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• Call to ban smokers from funded IVF 

Couples who smoke, or are overweight, should be denied taxpayer-funded access to fertility treatments until they take steps to improve their health, a visiting expert says.

Professor Nicholas Macklon says Australia should follow the example of New Zealand and other countries, which do not publicly fund assisted reproduction services for couples who are smokers or obese.

"I suggest that Australia should consider this model," said Prof Macklon, who is head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Southampton University in England.

"... and patients should not expect to undertake infertility treatment unless they are prepared to give themselves the best chance of conceiving and having a healthy baby. . . .

Prof Macklon spoke at the Fertility Society of Australia's annual meeting, a three-day event which got under way in Perth on Monday.

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• Strip resort sued over second-hand smoke  

A second Las Vegas Strip casino is being sued over allegations that the health of employees is being affected by second-hand smoke.

A suit seeking class action status to represent all affected workers was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas by Wynn Las Vegas employee Kanie Kastroll against the casino resort and its parent company Wynn Resorts Ltd.

The suit was filed by law firms including KamberEdelson LLC of Chicago, which in July filed a similar suit against Harrah's Entertainment's Caesars Palace hotel-casino.

Attorneys for Harrah's and Caesars have not yet filed their answer to that complaint. That suit has also not completed the significant legal hurdle of being certified as a class action. . . .

The suit alleges exposure to smoke is causing eye irritation, coughing, sore throat, sneezing, shortness of breath, dizziness, wheezing, tightness in the chest, asthma, headache, nausea and ingestion of cancer-causing chemicals and toxins.

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• Autoimmune Condition, Especially Combined With Smoking And Oral Contraceptive Use, Massively Increases Risk Of Stroke And Heart Attack In Young Women 

The autoimmune condition antiphospholipid syndrome mainly affects young women. An Article published Online First and in the November edition of The Lancet Neurology shows that women with a particular subtype of antibody called lupus anticoagulant (LA) have a more than 40-fold increased risk of stroke and 5-fold increased risk of heart attack compared with the general population (of young women). Smoking and oral contraceptive use increase the risk of these events even more. The Article is written by Dr Rolf Urbanus and Dr Philip de Groot, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Netherlands, together with colleagues from the Leiden University Medical Centre.

Antiphospholipid syndrome occurs when autoantibodies* bind to cell membranes, interfering with the regular clotting mechanism of the blood. Diagnosis occurs when young women (under 50 years) suffer a thrombotic event such as a stroke or heart attack, and antiphospholipid antibodies are tested. Although it is known that this condition causes thrombosis, bleeding, and repeat miscarriage in women, the extent of the increased risk for stroke and heart attack was unknown before this study. . . .

In an accompanying Reflection and Reaction, Dr Kathryn Kirchoff-Torres and Dr Steven R Levine, Stroke Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA, say that the most important aspect of the study is its conclusion that young women with LA need to be warned about the dangers of smoking and use of oral contraceptives.

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• Watchdog slams Viz over saucy smoking advert 

STANDARDS watchdogs have banned a saucy advert which appeared in adult magazine Viz over claims it glamorises smoking.

A page in the Newcastle-born adult comic showed a scantily-clad woman with cigarette rolling papers appearing to float out of her handbag.

The model was pictured in silver high-heels, skimpy shorts, and sitting with her legs crossed next to the slogan: "OCB X-PERT: Europe's Premium Cigarette Paper."

But the risque image prompted a complaint against the cigarette papers company to the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), which agreed it was irresponsible and associated glamour with smoking tobacco.

OCB Papers Ltd, which produces the cigarette papers, has been told the advert must not appear in the magazine - or anywhere else - again.

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• Looking for love? Australian study suggests finding a partner who shares your smoking habits  

If you're looking for happily ever after, Australian researchers have a suggestion: Find a partner who shares your smoking habits.

Researchers at Australian National University studied 2,482 married or cohabiting heterosexual couples over a seven-year period to pinpoint what the relationships that were still going strong had over ones that fizzled. . . .

The study released this week - called "What's Love Got to Do With It?" . . .

A nicotine habit can have a profound impact. Relationships in which one partner smoked and the other didn't saw their risk of separation shoot to more than 75 percent of those in which neither partner smoked.

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What's Love Got to Do With It?
Australian study that found that relationships in which one partner smoked and the other didn't saw their risk of separation shoot to more than 75 percent of those in which neither partner smoked.

• Anti-smoking campaign targets young grooms 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The catchy slogan, "Kicking the habit is on you, and marriage is on us," is meant to entice young grooms to give up smoking by offering an attractive incentive.

