Kids Against Tobacco Smoke

Breast-feeding better for babies of smoking mothers

Breast-feeding may be able to compensate for the harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy, a new study in the Netherlands has indicated.

Researchers followed the educational progress of 570 children born in one Dutch hospital between 1975 and 1978. Details of the smoking habits of their mothers and the results of maths, spelling and reading tests taken by the children up to the age of nine were analysed.

The researchers found a link between poor performance in the tests and maternal smoking during pregnancy, but only in babies who were bottle-fed. Those who were breast-fed showed no evidence of reduced performance, the team reports in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 29th May 2003 from The Times, 29th May 2003

Thai schools made smoke-free zones

Parents and staff are to be banned from smoking in or around 2,000 schools in Thailand in an effort to improve pupils health.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration said those breaking the new rule would be fined up to £35 - around one and half times the average weekly income.

Permanent secretary Nathanon Thavisin said parents had been seen lighting up outside schools or in playgrounds while they waited for their children.

Teachers, who were previously permitted to smoke in staff rooms and private rooms, will now be banned from smoking on school premises or outside.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 29th May 2003 from BBC Online, 27 May 2003

Most kids exposed to passive smoke

Seven out of ten British children are exposed to passive smoking in cafes, restaurants and pubs according to a new survey.

More than half complained in a poll that they had to breath in cigarette smoke in their own home or a friend's or relative's.

Cancer Research UK found that 91% of kids were exposed to smoke either in the home or out and about. Almost 2,500 youngsters aged between 11 and 16 were quizzed.

Jean King, from Cancer Researcher, said: "Passive smoking is a serious risk to health. It is not acceptable that children are being exposed to this level of environmental tobacco smoke. A ban on smoking in public places will significantly reduce children's exposure. Smoke free public places must become the norm, not the exception"

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 30th May 2003 from The Sun, 30th May 2003

Smoking and substance abuse

UK researchers have discovered the link between substance use and psychiatric disorders among adolescents is mainly accounted for by regular smoking.

Evidence has suggested that substance use was strongly associated with psychiatric disorders in both adults and adolescents. However, it was unclear which substances was most strongly linked with psychiatric disorders.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 17th June 2003 from Clinnix, 16th June 2003. Full article: here

Smoking during pregnancy

Sons of mothers who smoked more than ten cigarettes a day during pregnancy have significantly lower sperm counts according to Danish researchers at Aarhus University Hospital. Their findings were published in Epidemiology (2203; 14: 278-286). They found that sperm density was 48% lower than men whose mothers didn't smoke.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 17th June 2003 from the Times, 17th June 2003

Smoke-free city in the pipeline

Dozens of cafes and restaurants have signed up to a plan to make Manchester the first no-smoking city in Britain.

The city's anti-smoking tsars wants to promote "smoke-free environments" in all public places.

She is urging the council to use the Republic of Ireland - which is banning tobacco in all workplaces, including pubs - as an example.
The proposals are at an early stage and face a number of hurdles.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 17th June from Manchester Online, 16th June 2003. Full article: here

Smoking and drug abuse traits linked to genes

People who drink, smoke and take drugs could be more at the mercy of their genes than was previously realised, research showed yesterday.

A study involving more than 20,000 people has suggested that particular genes can influence personality traits linked to unhealthy behaviour.

Cancer Research UK scientists at Oxford University pooled data from 46 separate studies looking at the link between human behaviour and inheritance. The research focused on genes that control chemicals used to transmit signals between brain cells. The findings were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Researchers found that one version of the human serotonin transporter gene (5HTTP-LPR) was strongly associated with anxious personalities. Individuals with this gene variant were the sort who find social interaction stressful and may take refuge in substance abuse.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 18th June 2003 from The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, 18th June 2003.
Full Independent article: here

Smoking ban could close cannabis cafes

For the Netherlands' famous network of cannabis-peddling coffee shops the high times could be about to be stubbed out - for good.

A tough new anti-smoking law due to take effect from January of next year is about to turn the Dutch work place into a smoke-free zone and coffee shops are not exempt.

Under the new law every company in the country must ensure that their employees are not exposed to tobacco smoke. Lighting up a joint in one of 800 coffee shops therefore faces extinction from 2005.

Coffee shops will still be allowed to sell joints but their customers will have to go outside to smoke. Unsurprisingly the country's marijuana retailers are not pleased. "We might as well just shut up shop," Dick Lanereis, the manager of two Amsterdam coffee shops, told the daily Trouw. "Just let them try and enforce this in the Hague," added a man called Gilbert who runs a coffee shop in the city of Nijmegan.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS 29th May 2003 from The Guardian, The Mirror, The Express, 29th May 2003

Numbers of smokers rising

The number of smokers worldwide is rising according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). There are an estimated 1.25 billion smokers in the world, and nearly 5 million of those die each year from cancer and other smoking related diseases. This figure is expected to double over the next twenty years. The WHO estimates that one in five 13-15 year olds smokes and says that the percentage is rising, especially among girls.

Professor Sir Richard Peto, Director of Cancer Research UK Oxford Unit said "... Worldwide the only two big causes of death that are getting bigger fast are tobacco and HIV"

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS, 22nd May 2003 from The Independent, New York Times, Wall Street Journal Europe, 22nd May 2003

Smoking and increased risk of pancreatic cancer

New research has found that smoking may increase the risks of pancreatic cancer for those who have a family history of the disease. Smokers with a family history of pancreatic cancer may be four times more likely to develop the disease compared to non-smokers with hereditary risk, according to US researchers.

Approximately 6,700 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in the UK, which is roughly 3% of all cancers. Although the majority of patients diagnosed with the disease don't have a family history of pancreatic cancer, in some cases there is a hereditary factor.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS, 20th May 2003 from Clinnix Online, 20th May 2003

Smuggling scam costs taxpayers £20m

A father and son led a huge tobacco smuggling operation which cheated the taxman of an estimated £20m over two years, a court heard. The father and son arranged for 'an army' of couriers to make around 3,500 ticketed journeys to France by sea and via the Channel Tunnel between June 1998 and 2000.

Tickets were bought through a Dover agency which recorded that 50 to 60 % of all tickets allocated for Hover speed's cross-Channel service from May to July 2000 were taken by those involved in the conspiracy.

Source: ASH DAILY NEWS, 20th May 2003 from BBC Online, 20th May 2003