HEADLINES

• Scotland: More cash help for pregnant smokers
• USA: Clean indoor air laws encourage bans on smoking at home
• Russia may ban hookah smoking in public
• Somalia: President says soldiers should stop chewing kat & smoking
• Fatherhood cuts crime, drinking, smoking

• Scotland: More cash help for pregnant smokers

  
  A Pilot scheme run by a Scottish health board that offers cash incentives to pregnant women to quit smoking is to be rolled out to other parts of the country as part of a multi-million programme to improve public health.

  NHS Tayside paid expectant mums £12.50 a week if they passed pharmacy breath tests proving they had given up smoking.

  Now the Scottish Government has unveiled a £40 million package for “innovative projects” such as incentive schemes for pregnant women in deprived parts of Scotland.

  The fund will also be used to pay for other smoking cessation services and prevention activities, including websites to help those trying to quit tobacco.

  Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon announced the package, as part of an overall £200m fund to be spent during the next three years on preventing ill health caused by alcohol abuse, smoking and obesity.

  She said: “Health in Scotland is improving but not quickly enough and we must continue to take action to address the health inequalities which exist between our more affluent and more deprived communities.

  “Scotland’s long-standing problems cannot be addressed overnight but we are taking, and will continue to take, significant action to address them through our efforts to reduce alcohol consumption, cut smoking rates, encourage active living and healthy eating, and promote positive mental health.”

  Source: Scotland on Sunday, 9 Nov 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/uj7h38

• USA: Clean indoor air laws encourage bans on smoking at home

  
  Second hand smoke exposure among nonsmokers has declined over time as clean indoor air laws have been adopted. However, there has been concern that such laws might encourage smokers to smoke more in their homes or other private venues. Children living in a home with an adult smoker are up to twice as likely to take up smoking themselves. Now, a study in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine concludes that strong clean indoor air laws are associated with large increases in voluntary smokefree policies in the home, as well.

  "Although the aim of clean indoor air laws is to reduce second hand smoke exposure in public venues, our results show that these laws have the important additional benefit of stimulating smokefree homes, with a larger association in homes occupied by smokers, protecting kids and other family members from second hand smoke," says lead investigator Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

  Dr. Glantz and his colleagues analyzed data from the Tobacco Use Supplement to Current Population Survey (TUS-CPS), a nationally representative household survey of tobacco use. They looked at the likelihood of a person living in a home with a 100% smokefree ban, and how that related to individual characteristics, household composition, and whether the residential region is covered by clean indoor air laws. "Living in a county fully covered by a 100% clean indoor air law in workplaces or restaurants and bars is associated with an increased likelihood of having a voluntary 100% smokefree-home rule, for both smoking and nonsmoking households," says Dr. Glantz. "The presence of children in the home makes a smokefree rule more likely."

  Since the home remains a major source of second hand smoke exposure for children, this work shows that an additional justification for enacting smokefree legislation is the secondary effect of encouraging voluntary smokefree rules at home, particularly in homes occupied by smokers," concludes Dr. Glantz.

  In a related study also published in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, researchers from the Moores UCSD Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego found that while public health campaigns have reduced the exposure of U.S. children to second hand smoke at home, only half of U.S. households with both children and smokers had complete home smoking bans.

  Source: EurekAlert 8 Nov. 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/seGbf0

• Russia may ban hookah smoking in public

  Lawmakers from St. Petersburg have submitted to the State Duma a bill banning hookah smoking in public, the official website of the parliament's lower chamber said on Wednesday.

  The bill, if approved, will ban "hookah smoking in public and offering such services to smokers in public places."

  The bill stipulates a fine of 500-1,500 rubles ($16-$50) for individuals, 20,000-30,000 ($600-$1000) for officials and from 100,000 to 300,000 ($3,000-$9,000) rubles for legal entities.

  The speaker of St. Petersburg legislature, Vadim Tulpanov, said that contrary to popular belief among waterpipe smokers, the concentration of harmful substances in shisha smoke is hundreds of times higher than in cigarette smoke.

  "Sometimes, people are just unaware of how dangerous hookahs are," he said.

  A senior lawmaker of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Tatyana Yakovleva, said the bill may get enough support in parliament.

  She said non-smokers should be protected from passive shisha smoke, which has an effect similar to passive cigarette smoke, but also contains highly toxic products of charcoal combustion, including carbon monoxide and carcinogenic chemicals.
   

  Source: Ria Novosti 9 Nov. 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/ubkJ3V

• Somalia: President says soldiers should stop chewing kat & smoking

  The president of Somalia has called for the soldiers of his government to stop chewing Kat and smoking cigarettes.

  Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the president of the war decimated horn of African nation made the comments while addressing the army of Somalia at Mogadishu battlefields.

   

  Source: AllAfrica.com 8 Nov. 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/ts3QE6

• Fatherhood cuts crime, drinking, smoking

  Studies have shown marriage changes men's negative behaviour and U.S. researchers say fatherhood can also have an impact on crime, and tobacco and alcohol use.

  Lead author David Kerr, assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University, and colleagues assessed more than 200 at-risk boys annually from the age of 12 to 31 in how their crime, tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use changed over time.

  "These decreases were in addition to the general tendency of boys to engage less in these types of behaviors as they approach and enter adulthood," Kerr said in a statement. "Controlling for the aging process, fatherhood was an independent factor in predicting decreases in crime, alcohol and tobacco use."

  However, the study, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, also found men who were well into their 20s and early 30s when they became fathers showed greater decreases in crime and alcohol use, compared to those who had their first child in their teens or early 20s.

  Men who had children at a more developmentally expected time could have been more able or willing to embrace fatherhood and shed negative lifestyle choices, Kerr said.

  Source:
  Changes in At-Risk American Men's Crime and Substance Use Trajectories Following Fatherhood. Journal of Marriage and Family. 2011; 73 (5): 101–1116.
  
   

  Source: UPI.com, 8 Nov. 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/szyeSx