Hooked for life – How big tobacco companies seduce youth – CANSA

Available for download:

CANSA Campaign Logo (jpg): English | Afrikaans

Infographic: Tobacco Companies Target Youth (pdf) English | Afrikaans

Powerpoint: Tobacco Companies Target Youth (pdf) English | Afrikaans

Hooked for Life – How Big Tobacco Companies Seduce Youth

The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA) partners with the World Health Organization http://www.who.int/  to highlight risks associated with tobacco use as part of World No Tobacco Day (31 May).  The aim is to advocate for effective policies to lower tobacco use. #WorldNoTobaccoDay

Globally the focus is on the link between tobacco and heart and other cardiovascular diseases including stroke, which combined are the world’s leading causes of death. Says Elize Joubert, CANSA’s CEO, “In South Africa, we’re concerned about the burden of tobacco and especially about the tactics adopted by the tobacco industry to target youth. Research shows tobacco use is often initiated and established during adolescence and young adulthood.”

Smoking remains a major preventable cause of disease and premature death globally http://www.cansa.org.za/avoid-tobacco/ . Annually, the global tobacco epidemic kills over 7 million people.  South Africa’s comprehensive Tobacco Control strategy over the last 20 years has been effective in dropping smoking use per capita – according to the SA National Health and Nutrition Survey 2013.  It showed 32.8% of men had ever smoked compared to 10.1 % of females.

The initial success of legislation of the past 20 years such as the Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act No.12 (1999), hikes in excise duty on cigarettes, and health promotions to educate on risks of tobacco use have led to a 30 % decrease in smoking among school learners.

However, a recent increase in smoking has been noted among youth (particularly girls) in SA from 2008 to 2011, according to the Global Youth Tobacco Surveys.

Partnership

Tobacco companies are engaged in systematic market research generating data on population trends, smoking patterns and attitudes towards smoking. Research revealed that 90% of smokers start the habit by age 18 and 99% start by age 26.

By altering the taste, smell and other sensory attributes of products, tobacco manufacturers entice new users, mostly youth, to start and continue smoking. They maximise the appeal of tobacco products in this age group, by means of introducing the following chemical additives:

  • Levulinic acid to reduce the harshness of nicotine; make smoke feel smoother and less irritating.
  • Flavourings, such as chocolate and liquorice, to boost sweetness of tobacco; mask the harshness of the smoke.
  • Bronchodilators to expand lungs’ airways, making it easier for tobacco smoke to pass into the lungs.
  • Menthol to cool and numb throat, reducing throat irritation; making smoke feel smoother.

“CANSA appeals to young people, be aware of these tactics and understand that these alterations to products while enhancing the experience, do nothing to reduce the long-term negative effects of smoking or the risk for several cancers,” added Joubert. #NoTobacco

Furthermore, CANSA warns against the use of hubbly bubbly, hookah pipes or water pipes http://www.cansa.org.za/hubbly-bubbly-or-hookah-smoking-increases-cancer-risk/. Popular among youth when socialising with friends, it’s important to note that tobacco is no less toxic in a hookah pipe than in other tobacco products. Water in the hookah does not filter out the toxic ingredients in the tobacco smoke. Hookah smokers may actually inhale more tobacco smoke than cigarette smokers do, because of the large volume of smoke inhaled in one smoking session. The sale of hookahs and products is prohibited by law to anyone under the age of 18.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) http://www.cansa.org.za/legal-status-e-cigarettes-in-sa/ and similar devices are frequently marketed as aids to quit smoking or as ‘healthier’ alternatives to tobacco.

Joubert states, “However, this has not been proven. They contain nicotine, so they’re addictive and may encourage novice users to later switch to combustible cigarettes. They’re particularly harmful and addictive to people under the age of 25, as their brains are still developing. This makes it easier for them to get addicted to nicotine after using even small amounts of e-cigarettes, which also contain other harmful chemicals. It’s rather recommended to quit smoking by proven treatments.”

