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ASH Daily news for 22 August 2011

HEADLINES

  • Smoking may increase risk of diabetes

    A  US study suggests that having increased cotinine levels, as a result of smoking, may increase glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels and therefore increase the risk of developing diabetes.

    Carole Clair and colleagues from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, analysed cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) collected between 1999 and 2008 on cotinine and HbA1c levels.

    The team found that mean HbA1c was 0.05% higher in smokers than in former or never smokers. Similarly, mean HbA1c levels were 5.35% and 5.34%, respectively, in the highest and middle cotinine groups compared with 5.29% in the lowest.

    Clair and colleagues said, "Our findings support the hypothesis that smoking, and more specifically nicotine, leads to a persistent increase in blood glucose levels. However, it does not prove causality because of its cross-sectional design."

    Although the increase in HbA1c seen in this study is small, the researchers emphasize that previous research shows that even a small increase in HbA1c can raise a person's risk for cardiovascular disease and death.

    Source: Medwire News, 22 August 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/oxLmhW

  • Eastbourne: Help at hand if you want to stop smoking

    Hundreds of smokers in Eastbourne are now smokefree thanks to the support on offer from NHS Stop Smoking services.

    In the year ending March 2011, almost 10,000 people successfully quit smoking across Sussex with support from local NHS Stop Smoking services. In East Sussex 3,332 successfully stopped smoking.

    Among initiatives to help people give up smoking is a new convenient Stop Smoking Shop called Walk into Wellbeing which opened in Langney Shopping Centre and provides information on local health services as well as stop smoking support with five clinics per week, making it even easier for people to get access to the help they need.

    Anna Kirk at NHS Sussex said, “Every single person who has stopped smoking in the last 12 months should be very proud of themselves. It is a great achievement and we are delighted they have managed to take this huge step to a healthier lifestyle with the help available."

    Source: Eastbourne Herald, 22 August 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/quu0MP

  • Stop smoking advice sessions at mosques are great success

    The NHS stop smoking service in the Bradford district is reporting great success in helping people to quit smoking during Ramadan.

    It has teamed up with mosques to give people easy access to help and advice with quitting, as well as offering other health advice.

    It has proved a great success and increased referrals to the stop smoking service. Last year around the month of Ramadan, the quit rate for the south Asian community went up to 50 per cent.

    Messages about the stop smoking support are given out by Imams after prayers in special Friday sermons and people can then speak to NHS advisers at the mosque about getting support from the stop smoking service or find out what other help is on offer.

    Mohammed Idrees, of NHS Bradford and Airedale’s stop smoking team, said: “Ramadan is an ideal time for Muslims to reflect on their life, including their health, and take steps towards a healthier lifestyle."

    Source: Telegraph & Argus, 20 August 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/p2nUPM

  • Malawi: Giving Up On Tobacco

    Malawi is reducing the production of tobacco following huge losses by smallholder tobacco farmers and commercial estates trading the crop on the country's only official tobacco markets, the auction floors.

    Tobacco has been the country's sole main revenue earner accounting for up to 60 percent of the foreign exchange estimated at 950 million dollars. Malawi's tobacco accounts for five percent of the world's total exports, according to the country's ministry of agriculture.

    But since 2008, the auction floors have been seen prices plummeting from an average of US$3  per kilogramme to 50 cents this year. On average, a tobacco farmer spends up to one dollar to produce a kilo of tobacco, according to the ministry of agriculture.

    The Farmers Union of Malawi (FUM), an umbrella body of farmers' organisations, attributes the low prices to the global anti-smoking lobby, which has led to demand for the crop reducing. The farmers' body also blames the drop in sales on the current economic crisis.

    The FUM has been scouting the international market to assess which crops Malawian farmers could diversify into. Groundnuts, legumes, soya, apples, paprika, wheat and sesame have been found to have a market potential for the local farmer, according to Felix Jumbe, president of FUM.

    Source: AllAfrica, 18 August 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/mS0Thm

  • California: Waterpipe use up among young adults

    There has been an alarming increase of hookah smoking among young adults in California, according to researchers. 

    Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, said hookah use in the state was much higher among young adults aged 18 to 24 -- 24.5 percent among men, 10 percent among women -- than it was among all adults together at 11.2 percent among men and 2.8 percent among women.

    Wael Al-Delaimy of the UCSD Department of Family and Preventive Medicine said, "This rise is particularly alarming because it's happening in California, a state that leads the nation in tobacco control. While cigarette smoking has decreased nationwide and in California, reports of ever using hookah have increased, especially among adolescents and young adults."

    Source: UPI, 19 August 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/p38uFt

  • China: Students begin to smoke at a younger age

    According to the results of a survey released by the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control (CATC) almost one in four students aged between 12 and 14 have tried smoking.

    The survey, carried out among 38,839 students and 6,503 teachers from middle and high schools in 11 provinces across the country between May and June, showed that 22.5 percent of students aged between 12 and 14 had tried smoking and that 15.8 percent of middle and high school students smoke regularly.

    The majority of student smokers buy cigarettes themselves and about 76 percent of the adolescent smokers said that there is at least one cigarette shop within 200 meters from their school.

    Duan Jiali, secretary-general of the youth tobacco control commission under CATC said, "We're keen to show that more adolescents are starting smoking much younger than before, and that we need to minimize the number of young smokers."

    Source: China Daily, 16 August 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qhyNF7