This morning sees the launch of new Channel 4 program, Battlefront - a series of documentaries made by young campaigners on issues they are passionate about.

Airing at 11:30am each week day, tomorrow's slot is taken by Zander Percival, a young campaigner dedicated to reducing the harm caused by tobacco. 'You Smoke - I Choke!' follows his fight to ban smoking in cars carrying children under the age of 16.

Zander says of his campaign: "I was seriously ill at age 7 as a result of car smoke. I got stuck in traffic trapped in a friend’s parent’s car. They chain-smoked and I had asthma attacks and was vomiting for three days afterwards. It was very stressful and my mum felt horribly guilty as we didn’t know they smoked.

"Some countries already ban smoking in cars but in the U.K. we don’t. It’s unfair to children who have no voice or choice. I’m campaigning to get the law changed. As far as I know no-one else in England is campaigning about this.

There are so many powerful anti-smoking campaigners and organizations out there. And then there’s me. I am just a small fish in a big pond. But sometimes a small fish can make a big difference."

Visit: http://battlefront.co.uk/campaign/you-smoke-i-choke/ for more information

Source: battlefront.co.uk 6th December 2008
Link

Greater exposure of children and teenagers to television, music, movies and other media is linked to obesity, tobacco use and other negative health issues, according to a study published on Tuesday.

"The results clearly show that there is a strong correlation between media exposure and long-term negative health effects to children," said Ezekiel Emanuel of the National Institutes of Health, lead researcher on the study.

The study, "Media and Child and Adolescent Health: A Systematic Review," was done by the Yale University School of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, and California Pacific Medical Center.

It looked at the best studies on media and health from the last 28 years, a total of 173 in all, and found that 80 percent of them showed that greater media exposure led to negative health effects in children and adolescents.
The study examined media exposure and seven health outcomes: tobacco use, childhood obesity, attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, low academic performance, drug use and alcohol use.

"This review is the first ever comprehensive evaluation of the many ways that media impacts children's physical health," said Emanuel.

Eight-eight percent of 24 studies examining media and tobacco use found a statistically significant relationship between increased media exposure and an increase in smoking at an early age.

Of eight studies on media and drug use, 75 percent found a statistically significant relationship between media exposure and drug use while 80 percent of 10 studies reported a statistically significant association between media exposure and early alcohol use.

Sixty-five percent of 31 studies evaluated reported a statistically significant association between increased media exposure and poor academic outcomes such as low standardised test scores or grades.

Sixty-two percent of 26 studies which analysed the number of hours spent watching television reported a significant relationship between greater media exposure and low academic achievement..

The authors of the study recommended that parents place limits on the amount of media their children consume, ensure they watch age-appropriate programs and encourage them to spend more time playing outside.

"Parents and educators must consider the effects of media when they're trying to address issues with their child's health," said James Steyer, chief executive and founder of Common Sense Media.

Source: AFP, 3rd December 2008
Link

Young film-makers are making an emotional plea to help stamp out smoking. Teenagers from Sunderland and County Durham have created a DVD to urge the region's MPs to back new restrictions on tobacco promotion in yesterday's Queen's Speech. The young people devised, starred in and directed the film about the tactics of the tobacco industry and it was premiered last week at Sunderland Empire Cinema.

Hear Our Voice, which contains some disturbing stories on what lures teenagers to start smoking, has been submitted to the Department of Health to back restrictions such as plain cigarette packs and under-the-counter displays. Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods, who was at the launch, has signed up to back new controls on promotion and said: "We need to prevent children starting in the first place and make smoking history for them.

"In the next few months MPs will be debating this in Parliament. I want them to hear the voice of our young people loud and clear. I am backing tighter restrictions on the promotion of tobacco and urging all my fellow MPs to do the same."

Fresh, an anti-smoking group involved in the making of the film, is also urging North East MPs to back the measures, which could form part of the new NHS Reform Bill to be outlined in the Queen's Speech today. Ailsa Rutter, Director of Fresh, said: "In the Queen's Speech, our politicians have a great opportunity to help save lives and protect generations of children from years of smoking-related illness. It's a tragedy to see young people barely into their teens talking with real sadness, anger and regret about their addiction to cigarettes and the health problems they're already experiencing. This film gives a hard-hitting account of how tobacco promotion reaches the youngest smokers. The young people felt very strongly they wanted to tell MPs and decision makers how they feel."

More than 10,000 people from the North East showed their support for the proposals in the Department of Health's consultation, by signing postcards pledging their support for measures including, keeping tobacco out of the sight and reach of children in shops, ending the sale of cigarettes from vending machines and protection children from tobacco marketing.

Source: Sunderland Echo, 2nd December 2008
Link

A woman died in a house blaze in Sunbury after setting her clothes alight leaning over the hob as she lit a cigarette, an inquest heard.

Margaret Jyssum's clothes could have been smouldering for up to 20 minutes before catching alight, fire investigator Bryn Strudwick told Woking Coroner's Court on November 27. When he visited the house in Heathcroft Avenue he found traces of tobacco around the hob and there was 20% fire damage to the kitchen, which suggested that was where the blaze began.

