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ASH Daily News
23 October 2002

HEADLINES

Parental smoking a risk to children’s health
Lung cancer losing out in scramble for research cash
Jenkins' swansong to tobacco advertising

FULL TEXT



Parental smoking a risk to children’s health

Parents who believe that opening a window will protect their children from
passive smoking were warned yesterday it was useless.

Doctors at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London released research showing
that smoke from one cigarette can linger for more than two hours even with
ventilation from an open window.

The hospital is launching a campaign to highlight the dangers of passive
smoking, including the increased risk of meningitis, asthma, cot death and
chest infections. It is advising that the best way to protect children is
with a complete smoking ban inside the house.

Dr Liz Edwards, paediatric respiratory fellow at the Royal Brompton, said
children were more at risk from passive smoking than adults because their
lungs were smaller and not fully developed. "The short and long-term damage
to children's health caused by passive smoking should not be underestimated
at all. Smoke from one cigarette lingers in the air for more than two hours,
even with the window open," she warned.

"This smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals and poisons, including
arsenic, ammonia, the insecticide DDT and formaldehyde. Children of parents
who smoke inhale about 60 to 150 cigarettes' worth of nicotine a year, or
about 1.5 cigarettes' worth of nicotine each week."

Judith Watt, head of SmokeFree London, an alliance of NHS trusts and other
agencies, said that in London alone, up to 650 new cases of childhood asthma
were caused every year by passive smoking.

Source: The Independent, The Express, Daily Telegraph, 23 October 2002



Lung cancer losing out in scramble for research cash

Lung cancer is a poor relation in research spending, the first national
survey of cancer research has shown.

It accounts for 22 per cent of British cancer deaths but gets 3 per cent of
research money, the National Cancer Research Institute has found. Research
into the prevention of cancer is also relatively poorly supported, receiving
just 2 per cent of the money.

At the other extreme, leukaemia is responsible for 3 per cent of deaths but
gets 17 per cent of research money, while breast cancer causes 8 per cent of
cancer deaths but receives 18 per cent of the total.

Most of the money spent on cancer research in Britain is raised by
charities, and until now there has never been a definitive breakdown of how
much is spent, or on what.

Dame Helena Shovelton, the chief executive of the British Lung Foundation,
said: “More women in the UK die from lung cancer than breast cancer. The
millions of pounds being put into breast cancer research now means that
people have an excellent chance of beating it. In contrast, people with lung
cancer have only a 5 per cent chance of survival in the first year.”

Full Story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-2-454811,00.html
Source: The Times, 22 October 2002



Jenkins' swansong to tobacco advertising

Writing in today’s Times, Simon Jenkins expels a lengthy diatribe against
the imminent ban on tobacco advertising. He draws parallels with unwarranted
censorship in the media, invokes Kantian philosophies to illustrate what he
sees as a fundamentally illiberal proscription by a “nanny state” - and at
one point goes as far as charging ministers with “playing God.”

** Anyway, great news the tobacco advertising ban going through its last
major stage, isn’t it?! **

The full article is available at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-152-455703,00.html

Source: The Times, 23 October 2002



Naj Dehlavi
Action on Smoking and Health
102 Clifton Street
London EC2A 4HW
http://www.ash.org.uk