Smokers aged nine in UK’s poorest town

The average age to start smoking in Britain's most deprived town is just nine, according to a National Health Service survey cited Thursday by The Sun.

But many are even younger. One boy got hooked aged three because his grandparents thought it was funny to give him cigarettes.

The shock findings came from Merthyr Tydfil, in South Wales -- blighted by few jobs, poor wages and dependence on state benefits.

"Unfortunately, it is realistic. I had a patient who started between two and three. His parents gave him cigarettes because they thought it was funny," researcher Tracey Bowen said.

The study was carried out after medics noticed the high number of tobacco-related illnesses in the former industrial town.

"These figures are truly alarming. Childhood smoking is quite rare -- less than one percent of people under 11 smoke regularly -- so this is unusual," said smoking expert and Birmingham University professor Paul Aveyard. "It is worrying, as you become more addicted to smoking the earlier you start. Starting younger is also associated with a higher risk of smoking-related diseases."

Merthyr, population 55,000, has one of the UK's lowest life-expectancy rates and one of the highest rates of people claiming health-related state benefits

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http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3457234/Smokers-take-up-habit-aged-9-on-average-in-UKs-poorest-town.html

2010 State of Tobacco Control Report

The American Lung Association has released its 2010 State of Tobacco Control report. Florida and Georgia both received F's in more than on category.

Resident Tommy Lewis kicked the habit years ago and says he never looked back."I smoked from the time I was 20 years old til about the time I was 30, and I quit about 20 years ago and have not smoked since. I put then down one day and never picked them back up" said Lewis.

The report says the economic cost of smoking in Georgia is just under 6 billion dollars while Florida comes in at more than 12 billion.

Florida and Georgia both received failing grades for Tobacco prevention and spending control. For Smoke-Free Air, Florida maintained its B average while Georgia maintained a C.

Non-smoker Sarah Bishop says, "I think it's an unhealthy habit. I've know a lot of people who have suffered health risks from it. I know my step day was told if he had another cigarette it would kill him."

The Lung Association report says more than 28-thousand deaths in Florida and more than 10-thousand in Georgia are related to smoking.

A total of eight states received all "F's" ... and while many received higher scores, no state on the report received all A's.

Thomas Carr who is the Director of National Policies for The American Lung Association says, "Georgia got three F's and a C and Florida got two F's and B and a D. I think Florida actually is a good example of where some of the policies are starting to have an impact."

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http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/2010_State_of_Tobacco_Control_Report__114404204.html

Secondhand smoke tied to childrens' poor mental health

The evidence is piling up that parents who smoke really should quit -- or at least not smoke at home, a study said.

Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to struggle with mental health problems, especially hyperactivity and "bad" behavior, according to the study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

While the findings add urgency to the push for parents to quit smoking or at least smoke outside the home, it remains unclear whether tobacco fumes actually take a toll on childrens' brains or if something else is at play, said researchers led by Mark Hamer of University College London.

"We know that exposure to secondhand smoke is associated with a lot of physical health problems in children, although the mental health side has not been explored," Hamer told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

In the United States, two of every three children between the ages of three and 11 are exposed to secondhand smoke. Meanwhile, one in five children aged nine to 17 have been diagnosed with some kind of mental or addictive disorder, according to the U.S. department of Health and Human Services.

Hamer and his colleagues studied 901 nonsmoking British children between the ages of 4 to 8, measuring levels of a byproduct of cigarette fumes in the childrens' saliva to gauge smoke exposure and having parents fill out a questionnaire about the childrens' emotional, behavioral and social problems.

The more secondhand smoke a child took in, on average, the poorer their mental health -- particularly for hyperactivity and conduct disorder, or so-called "bad" behavior, the study said.

Overall, about three percent of all children received "abnormal" scores of 20 or more on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a 40-point scale with the highest scores representing the poorest mental health.

Compared to the 101 children who breathed in the least secondhand smoke, the 361 with the most exposure scored an average of 44 percent higher on the questionnaire -- 9.2 versus 6.4. Children were most likely to breathe secondhand smoke in their own homes.

The gap remained after researchers accounted for other factors that could affect mental health such as asthma, physical activity and the families' income and housing situations, although they noted that some unmeasured factor also couldn't be ruled out.

