HEADLINES

• Most women underestimate risk of lung cancer
• Australia: Plain packaging ban passes first parliamentary stage
• Facebook increases teenage smoking, drug and drinking rates
• Outdoor smoking ban: Richard Vize opinion piece
• Australia: Total ban on smoking in parliament
• USA: Kendallville Indiana: Tobacco heir brings anti-smoking campaign to schools
• George Michael turns to Twitter to stub out smoking habit

• Most women underestimate risk of lung cancer

  Only one in five women correctly identified lung cancer as the cancer that kills the most women in Britain.

  Lung cancer claims 15,000 lives every year in the country, more than breast and cervical cancer combined.

   

  A survey of 2,000 women found that women also underestimated the poor survival times of lung cancer patients. Most thought that 20 to 40 per cent of sufferers would live for five years whereas the true figure is just 9 per cent.

   

  Dr Marianne Nicolson, Consultant Medical Oncologist, Aberdeen NHS Grampian said: “The results of this survey show that women are less likely to see their doctor urgently if they display symptoms of lung cancer, such as a constant cough.”
  Source: The Telegraph, 25 August 2011
  Link: http://tgr.ph/qLqv9u

• Australia: Plain packaging ban passes first parliamentary stage

  Australia is poised to become the first nation to require tobacco products to be sold in plain packages.

  The laws were passed by the lower house yesterday and go to the Senate in September. If passed, the legislation will ban logos and colour variations on cigarette packages. Packets will have to be olive green from 1 January 2012.
  Source: Bloomberg, 25 August 2011
  Link: http://bloom.bg/pwK6Ae

• Facebook increases teenage smoking, drug and drinking rates

  An American study of 1,000 teenagers found those who used such sites daily were five times more likely to smoke tobacco as those who did not, three times as likely to drink alcohol and twice as likely to use marijuana.

  The poll of 12 to 17-year-olds Americans, conducted by Columbia University, found 70 per cent of those interviewed said they used social networking sites on a typical day.
  Source: The Telegraph, 24 August 2011
  Link: http://tgr.ph/ntlIyg

• Outdoor smoking ban: Richard Vize opinion piece

  In an opinion piece, Richard Vize, former editor of the Health Service Journal, rejects calls for a ban on smoking in public places.

  
  The localism bill, includes a “power of general competence” allowing councils to act in the interests of their communities. A few councils are examining whether they could use this power to extend the smoking ban to playgrounds, parks, sports venues, and even streets.

  
  They are following the lead of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who extended the city’s smoking ban to parks, beaches, plazas, and golf courses. In England the first battleground in the new hostilities over smoking has been the historic town of Stony Stratford. Town councillor Paul Bartlett has
  been branded a fresh air fascist in the Daily Telegraph for calling for a ban on smoking in public places.

   

  Elsewhere there has been more success for voluntary bans aimed at protecting children. Councils such as Hackney, Pendle and parts of Wiltshire have put up no smoking signs in children’s playgrounds.

  
  Even anti-smoking campaigners ASH are wary of draconian outdoor extensions of the existing laws. They told the BMJ: “We don’t want to say that the slightest whiff of tobacco smoke and you will keel over.”

   

  This common sense approach helps distinguish between the risks from smoke indoors and what is simply a bad example to kids or a nuisance outdoors.

   

  ASH encourages councils to talk to mothers about how best to protect children from smoke. After all, there is not much point in keeping a playground smoke free if parents then poison their kids by having a cigarette in the car on the way home.
  Source: BMJ, 24 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/qifiO7

• Australia: Total ban on smoking in parliament

  Smoking has been banned from all areas of the Victorian Parliament building and surrounding precinct in response to complaints from government workers.

  People were previously able to smoke on the roof, near exits and other open air areas, but smoking in these areas is now banned.
  Source: ABC Western Victoria, 23 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/rg8V4G

• USA: Kendallville Indiana: Tobacco heir brings anti-smoking campaign to schools

  He’s an heir to the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. fortune, but champions a smoke-free society.

  Patrick Reynolds, grandson of R.J. Reynolds who founded the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co founded the Foundation for a Smokefree America and travels the world reminding people of the dangers of tobacco and smoking.

  This week he spoke to East Noble Middle School students about the pitfalls of using tobacco products and how tobacco companies use Hollywood celebrities, sports stars and advertising to market their products to young people.

  
  Patrick Reynolds watched his father, R.J. Reynolds Jr., and his oldest brother, R.J. Reynolds III, and other members of his family die from cigarette-induced emphysema and lung cancer.

   

  “My father died when I was 9, and I carried this guilt and anger in me for quite a while until I received counselling and came to realize smoking is a health hazard,” he told the students.
   
  Source: KPC News, 25 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/okNHk2

• George Michael turns to Twitter to stub out smoking habit

  George Michael is determined to kick his nicotine habit, and he turns to Twitter to distract him every time he feels like smoking a cigarette.

  The pop star has stubbed out his addiction in recent years, but admits his stint in prison last year  reignited his habit.

   

  Michael has since resolved to quit again, and he turns to social networking to keep him busy whenever he feels the urge to light up.
   
  Source: Daily Star, 24 August 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/n0KJa4