Tobacco.org

Cot death warning for teen mums 

The children of young mothers are at much higher risk of cot death because their parent misses out on prevention advice, a charity has warned.

Sudden infant death is five times more common in the babies of teenage mothers compared with older mothers, according to national figures.

The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths said smoking was the key factor.

A Canadian study showed babies whose mothers smoked in pregnancy struggled to cope with minor breathing problems.

Across the UK, there was a modest fall in cot deaths - where a child dies suddenly and unexpectedly in its first year - from 355 in 2005 to 321 in 2006. . . .

However, the charity said the overall figures disguised a substantially bigger problem among teenagers.

In 2006, there were 58 deaths, a rate of 1.27 deaths for every 1,000 live births. Among the children of women aged over 35, the rate was just 0.23 per 1,000.

Chief executive Joyce Epstein said that key messages on smoking in pregnancy were not getting through: "It is totally unacceptable that the highest cot death rate occurs in the most disadvantaged groups.

Jump to full article »

Newly-defined factors may prevent postpartum smoking relapse 

By shedding light on the factors that enable the other half to put down that cigarette for good, a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill could lead to programs designed to help women quit and stay quit.

According to the study, women with a live-in partner who shared some of the burden of child-rearing were more likely to remain smoke free, while women who were single mothers or who lacked the social and financial resources to deal with being a new parent were more likely to relapse.

"In the future we can look at these and other factors in women who quit smoking during pregnancy to assess who is at low or high risk of relapse," said Carol E. Ripley-Moffitt, MDiv, research associate in UNC's department of family medicine and the study's lead author. "We can then offer more intensive interventions for those at higher risk to address the physical, behavioral and social issues related to relapse."

Jump to full article »

Study links peers, parents to teen smoking 

Parents who do not want their children to smoke should get to know their kids' friends and avoid smoking themselves.

It's not a groundbreaking concept, but the message was reinforced by the findings in a new report by researchers at the University of Wisconsin's cancer center.

The study comes as about one in five youths still report that they smoke, a rate that has held steady even while smoking has declined among adults. Understanding the reasons why could help reduce youth smoking, said Aaron Doeppers, director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' Midwest region.

Seventy-three percent of students who reported smoking had four or more friends who smoke, according to the study, and just 3 percent reported having no friends who smoke. . . .

"Kids imitate (their parents') behavior, and they think it's OK," Gordon said. The best message parents who smoke can send their children is to quit themselves.

Jump to full article »

• Home Smoking Ban Keeps Teens From Lighting Up 

A new study finds that parents who enforce a no-smoking ban at home are less likely to have teens who experiment with cigarettes.

The Massachusetts study, which followed more than 2,200 children, ages 12 to 17, for four years, also found that teens living in households that allowed smoking were more likely to find smoking as socially acceptable. Teens whose parents allowed smoking at home also tended to think a higher percentage of local adults smoked, compared to teens with household bans.

"This basic intervention -- implementing a household smoking ban -- has the potential to promote antismoking norms and to prevent adolescent smoking," lead study author Alison Albers, an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health, said in a news release issued by the Center for the Advancement of Health.

The findings are published in the October issue of the center's American Journal of Public Health.

Jump to full article »

• Shelter children from smoking, parents told 

Tanzanian parents who smoke can and should play a big role in blocking the young generation from picking up the killer habit.

Public education and sensitization, strict enforcement of anti-smoking regulations and sharpening legislation against tobacco are also key facilitators of the campaign against a crop whose effects are medically and environmentally disastrous.

So says Professor Robert Machang`u, the National Professional Officer at the WHO Regional Office in Dar es Salaam and Chairman of the Tanzania Public Health Association.

He was speaking in Dar es Salaam yesterday, at a workshop for tobacco control champions - young citizens belonging to nearly 10 groups that are working closely with the Tanzania Tobacco Control Forum (TTCF). . . .

Homes are thus breeding grounds for smokers, he said, urging parents to protect their offspring by refraining from manipulating them as cigarette buyers and lighters.

Jump to full article »

• Home Smoking Bans Prevent Teens From Lighting Up 

Parents who enforce no-smoking rules at home are less likely to have teens who experiment with cigarettes, a new study finds.

"This basic intervention implementing a household smoking ban has the potential to promote antismoking norms and to prevent adolescent smoking," said lead study author Alison Albers, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Boston University School of Public Health.

Albers and colleagues interviewed 2,217 Massachusetts adolescents ages 12 to 17, and followed them for four years. They discovered that teens living in households that did not ban smoking were more likely to report smoking as socially acceptable, compared to teens whose parents banned smoking.

Jump to full article »

• Teens Cite Ease of Access To Drugs  

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University asked: "Which is easiest for someone your age to buy: cigarettes, beer, marijuana, or prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin or Ritalin, without a prescription?" Nineteen percent of teenagers found it easier to purchase prescription drugs than cigarettes, beer or marijuana, compared with 13 percent a year ago. A quarter of the teens said it is easiest to buy marijuana, with 43 percent of 17-year-olds saying they could buy the drug in less than an hour. . . .

The correlation between allowing teens out late on school nights and the likelihood that people in their presence would be smoking and drinking was dramatic. Half of all teenagers allowed out after 10 p.m. said that they spent time with people smoking and using drugs, while 29 percent of those who returned home between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. reported the same behavior.

Califano recommended family dinners as a simple way of decreasing the chances of drug abuse

Jump to full article »

• More W.Va. kids live with smoking in home, study finds 

West Virginia's youngest and poorest children are twice as likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke in their homes as other low-income kids in the United States, according to a report released Tuesday.

