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BULLETIN ON HARM OF SMOKING TO BE ISSUED IN ARMENIA 

It is planned to issue a bulletin on harm of smoking in Armenia, said Hrayr Aslanyan, WHO officer for co-ordination and links with Armenia. He said that the bulletin would be launched in November 2002, twice a month and is expected to include articles on the harm of smoking, as well as other news covering the field. The bulletin is funded by WHO. Aslanyan said that it is the first time for 50 years of its activity that WHO leads development of world convention on the given problem.. Signatories to the convention will have to correspondingly change their legislation. By stressing the importance of the convention Aslanyan said that transnational tobacco companies are ready to impede or block any initiative aiming at people's health care and to even sponsor a surrogate science to convince the people that smoking is not harmful.

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IADRD: Smoking Significantly Increases Risk of Alzheimer's Disease Among Those Who Have No Genetic Predisposition 

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- July 25, 2002 -- In a case-control study, a history of cigarette smoking doubled the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease among individuals who were not apolipoprotein E (ApoE) carriers but did not influence risk among ApoE genotype individuals.

The findings were reported here July 23 at the 8th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders.

Sara M. Debanne, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States, said these findings do not confirm those of earlier studies that suggested a protective effect for smoking on risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

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• Carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting effects of cigarette smoke and risk of breast cancer 

Interpretation Our results suggest that cigarette smoke exerts a dual action on the breast, with different effects in premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Our observations reinforce the importance of smoking prevention, especially in early adolescence, and draw attention to the timing of exposure in relation to susceptibility and refractory windows in the design of studies to investigate associations between environmental carcinogens or putative endocrine disruptors and risk of breast cancer.

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Commentary: Cigarette smoking and risk of breast cancer in women ($$) 

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• Rapid review / The prospects for immunotherapy in smoking cessation 

Conclusions

Animal studies suggest that a nicotine vaccine is a biologically plausible immunotherapeutic intervention that could be used to successfully assist cigarette smokers to cease smoking. It has several potential advantages over existing pharmacotherapeutic aids to smoking cessation: it sequesters nicotine in the bloodstream, thereby preventing it from entering the brain, it may have fewer side-effects than drugs that act on the CNS, and it is likely to have better compliance than oral drugs. Animal studies, and early clinical trials of a cocaine vaccine, suggest that trials of a nicotine vaccine are warranted for relapse prevention. A nicotine vaccine need not be perfect to reduce relapse to smoking. Its preventive use in adolescents needs to be approached with caution, and only after considerable experience in using the vaccine for relapse prevention in adult smokers. But concerns about raising unrealistic expectations of the preventive role of a nicotine vaccine in adolesence should not be allowed to undermine its potential value as an aid to relapse prevention and smoking cessation in adult cigarette smokers.

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don't pass it on ; The harmful effects of smoking are well known. But did you know thereare also some very real dangers associated with passive smoking? [Source: Daily Record - Glasgow] 

PASSIVE smoking is the term used for breathing in other people's tobacco smoke.

It is also known as "involuntary" or "second-hand" smoking and is a major source of indoor air pollution and grief for non- smokers.

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Breast Cancer Risk Tied to When Smoking Starts 

Canadian researchers say that a young woman who smokes can increase the risk that she will have breast cancer decades later.

But the researchers also find that cigarette smoking appears to decrease the breast cancer risk for some older women. The research appears in the Oct. 5 issue of The Lancet.

Those apparently conflicting effects stem from the interaction among the carcinogens in cigarette smoke, breast cells and estrogen, the female sex hormone, says Pierre R. Band, lead author of the report. . .

Breast tissue is most sensitive to the cancer-causing effect of carcinogens around the time of puberty, when its cells have not fully developed and are dividing rapidly, Band says. But in older women, those who have gone through menopause, smoking reduces the estrogen activity that can stimulate growth of cancer cells.

Childbearing and body weight also enter the equation, the report says.

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Girl smokers 'risk breast cancer' 

Teenage girls who smoke are in danger of developing breast cancer in their 30s and 40s, according to new research published today.

A study of 700 women has found that adolescent smoking increases the risks of premenopausal breast cancer by 70 per cent.

Canadian researchers who carried out the study believe that breast tissue is most vulnerable to cancer-causing chemicals during puberty.

The findings provide some of the first evidence linking breast cancer and smoking. Although they contradict some earlier studies, scientists say they highlight the importance of stopping teenagers from taking up the habit. . .

Dr Stephen Duffy, of Cancer Research UK, said smoking was known to affect hormone levels, and women who smoked had an earlier menopause.

He said: "This study suggests an increased risk of breast cancer for women who smoke in their teens and a decreased risk of the disease for women who take up smoking later in life, after their first pregnancy. Both of these could be chance findings.

