Tobacco.org

Concern at Maori women smoking during pregnancy 

A call was made today for Maori women to quit smoking during pregnancy.

The Public Health Association's conference in Waitangi was told 50 per cent of Maori women still smoke and 80 per cent of this group continued to smoke during pregnancy.

Te Hotu Manawa Maori manager Irene Walker said the rate of Maori smoking during pregnancy must reduce.

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Smoking Habits Among Hong-Kong Chinese Pregnant Women 

The study provides information on the smoking habits of Hong Kong Chinese couples during pregnancy and finds smoking during pregnancy to be an emerging health issue among Chinese women.

Smoking significantly increases the fetal risks and neonatal hazards.

Although the Chinese women had a higher cessation rate during pregnancy than Caucasian figures, their relapse smoking rate was similar after delivery.

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Mums risking kids' health 

THE NUMBER of High Peak women smoking during pregnancy is significantly higher than the England average, according to a new report.

The High Peak Health profile for 2008, produced by the Association of Public Health Observatories and funded by the Department of Health, shows levels of smoking during pregnancy among High Peak women are 20.8 per cent compared to 16.1 per cent nationally.

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Anti-tobacco campaign targets women smokers 

AN ANTI-SMOKING campaign has been launched to tackle the rising number of female smokers in Bahrain.

According to the Ministry of Health's statistics, 11.9 per cent of females in the age group of 15 to 18 years are smokers. A total of 7.1 per cent of adult women are also found to be smokers. Around 43 per cent of total population are addicted to tobacco.

Launched recently by the Bahrain Anti-Smoking Society, ‘Women Say No for Smoking’ campaign has many partners and is supported financially by the NGOS' Fund at the Ministry of Social Development.

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Pregnant teens smoking shock  

ALMOST half of all pregnant teenagers in Queensland continue to smoke during their pregnancy, new statistics reveal. The Cancer Council is horrified.

And across all age groups in the state, more than 20 per cent of pregnant women continue to smoke throughout pregnancy - higher than the national average.

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• Expectant teen mums smoking shock 

ALMOST half of all pregnant teenagers in Queensland continue to smoke during thier pregnancy, new statistics reveal

And across all age groups in the state, more than 20 per cent of pregnant women continue to smoke throughout pregnancy - higher than the national average.

Research shows that smoking while pregnant harms the health of the mother and baby, increasing the risk of premature birth and haemorrhage among mothers.

The disturbing statistics revealed by the Queensland Perinatal Data Collection Unit have Australia's leading tobacco control expert, Professor Simon Chapman, calling for financial incentives to help mothers quit. . . .

The statistics, based on 18 months of data collection until December 2006, give the first comprehensive picture of smoking during pregnancy among mothers who gave birth in Queensland.

Smoking rates for teenage mothers are at 44 per cent.

Of the 4314 teenage mothers who gave birth in the 18-month research period, 1905 smoked throughout their pregnancy.

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Smoking moms-to-be strive to go from pregnant pause to permanently smoke-free 

The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, which runs the helpline, implemented procedures this spring to help pregnant women quit smoking, and Adams is one of many women to seek the extra help.

The helpline offers services to any smoker who wants to quit, but a more intensive program is available for pregnant women because of the damage smoking can do to a fetus, said Tracey Strader, the endowment trust's executive director.

Pregnant women receive twice as many phone sessions with a trained quit coach than regular smokers who call in for help. The extra sessions stress the consequences of smoking and quitting permanently – not just while pregnant, Strader said.

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• U.S. battle against teen smoking stalls: CDC  

Efforts to reduce teen smoking have stalled in the past five years as states lose funding for anti-tobacco efforts and as companies use new strategies to recruit customers, U.S. health officials said on Thursday.

While fewer youths are trying cigarettes for the first time, overall smoking rates stayed stable at just under 22 percent for students aged 14 to 18 between 2003 and 2007, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

Many fewer students have ever tried a cigarette -- just 50 percent, down from 70 percent in 1999. But CDC officials were not celebrating this number.

"We had seen this great progress from 1999 to 2003 and we were turning around this epidemic of increase in the 1990s that had everybody concerned," Terry Pechacek of CDC's Office on Smoking and Health said in a telephone interview.

"Unfortunately, that progress has not been maintained."

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New Post-Partum Protocol for Cessation Counseling  

Up to half of all women who quit smoking during pregnancy resume smoking within six months and up to 80 percent start smoking again within 12 months. Relapsing after a baby is born puts the mother at risk and increases chances that the infant may suffer from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma and ear infections. Because of the serious consequences of post partum tobacco use, a new counseling protocol is being introduced into state quit lines, which will focus on support, encouragement and the issues that matter most to post-partum women.

