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ASH News and Events Bulletin - 16-30 September 2011

HEADLINES

EVENTS

  • Two days in New York: reflections on the UN NCD summit

    On 19 September 2011 heads of state and government ministers gathered in New York City, NY, USA at the UN's high-level meeting on the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). This long-awaited “once in a generation opportunity” to put NCDs on the global agenda generated as many fears of a missed opportunity as it did hopes of a turning point for the health of millions around the world. The unanimous agreement by UN member states to hold the summit on NCDs signalled recognition of a growing global emergency and, at long last, a willingness to act. With 36 million people dying annually from NCDs (63% of all deaths globally), the challenge ahead is unequivocal. No country is immune. Although often thought of as diseases of rich countries, NCDs now disproportionately affect more people in poorer nations, accounting for 80% of all NCD-related deaths. NCDs include cancers, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases: all are largely preventable and share common risk factors, such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and harmful use of alcohol. Furthermore, the World Economic Forum identified NCDs as a severe threat to economic development and put a price tag of $30 trillion on the expected burden of these diseases over the next 20 years.

    The aim of the meeting was to secure commitment from heads of government for a coordinated global response, to raise awareness among the general public, and to adopt a comprehensive political declaration for health strategies. The declaration, issued on Sept 20, 2011, clearly acknowledges the economic and epidemic scale of the challenge. Common risk factors were recognised; prevention must be the cornerstone of the global response, and any strategy requires effective leadership. Notably, governments decided to commit to multisectoral national and international policies to control NCDs, to reduce individual exposure to NCD risk factors through international agreements such as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

    These commitments should be applauded as a good start in tackling the serious burden that NCDs represent, and signal the start of attempts to reverse the undue long-term neglect the political arena has afforded such issues. However, the declaration has clearly come under multiple pressures from governments and lobbyists resulting in a watered-down document reflective of national and industry interests.

    Crucially, the declaration lacks tangible targets. The outcome document should have included a set of feasible actions and interventions with specific deadlines and indicators upon which progress will be measured. In preparation for the meeting, the UICC—as part of the NCD Alliance—proposed very specific targets that could have been included, such as a commitment by 2025 to reduce avoidable deaths from NCDs by 25%—a target WHO believes is achievable. Instead, the document calls on WHO simply to set up a comprehensive global monitoring framework and prepare recommendations for voluntary—not compulsory—global targets before the end of 2012, and to report initial progress in 2013. This is a missed opportunity.

    Ultimately, events in New York were underwhelming. An opportunity to create political cohesion to tackle the biggest health challenge facing future generations has been missed. Although the declaration sets out the scale of the challenge, it lacks ambition and is more a politically correct declaration than a political declaration of war. Individual countries must now take bold steps to accelerate their responses beyond the slow timetable the UN proposes if real progress is to be made.

    Source: The Lancet Oncology, 23 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/mT8Bda

  • Anti-smoking policy improves health and cuts spending

    Implementing policies to cut tobacco use immediately improves health and reduces health care spending.

    This is the argument put by experts in this week’s issue of The Lancet, in which they argue that tobacco control does not, as is often assumed, take decades to show a benefit, nor does the economic benefit from tobacco revenue outweigh healthcare savings.

    While the benefits of cutting out tobacco use are now well-known, legislation and policies curtailing its use are still too weak and not widespread enough, argue Professor Stanton Glantz and Mariaelena Gonzalez, at the University of California, San Francisco, USA. The reasons for this are the short-term revenue from tobacco taxes and the myth that the benefits of cutting tobacco use takes decades to materialise.

    But they say the mounting evidence in favour of drastically lowering tobacco use cannot be ignored. They cite the fact that after quitting smoking for just a year, the risk of heart attack falls by half, and after five years nearly returns to that of someone who has never smoked. In Arizona, USA, hospital admissions for asthma dropped by 22% after a year of strong smoke-free legislation and in Scotland, there was a 13% annual decrease in childhood asthma admissions after anti-smoking legislation was introduced.  

    Lost tax revenue is often used as a reason for being lenient with tobacco restrictions. Yet the numbers do not support this, say the authors.

