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From the Director
 2010 is Year of the Lungs
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies declared 2010 the Year of the
Lungs – a year to acknowledge and address the neglect lung health traditionally receives in public discourse. Hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer each year from treatable and preventable chronic respiratory diseases. These include tuberculosis, asthma, lung cancer, H1N1, pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; None of them sexy enough to get the media attention they deserve.
Tobacco smoking is unquestionably the primary risk factor for lung disease. Five million deaths around the world, (5000 here in New Zealand alone) are attributable to tobacco use every year. Smokers have a two-fold higher risk of developing active tuberculosis, and of dying from it. Tobacco smoke increases the risk of pneumonia, influenza, meningococcal meningitis, and heightens all symptoms of asthma. Tobacco use is linked to lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It seems fair to say that putting an international spotlight on the lungs is in effect another way to put the spotlight on tobacco use and the need for greater tobacco control.
This is our year then, to keep the media focused on tobacco control and we have got off to a great start. To those of you who responded to media over the New Year period, well done! Good coverage on the key issues of tobacco use deserves our acknowledgement and quick response. If you would like support writing a letter to your local editor, do not hesitate to contact me.
That goes for writing to our Government too. Recent news stories have suggested the
Government is considering raising tobacco excise tax, and the Smokefree Coalition supports this legislative measure. Now is a key time to let your local MP know that the majority of New Zealanders, including smokers themselves, are behind tobacco excise tax increases. This measure is extremely effective in encouraging smokers to cut down or make a quit attempt.
There is still one more week left to make your submission to the Māori Affairs Select Committee Inquiry into the tobacco industry and the consequences of tobacco use for Māori. In this Update there are plenty
of articles and recent studies worth reading for reference and inspiration. It’s not too late to ask for last minute help: the Smokefree Coalition has two templates it can offer.
But once our submissions are in, it is not over. There is much more we can do to keep the spotlight focused upon the hearings and deliberation of the
Committee. Findings and recommendations from this inquiry to Government, when they come to light, will need our support and quick responses.
The good news is that we here in New Zealand have made plenty of opportunities for lung health to finally get the attention it deserves. Two more New Year's resolutions to accompany last
issue's 'courage in 2010: Stay active and engage! We're bringing sexy back for lung health in New Zealand!
Take care,
Prudence Stone, Director,
Smokefree Coalition
IN THIS ISSUE:
ASH applauds Finnish plans to phase out smoking
 Finland is set to become the first country to completely phase out smoking.
New laws banning the display of tobacco products and smoking in cars carrying children are the start of what the Finnish State Secretary describes as getting rid of tobacco "once and for all".
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH NZ) says this approach is exactly what is needed in this country.
"We need to set a clear deadline to get rid of smoking and remind ourselves
this is an urgent health priority. The Māori Affairs Select Committee inquiry
into tobacco is our chance to call for that deadline," said ASH NZ Director Ben Youdan.
"The tobacco industry needs to be held to account and it looks like Finland
intends to do exactly that.
"We need to set our sights on making New Zealand a tobacco-free nation by
2020 and it is our hope that the inquiry is the starting point for this."
New Zealand's smokefree community has worked on a vision for a tobacco free New Zealand by 2020 since 2007.
Last year the Māori Affairs Select Committee launched an inquiry into the tobacco industry in Aotearoa and the consequences of tobacco use for Māori.
The Committee intends to report its findings and recommendations from the inquiry to Parliament.
Submissions to the Committee are due by Friday 29 January 2010.
ASH NZ media release, 15 January 2010
Watch the BBC
News story about Finland's smokefree plans here.
Avatar and smoking
 The controversy around smoking scenes in Avatar
is increasing and many health advocates and concerned citizens from around the
globe, including New Zealand, are voicing their concerns at the smoking in this popular movie.
It could well become the best selling movie of all time, with hundreds of millions of children across the world exposed to its smoking messages.
Below is a recent email from Professor Stanton Glantz of the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco, promoter of
Smokefree Movies.
--
I have received a lot of emails and some calls from national press about Sigourney Weaver's smoking in the opening scenes
of
Avatar.
