Sunderland: 1,254 people quit smoking

More than 1,000 smokers have quit the habit – thanks to support from Sunderland NHS Stop Smoking Services.

Latest figures from the NHS Information Centre show that 709 women and 545 men successfully gave up smoking with the help of Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust (TPCT) between April-December last year.

The figures show 1,443 men and 1,898 women set a quit date with the TPCT during the nine months, and 38 per cent were successful, which was confirmed in tests for carbon monoxide.

A spokesman for the TPCT said: "The figures show that many local smokers are taking that important first step and making a conscious decision to give up.

"Research shows that people are four times more likely to succeed in their quit efforts when they are supported by NHS Stop Smoking Services. The challenge is to encourage and help even more people give up.

"Smoking is the major cause of death and ill health in Sunderland, with an average of 600 people dying each year from smoking related diseases.

"To help, we are currently increasing the number of Stop Smoking advisers available locally and expanding the range of locations where people can access the specialist help they need to successfully give up."

The figures also show 31 per cent of pregnant women who had help from the TPCT successfully quit the habit during the same period.

The Sunderland NHS Stop Smoking Service provides free advice, support and information, including one-to-one meetings and group discussions with trained advisers.

The service is available from hospitals, GP surgeries, leisure centres, pharmacies and community centres. Special services are also available to support pregnant women to give up smoking.

Ailsa Rutter, director of campaigning group Fresh Smoke-Free North East, said: "Smokers give themselves the best possible chance of quitting by using the friendly and free NHS Stop Smoking Service. This offers the best possible type of support and advice, as well as medication to deal with cravings."

Source: Sunderland Echo, 21 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/dh9fhs

Australia: Research links passive smoking to cot death

Researchers in Sydney have found the first direct evidence that exposure to cigarette smoke increases the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

The research, conducted by the University of Sydney's Bosch Institute, found exposure to second-hand smoke caused changes to babies' brain cells.

The research found that 81 per cent of the infants who died of SIDS had been exposed to cigarette smoke, while only 58 per cent of those who died of other causes were exposed to secondhand smoke.

The researchers also found more brain cells in the part of the brain responsible for vital functions like breathing and blood circulation had died in babies that succumbed to SIDS.

The authors said, "This study provides further evidence of increased apoptosis [cell death] in the brainstem of SIDS infants, but shows for the first time that these changes are also affected by age and gender, and by clinical risk factors such as the sleep position and cigarette smoke exposure.

Secondhand smoke has long been identified as a risk factor for SIDS and anti-smoking campaigns around Australia have warned parents not to smoke around their babies.

It also adds to a growing body of research that shows if a mother smokes while pregnant they significantly increase the risk of their baby dying from SIDS.

Dr Machaalani said, "I can only hope that the doctors and the scientific board can take the report and send it across to parents and let them know finally that look, what we've been telling you all along is true," she said.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, often referred to as 'cot death', refers to the deaths of infants younger than 12 months who are found in their cots, with no explanation even after a thorough examination.

An average of 88 babies in Australia die from SIDS each year.

Source: ABC News, 22 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/c9p5sk
 

Canada: Researchers warn of link between smoking and breast cancer

A Canadian panel that analysed more than 100 studies concluded that smoking causes breast cancer and so does secondhand smoke.

The blue ribbon report largely puts to rest an academic uncertainty that has long perplexed cancer researchers as many may have assumed that these finding were well established. 

Dr. Anthony Miller, associate director of research at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana school of Public Health said, "Up until now the expert groups who have looked at this have shied away from making a definitive conclusion."

"The evidence is consistent with a causal relationship and in our view that's sufficient to take action and let women know about this," Miller says.

He added that they used as part of their evidence the fact that in their view there wasn't a strong association with active smoking and breast cancer.

"After our re-review of all the evidence, we concluded something quite different," he said of the report, which was released today.

Miller says his group gathered dozens of previous studies, most of them written in the past eight years, deconstructed them and comprehensively reanalysed their data to draw conclusions.

That new analysis showed there was a significant link between breast cancer and second hand smoke in pre-menopausal women and a strong connection between the illness and active smoking in women of all ages.

"We don't think the evidence is sufficiently adequate in post menopausal women," Milller says.

Miller says many of the studies that had failed to find a relationship between tobacco and breast cancer — throwing ambiguity into the issue — were lacking sufficient data to draw any valid results.

"If you don't collect sufficiently detailed information on exposure either to passive or active smoking then you can get these lack of findings or low risks," he says.

Miller says the panel found evidence that smoking could increase breast cancer risks by 40 to 50 per cent in some cases. And in genetically susceptible women the risk could be doubled, he says.

There is not yet enough data, however, to determine how many cases of breast cancer could be traced directly back to tobacco, Miller says.

But, he says, the report should help to curb smoking among women, for whom breast cancer often holds a unique and particular terror.

"There are lots of young women who have felt lung cancer and some of these other cancers are not really likely to effect us. But here's a cancer that really does."

Canadian Cancer Society spokesperson Rob Cunningham said the panel's findings would help dissuade women from smoking and persuade governments to take even stronger stands against tobacco.

The panel convened last September by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, an affiliate of the Dalla Lana institute.

Source: The Star, 23 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/c82b5t

Leicestershire: Help for mothers to stop smoking

Three stop-smoking advisers have been taken on to help pregnant women quit.

The move comes after health bodies revealed more babies in Leicestershire died before they reached their first birthday than most other places in the country.

Some of the babies are born prematurely, others with inherited conditions. The number also includes children killed in accidents.
However, a major concern for public health officials is the number of mums-to-be who smoke.

It is estimated one in four women– about 2,200 in Leicestershire – smokes while they are pregnant. Of those, about 700 quit before they give birth.

Smokers inhale more than 4,000 chemicals from each cigarette. One, carbon monoxide, restricts the oxygen that is essential for a baby's development.

As a result, their heart has to beat harder whenever cigarette smoke is inhaled by a pregnant woman.

Babies affected by cigarette smoke are also more likely to be born prematurely and with a low birth weight.

Louise Ross, manager of the city's Stop! smoking service, said: "We don't know exact numbers of babies born prematurely or which would have been heavier if their mothers hadn't smoked.

"But we do know that small, poorly or pre-term babies can be the results of smoking."

Latest figures showed that between 2005 and 2007, for every 1,000 babies born in Leicester more than six died before they reached their first birthday. In the county, the figure was 5.1 per 1,000 births.

Both are above the English average of 4.9.

It means every week at least one set of parents is grieving for a lost son or daughter.

Amanda Armstrong, from Thrussington, began smoking when she was just nine. For years – including through three pregnancies – she smoked up to 30 cigarettes a day.

When she discovered she was having her fourth baby, she was determined to quit forever.

The 39-year-old said: "It was hard at the start and still is from time to time, but it is getting easier."

Her fourth child, Alfie, was born three months ago and weighed 8lbs 4ozs – the heaviest of her children.

Source: Leicester Mercury, 24 April 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/cewexb