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| Issue 116 | 27 May 2009 |
Having trouble viewing this newsletter? Try the online version. FROM THE DIRECTOR'S DESK
I was pleasantly surprised to see how well read the Update is. From my desk it is hard to know how well it is received as I get very little immediate feedback. Unlike the previous Director, after all, I don't make many comments about the state of the Super 14 (which might be wise as I'm a Highlanders supporter). One thing that is clear is that more guest editorials would be useful. It seems to me that this is a good idea. Thank you to Esther U from ASH who provided the editorial for the last issue. I intend to follow up on this suggestion, so if you are approached don't be shy about putting pen to paper! One of my 'spies' tells me that a ballot for Private Member Bills in Parliament is due in the very near future. This will be the first ballot in nearly a year, which is quite a relief as the order paper has been clogged up for some time. We will watch with interest to see if Iain Lees-Galloway's Bill to outlaw tobacco displays gets drawn from the ballot. And there may be a second Bill in the ballot too – watch this space. And, to end this edition, the Budget will be announced tomorrow. I am picking we are likely to see retained funding for cessation support, but I would not expect there to be much else. Let's wait and see. Have a great World Smokefree Day on Sunday and enjoy the rest of your fortnight. Mark Peck Director IN THIS ISSUE:
Tobacco Control Update online survey RESULTSIn April 2009 the Smokefree Coalition conducted an online survey of its Tobacco Control Update readership to get an overall impression of the publication's perceived value and whether any changes could be made to make it more valuable. One hundred and sixty-one responses were received. These responses indicated that readers are finding the Update useful, and have been positive in the main. Suggestions for improvements will be taken on board. For example, nearly all respondents think the Update contains a good mix of material most of the time (94 percent) and none said there was never a good mix of material. Sixty-six percent read most of each issue, and 33 percent peruse each issue for items of interest. Here are some other results: Sections of the Update found most valuable
Is the Update easily read and understood
How often should the Update be published?
Are there types of content you would like to see more of? Of the 93 respondents who made comments in this section, 22 indicated they were happy with the current range of content. The remaining 71 comments could be grouped loosely as follows:
Comments on types of content respondents would like to see more of Just a few selected
Comments on types of content respondents would like to see less of Just a few selected
Comments on the From the Director section Just a few selected
New Quit Group Chief Executive appointedThe Quit Group has announced that Paula Snowden has been appointed as its new Chief Executive. She takes up her new role on 10 August. Paula comes to The Quit Group with a wealth of experience in delivering programmes and services to the community. She has a strong record of working with the disadvantaged and different ethnic groups to improve their access to health services. She has previously worked at organisations such as ACC, ALAC and Te Puni Kokiri. Paula's appointment follows the appointment of Lynne Heasman as Director of Communications and Services and Jack Schierhout as Director of Corporate Services. The Quit Group's new leadership team is now complete. "I fought the tobacco industry"
In May 2007, Time Magazine named Dr Judith Mackay one of the "most influential people in the world" in recognition of her role as a leading campaigner for stricter tobacco control measures and vigilant critic of tobacco industry practices. As a senior policy advisor to the World Health Organization, Mackay was one of the early architects of today's global momentum to implement smokefree public places and workplaces and proven, effective tobacco control measures in countries around the world. Judith recently told her story to the UK's Independent on Sunday. -- My husband John and I moved from the UK to Hong Kong in 1969. I worked in medical research and then as a doctor on an intensive care ward before focusing on women's health issues. In the early 80s, there was a huge drive by the tobacco industry to get Asian women addicted to cigarettes. At that time, 60 percent of Asian men were smokers, compared to just 3 percent of women. So the industry came up with adverts such as: "You've come a long way, baby!" They hoped