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Scare-tactic pics to adorn cigarette packs 

Based on a recommendation from the Prevention Commission, the Health Ministry will now place pictures of cancer-stricken adults and children on cigarette packages in an effort to get smokers to think twice about lighting up, reports MetroXpress newspaper.

Pictures of blackened lungs, bodies lying in a morgue and children with oxygen masks have been proposed as some the ministry may use as part of its plan.

‘I think the idea for using pictures is a good one,’ said Jakob Axel Nielsen, the health minister. ‘I believe it will be implemented when the government launches its national prevention-based health plan after the summer holidays.’

But Nielsen does not need the government’s backing to put the proposal into effect.

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Smoking Linked to Risk for Pancreatitis 

Smoking appears to be associated with an increased risk for acute and chronic pancreatitis, according to the results of an observational, population-based cohort study reported in the March 23 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Alcohol and gallstone disease are the most established risk factors for pancreatitis," write Janne Schurmann Tolstrup, MSc, PhD, from the University of Southern Denmark in Copenhagen, and colleagues. "Smoking is rarely considered to be a cause despite the fact that a few studies have indicated the opposite. We aimed to assess the independent effects of smoking on the risk of pancreatitis."

The study cohort consisted of 9573 women and 8332 men in Denmark who underwent a physical examination and completed self-administered questionnaires about lifestyle habits at baseline, and who were followed up for a mean of 20.2 years. Record linkage with the Danish national registries allowed determination of incident cases of acute and chronic pancreatitis.

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Smoking and Risk of Acute and Chronic Pancreatitis Among Women and Men: A Population-Based Cohort Study 

Conclusion

In this population of Danish men and women, smoking was independently associated with increased risk of pancreatitis.

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Study Links Smoking to Increased Risk of Pancreatitis  

Smoking may increase your risk of pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas that causes abdominal pain.

It's believed that gallstone disease and excess alcohol consumption can cause pancreatitis. Smoking is a suspected cause of pancreas damage, but it hasn't been clear whether smoking is an independent risk factor for pancreatitis, according to background information in a study by researchers in Denmark.

They analyzed about 20 years of data from 17,905 people to determine if smoking was associated with increased risk of acute or chronic pancreatitis. The researchers said that 58 percent of the 9,573 women and 68 percent of the 8,332 men were current smokers, 15 percent and 19 percent of men were ex-smokers, and 28 percent of women and 13 percent of men had never smoked.

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• Smokers at Increased Risk for Pancreatitis  

Action Points

* Explain to interested patients that the established risk factors for pancreatitis are alcohol use and gallstones.

* Note that this cohort study found that almost half the cases of the illness were associated with tobacco use, independent of the other risk factors.

* Point out that this study cannot prove causality.

The finding, from a large Danish cohort study, adds tobacco use to the established pancreatitis risk factors of alcohol use and gallstone disease, according to Janne Schurmann Tolstrup, Ph.D., of the University of Southern Denmark, and colleagues.

The increased risk was roughly the same in both men and women and increased with the amount of tobacco smoked, the researchers said in the March 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

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Open talks on teenage substance abuse prove a success 

A US inspired programme to teach teenagers about drinking and smoking has proved so successful that it will now receive city funding

A new programme to curb teenagers’ alcohol and smoking habits will be implemented in 67 city schools, with six already showing positive results, reports Metroxpress newspaper.

The programme, called ‘Tackling’, is modelled after the US Life Skills Training programme

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Sweet toothed smokers will pay for proposed tax reform 

Duties on luxury goods and unhealthy foods could rise as part of a government overhaul of the taxation system

The government announced it wants to increase charges on tobacco, candy and saturated fats as part of its tax reform

Under the planned tax reforms the government has announced increased duties on cigarettes, candy and ice cream in a bid to help us live healthier.

The increased duties are expected to fatten the state coffers by an extra 1.45 billion kroner.

The duty will be raised by 3 kroner for a pack of 20 cigarettes, while rolled tobacco will be levied by 120 kroner per kilogram.

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Smoking-Low Birth Weight Link Explained in Part  

A mechanism linking smoking during pregnancy to low birth weight has been identified by Danish researchers.

They found that smoking during pregnancy lowers production of an enzyme called endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), which regulates blood vessel dilation. Reduced production of eNOS causes narrowing of blood vessels and less blood flow to the fetus, resulting in lower birth weight, shorter length and smaller head circumference.

