WHO calls for complete tobacco smoke-free environments

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called upon Governments to enact and enforce comprehensive smoke-free laws to protect people from the harms of second-hand tobacco smoke. Smoke-free laws are relatively easy to pass and enforce. Besides improving health, they are also business friendly, says the new WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2015.

The Report, which coincides with the 10^th anniversary of coming into force of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), also calls for decisive action by countries to end tobacco use – an epidemic that is a significant hurdle to development gains worldwide.

Smoke-free laws and environments find favour with both smokers and non-smokers as it improves the health of both these groups, besides encouraging smokers to reduce tobacco use and quit successfully in the long-term.

Scientific evidence has long proven that there is no safe level of exposure to second-hand smoke – the smoke emanating from a smoker. Its exposure leads to serious and often fatal diseases, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease as well as lung and other cancers. Children, foetuses, and newborns may also suffer severe, long-term harm – or even die due to second-hand smoke exposure.

Over 1.3 billion people across the world were covered by strong and comprehensive smoke-free legislation in 2014 – an increase of about 200 million since 2012, the Report says pointing out to the popularity of these laws. A total of 49 countries have implemented smoke-free laws covering all public places and workplaces.

Globally, educational facilities are the best-protected public place with two thirds of countries legislating such a ban, followed closely by health facilities. Employees and patrons of restaurants, pubs and bars have the lowest level of protection from second-hand smoke, according to the Report, the fifth in the series of WHO reports on the global tobacco epidemic.  

“Political will, coupled with effective enforcement, can sharply reduce smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke in all venues where smoking is outlawed”, the Report notes giving highlighted mention to Russia – a trendsetting country by becoming 100 per cent smoke-free.

In less than three years, the country not just passed and implemented its 2013 legislation but also demonstrated that smoke-free laws do not hit businesses. Compliance monitoring six months after the law was extended to cover restaurants, cafes, and bars revealed an overall increase in business in these establishments year-on-year.  The setting up of required ‘no smoking’ signages in all public places played a significant part in achieving the smoke-free status.

The WHO has described Indian tobacco control law COTPA, 2003 as a comprehensive legislation consistent with the FCTC for protecting the public, especially the youth, from tobacco harms.

It hails India’s National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) as the cornerstone for advancing tobacco control in a large and complex tobacco producing country and an excellent model for replication. The NTCP, piloted in 2007 to enforce COTPA and to build awareness on tobacco harms, is now being expanded to cover all 36 states and 672 districts in phases between 2012 and 2017.

Read more ...

Children exposed to second-hand smoke may end up with weight issues

Children exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to face weight and metabolic issues, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Montreal, Canada, which concludes that smoking around young children may be just as harmful as smoking while pregnant.

Lead author Linda Pagani, a professor of psycho-education at the University and a researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine, found that children whose parents smoked when they were toddlers were more likely to have a thicker waist and a higher body mass index (BMI) by the time they reached the age of 10.

She says some 40 per cent of children are exposed either sporadically or continuously to second-hand smoke in their own homes and that, by the age of 10, the children who had been exposed to smoke were likely to have waists that were up to three-fifths of an inch wider than their peers.

And their BMI scores were likely to be between .48 and .81 points higher.

“This prospective association is almost as large as the influence of smoking while pregnant,” Pagani said. “Everybody loves their children but sometimes we close our eyes to risk factors. We need to face these risk factors and stop this behaviour.”

Waist circumference in youth in particular, she said, has become an important risk factor for obesity-related diseases in adulthood — so the findings indicate that public health initiatives and parental sensitization aimed at reducing home-based second-hand smoke exposure during the critical early childhood years are needed.

Pagani believes women who are bold enough to smoke while pregnant will likely smoke after birth as well. And there are even more women who stop during pregnancy but revert to it after giving birth.

“We are looking at second-hand smoke where children live and play and sleep,” she said. “Most people smoke because they just can’t kick the habit. People rely on smoking for the psychological effects, the idea that it calms them down. That has to be rethought. There are other ways to calm down.”

For the study, Pagani used data collected from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a vast survey of children born across the province which allowed her to focus on the behaviour of 2,055 families.

Furthermore, Pagani believes the statistics linking childhood obesity to exposure to parents’ smoking may underestimate the effect due to parents under-reporting the amount they smoked “out of shame,” she said.

With those parts of the brain that regulate metabolism not as finely tuned as they should be, Pagani explained, those who were exposed to second-hand smoke will find themselves putting on weight easily. Too easily.

“If you have an unhealthy fat distribution before puberty, your chances of being obese are quite high for the rest of your life,” said Pagani. The study published in Oxford Journal called Nicotine and Tobacco Research is the first to look at the effect of second-hand smoke on unhealthy body fat distribution.

While the increase she found may not sound significant, it occurs during a critical period of development which signals that the weight gain could have serious long-lasting effects. The exposure to second-hand smoke, she says, could cause endocrine imbalances or affect immune, neuro developmental and cardiovascular processes.

Pagani has also studied links between household tobacco smoke exposure and anti-social behaviour in later childhood, as well as the connection with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

“This is kind of a wake-up call,” she said, adding that it reinforces ongoing debates about smoking on terraces or about parents smoking in a car with children.

“Yes, it is our business, these are public health issues,” she said. “And in a system like ours, where taxpayers support the health system, I’m interested in any risks that can be controlled. It’s important.”

Courtesy: Montreal Gazette

Read more ...

Singapore to ban existing and emerging tobacco products as pre-emptive measure

Singapore's Ministry of Health has announced plans to ban existing and emerging tobacco products in two phases as a "pre-emptive measure to protect public health against the known and potential harms of such products".

"Besides protecting the public from the health risks associated with the consumption of emerging tobacco products, the ban is aimed at ensuring that the targeted emerging tobacco products do not gain a foothold or become entrenched in the Singapore market," the statement said.

In addition to preventing these products from "stimulating demand for and thereby increasing the prevalence of tobacco consumption", it will also prevent such products from becoming "gateway" or "starter" products for non-smokers, it added.

In a statement released on 15 June, the ministry said under the first phase, tobacco products that are currently not available in Singapore will be banned with effect from 15 December 2015.

The second phase will cover a ban on products already available in the market and will take effect from 1 August 2016. The delay in the ban is to allow for businesses to "adjust their operating models and deplete their existing stocks of such products."

On 9 June, the Welsh government announced plans to put in place legislation to ban e-cigarettes in public places.

Source: International Business Times

Read more ...