to woo their audience with a message of liberation – that it was a woman's right to smoke. I had been writing a health column for a newspaper for a while, and filed an article calling for a ban on advertising. Immediately, the tobacco industry and its supporters descended on me, trying to discredit my argument. In 1982, I received a letter from a press officer working for the tobacco industry, whom I'd never met. He wrote: "I enclose some documents which will soon be released by our client. I thought you might be interested to see them for yourself". It read: "The anti-smoking lobby in Hong Kong is largely anonymous, unidentifiable, entirely unrepresentative and unaccountable. The tobacco industry comprises identifiable, legal, accountable, commercial organisations." I couldn't believe what I was reading, and made it my mission to fight my cause to the end. I left clinical medicine and started the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control, which still exists today. At that time, there was no one else campaigning for such a cause in Asia, and it was a very lonely existence. I started advising the government. Asia is a huge market for the tobacco industry, so my work posed a threat. As a result, I made a lot of enemies. In a 1989 report, A Guide for Dealing with Anti-tobacco Pressure Groups, I was labelled "A key individual [whose] presence is a danger signal". The same year, I was branded one of the three most dangerous people in the world by the tobacco organisation Infotab. A smokers' rights group in the United States in the 90s called me "nothing more than an evil-possessed, power-lusting piece of meat," and threatened to "utterly destroy me". The FBI took up my case and interpreted this as a death threat. This was just one example of the extreme abuse I have suffered for trying to take on the pro-smoking lobby. Until recently, I had very little support in what I was doing and was painted as a deluded extremist. Finally, however, I have gained recognition: I received the Time 100 award in 2007 for my work, and this year was honoured with a lifetime achievement award from the British Medical Journal. My one-woman campaign has now spread, and today we are an army rather than a general. The cause has finally reached the international agenda, but it has been a right royal battle getting it there. The Independent on Sunday, 9 May 2009 Quit on the lookout for talentThe Quit Group is on the lookout for someone for its new advertising campaign! The Quit Group provides quit smoking advice and assistance to over 50,000 New Zealanders each year, and uses an innovative advertising concept to promote its services – a series of advertisements which follow the quit journey of real individuals, couples, families or groups. Filming will soon begin for the 2009-10 advertising programme, and help is needed to find the person or people to feature in the campaign. The brief is very wide. Couples, families or groups who are contemplating, or going through, the quit journey would be considered and, ideally, the individual or groups used would be Māori. The only requirement is that the chosen 'talent' will have to be within the greater Wellington area – the Kapiti Coast and Upper Hutt are as far north as we can manage. This is because the advertising concept involves filming the talent at various stages of their quitting journey, and sometimes at short notice, so the film crew should not have to travel too far. Please pass this request for help around, and if you know anyone who might be interested, please contact Michele Grigg by mid-June. THROUGH THE SMOKEThe Cigarette is Dead
The Cigarette Is Dead, a social movement rooted in Colorado, has one ultimate objective – to speed up the demise of the cigarette and snuff it out for good. From sidewalks to skyscrapers, The Cigarette is Dead is taking over neighbourhoods to declare the end of a smoke and mirrors era glamorised by cowboys, camels and cool. The Cigarette is Dead movement has made its mark across Colorado by taking over billboards and bus shelters; painting murals, hanging large outdoor banners and projecting images on highly visible buildings; stencilling sidewalks; and handing out promotional items such as yard signs, coasters, stickers, buttons, magnets and t-shirts. The movement is also running television commercials and visiting college campuses across the state to spread its message. Visit www.prnewswire.com/mnr/quitdoingit/35430/ to learn more and watch their video with a really racy rock soundtrack. SMOKEFREE SHORTS
New ZealandASH calls for tobacco sellers to be licensed
