HEADLINES

• Pursuit of a safer cigarette gathers pace
• EU urged to adopt plain packaging on tobacco products
• Paternal smoking linked to menopause age in daughters
• Why it is easier for men to give up smoking (even though women try harder)
• Brazil: Rio's famous statue lit red for anti-smoking campaign

• Pursuit of a safer cigarette gathers pace

  The FT reports that Sir Terry Leahy, the former chief executive of UK supermarket chain Tesco, has invested in a British company called Kind Consumer, which intends to market a nicotine delivery product. 

  The company has signed a contract wtih British American Tobacco's newly-created subsidiary Nicoventures.

  Alex Hearn, founder of Kind Consumer, argues that success depends on more than delivering a safe nicotine hit. The rituals surrounding smoking must also be mimicked, he says.

  Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health, argues that consumer goods groups would make more acceptable partners for inventors [than tobacco companies] while also having the marketing and sales experience of  the tobacco groups.

  Source: The Financial Times [subscription required], 02 June 2011
  Link: http://on.ft.com/l2s1if

• EU urged to adopt plain packaging on tobacco products

  Cancer Research UK has renewed its call for the European Union (EU) to adopt plain packaging with graphic pictures of health warnings on all tobacco products.

  A report being presented in Brussels shows the importance of stopping the marketing of tobacco  via its packaging. 

  The briefing - titled "Spotlight on the FCTC" - argues that tobacco packaging should be used by governments to communicate the dangers of tobacco use rather than being used as a marketing tool by the tobacco industry.

  Hard-hitting and graphic pictures of the health effects of smoking placed on the front and back of packets and ensuring all packaging has identical colouring and design would achieve both these goals.

  The report also reveals the evidence that plain packaging helps change attitudes to smoking, the high level of public support for the measure, as well as dispelling the myth that this will cost jobs or a loss of retail income

  Jean King, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco control, said: "Tobacco remains the single greatest challenge to public health. On World No Tobacco Day it's important to remember that this year alone, more than five million people worldwide will die from a tobacco-related disease. The importance of continuing efforts to reduce smoking rates can't be overestimated. The next vital step in preventing more lives being lost to tobacco is to wrap tobacco in plain packaging. We know from research that this helps change attitudes to cigarettes.

  Source: Medical News Today, 31 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/iQZUCP

• Paternal smoking linked to menopause age in daughters

  A new study suggests that if men smoke when their partners are pregnant, their daughters may end up reaching menopause a year earlier than their peers.

  Previous research has found that a woman's own smoking habits, as well as those of her partner, may also have an impact on her fertility and may precipitate the point at which she can no longer get pregnant.

  "It seems that the effect of paternal smoking on daughters' reproductive lifespan is stronger than that of (her) husband smoking," said Misao Fukuda, at the M&K Health Institute in Ako, Japan

  Fukuda said it is possible that smoke exposure around the time of conception could affect either the fertilizing capacity of sperm cells or early embryo genesis -- or both.

  For the study, published in Fertility and Sterility, Fukuda and colleagues questioned more than 1,000 postmenopausal Japanese women who were visiting clinics for gynaecologic tests. They asked them how old they were at menarche and menopause, as well as whether they or their husbands smoked.

  Source: Reuters News, 02 June 2011
  Link: http://reut.rs/jjGNgP

• Why it is easier for men to give up smoking (even though women try harder)

  A study has found that men are better at giving up smoking – even though women are keener to quit.

  The researchers believe that women may find it harder to kick the habit because their confidence in quitting is lower – and because tobacco plays a different role in their lives.

  The study found that while women may be highly motivated to quit, they are actually less likely to succeed than men.

  The researchers found that fewer smokers looked to the NHS for help in quitting in disadvantaged areas (52.6 per cent) than elsewhere (57.9 per cent), although the proportion of those treated for smoking related illnesses was higher.

  But those from poorer areas were slightly more successful in giving up.

  The analysis was carried out by scientists from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and from the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies.

  The research team said, "‘The UK remains the only country in the world to have comprehensive, free-at- the-point-of-use cessation services – and the study suggests these services do provide effective support for smokers who want to quit."

  Source: The Daily Mail, 31 May 2011
  Link: http://bit.ly/kgMsti

• Brazil: Rio's famous statue lit red for anti-smoking campaign

  Rio de Janeiro's Christ the Redeemer statue was lit in red to raise awareness of a new anti-smoking campaign.
  
  The event was organised by the Brasilia Cancer Centre and the National Cancer Institute to coincide with World NoTobacco Day.
  
  Marco Murilo Buso, director of the Brasilia Cancer Centre, said the campaign "is meant to show children and teenagers, women and those who are influential over others that it is much more attractive to be healthy".
  
  Click on the link below to view the video.

  Source: BBC News, 01 June 2011
  Link: http://bbc.in/jmYk3O