Newsroom

Big Tobacco's brazen denials and dirty tricks

Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:28:33 +1200

3 September 2011 - The NZ Herald
Ever since the link between smoking and lung cancer was established more than 50 years ago, the tobacco industry has displayed extraordinary tenacity when it comes to denying the scientific evidence showing that smoking kills.

In 1952, British scientist Richard Doll, working with his mentor Professor Bradford Hill, compiled a seminal study published in the British Medical Journal that established a "real association between carcinoma of the lung and smoking".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/Big Tobacco

New law: Smokes, tobacco in shops to be hidden

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:28:33 +1200

15 July 2011 - The NZ Herald
Tobacco products and advertisements will have to be kept out of sight in shops under a law passed by Parliament yesterday.

www.nzherald.co.nz/smoking/news/article

No ban on anti-smoking drug linked to heart attacks

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:28:33 +1200

5 July - 3 News / RadioLive
The Ministry of Health will not ban a potentially harmful quit-smoking drug because it believes the benefits outweigh the risks.

A study has found that middle aged men using Champix have a 72 percent higher chance of suffering heart problems resulting in hospitilisation or death.

But Dr Enver Yousuf from Medsafe says the agency will not take any immediate action.

www.3news.co.nz

New alert over drug to quit smoking

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:28:33 +1200

5 July 2011 - The NZ Herald
Researchers have issued a new caution over the use of Champix quit-smoking tablets after finding they are linked to a 72 per cent increased risk of heart attacks and related conditions.

The Ministry of Health said last week it would recheck the safety of Champix. This followed the investigation of reviews by medicines regulators in Canada and the United States.

www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article

Nicotine replacements poisoning kids

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 13:28:58 +1300

3 March 2011 - NZ Herald
People who use nicotine replacement therapy are being warned of the harm it can do to children - after a huge rise in calls to the National Poisons Centre and three "serious exposures".

Nicotine gum, lozenges and related products are safe if used by smokers at recommended dosages, but major overdoses can cause symptoms including irregular pulse, breathing difficulties and, in some cases, death.

The Government, through the Quit Group, promotes and subsidises nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) as a quit-smoking aid.

The National Poisons Centre has recorded a steady increase in the number of calls it receives about the exposure of children to NRT, from five in 2004 to 27 in 2009 and 49 last year.

In a report this year to the Ministry of Health, the centre says paediatricians have noticed an increased number of children being exposed to NRT.

"There have been three serious exposures recently in Nelson."

Nelson-Marlborough District Health Board paediatrician Dr Nick Baker said yesterday that three pre-schoolers had been hospitalised with symptoms including nausea, salivation, agitation and vomiting.

They recovered.

"Many people carry around a potentially lethal dose of nicotine. We advise that people treat their nicotine replacement therapy as a medicine and keep it out of reach of children."

The poisons centre report says in one case it investigated, the child had ingested 25 pieces of gum.

www.nzherald.co.nz

Bootleg cigarettes contain ASBESTOS, trading standards chief warns

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:29:06 +1300

1st February 2011 - MailOnline
Smokers looking for a bargain have been warned not to buy a bootleg brand of cigarettes from Russia, after it was found to contain asbestos.

The warning came from trading standard chiefs after a batch of Jin Ling cigarettes was reportedly offered around British pubs and clubs.

The cigarettes, which come in yellow packs with the words Jin Ling and USA emblazoned across the front, are thought to be twice as strong as an ordinary cigarettes.

Many of those tested have been revealed to contain toxins such as industrial chemicals and asbestos-lined Chinese drywall.

www.dailymail.co.uk/health

Nicotine in cigarettes linked to breast cancer

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:28:33 +1200

24 August 2010 - The NZ Herald (the findings are published in the Journal of National Cancer Institute)
Nicotine in cigarettes has been linked to breast cancer for the first time as researchers find the substance may promote the growth of tumours.

Nicotine is the chemical in cigarettes which causes addiction and has now been linked to the development of breast cancer.

Previously smoking was not thought to be a major cause of breast cancer although it is known to increase the risk of several other forms of the disease.

Researchers at Taipei Medical University examined 276 samples from human breast cancer tumours and found the cells had large numbers of receptors which nicotine was able to attach to when compared with normal cells.

www.telegraph.co.uk/health

Smoking: Why women are at great risk

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:28:33 +1300

15 December 2009 - The Sunday Telegraph
We all know that smoking is bad for us, but women are more vulnerable than men when it comes to some of the potential nasty outcomes.

www.heraldsun.com.au/news/sunday-heraldsun

Quit-smoking pill sparks health warning

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:28:33 +1200

19 May 2009 - NZ Herald
Health authorities have issued a new warning on the mental health risks of a quit-smoking pill introduced to New Zealand in 2007.