Turangi dairy owner Sanjay Malaviya was fined $750 and prohibited from selling tobacco products for a month after pleading guilty on 7 May to breaching an order not to sell tobacco products. It was his fifth conviction under the Smoke-free Environments Act, after last year being fined and banned from selling tobacco products for two months. He sold cigarettes to children as young as 12, ASH says. TVNZ, 13 May 2009 Quit-smoking pill sparks health warning Health authorities have issued a new warning on the mental health risks of a quit-smoking pill introduced to New Zealand in 2007. There were 22 reports of people experiencing depression for the first time after taking Champix. Recurrence or worsening of existing depression, and other psychiatric and neurological symptoms were also reported. NZ Herald, 19 May 2009 Smoking too dear in a recession A recession is a good time for bad habits to go up in smoke, a Timaru nurse believes. When times are tough economically it makes sense to quit smoking, Timaru Hospital smokefree clinical nurse specialist Olly Wilson says in the lead-up to World Smokefree Day on 31 May. "A pack-a-day smoker could save more than $4000 a year by quitting or $8000 if a couple smokes." Timaru Herald, 21 May 2009 InternationalPub smoking bid to be stubbed out
Kerry Fenton aimed to sidestep smoking regulations by designating a room at the Cutting Edge pub in Worsbrough, South Yorkshire, for smoking research. She had been told customers would be able to smoke legally if they filled in a questionnaire on smoking habits. Since adopting the practice, the number of customers has soared, but pub owner Punch Taverns wants her to stop. BBC News, 13 May 2008 Quarter of smokers won't quit – even for their kids A quarter of smokers with children say they would not quit – even if it encouraged their youngsters not to start. One-in-10 smokers claim their parents approved of their habit, according to a new survey. It also found that three-quarters of current smokers grew up in a house where at least one parent smoked. The Independent, 19 May 2009 Cigarette makers lose appeal in US landmark case A federal appeals court in Washington DC has agreed with the major elements of a 2006 landmark ruling that found the nation's top tobacco companies guilty of racketeering and fraud for deceiving the public about the dangers of smoking. The State, 22 May 2009 Singapore to host the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in 2012 The next World Conference on Tobacco or Health (WCTOH) – the 15th conference – will be held in Singapore for the first time, in 2012. The expected number of delegates for the conference in 2012 is estimated to be between 2000 and 3000 persons. Web Newswire, 22 May 2009 Bad smell may motivate smokers to quit
A new Australian study suggests this embarrassing fact could be used as a potent motivator to quit, even more powerful than gruesome images of tobacco-related disease. University of Sydney Department of Psychology PhD candidate Emily Kothe brought together 28 current and former smokers to test the effectiveness of the latest anti-smoking advertisements. While the television ads were shown to reduce cravings and inspire a sense of "disgust" and "worry" in current smokers, they also reported feeling the images did not relate to them. Yahoo!, 16 May 2009 BAT for "less toxic" tobacco British American Tobacco is recruiting 250 volunteers in Germany to test experimental cigarettes designed to produce less toxic smoke than conventional products. The smokers' biological reactions will be analysed through a battery of scientific tests. The study in Hamburg is believed to be the first modern clinical trial of tobacco treated to be safer when smoked. BAT's long-term business plan is to produce cigarettes that can be marketed as less likely to cause disease, with solid evidence to support the claim. Financial Times, 9 May 2009 Poll: Czech children worst in cigarette smoking Czech children are among the youths that smoke the highest number of cigarettes in the world, the daily newspaper Lidove Noviny has written, citing the latest survey of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development based on data from 2005-2006. Nearly one quarter of 15-year-old Czech girls (23 percent) and one fifth (20 percent) of 15-year-old Czech boys smoke regularly. Prague Daily Monitor, 17 May 2009 Ex-smokers are healthier, wealthier and, new research shows, happier New research from Cancer Research UK studied the responses of 879 adults who had stopped smoking. More than two thirds (69.3 percent) said that they feel happier now than when they were smoking and only one in thirty (3.3 percent) felt less happy. Around a quarter (26.6 percent) said they felt the same. Medical News Today, 12 May 2009 Cost of cigarette litter may fall on San Francisco's smokers
