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From the Director

If you have a message for the Select Committee, please step forward!

Deepak Kumar is filing a suit against cigarette manufacturers ITC Ltd in Mumbai, India, for allegedly not warning him of the ill-effects of cigarettes, which caused him to have throat cancer, and eventually took away his speech. The 59-year-old, who is a serving Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise at Mumbai, says he started smoking when he was only 16. He says for a long time ITC Ltd did not have health warnings on its tobacco packs.

We need to find people in New Zealand with equal passion and willingness to share their story. If you know of people whose health has been damaged through smoking, urge them to make a submission to the Māori Affairs Select Committee on the tobacco industry, and the consequences of tobacco use for Māori.

Deepak's diseased larynx has been removed and his speech is now halting, assisted by a prosthesis that needs to be changed every three months. He cannot breathe normally through his nose and an artificial opening has been created for that purpose.

He alleges his addiction to cigarettes was fuelled by constant advertisements which glamorised smoking. Notable among them was the ITC ad campaign, which showed a beautiful girl and a handsome boy sitting together with a packet of Wills Navy Cut lying between them. The slogan was "Made for each other".

"I really regret the day I took up cigarettes. It has ruined my life," he said, holding a finger over the hole in his throat, while struggling to speak.

The Ministry of Health recently reported in its Tobacco Use Survey 2008 document that four fifths of smokers in New Zealand are like Deepak Kumar, and regret they ever started smoking. If you know similar Māori smokers in your community, please approach them about whether they might make a submission to the Māori Affairs Select Committee inquiry. They can do that online.

The people who might make a real impact at the hearings are those who can tell the story, like Deepak Kumar, of being lulled by tobacco marketing. The description of particular ads and campaigns will be of keen interest to the inquiry, and at the hearings the tobacco industry can be asked to provide details of its marketing campaigns as evidence.

Please look out for these potential Deepak Kumars. We need to find people with the courage to speak of their regrets, who can point the finger at the industry and claim without a doubt that their marketing and tobacco messages share the blame for the plight they are in today.

For more information about Deepak Kumar see this India Infoline story.

Oh, and by the way, great summer we're having!

Take care,

Prudence Stone, Director,
Smokefree Coalition

IN THIS ISSUE:

• Māori urged to strike back at big tobacco
• Select Committee inquiry: toolkit and seminars
• Palmerston North dairy honoured for smokefree stance
• Smoking and risk of death
• Doctors and nurses compare alcohol and tobacco industries
• Time for Queenstown to get tough on butts
• Quitting in school communities
• HSC has moved
• Review of Addiction Sector Competencies: progress update
• The 2010 Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence: Call for nominations
• Ministry of Health – Tobacco Control Team update
• Smokefree shorts
• Quotable quotes

Māori urged to strike back at big tobacco

"We don't smoke the shit, we just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid."

– The response of an R J Reynolds representative when asked why none of the company's executives smoked.

The Smokefree Coalition says a Māori Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa is an unprecedented opportunity for Māori to strike back at an industry that has robbed them of so many of their loved ones.

Submissions from the public are now being invited on the inquiry which will look closely at how the tobacco industry has promoted tobacco use among Māori and the consequences tobacco use has had for Māori.

Smokefree Coalition Director Prudence Stone wants New Zealanders, and particularly Māori, to make submissions telling the Select Committee of the devastating effects of tobacco use.

"For decades tobacco companies have literally gotten away with murder. They have deliberately marketed their killer product to minorities and indigenous populations and then paid expensive lawyers to exploit legal loopholes and evade responsibility," Ms Stone says.

"This is an industry that causes the deaths of about 600 Māori and 5000 New Zealanders every year. We now have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to call them to account, and this time they will have nowhere to hide."

The terms of reference for the inquiry include examining the impact tobacco use has had on the health, economic, social and cultural wellbeing of Māori, as well as on Māori development aspirations and opportunities.

Te Reo Marama Director Shane Kawanata Bradbrook says the inquiry offers Māori the opportunity to meet future developmental aspirations that are currently being impeded by tobacco use, and that personal stories from smokers and their families will help represent to the Committee the sickness and misery that is the reality of smoking.

"It is crucial that this Committee is provided with a clear and unequivocal picture of the harm tobacco use causes and that New Zealanders, even those who smoke, resent the way tobacco companies have profited from their slick marketing of addiction and death."

