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ASH News and Events Bulletin - 01-15 November 2010

HEADLINES

EVENTS

  • A look at cigarette warnings around the world

    The US Food and Drug Administration has unveiled 36 proposed pictorial warning labels for cigarette packages and ads as part of a range of tobacco control measures.

    The move follows the lead of many other countries around the world, including Canada, Brazil and the United Kingdom, that require large pictorial warning labels on tobacco products -- some of which are even more graphic than those the FDA has proposed.

    Click on the link below to view examples of these warnings.

    Source: PBS - 10 November 2010
    Link: http://to.pbs.org/aRJDeI

  • Electronic cigarettes' nicotine vapor stokes U.S. regulators

    Electronic cigarettes are pitting regulators against anti-smoking forces on whether to allow sales now to speed efforts to help smokers quit or ban them until they are proven safe and effective.

    Proponents of the battery-powered devices that produce a nicotine vapor instead of tobacco smoke urge the Food and Drug Administration to consider them a tool for smokers seeking a tobacco-free alternative. The American Lung Association wants sales suspended unless proven safe in clinical drug trials.

    The FDA is appealing a U.S. District Court ruling that the agency lacks authority to regulate the devices as drugs because they are recreational, not therapeutic.

    Source: Bloomberg - 02 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/ccxIoU

  • Fewer people quit smoking in recession, figures suggest

    Professor Robert West, director of tobacco studies at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Research Centre, has been tracking the number of smokers and their quitting patterns in England since November 2006, before the ban on smoking in enclosed public places came into force in England in July 2007.

    His figures reveal the rate of quitting slowed down when recession hit the UK economy.

    In 2007 - before the recession - about 32% of smokers said they had tried to quit within the past three months. This had fallen to 23% by 2008 and 22% by 2009. Latest figures up to 2010 show only 17% have attempted to quit, says Cancer Research UK.

    Martin Dockrell of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) said: "A 20-a-day smoker spends over £2,500 on cigarettes a year so there's never been a better time to quit.

    More coverage of this story:

    Stop-smoking rates down as recession bites - Yahoo!/ITN

    Millions spent by NHS, but smokers still refuse to quit - Daily Mail

    Recession hits "stop-smoking" rates - Daily Express

    Source: BBC News - 09 November 2010
    Link: http://bbc.in/9ULnwS

  • Interview: Smoke screens

    The freedom of the internet is being used to recruit young smokers through their computer screens, according to researcher Becky Freeman.

    The Australian researcher and tobacco control campaigner, who spoke recently to a North- East audience, strongly suspects that tobacco companies are getting around laws which restrict advertising to adults by getting employees to join social networking websites and sew cyberspace with pro-tobacco messages and images.

    While the increasing numbers of people using social networking sites has a lot of positives, Ms Freeman fears it provides a bridgehead for tobacco companies to encourage young people to think that smoking is cool, fashionable and fun.

    It could also massively undermine efforts to reduce smoking levels among young people – which have been dropping in recent years, partly due to increasingly strict bans on advertising tobacco.

    Source: The Northern Echo - 10 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9E6QYw

  • Smoking 'costs Scots economy nearly £1.1bn a year'

    A new study commissioned by Ash Scotland has reviewied the costs of smoking to the nation, such as the economic impact of illness caused by smoking as well as lost productivity through workers taking smoking breaks.

    The charity said the public cost was in contrast to the £940m the Scottish government received from tobacco tax. It said tobacco duty needed to be increased and funding boosted to cover smoking prevention services.

    Ash Scotland said that lost productivity as a result of workers on smoking breaks, absenteeism among smokers and the lost output due to early deaths totalled more than £692m.

    An additional cost of £60m was also identified in lost output due to deaths from people being exposed to second-hand smoke in the home.

    The study also estimated that treating diseases caused by smoking cost the NHS £271m.

    It added that a further £34m was spent cleaning up tobacco-related litter from the streets while the cost of fires caused by smoking in commercial properties was put at £12m.

