ASH, 102 Clifton Street, LONDON, EC2A 4HW.
Tel 020 7739 5902 Fax 020 7613 0531


ASH Daily News
21 November 2001

Headlines

Britain tops lung disease death rates
Lung Cancer: behind the smoke screen

Full Text

Britain tops lung disease death rates

Lung diseases claim more lives in Britain than in any other developed European country except Ireland. The death rates are twice the EU average, with 105 per 100,000 people compared with 30 in Austria, 34 in Italy and 35 in Switzerland, the British Thoracic Society says.

The diseases include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, pneumonia, sleep apnoea and tuberculosis. Doctors suggest that years of under-funding, a lack of research and government indifference has led to the soaring death rates.

However, differences in death reporting illnesses, different attitudes among patients who may delay attending clinics, and different treatments may account for some international differences. In the Netherlands, for example, twice as many patients with lung cancer underwent operations as in Britain.

Female deaths from lung diseases have risen 28 percent in 20 years. The Thoracic Society, which wants to see treatment funding increased, said the high profile of cancer and heart disease made lung illnesses “the poor relation.”

Source: The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, 21 November 2001



Lung Cancer: behind the smoke screen

An article in the Independent comments on the attempt by the tobacco giants to muscle in on the treatment of lung cancer by buying out patents for potential vaccines for the disease.

Each year more than 40,000 British people are diagnosed with lung cancer 90 percent of whom are current or former smokers. But a vaccine for this deadly disease could be just round the corner . That in turn could mean thousands of lives saved or prolonged – and for the company that patents it – millions of pounds in profits.

However, last week it was revealed that Japan Tobacco, the world’s third largest tobacco company, is funding some of the leading team of scientists. In return, the tobacco giant gets marketing rights to the vaccines when they are developed.

However, visions of the future generations of smokers being free from the spectre of lung cancer should be dispelled immediately. The drugs that are currently in the development phase will never be a cure. “I don’t think these vaccines will be used to prevent cancers, says Poulem Patel, of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. “They will be used to stop them recurring. Even then, they will only be part of the armoury.”

Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said that the talk of vaccines may give rise to false hopes which is worrying. He added: “Smokers will latch on to these vaccines as a reason for not quitting. We may find people who may never have got lung cancer, who get it because they treatments are in the pipeline.”

Full Story: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=105891
Source: The Independent, 21 November 2001




Visit http://TobaccoPedia.org !