    “The California tobacco control programme cost US$1·4 billion during its first 15 years, and saved $86 billion in direct health-care costs, a 61 times return on investment. Meanwhile, the 3·6 billion packs of cigarettes not smoked during the first 15 years of the state’s programme reduced tobacco tax revenues by only $3·1 billion, a small fraction of the $86 billion in health-care savings.”
     

    Source: OnMedica, 29 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qF7Teb

  • Smokers urged to try smokeless nicotine cigarettes

    The government's "nudge unit" wants to encourage the use of smokeless nicotine cigarettes, banned in many countries around the world, in an attempt to reduce the numbers killed in the UK by smoking diseases each year.

    The Cabinet Office's behavioural insight team – better known as the nudge unit – wants to adopt the new technology because policy officials believe the rigid "quit or die" approach to smoking advice no longer works. Rather, they want nicotine addiction to be managed to help smokers who otherwise won't quit – an approach the unit believes could prevent millions of smoking deaths.

    The unit wants to explore and encourage new products that deliver nicotine to people's lungs but without the harmful toxins and carcinogens in tobacco smoke that kill.

    Experts have advised the UK government that the nicotine contained in some new, smokefree cigarettes is no more harmful than caffeine in coffee. A Cabinet Office source said: "A lot of countries are moving to ban this stuff; we think that's a mistake."

    John Britton, professor of epidemiology at the University of Nottingham, told the Guardian that on top of the current smokeless range – which includes electronic or "e-cigarettes" that simulate smoking by producing an inhaled mist – there are three or four devices in different stages of development. But he said some companies have been reluctant to develop this technology because they had expected it to be as tightly controlled as pharmaceutical drugs.

    Britton said: "If a manufacturer makes a health claim for anything then it becomes a drug, and drugs have to be regulated with tight controls. The current nicotine replacements are sold as drugs; however, e-cigarettes contain nicotine but get around this by making no health claim and so can be sold freely, but with little or no information on safety or standards. What we're asking for is a regulation change to bring all nicotine products into a light-touch regime that will guarantee reasonable purity and safety standards but make them as available as cigarettes in a shop."

    The Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is looking into approving these devices for use. If it finds in their favour, the government is likely to push for them to be placed prominently in shops alongside tobacco cigarettes, where they would be sold at a cheaper rate.

    Source: The Guardian, 14 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/nGlE2R

  • Australia announces proposed new picture health warnings

    On 17th September 2011 the Australian Government released a consultation paper on proposed new health warnings.  A government news release is below.  The consultation paper can be found here:

    The new warnings will occupy the top 75% of the front and the top 90% of the back of the pack, giving  an average of the front and back of 82.5%.  Australia will have the largest package health warnings in the world.  Uruguay is currently the largest at 80% front and back.

    The current Australia package warning size is 30% front, 90% back.

    Australia intends to keep its rotation system for cigarette packages of two sets of 7 warnings, changed every 12 months. The consultation document includes images for the first set of 7 new picture warnings.  The second set of seven picture warnings are to be included in the final regulation.

    There will also be a rotated series of text messages on one side panel regarding the toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke and their health effects.  The side panel will have black text on a yellow background.  Seven such messages are outlined in the consultation document. 

    The consultation document also outlines proposed health warnings for tobacco products other than cigarettes.

    Australia's proposed new package health warning requirements are scheduled to come into effect on 1st July 2012, the same date as plain packaging requirements are due tocome into effect.

    The consultation period ends on 17th October 2011.

    Source: Product Safety Australia, 17 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qcNmSZ

  • USA: What would happen if Americans stopped smoking?

    The number of New Yorkers who smoke dropped to an all-time low of 14 percent this year, Mayor Mike Bloomberg announced late last week. That’s down from 22 percent in 2002 and translates into 450,000 fewer adult New Yorkers who smoke than did a decade ago.

    The New York drop mirrors a nationwide decline, where smoking rates have fallen by over half since the 1950s. But that still leaves 46 million American smokers —what if they all kicked the habit, too? That’s the world “After Tobacco,” a new book from economic researchers Peter Bearman, Kathryn Neckerman and Leslie Wright, tries to imagine.