    Source: BBC News - 10 November 2010
    Link: http://bbc.in/a9ix3s

  • Smoking ban news around the world

    New Zealand aims to be smoke free by 2025

    A new parliamentary report into the tobacco industry recommends severely limiting the import and use of tobacco in an attempt to drastically cut smoking rates across the nation.

    If the policy is adopted, it will make New Zealand the first country to wipe out smoking in all public places within the next 15 years.

    While the recommendations are not binding on the government, the cross-party committee also recommended that the government to cut imports by a set amount each year, ban tobacco sales displays, impose annual price rises above the inflation rate and reduce duty-free import levels of tobacco products.

    Find out more and download the report itself from the New Zealand Parliament website here.

    Source: The Telegraph - 03 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/d0qBJw

     

    Saudi Arabia: Holy cities to be tobacco-free

    As Haj pilgrims flock to the Kingdom from across the world, the Ministry of Health has intensified its campaign to make Makkah and Madinah completely tobacco-free.

    The sale of tobacco is strictly banned in the five-km radiuses of the Grand Mosque and Holy Mosque in Makkah and Madinah. Billboards and posters with anti-smoking messages, information regarding anti-smoking clinics and fatwas on the subject are on display in the two cities. Buses carrying pilgrims have anti-smoking posters on them, and folders containing pamphlets, flyers, postcards and stickers will also be handed to pilgrims at the Jamrat during Haj.

    “A team of scouts and health officials have taken positions at the Grand Mosque in Makkah to raise awareness about the health risks caused by this ugly habit,” sDr. Sameer Al-Sabban, executive director of the Anti-Smoking Campaign in Makkah.

    To assist pilgrims, the ministry has set up six anti-smoking clinics in the holy city as part of the campaign. The clinics are open to male and female smokers and services are offered free-of charge.

    Source: Arab News - 01 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/dmlxLP

     

    USA: Citywide smoking ban Contributes to significant decrease in maternal smoking, pre-term births

    New research has examined birth outcomes and maternal smoking, building urgency for more states and cities to join the nationwide smoke-free trend that has accelerated in recent years. According to the new data, strong smoke-free policies can improve fetal outcomes by significantly reducing the prevalence of maternal smoking.

    The study by researchers from the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy, was presented at the American Public Health Association's 138th Annual Meeting & Exposition in Denver, and compared maternal smoking prevalence in one Colorado city where a smoking ban has already been implemented to that of a neighboring city where there is no ordinance.

    Source: News Balze - 08 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9YDPU4
     

    Poland starts public smoking ban

    On Monday, Poland became the 11th EU member state to ban indoor smoking in areas of work, following in the footsteps of the UK, Ireland, Holland, France, Italy, Slovenia, Latvia, Sweden, Finland and Bulgaria. The law is the result of an EU initiative that seeks to ban smoking within the EU in workplaces by 2012.

    Smoking is now banned in schools, museums, theatres, airports and railway and bus stations and in public transport, stadiums, hospitals and playgrounds. It is also banned in one-room restaurants and bars.

    Source: Press Association, 15 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/b1no01

     

    Serbs grumble at new smoking curbs

    Serbia's new anti-smoking law caused grumbling among the one third of the population who are smokers but few were letting it interfere with their habits.

    The new law bans smoking in state institutions and buildings, schools, social care institutions, cultural and sports venues and media offices.

    The ban covers all public and work spaces as well as many entertainment venues, with fines from 5,000 dinars (47 euros, 64 dollars) for individuals to one million dinars for companies and managers breaching the law.

    Smaller bars and cafes can decide to be smoke-free or not, while bigger ones, as well as restaurants, have to provide a non-smoking space occupying more than half the premises and properly ventilated.

    In a dozen cafes on Obilic Square in central Belgrade, only two had decided to ban smoking inside the premises.

    The popular Greenet chain decided to have one of its cafes smoking and the other non-smoking on opposite sides of the street. In the first there were no free tables, but only two people in the second.

