World leading academic defends Liverpool health bosses’ plan to give films with smoking an 18 rating

The world’s leading academic on the study of the influence of films in people’s decisions to take up smoking has defended Liverpool health bosses’ plans to rate films which show tobacco use with 18 certificates.

Dr Stanton Glantz, of the University of California, said there was clear evidence from a range of studies from around the world that youngsters are more likely to smoke if they see it on the silver screen.

The Liverpool PCT policy, which it says would also apply to cartoons, has raised concerns from city leaders who say they think the plans are more about censorship than public health.

But San Francisco-based Dr Glantz said city health bosses were absolutely right to pursue the proposals, currently under consultation.

Dr Glantz said Liverpool’s approach had been recognised by the World Health Organisation as a way that public health bodies could apply their own jurisdiction where film classification bodies like the BBFC had rejected calls for a blanket ban.

It recently turned down a request from the Liverpool-based young person’s lobby, D-Myst, to rate all films with smoking featured with an 18 certificate.

Dr Glantz said: “Liverpool is being very sensible, in my view. When you look at the BBFC and what warrants an 18 certificate – where material or treatment appears to the Board to risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour, to society – then, given the huge body of science, it meets the standard for an 18 rating.

“All Liverpool is doing is saying, ‘Well, the BBFC is advisory to us, we have very high levels of smoking in Liverpool, and if they won’t enforce it, we will’.”

An academic at the University of California for more than 30 years, Dr Glantz rejected suggestions that the proposed ban was an issue of censorship.

He added: “They’re not being film censors. Censorship would be if they tried to pass a rule that said you can’t show smoking in films at all.

“All they’re doing is applying the proper categorisation and labelling. All they’re trying to do is take the existing ratings system and apply it in a way which is consistent with the law.”

The Liverpool PCT’s policy has won the support of the World Health Organisation, whose June report, Smoke-free Movies – From Evidence To Action’, states that “as a major export country for US films, these actions in the United Kingdom would have important implications for US film distributors and would likely create an incentive for more youth-marketed movies to be smokefree.”

Source: Liverpool Daily Post, 25 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/l22256

Support for smoking ban increasing

Employees of  Dundee’s bars and nightclubs say they are are reaping the benefits of the smoking ban, with a significant improvement in their health.

Their claims come as a study by Dr Keir Lewis, senior lecturer at Swansea School of Medicine, shows support for the ban which came into force in Scotland in March 2006 is increasing year on year.

His research, to be presented at the British Thoracic Society’s annual summer meeting today, shows that up to 90% of non-smokers and 60% of smokers now fully support the legislation.

Among the fans was George Wilkie, the owner of Templelane in the city centre, who said the ban had his “total backing.”

He said, “I’ve worked in pubs and clubs all my life and I can honestly say I’ve noticed a huge difference in my health. I managed nightclubs for about 10 years and my doctor once told me I was inhaling so much smoke it was like I smoked 10 cigarettes a day and I’ve never smoked in my life."

“It’s just a much nicer atmosphere in the pub as well. The staff all feel much more secure about their long-term health because they don’t have to be around so many smokers every night.”

Kokomo’s manager Andy Cumpsty worked in a bar in Dublin when the Republic of Ireland became the first European nation to ban smoking in public places in March 2004.

He said, “I just remember being amazed by the fact I didn’t go home every night stinking of smoke.I felt so much less lethargic, I wasn’t waking up every morning with a headache because I’d been around so many smokers. It’s definitely been a positive thing for Scotland.”

Kelly Thomson, who worked at the popular Fat Sam’s nightclub for four years, agreed.

She said, “I am a smoker myself but I do think the ban is a good thing. I do PR for the club now but before the ban came into place I was behind the bar and I used to go home every night with my eyes nipping from being around so many smokers.

“I personally am very careful not to smoke around non-smokers when I’m on a night out because I don’t think it’s fair. I think that’s why everyone really appreciates the introduction of smoking terraces.”

Source: The Courier
Link: http://tinyurl.com/moxzcq

Cigarettes 'easy' for children

A new short film shows how easy it is for children to walk into pubs and buy cigarettes from a vending machine.

The video, made by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) was made using a hidden camera and shows two 14-year-olds buying cigarettes in three different pubs in Westminster.

The film is part of the charity's campaign to ban cigarette vending machines.

Teenagers Cordell Sutherland and Casey Philip used the secret equipment to record themselves using the machines without being challenged, even though the legal age for buying tobacco in the UK is 18.

Casey, from Luton in Bedfordshire, said: "It was a bit nerve-wracking going into the pub, I wasn't sure if they were going to say anything, but after going into one pub I thought, 'Wow, this is so easy.'

