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FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK
I have been following unfolding events across the USA since the election of a Democratic congress and senate. Tobacco control is back on the agenda. Speaker Pelosi has banned smoking on Capitol Hill in what is more than just a token gesture. I think you have to be American to fully appreciate that country's 'individual rights' scenario. It is more than just a slogan. It is enshrined in the constitution and seems to trump all other considerations around the issues of public policy. So to interfere with these 'rights' often takes the collective wishes of the majority through referenda. But even in the case where ballots are carried the lobbyists continue to press their case for exemptions. Taverns, casinos, clubs and the like will all troop in to see their congressman (or woman) and point out their special case. Don't think that big tobacco just limps off to lick its wounds, either. In places like California where tobacco control is strong, ballot measures to increase tobacco taxation were soundly defeated. That did not happen by accident. New Zealanders may not always fully appreciate the challenges posed by the enormity of the USA. While in New Zealand we are able to make change across the nation, change in America happens county by county, state by state. Real tensions exist when Capitol Hill tries to tell Americans how to live. So good on the Speaker of Congress for having the fortitude to stake out such a strong position. Is there anything to be taken from the fact that she is the first woman speaker, I wonder? And while we are about it - the Democratic nomination for President may also involve issues of smoking. Obama smokes. Clinton does not. Watch this space and have a good fortnight. Mark Peck Director IN THIS ISSUE:
WITHHOLD FUNDING FOR SMOKING SCENES, SAYS SMOKEFREE COALITION
Coalition Director Mark Peck says there is building evidence that smoking imagery encourages positive attitudes about smoking, and makes it appear to be a 'normal' behaviour, which in turn makes teens more likely to start smoking. "We're particularly concerned about films, television programmes and music videos that deliberately and unnecessarily include smoking and show it as glamorous, sexy and common practice. "Depictions of smoking are a major factor in children trying tobacco. If they get hooked, they risk severe health problems and shortened lifespan. "We believe the New Zealand Film Commission and New Zealand On Air should withhold funding from films that feature gratuitous smoking; and include a smokefree clause in their funding agreements." He said an analysis of the 10 highest-grossing films shown in New Zealand in 2003 found that seven contained at least one tobacco reference, with an average of more than five references per film. The typical smoker was a European adult male and the smoking was most often positive, associated with suaveness, friendship and social inclusion. "Many top-rating films and television programmes are made overseas. It is of great concern therefore that new research out of the United States found that 60 percent of last year's top films depicted smoking, with more than 15 cigarette-related scenes an hour. Films portray smoking more heavily now than in the 1950s - a time when far more people smoked. "Smokefree groups overseas are advocating for changes to film classifications and funding to reduce the smoking shown; in the meantime, New Zealand needs to clean up its own backyard." BREATHING TROUBLE IN BABIES LINKED TO MOTHERS' CIGARETTESA fifth of Pacific women continue to smoke during pregnancy, a new study has found. The research - part of the Pacific Islands Families study being carried out by Auckland University of Technology researchers - found that approximately 20 percent of Pacific mothers living in New Zealand reported smoking during the last trimester of their pregnancy. Associate Professor Janis Paterson, co-director of the study, said the results showed the smokers were at least twice as likely to have maternal asthma and to deliver an infant with low birth weight. Infants born to light-to-moderate smokers on average weighed 244 grams less and those born to heavy smokers weighed 278 grams less than babies of non-smokers, who had a mean birth weight of 3.636 kg. The study, the first longitudinal research into the health of Pacific peoples, has been following 1398 infants and their mothers for the past six years. Other findings from the study included the discovery that 43 percent of health problems among 6-week-old infants were related to breathing difficulties - a significant factor that was related to maternal cigarette smoking during the last trimester. "Smoking is preventable, yet continues to have negative consequences for mothers and their offspring," the study said. Ministry of Health data found 28.5 percent of Pacific women smoked, compared with 25.5 percent of all New Zealand women, in 2002. Associate Professor Paterson said the trend appeared to be continuing in spite of Government-driven quit-smoking programmes and public health advertising. "Whether or not there are programmes that are really pertinent to Pacific mothers is something we probably need to think about." Iutita Rusk, the Heart Foundation's manager of Pacific health, said the findings were not a surprise. She said the foundation's Pacific Islands Heartbeat programme was indirectly having an impact on reducing smoking rates in the community. The programme has trained more than 150 Smokefree community advocates and about 400 quit-smoking counsellors. New Zealand Herald, 27 January 2007 CAR SMOKING BAN A STEP TOO FAR?
