Call for Ireland to do more in battle against smoking
Political will is crucial if Ireland is to take further preventative measures, said Dr Douglas Bettcher, director of the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative.
Almost three out of 10 of the Irish population smoke and 6,000 die from smoking related illnesses every year.
Dr Bettcher was in Dublin yesterday to deliver an address at the Irish Cancer Society’s annual Charles Cully Memorial Lecture.
“Ireland changed the history of global tobacco control and cancer prevention by adopting the revolutionary ban on smoking in public places and workplaces in March 2004. However, it should do more to protect people from the range of smoking. Political will to adopt more progressive tobacco control policies is crucial in this regard,” he said.
The WHO provides technical assistance to help countries implement its Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) that Ireland signed in September 2003.
The framework identifies six tobacco control measures, noted by their cost effectiveness and ability to save lives.
The measures include protecting people from tobacco smoke, offering help to quit, warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on advertising, promotion and sponsorship and raising taxes on tobacco.
Part of the Irish Cancer Society’s new five-year strategy is to establish an environment that does not tolerate smoking in young people and reduces the numbers taking up smoking from 18% to 10%.
Meanwhile, world lung cancer experts attending a conference in Dublin, hosted by the British Thoracic Oncology Group, called for more investment in biomarker technology to decrease diagnosis time, ensure correct treatment and boost survival rates.
Biomarkers are normally present in small amounts in the blood or other tissues and cancers can sometimes make these substances.
Consultant medical oncologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, Canada, Dr Frances Shepherd, predicted that clinicians would be able to evaluate a panel of biologic markers in order to customise therapy for individual patients with both early and advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer — the most common form of lung cancer.
Consultant medical oncologist at St James’s Hospital, Dublin, Prof Ken O’Byrne, said late diagnosis of lung cancer was the main reason for treatment failure so methods to improve early detection of the disease were vital.
Irish Cancer Society’s Information helpline number is 1800 200 700 and their website address is www.cancer.ie