    The authors estimate that if all smoking ceased in 2006, 2.8 million premature deaths would be avoided between then and 2025. Health spending would decrease by $211 billion, or 1.52 percent, in that same time period.

    The economic effect on public programs, however, would be more of a mixed bag. States’ Medicaid costs would noticeably decrease: lower-income populations have higher rates of smoking and the negative health outcomes that follow. But states would also lose revenue from cigarette excise taxes, which amounted to $13.75 billion in 2006. If Americans stopped smoking altogether, states could see a 1.4 percent decrease in revenue, according to a chapter from Hunter College’s Howard Chernick.

    A similar, spilt-effect would be true for Social Security. With Americans living longer, Social Security would bear the increased cost of supporting people for a longer time. But those costs are slightly offset from an increase in healthy workers, who “tend to earn more and retire later,” leading to higher contributions. On balance, “After Tobacco” estimates the end of smoking means a slight, 1.58 percent increase in Social Security outlays.

    The end of smoking would even ripple as far as corporate philanthropy. Between 1997 and 2005, the tobacco industry made over $143 million in charitable donations, 42 percent of which went to public health and community development programs.

    This is by no means to say that lost tax revenue or higher Social Security outlays is a reason to rethink anti-smoking campaigns; the end of tobacco use would be a huge public health victory, one that stands to prevent millions of premature deaths. Rather “After Tobacco” illustrates how entrenched tobacco has become, and remains, in the American economy. Despite huge reductions in smoking over the past 50 years or so, a complete halt to tobacco use would touch just about every public program and private sector in many, varied ways.

    Source: Washington Post, 19 September 2011
    Link: http://wapo.st/pgkmCg

  • USA: R.J. Reynolds rejects request to stop testing

    The state board of health has urged R.J. Reynolds to stop using Colorado as a test market for "dissolvable" tobacco products that look like toothpicks, breath strips and mints.

    The board asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the controversial Camel products as tobacco, giving it more oversight power.

    R.J. Reynolds responded that it would not stop its test marketing of Camel "Sticks, Strips or Orbs" in Colorado.

    State and private health officials are worried that the new products look like candy and will make it easier for children to try tobacco. They will have millions of dollars less for tobacco education this year after the legislature took Amendment 35 tobacco-tax money to balance the budget.

    The FDA is studying whether the dissolvable tobacco falls under new tobacco-regulation powers it got from Congress in 2009.

    Source: Denver Post, 22 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/peDvRQ

  • Parliamentary Question: Action on Smoking and Health

    Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many times (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have met representatives of ASH in each of the last three years.

    Anne Milton:  Records of ministerial meetings with outside organisations can be found on the Department's website. These records show that, since 1 January 2009, departmental Ministers have met with representatives of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) once and spoken at ASH-arranged events twice.

    Ministers have also met once with Smokefree Action Coalition, of which ASH is a member.

    The Department does not keep a central diary of the engagements that every departmental official has had with ASH representatives, nor is a central record kept of meetings attended by officials where an ASH representative may also have attended.

    Source: Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 12 September 2011, c1046W)
    Link: http://bit.ly/qgB4IE

  • Parliamentary Question: Smokefree Public Places

    Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what legal requirements exist in respect of the erection and display of signage where a local authority seeks to introduce a smoking ban in a public place where smoking is not otherwise prohibited by law.

    Bob Neill: The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 grants deemed consent to display advertisements which give a direction or warning with respect to the land or buildings on which they are displayed. There are restrictions on the dimensions of such advertisements and their height above ground level.

    Source: Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 13 September 2011, c1102W)
    Link: http://bit.ly/qw1wzG

  • Imperial Tobacco appoints former SABMiller CFO to board

    The former chief financial officer of SABMiller is to join Imperial Tobacco as an non-executive director with effect from 3rd October.

    Malcolm Wyman was CFO and finance director of SABMiller from 2001 until his retirement in August 2011. He is also a non-executive of Nedbank Group and Tsogo Sun Group.

    Imperial also announced that Pierre Jungels will retire as a non-executive at the conclusion of the 2012 AGM having served nine years on the board.

