E-cigarette ads may cause children to underestimate smoking risks – study

E-cigarette advertising may be leading children to believe occasional tobacco smoking is not harmful, and is potentially prompting more young people to experiment with smoking, a study has claimed.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of North Carolina recruited more than 400 English children for the study.

Aged 11 to 16, they had never smoked or vaped before and were randomly allocated to one of three groups. One group was shown 10 adverts that depicted e-cigarettes as glamorous, a second group was shown 10 adverts that portrayed them as healthy, and a third control group was shown no adverts.

The children were then asked a series of questions aimed at determining their attitudes towards smoking and vaping.

Children shown the adverts were no more or less likely than the control group to perceive tobacco smoking as appealing and all three groups understood that smoking more than 10 cigarettes a day was harmful.

However, the groups exposed to the e-cigarette adverts, both healthy and glamorous, were less likely to believe smoking one or two tobacco cigarettes occasionally was harmful.

There is concern that the increasing exposure of children to e-cigarette adverts could be contributing to high rates of experimentation.

In the US, adolescents’ exposure to e-cigarette adverts on TV more than trebled between 2011 and 2013, researchers said.

They added that estimates suggest that, among children who try smoking, between a third and a half of them were likely to become regular smokers within two to three years.

Dr Milica Vasiljevic, from the department of public health and primary care at the University of Cambridge, said: “While we can be optimistic that the adverts don’t seem to make tobacco smoking more appealing to young people, they do appear to make occasional smoking seem less harmful.

“This is worrying, as we know that even occasional tobacco smoking is bad for your health, and young people who smoke occasionally believe they are somehow immune to its effects and do not feel the need to quit.”

The children who were shown adverts depicting e-cigarettes as glamorous also believed vaping to be more prevalent than did the other two groups.

Researchers also highlighted a 2014 study that showed more children aged 11 to 15 experimented with e-cigarettes than tobacco (22% compared with 18%).

Prof Theresa Marteau, director of the behaviour and health research unit and a fellow of Christ’s College at University of Cambridge, said: “E-cigarette marketing across Europe is regulated under the new EU Tobacco Products Directive, which came into effect on 20 May.

“The directive limits the exposure of children to TV and newspaper e-cigarette adverts. However, it does not cover advertising in the form of posters, leaflets, and adverts at point of sale, nor does it cover the content of marketing materials depicting e-cigarettes as glamorous or healthy.

“The findings from our study suggest these omissions could present a threat to the health of children.”

The research, funded by the Department of Health, was published in the journal Tobacco Control.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said: “The most recent survey found the lowest recorded smoking rates among children ever: only 18% of 11- to 15-year-olds had tried smoking in 2014 compared with 42% in 2003.

“It doesn’t look like e-cigarette advertising has had an impact on smoking uptake so far, and from May this year all TV, radio and newspaper advertising has been banned anyway.”

E-cigarette ads may cause children to underestimate smoking risks – study

Prostate cancer tests underestimate aggressiveness of disease, says research

A surgeon sitting in front of screens of a Focal A single device performs a robot-assisted prostate tumorectomy. Photograph: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty Photos

Guys with prostate cancer are becoming provided false hope by exams that underestimate the aggressiveness of their condition, in accordance to a research.

Researchers discovered that much more than half of a group of guys whose cancers have been initially classified as slow-expanding and confined later turned out to have a lot more dangerous tumours.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Cancer, get in touch with into question the potential of professionals to grade and stage prostate cancers on the basis of biopsy samples.

It also casts doubt on the “active surveillance” strategy of steering clear of unnecessary radical treatment method for sufferers with slow-growing prostate cancer.

Alternatively, these sufferers are closely monitored but left alone until exams propose their condition has worsened.

Urological surgeon Greg Shaw, from the Cancer Research Uk Cambridge Institute, said: “Our outcomes display that the severity of up to half of men’s prostate cancers might be underestimated when relying on tests just before they have surgical treatment.”

Slow-expanding prostate cancers, identified as “pussycats”, are really distinct from the far more aggressive “tiger” range.

In some cases, especially when he is older when diagnosed, a patient can live to the end of his normal lifestyle span prior to a “pussycat” cancer gets to be a threat.

An aggressive “tiger”, on the other hand, may quickly spread if it is not surgically eliminated or destroyed.

Biopsy samples examined underneath a microscope are utilised to rate prostate tumour aggressiveness with a score ranging from two to ten. A score of among two and 6 is a reduced-grade “pussycat”. A score of seven is intermediate, whilst scores of eight to ten are large-grade “tigers”.

Tumours are also staged in accordance to how far they have spread. A T2 tumour is contained fully inside the prostate gland, while a T3 tumour has commenced to break out, and one particular classified T4 has spread to other organs or web sites in the pelvic cavity.

The Cambridge scientists in contrast the staging and grading of more than 800 men’s cancers before and following they had surgery to eliminate their prostate.

They identified that of 415 individuals whose cancer was classified as slow-growing and confined to the prostate, just in excess of half (209) had been discovered to have a far more aggressive ailment than originally thought when assessed right after surgical treatment.

Nearly a third (131) had cancers that had spread beyond the prostate gland.

The Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood marker test utilised to determine men who may possibly have prostate cancer has long been recognized to be unreliable and susceptible to providing false readings.

Professor Malcolm Mason, Cancer Research UK’s prostate cancer professional, explained: “At the minute the bBiopsy, MRI and PSA tests that we use to assess the severity of prostate cancers are the greatest strategies we have but, as this review displays, they will not constantly get it proper.”Regardless of the limitations that this review displays, all proof so far points to lively surveillance getting secure supplied men are cautiously selected. But we need to have far better strategies of assigning a grade and stage so that no man has to unnecessarily undergo treatment, even though at the identical time creating positive we detect and deal with the cancers that really require it.”