    Serbia, like most of the Balkans, is home to Europe's most inveterate smokers, with 30 to 40 percent of all adults hooked on the habit, according to the World Health Organisation.

    Tobacco is blamed for killing some 16,000 people each year, according to the Serbian health ministry, while around 76.9 percent children live in families that include at least one smoker.

    Source: Yahoo!/AFP, 11 November 2010
    Link:http://yhoo.it/8ZLZWq

     

    Netherlands: Smoking ban in small pubs lifted

    The Health Minister Editch Schippers has announced that the smoking ban in Dutch pubs smaller than 70 square meters where only the owner works has been lifted.

    Elsewhere the ban remains in force and any pub bigger than 70 square metres which allows smoking will be subject to fines.

    Clean Air Netherlands is disappointed with the decision; it had collected 35,000 signatures against lifting the ban since mid-October.

    Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 03 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/aTbeqd

     

    Bulgaria: Ban on smoking in public areas to take effect in 2011

    Restrictions on smoking in public places will take effect at the beginning of 2011, according to a regulation on indoor smoking in public and work places approved by the cabinet on November 3 2010.

    The decision comes several months after the Cabinet suspended a complete ban on smoking in public areas, which had been planned to come into effect in the middle of 2010.

    The decision on whether to adopt the smoking ban in cafes and restaurants which have areas of up to 50 sq m will be up to the owners. If smoking is allowed, people younger than 18 will not be allowed into the establishment.
     

    Source: Sofia Echo, 04 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/d2QZeX

  • Teenagers need 'tailored anti-smoking campaigns'

    Anti-smoking campaigns need better tactics than just telling teenagers to quit if they want to be effective, researchers said as they presented a new report on young smokers.

    "If you just tell them that smoking is bad, you're going to marginalise them from society," Sebastian Bohrn-Mena, the Austrian coordinator for the EU-wide ACCESS project told a press conference.

    ACCESS, a consortium of health organisations from 10 European countries, was launched in 2009 to study ways to encourage young smokers to quit.

    Anti-smoking campaigns should be more carefully tailored to young people, reaching them in places where they spend a lot of time such as schools, sports clubs and discos, on top of more traditional media like television and the Internet, the report recommended.

    Using appropriate language, appealing to teenagers' tastes in music, fashion and entertainment, and if need be, offering incentives like cinema vouchers, were also among the strategies offered up by the report.

    Source: EU Business - 08 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9YWBmw

  • The end of point-of-sale tobacco displays is essential

    Below is a letter published in The Observer from leaders of four public health bodies expressing their concern over reports that the government is planning to water down the ban on tobacco displays in shops.

    We were concerned to read your story "Government is weakening a proposed ban on tobacco displays" (Business). Those who manufacture and sell tobacco products have lobbied hard against this law. Ending point-of-sale displays would remove one of their last means of recruiting new, young smokers. Instead, they have tried to convince the government that the law would increase tobacco smuggling.

    Ireland and Canada have long-standing problems with tobacco smuggling. In recent years, they have also banned tobacco displays in shops. Revenue Ireland figures show the ban had no impact on smuggling. Philip Morris International reports the tax-paid market in Canada increased by 20%, "mainly reflecting stronger government enforcement measures to reduce contraband sales". Plainly, display bans and tobacco smuggling are unrelated.

    Health secretary Andrew Lansley has promised a plan for England's public health. We hope it will reduce tobacco promotions and keep tobacco prices high, putting cigarettes out of reach of our children and our children out of the reach of cigarette companies.

    Professor Lindsey Davies
    President, Faculty of Public Health

    Professor Terence Stephenson
    President, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

    Sir Richard Thompson
    President, Royal College of Physicians

    Professor John Britton
    Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies
    University of Nottingham

     

    Links to further coverage:

    The Sunday Times published a similar letter which was signed by the chairman of the British Medical Association and Chief Executives from Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation and the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.

