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Smoking bans don’t result in job losses in bars, restaurants: Study

May 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, May 19 (ANI): An American study suggests that smoking bans do not trigger job losses in bars and restaurants.

Conducted in Minnesota, the study has shown that exempting bars from community smoking bans does not have any effect on the preservation of bar employment.

Study leader Elizabeth Klein, assistant professor of Health Behavior and Health Promotion at Ohio State University, has found that even the most comprehensive clean indoor air policies do not lead to a reduction in hospitality jobs.

She hopes that the findings of her study will factor into future debates within municipalities and states considering the economic and health issues surrounding smoking-ban proposals.

For their research, Elizabeth and her colleagues examined employment trends over three years in eight Minnesota cities with different types of clean indoor air policies and two cities with no laws restricting smoking.

The researchers revealed that of the policies examined by them, some were comprehensive bans prohibiting smoking in all workplaces, while others banned smoking in most public places and businesses, but exempted bars.

While previous studies have also evaluated economic effects of smoking bans in many individual communities, Elizabeth claims that her team’s study is the first to compare the economic effects of different levels of clean indoor air policies in multiple cities.

“In the end we can say there isn’t a significant economic effect by type of clean indoor air policy, which should give us more support for maintaining the most beneficial public health policies. The public health benefit clearly comes from a comprehensive policy where all employees are protected from exposure to environmental tobacco smoke,” she said

“There is strong evidence that a comprehensive policy provides the greatest protection for all employees, and now it appears that bars do not need to be exempted from clean indoor air policies to protect against severe economic effects,” she added.

A research article describing the study has been published in the June issue of the journal Prevention Science. (ANI)

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Pope lauds Christian and Muslim coexistence in Cameroon

March 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Pope lauds Christian and Muslim coexistence in Cameroon Yaounde – Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday held up the peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims in Cameroon as an example to the rest of Africa as he met leaders of Cameroon’s Muslim minority.

Benedict, on the third day of his first trip to Africa as pontiff, said that genuine religion “rejects all forms of violence and totalitarianism” and praised Cameroon for avoiding the religious strife that has blighted neighbouring Nigeria.

“May the enthusiastic cooperation of Muslims, Catholics and other Christians in Cameroon be a beacon to other African nations of the enormous potential of an interreligious commitment to peace, justice and the common good,” he said.

Muslims comprise almost one quarter of the population of Cameroon, with Roman Catholics accounting for almost another 30 per cent.

After meeting the Muslim leaders, the pontiff was due to say mass in Yaounde’s Amadou Ahidjo stadium, where an estimated 60,000 people were awaiting him. Thousands more were locked outside.

The mass was scheduled to last several hours.

Benedict on Wednesday met bishops to lay down his priorities for the church in Cameroon, but his visit has largely been overshadowed by controversy over remarks he made on the plane while travelling to Cameroon.

Both France and Germany criticized Benedict’s statement that condoms actually aggravate the problem of HIV/AIDS.

“Such statements are a danger to public health policies and the protection of human life,” French foreign affairs ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told journalists in Paris on Wednesday. “The condom is an important element in the fight against the spread of AIDS.”

Campaigners also blasted the pontiff for being out of touch with the modern world.

Benedict is due to travel to Angola on Friday before returning to the Vatican on March 23, thus closing his first papal visit to Africa.

The late Pope John Paul II visited Africa 16 times – more visits than he made to any other continent.

In contrast, Benedict’s only visit to the continent where the Catholic Church is growing the fastest, was as a cardinal, to the Congolese capital Kinshasa in 1987. (dpa)

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France slams pope’s condom statements

March 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Paris – The French government on Wednesday sharply criticized comments made by Pope Benedict XVI regarding the effectiveness of condoms in the fight against AIDS.

“Such statements are a danger to public health policies and the protection of human life,” foreign affairs ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier told journalists in Paris. “The condom is an important element in the fight against the spread of AIDS.”

On the flight that took him to Africa on Tuesday, Benedict had told journalists that condoms “could not resolve the problem of AIDS” and that, in fact, “their use only made the problem worse.” (dpa)

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Tobacco-related deaths in Asia reported on the rise

March 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi – Tobacco will kill 6 million people annually by next year and cause an estimated 500 billion-dollar loss to the global economy, according to health conference in India Tuesday.

The 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Mumbai revealed that China and India were the world’s biggest tobacco users at 325 million and 241 million tobacco users respectively.

“Tobacco industry has shifted its marketing and sales efforts to countries that have less effective public health policies and fewer resources and by 2010, tobacco will kill 6 million people worldwide annually,” Judith Mackay, special advisor at World Lung Foundation which prepared the document with American Cancer Society, the Zee TV news network reported.

The economic costs were a result of lost productivity, misused resources, ineffective taxation and premature death, the study claimed.

“Because 25 per cent of smokers die and many more become ill during their most productive years, income loss devastates families and communities,” study author Hana Ross was quoted as saying.

The report said since 1960, global tobacco production had increased 300 per cent in low and middle-resource countries while declining more than 50 per cent in high-resource countries.

Public health advocates at the conference also said the tobacco industry in Southeast Asia was systematically obstructing the implementation of a global treaty on curbing smoking and tobacco use.

The alleged abuses of tobacco firms ranged from attempting to write tobacco control laws and blocking the passage of key legislations in the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia, and using so-called “corporate social responsibility” to circumvent laws and regulations in Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines. (dpa)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: american cancer society, corporate social responsibility, Dollar Loss, economic costs, global economy, Global Tobacco, Global Treaty, Health Conference, Judith Mackay, Lung Foundation, Public Health Advocates, public health policies, Sales Efforts, Tobacco Control Laws, Tobacco Firms, Tobacco Industry, Tobacco Production, Tobacco Related Deaths, Tobacco Users, Zee Tv

Less severe first heart attacks linked to decreased mortality rates

January 20, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 20 (ANI): A new study has shown that controlling the risk factors for heart disease, such as blood pressure and cholesterol as well as improvements in hospital management, may lessen the severity of first-time heart attack, eventually leading to reductions in mortality rates.

The study led by Columbia University researchers revealed that the severity of first heart attacks has dropped significantly in the United States, propelling a decline in coronary heart disease deaths.

“This landmark study suggests that better prevention and better management in the hospital have contributed to the reduction in deaths,” said Merle Myerson, M.D., Ed.D., lead author of the study, cardiologist and director of the Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Program at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital of Columbia University in New York City.

“Better control of risk factors for heart disease, such as blood pressure and cholesterol as well as improvements in hospital management may lessen the severity if somebody has a heart attack.

“We also considered whether people had less severity because they got to the hospital sooner, but that was not the case,” Myerson added.

While analysing the data of Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) data gathered from 1987 to 1994 including an extra eight years, the researchers found more consistent picture with a clear decline in severity of heart attacks.

“The reduction in severity of first-time heart attacks, along with other factors, has impacted on the declining number of deaths from coronary heart disease” Myerson said.

“This tells us that better primary prevention as well as better care for those with acute heart attacks is working.

“Attributing the reduction in severity to specific causes will be an important next step so effective strategies can be reinforced and public health policies can be better directed,” Myerson added.

The study appears in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. (ANI)

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Smoking bans don’t result in job losses in bars, restaurants: Study

Pope lauds Christian and Muslim coexistence in Cameroon

France slams pope’s condom statements

Less severe first heart attacks linked to decreased mortality rates

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