News and Notes
2007; Wiley; Volume: 102; Issue: 12 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1360-0443.2007.02065.x
ISSN1360-0443
Autores Tópico(s)School Health and Nursing Education
ResumoSouth African MPs have approved legislation which makes it an offence to smoke within a prescribed distance from a window, ventilation inlet, doorway or entrance to a public place. Smokers will be fined 500 rand (70 US dollars) for breaches. The bill also bans smoking in a private dwelling used for commercial childcare, tutoring or schooling and in any car transporting a child younger than 12. Employers who fail to protect non- smokers in the workplace will be liable for a fine of up to 100 000 rand. At the time of writing, the bill had passed through parliament's second house and was awaiting presidential signature. Source: AFP News, 21 September 2007 Link: http://tinyurl.com/36c26y A new study by researchers at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in the Netherlands examined links between parental smoking and childhood caries, an infectious disease which causes tooth decay. The study indicated that even after other factors such as food practices, oral hygiene and social origin were considered there was still a clear link between childhood tooth decay and parental smoking. Researchers found that ten per cent of 3-year old children with parents who smoked suffered from tooth decay, compared with only five per cent of 3-year old children with non-smoking parents. At age five, 42 per cent of children with parents who smoked suffered tooth decay, compared with 25 per cent of children whose parents did not smoke. The study authors highlight the need for more research into causal links. Source: 7sur7, 18 September 2007 Link: http://tinyurl.com/3xmmmp We congratulate Bridget Grant, a researcher at the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, who has received the 2007 Jellinek Memorial Fund Award. This premier international award is given to a scientist who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of knowledge in the alcohol/alcoholism field. The category for 2007 was epidemiology and population studies: Dr. Grant's award recognizes “outstanding leadership in the design, implementation and analysis of major epidemiologic surveys in alcohol and drug use disorders and psychiatric comorbidities”. Source: NIAAA Director's Report on Institute Activities http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/AboutNIAAA/AdvisoryCouncil/DirectorsReports/DirectorReport9_07.htm An Australian Parliamentary Inquiry, headed by the Conservative government minister Bronwyn Bishop, has set aside expert testimony to recommend that the children of drug users be removed from their families. The major evidence for its conclusions was submissions from a public consultation, which elicited responses from a wide range of community organisations. The Inquiry also chose to ignore the evidence of numerous studies on the use of naltrexone, to recommend an expansion of its use. The medication has yet to receive approval by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, a government agency. The Inquiry's report can be downloaded at: http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/fhs/illicitdrugs/report.htm. The Daily Telegraph of Australia reports that chocolate and fruit flavoured cigarettes aimed at enticing teenagers to smoke will be banned from sale in New South Wales. The ban follows statistics released by the NSW government which showed 145 000 school children aged between 12 and 17 smoked at least once a week. The DJ Mix and Peel brand cigarettes are manufactured in Hong Kong and come in strawberry, apple, orange menthol and sweet melon flavours, while the Black Devil chocolate flavour is made in the Netherlands. The fruit flavoured cigarettes are packaged in pastel colours; each cigarette is decorated with colours and patterns and the chocolate cigarettes are black and silver. A spokeswoman from Action on Smoking and Health stated that ‘the packaging made the cigarettes more attractive and (they) are deliberately marketed to entice young people to take up the habit.’ Source: The Daily Telegraph, Australia, 13 August 2007 Article Link: http://tinyurl.com/2b5ze4 Cigarette sales fell by 6.9 per cent in the month that the smoking ban was introduced in England and Wales. In the four weeks to 28 July smokers bought just over three billion cigarettes in Britain, down from the same period last year, according to the consumer research group AC Nielsen. Anti-smoking campaigners have welcomed the decline, which is in line with similar falls following the introduction of smoking bans in Ireland in 2004, and in Scotland in 2006. Amanda Sandford of the health campaign group ASH, said: ‘It's very encouraging. We hope this is indicative of people taking steps to give up smoking altogether.’ A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco, the biggest player in the British cigarette market with almost 50% market share, said: ‘What tends to happen following the introduction of smoking bans is an initial sharp drop in volumes, which then ameliorates over time.’ Before the ban, Imperial Tobacco said that it expected duty-paid market volumes to fall by 3 per cent over 12 months. Borders, the book chain, reported that sales of anti-smoking books by Allen Carr and the hypnotist Paul McKenna had risen by almost 260 per cent on average across their British stores. Source: The Times Online, 21 August Article Link: http://tinyurl.com/2c79cc Colombia's 44-year civil conflict, which has so far been largely confined to the countryside, is finding itself in the middle of a new, urban war, reports a BBC News correspondent. The reporter says that the port town of Buenaventura is subject to the crack of gunfire daily as the security forces seek to take control. Buenaventura is a sought-after prize because it is the perfect departure point for legal and illegal drugs; it has long been a staging post for shipments on their way to the US market. With unemployment levels in the slums running at up to 70%, the guerrillas and drugs lords find there is no shortage of recruits when offered decent wages. