Tobacco.org

• The aim of the Tobacco Act should be to stop the use of tobacco products  

The Government proposes changing the aim of the Act on Measures to Reduce Tobacco Smoking so that it will be to stop the use of tobacco products. According to the proposal, the display of tobacco products and their trademarks in retail sale facilities will be forbidden in the future. Accordingly, tobacco products may not be sold or otherwise supplied to persons under 18 years, and also the import and possession of tobacco products by them is to be forbidden. Persons selling tobacco products should be aged at least 18 years.

The prohibitions against smoking are proposed to be extended to apply e.g. to facilities used by children and young people and to vehicles, joint facilities of housing real estates, events organised outdoors, and hotel rooms. According to the law proposal the import, sale and other supplying of snuff will be forbidden, but a maximum of 30 packets containing 30 grams snuff may be imported for one's own use. In addition, the sale of tobacco products from automatic vending machines is to be forbidden.

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• Finland to ban smoking in cars carrying children 

The Finnish government on Thursday unveiled a bill to ban smoking in cars carrying children as well as in places frequented by children.

The government proposed a number of amendments in the Act on Measures to Restrict Tobacco Smoking, including penalties for selling or giving tobacco to children and a ban on the import and possession of tobacco by children.

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• Appeal in big tobacco liability case begins today  

A case against two tobacco companies brought by Professor Erkki Aurejärvi continues today, Monday, in the Helsinki Court of Appeals.

Originally, four women wanted compensation for harm caused to their health by “light” cigarettes. The diseases included emphysema and lung cancer. Only two them are still seeking damages from two tobacco companies - British American Tobacco Finland and Amer, the latter of which gave up the tobacco business years ago.

One of the plaintiffs died before the district court session, and the other withdrew her appeal last winter for health reasons.

The plaintiffs lost the first round in Helsinki District Court and each of them were ordered to pay EUR 250,000 in court costs.

The appeals court will have to evaluate if the women were aware of the risks that they were taking when they chose to smoke. . . .

Aurejärvi sees the case as the last tobacco trial involving individual plaintiffs. However, the case could lead to class-action suits if the women are even partially successful, Aurejärvi says.

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• Court of Appeals Hears Cigarette Liability Case 

A lawsuit against two tobacco companies went to the Helsinki Court of Appeals on Monday. The plaintiffs are two women who have smoked for a long time, and who are seeking damages from the Amer Group and the Finnish subsidiary of British-American Tobacco.

While some American victims of smoking-related diseases have managed to Finns have successfully sued tobacco companies for their smoking-related illnesses, this has not happened in Finland.

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• Midlife Heart Risk Factors Linked to Later Dementia  

The things that are bad for your heart in the middle years of life -- high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes -- are bad for your brain in later years, new research indicates.

High cholesterol levels in midlife were associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia many years later, according to scientists in California and Finland, who tracked almost 10,000 men and women for four decades.

"We found an association not only with high blood cholesterol, but also borderline high levels," said study senior author Rachel Whitmer, who is a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente division of research in Oakland. Researchers at the University of Kuopio in Finland also participated in the study. . . .

For those in midlife with borderline-high readings between 200 mg/dl and 239 mg/dl, the increased incidence was 52 percent, according to the study, which was published online in the journal Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders and funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. . . .

The other research, reported in the August issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, followed more than 11,000 American participants in a study of atherosclerosis, the hardening of the arteries that can lead to heart attack, stroke and other major cardiovascular problems.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota, the University of North Carolina, John Hopkins and the University of Mississippi Medical Center measured smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes among the participants from 1990-1992. They then tracked them until 2004 to see how many were hospitalized for dementia.

Smokers were 70 percent more likely to develop dementia than nonsmokers

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• Binge Drinking Increases Risk Of Lung Cancer In Smokers 

The risk of lung cancer increases for those smokers who have a tendency to binge drinking. This was found by the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD), conducted at the University of Kuopio in Finland.