    Source: Financial Director, 30 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/pZy7Co

  • Japan Tobacco sale planned for reconstruction

    The Japanese government plans to sell its entire stake in Japan Tobacco and other firms to raise Y2,000bn ($26.2bn) to pay for the reconstruction of Tohoku which was devastated by the March earthquake.

    The decision, which would represent Japan’s biggest privatisation in years, was taken by the ruling Democratic party to ease the tax burden on citizens.

    According to Seiji Maehara, DPJ policy chief, it would aim to reduce its 50 per cent stake in JT down to a third within the next five years. It aims to sell the remainder within ten years.

    The strong opposition to the original tax increase was partly due to concerns that the added burden would undermine consumption and further depress the economy.

    The government is likely to face opposition to its plan from politicians close to tobacco leaf farmers, who want JT to continue to be required by law to buy the entire domestic tobacco leaf crop, at significantly higher prices than in international markets.

    Although there are only about 10,000 tobacco leaf farmers, they have been able to wield significant influence over the debate on a government sale of JT shares.

    Mr Kanno said, "Before a final decision is reached, I think there will be one or two more turbulent moments."

    Source: Financial Times, 28 September 2011
    Link: http://on.ft.com/oGGK7Z

  • USA: Illinois Supreme Court clears way for $10 billion judgment in cigarette suit

    The Illinois Supreme Court has cleared the way for plaintiffs’ attorneys to revive a $10.1 billion verdict against cigarette-maker Philip Morris.

    The court upheld a state appellate court’s February ruling that sends the case back to southwestern Illinois’ Madison County. A judge there had sided with plaintiffs after a two-month 2003 trial in a class-action lawsuit over Philip Morris’ marketing of “light” cigarettes. The state’s high court later threw out that verdict.

    With the latest ruling, the plaintiffs expect to argue that a favourable 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision may be applied to reinstate the Madison County case.

    “The Supreme Court had an opportunity to review the appellate decision but found no basis to do so,” Stephen Tillery, the attorney behind the lawsuit, said. “After a long journey through the courts, we believe this decision moves the judgment a step closer toward a final confirmation for the 1.1 million Illinois consumers who were represented in the lawsuit.”

    An attorney for Philip Morris’ corporate parent downplayed the development as the court merely deciding a procedural question about whether the plaintiffs met a statute of limitations and not the merits of the plaintiffs’ bid to reopen the case.

    In 2003, now-retired Madison County Circuit Judge Nicholas Byron found that Philip Morris misled customers about “light” and “low tar” cigarettes and broke state law by marketing them as safer, ending a trial that both sides at the time said was the nation’s first over a lawsuit accusing a tobacco company of consumer fraud.

    The state’s Supreme Court overturned that verdict in 2005, saying the Federal Trade Commission allowed companies to characterize or label their cigarettes as “light” and “low tar,” so Philip Morris could not be held liable under state law even if such terms could be found false or misleading.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in late 2006 let that ruling stand, and Byron dismissed the case the next month. But in December 2008, the nation’s high court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled in a lawsuit on behalf of three Maine residents that smokers may use state consumer protection laws to sue cigarette makers for the way they promote “light” and “low tar” brands.

    Counting that decision as new evidence, Tillery again approached the Mount Vernon appellate court in hopes of reopening the Illinois lawsuit.

    Source: The Washington Post, 28 September 2011
    Link: http://wapo.st/nbsGWu

  • Continuing smoking between adolescence and young adulthood is associated with higher arterial stiffness in young adults: the Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project

    Objectives: To investigate the associations between smoking in adolescence and adulthood, and changes in smoking behaviour between these age periods, with arterial stiffness in young adults; and whether any such associations could be explained by concomitant smoking-related levels of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction.

    Methods: We studied 424 individuals (216 women) in whom smoking status was assessed in adolescence (age 15 years) and again in young adulthood (mean age of 22.6 +/- 1.6 years), along with aorto-iliac, aorto-radial, and aorto-dorsalis pedis pulse wave velocity (PWV), and markers of inflammation (i.e. C-reactive protein and fibrinogen) and endothelial dysfunction (i.e. von Willebrand factor and tissue-plasminogen activator antigen) in young adulthood only.

