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Bid to blow away sexy smoke rings around glamorous films  

DOCTORS have called for anti-smoking adverts to be screened before any films and television programmes which "glamorise" smoking.

And the British Medical Association also wants film censors to take smoking in films into account when determining their age classification.

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Fewer heart attacks in wake of smoking ban  

WELSH hospitals reported a big fall in treating heart attacks in the wake of the ban on smoking in public places last year.

In the three months from October to December 2007 - the date when the last full figures are available - there were 4,669 heart-related emergency admissions.

This compares to 5,339 in the same period of 2006 and 5,452 in 2005, according to data released to Plaid Cymru under the Freedom of Information Act.

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• Workingmen’s clubs face last orders 

LAST orders may soon be called at workingmen's clubs across Wales because the smoking ban is dragging down business.

Landlords say bar takings have nose-dived in the last year because regulars are turning their backs on the clubs.

Instead they are choosing to drink at home where they can smoke in peace.

And across Wales club membership numbers have plummeted as the price of supermarket alcohol gets cheaper and cheaper.

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LEE'S FRIENDS AND FAMILY GATHER FOR FITTING TRIBUTE 

Ancient Egyptians were buried with their riches, and Buddhists carry their personal items to the afterworld.But Penlan kitchen porter Lee John was buried with a cigarette in one hand and a can of cider in the other. And that's exactly the send-off he would have wanted, said his mother Carol.

The 21-year-old was found dead on the floor of the family home in Heol Pen Tir Garw, in Penlan, a week ago. Mystery surrounds the cause of his death, but his father Mervyn believes it could be linked to Lee not taking the medication he was prescribed after suffering a head injury seven months ago.

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Fears over Welsh pub closures 

A Welsh pub trade chief has claimed around 100 pubs in the valleys could shut in the next six months - mainly due to the smoking ban.

John Price, secretary of the Licensed Victuallers Association in Wales, told thepublican.com: "I'll give us six months and you won't see many pubs left in the valleys at all."

He said many older people were not prepared to go outside for a cigarette, since the ban was introduced in April 2007.

"It's the weather. Old people will not go outside if it's raining," he added.

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How peer pressure can prevent teenagers smoking  

TEEN smoking can be reduced by training popular secondary school pupils to spread anti-smoking messages.

The scheme, which was developed by experts in Cardiff, could reduce the number of teen smokers in the UK by 43,000 every year.

Research into the effect of the Assist (A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial) programme, which is published today in The Lancet, comes as teen smoking rates - particularly among girls - remain high in Wales.

The latest figures suggest that more than a quarter of children under 16 smoke - 27.5% of girls aged 15 and 16 in Wales smoke. It is thought that many children only choose to smoke if their friends already do.

But peer-pressure can also have a positive impact and result in some children deciding to remain smoke-free.

Professor Laurence Moore, director of the Cardiff Institute of Society, Health and Ethics, which developed the Assist programme, said: "A lot of time and effort goes into encouraging children not to take up regular smoking in schools but that generally hasn't been found to be particularly effective as often kids will do the opposite of what their teachers tell them.

"With the rise in social networking websites, we know that kids are much more responsive to messages they get from their peers."

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• An informal school-based peer-led intervention for smoking prevention in adolescence (ASSIST): a cluster randomised trial. (PDF) 

The absence of any effect on young people who were already smoking every week, as well as their sense of addiction, calls for greater attention to programmes for smoking cessation. The processes that affect initiation are probably different from those that affect progression and maintenance of regular smoking,6 and youth-specific cessation programmes need to become more available to adolescents. There is growing evidence for the promise of interventions for tobacco cessation for young people,8 but more high quality, rigorous controlled trials—like ASSIST—are needed to move this area forward.

We also need to consider other social influence factors that could have an equal, if not greater, effect on youth smoking than could peers. Adolescents are more likely to smoke if a parent smokes, and sibling smoking might have an even stronger effect on an adolescent’s smoking.9,10 Some family interventions might prevent adolescent smoking,11 but rarely do these programmes include a sibling component. Yet siblings, even those who smoke, could be able to provide powerful antismoking messages, given that anecdotally these young people often state that they hope their younger siblings never smoke or become addicted like they are. Siblings remain an untapped resource for the extension of prevention programmes. Social influence processes also come into effect with marketing and advertising by tobacco companies, and some researchers have noted that teenagers are more likely to be influenced to smoke by cigarette advertising than they are by peer pressure.12

Both bold policy solutions and effective interventions are needed to reduce smoking in adolescents. As encouraging as ASSIST’s findings are, an important message is the need to go beyond the classroom setting and into the many domains of social influence that adolescents encounter.

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Training influential school students in anti-smoking messages lowers smoking rates among peers 

Smoking rates among teenagers can be reduced by training influential students within secondary schools to promote anti-smoking messages in their everyday conversations with their friends and peer group. This is the conclusion of authors of an Article in this week's edition of The Lancet.