The proposal, to be introduced next month to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, would add 33 cents to the cost of a pack of cigarettes, to offset the estimated $US10.7m ($NZ17.4m) the city spends annually removing discarded butts from gutters, drainpipes and sidewalks. The added cost, Mr. Newsom hopes, will also dampen smokers' urge to light up. New York Times, 18 May 2009 Smokers in their 60s who kick addiction still reduce cancer risk Smokers who quit later in life still have time to reduce their lung cancer risk, a top expert says. Professor Tim Eisen, of Cambridge University, says while the best advice was to avoid cigarettes completely, people who currently smoke should not take the fatalistic attitude that "the damage is already done". The Independent, 14 May, 2009 Pregnant women paid to quit cigarettes Pregnant women in South Yorkshire are to be paid to stop smoking. The 12-month scheme is being piloted in Rotherham and will reward pregnant women with £20 in shopping vouchers if they can stop smoking. BBC News, 21 May, 2009 Smoking rates drop to all-time low for women Smoking rates have dropped 20 percent in Victoria over the last ten years, thanks to higher cigarette prices, bans on tobacco advertising and graphic health campaigns. A report released by the Cancer Council Victoria also shows smoking rates have dropped to an all-time low for women, decreasing from 17.5 percent in 1998 to 14.7 percent last year. For men, the rate reduced from 25 percent in 1998 to 18.5 percent last year. The Age, 21 May, 2009 How smoking killed my father We discovered the meaning of "terminal restlessness" the hard way. That much-feared phone call, the one that many have taken before us and many more are yet to receive, came at 4.30am on 17 June 2007. My father was dying. He was suffering "terminal restlessness" – his entire body was flailing helplessly, his arms struggling uncontrollably, pushing against something to simply get himself somewhere else. He was fighting a battle he could not win. The West Australian, 20 May, 2009 Smokes: first you'll feel green, and then you'll die
In a full-page advertisement inside Toronto Life magazine, du Maurier Canada boasts of its new "greener" cigarette packages, which, at this rate, may soon be safer to smoke than the products they contain. Parent company Imperial Tobacco has replaced foil wrapping with paper and uses external cardboard packaging that "meets standards supporting sustainable forest management," according to the ad. The Star, 13 May 2009 Warnings on tobacco may be effective Health warnings on tobacco product packages are effective in highlighting the perception of health risk, a US health report says. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said the health warnings also supported the intention to quit tobacco use, discouraged the intention to begin tobacco use and increased cessation rates. United Press International, 21 May, 2009 MILESTONESLook who's had a birthday recently: Ben McRae, Dr Tony Reeder, Gevana Dean, Brian Millen, Rhonda Mikoz and Michael Colhoun! QUOTABLE QUOTES""I had to wonder why isn't this space being used to give consumers more information on their health?" Cynthia Callard, Executive Director of Physicians
for a Smokefree Canada, commenting on cigarette brand
du Maurier's plans to move to environmentally-free packaging |
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Thank you
to all who responded to the
Tobacco Control Update online survey. Quite a few of you took the time to
respond to the questions and your responses were helpful. The last time we did
an evaluation we made a few changes. This survey shows that those changes have
been largely successful. We are going to give these results careful
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Update going forward.
Where
possible, links are provided below the stories. Please click these to read
the story in full.
A
dairy owner with multiple convictions for selling cigarettes to children under
18 is proof New Zealand needs to introduce a tobacco licence, anti-smoking lobby
group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) says.
A
UK pub landlady's bid to beat the cigarette ban by creating a "smoking research
room" looks set to be foiled.
There's
a stink that envelops a smoker on their return from a ciggie break, and they
know it.
In
what he casts as an attack on litterbugs and nicotine addiction alike, Mayor
Gavin Newsom wants to impose a fee on an age-old inhabitant of city streets: the
cigarette butt.
Cigarette
companies are promoting health – for the environment.