    Link: [subscription required] http://bit.ly/db3FNC

    Source: The Observer - 14 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/axxCuN

  • Vietnam ends business of three foreign tobacco firms

    JTI Vietnam, BAT Vietnam and Philip Morris Vietnam will not have their licenses extended when they expire, according to a government report.

    The government approved a proposal from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to end the operations of three branches of foreign tobacco firms.

    Source: Thanhnein News - 29 October 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/cPAdf3

  • Parliamentary question: Cost of smoking

    Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they estimate is spent each year by the National Health Service in England and Wales on smoking-related illnesses.

    The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Earl Howe): The department does not maintain an annual record of the cost to the National Health Service of treating people with smoking-related illnesses.

    Academic research has indicated that the cost to the NHS of treating people with tobacco related-illnesses in England is £2.7 billion per annum (Callum C. (2008). The Cost of Smoking to the NHS Health Economics, Policy and Law), available online here.

    Earlier this year, Policy Exchange estimated that the wider cost to society of tobacco use is almost £14 billion per annum. In its report Cough Up it looked at the cost of early death or retirement due to sickness, payment of benefits to support widows and families, the costs of sickness at work to employers, the human and financial costs of smoking-related fires, smoking breaks at work and cleaning up cigarette butts. A copy of this report is available here.

    The costs of smoking to the NHS in Wales is a devolved matter for the Welsh Assembly Government.

    Source: Hansard - 01 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/dsWGDN

  • Parliamentary question: Tobacco Industry

    Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the effects on independent retailers of the implementation of provisions of the Health Act 2009 in respect of the prohibition of tobacco displays since his Department's initial consultation and impact assessment; and if he will make a statement. 

    Mr Prisk: BIS has worked closely with all the leading retail trade associations (the Association of Convenience Stores, the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the British Retail Consortium) to ensure that the effects on retail businesses of the implementation of the tobacco display provisions in the Health Act 2009 are well understood. These retail trade organisations have provided information and evidence in respect of the estimated one-off costs of compliance and the annual costs as well as the wider impact of tobacco retail practices. This information has been routinely shared with the Department of Health which of course leads in this policy area.

    Source: Hansard - 03 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9Wypah

  • Big Tobacco and small traders unite to fight ban on cigarette displays

    An alliance of big tobacco groups and small retailers claim that a ban on the display of cigarettes will increase illicit sales and organised crime, as well as push small traders out of business.

    The desperate lobbying comes ahead of a ban on the point of sale of tobacco products which is set to come into force for supermarkets in October 2011 and for smaller stores two years later, but which could yet be shelved by the Government.

    Tobacco industry hopes that ministers may be about to unwind, or soften, the latest shop display rules were given a boost recently when public health minister Anne Milton told the Commons last month: "The government, in discussion across Whitehall, is developing options around the display of tobacco in shops that seek to ensure an appropriate balance between public health priorities and burdens on business."

    Lobby groups point to a surge in smuggled and counterfeit cigarette sales in Ireland – where a ban on tobacco display came into effect in the summer of last year – as well as a wave of small shop closures as evidence of the damaging impact of such a ban.

    Imperial chief executive, Alison Cooper said, "Ultimately, people don't even know where to buy tobacco any more. The Irish have this problem. That's the best evidence."


    Links to further coverage:

    The Times [subscription required]: http://bit.ly/apfsoU

    The Irish Times: http://bit.ly/aL27o2

    Source: The Observer - 07 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/97ryvf

  • Canada: Did Ottawa bow to tobacco industry on warning labels?

    The Canadian federal government is abandoning its responsibility to protect the health of Canadians by failing to introduce stronger warnings on cigarette packages, says a new editorial published in the country’s leading medical journal.

    Source: The Globe and Mail - 08 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/97K82X

  • Finland: Big Tobacco wins case on light cigarettes

    Tobacco companies have won a case involving light cigarettes after years of deliberation in courts. The plaintiffs in the case dropped their appeal to the Supreme Court following news that they would not receive a retrial permit from the country's highest court.