Whether or not a young person smokes is strongly associated with their friends' smoking behaviour. Peer pressure is often used to explain this finding, although evidence suggests that peer selection, whereby young people choose to associate with like-minded people engaging in similar behaviours, is also a cause, However, peer influence can be protective, leading to attempts to harness it to positive effect through peer education.

Professor Rona Campbell, University of Bristol, UK, and Professor Laurence Moore, Cardiff University, UK, and colleagues did the ASSIST* study in 59 schools across western England and Wales.

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Training Student Leaders Cuts Peers' Smoking Rates 

Training influential students to spread anti-smoking messages in their everyday conversations with peers helps reduce smoking rates, according to a U.K. study.

The study included almost 11,000 students, ages 12 to 13, at 59 schools in western England and Wales. At 30 of the schools, certain students were selected to receive training about the risks of smoking, the economic benefits of not smoking, communication skills, group work, negotiation, conflict resolution, sensitivity to others, personal values, and building confidence and self-esteem. The students at the other 29 schools acted as a control group.

For 10 weeks after their ASSIST (A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial) training, the peer support students talked with other students in their age groups about the benefits of not smoking.

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Influential School Students Can Help Lower Peers' Smoking Rates 

Reduction of smoking rates among teenagers can be achieved by training more influential students in secondary schools to promote anti-smoking messages in everyday conversations with their friends and peers, according to an article released on May 9, 2008 in The Lancet.

A young person's smoking habits are strongly associated with the behaviors their friends perform and usually, this is attributed to peer pressure. However, evidence suggests that peer selection, in which young people tend to choose to associate with like-minded people who engage in similar behaviors to themselves, is also a cause. Peer influence itself is not solely destructive, and can be protective, leading to efforts to harness its positive effects through peer education.

To this end, Professor Rona Campbell, University of Bristol, UK, and Professor Laurence Moore, Cardiff University, UK, and colleagues performed A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST).

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Children's peers are best people to warn of smoking dangers 

The most important health warning that parents can give their children - don't smoke - is best delivered by their friends, researchers have found.

Training children who are popular at school to educate their peers about the dangers of smoking could cut the number who take up the habit by more than a fifth, a study showed. If the same technique were used nationwide, the number of children aged 14 and 15 who take up smoking could be cut by 43,000 a year, researchers estimate.

It is unclear whether young people smoke because their friends do or whether those who choose to smoke associate with others who are similarly inclined. What is clear, according to the researchers from the universities of Bristol and Cardiff, is that peer influence can be protective, if it can be effectively harnessed.

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Cool kids lead smoking fight  

POPULAR school students are spreading the message that smoking isn't cool as part of a unique Cardiff scheme.

Research has found that the A Stop Smoking In Schools Trial programme or "Assist", developed by Cardiff University, could prevent more than 40,000 children from smoking every year.

The programme works by using peer pressure to persuade young teenagers not to become smokers.

Pupils aged 12 and 13 are asked to nominate the people in their year group who they respect and look up to, who are then trained as peer supporters.

They in turn talk to other children their age about the benefits of not smoking.

Professor Laurence Moore, director of the Cardiff Institute of Society, Health & Ethics, which developed the Assist programme, said: "A lot of time and effort goes into encouraging children not to take up regular smoking in schools but that generally hasn't been found to be particularly effective as often kids will do the opposite of what their teachers tell them.

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Stopping smoking in schools 

Smoking rates among teenagers can be reduced by training influential students within secondary schools to promote anti-smoking messages in their everyday conversations with their friends and peer group. This is the conclusion of authors of an article in this week's edition of The Lancet.

Whether or not a young person smokes is strongly associated with their friends' smoking behaviour. Peer pressure is often used to explain this finding, although evidence suggests that peer selection, whereby young people choose to associate with like-minded people engaging in similar behaviours, is also a cause. However, peer influence can be protective, leading to attempts to harness it to positive effect through peer education.

Professor Rona Campbell of the University of Bristol and Professor Laurence Moore of Cardiff University, and colleagues did the ASSIST (A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial) study in 59 schools across western England and Wales.

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• Study suggests cool kids can help others avoid smoking 

Getting the cool kids to talk to their peers about the dangers of smoking cut the number of young people who started using cigarettes in one study by nearly 25 percent, British researchers said on Friday.

The study published in the journal Lancet took a different approach than most tobacco cessation programmes aimed at youths by asking students to nominate others they viewed as influential or leaders to spread the anti-smoking message.

This peer selection proved more effective than conventional programmes and greatly reduced the number of students likely to start smoking, the researchers said.

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Smoking in cab costs taxi driver John £200 in fines  

A SOUTH Wales taxi driver fined after council officials spotted him smoking in his cab has criticised their "Big Brother" attitude.

John Colcomb of Henllys, Trebanog, Rhondda, received two fixed-penalty notices for smoking in a work vehicle and throwing the cigarette butt onto the highway. He is believed to be one of the first cabbies in Wales to be prosecuted under the new smoking ban law introduced last year.

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