More than 3300 people were prescribed Champix, which contains the chemical varenicline, in the first year of its use in New Zealand.

There were 22 reports of people experiencing depression for the first time after taking Champix. Recurrence or worsening of existing depression, and other psychiatric and neurological symptoms, were also reported.

The majority of the new cases of depression were probably caused by the tablets, according to the Intensive Medicines Monitoring Programme, which collected the data from pharmacists and doctors. Three of these people also thought about suicide and two of these cases were resolved after stopping the medicine, says the programme's director, Dr Mira Harrison-Woolrych, in a Health Ministry newsletter to prescribers.

"Psychiatric reactions have emerged as a potential safety issue with varenicline and patients should be advised accordingly," she says.

Dr Stewart Jessamine, group manager of the ministry's Medsafe unit, said yesterday the monitoring programme's findings reflected international experience with Champix.

"Since the introduction of Champix to New Zealand there have been additional warning statements around neuro-psychiatric side-effects in particular. We knew from clinical trials it could cause neuro-psychiatric side-effects. Their frequency has become more obvious as it has been used in the general population; therefore the data sheet was updated to reflect the increased risks over time."

The international consensus of major drug regulators was that the benefits outweighed the risks, but patients should carefully read the information supplied with the product.

Dr Jessamine said it was not known whether the patients involved in the monitoring were smoking at the time of their adverse reactions.

Dr Harrison-Woolrych's article notes that nicotine withdrawal can itself cause depression and other psychiatric symptoms.

Dr Jessamine said similar psychiatric side-effects had been reported by users of another quit-smoking medicine, Zyban, although it had not been intensively monitored because it was not the first in a new class of drugs.

The Champix data sheet says serious symptoms have continued in some using the medicine even when they continued to smoke.

"Although a causal association between Champix and these symptoms has not been established, in some reports the association cannot be excluded.

"Patients being treated with Champix and their families should be alerted to the need to monitor for neuro-psychiatric symptoms including changes in behaviour, agitation, aggression, depressed mood, suicidal ideation, and suicidal behaviour."

By Martin Johnston

www.nzherald.co.nz

British American Tobacco is a ‘funky, friendly and fun’ place

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:28:43 +1300

30 November 2008 - Sunday Star-Times
ASH had this letter published in response to an article in the Sunday Star-Times about how British American Tobacco is a ‘funky, friendly and fun’ place to work.

“De-funked
Funky, friendly and fun, with time off to plant trees- that’s life at work for the folk who make our cigarettes [‘A Breath of Fresh Air’, November 16].

I wonder if British American Tobacco would extend the tree-planting scheme to include time off to lay flowers on the graves of 4500 people who were killed by their products last year? I wonder how friendly the families of the tobacco victims would be to the BAT staff who are ‘funking it up’ with the proceeds of the product that killed their loved ones.

It’s no wonder BAT has to be such a fun place to work. The gorgeous harbour view offices, plenty of time off, community work and overseas travel all help to ease the conscience when your job is to addict people to a product that kills one in two of your customers. The motto to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom is ‘lest we forget’; it seems the motto for BAT seems nearer to ‘best we forget’ those who gave their lives for our funk. Ironically, the work ‘funk’ is an obsolete term for smoking – something not a lot of BAT employees interviewed seem keen on doing themselves.

Frankly, BAT can funk off.

Ben Youdan (Director, ASH New Zealand), Auckland"

www.ash.org.nz/site

Tobacco Explained

Mon, 25 Jun 2001 13:28:50 +1200

25 June 1998 - ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) ... Summary
Thousands of internal tobacco industry documents released through litigation and whistleblowers reveal the most astonishing systematic corporate deceit of all time. ASH has undertaken a survey of the documents, extracted 1,200 relevant and revealing quotes, and grouped these together under common themes. A subset of these are set out in this compendium and the full collection is held in chronologies available on the ASH web site...

…it is a predatory industry whose market dynamics demand that it recruits young people. It does this by deploying vast promotional expenditures to create, communicate and amplify a set of positive values associated with the product. Once the glamour phase subsides, nicotine addiction takes over making the customer dependent on the product and securing a profitable cash flow. Trapped by nicotine addiction, the smoker is subject to a variety of sub-lethal illnesses which culminate in a one in two probability of death through smoking-related disease. The smoker’s death means a replacement customer must be found - and the cycle begins again….