustained and contain strong, consistently enforced, and well-funded anti-smoking policies.
     
    "If governments are determined to reduce smoking in this generation and the one to follow, they must choose effective policies and finance them properly. There's no other way around it," Professor Melanie Wakefield, co-author of the study, said.
    Source: The Times of India, 21 June 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/lDIRtQ