Transcript Health New Zealand Ltd tobacco and nicotine researchers

Health New Zealand Ltd
tobacco and nicotine researchers
founded 1995
Dr Murray Laugesen
Public health physician
Health New Zealand Ltd
Lyttelton 8082.
Member, Society for Research on Nicotine & Tobacco
www.healthnz.co.nz [email protected]
03 3288688, 0274 884 375
Independent of government and industry.
What the industry knew (how to reduce cyanide in its products),
when they knew it (1965) and what they did about it (nothing)
• Charcoal, as in WW2 gas masks, absorbs toxic gases.
• 45 years ago BAT cigarette company scientists reported that
charcoal can reduce toxic aldehydes and hydrogen cyanide
emissions in cigarette smoke by 75%-80%.
• Hydogen cyanide is still found in regular quantities in (the smoke
of) all BAT cigarettes tested. Charcoal is not found in BAT or other
cigarette filters in NZ, except for Japan Tobacco’s Mild Seven brand.
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•
Murray Laugesen, Jefferson Fowles. Scope for regulation of cigarette smoke toxicity: the case for including
charcoal filters. NZMedJ 2005;118: no.1213. www.nzma.org.nz/journal/118-1213/1402/
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British American Tobacco Company. 54 page document, circa 1965. Guildford miscellaneous collection. Available
online. URL: http://tobaccodocuments.org/guildford_misc/402368992-9045.html Accessed April 2005.
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NZ cigarettes are irredeemably toxic:
Health New Zealand Ltd research
2005 NZ Med J Mild Sevens Has carbon filter, but token only.
Toxic emissions no less.
2005 NZ Med J Same toxicants in much the same rank order are found in the
smoke of the common cigarette brands we studied in NZ.
2006 Tobacco Control Marlboro UltraSmooth, state of the art
carbon filter.
Toxicity no less than Holiday brand after allowing for nicotine.
2008 Commerce Commission. Comparison of light and mild cigarette brands
with regular brands sold in New Zealand .2008.
Milds no less dangerous.
2009 BMC Public Health
Clinical testing of RYO smokers.
RYOs just as toxic as factory made cigarettes.
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Cigarettes highly addictive for
adolescents, particularly girls
• Diminished autonomy over tobacco can
appear with the first cigarettes
• Robert Scragg, Robert J. Wellman, Murray
Laugesen, Joseph R. DiFranza, DiFranza J,
Scragg R, Laugesen M, Wellman R.
Addictive Behaviors 2008.
doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.12.002
based on ASH NZ surveys of 96,000 year 10
students.
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As lost autonomy (%) increases (striped columns),
the proportion who report they now never smoke,
falls to near zero (black columns)
25% autonomy
lost with first
cigarette
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Scragg et al. 2008 ASH NZ surveys, 96,000 year 10 students, 2002-4
Policies are needed to reduce exposure of
current and future smokers to the highly
addictive tobacco products currently sold
• The under-18s law does not prevent young
people taking up smoking. They obtain instead
from older siblings, friends.* The law is not
protecting the younger generation.
• Banning sales to adults will protect the young.
• Meantime, nicotine in cigarettes is excessive**
and needs to be lowered (by nicotine tax, or by
sinking lid on all brands).
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*Laugesen & Scragg ASH surveys NZMedJ.
**Laugesen, Blakely et al. NZ Public Health Report 1997.
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Nicotine E-cigarette:
Classified as a medicine: sale banned.
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Nicotine inhaled, not smoke.*
Preferred to nicotine inhaler**
Relieves cravings**
Puts nicotine into blood**
• Toxic emissions 100 times
less than for cigarettes.*
• No deaths reported. Sales
over 1 million.
Photo: NZ Herald
** Health NZ and University of Auckland, funded by Ruyan.
* Health New Zealand and 8 laboratories, funded by Ruyan,
www.healthnz.co.nz/News2010.htm
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Nicotine Pyruvate Aerosol vaporiser system
Delivers nicotine to lung like a cigarette
Tested by Health New Zealand Ltd at Christchurch Clinical Studies Trust
laboratories Tuam St, Christchurch, in 2009, for Duke University, USA 8