If you haven't seen it, Avatar is a fantasy that takes place in the year 2154 on a distant moon. Weaver plays a scientist/ecologist. The smoking is completely without context or excuse.
How many scientists do you know who smoke today, let alone in 2154?
Here are a few observations about Avatar and the tobacco industry.
- The tobacco industry has a documented history of pushing tobacco products through movies in six of the past eight decades.
- More than a million current US smokers ages 12-17 were recruited to smoke by their repeated exposure to smoking on screen. Of this group, about 400,000 will eventually die of tobacco-induced diseases.
- If sales projections are valid, the advertising value of the film's tobacco
impressions worldwide, theatrical and non-theatrical, can be conservatively
estimated at $50 million.
- Tobacco will kill five million people worldwide this year. The toll is climbing toward 10 million. The fastest growth in smoking is among girls in emerging markets. Next to infectious disease, tobacco is the
number one cause of preventable death, globally. Study after study around the world show US movies are a main vector of the tobacco epidemic.
- James Cameron's last blockbuster (Titanic in the late 1990s, also released by Fox), portrayed smoking as the young female lead Kate Winslet's gesture of independence and coming-of-age. DiCaprio also smoked cigarettes, an anachronism before WWI. A scene set on a contemporary dive-recovery vessel displayed
Marlboro.
It's fun to fantasise about defending alien cultures from commercial exploitation. Stopping the major film studios from knowingly pushing tobacco addiction and death at kids around the world is the real thing.
Stanton Glantz
_____________________
Note: There are three tobacco incidents (shots) in Avatar. Every $100 million in domestic box office (at a conservative $7.25 per ticket) means 13.8 million viewers and therefore (x3 incidents) 41.4 million tobacco impressions.
All in all, a big gift for big tobacco at the expense of kids' health.
See also
www.smokefreemovies.ucsf.edu/ourads/ad_sfm67_variety.
Silent killer
Editorial, Otago Daily Times, 19 January 2010
Here is the news: 13 people died yesterday in an entirely preventable tragedy.
Here is tomorrow's news: a further 13 people have died as the result of a predictable disaster.
Here is the news for the day after tomorrow: yet another 13 people have perished in what is widely considered to have been an avoidable calamity.
That the scale of this ongoing affliction, which this year will kill almost 5000 New Zealanders, and the certainty it will occur, remain peripheral to the public consciousness only exacerbates the tragedy.
Imagine if it could be foretold, with equal certainty, that tomorrow on a particular road at a particular intersection a vehicle crash would occur in which 13 people would be killed.
And imagine the uproar that, aware of this, the Government, the Ministry of Transport and the police, and motorists themselves did nothing to prevent it.
Every year in this country smoking kills about 10 times the number of people who die on the roads.
One of the problems of addressing, publicising and curtailing the number of deaths due to smoking is the diffuse, cumulative and often invisible nature of the diseases through which mortality occurs.
Smoking harms nearly every organ and system in the body. It is the cause of 80 percent of lung cancer cases and is linked to many other cancers. It is a major cause of heart attacks, heart disease, stroke and respiratory diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
It is estimated that half of this country's 700,000 smokers – about a fifth of the 15-plus population – will die from a smoking-related disease and that those smokers will lose on average 15 years of life compared with non-smokers.
It will account for 31 percent of all Māori deaths.
Read the full editorial here.
Recent research
Click the links below each piece for more information.
Characteristics of smoker support for increasing a dedicated tobacco tax: National survey data from New Zealand
Aim: To examine smoker support for tobacco tax and for increased dedicated tobacco taxes, along with associations for any such support.
Results: Most smokers considered the current level of tobacco tax to
be "too high" (68 percent), but a majority (59 percent) would support an
increase in tobacco tax if the extra revenue was used to promote healthy
lifestyles and support quitting.