And, indeed, hundreds have expressed interest in the first anti-smoking drive of its kind in the kingdom, with one man saying he is ready to take up smoking just to be eligible for the grand prize - an all-expenses-paid wedding. . . .

Since June 20, banners have gone up on overpasses and bridges over the Saudi capital's major highways, depicting the campaign slogan in pink and reddish brown. Next to it are the faceless outlines of a bride, dressed in white and carrying a bouquet of flowers, and of a man wearing a black, ceremonial cloak over his white thobe, the traditional robe Saudi men wear.

The quit-smoking-drive is also being advertised in malls, at universities and in magazines.

The organizer, a local charity called Purity, stipulates that the marriage is the man's first and that he has a recent marriage contract. In Islam, the contract is usually signed before a couple moves in together.

A draw on Aug. 6 will include the names of the men who successfully quit smoking in a weeklong course. The winner will have all wedding expenses paid while 20 runners-up will get free furniture.

Sulaiman al-Soby, secretary general of Purity, said the aim is to create a smoke-free family. One-third of Saudi school children live in homes with smokers, according to a 2007 health survey.

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• Close relationships can affect smoking 

Health-compromising behaviors, such as smoking or weight gain, may persist because they preserve stability in a close relationship, U.S. researchers said.

Michael J. Rohrbaugh and Varda Shoham of the University of Arizona had 25 couples discuss a health-related disagreement before and during a period of actual smoking, and then use joysticks to rate how they had felt from moment to moment -- from very positive to very negative -- while watching themselves on video.

One partner in each couple smoked despite having a heart or lung problem, and in some couples both partners were smokers.

The joystick ratings of partners in dual-smoker couples became more positive and more synchronous contingent upon lighting up -- as if they were dancing to the same emotional tune, the researchers said.

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• Rule change allows overweight smokers IVF  

Infertile couples who are overweight or smoke will become eligible for IVF treatment as part of an overhaul of access to services.

Lifestyle factors such as a person's weight will no longer be a reason for health trusts to exclude them from IVF under guidance to be published this year.

The Government has commissioned two reviews of IVF treatment, to be published in June, which will inform efforts to offer wider and more consistent treatment on the NHS.

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• Skoal product placement in Playboy magazine 

Skoal—the manufacturers of “smokeless tobacco”—will have a 12-page section in Playboy’s 55th anniversary edition, which will be hitting magazine stands in January.

To bolster the campaign, Skoal selected playmate Kara Monaco and rodeo/football star Walt Garrison for the lead interviews in the company’s co-branded segment. Skoal, which is owned by US Smokeless Tobacco Co., also invited consumers to visit Skoalbrotherhood.com to present ideas as to what should appear in the special issue—including joke, models, etc.

The partnership marked Playboy’s first venture with a brand that produces user-generated content. It’s also the first time Playboy will produce additional issues for non-subscribers—those who participated in the “Skoal builds Playboy” promotion.

Skoal will also be presenting a promotion that will give web site visitors the chance to go in an all-expense-paid trip for four to Playboy’s VIP Players Pajama and Lingerie Party in March.

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• Safer cigarette smoke just as harmful to embryos 

Smoke from so-called harm-reduction cigarettes is just as dangerous to developing embryos as smoke from standard cigarettes, and may be even more toxic, new experiments with mouse embryo stem cells show.

The smoke issuing from the ends of these cigarettes is more harmful than the fumes inhaled through a filter, Dr. Prue Talbot of the University of California, Riverside and her colleagues report in the journal Human Reproduction.

There has been very little research on the chemicals remaining in cigarettes treated to remove certain toxic and cancer-causing substances and even less on how smoke from these cigarettes might affect developing embryos, Talbot told Reuters Health. "The caveat is there are many things in smoke besides the known carcinogens -- smoke has somewhere between 4,000 and 6,000 chemicals in it," she said.

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• Increased Risk Of Fertility Problems In Women Exposed To Secondhand Smoke 

If you need another reason to quit smoking, consider that it may diminish your chances of being a parent or grandparent. Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that women exposed to second hand smoke, either as adults or children, were significantly more likely to face fertility problems and suffer miscarriages.

An epidemiologic analysis of more than 4,800 non-smoking women showed those who were exposed to second hand smoke six or more hours per day as children and adults faced a 68 percent greater chance of having difficulty getting pregnant and suffering one or more miscarriages. The study is published online in Tobacco Control and is one of the first publications to demonstrate the lasting effects of second hand smoke exposure on women during childbearing years.