Te Hotu Manawa Māori Executive Director Moana Tane agreed that this was the perfect opportunity to show the Committee first hand how Māori aspirations of whānau ora continue to be compromised by an unbridled and greedy tobacco industry.

"Every day in our work with Māori communities on marae around the country, we are confronted with the names and faces of whānau who have passed away prematurely, through smoking-related diseases.

"Of particular concern to Te Hotu Manawa Māori are the lung cancer rates for Māori women that are jaw-dropping by international standards. As whānau we want to move forward but the reality is we have big business working silently, anonymously and unfettered, to keep us smoking."

The Smokefree Coalition, Te Reo Marama and Te Hotu Manawa Māori have organised seminars to assist health workers and members of the public in making submissions. Seminars will be held in Auckland on 10 December and in Wellington on 14 December. Information about attending and an inquiry submission tool kit can be found on the Smokefree Coalition and Te Reo Marama websites.

Submissions to the Māori Affairs Select Committee can be written, oral or made online.

Submissions close on 29 January 2010.

Smokefree Coalition media release, 4 December 2009

Select Committee inquiry: toolkit and seminars

The Smokefree Coalition fully endorses the Māori Affairs Select Committee's call for the New Zealand tobacco industry to give an account of the role it plays in causing both sickness and early deaths among Māori, and encourages organisations and individuals to make a submission.

The inquiry has a focus on Māori, but it is important there is a mix of both Māori and non-Māori participation. This will provide the required evidence that tobacco use has a cross-community impact on all New Zealanders.

In particular, we encourage providing the Committee with compelling personal stories that will have a significant impact on the direction of the inquiry. Having managerial and/or workforce perspectives presented will also be of benefit.

Toolkit and seminars

A toolkit has been developed to support you in making a submission. You can download that toolkit below.

As mentioned above, the Smokefree Coalition, Te Reo Marama and Te Hotu Manawa Māori have also organised seminars to assist organisations and individuals in making submissions. Seminars will be held in Auckland on 10 December and in Wellington on 14 December.

If you would like to attend or require any assistance in writing submissions please contact Smokefree Coalition Director Prudence Stone 04 472 0157, 0276 482 020, (director@sfc.org.nz).

• Download the Māori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry Submission Toolkit.
• Download the Seminar programme
• Make your submission online

Palmerston North dairy honoured for smokefree stance

Moshim's Discount House, on Palmerston North's College Street, has received the Asthma Foundation Smokefree Retailer Award because they no longer stock any tobacco. Barry Thackwell (PHU Smokefree Enforcement Officer) nominated the dairy for the award.

Iain Lees-Galloway, Labour MP for Palmerston North and Associate Spokesperson for Health, presented the dairy's owners with a certificate and flowers. Smokefree Youth Ambassador Deepika Gosai thanked the dairy owners on behalf of Palmerston North youth and the Cancer Society.

"We never felt very good about selling those things," said owner Imtiyaz Bakshi.

See 'No smokes' policy honoured in the Manawatu Standard, 7 December 2009.

Smoking and risk of death

The following is summarised from an evidence based practice report in The New Zealand Nursing Review, November 2009.

Clinical question: Among adults, does body mass index (BMI) or smoking cause the greater increase in risk of early mortality?

Study summary: Meta-analysis of 57 cohorts with 894,576 participants from Europe, Israel, the USA, Australia and Japan.

Outcome: The primary measure was mortality, with cause of death obtained from death certificates and, in some cases, autopsy results.

Validity: A very large epidemiological study including diverse population groups with extensive follow up. Effects of pre-existing disease were limited by excluding them if they were present at the study's inception.

Results: The data showed smoking almost doubled the risk of mortality over and above BMI for all categories of BMI.

The results by smoking status are summarised in the table below.

Citation: Prospective Studies Collaboration.
Body mass index and cause-specific mortality in 900,000 adults: collaborative analyses of 57 prospective cohorts. Lancet 2009; 373: 1083-96.

Doctors and nurses compare alcohol and tobacco industries

In November of this year the representatives, heads and leaders of doctors and nurses throughout New Zealand released a national doctors and nurses statement in the light of the Law Commission's current review of New Zealand's liquor laws.

