The UN agency said Indonesia is facing compounding burdens from both NCDs and communicable diseases.
Samlee Plianbangchang, WHO regional director for Southeast Asia, said on Wednesday that most NCDs could be prevented or eliminated by early detection, good diet, exercise and access to treatment. "If one family member is ill, it can draw other family members into a downward spiral of worsening health and unrelenting poverty. Many countries will face difficulties in allocating budgets for NCDs unless they begin re-prioritising their efforts and funding," Plianbangchang was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying, adding that effective control of NCDs would be cheaper than treatment, both for governments and families.
In 2005, the WHO found that NCDs accounted for 54 percent of the 14.7 million annual deaths in South East Asia, with cardiovascular disease as the number-one NCD (28 percent). According to the WHO, of all deaths cause by NCDs, 22 percent were in Southeast Asia, the Jakarta Post reported.
The WHO estimated that the region would see an increasing number of deaths from NCD, estimating a 21 percent increase between 2006 and 2015.
In 2008, the WHO found that breast cancer and lung cancer were the top NCDs. The 2008 report showed that 36.2 percent of breast cancer cases were found in Indonesian women younger than 40, and 29.8 percent of lung cancer cases in men younger than 30.
The Global Adult Tobacco survey, conducted between 2008 and 2010, showed that Indonesia ranked first among Southeast Asian nations in smoking prevalence among adults with 65.2 percent of men and 4.5 percent of women. According to the WHO, the top risk factors causing NCDs are the between 8 percent and 26 percent of adults who do not get physical exercise as advised by physicians, the 250 million smokers in Southeast Asia, around 80 percent of the citizens do not eat enough fruits and vegetables and obesity among children and teenagers. Health minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said that the percentage of deaths from NCDs in Indonesia in 1995 was 41.7 percent. In 2007, the figure was 59.5 percent, according to the Basic Health Research conducted that same year. She added that strokes accounted for 15.4 percent of the deaths, the highest cause of death by degenerative disease. Endang said the ministry covered 60 percent of the provinces for NCDs as the ministry also focused on communicable diseases in certain regions. "But we realise we need to carry out preventative measures for NCDs before it's too late. I have asked the related division to make simple leaflets on how to cut the consumption of salt, sugar and fritters," she said.
Reference: Indonesia warned on rising degenerative diseases, Intellasia | Xinhua, intellasia.net, 3/5/2011.
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WHO warns Southeast asian nations rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer and diabetes..
New Zealand - New Plymouth central business district - councillors against smoking ban..
Clip on map to enlarge..
Of the 11 councillors contacted, eight were against the proposed ban that Taranaki District Health Board health promoter Jill Nicholls called for at a meeting of the New Plymouth District Council on Tuesday. Ms Nicholls, in her deputation, spoke of a vision of the tobacco industry being dead in New Zealand by 2020 and asked councillors to consider a smoking ban in the CBD to support the idea.
There were two questions asked of councillors yesterday:
When was the last time you had a cigarette and how do you feel about a proposed smoking ban in the New Plymouth CBD?
Three of the councillors spoken to had never smoked or had only tried it as a teenager, yet two of these councillors didn't support the smoking ban. Despite eight of the councillors being reformed smokers, most weren't bothered enough by other smokers to want a ban enforced.
Councillors spoke of the difficulty in policing a ban and many touched on it being a human right's issue or a matter of personal choice.
Comment of Alex Matheson
"I haven't had a cigarette in many years, I would have been in my 30s probably.
"I think a CBD smokefree proposal might be contrary to human rights."
Reference: Smoking ban a bridge too far for most councillors JO MOIR, Taranaki Daily News online, 3/3/2011.
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By law, oral snuff cannot (but nasal snuff is allowed) be sold in New Zealand and can be imported only for personal use..
Read more...
South Australia - 100 percent smoke-free outdoor eating and drinking in South Australia by 2016..
March 2, 2011 - 
An interesting fact:Smoking will be banned near South Australian playgrounds and councils will be given powers to ban it in public. The changes, which also ban cigarettes being displayed in shops and service stations, will come into force in January, 2012.
South Australia led the nation by introducing a law prohibiting smoking in vehicles in the presence of people under 16 in May 2007, in a bid to protect children from passive smoking. South Australia to ban smoking in cars with young passengers, May 7, 2008..
Directly related news brief: South Australia enforcing law to protect children from passive smoke in cars...
The State Government wants to reach a point where smoking is only allowed in the home, claiming its new five-year South Australian Tobacco Control Strategy 2011-2016 is a step towards this. The strategy bans smoking under public transport shelters and covered waiting taxi areas, as well as within 10m of playgrounds.