    Results: Smoking in adolescence was associated with higher aorto-iliac PWV, as well as with inflammation and endothelial dysfunction levels (expressed as two scores), independently of other adolescent and adult lifestyles. Compared with never smokers, continuing smokers, but not starters nor quitters, showed higher aorto-iliac PWV, independent of changes in other lifestyle variables: +0.157 m/s (95% confidence interval 0.026-0.288). This difference was attenuated to 0.124 m/s (-0.009 to 0.257) after adjustment for changes in traditional biological risk factors, but was not materially affected when adjusted for the inflammation and endothelial dysfunction scores, despite the continuing smoking-related higher levels of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. Smoking was not associated with aorto-radial and aorto-dorsalis pedis PWV.

    Conclusion: Starting to smoke in adolescence and continuing to do so up to young adulthood is adversely associated with aortic stiffness. The continuing smoking-related aortic stiffness was not explained by concomitant higher inflammation and endothelial dysfunction. Prevention of smoking should target the young to prevent arterial stiffness in young adults.

    van de Laar, R et al. Continuing smoking between adolescence and young adulthood is associated with higher arterial stiffness in young adults: the Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project. J Hypertension 2011 doi: 10.1097/HJH.0b013e32834b0ecf

     

    Source: Journal of Hypertension, September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/pXLmVp

  • Differences in happiness between smokers, ex-smokers and never smokers: cross-sectional findings from a national household survey

    Abstract

    Background

    Happiness has become established as an important psychological dimension and not merely the obverse of depression and anxiety. Ex-smokers report that they are happier than when they were smoking but this could reflect biased recall. To date, no studies have examined happiness as a function of smoking status in ex-smokers of varying length of abstinence compared with current and never smokers.

    Methods

    A cross-sectional household study of a nationally representative sample of adults examined the association between smoking status (never smoker, smoker, ex-smoker < 1 year, ex-smoker ≥ 1 year) and two standard measures of happiness adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics (N = 6923).

    Results

    After adjusting for age, gender and social grade, ex-smokers of ≥1 year reported higher levels of happiness than smokers (p < 0.001) and similar levels to never smokers. Ex-smokers of <1 year had similar levels to smokers. Smoking to feel less depressed (p < 0.001) or anxious (p < 0.044) were the only smoking characteristics associated with lower happiness among current smokers.

    Conclusions

    Ex-smokers who have stopped for a year or more are happier than current smokers and similar to never smokers. Whilst these results are cross-sectional and have to be interpreted with caution, this adds to the evidence that smoking may decrease happiness and stopping may increase it.

    Shahab, L & West.R.  Differences in happiness between smokers, ex-smokers and never smokers: cross-sectional findings from a national household survey. Drug and Alcohol Dependence.  In Press; Available online 8 September 2011

    Source: Science Direct, September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/qlGiTh

  • Effectiveness of the European Union text-only cigarette health warnings: findings from four countries

    Background:The European Commission requires tobacco products sold in the European Union to display standardized text health warnings. This article examines the effectiveness of the text health warnings among daily cigarette smokers in four Member States.

    Methods: Data were drawn from nationally representative samples of smokers from the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project surveys in France (2007), Germany (2007), the Netherlands (2008) and the UK (2006). We examined: (i) smokers’ ratings of the health warnings on warning salience, thoughts of harm and quitting and forgoing of cigarettes; (ii) impact of the warnings using a Labels Impact Index (LII), with higher scores signifying greater impact; and (iii) differences on the LII by demographic characteristics and smoking behaviour.

    Results: Scores on the LII differed significantly across countries. Scores were highest in France, lower in the UK, and lowest in Germany and the Netherlands. Across all countries, scores were significantly higher among low-income smokers, smokers who had made a quit attempt in the past year and smokers who smoked fewer cigarettes per day.

    Conclusion: The impact of the health warnings varies greatly across countries. Impact tended to be highest in countries with more comprehensive tobacco control programmes. Because the impact of the warnings was highest among smokers with the lowest socioeconomic status (SES), this research suggests that health warnings could be more effective among smokers from lower SES groups. Differences in warning label impact by SES should be further investigated.