    The Helsinki Appeal Court's decision in the case now stands. It ruled that the tobacco firms are not liable to pay restitution to the plaintiffs, three women, for their various lung afflictions, including cancer. The court said that tobacco firms' marketing was not deceptive.

    Source: YLE - 09 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/cztiN6

  • Imperial Tobacco price rises offset lower volumes + Interview with Alison Cooper

    British group Imperial Tobacco, the world's fourth-biggest cigarette maker, met forecasts with an 11 percent rise in full-year earnings as price increases and cost savings offset lower sales volumes.

    Tough economic conditions in Spain, the United States, Russia and Ukraine saw group annual cigarette volumes fall 4.2 percent, but 8.7 percent growth in fine cut loose tobacco volume meant its cigarette equivalent volumes fell just 2.9 percent. With the help of price rises, overall sales rose 3 percent.

    Imperial raised its annual dividend by 15 percent to 84.3 pence, while cutting its adjusted net debt by 1.5 billion pounds to 9.3 billion.
     

    Click here to view an interview of Chief Executive Alison Cooper discussing the company's full year results.

    Source: Reuters - 02 November 2010
    Link: http://reut.rs/dyv1No

  • Texas: Grandson of tobacco magnate campaigns against smoking

    Patrick Reynolds, former actor, author and grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds, has recalled the catalyst that would turn him into an anti-smoking crusader.

    “My only memories of my father, R.J. Reynolds Jr., are of a man lying down, dying of smoking,” he said. “He died of emphysema when I was 15, and I remember him coughing and gasping for breath and looking more and more sick and frail every time I saw him.”

    In 1986, Reynolds, who already had sold his tobacco stock in 1979, made the decision to speak out about an industry his family helped build.

    Now, he serves as an advocate, campaigning for smoke-free laws, higher cigarette taxes, limitations on tobacco advertising and marketing, and regulation of tobacco by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, he said.

    In 1989, Reynolds founded the Foundation for a Smokefree America, a nonprofit group with a mission to motivate youths to stay tobacco free and empower smokers to quit successfully.

    Source: Reporter News - 10 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/dd4Qt4

  • USA: Lawsuit against government-tobacco cartel brought to Supreme Court

    After five years of litigation, a new challenge to the $200 billion backroom deal between major tobacco companies and 46 state attorneys general has been filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Competitive Enterprise Institute’s petition for Supreme Court review alleges that the tobacco “Master Settlement Agreement” violates the constitutional provision against multi-state agreements that have not been approved by Congress.

    Source: CEI - 09 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/akCggj

  • USA: R.J. Reynolds plans to turn Camel cigarette packs into homage to Williamsburg

    For the month of January, R.J. Reynolds plans to turn its Camel cigarette packs into a homage to the inreasingly trendy neighbourhood Williamsburg.

    The cigarette packs will bear the neighbourhood's name along with pictures of the Williamsburg Bridge, the area's iconic lofts and silhouettes of musicians.

    Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said, "It's cynical for a tobacco company to launch a branding scheme that tries to exploit the life and energy of our streets to market an addictive product that kills roughly a third of its users."

    Note: Images of the pack can be seen at the link below.

    Source: NYDailyNews - 12 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/9Ajva4

  • Can one puff really make an adolescent addicted to nicotine?

    Rationale: In the past decade, there have been various attempts to understand the initiation and progression of tobacco smoking among adolescents. One line of research on these issues has made strong claims regarding the speed in which adolescents can become physically and mentally addicted to smoking. According to these claims, and in contrast to other models of smoking progression, adolescents can lose autonomy over their smoking behavior after having smoked one puff in their lifetime and never having smoked again, and can become mentally and physically "hooked on nicotine" even if they have never smoked a puff. Objectives: To critically examine the conceptual and empirical basis for the claims made by the "hooked on nicotine" thesis.