The statement endorses the 5+ solution put forward by the recently formed Alcohol Action NZ group, which it recommends as set of policy directives to guide the Law Commission.

The 5+ solution is as follows.

   1. Raise alcohol prices.
   2. Raise the purchase age.
   3. Reduce alcohol accessibility.
   4. Reduce marketing and advertising.
   5. Increase drink-driving counter-measures.
   PLUS: Increase treatment opportunities for heavy drinkers.

From a tobacco control perspective, what's interesting about the doctors and nurses statement is its comparison of the alcohol industry, which has an "overriding vested interest in maintaining profits that come largely from dangerous heavy drinking", with the tobacco industry.

It says the struggle against tobacco and the tobacco industry is instructive as an historical precedent.

"Recent research has revealed that the tactics being employed by the liquor industry to prevent effective regulation of alcohol are the same as those used by the tobacco industry.

"These tactics are primarily designed to maintain the sale of high volumes of alcohol even in the face of the enormous personal and social damage that heavy use of alcohol is causing and by emphasising individual responsibility as a key deflecting strategy."

The statement says, historically, the medical and nursing professions were reluctant to become embroiled in public debate about tobacco, due in part because many doctors and nurses in the 1950s smoked themselves and because they saw themselves primarily as practicing health professionals rather than political activists.

However, they say, "It has been the sustained pressure by clinicians over the past 40 years that has brought about such landscape social changes in terms of tobacco supply, marketing and sale."

Download the Doctors and Nurses statement 25 November 2009.

Time for Queenstown to get tough on butts

Musician Shay Muddle is leading a campaign to clean up the streets of Queenstown one cigarette butt at a time.

Muddle's campaign follows hot on the heels of a plea by the Wanaka Community Board for Lakes Environmental to "get tough" on people who dropped cigarette butts in public places and issue $100 fines.

Muddle is appealing to the community, bar owners and Council to get behind him.

During a major clean up of Queenstown Bay in September, a whopping 6115 cigarette butts were plucked out of the lake.

Wanaka resident Steve Traynor, who led the Scuba Steve Splash for Trash clean up, said cigarette butts were a big problem because they also polluted waterways and killed marine life.

Queenstown Lakes District Council Horticultural team Leader Clare Tomkins said her team wouldn't have time to stop and count the butts they picked up each day, but said it was a lot.

"It's revolting, and it's time the public and bars started to take some ownership of the issue."

Smoke litter facts:

• More than 3,000,000,000 cigarettes are smoked each year in New Zealand – more than 350,000 an hour.
• Cigarette butts make up more than 57 percent of storm water drain litter. In fact, cigarettes are the most littered items in the world.
• Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate tow and can take decades to degrade.

The Mirror (Queenstown and Central Otago), 25 November 2009

Quitting in School Communities

Quitting in School Communities is the latest page to be added to New Zealand's Smokefree Schools website. It provides guidance for school communities on how to support the quitting process for teachers, school staff, parents and students. This information has been written to support the New Zealand Smoking Cessation Guidelines.

Click here to view the page.

HSC has moved

After 14 years in the same building the HSC is on the move. Since Monday 30 November 2009 HSC has been located at Level 3, 181 Wakefield Street, Wellington 6011. All contact details (phone, fax and PO Box) remain the same.

Review of Addiction Sector Competencies: progress update

Since late 2008 the Drug and Alcohol Practitioners Association Aotearoa New Zealand (DAPAANZ) has been leading a project to develop an Addiction Practitioner Competency Framework inclusive of alcohol and other drug (AoD) and problem gambling treatment and potentially smoking cessation.

The project has been exploring whether competencies for those who specialise in providing smoking cessation treatment could be included in the Addiction Practitioner Competency Framework. Feedback from those working in smoking cessation and from other addiction practitioner groups supports this direction and recently Ministry of Health support has also been confirmed.

In time this is likely to mean those working in smoking cessation will demonstrate broader foundation competencies in key areas such as relating and communicating; professional responsibility; working with Māori; working with Pacific peoples; working with families and recognition and referral of common co-existing issues including AoD and problem gambling issues.

Additionally, all AoD and problem gambling practitioners will be expected to demonstrate competency in providing smoking cessation interventions at a foundation level.