"Many women smokers are able to quit successfully when they find out they are pregnant. They have the best motivation there is -- having a healthy baby. Temptation often returns after baby arrives, often brought on by stress, and with such high relapse rates among women who start smoking after giving birth, it was critical that we develop a protocol focused on encouragement and relapse prevention," said Dr. Cheryl Healton, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation.

A collaborative effort among experts, including the American Legacy Foundation, American Cancer Society, Environmental Protection Agency, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Academy of Pediatrics and The National Partnership for Smoke Free Families, this newly developed post-partum protocol is an extension of the American Legacy Foundation's Great Start® initiative.

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Smokers refused access to free IVF in a third of health trusts  

Women, and their partners, wanting IVF are being told to give up the cigarettes before they are given the treatment

Women who smoke are being denied IVF treatment by a third of primary care trusts, it has emerged.

They - and in some cases their partners - are being ordered to stop smoking or be excluded from fertility treatment on the NHS. . . .

With each course costing around �2,500, the ban on smokers by 46 of the 149 PCTs in England and Wales has brought accusations that they are simply trying to save money.

The move echoes other controversial decisions trusts have made for financial reasons, such as ruling out hip and knee operations for the obese.

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• Warning bells for fairer sex health 

Women in Orissa are lighting up the cancer stick or chewing tobacco more often than their counterparts in other states.

In a recent survey, the state stood second when it came to tobacco consumption among women, next only to Mizoram.

The percentage of girls (from 15 years and above) who chewed some form of tobacco in 1998 was 34.9 per cent. Now, according to National Family Health Survey, the percentage has risen to 50 per cent and more.

Similarly, the percentage of women smokers has increased from mere 0.9 per cent to 6 per cent.

More than 50 per cent of the women in the state, who are into tobacco consumption, are mainly from tobacco growing rural pockets where women use paan with zarda, gudakhu, gutkha, khaini, snuff, acorn nut, dhuan patra and gundi.

A growing number of rural women are now into smoking bidis or cigarettes, too,

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• New breed of tobacco farmers come to terms with reality  

ZIMBABWE'S new breed of farmers created by Robert Mugabe's chaotic and violent seizures of farmers from whites are a bitter lot. Those who ventured into tobacco cultivation are angry with the government. . . .

As first-time tobacco growers, she said she had come unprepared for a long stay in Harare and admit their stay has been a nightmare. At as early as 5am Angela and scores of others wake up to boil water for their husbands and make breakfast for him in aluminium tins picked up in a bin in the industrial area. . . .

"On Thursday last week names for the cheques that were ready were read out. My name was not there," Angela continues. "Nobody has told us what is going on. They are very rude. They snap at us and tell us 'go back home, your money is coming'. Some are lucky. They got part payments."

When males leave for the auction floor to wait for their payments and sell their tobacco, women take turns to stay on guard and take a quick bath behind the tobacco floors.

"If you are on guard you have to make sure when you see a man approaching you whistle so that the other women bathing cover themselves up," Tarisayi Chirondza joins in. . . .

After weeks of being subjected to inhuman living conditions, tobacco farmers will get a chance of going back to their villages as the country's three tobacco sales floors will close temporarily on Tuesday next week to pave way for the June 27 Presidential run-off.

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Health departments, Chicago Bandits partner to ‘strike out tobacco’ at softball game  

The DuPage County Health Department is collaborating with the Kane County Health Department and the Chicago Bandits professional women's softball team to Strike Out Tobacco.

The two-day event will take place at 7:05 p.m. Saturday, June 28, and 3:05 p.m. Sunday, June 29, at Judson University in Elgin, home of the Chicago Bandits.

There will be games, prizes and a random drawing. The intent of Strike Out Tobacco is to inform the fans about the harmful side effects of tobacco.

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• Smoking and human papillomavirus infection: pooled analysis of the International Agency for Research on Cancer HPV Prevalence Surveys  

Background

Smoking increases the risk of squamous-cell carcinoma of the cervix, but it is not clear whether smoking increases the risk of acquisition or persistence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.

Methods

Information on smoking was collected from 10 areas in four continents among population-based, age-stratified random samples of women aged 15 years or older. . . .

Conclusions

Our study suggests that current, though not former, smoking is associated with an increased prevalence of HPV, after allowance for sexual covariates. Among current smokers, HPV prevalence increased with smoking intensity, but a clear dose–response relationship was exclusively seen among women who declared one lifetime sexual partner.

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• Smoking on rise again  

SMOKERS are on the increase in Ireland despite the introduction of the ban on lighting up in public places nearly three years ago.

The number of smokers reportedly fell from 33 per cent in 1998 to 27 per cent in 2002, but jumped alarmingly to 29 per cent last year, according to a survey published by Ireland's Department of Health.

Anti-smoking lobbyists ASH Ireland have called for a 50 cent increase in the cost of cigarettes, the removal of all smoking advertising from shops and huge investment in educating young people on the risks of tobacco.

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