Miss Jyssum, 55, had 211mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in her body, more than two and half times the drink-drive limit, and was unable to react quickly enough, said forensic pathologist Kenneth Shorrock in a statement.

Her charred remains were found in the living room by firefighters tackling the blaze at her home and she had to be identified through dental records. A post mortem revealed she died of burn injuries.

Source: Surrey Herald, 29th November 2008
Link

Results of a new study suggest that the use of oral moist snuff, a type of smokeless tobacco widely used in Sweden that is also known as "snus," may increase the risk of fatal stroke.

Dr. Maria-Pia Hergens, of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues examined data on Swedish construction workers attending health check-ups between 1978 and 1993 who completed questionnaires that included information on tobacco use.

A total of 118,465 men who had never smoked and had no history of stroke were followed through 2003. The Inpatient Register and Causes of Death Register were used to identify subsequent illness and death from stroke.

During an average of 18 years of follow-up, 3,248 men suffered a stroke. Most of these (70 percent) were "ischemic" strokes due to restricted blood flow ischemic, whereas 17 percent were "hemorrhagic" or bleeding strokes. Thirteen percent of strokes were "unspecified."

Overall, 29 percent of the subjects had ever used snuff. The overall relative risk of stroke was not increased in these ever users of snuff.

However, for fatal stroke, the relative risk was 27 percent higher among ever-users of snuff compared with never users. This was mainly driven by an excess 38 percent risk of fatal stroke among current users of snuff.

When the team analyzed subtypes of stroke, they found a 71 percent increased risk of fatal ischemic stroke associated with current snuff use. No increased risk was observed for hemorrhagic stroke.

This study, the researchers conclude, suggest that "snuff use may elevate the risk of fatal stroke, and particularly of fatal ischemic stroke."

Source: Reuters Health, 28th November 2008
Link

As many as one in six school children who are regular smokers usually buy their cigarettes from vending machines and the British Heart Foundation estimates that in 2006, more than 46,000 children got their cigarettes through vending machines in England and Wales.

With the age limit for buying cigarettes having been recently raised from 16 to 18, even more underage smokers may now be accessing cigarettes from vending machines.

It remains far too easy for children to buy cigarettes from vending machines and it undermines every other measure aimed at stopping them from smoking. Most smokers start as children and smokers are twice as likely to have heart attacks as those that never start.

The BHF is campaigning for legislation in the Queen's Speech on December 3 to tackle smoking among children.

Please support this campaign, sign the online petition (bhf.org.uk/signup) and help protect children from smoking.

Source: Prontefract and Castleford Express, 27th November 2008
Link

Australian teenagers are finally getting the message that smoking is expensive and unattractive.

Two major surveys of teenagers in Western Australia reveal a dramatic re-think in attitudes towards smoking between 1999 and 2005.

Results showed a substantial increase over time in the number of teenagers who thought smoking was costly, unattractive and affected fitness levels.

Dr Michael Rosenberg, a population health expert at the University of Western Australia, said the results showed the short-term effects of smoking were now a powerful deterrent.

Dr Rosenberg said, "The good news is that there is evidence that the view of smoking has changed in youth culture."
"It's important to keep continually reinforcing those messages on the short-term effects, because they obviously work."
The study, published in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia, found that the number of teenagers who are put off by smoker's breath increased from 61 per cent in 1999 to 90 per cent in 2005.

The number who thought smoking made you less fit increased from 86 to 94 per cent, and there was a similar increase in those who thought smoking wastes money.

On the downside, there was no significant change to attitude to other statements like 'quitting is difficult' and 'smoking can ruin your life'.

Of the 650 teenagers questioned in 2005, five per cent had tried smoking by the age of 15.

By the age of 17, ten per cent had smoked in the past week.

Females were almost twice as likely as males to say it was easy to refuse a cigarette, Dr Rosenberg said.

The researchers said the short-term effects of smoking should be the centrepiece of anti-smoking campaigns targeting teenagers, and used alongside other measures like reducing point of sale advertising and increasing smokefree public places.

Source: The Age, 31st July 2008
Link

Tobacco companies have failed to keep a promise they made a decade ago to eliminate ads for alcohol and tobacco within 500 feet of schools, playgrounds and churches, say researchers. In 1998, tobacco industry moguls like Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard and Liggett had agreed to support the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement as a part of anti-smoking efforts, and stop targeting children with glossy ads featuring cartoon characters and removing tobacco billboards and bus bench ads.

However, Rand Corporation researchers have found that kids still remain a part of the industry's advertising strategy.

The researchers evaluated compliance by observing outdoor advertisements for one year during 2004 and 2005, in 106 census tracts in pre-Katrina New Orleans, as well as 114 census tracts in Los Angeles County. They found that in Los Angeles, 25 percent of tobacco ads and 37 percent of alcohol ads were located within 500 feet of a school, playground or church.

