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July, 2009:

Stop trying to please everyone

Jul 18th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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SCMP

Some pedestrians have apparently complained about Hong Kong’s designated smoking areas. This seems to indicate an increasingly draconian approach to public health. I am not a smoker and few of my friends smoke. The law to ban smoking has tried to appease smokers and the non-smoking members of the community. But the result has been that neither group is happy.

The way the government promoted the ban has led some non-smokers to expect a smoke-free city. Now people converge at public places to light up, locations where there are smokers and non-smokers, such as elevated walkways, outside shopping malls, bus stops, taxi stands and pavements.

Before the law was enacted you would normally see smokers in restaurants, bars and karaokes, where they were not so much of an eyesore. You might see one or two people puffing on cigarettes at outside locations. Now you see groups of up to a dozen. We are not less exposed to second-hand smoke than we were before the ban came into force. There is ill-feeling between the two groups.

The smokers feel cornered and vilified. The non-smokers are annoyed that people are lighting up outside in areas where there should be fresh air. When will the government stop trying to please all parties when it launches campaigns to publicise new policies?

Virginia Yue, Tsuen Wan

No retreat from smoking ban, says health minister

Jul 17th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/

Health Minister Recep Akdağ has reaffirmed that Turkey will not backtrack on its complete ban on the use of tobacco products at indoor establishments, which comes into force on Sunday. Akdağ stressed that no extra time would be given to shop owners to make the necessary adjustments to their business premises. “We are not happy with the idea of allowing extra time to cafes, restaurants or tourism agencies to make the adjustments to their premises that the law requires. Some European Union member countries did allow extra time to businesses before enforcing the full smoking ban, but later had great difficulty in carrying it out,” he stated.

With the amendment made to Law 4207 on the Prevention of the Harmful Effects of Tobacco Products, smoking will not be permitted in indoor sections of cafes, bars, restaurants and the like as of July 19. The operators of such businesses will be responsible for monitoring their clients’ compliance with the law and reporting any violation by telephoning the nearest police station or by calling 184 to reach the Ministry of Health’s Communication Center (SABİM).Any violation on the part of operators and clients will be penalized by fines of TL 560 to 5600 and TL 69, respectively.

Meanwhile, Bahattin Köksal, head of the anti-tobacco organization Healthy Life Association (SAĞLIK-DER), suggested that July 19, when the full ban on tobacco products in public places goes into effect, should be celebrated annually as “Clear Air Day.”

Speaking in Ankara yesterday at a conference on the tobacco ban at the Ankara Mayor’s Office, Köksal said their association aimed to educate people about the dangers of tobacco use.

Toker Ergüder from the World Health Organization (WHO) also attended the conference, stating that Turkey is among the countries with the highest tobacco-consumption rates. “This law will make Turkey one of the few countries that have banned smoking in all closed areas at a national level,” he said, hailing the law as “revolutionary.”

He said the WHO and civil society organizations have been working together well ahead of the ban. “We believe that this cooperation is very important for us to fight the global tobacco problem that threatens the lives of millions of women, men and children across the globe. Cooperation among governments, international organizations and civil society, as has happened in Turkey, is much needed to fight this problem, which is completely preventable.”

Cigarette smoking and risk of prostate cancer among Singapore Chinese.

Jul 17th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Butler LM, Wang R, Wong AS, Koh WP, Yu MC.

Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences, Colorado State University, 1681 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1681, USA,Lesley.Butler@colostate.edu.

Prospective epidemiologic studies conducted in Western populations support an association between current smoking and aggressive subtypes of prostate cancer. In Singapore, where prostate-specific antigen is not used for population-wide screening, prostate cancer incidence has tripled within the past two decades. Using Cox regression methods, we examined the relationship between smoking and prostate cancer established between 1993 and 1998 in a cohort of 27,293 Singapore Chinese men. As of December 2006, 250 incident prostate cancer cases were diagnosed. In our cohort, 42.2% reported never smoking cigarettes, 15.7% quit over 5 years ago (long-term former), 5.7% quit within the past 5 years (recent former), and 36.4% were current smokers. From multivariable models, we observed no association with smoking status, age at starting to smoke, years smoked, or number of cigarettes per day. Among recent former and current smokers combined, we observed a small positive association for earlier age at starting to smoke that was somewhat stronger for nonadvanced disease (hazard ratio = 1.63, 95% confidence interval: 0.85, 3.12, for <15 years versus nonsmokers). Smoking was not a major risk factor for prostate cancer in our Singapore Chinese cohort, a traditionally low risk population with parallel increases in incidence and mortality.