Discussion: The higher support among smokers with stronger intentions to quit is consistent with other evidence that smokers value tobacco control regulation such as high taxes to help them achieve their long-term quitting goals.
http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ntp178
Women and tobacco dependence
Millions of American girls and women have been drawn to smoking by an industry that has been clearly and systematically targeting women of all
ages and life circumstances. Tobacco marketing strategies skilfully link cigarette use to typical female values. Biologically speaking, women are
especially vulnerable to the legion of health problems of tobacco use. Smoking is a critical hazard for women in their reproductive years,
particularly when they are pregnant.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/08898545
Chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases among indigenous children
Children from Indigenous populations experience more frequent, severe, and
recurrent lower respiratory infections as infants and toddlers. The
consequences of these infections are chronic lung disorders manifested by
recurrent wheezing and chronic productive cough. These symptoms are
aggravated more frequently by active and passive tobacco smoke exposure
among Indigenous groups. Therapies for these symptoms, although not specific
to children of Indigenous origins, are described as is the evidence for
their use.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00313955
The autonomy over smoking scale
The goal of this study was to create an instrument that could be used to study how smokers lose autonomy over smoking and regain it after quitting. The Autonomy Over Smoking Scale was produced through a process involving item generation, focus-group evaluation, testing in adults to winnow items, field-testing with adults and adolescents, and head-to-head comparisons with other measures.
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/adb/23/4/656.html
Communication about smoking between depressed adolescents and their parents
Better understanding of effective parent-adolescent communication regarding tobacco use could inform smoking cessation intervention. Semi-structured interviews related to communication about smoking were
conducted with 15 depressed adolescent smokers and their parents, primarily from
urban areas.
Quality of communication, rather than content, seemed to determine whether parental communication was effective. Parents reactivity to, or avoidance of, adolescent smoking presented a barrier to effective communication.
http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ntp192v1
Tobacco cessation for persons with mental illness and substance abuse problems
Tobacco use exerts a huge toll on persons with mental illnesses and substance abuse disorders, accounting for 200,000 of the annual 443,000 annual tobacco-related deaths in the United States. Persons with chronic mental illness die 25 years earlier than the general population does, and smoking is the major contributor to that premature mortality. This population consumes 44
percent of all cigarettes, reflecting very high prevalence rates plus heavy smoking by users.
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.012809.103701
Crushing virtual cigarettes reduces tobacco addiction
Pilot studies revealed promising results regarding crushing virtual
cigarettes to reduce tobacco addiction. In this study, 91 regular smokers
were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions that differ only by the
action performed in the virtual environment: crushing virtual cigarettes or
grasping virtual balls. All participants also received minimal psychosocial
support from nurses during each of 12 visits to the clinic.
www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/cpb.2009.0118
The effects of exercise on cravings to smoke
Research consistently demonstrates that a bout of moderate exercise alleviates cravings to smoke among abstaining smokers. The aims of this study were to examine whether doses of exercise (moderate or vigorous) reduced cravings differently, and whether reductions in cravings were associated with changes in cortisol
concentration.
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/02640410903390089
New Zealand Herald poll
 The
New Zealand Herald ran a poll alongside its
series of articles on
smoking in New Zealand which featured during the first week of January.
The poll asked whether retail tobacco displays should be banned in New
Zealand,
Of the 2169 people who responded, 76 percent (or approximately 1649 people)
voted that they should be banned.
Nzherald.co.nz polls don't claim to be scientific and reflect the opinions
of only those internet users who have chosen to participate.
Smoking Cessation Paper 2010 – Hayden McRobbie
 AUT University is offering a Smoking Cessation paper in March. This paper
ran successfully in 2008 and 2009. It is a great opportunity to enhance your
knowledge and practice.
"Smoking Cessation" with Hayden McRobbie – five-day block course 24, 25, 26,
27 & 28 March 2010
For more information contact Course Information Centre, 0800 AUT UNI (0800
288 864), email: courseinfo@aut.ac.nz
or the programme coordinator Helen Warren, Phone: (09) 921 9679, email:
helen.warren@aut.ac.nz.
Dr Hayden McRobbie is well known in NZ and
internationally. He aims to enhance your smoking cessation practice skills
with in-depth knowledge and understanding in a five day series of engaging
interactive workshops. Hayden played a major role in writing and
implementing the New Zealand Smoking Cessation Guidelines.