Its response follows its publication of two reports by independent researchers on the impact of the law change that banned smoking in workplaces, including bars and restaurants, from December 2004. Last month the 10 authors, from New Zealand, Britain and Ireland reported 8 percent of workers said they were still exposed to second-hand smoke, there was no clear evidence of a reduction in acute hospital admissions, and public support for the right to live and work smokefree had increased. In a second report published this month, the group, led by Wellington School of Medicine senior lecturer Richard Edwards, calls for the Ministry to:
Co-author and Wellington School of Medicine researcher Nick Wilson published a study last year that found more than 4 percent of 16,000 cars observed over two weeks had someone smoking in them. About a quarter of these had at least one other person being exposed to second-hand smoke. Smokefree Coalition director Mark Peck said second-hand smoke killed about 350 people a year. "There is actually no excuse for smoking in a car." In a four-page response to the report, the Health Ministry said it had no intention of introducing a ban on smoking in cars but was supporting very successful media campaigns promoting smokefree cars and homes. It was collecting more information on workplace exposure to second-hand smoke, and "if needed" would consider further action, while further restrictions on outdoor smoking areas "could be an area for further policy work". Proposals for surveys of compliance in rural pubs and of air quality in semi-enclosed outdoor smoking areas were "interesting" but needed to be "prioritised alongside other potential areas for research". It said a confidential phone line for reporting breaches of the smokefree law had been closed because calls had fallen to about one a day. National's health spokesman Tony Ryall said the idea of banning smoking in cars was "PC madness". Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor said the Government was funding a campaign to highlight the dangers of smoking in cars, particularly to young children, but had no proposals to legislate. Dominion Post, 25 January 2007 SMOKERS BUY POUCH TOBACCO OVER QUITTINGHand-rolled cigarettes, rolled thin, were currently cheaper than nicotine gum - a ridiculous situation according to Dr Murray Laugesen, Chair of SmokeLess New Zealand. "Until smoking costs more than 25 cents a cigarette, or 2 cents a puff, the chances of reducing smoking in 2007 are bleak," he said. Smoking of hand-rolled cigarettes probably killed 1800 New Zealanders last year, Dr Laugesen says. "Smoke for smoke, they were just as dangerous as factory-made cigarettes, which killed another 2700. Whether hand-rolled or factory-made, cigarettes eventually killed over one in two smokers. "Only one in six Australians and Americans smoke daily, but hand-rolled cigarettes (RYOs) had to be dealt to here before we could catch up with these countries." RYOs are the most popular cigarette for Māori, for men, and for smokers under 40, and now rival factory-made cigarettes in popularity, according to a recent Ministry of Health survey. The 2006 Census shows no change in the proportion of adults (22 percent) who were ex-smokers from 1996 to 2006. The proportion smoking daily reduced (24 percent down to 21 percent) only because fewer young people are taking up smoking. Continued smoking among adults is now the problem, according to Dr Laugesen. RYOs cost smokers less than $4 per day, compared with $8 for factory-made cigarettes. They cost 25 cents per smoke, and at 2 cents per puff, it was the cheapest drug available, he said. SmokeLess New Zealand media release, 24 January 2007 YOUNG LIBS WANT RETURN OF TOBACCO ADVERTISINGThe Australian Young Liberal Movement's Victorian branch is calling for an end to the ban on tobacco advertising, calling it an insult to the intelligence of the ordinary Australian. "These bans assume that individuals are not fit to make up their own minds on the benefits or otherwise of smoking and need the government to make the decision for them," the branch says. It says tobacco companies should have the right to compete with anti-tobacco advertising and that the ban does not reduce the uptake of smoking but simply entrenches the market share of existing brands. "Cigarettes that may in fact be less harmful to health are prohibited from advertising this fact," it says. The parliamentary secretary for health, Chris Pyne, said the government had no intention of lifting the ban and that it had helped reduce the smoking rate to 17.4 percent, the lowest in the