    Hitchman SC, Mons U,  Nagelhout GE et al. Effectiveness of the European Union text-only cigarette health warnings: findings from four countries. Eur J Public Health (2011) First published online September 15, 2011
     

    Source: European Journal of Public Health, 15 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/p3JbYL

  • Effects of physical activity on teen smoking cessation

    Abstract

    Objective:To understand the influence of physical activity on teen smoking-cessation outcomes.

    Methods:Teens (N = 233; 14–19 years of age) from West Virginia high schools who smoked >1 cigarette in the previous 30 days were included. High schools with >300 students were selected randomly and assigned to brief intervention (BI), Not on Tobacco (N-O-T) (a proven teen cessation program), or N-O-T plus a physical activity module (N-O-T+FIT). Quit rates were determined 3 and 6 months after baseline by using self-classified and 7-day point prevalence quit rates, and carbon monoxide validation was obtained at the 3-month follow-up evaluation.

    Results:Trends for observed and imputed self-classified and 7-day point prevalence rates indicated that teens in the N-O-T+FIT group had significantly higher cessation rates compared with those in the N-O-T and BI groups. Effect sizes were large. Overall, girls quit more successfully with N-O-T compared with BI (relative risk [RR]: >∞) 3 months after baseline, and boys responded better to N-O-T+FIT than to BI (RR: 2–3) or to N-O-T (RR: 1–2). Youths in the N-O-T+FIT group, compared with those in the N-O-T group, had greater likelihood of cessation (RR: 1.48) at 6 months. The control group included an unusually large proportion of participants in the precontemplation stage at enrollment, but there were no significant differences in outcomes between BI and N-O-T (z = 0.94; P = .17) or N-O-T+FIT (z = 1.12; P = .13) participants in the precontemplation stage.

    Conclusions:Adding physical activity to N-O-T may enhance cessation success, particularly among boys.

    Horn K,  Dino G, Branstetter SA et al. Effects of physical activity on teen smoking cessation. Pediatrics. Published 19 September 2011.  doi: 10.1542/peds.2010-2599

    Source: Pediatrics, 19 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/r3PJkY

  • Meta-Analysis of the Association Between Cigarette Smoking and Incidence of Hodgkin's Lymphoma

    Introduction: Previous studies have suggested a relationship between smoking and Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL). The main objective of this study was to evaluate this potential association with a meta-analysis of observational studies.

    Patients and Methods: A literature search was undertaken through December 2010 looking for observational studies evaluating the association between smoking and HL. From 714 articles, 17 were included in this study. Outcome was calculated and reported as odds ratio (OR). Heterogeneity was assessed by using the I2 index. Publication bias was evaluated by trim-and-fill analysis. Quality assessment was performed with the Newcastle-Ottawa scale.

    Results: Our analysis showed an OR of developing HL of 1.35 (95% CI, 1.17 to 1.56; P < .001) in current smokers. Former smokers did not have an increased risk of HL. In subset analyses of current smokers, men and older individuals had ORs of HL of 1.78 (95% CI, 1.46 to 2.17; P < .001) and 1.77 (95% CI, 1.23 to 2.54; P = .002), respectively. In addition, the OR of HL was increased in individuals who smoke more than 20 cigarettes per day, have smoked more than 20 years, or have smoked more than 15 pack-years at 1.51 (95% CI, 1.16 to 1.98; P = .002), 1.84 (95% CI, 1.47 to 2.32; P < .001), and 1.97 (1.53 to 2.54; P < .001), respectively. Meta-regression analyses showed a relative OR of HL of 1.007 (95% CI, 1.001 to 1.013; P = .025) per cigarette per day and of 1.013 (95% CI, 1.006 to 1.019; P < .001) per year of smoking.

    Conclusion: Smoking seems to increase the odds of developing HL in current smokers. The risk of HL is higher in men and older individuals and increases with higher intensity and longer duration of smoking.

    Castillo JJ,  Dalia S and Shum H. Meta-Analysis of the association between cigarette smoking and incidence of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Published online 12 September 2011. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2011.35.4449

    Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology, 12 September 2011
    Link: http://bit.ly/mSo1Yz

Events

  • 14th European Health Forum Gastein

    The EHFG has developed into a key annual event, bringing together, politicians, senior decision-makers, representatives of interest groups, and experts coming from government and administration, business and industry, civil society and science and academia.

