Iran - 20% of fatalities caused by tobacco..

January 4, 2010 - TEHRAN, Dec. 29 (MNA) -- Smoking is responsible for about 15-20 percent of death in Iran and women account for 5-10 percent of these fatalities, the head of Tehran Lipid And Glucose Study Group, Amir Abbas Momenan announced here on Tuesday, December 29th. Smoking reduces life span by 20 years, and about 5 million people in the world lose their life due to smoking per year, Momenan noted.

Referring to the group’s 12-year studies, he said, there has been a decrease in number of smokers in Tehran over the past 12 years. The smoker rate in the capital city has decreased to 11 percent in 2009 from 24 percent in 1997, Momenan stated.

Tobacco is the second major preventable cause of death in the world. It increases the risk of cancer and diabetes in humans, Momenan added. Stressing the role of cigarette smoking in increasing the risk of clogging of the arteries and heart attacks in several ways, he said that smoking causes several changes in the blood that make clots -- and heart attack -- more likely.

According to the World Health Organization, one in ten deaths among adults worldwide is caused by tobacco. Tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century. Just in 2005, it caused an average of one death every six seconds. If current trends continue, the death toll is expected to reach over 8 million annually by 2030 and could hit one billion deaths in the 21st century.

So let’s quit smoking in order to be healthier and live longer, recommends the research center.

Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study, is one of the center of the Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences (RIES), working on cardiovascular risk factors in Iran. The RIES is the first and one of the major medical research institutes of the Islamic Republic. Affiliated to Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBUMS), it has been active for about twenty years.

Reference: 20% of fatalities caused by tobacco, MEHRNEWS.com, 12/30/2009.

Iran - news briefs:
Iran - 94% of drug seizures in world occur in Iran..;
Iran - over 45% of Iranians exposed to secondhand smoke..;
Iran - graphic warnings cigarette packs..;
Cigarettes, bras and Bull semen: Just a few things the US exports to Iran...

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Australia, New South Wales - court of appeals rejects BAT's request to remove judge..

January 4, 2009 - Back in November 2009 the New South Wales (NSW) Court of Appeal was asked by British American Tobacco (BAT) that Judge Jim Curtis should be disqualified because of a pre-trial ruling he made in a similar case in 2006 about its destruction of documents.

BAT Australia's application to have Curtis dismissed in the latest case has been rejected by two judges. The court of appeal in New South Wales said that BAT had caused "a real risk of a diminution of public confidence in the administration of justice'' by seeking to have Curtis removed. In a damning summary, it said that upholding BAT's challenge would lead the public to believe the company had "manipulated the system in the hope of obtaining a more favourable outcome from a different judge."

British American Tobacco Australia Services Ltd v Laurie & Ors [2009] NSWCA 414 HEARING DATE(S): 25 November 2009, JUDGMENT DATE: 17 December 2009

BAT which each year produces 715 billion cigarettes in 41 countries and employs more than 50,000 people. The company last year made global profits of almost £2.7bn.

BAT has been fighting lawsuits in Australia for almost a decade. On 11 April 2002, a jury ordered BAT Australia to pay Rolah McCabe A$700,000 (£390,000) in damages, the first award of its kind.

McCabe was a 51-year-old woman dying of lung cancer who was said to have started smoking at the age of nine. She alleged that BAT Australia knew cigarettes were addictive and dangerous, and that, through its advertising, the company had targeted children. McCabe died six months after the initial ruling in her case, which first revealed evidence of BAT Australia's policy of destroying documents.

BAT Australia was not immediately available for comment. But its parent company has pledged to vigorously contest all lawsuits brought against it.

The company states on its website: "The tobacco industry has a strong record of winning these cases and we, along with many analysts, believe this will continue, although it's always possible that sometime, somewhere, a smoking and health case will be lost."

Reference: 'Arrogant' BAT tried to remove a judge Tobacco company loses application in cancer case, Jamie Doward, home affairs editor, The Observer - Guardian.co.uk, 1/3/2010.
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OHIO - appeals court rules state can use money set aside for tobacco prevention..

January 4, 2010 - A Franklin County Common Pleas Judge ruled on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 that state officials had no authority to divert $230 million from an anti-tobacco fund to balance the recently approved state budget.

On Thursday, December 31, 2009 an Ohio three-member appeals court ruled the state can use about $230 million set aside for tobacco prevention for other purposes overturning a trial court's decision - the case above.