PMID: 19579052 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

History of Tobacco

Jul 16th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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1. 32-history

2. historyoftobacco – by CTA

Alcohol and tobacco priciest in Europe

Jul 16th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Ireland Headlines

A new European Union survey released today has revealed that consumer price levels in Ireland last year were found to be the second highest in Europe, with alcohol and tobacco prices here by far the most expensive in the 27-member bloc.

Drinkers and smokers faced prices a staggering 84% higher than the EU average, according to the survey by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Overall, Denmark was the most expensive across the EU 27, indexing at +41% above the EU average, followed by Ireland (+27% above EU average) and then Finland (+27%). Bulgaria was found to be the country with the lowest prices.

The figures are taken from a basket of goods including food, alcohol and tobacco, clothing, consumer electronics, personal transport equipment and hotels and dining out.

Food in Ireland was found to be the second most expensive in the EU (27% above the average), behind Denmark and just above Finland.

Smoking ban may save lives

Jul 14th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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SCMP

James Griffiths, who laments the extension of the ban on smoking to all Hong Kong’s bars, loses sight of two key points (“Smoking ban in bars will only cut much-needed spending”, July 10).

One is that non-smokers like to go to bars too, and they can be, and very often are, disturbed – indeed poisoned – by the smoke emitted by others.

The challenge, now that smoking inside bars will no longer occur, is to get the smokers away from the open fronts of restaurants and bars, lest they continue to disturb those inside with their toxic exhalations.

The other key point is that smoking eventually makes seriously ill, or kills, nearly half of those who indulge in the unhealthy habit. By forcing smokers to at least desist while inside a bar, these enhanced rules may be saving the life of the smoker.

These vital points far outweigh the inconvenience to smokers of no longer being allowed to smoke inside bars.

Hong Kong has taken the right step here and it is a step already taken by many other jurisdictions around the world.

Paul Surtees, Mid-Levels

Pedestrians complain of fumes from outdoor areas where smoking allowed

Jul 13th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Ng Yuk-hang – SCMP

A smokers’ haven in Wan Chai is proving to be a non-smoker’s nightmare, with many complaining they are assailed by second-hand smoke despite being in the open air.

Surrounded by three government buildings – Immigration Tower, Revenue Tower and Wanchai Tower – Gloucester Road Garden is a designated smoking area administered by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.

Cheung Mei-ping, who walks past the garden every day, says the smoke is so thick she fears it may affect her health. “Sometimes the smell is so strong that I must make a detour,” Ms Cheung, who works in the nearby Shui On Centre, said.

A Ms Lam, who also works nearby, said it was “unwise” to put a smoking area there and it would be better to let smokers indulge their habit by the sea. “At least the wind is stronger there,” she said.

But smokers described the garden as their last refuge. “Now we can’t even smoke in bars. Smokers and non-smokers should be more considerate of each other,” a Mr Chan said.

Asked if she agreed that the lingering smoke was an annoyance to non-smokers, a Ms Ma said: “Cars on the road also generate exhaust gas, they are also hazardous to health.”

Smoke Terminators’ Society chairwoman Betty Kwan Ka-mei said the area was virtually an enclosed smoking room with only an open roof. “The skyscrapers nearby block the smoke and create a chimney effect,” she said. “The smoke concentration is quite high and can be quite hazardous.”

She cited a study that found inhaling second-hand smoke in an enclosed room for an hour is equivalent to smoking a packet of cigarettes.

Gloucester Road Garden was not the only place where smoke lingered in the air, Dr Kwan said. She had seen patients smoking outside many hospitals, and office workers puffing near shopping malls.

“It is crazy,” she said. “It is unfair to non-smokers, who should have the freedom to reject second-hand smoke.” She urged the government to extend the smoking ban to areas with slow airflow.

Smoking GI Joes will be a dying breed if report has its way

Jul 12th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Agence France-Presse – SCMP

The iconic image of the US soldier, muddy and tired, with a cigarette hanging from his mouth could become a thing of the past if the Pentagon accepts new calls for a ban on tobacco products in the military.

An Institute of Medicine report, requested by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs, says an anti-tobacco policy could make the military “virtually tobacco-free within 20 years”. The report found the proportion of smokers in the US armed forces was higher than in the civilian population, with 32 per cent of military personnel using tobacco products, compared with 20 per cent of civilians.

Troops on deployment were twice as likely to be smokers than home-based counterparts. The Defence Department spent US$564 million in 2006 treating tobacco-related illness.