The new five-year South Australian Tobacco Control Strategy 2011-2016 will be released for public comment later this month. SOUTH Australian Tobacco Control Strategy 2005 - 2010.
Smoking will be banned in bus, tram and train shelters, at taxi stands and near playgrounds under tougher restrictions to be introduced in South Australia.
The new measures will also allow local councils and other bodies to have events declared smoke-free while cigarettes will no longer go on display in shops or service stations from January next year.
Specialist tobacconists will have until 2015 to adjust to the new measures.
Health Minister John Hill said removing all tobacco products from display would remove a strong inducement for young people to take up smoking and would help ex-smokers stay on course.
He said the hospitality industry should also prepare for a time when smoking was banned in all outdoor eating and drinking areas.
"States and territories across Australia are moving inexorably towards smoke-free outdoor eating and drinking areas to protect the health and wellbeing of their staff and customers," Mr Hill said.
"Hotels and restaurants have already complied with the introduction in 2007 of smoking restrictions in all enclosed areas and many have provided outdoor areas for customers who want to smoke.
"However, our clear ambition is for 100 percent smoke-free outdoor eating and drinking in South Australia, and we want to achieve that by 2016."
Mr Hill said three South Australians died every day from tobacco-related illness and an estimated $2.39 billion was lost to SA's economy each year in health costs and lost productivity related to smoking. "Every smoker who gives up and every young person who decides not to start is a life potentially saved and these measures will contribute to that important goal," he said.
Cancer Council figures show 72 per cent of South Australians are concerned about passive smoking. Quit SA says most smokers have made a previous attempt to quit the habit and half intend to try and stop within the next six months.
References: SA public smokers gone in a puff, Tessa Akerman and Callie Watson, couriermail.com.au, 3/3/2011; Tougher anti-smoking measures for SA,Australian Associated Press (AAP), au.news.yahoo.com, 3/2/2011.
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South Australia enforcing law to protect children from passive smoke in cars... Read more...
Tasmania - Cancer Council Calls For Tightening Anti-Smoking Laws..
March 2, 2010 - The Tasmanian Government is being urged to speed up moves to tighten anti-smoking laws. In August last year, the state government flagged tougher tobacco laws, including a ban on smoking in playgrounds and sporting venues.
Recent data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that Tasmania has the highest proportion of current smokers of all states and territories. The proportion of people over the age of 18 who reported that they were current smokers in Tasmania was 25% which is well above the national average of 20.1% (ABS, 2009).Launceston is the latest city to go smoke-free in parts of its central business district (CBD).
Smoking rates in young women of child-bearing age are extraordinarily high in Tasmania, even during pregnancy. A total of 35.7% of all public patients who were pregnant in 2005 reported that they smoked (DHHS, 2009).
Nationally, the Preventative Health Taskforce has set out its plan to reduce the prevalence of daily smoking to 10% by 2020. Tasmania Together targets for the proportion of Tasmanians aged 18 and over who are current smokers in 2010 is 15%, 12% by 2015 and 10% by 2020
(benchmark 3.3).
Cardiovascular disease
A time for action in Tasmania Heart Foundation budget submission 2010-2011 to
2013-2014, 12/10/2009.
Alderman Ivan Dean says the Council was not willing to wait for the Tasmanian parliament. "It would be probably be two years before we'd see it before Parliament or at least put into action," he said.
The Cancer Council's Darren Carr wants the government to introduce legislation when parliament resumes next week. "In the past we've been leading tobacco control, but now we've been overtaken by several other states."
In a statement, the Health Minister, Michelle O'Byrne, says she is committed to reducing the number of Tasmanians that smoke.
Reference: Push for anti-smoking laws, ABC, au.news.yahoo.com, 3/2/2011.
A related news brief - Burnie City Council..
Tasmania, Australia - local council calls for complete ban on the sale and use of tobacco products... Read more...
FDA TPSAC - Menthol Draft Report - two draft chapters released..
March 2, 2011 - "The FDA-led investigation into menthol in US cigarettes continues, with the full report due by 23 March 2011.
Directly related:
FDA TPSAC - Draft Report - Menthol May NOT Raise Smoker's Risk..
Two further draft chapters of the report were released last night.
CHAPTER 3: THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF MENTHOL CIGARETTES
CHAPTER 6: EFFECTS OF MENTHOL ON THE DISEASE RISKS OF SMOKING
It remains our view that menthol will not be banned from US cigarettes but we continue to believe that there remains headline risk around the (non-binding) report to the FDA to be published by TPSAC (Tobacco products scientific advisory committee).
Reference: J.P. Morgan Overweight On Altria (MO) by Roger Nachman, Benzinga Staff Write 3/1/201.
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