Through the smoke
The man who stopped smoking – tales from the archive
"Richard Doll was a luminary of clinical research whose case control study, published in the British Medical Journal in 1950, first identified smoking as an important cause of cancer and other diseases. The paper's findings were received with apathy, anger and disbelief. This 10 minute film to promote the British Medical Journal archive now being fully searchable back to 1840 charts Doll's remarkable life and the impact of both this paper, and his follow-up British Doctors' Study.
See www.bmj.com/video/doll.dtl.
SMOKEFREE SHORTS
 Where
possible, links to full articles are provided below each story.
New Zealand
Protect our future
 The Cancer Society was pleased to hear Associate Minister of Health, the Hon Tariana Turia say that the
Government is very determined to reduce the rate of smoking in New Zealand.
"We believe that if the Government is serious they should approve the necessary legislation to ban tobacco displays very soon, before thousands of our youth, who are the future of this country, become hooked on smoking, many of them for the rest of their life," said the Society's Tobacco Control Advisor Navid Foroutan.
Infonews.co.nz, 14 January 2010
Te Arawa backs hike in price of tobacco
Te Arawa kaumatua are backing calls to increase the cost of tobacco to help discourage Māori from smoking.
The Ministry of Health is giving the clearest signal yet the Government is likely to increase the excise tax on cigarettes this year to help slash the number of people who smoke.
Rotorua Daily Post, 6 January 2010
Tobacco tax increase urged in the Year of the Lungs
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies has declared 2010 the Year of the Lungs to address the neglect lung health traditionally receives in public discussion.
Smokefree Coalition Director Prudence Stone says this makes 2010 a fitting year for the Government to introduce significant tobacco tax increases which would raise the cost of smoking and lower smoking rates.
Smokefree Coalition media release, 12 January 2010
On top of old smokey
Stroll with me, if you will, down memory lane all the way back to December of 1996 when I was nearly
18 and feeling quite rebellious. You see, I'd spent years being a goody-two shoes, church-going teenager, and I was ready to break the shackles and live it up.
My parents had friends visiting from the UK, and one of them had bought a carton of cigarettes – Benson and Hedges Special Filter – and in the folly of my youth I decided that smoking would be a great way to make me appear cooler than I actually was. So I stole a packet from the carton and lit my very first smoke...
Stuff, 18 January 2010
International
It's hip to kill tobacco: 25-year-old entrepreneur throws parties, makes money and slays the beast
 Nerds have their place in this world, but serving as models of tobacco prevention isn't one of them.
Or so says 25-year-old Jeff Jordan, who believes this burden is a better fit for the shoulders of the cool kids.
And he should know. Just seven years out of high school, the Peru native and long-time San Diego resident has built a multi-million-dollar business out of making risky behaviour – smoking in particular – positively un-cool.
Hispanic Business, 5 January 2010
Greece raises tobacco and alcohol taxes
Greece's centre-left government said it is increasing taxes on tobacco and alcohol, looking for €1 billion in badly needed revenues as the country grapples with a debt crisis.
The Finance Ministry said the increase will take immediate effect for alcohol
sales, while cigarette prices will increase from mid January.
Yahoo, 8 January 2010
Shaming smokers makes it harder to quit, study claims
There is an "urgent" need for governments to revisit their anti-smoking policies, the academics say, suggesting that the stigma around smoking could lead to patients hiding their tobacco use from doctors, and feeling desperate about ever kicking the habit. The policies run counter to how other addictions are treated by the public-health field, they argue.
National Post, 8 January 2010
Scientists say tobacco firm skews EU policymaking
Researchers writing in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal say they had evidence that British American Tobacco, the world's second-largest cigarette maker, had since 1995 led a network of companies from the chemical, oil and food sectors to shape the European Union's impact assessment system which analyses policy implications.
Reuters, January 2010
For the New Year, cost-effective options to stop smoking
 Studies indicate that at any one time at least one-third of smokers want to quit, especially around this time of year, when New Year's resolutions are still fresh.
