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** 07 March 2022
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** UK
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** Detection dog YoYo helps sniff out 46,000 illegal cigarettes in South Tyneside (#1)
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** Warwickshire: High rates of smoking prompt county council to highlight support services for No-Smoking Day (#2)
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** Burberry shuts up shop in Russia as western brands feel the heat (#3)
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** International
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** Republic of Ireland: One in ten cancer patients still smoke after diagnosis (#4)
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** USA: Combination treatment is effective for treating smokers who drink heavily (#5)
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** UK
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** Detection dog YoYo helps sniff out 46,000 illegal cigarettes in South Tyneside
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** Thousands of illicit cigarettes and tobacco products have been confiscated in recent weeks with the help of specialist detection dog YoYo, uncovering 46,100 cigarettes and 20.15kg of hand-rolling tobacco from two shops in co-ordinated raids across the borough.

Supported by Northumbria Police, the premises were targeted following intelligence provided by concerned members of the public that illegal products were being offered for sale.

Councillor Ernest Gibson is the council’s Lead Member for Area Management and Community Safety: "Unfortunately, cheap tobacco encourages smokers to keep smoking for longer, breaking down their willpower to quit, not to mention the negative impact it has on legitimate traders who operate within the law and money it deprives from vital public services.”

“What is extremely concerning is that dealers often target children and young people, encouraging them to start smoking. This puts them at risk of developing a harmful addiction as well as the multitude of serious long-term health problems that smoking can cause.”

The raids were part of Operation CeCe, a larger National Trading Standards partnership with HM Revenue and Customs.

Source: The Shields Gazette, 5 March 2022
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** Warwickshire: High rates of smoking prompt county council to highlight support services for No-Smoking Day
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**
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** High rates of smoking in parts of Warwickshire have prompted the County Council to remind residents not to give up on giving up on No-Smoking Day (Wednesday 9 March).

While rates of smoking across the county are just under the national average at 13.3%, they are higher in the north of the county, including in Rugby where the rate is 14.3%.

And 9.4% of pregnant women smoke across the Coventry and Warwickshire region, bringing a greater risk of developing complications during pregnancy, birth and beyond.

Warwickshire County Council is using No-Smoking Day to point residents to the support available.
Councillor Margaret Bell, the Council’s spokeswoman for health and adult social care, said: “We understand that quitting smoking can be hard – tobacco is an addictive substance – but support is available for you whether you prefer face-to-face support through the stop smoking service or digital support via your phone or device.

“Once you quit, your body not only begins to feel the benefits immediately, but you are also helping those around you who are no longer breathing in second-hand smoke.”

Source: Rugby Observer, 7 March 2022
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** Burberry shuts up shop in Russia as western brands feel the heat
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**
Luxury goods powerhouse Burberry has become the latest brand to shut its stores in Russia as pressure mounts on western brands to pull their trade from the country.

Calls to boycott brands including Coca-Cola, which generates sales worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Russia, are gaining momentum on social media.

FTSE 100 cigarette giants British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Brands continue to sell into Russia, the world’s fourth-largest cigarette market. BAT, which employs 2,500 people there, said it was aligned with all international sanctions. Imperial, which sells brands including Winston, has suspended operations in Ukraine — for the safety of its staff — but made no changes in Russia. Tobacco companies also export cigarettes and tobacco from Russia.

Source: The Sunday Times, 6 March 2022
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** International
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** Republic of Ireland: One in ten cancer patients still smoke after diagnosis
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**
About one in ten cancer patients continue to smoke even after diagnosis, according to a new study.

Professor Patricia Fitzpatrick, from the University College Dublin School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science, said the research had been funded by the Irish Cancer Society as it recognised that many smokers with cancer continued to use tobacco even after their diagnosis.

The analysis, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, aimed to estimate the prevalence of smoking among cancer patients admitted to Irish public hospitals over a five-year period from 2014 to 2018. Current smoking rates among cancer patients overall rose between 2014 and 2017, followed by a small reduction in the final year examined.

The highest rate of smoking was found among those with lung cancer, about 25 per cent of patients. The lowest rate was among breast cancer patients, at just over 5 per cent. The number of cervical cancer patients who smoked nearly doubled in four years, from 11 per cent in 2014 to just under 20 per cent in 2018. The number of patients with head and neck cancer who continued to smoke after diagnosis also more than doubled in that time period, from just over 3 per cent to more than 7 per cent.

“Given the high smoking rates among cancer patients, it is critical that healthcare professionals advocate smoking cessation among all patients including those diagnosed with cancer,” the researchers said.

Source: The Sunday Times, 6 March 2022
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** See also: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - Has the National Fall in Smoking Rates in Ireland Been Replicated in Cancer Patients? A 5-Year Report ([link removed])
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** USA: Combination treatment is effective for treating smokers who drink heavily
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** One in five people who smoke also drink heavily, but they show worse outcomes than non-heavy drinkers in quitting smoking and are often excluded from smoking cessation trials.
Previous research has shown that the higher the alcohol consumption, the more intense the urge to smoke, and that alcohol acutely activates brain reward pathways when smokers were shown images of smoking.

A new study led by Andrea King, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Chicago aimed to test whether smokers who also drink heavily could be helped through a combination treatment, using two drug therapies together, instead of just one. During a 12-week trial, 122 smokers who were also heavy drinkers were given either nicotine replacement therapy (in the form of the nicotine patch) in combination with the smoking cessation drug varenicline, or in combination with placebo.

The results showed that the combination treatment of nicotine replacement and varenicline was indeed more effective for smoking cessation, with 44.3% of participants abstaining from smoking through the last weeks of the study. In contrast, less than a 27.9% of the participants who received nicotine replacement combined with placebo had still quit at the end of the study.

Source: MedicalXpress, 4 March 2022
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** See also: JAMA Network - Effect of Combination Treatment With Varenicline and Nicotine Patch on Smoking Cessation Among Smokers Who Drink Heavily: A Randomized Clinical Trial ([link removed])
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