Media Room
- News
- News & Events Bulletin

ASH News and Events Bulletin - 1-15 January 2007

Tobacco News

Latest smokefree compliance data – Nov 2007

The Department of Health has published the latest smokefree compliance data, available from the link below.

Overall compliance remains high at 98.8% (defined as no evidence of management permitting smoking), while 91.8% of premises and vehicles were compliant with the required signage. There was little variation across the country.

http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/thefacts/national-compliance-data.html

Turkey passes law to ban smoking in public places

Turkey's parliament has approved a comprehensive ban on smoking in public places. The measure will come into effect within four months of the ban being signed into law, except for bars and restaurants where the ban will take effect 18 months later.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, known for his strong dislike of tobacco, had championed the ban, and parliament, where his ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party has a big majority, endorsed the law by 240 votes for and just two against.

The ban will include cigars, pipes and the traditional water pipe or narghile.

Turkey is both a major producer and consumer of tobacco. In the country of 75 million people, some 25 million smoke, consuming 115 billion cigarettes a year. Nearly two-thirds of men smoke -- twice as many as in western Europe -- as well as 11 percent of children aged 7 to 11.

As well as most enclosed public spaces, the ban will apply to some outdoor locations such as stadiums and the gardens of mosques and hospitals and to taxis and trains. Smoking is already banned on buses and planes.

The government resisted efforts by some lawmakers to water down the bill, for example quashing an attempt to allow bars and restaurants to retain restricted areas for smokers.

But enforcing the ban will not be easy.

"We are a society that can promulgate laws ranging from tax regulations to traffic rules, from smoking restrictions to bans on torture, but we can't implement them," said columnist Murat Yetkin of the liberal daily Radikal.

"The smoking ban must not remain only on paper," he said.

Those flouting the smoking ban will face a fine of 57 lira ($49). Owners of bars, cafes and restaurants where customers light up could be fined up to 5,000 lira.

Reuters, 3 January 2008

Danger of smoking in cars

According to tests conducted in California, smoking a cigarette in a car makes the air inside 10 to 30 times more toxic than the air outdoors on one of Southern California's most polluted days.

Neil Klepeis, a Stanford University environmental health scientist, demonstrated the risk by attaching sensors to the dashboard of a car and to a child safety seat in the back.

The sensors measured particulate pollution -- toxic, airborne pollutants found in cigarette smoke as well as in fumes from wood-burning stoves, diesel engines and other forms of combustion. The particles, about 30 times narrower than human hair, can lodge deep in the lungs and cause long-term health problems.

Such fine particles are particularly dangerous to children -- whose lungs are still developing -- and the elderly, said Dr. Mark Horton, director of the California Department of Public Health. "Pound for pound, children breathe more air in than adults," he said. "Fine particulate matter is damaging to their lungs and can affect them forever."

Fine particles can cause or irritate asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and ear infections, Horton said.

The demonstration showed how rapidly the particles build up in a small, enclosed space.

A volunteer smoker lit up in the driver's seat of the car. Within 20 seconds, computer monitors showed particle levels in the front seat bounding beyond "unhealthy" and "very unhealthy" to "hazardous," the level that, if recorded outdoors, would draw a warning from the Environmental Protection Agency for residents to stay inside and not to exert themselves. Then, in less than a minute, the computer registered 30 times that hazardous level of particles.

The air in the back seat reached levels 10 times the "hazardous" level. When the smoker extinguished the cigarette and rolled down the window, the unhealthy levels lingered.

"You're creating a very large exposure for that child," said Klepeis, who last year published a study on secondhand smoke pollution in cars. "Smoke gets trapped in the back seat and can stay at high levels for a half-hour and at moderate levels for an hour or two."

In a repeat demonstration with the driver's side window open about 8 inches, the air still reached hazardous levels within a minute.

The new state law carries a fine of up to $100. Police officers cannot pull motorists over for smoking, but they can cite smokers if that offence is discovered in conjunction with another violation such as speeding.

"I'd be happy if we don't have to issue one citation," said state Sen. Jenny Oropeza (D-Long Beach), who sponsored the "Smoke-free Cars with Minors" law. "The objective of this new law is education. The objective is to get people to stop smoking in the car with kids."