The KIHD study has followed up a cohort of men from eastern Finland for about 17 years. Binge drinking was found be associated with an increased risk of lung cancer among those who had smoked between 1 and 30 years regardless of how many cigarrettes a day they smoked. Meanwhile, binge drinking was not associated with any increased risk of lung cancer among non-smokers.

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• Smoking Is Independent Risk Factor for Cervical Cancer in Women With Oncogenic HPV Types: Presented at IPV 

New research confirms that smoking is an independent risk factor for cervical cancer in women with oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) types, researchers stated here at the 25th International Papillomavirus (IPV) Conference.

"We must emphasise cervical cancer prevention among women exposed to tobacco smoke," said Aline Simen-Kapeau, PhD, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Oulu, Finland, on May 12.

The researchers noted that the strong correlation between smoking and exposure to oncogenic HPV types makes determining the independent role of smoking in cervical carcinogenesis difficult. This study was designed to determine that role.

Data from 5 large Nordic country serum banks with samples from >1 million people were correlated to national cancer registries (1973-2003).

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• Finland wants to renew restrictions on passenger imports of tobacco from other EU countries 

Finland and the other old member-states of the European Union want to restrict personal imports of tobacco products from members that refuse to raise the minimum tax on tobacco. The move would lead to the imposition of new limits on passenger imports just as the old ones are expiring.

In addition to Finland, the move is being supported by a number of other countries with high tobacco tax rates, such as Britain, Sweden, Austria, Germany and Ireland. However, the proposal is problematic for many new EU members, which have only recently achieved or are getting close to the previous minimum duty level. For instance, Latvia's tax level recently reached the minimum level, and that of Estonia is also close. The new member-states agreed to increasing the minimum duty rate only if they were given a long transitional period in implementing it.

Finland and other countries with a high duty payable on tobacco agreed to this only on the condition that they should be allowed to restrict passenger imports from the countries with a new transition period. The EU ministers of finance negotiated on the matter in Brussels on Tuesday. The old member states see the hike in the minimum tax as important, because they fear that their citizens will be bringing in more tobacco products from the Baltic region and Eastern Europe.

Finland is blocking growth in imports from Estonia by imposing a limit on passenger imports on tobacco products in packages which do not have warning labels in Finnish or Swedish.

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• Finland mulls banning display of tobacco 

A Finnish social policy ministerial group on Wednesday proposed a range of measures to restrict access to tobacco, including a ban on the display of tobacco products in most shops.

The group also proposed banning smoking in places where children spend time.

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• Vitamin E May Decrease Mortality Of Elderly Male Smokers, Yet Increase Mortality Of Middle-aged Smokers 

Six-year vitamin E supplementation decreased mortality by 41% in elderly male smokers who had high dietary vitamin C intake, but increased mortality by 19% in middle-aged smokers who had high vitamin C intake, according to a study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. . . .

the effect of vitamin E on respiratory infections has significantly diverged between different population groups suggesting that the effects of vitamin E may not be uniform over all the population.

Dr. Harri Hemila, and Professor Jaakko Kaprio, of the University of Helsinki, Finland, studied whether the effect of vitamin E supplementation on mortality might diverge between different population groups. They analyzed the data of the large randomized trial (Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study) which was conducted in Finland between 1985-1993 and included male smokers aged 50-69 years. There were 3571 deaths in 29,133 participants during the 6-year supplementation of 50 mg/day of vitamin E.

Although vitamin E had no overall effect on mortality, its effect was modified by age and dietary vitamin C intake. Vitamin E had no effect on participants who had low dietary vitamin C intake, less than 90 mg/day. However, in those who had high vitamin C intake, over 90 mg/day, the effect of vitamin E diverged so that it increased mortality in young participants (50-62 years), but decreased mortality in old participants (66-69 years). . . .

