By Petra Meier and Alan Brennan On 8 September 2009, most major UK newspapers featured the British Medical Association's call for an alcohol advertising ban and a minimum price. In the Daily Telegraph and the Scotsman, David Poley from the Portman Group, which represents the UK alcohol industry, was reported saying: ‘The University of Sheffield found [an advertising ban] would create fiercer price competition which could actually increase overall consumption’. We do not believe these quotes reflect the findings of our work. The Sheffield work consisted of two parts, a systematic review 1 and a policy modelling appraisal 2. The evidence statements related to advertising bans read: Statement 11: ‘There is some inconclusive evidence that suggests that advertising bans have a positive effect in reducing consumption. Differences in contextual factors are a likely explanation for these differences. It is methodologically challenging to control for all possible confounding factors’. Statement 12: ‘There is some evidence to suggest that bans have an additive effect when accompanied by other measures within a general environment of restrictive measures’. In the policy modelling we were faced with limited quantitative data on effects of advertising bans on consumption. We chose an exploratory approach, modelling the range of effect sizes reported in the literature. For advertising bans, we used the results of two modelling studies: one very optimistic and associated with a big consumption effect 3, the other very pessimistic and associated with a consumption increase (based on an assumption that advertising bans might lead to increased price competition) 4. However, we explain that we were unable to model policy combinations. This is important as, for example, taxation or minimum pricing policies could effectively prevent price wars. Our conclusion was that an accurate estimate of the effect of advertising bans cannot be determined without further primary research. However, such primary research will rely on evaluation opportunities, i.e. policy changes. Thus the impasse will continue until policy makers accept that we cannot know the effects of advertising restrictions until they are introduced and that not introducing advertising bans is likely to be the more risky policy decision, given the growing international evidence linking levels of advertising exposure and consumption 1, 5. Medical News Today reports that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have announced a ban on fruit or candy flavoured cigarettes. The ban is part of the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, under the auspices of the FDA. The FDA recently sent a letter to the tobacco industry which explained that any company that continues to make, ship or sell such products may be subject to FDA enforcement actions. Source: Medical News Today, 23rd September 2009. Available from: http://tiny.cc/9S1Yi BBC News reports that mothers who smoke during pregnancy put their children at greater risk of psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations. A survey of over 6000 12-year-olds by Cardiff, Nottingham, Bristol and Warwick universities 1 found those whose mothers had smoked were 20% more likely to suffer such problems. The link was 84% more pronounced if 20 or more cigarettes a day were smoked. The research was part of a long-running study known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, looking at how genetics and the environment affects health. It is possible that tobacco exposure in the womb may affect the child's brain development, but further study of the issue is needed. The group was also studied for their mothers' use of cannabis and alcohol. No link was found for cannabis, while only those whose mothers drank more than 21 units a week in early pregnancy had a higher chance of psychotic episodes. Source: BBC News, 30 September 2009 The province of Ontario, Canada has filed a $50-billion lawsuit against a group of tobacco companies seeking damages for past and ongoing health care costs linked to tobacco-related illness. The province government claims that tobacco-related health care costs total more than $1.6 billion a year in Ontario and smoking accounts for about 13 000 deaths there every year. The province's lawsuit comes in the face of a lawsuit by tobacco growers in Ontario claiming the federal and provincial governments destroyed their industry through excessive taxation tobacco. Source: http://news.ontario.ca/mag/en/2009/09/ontario-seeks-50-billion-in-tobacco-related-health-care-costs.html Results from an initial overview of the randomized injectable opioid therapy trial (RIOTT) in the UK has shown that clients from a ‘hard-to-treat’ population responded well and made notable gains in abstaining from street heroin and improvements in health and social functioning. The trial director, Professor John Strang, said that the results were ‘quite spectacular’ and called for wider availability of the treatment modality. The RIOTT study adds to a growing and increasingly powerful evidence base for Heroin Assisted Treatment. Source: http://www.iop.kcl.ac.uk/news/default.aspx?id=332 Medical News Today reports that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded a Research and Research Infrastructure Grand Opportunities grant through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009 for Probuphine clinical development. The grant will be administered by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The funds will directly support a substantial part of the second Phase 3 clinical study to confirm the safety and efficacy of Probuphine for the treatment of opioid addiction. Probuphine is a long-term, implantable formulation of buprenorphine that is designed to provide a constant, low level of drug for six months following a single treatment. It is hoped that this new version of the buprenorphine family of drugs will improve treatment compliance and reduce illicit diversion. Source: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/166091.php The BBC reports that Scottish brewer BrewDog has launched a low alcohol beer called Nanny State after being branded irresponsible for creating the UK's ‘strongest beer’. Their prior claim to fame, Tokyo, has an alcohol content of 18.2%. Nanny State is described as a ‘mild imperial ale containing more hops per barrel than any other beer ever brewed in the UK’. Jack Law, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said of the new beer: ‘This is a positive move which proves that low strength doesn't compromise quality. However the name of the beer proves that once again this company is failing to acknowledge the seriousness of the alcohol problem facing Scotland.’ Source: BBC News, 28 September 2009. Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8278312.stm According to London Fire Brigade statistics, alcohol is a factor in 31% of fatal accidental residential fires, and approximately 35% of all fatal fires occurring in the months of December, January and February. The study also found that more than a third of fatal dwelling fires happen on a Saturday or Sunday night. The findings correlate with a 2006 study by the Arson Control Forum that found that from a sample of deaths from fire, in 47% of cases the victim was under the influence of a substance—in 33% of cases the substance was alcohol. In 2007/8 the Greater Manchester Fire Service recorded 43% of fire fatalities had consumed alcohol, though noted the small sample size. Source: http://www.alcoholpolicy.net/2009/09/one-third-of-accidental-fire-deaths-are-alcoholrelated.html Reuters reports that Italy is now grappling with a youth drinks culture modelled on the heavy-drinking northern European model. In a country where proverbially ‘wine makes good blood’, the popular belief that moderate alcohol intake makes people good-humoured and can be healthy is being rapidly undermined. It is reported that the Italian tradition of touching wine only at meals is caving in to the power of binge-drinking seen in northern European countries like Britain. A 2007 study from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) showed 38% of Italian students between 15 and 16 had reported binge drinking in the last month—a rise of almost 23% from 1995. The jump put Italy ahead of Sweden and Finland, which reported declines, but still well behind Britain's 54%. In July Milan became Italy's first city to crack down on youth drinking, setting 500 Euro fines for the possession and consumption of alcohol by under-16s or those selling to them. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE58R05Z20090928 The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has announced new advice on over-the-counter (OTC) medicines containing codeine and dihydrocodeine to minimise the risk of overuse and addiction. The package of measures includes clear and prominently positioned warnings on the label and patient information leaflet about the risk of addiction, and the importance of not taking these medicines for longer than three days. The revised guidance on the use of these products will focus on treating moderate pain not relieved by simple painkillers such as paracetamol and ibuprofen. There will also be updated controls on advertising to ensure the new warnings are clearly presented. Source: Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency http://www.mhra.gov.uk/NewsCentre/Pressreleases/CON057115 A consortium of over 40 top research universities in the USA has launched its own online research news service, Futurity (http://www.futurity.org). The service was set up in response to decreases in science coverage by the media, and will feed the universities’ latest discoveries directly to online news sites, including Yahoo News and Google News. Every week, each university sends several news releases and articles written by staff members to an editor based at the University of Rochester. The editor then highlights stories on the Futurity website, to showcase the research. Yahoo and Google will include its content with other news items from sources like The Associated Press and New York Times. American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry 20th Annual Meeting & Symposium, 3–6 December 2009, Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles, California. Website http://www.aaap.org South African Therapeutic Community Conference, 9–11 December 2009, Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa. Website: http://www.satcconference.yolasite.com Kettil Bruun Society thematic meeting: Episodic heavy drinking amongst adolescents, 10–12 December 2009, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Website: http://www.ru.nl/kbsmeeting/english/. Contact: Jacqueline Berns, j.berns@fb.ru.nl 12th International Conference on Treatment of Addictive Behaviors (ICTAB-12), 7–10 February 2010, Santa Fe, New Mexico (USA). Contact: dyao@unm.edu. Website: http://casaa.unm.edu Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting, 24–27 February 2010, Hilton Hotel Baltimore, USA. Website: http://www.srnt.org Fourth Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy, 15–16 March 2010, Santa Monica, California, USA. Website: http://www.rand.org/multi/dprc/issdp2010/index.html Alcohol and violence: relationships, causality and policy, 15–18 March 2010, Melbourne, Australia. A thematic meeting of the Kettil Bruun Society, hosted by the AER Alcohol Policy Research Centre at the Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre. Website: http://www.kettilbruun.org/Violence_Melb.htm American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) 41st Annual Medical-Scientific Conference, 15–18 April 2010, San Francisco, USA. Website: http://www.asam.org/annualmeeting.html Harm Reduction: The Next Generation. The 21st annual conference of the International Harm Reduction Association, 25–29 April 2010, Liverpool, UK. Website http://www.ihraconferences.net College on Problems of Drug Dependence 72nd annual meeting, 12–17 June 2010, The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. Website: http://www.cpdd.vcu.edu The Inaugural National Indigenous Drug & Alcohol Conference (NIDAC 2010): Listening, Learning & Leading, 16–18 June 2010, Adelaide Convention Centre, Australia. Website: http://www.nidaconference.com.au 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, 26–30 June 2010, San Antonio, Texas, USA. Website: http://www.rsoa.org/2010meet-Futures.htm News and Notes welcomes contributions from its readers. Send your material to Peter Miller, News and Notes Editor, Addiction, National Addiction Centre PO48, 4 Windsor Walk, London SE5 8AF. Fax +44 (0)20 7848 5966; e-mail molly@addictionjournal.org Conference entries should be sent to Molly Jarvis at molly@addictionjournal.org. Subject to editorial review, we will be glad to print, free of charge, details of your conference or event, up to 75 words and one entry only. Please send your notification three months before you wish the entry to appear.