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6951683.stm The UK National Institute of Clinical Excellence has produced two guidelines on drug misuse. They cover the support and treatment that people can expect to be offered if they have a problem with, or are dependent on opioids, stimulants or cannabis; along with information on how families and carers can support a person with a drug problem and get help for themselves. NICE clinical guideline 51 makes recommendations for the use of psychosocial interventions to treat people who misuse opioids, stimulants and cannabis in the healthcare and criminal justice systems; while clinical guideline 52 covers opioid detoxification. http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=CG51 Her many admirers from around the world will be pleased to know that Iggy is in robust health and with claws still sharp. Here is her latest contribution: Welcome to Winthrop Wonderland I'm so grateful to people and organisations who go on feeding me with good ideas. Is the addictions field a somewhat unique arena for the acting out of the human comedy? Or is it perhaps that this column just happens to have an exceptionally well developed intelligence network? So to an invitation to a new London-based drug and alcohol treatment centre—I was charmed to receive an invitation to the launch party. Says Mr John Moulton, who has personally invested £10 million venture capital to construct a centre which is described as creating the ‘sense of a luxury boutique hotel’:— ‘Sadly, I've witnessed the relatively appalling nature of the treatment available in the UK. I've been startled by the poor quality, lack of evidence based programmes available.’ With that knocking copy in place, what state of the art programme will Mr Moulton himself put on offer in his luxury boutique? Well, there will be a 6-week residential stay with ‘60 hours of evidence based treatment each week’, as opposed to the piddling 30 hours of therapy per week found by him to be the norm in other programmes. More is better, twice as many hours is twice as good; is that what the evidence tells us? The blurb further reveals that ‘equine therapy’ will also be available in this emporium! No meta-analysis for the evidence base on horses as cure for addiction is proffered—where's the evidence that this kind of intervention can produce a stable remission? Well, I think what I have told you thus far is worth a laugh or two, but here I come with the absolutely killer line: The price for the initial 6 week's stay in this mini- Ritz together with a year's aftercare will be £32 000. Oh, I'm sprawled! Alcohol Policy 14: Engaging States and Local Communities in Prevention Policies. 27–30 January 2008, the Bahia Resort Hotel, Mission Bay, San Diego, California. Sponsored by the California Council on Alcohol Policy. Contact: http://www.cal-council.org/AP14/index.htm SRNT 14th Annual Meeting. Hilton Portland and Executive Tower, Portland, OR, USA, 27 February-1 March 2008. Contact: Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, 2810 Crossroads Drive, Ste. 3800, Madison, WI53718, USA; tel. +1 608 443 2462 x 145; fax: +1 608 443 2478 or +1 608 443 2474; email meetings@srnt.org; website http://www.srnt.org Looking Forward: New Directions in Research and Minimising Public Harm. 21–23 February 2008, Auckland, New Zealand. International gambling conference organized by the Gambling Research Centre at Auckland University of Technology, and the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand. Contact: e-mail info@problem-gambling.info; website http://www.pgfnz.co.nz/2008conference 2008 National Drug Treatment Conference. The Radisson Hotel, Glasgow, Scotland, 13–14 March 2008. Forum for the UK drug treatment field. Contact: 2008 NDTC, Exchange Supplies, 1 Great Western Industrial Centre, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1RD; tel +44 (0)1305 262244; fax +44 (0)1305 262255; email info@exchangesupplies.org; website http://www.exchangesupplies.org 16th Annual Public Health Forum. Organised by the UK Public Health Association. Liverpool, 1–2 April 2008. Contact: http://www.ukphaconference.org.uk 2nd Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy. 3–4 April 2008, Lisbon, Portugal. Supported by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction and the Instituto de Droga e de Toxicodependencia. Contact: Alex Stephens, ISSDP Secretary, email a.w.stephens@kent.ac.uk; website http://www.issdp.org/conferences.htm Building Capacity for Action. European Alcohol Policy Conference. Barcelona, 3–5 April 2008. Contact: SuportServeis, tel. +34 93 201 7571; fax +34 93 201 9789; e-mail buildingcapacity@suuportserveis.com; website http://www.ias.org.uk/buildingcapacity/index.html 29th Annual Medical-Scientific Conference. American Society of Addiction Medicine. Sheraton Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 10–13 April 2008. Contact: http://www.asam.org A Call to Action: Successful Tobacco Control for the Future. Conference organized by Action on Smoking and Health, Wales. 28–29 April 2008, Cardiff International Arena. Contact: http://www.smoking-conference-wales.org.uk Towards a Global Approach. 19th Conference of the International Harm Reduction Association, Palacio de Congresos, Fira de Barcelona, Spain. 11–15 May 2008. Contact: http://www/ihra.net/Barcelona/Home College on Problems of Drug Dependence. 70th Annual Meeting, the Caribe Hilton, San Juan, Puerto Rico. 14–19 June 2008. Contact: http://www.cpdd.vcu.edu ISBRA and RSA Annual Conference. Washington DC, 27 June-03 July 2008. Contact: Debby Sharp at DebbyRSA@sbc.global.net News and Notes welcomes contributions from its readers. Send your material to Peter Miller, News and Notes Editor, Addiction, National Addiction Centre PO48, 4 Windsor Walk, London SE5 8AF. Fax +44 (0)20 7703 5787; e-mail peter@addictionjournal.org Conference entries should be sent to Susan Savva at susan@addictionjournal.org. Subject to editorial review, we will be glad to print, free of charge, details of your conference or event, up to 75 words and one entry only. Please send your notification three months ahead of time and specify in which issue you would like it to appear.
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