It also isn't yet clear how secondhand smoke might trigger mental troubles, though researchers suggested it could be due to genetics or possibly related to smoke's effects on chemicals in the brain such as dopamine, and Hamer noted further research is needed.

But Michael Weitzman at New York University Medical Center, who was not involved in the study, said the results strengthen the evidence that secondhand smoke, and possibly prenatal exposure to tobacco, causes mental health problems in children.

"Many people now recognize that childrens' secondhand smoke exposure increases their risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, ear infections and asthma," he told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

"But secondhand smoke also poses a huge burden on the quality of life of children, their families and the larger society due to increased child mental health problems."

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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B80N320101209

Secondhand smoke kills 600,000 a year worldwide

Secondhand smoke sickens millions and kills more than 600,000 people worldwide each year, including more than 165,000 children under 5, according to the first report to estimate the worldwide burden of disease and death from tobacco.

The World Health Organization's report on 192 countries appeared in The Lancet on Thursday and found more than half of the deaths are from heart disease, followed by deaths from cancer, lung infections, asthma and other ailments.

More than two-thirds of the children's deaths are in Africa and Asia, where they have less access to important public health services, such as vaccines, and less advanced medical care, the report says.

"These (statistics) are sad data," the American Cancer Society's Tom Glynn says.

Tobacco kills a total of 5.7 million people worldwide each year, including 5.1 million people who die from their own smoking, the report says. Smoking is the world's leading cause of preventable death, according to the WHO.

Growing concern about secondhand smoke has led more than 40 countries to enact some kind of smoking ban, although many of these laws are limited, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.

In the USA, 35 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Northern Mariana Islands have smoke-free laws, protecting 79% of the population.

According to the new report, children are particularly vulnerable. About 40% are exposed to secondhand smoke, along with one-third of adults. Kids exposed to secondhand smoke are at higher risk of a variety of illnesses, such as asthma, pneumonia, ear infections and sudden infant death syndrome.

Almost half of all deaths from secondhand smoke are in adult women, while 28% are in children.

"The combination of infectious diseases and tobacco seems to be a deadly combination for children," the report says.

Because researchers used conservative estimates, the report may underestimate the number of secondhand smoke-related deaths, says Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco.

Glynn says he does see "glimmers of hope" in the report. Smoking bans protect only 7% of the world's population, suggesting lawmakers could save many lives by passing smoking bans, he says.

The bans can have dramatic benefits, the report says. Heart attack rates drop 10% to 20% in the first year after the bans are enacted.

Studies show smoke-free laws encourage smokers to quit and to make their homes smoke-free, Glynn says.

"There is virtually no parent who does not care deeply about protecting their children from harm," he says. "They will do the right thing if made aware."

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http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/health/medical/2010-11-26-smoke26_st_N.htm

Groups say $600,000 to fight smoking is 'embarrassing'

The state's decision to spend only $600,000 this year to help smokers quit and prevent kids from getting addicted is "embarrassing," according to leaders of the American Cancer Society and Heart Association, which ranked New Jersey 46th in the nation for its anti-smoking efforts.

The public health groups used Wednesday's "Great American Smokeout," a national smoking cessation event, to call attention to New Jersey's decision to use nearly all of its proceeds from a national settlement with tobacco companies and cigarette taxes to help plug a huge budget deficit.

"The fact that New Jersey has one of the highest tobacco taxes in the country and spends less than 0.1 percent of its extensive tobacco revenue on prevention programs is unconscionable," said Howard Levite, spokesman for the American Heart Association.

State Deputy Health Commissioner Susan Walsh called the ranking "unfair" because it does not take into account $2.6 million New Jersey gets for disease management and prevention from the federal government that address nicotine addiction.

About $475,000 of state money is spent on inspectors who visit stores to make sure patrons younger than 19 are not buying cigarettes, Walsh said. Another $100,000 of state funding goes to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to train professionals whose patients want to quit smoking.

"It's not a complete picture. We manage far more'' than $600,000, Walsh said.

Governor Christie's budget approved by the Legislature took $7.5 million used last year on smoking cessation programs and transferred nearly all of it to the general fund.

"The state is otherwise so advanced — leaders in comprehensive cancer control with a model program," said Arnold Baskies, board president of the American Cancer Society for New York and New Jersey. "But this data is embarrassing to the state."



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