The 10th District Court of Appeals said Ohio could spend the tobacco prevention money — which had originally been given to the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Foundation — on an expansion of health care for children and optional Medicaid services.

The American Legacy Foundation had received the funds in question from the tobacco prevention and control group in an effort to prevent them from being spent by lawmakers on other priorities. The American Legacy Foundation argued that the state had created an irrevocable trust, in custody of but not part of the state treasury, that could not later be used for purposes outside tobacco use prevention.

The court ruled that it's up to the Legislature to decide whether it wants to fund programs through the normal budgeting process or through a custodial account, such as the tobacco prevention foundation. "But the fact that the General Assembly chooses the latter path does not mean that funds placed in a custodial account are shielded in perpetuity from future legislation," the judges wrote.

The state can't access the funds until the case is resolved, which depends on whether the American Legacy Foundation decides to appeal Thursday's ruling to the Ohio Supreme Court. That decision has not yet been made, said General Counsel Ellen Vargyas. "We are going to carefully review it and we will be guided by what has always been our goal, which is to protect this money to save the lives of the people of Ohio," Vargyas said.

Lawmakers originally wanted to use the tobacco money as part of a $1.57 billion economic stimulus package approved in 2008. But a lawsuit prevented it from doing so.
Then lawmakers diverted the money in the latest two-year budget to expand children's health insurance and provide optional dental and vision coverage through Medicaid.

Reference: Court: Ohio can use tobacco money to plug budget by STEPHEN MAJORS, The Associated Press - Dayton Daily News, 12/31/2009.


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Denmark - in one year the number of smokers dropped from 28% to 23%..

January 4, 2010 - In the space of a year, the number of smokers has shifted from roughly every fourth to every fifth person

An extensive joint study involving 5000 people conducted by the National Board of Health, the Heart Foundation, the Lung Association and the Cancer Society, has found a dramatic decline in the number of people who smoke.

Only 23 percent of the population smokes regularly now, compared to 28 percent in 2008. Health board chief consultant Jørgen Falk said the figure almost sounded ‘too good to be true’.

But even with the data adjusted for an under-representation of people without formal educations – who statistics indicate tend to smoke more – this was the steepest decline in smoking ever recorded, Falk told Politiken newspaper. He said that normally the proportion of smokers fell by one to two percent per year.

The study also showed that men smoke more than women, with 26 percent of males still puffing, compared to 21 percent of the women.

Reference: Habit going up in smoke, the Copenhagen Post online, 12/30/2009.

For other news briefs concerned with Denmark - do a random search, i.e., enter Denmark on the search line..
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New Zealand - Maori women - almost 50% smoke..

January 4, 2010 - Dr Marewa Glover, the director of the Tobacco Control Research Centre at Auckland University, wants more attention paid to addressing the alarmingly high number of Maori (native people of New Zealand) women who smoke. While there has been a marked reduction in smoking among teenagers, including Maori - which health officials expect will lead to a reduction in the number of adults smoking - the number of Maori women who smoke remains high at just under 50 per cent.

This is far higher than the 20 per cent smoking rate for the whole population aged 15 to 64. It is also higher than Maori men, who, at 40 per cent, are the next highest smoking group, based on ethnicity and gender. Not surprisingly, the high Maori smoking rate leads to high death rates from diseases caused by smoking. The death rate from lung cancer among Maori women is more than 4 times the non-Maori rate.

The primary concern for Dr Glover is Maori women of child-bearing age, because tobacco smoke harms a pregnant woman and her fetus. She lists the risks to the child - miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, low birth-weight, sudden unexpected death in infancy, respiratory illness and, later, taking up smoking.

College of Midwives adviser Alison Eddy said many smokers who were not heavily addicted often quit when they found they were pregnant, meaning those who were still smoking at the point of engaging a midwife were probably heavily addicted to nicotine. At this point, a college survey shows, about 45 percent of pregnant Maori women are smokers. This drops to 29 per cent when the baby is born, mirroring the reduction during pregnancy when all ethnicities are counted together. But the Maori rate of smoking in pregnancy is more than twice that for all women.

Dr Glover said: "Our absolute priority group in New Zealand has got to be Maori pregnant women who smoke. That means we have to reduce smoking prevalence among Maori women, particularly of child-bearing age."

Some Maori were fine to use the national Quitline; others needed specialised Maori services. Dr Glover said some of the Maori services received a level of funding that was disproportionately low for the population they were expected to serve.

Reference; Maori women pay price for their high addiction rate by Martin Johnston, New Zealand Herald 1/5/2010.

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