California, which has been a leader in banning smoking in the workplace, restaurants and bars, follows Arkansas, Louisiana, Puerto Rico and Bangor, Maine, in banning smoking in cars with children. California's law is the most comprehensive because it covers passengers up to age 18, said Kimberly Belshe, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.

In 2006 about 13% of California adults were smokers, down from 23% in 1988, in part because such laws have changed social norms, Belshe said.

Anthony Marquez, the volunteer smoker in the demonstration, approves of the new law and hopes it will prod him to quit smoking. He's tried quitting twice, he said.

Los Angeles Times, 4 January 2008

Parliamentary News

Topical debate: Preventive Health Services – Screening for AAA

Note: The following is a short extract from a parliamentary debate on preventive health services. This extract focuses on the government’s plans for screening for abdominal aortic aneurisms (AAA). Smoking is the primary risk factor for AAA.

Dawn Primarolo, Minister for Public Health:
The announcement made on Monday [7 Jan] by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister builds on that tradition by offering health checks where they will improve our ability to predict and prevent certain conditions in the people at greatest risk, including abdominal aortic aneurism in men over 65, which currently kills over 3,000 men a year. The screening programme is expected to halve that number. There will also be a mid-life test to identify vulnerability to vascular diseases that currently affect the lives of 6.2 million people, causing 200,000 deaths a year, and are responsible for a fifth of all hospital admissions.

Mr. Bone: I entirely agree with the Minister about screening being a good idea, but the initial costs must be extraordinarily high. First, the screening must be done, and then the illnesses are found and must be treated. Any screening programme will represent a huge additional cost. Has that been budgeted for?

Dawn Primarolo: If any screening process is recommended… consideration will be taken of the risks and the interventions and assessments. Of course, such considerations are made all the time by the national health service in terms of screening and preventive interventions. That is why the outcome must be net benefit and not net harm. We must ensure that screening is effective and that it produces the greatest benefit for the health of the population. We must not conduct interventions that just reassure but actually offer no benefit.

Dr. Richard Taylor (Wyre Forest) (Ind):

… I turn to screening for abdominal aortic aneurisms. My search on the website is obviously a few months out of date because I did not know that the National Screening Committee had got to the stage of recommending it. I found its draft studies on the issue and was horrified by the extent of the problem—the number of people who would have to be screened and of staff who would have to be trained to do the screening. After that, there would have to be many people in vascular surgery departments to mend the aneurisms that had gone beyond certain limits. Once an aneurism is above a certain size, it has to be followed regularly, which involves more scans. I would love to know from the Minister that all that has been taken into account.

I shall end by quoting something from that bible for doctors, the Merck manual. It emphasises some of what the Minister has already said:

“The premises of screening are that early detection of disease can improve outcomes in patients with occult disease and that the false-positive results that often occur during screening do not create a burden that exceeds the benefit of early detection.”

The paragraph concludes:

“If 12 different tests for 12 different diseases were done, the chance of at least one false-positive result is 46 per cent.! This underscores the need for caution when deciding on a panel of screening tests and interpreting the results.”

_{[Ed note: The Minister did not respond to the points raised by Dr Taylor.]}

10 Jan 2008 : Columns 552-574
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080110/debtext/80110-0009.htm#08011057000001

Industry Watch

A cigarette with a VITal ingredient

German Tobacco Group AG, based in Frankfurt, has launched a cigarette brand enhanced with vitamin E. The company has entered into a deal with an American patent owner and inventor of the product innovation (etobacco.com). According to the US firm, the vitamin E cigarette features “an improved and soothing flavour and minimises the irritation that usually occurs when using conventional cigarettes”.

However, Thomas Schumann, co-founder and chairman of German Tobacco Group AG cautions: “This does not mean that S.A.L.E with vitamin E is a safer cigarette or offers less exposure to the hazards of smoking. There is no healthy or safe cigarette. If you do not want to risk your health, you should not smoke.”

World Tobacco, November 2007

Japan Tobacco plans to close factory in Wales

Japan Tobacco Inc has said it plans to close a factory in Wales and shift production to a plant in Northern Ireland, its first consolidation of output since its acquisition of Gallaher in 2007.