    Date: 05 October 2011
    Venue: Salzburg, Austria
    Contact: http://www.ehfg.org/registration.html?&L=0

  • Study day at Royal Marsden Hospital: It's never too late to stop

    The day covers Smoking and the impact on cancer treatment and how to support cancer patients and their families to stop smoking.

    Date: 07 October 2011
    Venue: Royal Marsden Hospital
    Contact: www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/studydays or call: (0044) 020 78082924

  • Tackling tobacco in your community: A compelling business case for action

    Organised by the Local Government Group, this conference will provide the opportunity for leading members and officers to find out more about the compelling business case for a comprehensive approach to reducing tobacco use.

    Date: 11 October 2011
    Venue: Town Hall, Manchester
    Contact: www.local.gov.uk/events

  • Tobacco and Alcohol: Learning From Each Other Conference

    Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent among people with alcohol use disorders. People who are dependent on alcohol are more likely than those in the general population to be smokers, and people who are dependent on tobacco are more likely than the general population to be dependent on alcohol. Alcohol use problems are associated with higher levels of nicotine dependence and a lower likelihood of smoking cessation. More alcoholics die of tobacco-related illness than die of alcohol-related problems. The link between alcohol and tobacco has important implications for those in the alcohol and smoking cessation treatment and policy fields. The conference is an opportunity to learn from each other and to present new models and ways of working.

    Date: 12 October 2011
    Venue: Parc Thistle Hotel, Cardiff
    Contact: http://www.ashwales.org.uk/conference-registration/

  • Tobacco science at ICAA 54th International Conference on Dependencies

    Plenary sessions with keynote speakers of international renown will address major themes, most of them having a general, non-substance-specific nature covering aspects relevant to matters regarding alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

    On Monday 14th November one plenary session will deal with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. (Presenters: Deborah Arnott, Director of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) UK,  Prof. Robert West, Professor of Health Psychology and Director of Tobacco Studies. University College London

    On Wednesday 16th November there will be Major sessions including four presentations with tobacco-specific content: 
    Harm reduction 
    Prof Ann McNeil, Professor in Health Policy and Promotion, Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies. Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, University of Nottingham. UK

    Pharmacological and non-pharmacological features of Substance Dependence : comparisons between alcohol/drugs/tobacco
    Karl Olov Fagerstrom PhD, Fagerstrom Consulting, Helsingborg, Sweden

    Scientific basis for tobacco product regulation
    Lars Ramström PhD, Institute for Tobacco Studies, Stockholm, Sweden

    Tobacco control policies
    Deborah Arnott, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), London, UK

    SESSIONS OF THE ICAA SECTION ON TOBACCO DEPENDENCE 
    All participants are encouraged to submit abstracts of contributed papers for oral presentation in the sessions of the ICAA Section on Tobacco Dependence. We welcome presentations dealing with any aspect of tobacco science and control (research, prevention, treatment, policy etc). 


     

    Date: 13 November 2011
    Venue: British Medical Association's Conference Centre, BMA House, London
    Contact: www.icaa.ch/london/

  • Stop Smoking Live!

    A combination of seminars, exhibition stands from key suppliers, organisations active in the field, and services keen to recruit and share their expertise will offer stop smoking practitioners and tobacco control advisers a way to update their knowledge and skills.

    There will be over 600 delegates drawn from primary health care, hospital settings and specialist smoking cessation services.

    Date: 02 December 2011
    Venue: Business Design Centre, Islington, London
    Contact: http://www.stopsmokinglive.org

  • Fiftieth anniversary of RCP report on smoking and health

    To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of its first report on Smoking and Health in 1962, the Royal College of Physicians is organising a one-day conference.

    Date: 06 March 2012
    Venue: Royal College of Physicians
    Contact: http://events.rcplondon.ac.uk/details.aspx?e=2497

  • 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health

    The premier, international conference on tobacco control attracts thousands of academics, practitioners, non-government organisations and public officials. 

    Date: 20 March 2012
    Venue: Singapore
    Contact: http://wctoh2012.org