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ASH Daily News

21 December 2005

[View html version: http://www.globalink.org/nbuk]

HEADLINES

Addicted kids offered help to quit smoking

Passive smoking blindness risk, study

Philip Morris and China National Tobacco announce deal

Model behaviour

North Korean company claims sweet quit success

FULL TEXT

Addicted kids offered help to quit smoking

Children as young as 12 are to be offered nicotine patches by school nurses as part of a scheme launched today to help young addicts quit smoking.

The initiative will see pupils at six secondary schools in County Durham given support to kick their habits.

Pupils will be encouraged, but not required, to seek parental approval to use the patches.

Kathy Camsell, the school nursing lead for Derwentside primary care trust (PCT), said: "Helping these young people to stop smoking is one of the biggest impacts we are likely to have on their future health."

Derwentside PCT and the government's Sure Start scheme have joined forces to develop a protocol on the use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for 12 to 17-year-olds in schools across the Derwentside area.

The patches are aimed at those children with an addictive habit and health bosses said their use would be closely monitored.

As part of the scheme, school nurses and youth workers will be trained and advised by Quit, the national organisation to help smokers.

They will be given steps to follow, including being taught how to establish the appropriate products and amounts to be used according to the level of addiction.

Iain Miller, a smoking cessation adviser with Derwentside PCT, said: "It does not take long for young people to be addicted to nicotine. By the time they have overcome the spluttering start to smoking and learned to smoke three full cigarettes, inhaling the smoke properly, they can be displaying the key signs of addiction.

"NRT is not appropriate for all young people in stopping smoking, but those who have developed the levels of addiction will be able to double their chances of success if they use NRT and are four times more likely to be successful if they use NRT and access specialist support.

"Young people deserve the same opportunities to break their addiction as older people do", Mr Miller said.

The initiative is part of the local tobacco control action plan developed by Smokefree Derwentside. Under the plan, the PCT and Derwentside council have made their buildings, grounds and car parks smokefree and have also asked residents to refrain from smoking around children's parks.

Jaime Battye, the health promotion specialist for Sure Start Stanley, added his support for the scheme.

"One in two young people is exposed to secondhand smoke in the home and this initiative, if nothing else, will help to raise awareness of the excellent support that is out there to help people if they decide they want to stop smoking."

Source: Guardian, Times, Sun, 21 December 2005
Article link: (G) http://tinyurl.com/a6rku : (T) http://tinyurl.com/bxo9h


Passive smoking blindness risk, study

A Cambridge University team looked at the impact of smoking on age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and found it was the biggest factor in increased risk of the disease, the British Journal of Ophthalmology reported.

Living with a smoker for five years doubled the risk of the disease and regular smoking tripled it, they found.

Campaigners said it highlighted the need for an outright ban on smoking in enclosed public places and workplaces.

Research has already shown that smoking increases the risk of vision problems, but this study has presented the clearest evidence yet that passive smoking can have a similar impact.

AMD usually develops after a person reaches the age of 50.

It affects the central part of the retina, key for reading and driving, leaving only peripheral vision intact. It does not always lead to blindness.

There are about 500,000 people in the UK with AMD.

The researchers studied 435 people with AMD and 280 people without, looking at their smoking habits and the development of disease.

They found the more a person smoked the greater the risk of them and their partners developing AMD.

Regularly smoking a pack of cigarettes or more a day for 40 years almost tripled the risk, while living with a smoker for at least five years doubled it.

However, they found for people who had given up smoking for 20 years or more the risk was cut to levels comparable to nonsmokers.

Anita Lightstone, the Royal National Institute of the Blind's head of eye health, said: "This is an extremely important finding and further evidence to back RNIB's call for a ban on smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces across the UK."

Source: BBC, Guardian, 21 December 2005
Article link: http://tinyurl.com/7hzzy
Journal link: http://bjo.bmjjournals.com/


Philip Morris and China National Tobacco announce deal

A press release issued today by The China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC) and Philip Morris International (PMI) announces that they have reached agreement on the licensed production in China of the Marlboro brand and the establishment of an international equity joint venture between the two organisations.

The signing of the two agreements today at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing symbolizes a substantial step forward taken by the parties in establishing a long-term strategic cooperative partnership.

The international joint venture company to be established by a subsidiary of CNTC and PMI, in which each party will hold 50 per cent of the shares of the company, will be based in Lausanne, Switzerland.

It is expected by the parties that the production and sale of Marlboro cigarettes under license in China and the sale of Chinese style brands in selected international markets through the joint venture company will commence in the first half of 2006. Both CNTC and PMI anticipate that these agreements will not result in a material impact on their immediate financial results.

Source: CCN Matthews, 21 December 2005
Press release link: http://tinyurl.com/am99b


Model behaviour

The model Sophie Anderton who last month cited smoking as her only vice, poses as a dominatrix in an ad for a new range of products to help smokers give up, the Stub Out Smoking Instant Quit Programme.

Source: Metro, 21 December 2005


North Korean company claims sweet quit success

A North Korean drug firm has developed a sweet that it claims removes nicotine from the body, "lifts the love of cigarettes without adverse effects, improves the immunity and heals the diseases caused by cigarettes."

The firm says the product is made from "rare medicinal herbs" collected from deep mountains of northern North Korea in accordance with a therapy pioneered by an ancient Korean herbalist.

For years, North Korea has been staging an anti-smoking campaign, with leader Kim Jong Il even calling smokers one of the "three main fools of the 21st century," along with people ignorant of music and computers.

Experts in South Korea estimate more than 40 percent of North Korea's 22 million people light up regularly, compared to about 33 percent in the South.

Source: IOL, 21 December 2005

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