HEADLINES

• Why a nudge is not enough to change behaviour
• Passive smoking linked to DNA damage and birth defects
• Buckinghamshire: Protest over town smoking ban bid
• Front Row: Smoking on stage
• Jerusalem court dismisses $2.2bn lawsuit against tobacco companies
• New role for tobacco: making lifesaving drugs

• Why a nudge is not enough to change behaviour

  Much of what all governments do concerns trying to change our behaviour - but what is the best way to do that?

  The government has favoured the "nudge" - persuading rather than telling people to change their behaviour.

  But Baroness Julia Neuberger, chair of a Lords' committee which has just published a report on the issue, explains why it has concluded that nudge alone will not work.

  The Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 covered the issue. The segment can be listened to here.

  Source: BBC News - 19 July 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/qcEhkw

• Passive smoking linked to DNA damage and birth defects

  Passive smoking can cause genetic damage to sperm cells that may result in birth defects, miscarriages and other reproductive problems which make it difficult to father a healthy child, scientists have found.

  A study involving laboratory mice discovered that sperm cells are vulnerable to DNA damage caused by sidestream tobacco smoke, which is composed of about 4,000 chemicals including about 60 known cancer-causing substances.

  Researchers believe that similar DNA changes in boys or men exposed regularly to passive smoke could lead to reproductive problems such as infertility or a higher risk of fathering children with congenital defects.

  A separate study of more than 1,500 American teenagers found that exposure to passive smoking in early childhood increased the risk of developing hearing problems that could impair a child's educational development.

  It is the first time that passive smoking has been linked directly with hearing loss and will almost certainly be used to justify greater efforts to protect the estimated two million children in the UK who live in households where they are regularly exposed to the tobacco smoke of parents or relatives.

  The scientists found that the degree of hearing loss was linked to the amount of nicotine breakdown products found in the bloodstream of the teenagers.

  See also: 

  - Passive smoking 'doubles hearing loss risk among teens', BBC News

  - Passive smoking can damage the DNA of sperm, study in mice suggests, The Guardian

  Source: The Independent - 19 July 2011
  Link: http://ind.pn/nToYVZ

• Buckinghamshire: Protest over town smoking ban bid

  About 200 people have attended a protest against proposals for a town to become the first in the country to ban smoking in open places, according to organisers.

  Local councillor Paul Bartlett has proposed the move to stop people from lighting up in the streets of Stony Stratford, Buckinghamshire.

  Campaigners, politicians, non-smokers, local residents and representatives from the business community were amongst those who attended the opposition rally.

  UKIP leader Nigel Farage, who is also the local MEP for Buckinghamshire, said: "If this new proposal in Stony goes through it will mean no more 'popping out for a smoke'.

  "I have been listening to the concerns from the local business community and they believe that this will have a negative impact on the place."

  Stony Stratford Town Council will be voting on the proposal on Tuesday evening. If successful it will then ask Milton Keynes Council to use its powers to introduce the necessary law.

  The BBC has a video report on the protest, here.

  Source: Leighton Buzzard Observer - 17 July 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/pZ83b4

• Front Row: Smoking on stage

  A London theatre recently warned its audiences that the actors would be smoking on stage for much of the evening.

  On BBC Radio 4's Front Row, Mark Lawson discusses the issues linked to smoking on stage with actors Kristin Scott Thomas and Dominic West and director Simon Godwin.

  Click on the link below to listen. The relevant section of the programme starts at 22.57min.

  Source: BBC Radio 4 - 15 July 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/rc55Mn

• Jerusalem court dismisses $2.2bn lawsuit against tobacco companies

  An Israeli Supreme Court panel of three judges threw out a lawsuit worth $2.2bn (£1.4bn; €1.6bn) on 13 July brought by Israel’s largest public health maintenance organisation against Israeli, British, and US tobacco conglomerates for treating its members with smoking relating illnesses.

  Source: BMJ - 18 July 2011 [requires registration]
  Link: http://bit.ly/pYudWm

• New role for tobacco: making lifesaving drugs

  As smoking declines, scientists search for new uses for tobacco crops.

  Researchers in Kentucky are trying to turn tobacco from a killer crop into a lifesaving one.

  Instead of using the plant for cigarettes, it's being tested as a "factory," to make proteins to make drugs.

  It starts with a modified version of the tobacco mosaic virus, which is attached to the tobacco leaves.

  Barry Bratcher, the chief operating officer of Kentucky Biosciences, says, "We're able to place a virus into the plant, and we use the plant's machinery to reproduce and replicate that virus with our protein, that we can then harvest and produce."
   

  Source: ABC - 18 July 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/oaTAL3