"I was really shocked. I was expecting someone in at least one place to say something or stop me, but they didn't."

The BHF estimates that in 2006 more than 46,000 11 to 15-year-old regular smokers obtained their cigarettes from vending machines in England and Wales.

The charity also calculates that in 2006 45 million cigarettes were sold to 11 to 15-year-olds through the machines.

Peter Hollins, chief executive of the BHF said: "A complete ban is the only fail-safe way to make sure children aren't able to get cigarettes from vending machines. Half measures will not protect our children's health."

However Neil Williams from the British Beer and Pub Association said: "Banning a perfectly legitimate part of a pub's business is totally unjustified."

Source: The Press Association, 23 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/nac7zx

Spain: Smoking more than five cigarettes a day may provoke migraine attacks

Tobacco acts as a precipitating factor for headaches, specifically migraines, new research suggests. This is indicated in a study which shows that smokers have more migraine attacks and that smoking more than five cigarettes a day triggers this headache. The work has appeared in the Journal of Headache and Pain.

The influence of tobacco as a precipitating, non-causal factor of migraine attacks has produced contradictory data in scientific literature. The limited research prior to the work published in The Journal of Headache and Pain indicated that smoking could improve migraines by reducing anxiety, one of the factors that triggers an attack.

"This study is groundbreaking in Spain as there are few studies on this topic, and all are very biased. This is due to the complexity and need for prior training of the participants", Julio Pascual, one of the authors of this research and doctor at the Neurology Unit of Marqués de Valdecilla, University Hospital (Santander), explains to SINC.

One advantage of this study is that the sample used, 361 medicine students from the University of Salamanca, were fully aware what a migraine was. The experts, who enquired about the presence or absence of migraine (and its characteristics) and whether or not they smoked, guaranteed the reliability of the results obtained, as most surveys for this type of study are done over the phone, randomly and in people without knowledge of the illness.

The results show that 16% of students fulfilled migraine criteria, while 20% smoked. The percentage of smokers was higher (29%) in those who were also migraine sufferers and migraine frequency in those students who were migraine sufferers and smokers was clearly higher than in those who were non-smokers and migraine sufferers.

According to Pascual, "smoking is a precipitating factor of this type of headache, as the prevalence of active smokers is one third higher in migraine sufferers and there is a direct relationship between the number of cigarettes consumed and the frequency of migraine attacks".

The researchers stressed the importance of the dosage. The results of the interviews reveal that the migraine sets in after five daily cigarettes. Furthermore, although the percentage of those who smoked was higher in people with migraines, they smoked less than those who did not suffer migraines.

"This is because they themselves knew that if they exceeded five cigarettes a day, they were more likely to have a migraine attack. The pain itself acts as a limiting factor", explains the neurologist, who maintains that "in no case should a migraine sufferer be advised to smoke thinking that it is going to improve their migraines. What's more, if you smoke a lot you should reduce the dose drastically".

"The supposed migraine cure ends up becoming its cause because of self-medication". Feliu Titus, an honorary member of the Spanish Neurological Society, explained last May in the paper Migraine treatment. The role of non-pharmacological methods, in Barcelona.

In Spain, this illness affects five million people and 2% of the population suffers attacks for more than 15 days a month. According to Titus, "more than 20% have never consulted a specialist". 90% of migraine sufferers self-medicate, without being aware of the risk that this entails. Anyone who suffers from migraines and abuses drugs ends up suffering adverse effects and a worsening of the illness due to a "rebound effect", according to specialists.

Source: Science Daily, 24 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/kv6u5a

Greece attempts indoor smoking ban

Greece, Europe’s heaviest smoking nation, will try to kick the habit by banning tobacco in indoor public places beginning July 1, but many doubt the ban will work.

Greece breaks all European records with more than 40 percent of the population smoking and six out of 10 being exposed to smoking at work, according to a European Union poll.

“We can’t take it anymore. Where I work there are so many smokers,’’ said Elisavet Vasileiadou, 55, a shoe-store employee in central Athens. “I hope the ban will be implemented for the sake of our health, but I think it will be difficult.’’

Greece has tried to ban smoking in hospitals and offices and requires restaurant and bar owners to designate smoking areas, but the measures have so far been widely ignored.

Smoking-related diseases kill about 20,000 people a year in Greece, costing the country $2.97 billion a year, the Health Ministry said.

The new law will ban smoking indoors in all public or private areas used for working purposes, including airports, taxis, and buses. Some restaurants and bars will be able to choose whether their business is smoking or nonsmoking; others can set up ventilated smoking areas.

Bar and restaurant owners, as well as the private sector’s umbrella labor union, say the law will harm business.

Source: The Boston Globe, 24 June 2009
Link: http://tinyurl.com/nfg4nl