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Smoking - tobacco

Support at hand for Maori nicotine addicts

January 2000 Women's Health Update

Nicotine replacement therapy, counselling and support are on offer to Maori women keen to kick the cigarette habit.

The Health Funding Authority is funding a series of smoking cessation projects aimed at curbing the high incidence of nicotine addiction amongst maori women.

Pilots are currently being run in Northland by Hauora Whanui and the Kaitaia-based Te Hauora O Te Hiku O Te Ika and in Auckland by the Ngati Whatua O Orakei Health Centre, as well as in Christchurch and the East Coast....Read More

Passive smoking increases stroke risk

September 1999 Women's Health Watch

Our trustee Ruth Bonita was in the news for the results of her newly published study which showed that passive smoking significantly increased the risk of acute stroke among non-smokers and long-term ex-smokers. Ruth and her co-workers from the Auckland Medical School obtained information on the smoking habits and exposure to environmental smoke from 521 patients with a first-ever acute stroke and 1851 community controls.

After adjustment for various potential co--founders, the researchers discovered that there was a significantly increased risk of stroke for both men and women among non-smokers and those who hadn't smoked for more than 10 years.

Not surprisingly, the risk for current smokers compared to non or ex-smokers was higher still, four times the risk, for even higher - over six times the risk - when people exposed to environmental smoke were excluded from the control group.
Ref: Tob Control 1999;8:156-60

More evidence links smoking to cervical cancer

September 1999 Women's Health Watch

New research shows smokers with mildly abnormal smear tests may be able to reverse these cervical changes by quitting smoking. The Imperial Cancer Research Fund study followed 82 women with an abnormal looking area on their cervix and who had agreed to quit smoking for six months. After six months more than 80% of the quitters and the women who had substantially reduced their tobacco intake showed a reduction in the size of the abnormal looking area compared with less than 20% of those who continued to smoke. Previous studies have suggested smoking may weaken the immune response in the cervix and Imperial Cancer researchers suggest quitting smoking may allow the immune system to recover.
Ref: http://www.icnet.uk/research/smokcerv.htm

Smoking passes carcinogens to foetus

November 1998 Women's Health Update

Researchers have discovered that NNK, one of the strongest carcinogens in tobacco smoke, is passed to the foetus when a pregnant woman smokes. NNK is a chemical derived from nicotine and is unique to tobacco. Stephen Hecht of the University of Minnesota's Cancer Centre made the discovery when he analysed the first urine of babies born to mothers who had smoked during pregnancy. The substance was not found in samples taken from babies of mothers who had not smoked. The levels of NNK found were 10% of that found in the urine of adult smokers....Read More

Fear of fat fuels tobacco use

November 1998 Women's Health Update

Weight control is the main reason teenage girls start smoking, according to a study of nearly 3000 British and Canadian schoolgirls.

An article in the Postgraduate Medical Journal reports girls who smoked were more likely to be overweight, prone to overeating and twice as likely to be worried about their body image than non-smokers.

One in four girls said smoking made them less hungry and they used smoking 'instead of eating'. Fear of putting on weight prevented girls quitting, although many reported they would be healthier and it would please their parents if they stopped smoking.

'Not only to they feel too fat but they are also frightened of losing control of their eating,' according to lead researcher Professor Arthur Crisp of St George's Medical School in London.

'More worrying is the fact they are using cigarettes as a way of controlling their weight and trading pounds of their weight for years off their life.'

The number of British teenage girls smoking has increased, despite efforts by the UK government to reduce teenage smoking.

Ref:BMJ;317:366

Smokers and The Pill

October 1997 Women's Health Update

Young women smokers who also use oral contraceptives have an increased risk of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke, according to the WHO Collaborative Study of Cardiovascular Disease and Steroid Hormone Contraception.

The women studied were aged from 20 to 44 and it was found that while there was a small increase in risk of both types of stroke in users of oral contraceptives, the risk was greater in current smokers, hypertensives and those older than 35.

For iscaemic stroke, current smoking increased the risk seven times in European countries over non-users of oral contraceptives who did not smoke, and the association appeared to be synergistic. In Europe the background incidence of this form of stroke is 3 per 100 000 woman-years for women under 35 and 10 per 100 000 woman-years for those over 35.

Current smokers also increased their risk of haemorrhagic strokes three times.

As checking blood pressure reduced the risk of stroke compared to those whose who were not checked, the Ministry of Health has reinforced the need to check for hypertension before prescribing oral contraceptives.

Smoking...the way to go?

October 1997 Women's Health Update

The decision that so many teenage girls in New Zealand are making to become smokers is related to how they look at their world, concludes recent research undertaken by Iona Macdonald at Auckland University's Psychology Department.

At the expense of real or potential alternatives, influences in today's world apparently make sucking on a cigarette desirable for your girls. From a series of interviews with 13- and 14-year-old girls, including smokers and nonsmokers, questions were asked about smoking and identity. The effects of school health education on the girls' attitudes towards smoking revealed some interesting results....Read More

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