The researchers concluded that "in people younger than 65 years, taking vitamin E supplements should be strongly discouraged, until clear evidence emerges that some population groups of younger or middle-aged people benefit". . . .

* Harri Hemilä and Jaakko Kaprio. Modification of the Effect of Vitamin E Supplementation on the Mortality of Male Smokers by Age and Dietary Vitamin C. American Journal of Epidemiology, February 13, 2009

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• Teens Girls Smoke Now, Pay Later With Larger Waistlines As Adults 

Remember the cool girls, huddled together in high school restrooms, puffing their cigarettes? Well, here's consolation for the nerds in the crowd: Those teen smokers are more likely to experience obesity as adults, according to a new study from Finland.

Girls who smoke 10 cigarettes per day or more are at greatest risk, particularly for abdominal obesity. Their waist sizes are 1.34 inches larger than nonsmokers' waists are as young adults, according to the study in the February 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

But smoking in adolescence did not necessarily predict weight problems for men, according to the study.

Scientists know a correlation exists between women's weight and smoking, said lead study author Suoma Saarni, a researcher with the Department of Public Health in Helsinki.

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• Anti-Smoking Working Group Hands in Report  

A government working group considering amendments to the Tobacco Act handed in its report to Health and Social Services Minister, Paula Risikko on Thursday. The report includes proposals for tightening tobacco legislation and introducing anti-smoking programmes.

The report pays particular attention to measures to reduce smoking among young people by changing tobacco laws. Parliament’s Social Affairs and Health Committee has reviewed the existing legislation, with a view to making it possible to impose fines and prison sentences on persons found to guilty of selling tobacco products to under aged persons. The work of the Committee has been led by Justice Minister Tuija Brax.

The working group proposals are part of a blanket agreement on WHO anti-smoking programmes as well as the implementation of an EU directive on the issue.

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• Finns mull ban on candy cigarettes 

Finland's government is considering a ban on candy cigarettes and licorice pipes to discourage young people from smoking the real thing.

The Health Ministry received a study Thursday that proposes outlawing sales of candy in the shape of tobacco products. Ireland banned candy cigarettes in 2007.

The Finnish proposals also suggest banning chewing tobacco and snuff completely and making it illegal for adults to buy tobacco products for people under 18.

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• Teen smokers looking at adult obesity 

TEENAGE girls who smoke more than double their chance of becoming obese in adulthood, according to a study hailed by Australia's Quit organisation as a myth-buster.

The research also found girls who smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day in their teens went on to have waists measuring about 3.5cm larger than non-smokers when they reached their 20s.

Victoria-based Quit Support Programs manager Luke Atkin said the finding was important as many young women still drew a favourable association between smoking and thinness - despite the dire health warnings.

"This study shows smoking as a teen could actually increase your chances of obesity when you are in your 20s," Mr Atkin said.

"For decades the tobacco industry has pushed the idea that smoking somehow equates to being fashionable or glamorous but as this study shows, a teen girl who smokes could be on a fast track to obesity.

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For decades the tobacco industry has pushed the idea that smoking somehow equates to being fashionable or glamorous but as this study shows, a teen girl who smokes could be on a fast track to obesity.
Victoria-based Quit Support Programs manager Luke Atkin, on the recent Finnish study.

• Teens Girls Smoke Now, Pay Later With Larger Waistlines as Adults  

Girls who smoke 10 cigarettes per day or more are at greatest risk, particularly for abdominal obesity. Their waist sizes are 1.34 inches larger than nonsmokers’ waists are as young adults, according to the study in the February 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

But smoking in adolescence did not necessarily predict weight problems for men, according to the study.

Scientists know a correlation exists between women’s weight and smoking, said lead study author Suoma Saarni, a researcher with the Department of Public Health in Helsinki. However, she added, “We do not know why smoking did not affect men’s weight, as we do not know why smoking affected women’s weight.”

The study followed twins born between 1975 and 1979

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