More than 23 percent of West Virginia infants and toddlers enrolled in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental nutrition program lived in homes where parents or caregivers smoked last year, the state's Office of Nutritional Services reported.

The national average for WIC children - ages 4 and under - was 10.6 percent.

Children exposed to tobacco smoke have higher rates of respiratory illness, ear infections and sudden infant death syndrome.

"Everybody knows secondhand smoke is bad, but they're still smoking around their kids," said Bruce Adkins, director of the state's Division of Tobacco Prevention. "People are so addicted. We have a lot of hard-core tobacco users in West Virginia, and they're tough to get at." . . .

West Virginia has the second-highest percentage of adult smokers in the nation, behind Kentucky.

Jump to full article »

Department of Health Unveils New DC Quit Line Media Campaign Featuring NFL Hall of Famer Darrell Green 

Today the DC Tobacco Free Families Campaign (DCTFF) unveiled its new quit line media campaign starring former Washington Redskin and NFL Hall of Famer Darrell Green. The new campaign includes television, radio, metro and print ads that also feature DC's own go-go band, Mambo Sauce; Nakia Sanford of the Washington Mystics; Caron Butler of the Washington Wizards; and WPGC radio personality, Justine Love. DCTFF is committed to ensuring that all DC residents who smoke have access to the latest evidence-based smoking cessation treatments to ensure long-term success at remaining tobacco free.

The program offers DC residents access to free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and counseling through 1-800-Quit-Now services and community-based programs.

Jump to full article »

Smoking remains major danger to children 

ital, says in general children are growing up in a safer environment than 20 years ago, but the one area the consultant paediatrician has not seen improvement in is exposure to cigarette smoke.

As a way of addressing the issue, the hospital has now become part of the SmokeFree Kids campaign, the latest arm of SmokeFree Liverpool's battle against cigarette exposure. He said: "Parents will protect their children from anything, yet it is different for smoking for some reason. They will allow their children to have that exposure.

"We know it affects children coming into the hospital. It makes it more likely that children will come here unwell with conditions like asthma, chest infections and bronchitis. Many would not have these problems if their parents had not smoked around them.

Jump to full article »

CEASE at Massachusetts General Hospital, CEASE:Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure 

Child healthcare clinicians are in a unique and important position to address smoking because of the regular, multiple contacts with families and the harmful health consequences to their patients. The CEASE Module was developed to help child healthcare clinicians tailor their office setting to address family tobacco use in a routine and effective manner. Implementation strategies employed by the CEASE Module demonstrate how to link family members who want to quit smoking with state or national smoking cessation services through the use of a flexible set of materials. The CEASE Module guides child healthcare clinicians in each evidence-based step of addressing family tobacco use.

CEASE was developed after extensive research in the adult and child healthcare settings, based on the current best practices for the adult setting. The CEASE Module is currently being scientifically evaluated by a team of tobacco control experts, pediatricians, public health professionals, and dissemination specialists.

Jump to full article »

QuitWorks  

WHAT'S NEW

QuitWorks welcomes our new adopter, Baystate Health, based in Springfield MA. The Baystate system, with nearly 10,000 employees, includes three hospitals, multiple outpatient facilities and programs, primary and specialty care group practices as well as home care and hospice services.

Intake & Assessment Protocol Developed for MassHealth Providers A new intake, assessment and treatment planning protocol has been developed by University of Massachusetts Medical School to help MassHealth providers conduct 45 minute intake sessions with tobacco users. Learn more about the Intake and Assessment Protocol.

Jump to full article »

Teachable moments: Helping parents quit smoking at the pediatrician's office  

Smoking bans that protect people from secondhand smoke in public spaces or at work don't do much for the most vulnerable population: children at home or in the family car.

To encourage parents to quit, Massachusetts General Hospital wants pediatricians to deliver an anti-smoking message to parents during a child's regular checkups.

Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff and his colleagues in the Clinical Effort Against Secondhand Smoke Exposure, or CEASE, explain how they came up with the plan in the current Journal of Pediatrics. They tested the program among eight pediatric practices in the Boston area and presented it at national meetings.

It borrows from QuitWorks, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health program to help people stop smoking that includes telephone counseling and recommends medications to ease the withdrawal from tobacco.

Jump to full article »

Secondhand Smoke Raises Stroke Risk for Spouses  

Nonsmokers who are married to smokers run a significantly higher risk for experiencing a stroke, a new study suggests.

Researchers also found that ex-smokers married to men and women who still smoke carry an even greater risk for stroke. However, nonsmoking spouses of former smokers do not appear to bear any higher risk for stroke than those married to someone who had never smoked.

"This adds to the growing evidence that secondhand smoke is bad for you, and I hope that it will help people who want to stop smoking to know that it will probably be good for their spouse's health, too," said Maria Glymour, an assistant professor of society, human development and health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Glymour is also a health and society scholar in the department of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York City.

She and her team were expected to publish the findings in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Jump to full article »

Secondhand Smoke Raises Stroke Risk for Spouses  

Nonsmokers who are married to smokers run a significantly higher risk for experiencing a stroke, a new study suggests.

Researchers also found that ex-smokers married to men and women who still smoke carry an even greater risk for stroke. However, nonsmoking spouses of former smokers do not appear to bear any higher risk for stroke than those married to someone who had never smoked.

"This adds to the growing evidence that secondhand smoke is bad for you, and I hope that it will help people who want to stop smoking to know that it will probably be good for their spouse's health, too," said Maria Glymour, an assistant professor of society, human development and health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. Glymour is also a health and society scholar in the department of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York City.

She and her team were expected to publish the findings in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Jump to full article »