"These statistics are breathtaking and certainly points to yet another danger of second hand smoke exposure," said Luke J. Peppone, Ph.D., research assistant professor at Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center.

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• Harm-reduction Cigarettes Are More Toxic Than Traditional Cigarettes, UC Riverside Study Finds 

Typically, tobacco companies market harm-reduction cigarettes as being safer than traditional "full-flavored" brands, leading many smokers to conclude that the use of harm-reduction brands lowers their exposure to toxicants.

But a UC Riverside study now shows that smoke from these "light" or "low-yield" harm-reduction cigarettes retains toxicity and that this toxicity can affect prenatal development.

"Many chemicals found in harm-reduction cigarette smoke have not been tested, and some are listed by manufacturers as safe," said Prue Talbot, a professor of cell biology who led the study. "But our tests on mice clearly show that these chemicals adversely affect reproduction and associated development processes. The effects are likely to be the same in humans, in which case pregnant women would be particularly vulnerable to the effect of smoke from these cigarettes."

Talbot's research team used mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) as a model for pre-implantation embryos--embryos that have not yet implanted in the wall of the uterus--and compared the toxicity on these cells of cigarette smoke emanating from traditional and harm-reduction brands.

Further, they studied the effects on the mESCs of two kinds of cigarette smoke: mainstream smoke, which is smoke actively inhaled by smokers; and sidestream smoke, which is smoke that burns off the end of a cigarette.

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• Associations Between Adult and Childhood Secondhand Smoke Exposures with Fecundity and Fetal Loss Among Women who Visited a Cancer Hospital 

METHODS: Approximately 4,800 women who presented to Roswell Park Cancer Institute between 1982 and 1998 and reported being pregnant at least once were queried about their childhood and adult exposures to SHS using a standardized questionnaire.

Women were asked to report on selected prenatal pregnancy outcomes (fetal loss and difficulty becoming pregnant).

RESULTS: Approximately 11.3% of women reported difficulty becoming pregnant, while 32% reported a fetal loss or 12.4% reported multiple fetal losses. Forty percent reported any prenatal pregnancy difficulty (fetal loss and/or difficulty becoming pregnant). SHS exposures from their parents were associated with difficulty becoming pregnant (OR=1.26, 95%CI 1.07-1.48) and lasting > 1 year (OR=1.34, 95%CI 1.12-1.60).

Exposure to SHS in both at home during childhood and at the time of survey completion was also associated with fetal loss . . .

The results from this study are consistent with results from a number of other studies that linked SHS exposure to various adverse pregnancy outcomes [3, 16-22]. Although one cannot infer from this study that exposure to SHS causes various adverse pregnancy outcomes, this study adds valuable evidence to the current scientific knowledge and demonstrates the imperative need for further research into this area. The significance of the associations between SHS exposure and adverse pregnancy outcomes underscores the public health doctrine that all persons, especially women in their reproductive years, should be fully protected from tobacco smoke. Based on the current state of knowledge, clinicians are encouraged to strongly recommend smoking cessation and the reduction SHS exposure to women of child bearing age, and to their household contacts, in an attempt to minimize prenatal pregnancy difficulties.

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• Second-hand smoke raises odds of fertility problems 

Researchers at University of Rochester Medical Center have discovered more life-altering reasons for women to avoid second-hand smoke: it may lead to fertility problems or miscarriages.

An analysis of more than 4,800 non-smoking women in the U.S. showed that women who were exposed to six or more hours per day of second-hand smoke during childhood and as adults had significantly more difficulty conceiving or suffering miscarriages. In fact, researchers found that their chances for both increased by 68 per cent due if they had been exposed to second-hand smoke over a long period of time.

"The numbers are astonishing. They show another danger of second-hand smoke exposure," Dr. Luke J. Peppone, the researcher who conducted the study, told CTV.ca by phone on Friday. . . .

The study is published online in Tobacco Control.

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• 2nd hand smoke hurts fertility 

N who breathed in secondhand smoke as children or young adults were later more likely to have trouble getting pregnant and suffer more miscarriages than women not exposed to smoke, US researchers reported on Thursday.

They said toxins in the smoke could have permanently damaged the women's bodies, causing the later problems, and said their finding support restrictions on smoking.

Luke Peppone at the University of Rochester in New York, Dr Kenneth Piazza of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, and colleagues studied 4,800 women treated at Roswell Park.

They were asked to give details of all pregnancies, attempts to get pregnant, and miscarriages, as well as their history of smoking and breathing secondhand smoke.

Overall, 11 per cent of the women reported difficulty becoming pregnant, and about a third lost one or more babies, the researchers wrote in the journal Tobacco Control.

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