Tag: Scotland

  • Trying to quit in Scotland

    Trying to quit in Scotland

    The number of people trying to quit smoking cigarettes has risen by 15 percent in a year in Glasgow, Scotland, according to a story by Caroline Wilson for the Evening Times.

    Wilson said new figures suggested the city was making inroads into some key health challenges.

    She quoted Glasgow’s director of public health, Dr. Linda de Caestecker, as saying smoking cessation services were now seeing “unprecedented numbers” of people trying to quit.

    At the same time, NHS [National Health Service] Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s weight management service had seen a five percent rise in referrals in the past year, while the number of people accessing a service that supported those with an alcohol dependence had increased to more than 5,200.

    “Health and wellbeing can be improved not just through medical interventions,” said de Caestecker.

    “By offering people access to a range of support services such as money advice, physical activity, weight management support, smoking cessation advice and alcohol interventions, we can ensure people maximise their health and wellbeing.

    “Doctors, nurses and therapists in our acute hospitals are routinely identifying patients and their families who are at risk of poverty or inequality and by working with community colleagues and third sector organisations providing families and individuals with the knowledge of where and how to access any additional support they need.”

    The board has seen a 79 percent increase in referrals for physical activity support with a large number referred from oncology, cardiac, respiratory and stroke services.

    Figures show there has been a 12 percent drop in smokers in Glasgow since Scotland introduced a ban on lighting up in public places.

    The smoking incidence has fallen from 37.5 percent to 25 percent, according to figures released by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde last year on the 10-year anniversary of a ban on smoking in public places.

  • Plea for common sense

    Plea for common sense

    The Scottish Prison Service has been urged to put ‘common sense’ ahead of ‘anti-smoking politics’ and abandon plans to make Scotland’s prisons smoke free.

    “The risks of second-hand smoke have been greatly exaggerated,” said Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest. “Allowing inmates to smoke in their cells poses no significant risk to prison officers.

    “On the other hand, banning smoking in prisons risks inflaming a tense and sometimes violent environment.

    “Tobacco is an important currency in prison. The removal of one of the few privileges inmates are allowed could also fuel the use of illicit substances.

    “Prison inmates don’t have a right to smoke but issues like this require a pragmatic response that puts common sense ahead of doctrinaire anti-smoking politics.”

  • Prices taxing for vulnerable

    Prices taxing for vulnerable

    A newly-published review of the literature concludes that cigarette tax hikes unintentionally harm the most vulnerable in society, according to a story by Salynn Boyles published on MedPage Today.

    The review was conducted by Katherine T. Hirono, MPH, of the Center for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation in New South Wales, Australia, and Katherine Smith, PhD, of the University of Edinburgh.

    In an interview with MedPage Today, Hirono cited research showing that the most disadvantaged smokers had the hardest time quitting, and the least access to resources to help them do so.

    “At the population level tobacco taxes are very effective, but in every population there will be people who are not able to quit, and they tend to be the most vulnerable in a society,” she said. “What we have seen over time is that strategies that are effective at the population level can further harm these pockets of smokers.”

    Hirono and Smith noted that the smoking rate in Australia was reduced from 24.3 percent in 1991 to 12.8 percent in 2013. But tobacco use, they said, remained much higher – closer to the 1991 levels – among the unemployed, incarcerated, mentally ill, homeless, and abusers of drugs or alcohol.

    They cited a 2016 study from New Zealand, which found that low-income smokers who either couldn’t or wouldn’t quit the habit following large tobacco tax increases faced increased financial hardship, as did their families.

    “Smoking is a coping mechanism for many who continue to smoke, even though that means they are having to go without other household items and even food,” Hirono said. “We can’t ignore this potential unintended consequence of large tax hikes for these smokers and their families.”

    Hirono and Smith said that this increased economic burden had both ethical and health implications, “since financial hardship is a recognized determinant of poor health”.

    Acknowledging that steep tobacco taxes are highly effective, Hirono and Smith argued that policy makers who proposed the taxes had an obligation to take steps to mitigate the equity concerns that arose from them.

    The full story is at: https://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/PublicHealth/64764?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2017-04-25&eun=g220600d0r&pos=1

  • Smoking goes airside at Aberdeen airport

    The establishment of an airside smoking shelter at Aberdeen International Airport in Scotland is expected to help reduce the number of full terminal evacuations caused by people smoking in areas where smoking is banned, according to a story by The Scotsman.

    The shelter, which is adjacent to the main departure lounge, will provide passengers who have been processed through security and are waiting for their flights with somewhere to have a cigarette before takeoff.

    The smoking shelter was erected after more than 400 people who took part in a survey last year said they would like to see an airside facility installed at the airport.

    “It is designed to reduce the number of full terminal evacuations,” an airport spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

    Many such evacuations, which cost thousands of pounds, were caused by passengers lighting up in prohibited areas, activating smoke alarms and causing major disruption and delays, she said.

    “Interestingly, even 61 percent of non-smokers who took part in the survey said they supported an airside smoking shelter,” the spokeswoman added.