Feedback indicates that those working with people facing addiction issues see direct benefits of a workforce with a broader skill base, especially in providing effective treatment for people with multiple addiction issues.

The project team is now developing draft competencies that will be distributed for broader consideration in mid 2010. If you would like to participate in focus groups or working groups to review draft competencies while they are in development and prior to the consultation phase please contact Paula Parsonage, Project Manager at: 09 3781843 or hsd@xtra.co.nz. Your input and participation would be greatly appreciated.

The 2010 Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence: Call for nominations

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is now accepting nominations for the 2010 Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence.

When Judy Wilkenfeld died on 24 May 2007, the world lost an incomparable tobacco control advocate. Judy worked tirelessly to reduce tobacco's toll for more than 20 years, first as a public official and then as a leader of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' international efforts.

In Judy's honour, the Campaign established the Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence, which is given annually to an advocate from a low- or middle-income country who has worked to significantly reduce tobacco use through policy advocacy and exemplifies the traits for which Judy was known.

The winner of will exemplify the following traits:

• exhibits utmost respect in honouring the diversity of the tobacco control community
• works to build consensus and bring people together
• serves as a mentor and/or role model for others in the movement
• has an established record of achievement
• demonstrates the potential to be an even more significant future leader.

The Judy Wilkenfeld Award will be presented at the Campaign's annual Youth Advocates of the Year Awards Gala, Wednesday 12 May 2010. The awardee will be flown to Washington DC for the event, and will receive a monetary prize as a part of this honour.

You can find out more about the award, past winners and how to make a nomination at the Tobacco-Free Kids website.

SMOKEFREE SHORTS

Where possible, links to full articles are provided below each story.

New Zealand

Hospital smoking ban idea 'stupid'

Declaring smokefree footpaths around Dunedin Hospital is a ridiculous idea which would not solve the issues around smoking near hospital entrances, Richard Thomson says.

The motivation which drove seriously ill people out of their hospital beds, dragging their intravenous drips behind them so they could go outside for a cigarette, was not going to be stopped by making footpaths smokefree any more than making the hospital smokefree did, he told an Otago District Health Board meeting.

Otago Daily Times, 4 December 2009

One DHB out of 21 meets 'quit smoking' target

Health authorities want to end the bizarre spectacle of patients in gowns, some with medical tubes hanging off their bodies, smoking on streets outside "smokefree" public hospitals.

But not by asking politicians to ban smoking on public streets. Instead, they want all smokers who are admitted to hospital to be offered nicotine replacement therapy for the duration of their stay and afterwards if the patient wants to make an attempt to quit smoking long-term.

New Zealand Herald, 27 November 2009

Minister 'misses point' on bid to restrict tobacco sales, use

Tairawhiti District Health Board will appeal to the Māori Affairs Select Committee in an effort to gather momentum and support for its bid to heavily restrict the sale and use of cigarettes.

Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia rebuffed the board's proposal to make tobacco a prescription-only drug but board member Brian Wilson says the minister missed the point.

Gisborne Herald, 25 November 2009

Outrage after tobacco company nominated

Anti-smoking groups say they are outraged at the inclusion of British American Tobacco (BAT) in a best workplace competition.

BAT's participation in the JRA Best Workplace Awards, where it was a finalist in the small to medium workplace category, was a cynical corporate social responsibility stunt, said Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) director Ben Youdan.

TVNZ, 25 November 2009

Anti-smoking drug funded

PHARMAC is now funding the smoking cessation drug bupropion (Zyban), providing another subsidised option for people seeking to give up smoking. The Government currently funds nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation through the Ministry of Health's Quitline programme.

River City Press, 19 November 2009

International

Tobacco companies: could you work for one?

In a brilliant Good Weekend article back in September, award-winning Fairfax journalist Jane Cadzow spent a day at the headquarters of Australia's largest tobacco company, British American Tobacco Australia, for just one reason: to discover what possesses people to work for a company whose products are loathed by the public.

She saw portraits of employees in the building's foyer with quotes that describe why each person enjoys working there.

"All my heart and mind needs are met," says one, seemingly ignoring the damage cigarettes cause to both the heart and the mind.