Japan Tobacco, the world’s third largest tobacco company, said it would close its Cardiff factory in September 2009, affecting 184 jobs. The factory, one of 33 in the Japan Tobacco group, produces about 330 million cigars a year.

JTI also announced that it would close is Linz factory in Austria by the end of 2009.

Tobacco International, October 2007

Arista Laboratories opens RIP lab to serve EU market

Arista Laboratories Europe has announced the opening of its cigarette ignition propensity laboratory, located at its Kingston-on-Thames plant. The new lab will meet the growing need for research and certification of fire-safe cigarettes as the European Union moves forward with legislation in the coming months.

Arista Laboratories is part of the scientific services division of Molins plc. Arista operates as an independent and accredited analytical services organisation of cigarette smoke emissions and tobacco products.

Tobacco International, October 2007

Recent Research

Smoking may affect teenage brain development

A new study suggests that nicotine may cause the teenage brain to develop abnormally, resulting in changes to the structure of white matter - the neural tissue through which signals are relayed. Teenagers who smoke, or whose mothers smoked during pregnancy, are also more likely to suffer from auditory attention deficits, meaning they find it harder to concentrate on what is being said when other things are happening at the same time.

Leslie Jacobsen of Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues used diffusion tensor imaging, which measures how water diffuses through brain tissue, to study the brains of 33 teenagers whose mothers had smoked during pregnancy. Twenty-five of the teens were daily smokers. The team also studied 34 teens whose mothers had not smoked, of whom 14 were daily smokers.

Both prenatal and adolescent exposure to tobacco smoke were associated with changes in white matter in brain pathways that relay signals to the ear. The changes were greatest in teenagers who smoked, suggesting the brain is particularly vulnerable to the effects of nicotine during adolescence, when many neural pathways are maturing.

New Scientist, 5 January 2008. www.newscientist.com

Jacobsen L et al. Prenatal and adolescent exposure to tobacco smoke modulates the development of white matter microstructure. The Journal of Neuroscience (2007; 27(49): 13491-13498.

Effect of narghile and cigarette smoking on newborn birthweight

A study undertaken in six hospitals in Beirut, Lebanon, assessed the effect of narghile smoking by pregnant women on the weight of newborns.

The study found that exclusive narghile smokers constituted 4.4% (378/8592) of women. Mothers smoking narghile more than once per day were at 2.4 increased odds of having low birthweight infants compared with nonsmoking mothers (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.2-5.0) after adjusting for confounding variables. No difference was noted between women smoking narghile in the first trimester and those initiating smoking in subsequent trimesters regarding low birthweight.

The authors conclude that narghile smoking more than once per day increases the odds of low birthweight by a 2.4-fold compared with nonsmokers, although to a lesser extent than cigarette smoking.

Tamim H. et al. Effect of narghile and cigarette smoking on newborn birthweight.
BJOG. 2008 Jan;115(1):91-7.
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1471-0528.2007.01568.x

Events and Publications

Events

20 February 2008 - D-MYST International Smokefree Movies Event
Venue: Liverpool
For more information contact: Samantha Towers on 0844 800 8533
Email: Samantha@mcevents.tv

27 Feb. to 1 Mar. 2008 -14th Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting
Venue: Portland, United States
Contact: SRNT Secretariat: info@srnt.org

10th - 12th March 2008 SCTRP three-day course, Central London
This Course is the development of the traditional 'Maudsley Training'. It focuses on treatment methods validated by research. It also covers aspects of the smoking cessation field useful for policy-makers and public health practitioners.
Contact Janice Rossabi, SCTRP Course Secretary at sctrp@yahoo.co.uk

1-2 April 2008 – 16th UKPHA Annual Public Health Forum
Venue: Liverpool. Deadline for abstracts: 26 October. See: www.ukphaconference.org.uk for more details.

28-29 April 2008 - A Call To Action: Successful Tobacco Control for the Future
Conference organised by ASH Wales. http://www.smoking-conference-wales.org.uk/

4-8 October 2008 – European Respiratory Society Annual Congress
Details: info@ersnet.org