"The effect of smoking on the risks of heart disease, respiratory disorders, lung and other cancers by far outweighs any possible protective effect."

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This study suggests an increased risk of breast cancer for women who smoke in their teens and a decreased risk of the disease for women who take up smoking later in life, after their first pregnancy. Both of these could be chance findings. The effect of smoking on the risks of heart disease, respiratory disorders, lung and other cancers by far outweighs any possible protective effect.
Dr Stephen Duffy, of Cancer Research UK, on the breast cancer study reported in Lancet.

Breast cancer risks for teen smokers 

Smoking as teenagers significantly increases women's risk of going on to develop breast cancer, researchers have found.

Canadian researchers found women who began smoking within five years of starting their periods were around 70% more likely to develop cancer later in life than non-smokers.

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Kicking the habit / Officials drift closer to smoking ban 

With Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino's endorsement of a 100 percent smoking ban a virtual guarantee that it will happen there, Cambridge city councilors and health officials are more optimistic about the city's ability to pass a similar, although less stringent, bill.

Cambridge and Boston are both affiliated with Clean Air Works, a coalition working to ban smoking in workplaces throughout the Boston metropolitan area. The Boston Public Health Commission drafted regulations for a smoking ban on Friday.

"The beauty of what we are doing is we are taking a regional approach. We are not asking Cambridge to go out on a limb. We are not asking Cambridge to do anything alone," said Public Health Director Harold Cox at a working meeting of the City Council's ordinance committee Wednesday, Sept. 25.

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Health alert: cut down on drinking and smoking 

The Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation sound the alarm about drinking and smoking - but will anybody listen?

just as a new report from the Ministry of Health is released, claiming that over 200,000 people in this country are in need of professional treatment to help them combat alcohol abuse, local councils are stressing the need for alcohol guidelines to be issued to schoolchildren. In addition, a WHO (World Health Organisation) conference in Copenhagen has warned that second-hand smoke, so called 'passive smoking,' significantly increases the risk of lung cancer for non-smokers. . .

In addition to the warnings of excessive drinking, the WHO presented some of the conclusions of an unreleased report in Copenhagen this week, which concludes that a non-smoking woman has a 20% greater chance of contracting lung cancer if her spouse smokes, and conversely, a male non-smoker has a 30% greater chance if his wife smokes. Non-smokers have a 16-19 percent increased risk of lung cancer by working alongside smoking colleagues.

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Teen smoking linked to breast cancer 

Girls who start smoking within five years of beginning menstruation could face a significantly higher risk of breast cancer later in life, according to a study released Thursday.

Researchers led by Quebec scientist Pierre Band of Health Canada, the country's federal health department, compared a group of women in British Columbia. They sent questionnaires and got replies from 318 breast cancer patients younger than 75 who were listed in a cancer registry between 1988 and 1989. They also heard from 340 women who did not have breast cancer.

Their analysis, reported in the Oct. 5 issue of the British journal The Lancet, showed the risk of breast cancer increased by approximately 70 percent among women who had been pregnant and who started to smoke within five years of the start of menstruation.

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Teenage smoking may increase breast cancer risk 

Girls who smoke in their early teens might increase their risk of developing cancer by up to 70%, researchers warn today. But early tobacco use appears to be a factor in increasing the threat of developing the disease only before women undergo the menopause.

The researchers say their findings suggest that developing breast tissue is more sensitive to cancer-causing chemicals. About 11% of British girls aged 11 to 15 claim to be regular smokers and the findings of the Canadian study published in the Lancet medical journal will add to the mounting concern about tobacco consumption by girls around puberty.

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NASD, NYSE propose rules on analyst conflicts 

The New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers announced measures Thursday aimed at curbing conflicts of interest by Wall Street analysts and in the way investment banks handle allocations of initial public offerings.

The moves are part of a joint effort by the Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, as well as the NASD and the NYSE, to curb abuses on Wall Street in the face of withering investor confidence. . .

The NASD and the NYSE also said they've tapped former Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible to be chairman of an expert panel to review the allocation of initial public offerings.

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NYSE, NASD propose new rules for research analysts 

The New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers on Thursday issued new rules in a bid to ensure Wall Street firms issue objective research about U.S. companies.

The self-regulatory organizations are also working together to form a committee to investigate the initial public offering process. The committee, expected to issue a report by the end of the year, will investigate how shares of new issues are allocated and how they are priced. . . .The new rules are part of moves by lawmakers and government regulators to crack down on corporate dishonesty.

The IPO committee, still being formed, will be chaired by Geoffrey Bible, the retired chairman and chief executive of Philip Morris Cos. Inc. (NYSE:MO).

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