About 20 percent of tobacco and alcohol ads in Louisiana were within 500 feet, where, 26 percent of tract residents were underage. In Los Angeles County tracts, 28 percent were minors. "You have these small media, posted multiple times in multiple locations," said Molly Scott, lead study author and a Rand Corporation researcher. "These are not huge billboards, so they [tobacco companies] are complying. But in the big sense of things, not so much."

The tobacco ads were also not complying with the terms of their size and frequency. Of 130 alcohol ads observed in Los Angeles, more than half were either extra-large billboards (14 feet by 48 feet) or average size (12 feet by 24 feet).

In Louisiana, 61 percent of the alcohol ads were average size (12 feet by 24 feet). Of 81 tobacco billboards observed in Los Angeles, 99 percent were posters, banners or fliers, and 27 percent of those appeared two to four times in the same location.

In Louisiana, 25 percent of 154 tobacco ads were small billboards, while 71 percent were posters, fliers or banners. About 66 percent appeared two to four times in the same location. "Maybe one of the unintended consequences of the MSA [the master settlement agreement] is more local targeting," Scott added.

Stephen Freitas, chief marketing officer for the Outdoor Advertising Association of America said that store-owners could place some small advertisements - without brand name attachments - announcing that cigarettes are on sale. He added that the organization does not specifically consider banners and posters outdoor advertising. As far as the advertising industry's efforts, "We're not aware of members deliberately or aggressively violating the voluntary pledge," said Freitas.

Source: newindpress.com, 30th July 2008
Link

According to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, twenty percent of British adult survivors of childhood cancers are current smokers, and nearly a third have been regular smokers at some point in their lives.

Adult survivors of childhood cancer are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, lung problems, and second malignancies, relative to the general public. These increased risks are due to long-term effects of the original cancer and its treatment, as well as to genetic conditions that predispose the survivors to multiple cancers.
To learn what fraction of adult survivors are current smokers or have smoked regularly in the past, Clare Frobisher, Ph.D., of the University of Birmingham, UK, and colleagues sent surveys to all those who could be contacted from among 14,836 eligible survivors of childhood cancer in the National Registry of Childhood Tumors.

Of the respondents, 20 percent were current regular smokers and 29.8 percent were regular smokers at some time in their life prior to the completion of the survey. When the researchers analysed the responses, they found that survivors of central nervous system cancers or heritable retinoblastoma were least likely to smoke, while survivors of Wilms tumor, Hodgkin lymphoma, or soft tissue sarcomas were most likely to report being a regular current smoker.

Individuals who had been treated with radiation or chemotherapy were less likely to smoke than those who had not received that type of therapy. Also, those who did not have regular hospital follow-up appointments were more likely to smoke than those who did.

The rate of current smoking in the survivors was approximately half of the rate in the general British population. The socioeconomic factors that are associated with an increased risk of smoking in the general public, though, are the same as those in the adult survivor group, including manual occupations compared with managerial or professional work, lower educational attainment, and being widowed, divorced, or separated.

The researchers conclude that although the rate of smoking in adult survivors of childhood cancer is lower than in the general public, further efforts are needed to reduce the smoking prevalence in this group. In general, any program of clinical follow-up for survivors of childhood cancer should include advice on the health risks of smoking.

Karen Emmons, Ph.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health in Boston notes that the new findings are remarkably similar to data from the U.S. Childhood Cancer Survivor Study, in which 17 percent of adult survivors reported being current smokers and 28 percent reported being ever smokers. The good news is that the rates are lower than the general public. The bad news, according to Emmons, is that for the survivors who do smoke, the habit is likely to exacerbate the already negative long-term effects of cancer treatment.

Source: News-Medical.Net, 29th July 2008
Link

Nonsmokers married to smokers have a greatly increased chance of having strokes, according to a U.S. study published on Tuesday showing yet another hazard from secondhand smoke. Being married to a smoker raised the stroke risk by 42 percent in people who have never smoked compared to those married to someone who never smoked, the researchers said. This jumped to 72 percent for former smokers married to a current smoker, according to the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Former smokers who were married to smokers had a stroke risk similar to people who themselves were smokers. "Quitting smoking helps your own health and also the health of the people living with you," Maria Glymour of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and Columbia University in New York, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. The study involved 16,225 people aged 50 and up who had never had a stroke. They were followed for an average of nine years.

Glymour said there is accumulating evidence about the number of health problems linked to secondhand smoke. Previous research had suggested that secondhand smoke increases the risk of stroke, but Glymour said stroke risk has been studied more extensively in smokers than in people exposed to secondhand smoke. People who breathe in secondhand smoke also have a higher risk of lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory tract infections and heart disease, among other conditions.

A 2006 U.S. surgeon general's report said secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or cancer-causing. These include formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide. For this study, smoking involved cigarettes and not pipes or cigars. It looked at health consequences for the spouses of smokers, but not at the long-term stroke risk in children of smokers due to secondhand smoke. "We know that there are a lot of undesirable health consequences for kids, especially asthma and breathing problems that are exacerbated by secondhand smoke," Glymour said.

Source: The Mirror, 29th July 2008
Link