“There are numerous reasons the military would support the goal of becoming tobacco-free, such as improved military readiness, better health of [the] force, and decreased health care costs,” the report said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the Department of Defence had long recognised the health effects of smoking.

“The federal government and the US military were the first to go smoke-free in their office buildings,” he said.

But the study criticised the military for its continued subsidies of tobacco products sold on military bases.

“The committee believes the department should not sell products that are known to impair military readiness and health,” the report said.

But it acknowledged the difficulty of phasing out smoking, noting the habit had “long been associated with the image of a tough, fearless warrior”.

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CLEAR THE AIR SAYS :  DID YOU KNOW THAT THE FIRST KNOWN  SMOKING  BAN WAS BY THE NAZI PARTY IN THE 1930’S ?

Researcher explores why smoking increases the risk of heart disease and strokes

Jul 12th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Contact: John L. Mitchell
johnmitchell@cdrewu.edu
323-563-4981
Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science

LOS ANGELES—Researchers at Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles and Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona have discovered a reason why smoking increases the risk of heart disease and strokes.

The study, which will be presented Thursday, June 11 at The Endocrine Society’s 91st annual meeting in Washington, D.C., found that nicotine in cigarettes promotes insulin resistance, a pre-diabetic condition that raises blood sugar levels higher than normal. People with pre-diabetes are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

Theodore Friedman, MD, Ph.D., chief of the endocrinology division at Charles Drew University, said the findings help explain a “paradox” that links smoking to heart disease.

Smokers experience a high degree of cardiovascular deaths, Friedman said. “This is surprising considering both smoking and nicotine may cause weight loss and weight loss should protect against cardiovascular disease.”

The researchers studied the effects of twice-daily injections of nicotine on 24 adult mice over two weeks. The nicotine-injected mice ate less food, lost weight and had less fat than control mice that received injections without nicotine.

“Our results in mice show that nicotine administration leads to both weight loss and decreased food intake,” Friedman said. “Mice exposed to nicotine have less fat. In spite of this, mice have abnormal glucose tolerance and are insulin resistant (pre-diabetes).”

Studies have shown that smokers who are pre-diabetic have blood glucose levels higher than normal, but not high enough for diabetes, a known risk factor for heart disease. Smokers also have higher rates of diabetes, but it is not directly clear whether smoking is the cause, because there could be other risk factors, Friedman said.

In the tests, however, the mice receiving nicotine developed pre-diabetes and also had high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which increases blood pressure and blood sugar. The study’s authors were able to partially reverse the harmful effects of pre-diabetes by treating the mice with a drug that blunts the action of nicotine.

“Our results suggest that decreasing insulin resistance may reduce the heart disease seen in smokers,” Friedman said. “We anticipate that in the future there will be drugs to specifically block the effect of nicotine on insulin resistance.”

New drugs are needed because those that are currently available are not specific enough to completely block nicotine’s effects or they have bothersome side effects, said Friedman, whose study is one of 34 being featured at The Endocrine Society’s 91st annual meeting..

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ABOUT CHARLES DREW UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND SCIENCE (CDU)

CDU is a private nonprofit, nonsectarian, minority-serving medical and health sciences institution. Located in the Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles, CDU has graduated over 550 medical doctors, 2,500 post-graduate physicians, more than 2,000 physician assistants and hundreds of other health professionals. The only dually designated Historically Black Graduate Institution and Hispanic Serving Health Professions School in the U.S. CDU is recognized as a leader in health inequities and translational research, specifically with respect to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, mental health, and HIV/AIDS. The University is among the top 7% of National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded institutions and rated one of the top 50 private universities in research in the U.S. Recently, the CDU/UCLA medical program was named the “best performer” in the University of California System with respect to producing outstanding underrepresented minority physicians. For more information, visit.

Richmond bans smoking in apartments and condos

Jul 12th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12822126

The Associated Press

RICHMOND, Calif.—City officials in Richmond are snuffing out smoking in apartments, condominiums and public places, making it the hardest place in the San Francisco Bay area to smoke.

The City Council approved an ordinance this month that will ban lighting up in all multiunit housing by Jan. 1, 2011. Officials say smoking in multiunit housing exposes people to secondhand smoke, which can travel between apartments.

The city has already banned smoking in parks, farmers markets and other public places. Fines start at $100 for violating the bans.

Richmond was given an “F” by the American Lung Association in January, which got city leaders to move quickly to enact tougher restrictions to discourage smoking and reduce secondhand smoke.

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Information from: Contra Costa Times

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