But the researchers also found that if women quit smoking early in pregnancy, eNOS levels return to normal, and infants are born at normal birth weight. The findings were published in the Feb. 2 online issue of Circulation.

"This study in one of the first to show a biochemical measurement of what is going on to cause the lower birth weight," said study author Malene Rohr Andersen, project manager of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Gentofte University Hospital.

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• Survey: Smoking on the decline in Denmark 

Smoking is on the decline in Denmark where roughly one in four people smoke daily, a new survey published Monday said. A record number of Danish smokers also want to quit the habit, the survey said.

The findings also indicated that there is support for hiking tobacco prices - such a move was supported by 59 per cent and opposed by just 19 per cent.

In all 23 per cent of Danish nationals over 15 years of age smoke daily, totalling roughly 1 million people. In addition some 200,000 people, or 5 per cent of the population, smoke occasionally, the new survey said.

A year ago, 24 per cent of the Scandinavian country's some 5.5 million people were estimated to smoke daily.

Smoking was less prevalent among younger sections

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Danish Rockstar Uses Nazi Slogan to Protest Smoking Ban 

A pro-smoking campaign launched in Denmark by one of the country's best-known rockstars features a notorious Nazi slogan. The country's modest Jewish community is refusing to take offense.

As frontman of Gasolin', a seminal rock band which enjoyed its heyday in the 1970s, Kim Larsen has always been one of the bad boys of Danish rock. And like any self-respecting hellraiser, he's vociferously anti-establishment.

In the best rock 'n' roll tradition, he's also a die-hard smoker. So it comes as no surprise that he doesn't like the EU's anti-smoking laws introduced in Denmark one year ago, which ban smoking in public bars and restaurants. . . .

Not the type who likes being told what to do, Larsen recently helped fund an advertising campaign revolving around the slogan "Tillykke med rygeforbudet -- Gesundheit macht frei!!!"

The first claim means "good luck with the smoking ban" in Danish, while the German slogan "health sets you free" is an obvious allusion to the Nazi slogan "Arbeit macht frei," or "work sets you free," which was placed at the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps, such as Auschwitz and Dachau.

"The people who introduced the smoking ban are health fascists," Larsen has been quoted as saying.

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• Tobacco law finally here 

Legislators have described as historic, last week's passage of a law that will ban smoking in many public places and place tougher restrictions on the promotion, sale and distribution of tobacco products.

Cigar smokers will still be able to smoke indoors under an exemption for cigar bars. Photo: James Dimond

After receiving unanimous approval in the Legislative Assembly, the bill will now go to Governor Stuart Jack for his assent.

Most parts of the bill are expected to come into force within six months of Mr. Jack signing off on the law, although Mr. Eden said he expects enforcement officers will give the public some leeway as they get used to the new anti-smoking regime.

"It's not about prosecuting people, it's about the health of the nation,

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Authority revokes rocker's smoking right  

A concert hall in Jutland is being forced to change its position on allowing musician Kim Larsen to smoke when he performs there next week

Musician Kim Larsen will not be allowed to smoke at Esbjerg's Musikhuset after all when his band performs there next week, reports public broadcaster DR. . . .

Larsen, an activist for smokers' rights, had been granted the allowance by Musikhuset director Torben Seldrup, who said that smoking was a part of 'popular musicians' artistic expression'.

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Tobacco giant achieved billion kroner profit 

In spite of a new smoking legislation and a lot of Danes giving up smoking, the bottom line of Skandinavisk Tobakskompagni (Scandinavian Tobacco Company) was unaffected. The profit for the last financial year 2007/2008 amounted to DKK 2.37 billion before taxes compared to DKK 2.34 billion the previous year. The profit after taxes amounted to DKK 1.62 billion, a small increase of DKK 4 million compared to the previous year. The Group’s revenue amounted to DKK 44 billion compared to DKK 42 billion the previous year.

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• Age limit for tobacco goes up - Politiken.dk 

A new law takes effect on Monday making it illegal for young people under the age of 18 to purchase tobacco or to introduce tobacco to Denmark from abroad.

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Scare tactics mark anti-smoking campaign  

Australia has developed a successful anti-smoking campaign featuring graphic images of the harm smoking can cause. . . .

Only 15 percent of Australians are daily smokers, while 25 percent of the Danish population need their daily cigarettes.

Jakob Axel Nielsen, the health minister, told DR that he wants to introduce a similar campaign involving graphic images to Denmark.

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