And yet, it takes most smokers eight to 11 tries to quit for good. Paying for treatments that may not work or aren't right for you in the first place only adds to the frustration. It's a form of denial, but often smokers will balk at the upfront cost of quitting and say, "Forget it."
So this column is meant to help you, or a smoker close to you, sort through the options for quitting.
New York Times, 8 January 2010
Representative Cody introduces tobacco legislation
According to the Washington Department of Health, 45 children in Washington start using tobacco every day and one-third of them will eventually die from it.
Representative Eileen Cody (West Seattle), Chair of the House Health Care and Wellness Committee, has pre-filed a bill which would increase Washington's cigarette tax by one dollar and bring the tax on other tobacco products up to comparable levels. The current state tax on a package of cigarettes is $2.25.
Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate, 5 January 2010
Women face tougher challenges overcoming addiction
Women often find it harder than men to recover from addictions, reports the January 2010 issue of the
Harvard Mental Health Letter.
They face other challenges as well. Women tend to progress more quickly than men from use of an addictive substance to dependence on it (a phenomenon known as telescoping). They also develop medical or social consequences of addiction faster than men, and are more susceptible to relapse after quitting.
Health News Digest, 11 January 2010
Rise of the part-time smoker
Even though the percentage of American adults who smoke has stalled at about 20 percent in recent years, smokers are smoking fewer cigarettes than they used to (an average of 13 per day, down from 21 in 1980). And a growing proportion of smokers – roughly 25 percent – don't smoke every day. One government study found that as many as half of American smokers either don't smoke daily or smoke fewer than six cigarettes a day.
Wall Street Journal, 12 January 2010
Non-puffers call for leave in lieu of smoke breaks
 Many non-smokers believe they deserve an extra week of annual leave to match the amount of time their smoking colleagues spend on cigarette breaks, Quit Victoria says.
As the federal Health Department prepares to ban staff smoking during work hours or when representing the department, Quit says workplaces should consider offering phone breaks to ring the Quitline in place of smoking breaks.
"We're constantly hearing from non-smokers in the workplace about this issue, with smokers having more free time or more breaks, more time off, and does that add up to an extra week's leave a year," Quit Executive Director Fiona Sharkie said.
This story includes video.
Sydney Morning Herald, 13 January 2010
Time to end smoking break exceptionalism
A
report in The Sydney Morning Herald brimmed with sympathetic quotes from civil libertarians and trade union officials – all framing smokers as desperate and addicted, almost akin to diabetics needing their insulin shots to get through the day.
This is so much soft nonsense, contradicted globally by the daily experience of hundreds of thousands of smokers as they suspend smoking for long periods when they take a transcontinental flight, work down mines, or attend movie marathons such as
Lord of the Rings (three hours 20 minutes for Return of the King).
Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2010
Key points in preventing tobacco use among adolescents
Tobacco use is the largest global threat to public health and is anticipated to kill 1000 million people prematurely this century. Despite this grim fact, millions of lives can be saved if urgent action is taken towards preventing cigarette experimentation and subsequent nicotine addiction among adolescents.
In the European Union alone, 19.8 percent of 13-15 year olds are current tobacco users, while one in three non-smokers of the same age report susceptibility to smoke within the next year. This exact youth experimentation is what the tobacco industry's future prosperity depends on, a fact that the multinational tobacco industry has acknowledged.
Tobacco Induced Diseases website, 5 January 2010
QUOTABLE QUOTES
"It has to be said to them in a language and lingo that makes sense to them. The message has to talk to them. Not like me talking to them: an old gray-haired guy. It has to be from somebody who is essentially cooler than they are."
Danny Saggese, Director of Marketing for Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth on why the Rescue Social Change Group is so successful at portraying smoking as un-cool.
"It's hip to kill tobacco..." Hispanic Business, 6 January 2010
--
"Who's got my goddamn cigarette, guys? What's wrong with this picture?"
Sigourney Weaver in Avatar. PG-13.
--
"You're much better off being an overweight non-smoker than a lean smoker."
Professor Rod Jackson, Epidemiologist, the University of Auckland School of Population Health,
"Too Fat", The Listener, 23 January 2010
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