Every yr all around 41,700 guys in the Uk are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 10,800 die from the condition.

The scientists concluded in their paper: “In counselling patients for AS (lively surveillance), the surgeon should be explicit concerning uncertainty in predicting stage/grade in spite of obvious quick-term security.

“There is an urgent want for growth of a implies by which to exclude aggressive Pc (prostate cancer) in sufferers wishing to undergo conservative therapy.”

Dr Iain Frame, director of study at the charity Prostate Cancer Uk, stated: “Exact prostate cancer diagnosis continues to be one of the greatest difficulties facing the illness these days.

“The outcomes of this examine highlight but once more that existing tests are not able to offer a precise picture of the aggressiveness of a man’s cancer, usually leaving guys and their medical professionals to make difficult selections about treatment with out all the details.

“Prostate Cancer Uk is committed to discovering a far better diagnostic alternative for the 40,000 males diagnosed with the disease each 12 months through analysis.

“In the meantime, till the accuracy of tests improves, it is critical that males have the opportunity to talk about the pros and cons of every single treatment method selection available with their clinician, so that they can choose what is ideal for them and their scenario.”

Prostate cancer tests underestimate aggressiveness of disease, says research

Social smokers underestimate dangers, study suggests

Public Wellness England says ‘the ideal factor a smoker can do is quit completely’. Photograph: PA

Britain’s one.1 million “social smokers” wrongly believe that puffing only occasionally will not harm their health and underestimate their threat of dying early from the habit, a examine demonstrates.

Only a single in 4 part-time smokers worries that their tobacco intake will harm their overall health even though this kind of smokers eat an regular of 37 cigarettes a week. Smoking as handful of as among a single and 4 cigarettes a day can triple the risk of dying from heart condition.

The findings from research led by a tobacco professional, Professor Robert West of University School London, led wellness campaigners to warn that social smokers – who typically smoke only after or twice a week – are “in denial” about the dangers they are dealing with.

“In spite of common perceptions a lot of element-time and social smokers get through adequate cigarettes a week to place their lives on the line,” stated Dr Mike Knapton, associate health-related director of the British Heart Foundation.

“The reality that only a quarter say they are anxious about smoking harming their well being and even fewer believe they are addicted shows also numerous are in denial about the life-threatening damage they could be doing”, Knapton added. each and every now and then. The best thing a smoker can do is end totally, now and forever.”

Social smokers underestimate dangers, study suggests

Don"t underestimate operate as a beacon of hope for young folks | Martin Vibrant

Souter lighthouse in Whitburn close to Sunderland, photographed every morning by a youthful apprentice as he arrived for operate, to record his joy at getting a job there. Photograph: Alamy

Could it really be that items are searching up for young unemployed folks in 2014? Nicely, no, not really. The point about currently being unemployed is that it is a miserable knowledge that saps your bodily wellbeing and psychological well being. Ultimately it burrows into your sense of self.

There will in no way be a good time to be unemployed, as each and every a single of the million or so youthful individuals at the moment not in schooling, employment or education will tell you. People unfortunate sufficient to be unemployed this yr will find themselves at the mercy of Iain Duncan Smith’s more and more chaotic welfare reforms, an ever much more punitive sanctions regime and a Perform Programme so ineffectual that even ministers as soon as evangelical in its help barely mention it any far more.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot of University School London has constantly warned of a “public health timebomb” if youth unemployment amounts continue to be high. The influence of his current perform for the World Health Organisation, and as an adviser to this government, ought to aid make jobs for youthful people a important priority for the 12 months ahead.

Most individuals would accept that it helps make no sense possessing this kind of big numbers of youthful individuals on the dole, their skills untapped and their hopes unrealised. But what is often forgotten is a real understanding of the worth of work itself. In a marketplace economic system, our quite identity is defined by what folks are prepared to pay out us to do. This is why the culture of free of charge labour is so pernicious. Thanks to the operate of campaign groups this kind of as Intern Aware and Graduate Fog, 2013 was the yr in which it became socially unacceptable to get on unpaid interns (it is already illegal).

Just ahead of Christmas I visited South Shields to communicate at an occasion to support a group of younger apprentices who had just secured jobs in the cultural sector. In a small community arts centre, the Customized Space, my charity had organised a day of workshops, talks and discussions as component of the Arts Council-funded creative employment programme.

I was struck by the enthusiasm of the participants, all college-leavers with quite restricted encounter of the planet of function or existence outdoors the north-east of England. For the duration of one particular of the breaks I spoke to a younger guy who had secured a catering apprenticeship at Souter Lighthouse, a National Trust house in Whitburn close to Sunderland. He mentioned he couldn’t summon considerably interest for the “inventive industries” and wasn’t seeking for a job in the arts. He had struggled at college and wasn’t too keen on the written workouts we had set him and his fellow apprentices. But he was prepared to give it a go since he was so proud to have a work. He stated the early begins had been difficult, but it gave him a sense of goal. Then he took out his mobile phone: “Appear at this!” he stated, as he scrolled by means of photograph following photograph of the lighthouse at dawn. He explained he took the shots each and every morning on his way to operate to remind himself of how fortunate he was to have a occupation in such a stunning place.

It made me think of the booklet supplied to each participant on the Operates Progress Administration, the Roosevelt-era occupation creation programme in the US that inspired me to set up my charity. There, a whole webpage is offered more than to a single slogan in daring capital letters: “Operate KEEPS US FROM GOING NUTS”. It really is as real in 2014 as it was when the words have been written in 1936.

Don"t underestimate operate as a beacon of hope for young folks | Martin Vibrant