OECD. Simon Chapman, Professor in Public Health at the University of Sydney and an expert on tobacco advertising, suggested the movement had not done its homework before formulating the idea. Australia was a signatory to the international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which required it to ban advertising. Sydney Morning Herald, 23 January 2007 NO TIME TO BE BAITING SMOKERSFor smokers feeling prodded by a far-reaching smoking ban to stub out their cigarettes for good, new research out of Harvard University School of Public Health couldn't be more disheartening. While cities and states seek to curb smoking, major cigarette manufacturers have spent seven years making it harder to quit. From 1997 to 2005, levels of nicotine in the most popular brands increased by 11 percent, according to the study, which confirms similar findings by a 2005 Massachusetts Department of Health study. Besides making it tougher for established smokers to stop, the added nicotine may make it easier for young smokers to get hooked. Many of the brands showing the increase - Marlboro, Newport and Camel among them - are favourites of teens, experts say. Research shows that better than 84 percent of smokers started as adolescents. If the hiked-up nicotine was an intentional effort to lock in smokers, it makes mockery - if not treachery - of Big Tobacco's 1998 agreement to help curb youth smoking and its public promises to support veteran smokers who want to stop. The study showed a steady climb in the amount of nicotine supplied to smokers' lungs, apparently from increased nicotine in the raw tobacco. It also showed a redesign of cigarettes to yield more puffs per stick. Cigarette makers said the data reflect random variations in nicotine levels. But researchers said the nicotine findings held true for all four of the major cigarette manufacturers and across cigarette categories, from full-flavour to ultra light. Health advocates are calling on legislators to come down hard on cigarette companies, including possible oversight by the Food and Drug Administration. That agency could then supervise content, packaging and marketing of tobacco products. Cincinnati Enquirer, 22 January 2007 STROKE VICTIMS LOSE SMOKING URGEThe discovery of individuals with brain damage who give up smoking with ease could point the way to a surgical cure for smoking, US scientists say. The particular brain area damaged - called the insula - appears to be central to the urge to smoke. One man had smoked 40 cigarettes a day but quit immediately after his insula was damaged by a stroke. But lead author Antoine Bechara of the University of Southern California and the University of Iowa cautioned: "The insula also carries out lots of normal everyday functions so we would want to make sure we only interfere with functions that disrupt negative behaviours like smoking." In recent years, doctors have been using 'functional neurosurgery' - causing intentional damage to very well-defined brain regions - to relieve pain and the tremor of Parkinson's disease and treat stubborn depression. The insula receives information from other parts of the body and is thought to help translate those signals into something that is subjectively felt, such as hunger, pain, or a craving. Dr Bechara's team studied 69 brain-damaged smokers - 19 who had suffered insula injury. Of these, 13 had also given up smoking, all but one quickly and easily with no cravings. The researchers do not know why the six others failed to quit smoking. Professor Paul Matthews, an expert in neuroscience from Oxford University and Imperial College London, said: "The most remarkable finding in this study is that damage to a particular brain area may block this urge. "Now we can ask, 'Could a functional neurosurgeon implant stimulation electrodes to do the same thing? Could there be a surgical 'cure' for smoking?'" BBC, 25 January 2007 JAPAN TOBACCO TRIES PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE
"Don't smoke in a crowd, coats are expensive," says one of 40 different print and outdoor advertisements that hang in Tokyo's subway and other public areas. The ad shows a stick-figure man with a giant cigarette next to a woman wearing a coat with a hole in it. The ads come as an anti-smoking movement is budding in Japan, which has the highest percentage of people who smoke in the industrialised world. The country's smoking regulations have long lagged behind those of other nations, in part, critics say, because Japan's Ministry of Finance both regulates the tobacco industry and collects taxes on cigarette sales. However, Japan is beginning to follow the tobacco control efforts of other countries. The government recently banned smoking in public schools and libraries. Some districts are going as far as passing ordinances that prohibit smoking in the streets, saying cigarette butts discarded on the ground create a litter problem. In such an environment, Japan Tobacco is hoping to keep smoking acceptable in as many places as possible. The ads aim to improve smokers' manners so that smokers and non-smokers can coexist harmoniously, company officials say. The Smoking Manners ads run freely on TV. In one new TV ad, smiling young urbanites flaunt their trendy portable ashtrays, including ones with pink sequins and shimmery gold designs. Those images are interspersed with close-up shots of lit cigarettes, as a languid narrator says, "Carry your manners." "You have to see through the campaign," says Manabu Sakuta, chairman of the board at the Japanese Society for Tobacco Control in Tokyo. He says the campaign is just a way to boost Japan Tobacco's image, which will, in turn, boost tobacco sales. Japan Tobacco is also taking other steps to shield smokers from further social criticism. Most Japanese restaurants still allow smoking, and the company is offering to help set up ventilated non-smoking sections, hoping to keep the restaurants from banning smoking altogether. In an attempt to elevate the portable ashtray into a must-have fashion item, Japan Tobacco has created a portable-ashtray museum and shop, with more than 800 different styles for sale, including an alligator-skin version for $900. The Wall Street Journal, 24 January 2007 OCEANIA TOBACCO CONTROL CONFERENCE - ABSTRACT DEADLINE EXTENDED
Organisers of the Smokefree Oceania Tobacco Control conference have received a number of requests to extend the deadline for submission of abstracts. We realise that a lot of people take leave at this time of year and with all the best intentions in the world won't meet the 31 January deadline. The new deadline is Monday 19 February 2007. If you are a researcher, policy analyst or practitioner interested in achieving a smokefree Oceania you are encouraged to submit an abstract. You can do this through the conference website www.smokefreeoceania.org.nz. Abstract submission guidelines and details about the conference can all be found on the website. The conference will be held in Auckland, New Zealand, 4-7 September 2007. Conference registration will open in early January 2007. This conference promises to be both exciting and informative. Confirmed keynote speakers include, Cynthia Callard with Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, Shu-Hong Zhu from the University of San Diego, California, and Professor Melanie Wakefield with Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne. To find out more about the conference visit www.smokefreeoceania.org.nz. PACIFIC ISLANDS HEARTBEAT SMOKING CESSATION SERVICE
Free training for health professionals Cessation practitioner training (three-day training) This training is designed for health professionals and community health workers looking for the knowledge and skill to assist patients in the cessation process. The course provides an understanding of brief intervention skills and principles for providers offer smoking cessation services. These skills and principles are evidence-based, with a strong emphasis on what is culturally relevant and appropriate for Pacific cultures. Workshop content includes: Guidelines: background overview; the Pacific community and their issues; Stages of Change Model; nicotine addiction; introduction to motivational intervention; communication skill and Pacific culture; environmental tobacco smoking (ETS); pharmacotherapy; subsidised nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and Quit Cards registration; brief facilitation skills - principles; introduction to relapse prevention - brief and intensive; case studies - application of knowledge and skills, NRT prescription etc; relevant strategies and support for Pacific smokers. Training date and venue: Dunedin - 21-23 February 2007 Hutt Valley - 7-9 March 2007 Time: 9:00 am - 4:00pm Morning and afternoon tea will be provided. For more information contact Anthony Leaupepe, Pacific Islands Heartbeat Smoking Cessation Training Facilitator, Central Region and South Island (04 472 2790 | anthonyl@nhf.org.nz). BLAST FROM THE PAST
Eve 120's. Long on taste. Long on personality.
Retrieved from: 20th Century Tobacco Ad Collection Collected by Richard Pollay, catalogued by Roswell Park Cancer Institute http://roswell.tobaccodocuments.org/pollay/dirdet.cfm.
