HEADLINES

• Australia: Philip Morris launches an online campaign against plain packaging
• Wales: Banning smoking in cars ‘only way to protect children’
• New warning for diabetic smokers
• Study: Secondhand smoke linked to lower birth weight and still birth
• Study: Smoking increases atrial fibrillation (arrhythmia)

• Australia: Philip Morris launches an online campaign against plain packaging

  Philip Morris Australia has launched an online campaign and website which calls on smokers to unite and flex their political muscle over tough government regulations.

  The website claims smokers are under constant attack from a "nanny state" and has placed the web address on cards inserted inside tobacco products manufactured by Philip Morris.

  Quit Victoria executive director Fiona Sharkie accused the tobacco industry of hiding behind websites and third-party organisations that purport to be independent.

  Source: The Age, 27 March 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/eqcD88

• Wales: Banning smoking in cars ‘only way to protect children’

  Research by the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health in Wales found high levels of particulate matter (PM) from tobacco smoke is present in the back seat of cars for up to two hours after a cigarette has been smoked.

  Smoking with the car windows open did little to lessen levels of the potentially harmful material.

  Julie Barratt, director of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health in Wales, said: “The chief medical officer wants to start a debate about smoking in cars and if we’re going to do that, we need to base it on facts and not emotions."

  “We knew particulate levels in pubs dropped when the smoking ban was introduced in 2007 –cars are similar in the sense they are enclosed spaces with not a great deal of air. This research shows that people should not imagine that not smoking in the car when they are present is enough to protect their children."

  Source: Wales Online, 28 March 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/efwqF8

• New warning for diabetic smokers

  A new study has found that nicotine may be responsible for serious complications in smokers with diabetes.

  Using blood samples the researchers showed that nicotine concentrations typical of those in smokers appeared to raise long-term blood sugar levels in diabetics.

  Scientists warning of the danger said anyone with diabetes should "make every effort" to quit smoking.

  The new research was reported at the 241st national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Anaheim, California.

  Source: The Press Association, 28 March 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/es63M3

• Study: Secondhand smoke linked to lower birth weight and still birth

  New research published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found that exposure to passive smoking is associated with lower birth weight, infection and still birth.

  The Canadian study looked at 11,852 non-smoking women over an eight year period. Women who reported exposure to secondhand smoke were compared to those who reported no exposure.

  Dr Crane, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Memorial University, St John's, Canada and lead author on the paper said: "This information is important for women, their families and healthcare providers, and reinforces the continued need for increased public policy and education on prevention of exposure to second hand smoke during pregnancy."

  Source: Medical News Today, 24 March 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/fwaIKG

• Study: Smoking increases atrial fibrillation (arrhythmia)

  According to a study the long-term risk of developing artrial fibrillation (AF), which is a common type of arrhythmia, is more than two-fold higher in current smokers than never smokers.

  Former smokers had a lower risk for AF development compared with current smokers, although this was still 1.32-fold higher than that of never smokers.

  The team said this demonstrates that quitting smoking is associated with a lower risk for AF than continuing to smoke.

  The authors say: "Several effects of smoking may be involved in the initiation of AF as nicotine in cigarettes increases heart rate and blood pressure.”

  Source: MedWire News, 24 March 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/edBrKv