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ASH Daily News for 22 November 2007

London's cancer hot spots

A new study has found that Kingston is London's hot spot for skin, breast and prostate cancer.

It is one of the boroughs in the capital with the highest rates of all three types of cancer.

The Cancer Inequalities in London report by the Thames Cancer Registry reveals stark differences in cancer levels in different areas.

It shows the highest rates for skin cancer are in Kingston, Richmond & Twickenham, Sutton & Merton, Croydon and Havering.

Breast cancer rates are highest in Kingston, Richmond & Twickenham, Westminster, Bromley and Bexley, although the areas' death rates from the disease are low or average.

Prostate cancer affects a higher proportion of men in Kingston, Wandsworth, Lewisham, Lambeth, City & Hackney and Havering.

Dr Tim Crayford, president of the Association of Directors of Public Health and public health chief for Croydon, said: "The differences in society and affluence are reflected very clearly in diseases such as cancer."

Lung cancer among men is most prevalent in inner London, including Tower Hamlets, Southwark and Lambeth, as well as Isington, Greenwich and Barking & Dagenham.

Rates for women are highest in Tower Hamlets, Wandsworth, Newham, Islington, Barking & Dagenham and Greenwich. 

The report's authors, Professor Henrik Muller and Dr Elizabeth Davies, senior lecturer at the registry said,  "The more detailed investigation of the distribution confirms the continuing relationship between smoking-related cancers and deprivation."

Source: thisislondon, 20 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/3a6ye3

Australia: Cigarette pack displays 'tempt quitters'

According to new research, displaying cigarette packs behind shop counters do tempt would be quitters.

The first study led by Australian researchers found more than a third of smokers who were trying to quit or cut down were tempted to buy cigarettes as a direct result of seeing them on display. 

60 per cent of these gave in to the urge, purchasing cigarettes at least once even though they had never intended to buy any.

The research, to be published next week in the international journal, Addiction, also proves that recent quitters are lured back into smoking by the large glossy pack displays.

The findings have prompted health groups to call on governments to make removing cigarette pack displays from sight in the retail environment an urgent public health priority.

The study, led by Professor Melanie Wakefield of the Cancer Council Victoria,  aimed to assess the extent to which cigarette pack displays in retail stores stimulate impulse purchases of cigarettes.

Prof Wakefield said, "The importance to the tobacco industry of cigarette pack displays in the retail environment has gained in recent years, as traditional electronic, billboard and print forms of tobacco marketing are restricted."

"Far from being a benign marketing practice, our study illustrates that cigarette pack displays in retail stores do trigger impulse buying of cigarettes among smokers, even those who are trying to quit, every time they visit a store.''

She said the tobacco industry marketing tactic of creating colour-coordinated power walls of cigarettes at the point-of-sale may also tempt recent quitters to relapse.

"More than half of long-term smokers will die of a smoking caused-disease, so in light of these findings we urge all jurisdictions to develop legislation to remove tobacco displays from sight in retail stores.''

Source: The Australian, 22 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/3b8rf5

Smoking before and after pregnancy harms daughters' fertility

Researchers have identified the chemical pathway by which a mother's smoking before and after pregnancy might reduce her daughter's fertility by as much as two-thirds.

Cigarette smoking during pregnancy has been shown in studies to affect the fertility of a woman's offspring, but this is the first study to offer an explanation of the biology behind the effect, the scientists claim.

A team at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto investigated the impact of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a byproduct of smoking, on mouse fertility.

Researchers injected three groups of female mice with a low-dose mixture of PAH: One group received PAH before conception and again when they were providing milk for their pups; one group received PAH only before conception; and the third group received PAH only during lactation. A fourth control group did not receive PAH but were mated at the same time as the others.

The total amount of PAH given to each mouse over the three-week injection cycle was equivalent to 25 packs of cigarettes. The exposed mice did not have fewer pups in their own litters, but when researchers investigated the number of eggs in their female offspring, they found about 70 percent fewer follicles available to produce eggs.

Dr Andrea Jurisicova lead author, explained, "Mothers, mice in this case, exposed to PAHs, (environmental pollutants found in cigarette smoke, car exhaust, smoke produced by fossil fuel combustion, as well as in smoked food) before pregnancy and or during breast-feeding, but not during pregnancy, can cause a reduction in the number of eggs in the ovaries of their female offspring by two-thirds. This limits the window in which the daughter will be able to reproduce."

Dr Norman Edelman said, "This study now is providing a chemical pathway, which is very nice. The new data provides biological support for epidemiological results, such as the previously observed reduction in fertility among daughters of smoking women."

Although the findings do not define the length of time between quitting smoking and healthier fertility in offspring, Jurisicova noted that previous studies have shown that women who smoke have better results with in vitro fertilisation one year after they quit smoking. The mice in the current study conceived up to two weeks after their final PAH injection, which is approximately equivalent to three menstrual cycles in women.

The effect of a mother's cigarette smoking is not limited to her female children. A study published in the Jan. 1 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology suggested that the male offspring of mothers who smoke have lower sperm counts.

There is still more research to be done, Jurisicova noted. 

She added,  "We hope to continue studying the female offspring to see if they enter the mouse version of menopause earlier than mice whose mothers were not exposed to PAHs. We also hope to study if their reduced fertility passes on to subsequent generations, and if the granddaughters are predisposed to similar problems."

Source: US News, 21 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/36wggs

Hamish Howitt enters 'not guilty plea'

Hamish Howitt, who had his pub licence revoked earlier this week has pleaded not guilty to six charges of flouting the smoking ban at Blackpool Magistrate's Court.

Howitt plans to represent himself when he appears for trial on March 26 next year.

He said, “Smokers and working class people are a section of society, just the same as gay or religious people." 

“I’m actually seeing the ban as a hate crime against working class people, and that’s the way I plan to defend my case.”

Earlier this month Howitt was fined £500 and ordered to pay £2,000 costs and a £15 victim surcharge after pleading guilty to 12 offences of allowing smoking on his premises.

He became the first licensee to be prosecuted for flouting the ban.

Howitt yesterday made a U-turn on his plan to sell his bars, and plans to keep fighting against the smoking ban.

Source: The Publican, 21 November 2007
Link: http://tinyurl.com/2sbd3c