    Method: We reviewed the major studies on which the claims of the "hooked on nicotine" research program are based.

    Results: The studies we reviewed contained substantive conceptual and methodological flaws. These include an untenable and idiosyncratic definition of addiction, use of single items or of very lenient criteria for diagnosing nicotine dependence, reliance on responders' causal attributions in determining physical and mental addiction to nicotine and biased coding and interpretation of the data.

    Discussion: The conceptual and methodological problems detailed in this review invalidate many of the claims made by the "hooked on nicotine" research program and undermine its contribution to the understanding of the nature and development of tobacco smoking in adolescents.

    Dar, R and Frenk, H., Can one puff really make an adolescent addicted to nicotine? A critical review of the literature, Harm Reduction Journal 2010, 7:28 

    Source: Harm Reduction Journal - 10 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/bWQGPK

  • Cigarette design and lung cancer

    Abstract

    Background: Incidence rates for adenocarcinoma of the lung are increasing and are higher in the United States than in many other developed countries. We examine whether these trends may be associated with changes in cigarette design.

    Methods: Lung cancer risk equations based on observations during 1960-1972 from the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study I are applied to 5-year birth cohort-specific estimates of changes in smoking behaviors to predict birth cohort-specific rates of squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma of the lung among US White men for the period 1973-2000. These expected rates are compared to observed rates for the same birth cohorts of White men in the US Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data.

    Results: Changes in smoking behaviors over the past several decades adequately explain the changes in squamous cell carcinoma rates observed in the SEER data. However, predicted rates for adenocarcinoma do not match the observed SEER data without inclusion of a term increasing the risk for adenocarcinoma with the duration of smoking after 1965.

    Conclusion: The risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma from smoking appears to have remained stable in the United States over the past several decades; however, the risk of adenocarcinoma has increased substantially in a pattern temporally associated with changes in cigarette design.

    Burns, . et al., Do changes in cigarette design influence the rise in adenocarcinoma of the lung?, Cancer Causes and Control, 22 October 2010

    Source: SpringerLink - 22 October 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/acAWeE

  • Home exposure to tobacco carcinogens high in children of smokers

    Ninety percent of children who lived in a house where an adult smoked had evidence of tobacco-related carcinogens in their urine, according to research presented at the Ninth AACR Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research Conference.

    The average amount of tobacco metabolites in children aged one month to 10 years old was 8 percent of what is found in a smoker, said the lead researcher Janet L. Thomas, Ph.D., assistant professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Minnesota.

    The researchers also found a direct correlation between the number of cigarettes one or more adults smoked in the house each day and tobacco metabolites in the children who lived there. There was also an association between childhood exposure to secondhand smoke and lower socioeconomic status, employment and parental education.

    Additionally, black children had the highest levels of tobacco-related metabolites in their urine, even if their parent or parents smoked comparatively less.

    The researchers took urine samples from 79 children who lived in a home where at least one parent smoked. 

    Source: MediLexicon - 10 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/bJFsFr

  • Smokers' lung cancer could be different disease to non smokers'

    Researchers in Canada found that the genomes of lung cancer tumors in smokers had different DNA alterations to lung tumors in never smokers, suggesting that the disease could be different in the two groups.

    For the study, Kelsie Thu, who is working towards a PhD at the BC Cancer Research Center in Vancouver, Canada, and her colleagues used genomic technologies to look at the biology and DNA of lung cancer tumors and healthy tissue from 30 patients who had never smoked and 53 patients who were current smokers (39) or used to smoke (14).

    They found regions of DNA that showed mutations in both groups, such as those that code for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is typical, but the never-smoker tumors genomes contained twice as many DNA alterations overall.

    Thu said there are also other differences between never-smokers and smokers with lung cancer. Never-smokers who get lung cancer are usually women, and typically have adenocarcinomas, and more mutations in the EGFR genes.