QUOTABLE QUOTES"The Young Liberals are still in their public policy nappies." Professor Simon Chapman, commenting on the Victorian Branch of the Australian
"If anyone thinks that tobacco companies have changed for the better and are now reformed, I have some beachfront property in Nebraska I'd like to sell them." Dr. Richard Hurt, director of the Mayo Clinic's nicotine
dependence program, "I work in a bottle shop which also sells cigarettes. Smokers definitely have a preference for certain pictures on their packets. One day, when I was asked to swap a picture of a putrid aorta, I called out to the young girl the remaining pictures. 'Filthy teeth?', 'No thanks', 'Black feet?', 'No thanks', and finally, 'Dying kid?', to which she replied 'Ooh, yes please. I don't have kids.' She was not impressed with my, 'No, and these won't improve your chances, either."' Brendan Wright, Smokers looking for least disgusting health
warnings
MEDIA THEMESTobacco expo bosses fume over no-smoking rules Organisers of a tobacco industry conference in Hong Kong are fuming after discovering it will be a no-smoking event thanks to the city's new smoking ban, a report has said. The Tobacco Asia Expo had been organised for Hong Kong's new Asia World Expo Centre on the understanding the wide-ranging laws that ban smoking in public places would not be passed until later this year. Event planners had also believed that the venue would provide smoking areas where visitors to the show could test the products on display. "We booked the venue a long time ago. We understood from people in the industry at the time that the debate on the ban was working its way through the system and that only sometime in 2007 this law would be enacted," Glenn John, one of the organisers, was quoted as telling the Sunday Morning Post newspaper. "We thought it might be the middle of the year. Little did we know it would start on 1 January, only two weeks before our show." The ban applies to all public venues, beaches, most bars and restaurants. It was passed at the start of the year, more than a decade after the idea was first mooted. It is designed not to curb smoking but to protect the city's 200,000 hospitality trade workers from the dangers of second-hand smoke. Lifestyle News, 14 January 2007 Kazakhstan joins WHO convention for make glorious tobacco control Kazakh UN envoy Erzhan Kazykhanov signed the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on 22 January 2007, Kazakhstan Today has reported. It is the 143rd state to do so. A Foreign Ministry press release stated that "this international legal document is intended to protect current and future generations from the harmful health consequences of tobacco use, as well as the social, economic, and environmental consequences of smoking," Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. Kazakhstan Daily Digest, 26 January 2007 Canada's smoking rate at 18 percent According to the latest results from the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), for data collected between February and June 2006, just over 4.5 million people, representing 18 percent of the population age 15 years and older, were current smokers. Fourteen percent of Canadians aged 15 years and older reported smoking daily. Approximately 20 percent of males age 15 years and older were current smokers, slightly higher than the proportion of females (15 percent). Respondents were asked their opinions on smoking restrictions. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of all Canadians aged 15 years and older stated that smoking should not be allowed in any section of a restaurant. This is up 6 percent compared to the same time last year and up 26 percent from 2001 when the question was first asked of CTUMS respondents. Forty-eight percent of Canadians thought smoking should not be allowed in any section of a bar or tavern and 41 percent said that it should not be allowed in any section of the workplace. In the first half of 2006, 15 percent of Canadian households had at least one person who smoked inside the home everyday. For those households without someone regularly smoking inside their home, 87 percent did not allow smoking in their home. Forty percent of households which did allow smoking in the home, or had someone regularly smoking inside the home, placed some restrictions on it such as only smoking in certain areas or not around young children. Nine percent of current smokers aged 15 years and older reported ever purchasing cigarettes for or giving cigarettes to a minor. Among this group, 52 percent reported doing so in the past 12 months and 25 percent in the past 30 days. Among Canadian youth at least 15 years old and not of legal age to purchase tobacco products, 51 percent said they obtained their cigarettes primarily from a social source (such as a friend or relative - either by taking, buying, or being given them) while the remaining 49 percent identified that they purchased them on their own from a retail source. GLOBALink News and Information, 26 January 2007 |
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I finally weakened and watched the DVD Thank you for Smoking. What is more I thoroughly enjoyed it! Was there a message in the film? I doubt it, except for the one we all already know about - God bless the American way!
The Smokefree Coalition is calling on the New Zealand Film Commission and New Zealand On Air to withhold funding from films, television programmes and music videos that overstate or glamorise smoking.
A ban on smoking in cars carrying children and tougher rules on semi-enclosed outdoor smoking areas have been suggested in a report commissioned by the Ministry of Health. Parts of the United States have outlawed smoking in cars carrying children and South Australia has on-the-spot fines, but the Ministry says a ban would be a step too far.
Japan Tobacco Ltd, whose brands include Mild Seven and - outside the U.S. - Camel, is bombarding Japanese subways, newspapers and billboards with ads that resemble earnest public-service announcements. The "Smoking Manners" campaign urges smokers to stop doing the kinds of things that could reduce them to social-outcast status, from dropping cigarette butts in public places to blowing smoke in other people's faces. While the ads are a hit with some customers, some tobacco control activists say they are a ploy to get more smokers on board.
From Vision to Reality
Who says length doesn't matter? (1996)