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ASH Daily News

31 December 2002

HEADLINES

Women cancer deaths at 30 year low
One-stop anti-smoking clinics hit by Zyban fears
Happy New Year!


FULL TEXT

Women cancer deaths at 30 year low

Deaths from lung cancer among British women under 70 are at a 30-year low
according to statistics.

A decline in women's smoking over the past 20 years has led to lower death
rates, as they have already done in men, but smoking rates in adults have
recently stopped falling prompting new drives to help people quit.

Clive Bates, director of ASH said: “The present lung cancer rates reflect
the decline in smoking in the 1970s and 1980s but now smoking rates have
stopped falling and we need to redouble our efforts to help smokers to quit
and young people never to start.”

Full Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,866910,00.html
Source: The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail, The
Express, 31 December 2002



One-stop anti-smoking clinics hit by Zyban fears

A pioneering one-stop shop for smoking cessation treatments prescribed by
non-doctors has been undermined by a safety row over the anti-nicotine drug
Zyban.

GPs in East Sussex handed over responsibility to specialist nurses for the
government drive to encourage more people to kick the smoking habit. But
they have been told that only family doctors should prescribe the drug
locally, because they alone have full medical histories of patients, a move
potentially damaging to attempts to create more all-in anti-smoking clinics.

It is understood that some doctors might now refuse to issue prescriptions
for Zyban. They believe the specialist nurses had operated a successful
service, partly because they had been able to devote time to patients. In
addition, some GPs argue that the extra referral back to them implies safety
question marks over the drug. They also fear they will be put under pressure
by patients who think they are entitled to the drug.

Zyban was licensed in Britain in 2000 and its use as an effective treatment
was endorsed right across the NHS in March this year. Prescribers are warned
that people under 18, pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and people who
might be at risk of seizures should not take it.

Clive Bates, of Action on Smoking and Health, said: "Special care is needed
to prescribe Zyban but if you really want to make it work and put smokers
first, it must be possible for it to be prescribed from a specialist
service."

Full Guardian article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,866912,00.html
Source: The Guardian, 31 December 2002



Happy New Year!

Now being the time that many resolve to jog off the Christmas turkey and
rejuvenate their efforts to quit smoking, the ASH website has a section
dedicated in helping people do exactly that (minus the bit about the
turkey).

Logging on to http://www.ash.org.uk./?quit will give you access to ASH’s top tips
on quitting and a comprehensive listing of all UK smoking help-lines.

Happy new year to all!

Best,
Action on Smoking and Health



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