    Source: Medical News Today - 09 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/8YYxTe

  • Smoking cessation ads using 'Why Quit' strategy perceived as most effective

    Tobacco control programs that use television advertisements to promote smoking cessation should use ads that adopt a 'why quit' strategy with either graphic images or personal testimonials, according to a new study by RTI International scientists.

    The study, published online in Tobacco Control examined how different types of smokers responded and reacted to different types of televised ads that promoted smoking cessation.

    Scientists examined which types of cessation-focused advertisements were associated with perceived advertisement effectiveness among smokers. They also assessed whether key smoker characteristics (e.g., cigarette consumption, desire to quit and past quit attempts) influenced perceived effectiveness of different types of cessation ads.

    Cessation-focused campaigns have used a variety of message themes. The three most common broad themes for cessation campaigns include why quit, how to quit, and anti-tobacco industry.

    Source: Newswire - 08 November 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/cFG5sG

  • Third hand smoke in homes

    Abstract
    Background This study examined whether thirdhand smoke (THS) persists in smokers' homes after they move out and non-smokers move in, and whether new non-smoking residents are exposed to THS in these homes.

    Methods The homes of 100 smokers and 50 non-smokers were visited before the residents moved out. Dust, surfaces, air and participants' fingers were measured for nicotine and children's urine samples were analysed for cotinine. The new residents who moved into these homes were recruited if they were non-smokers. Dust, surfaces, air and new residents' fingers were examined for nicotine in 25 former smoker and 16 former non-smoker homes. A urine sample was collected from the youngest resident.

    Results Smoker homes' dust, surface and air nicotine levels decreased after the change of occupancy (p<0.001); however dust and surfaces showed higher contamination levels in former smoker homes than former non-smoker homes (p<0.05). Non-smoking participants' finger nicotine was higher in former smoker homes compared to former non-smoker homes (p<0.05). Finger nicotine levels among non-smokers living in former smoker homes were significantly correlated with dust and surface nicotine and urine cotinine.

    Conclusions These findings indicate that THS accumulates in smokers' homes and persists when smokers move out even after homes remain vacant for 2 months and are cleaned and prepared for new residents. When non-smokers move into homes formerly occupied by smokers, they encounter indoor environments with THS polluted surfaces and dust. Results suggest that non-smokers living in former smoker homes are exposed to THS in dust and on surfaces.  

    Matt, G. et al., When smokers move out and non-smokers move in: residential thirdhand smoke pollution and exposure, Tobacco Control, Published Online First: 30 October 2010
     

    Source: Tobacco Control - 10 October 2010
    Link: http://bit.ly/bDoHmI

Events

  • SCTRP Annual Update and Supervision Day

    The annual opportunity for SCTRP graduates to troubleshoot existing practice, update on research, and interact with over 100 practitioners.

    Tutors: P Hajek, R West, G Sutherland, H McRobbie and members of their teams.

    Cost: £235 (£200 plus VAT) Early Bird rate prior to course

    Availability: 100+

    Date: 03 December 2010
    Venue: Park Crescent Conference Centre, 229 Great Portland Street, London W1
    Contact: Janice Rossabi on +44 0208 347 0556 or sctrp@yahoo.co.uk

  • No Smoking Day - Time to Quit?

    The 2011 theme was developed with smokers themselves, we know that most of them would really like to stop, but find it hard to. For many the day that their smoke-free life begins never seems to arrive and so we are aiming to encourage smokers to think ahead and with the help of No Smoking Day make that day Wednesday, 9 March 2011.

    Date: 09 March 2011
    Venue: Around the country
    Contact: http://www.nosmokingday.org.uk/

  • 5th European Conference on Tobacco or Health

     The conference programme will comprise three days of sessions. There are four main programme tracks:

    • Tobacco control policy measures;
    • Tobacco industry strategies and tactics
    • Tobacco treatment;
    • Health education & health communication.  
    Date: 28 March 2011
    Venue: Amsterdam
    Contact: www.ectoh.org