Sydney Morning Herald, 20 November 2009

A big loss for big tobacco

A Florida jury has ordered Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million to a former smoker who developed severe emphysema and may need a lung transplant. The verdict may encourage more plaintiffs and lawyers to bring similar claims. There should be more lawsuits seeking not only monetary damages, but changes in how the tobacco industry markets its products.

New York Times, 30 November 2009

Robust cash flow continues to benefit US tobacco industry

Fitch Ratings expects US tobacco corporate ratings to remain stable in 2010 as the companies continue to generate sizeable free cash flow as a result of high operating margins. The ratings are further supported by the companies' significant liquidity positions with respect to manageable upcoming long-term debt maturities.

Business Wire, 18 November 2009

Car smoking ban weighed

Italian citizen protection and driving groups have welcomed a proposed ban on smoking behind the wheel.

"Smoking while driving a vehicle increases the risks of accidents," said Carlo Rienzi, head of the citizens and consumer watchdog agency Codacons.

"It's been estimated that 15 percent of the accidents caused by drivers taking their eyes off the wheel are because of them lighting up".

ANSA Italy, 27 November 2009

Young can still buy cigarettes

About one-third of under 18s in Ireland can buy cigarettes in a shop or pub, a watchdog has revealed.

The Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) said it was unacceptable for children to be sold cigarettes but said shopkeepers were now complying with the law more than ever.

Irish Independent, 26 November 2009

Puff – savouring life as it goes up in smoke

There is a feeling of decadence that comes from smoking a good cigar that is unmatched by almost any other leisure activity.

"A box of 50 Chateau d'Yquem can fetch £10,000 or more at auction," said Mitchell Orchant, Managing Director of the London cigar merchant C.Gars Ltd. That is nearly US$17,000.

New York Times, 23 November 2009

16th Asian Games to be smokefree

The Asian Games are the second largest sports event in the world after the Summer Olympic Games.

Governed by the Olympic Council of Asia, the 16th Asian Games follows all mandates of the International Olympic Committee in which Games' organisers are prohibited from accepting sponsorship of the Games by tobacco manufactures.

Northwest Asian Weekly, 19 November 2009

Smokefree United helping football fans to quit

Chelsea fans may be celebrating their team being top of the Premier League but they are struggling off the pitch to give smoking the red card.

Only 79 Blues fans have signed up for Smokefree United, a virtual club of quitters, compared with 282 from rivals Manchester United, who top the table. More than 1500 fans have signed up for the scheme, launched in October by the NHS and covering all league clubs.

Fans are said to be four times more likely to stop smoking with support.

BBC News, 21 November 2009

A link between financial stress and quitting smoking

New research confirms suspicions.

Anyone who has tried will tell you, smoking is one of the most difficult addictions to kick. Now there is research that shows it gets more difficult if we're under financial stress.

This was a very large study on the affects of financial stress on giving up cigarettes. Doctors have studied 8000 people in four different countries since 2002.

WOWT.com, 23 November 2009

Recent new smokers more likely to use menthol

Menthol cigarette use is higher among persons who started smoking in the past year (44.6 percent) than among longer-term smokers (31.8 percent) according to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Menthol is an additive used in cigarettes that masks the harshness of cigarette smoke by giving the smoker the sensation of coolness in the mouth, pharynx, and lungs. By masking the harshness, menthol can make it easier for young people to start smoking.

SAMHSA media release, 3 December 2009

Aussies eat more, smoke less

Australians are fatter but are smoking less and the risky consumption of alcohol has remained stable over the past decade.

Nationwide research into what drives people to see their GP has also found high blood pressure was the most common health woe, while check-ups relating to diabetes and cholesterol were also on the rise.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare collects data from a new sample of about 1,000 GPs each year, looking for differences from the 1999-2000 financial year to 2008-09.

WA Today, 1 December 2009

QUOTABLE QUOTES

"To say tobacco can't be classified as a prescription drug under the Medicines Act is a bit weak – they can do anything they like when they're the Government."

Tairawhiti District Health Board Member Brian Wilson,
"Minister 'misses point' on bid to restrict tobacco sales, use",
Gisborne Herald, 25 November 2009

---

"Perhaps it is the unfashionable machismo, or the mischief of enjoying something that is so bad for you. Or perhaps it is simply the perverse satisfaction that comes from burning an expensive object for pleasure."

"Puff – savouring life as it goes up in smoke"
New York Times, 23 November 2009

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