CANSA encourages young smokers who have started using any tobacco product to get support to quit. CANSA has a free online eKickButt programme that helps with quitting smoking (www.ekickbutt.org.za). Counselling and medication can more than double the chance of a smoker to succeed when attempting to quit.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2556031/

A balanced lifestyle today lowers your cancer risk for tomorrow – CANSA

It is almost mid-year already, and your New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 long forgotten, but it is never a bad thing or too late to take stock of where you are at, with regards to important life goals, possibly the most significant of these being your health goals. After all, the old saying is true, “Health is Wealth”.

CANSA agrees with the World Cancer Research Fund’s findings indicating that if you work towards the three goals below, you will reduce your cancer risk by a third:

  1. Eat Smart (a wholesome, balanced diet, including what you drink)
  2. Maintain a healthy body weight (SA has the highest occurrence of obesity in sub-Saharan Africa, including children and teens)
  3. Be physically active (World Health Organisation has determined that 47 % of SA adults have insufficient levels of physical activity)

Not only will you lower your risk for several cancers, but also your risk for other non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. Read media release: English | Afrikaans

Exercise outdoors

April 2018: Lorraine Govender (CANSA’s National Advocacy Co-ordinator), was interviewed by Adri Kotze (Africa Editor Centre for Health Journalism – Mail & Guardian).

CANSA was asked to respond to the Cancer Research UK’s latest research, published earlier this year, regarding lifestyle factors which could contribute to an increased cancer risk, and comment on how this pertains to South Africans. Read more…

Balanced Lifestyle Slideshow

Slideshow – How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle

Lifestyle Infographic

Infographic – Tips to Reduce Your Cancer Risk

Smart Lunch
Active Kids

What YOU Can Do:

1.     Life is hectic – avoid making last minute trips to the local ‘fast food’ outlet, by preparing meals in advance where possible. Cook a double portion healthy, balanced meal, eat one and freeze the other.
2.     Reduce your portion sizes – eat three healthy meals a day – don’t starve yourself and wolf down an enormous portion later.
3.     If you didn’t prepare it right, salt will NOT make the meal taste better, only salty! Use alternate herbs to add flavour food, limiting salt to 1 tsp per day (per person…)
4.     Bring ingredients home that won’t tempt you to eat unhealthily. Choose healthy snack options instead, to still the hunger pangs. If you don’t put it in the shopping cart, you’re not likely to start…

Healthy options
 5.     Avoid food high in fat, sugar and low in fibre. Eat less red meat (beef, lamb, pork), replacing it with fish, poultry, beans, lentils and soya products, and avoid processed meats (ham, bacon, salami, etc).
Exercise

6.     Do aim to eat at least 2 ½ cups of veggies / fruit per day, adding wholegrains and pulses where possible
7.     Plan lunch boxes for school and work instead of buying meals at the tuckshop or canteen – find super lunch box tips here in our CANSA Smart Lunch Box Planner, which includes recipes…
8.     What you drink counts too – avoid sugary drinks such as fizzy sodas and alcohol. Drink unsweetened, pure fruit juice (diluted). Increased sugar intake is linked to obesity and alcohol consumption increases your cancer risk.
9.     Teach kids to prepare healthy, balanced meals from the start (instead of giving your toddler a sugary biscuit, opt for a carrot stick…)
10.     Encourage your children to play physical games: hop scotch; skipping; take them to the park, or play areas designed to get them moving and strengthening their muscles. Make exercise a family affair…

Healthy options
11.     Get up, choose to move, use the stairs, stretch, join neighbourhood sport groups or ones that encourage physical activity. You can also find out more about our CANSA Active programme – be active and healthy – having some Feel Good Fun, while raising awareness and funds for CANSA and the fight against cancer in SA.
12.     Limit your screen time, or time on digital devices which encourages less physical activity.
Smart Lunch
 What Your COMMUNITY Can Do:

Community efforts are essential in creating an environment that encourages healthy food choices and physical activity. Community members can make their voices heard in the following ways:

1.     Lobby for healthier food options offered at schools, educational institutions, or in the workplace

Healthy options
2.     Encourage and empower community members to grow their own fruit and vegetables
3.     Community members or service providers can donate healthier food options to organisations supporting poorer community members
4.     Lobby for safe places where community members can walk, run, ride their bicycle, etc
Take part in events

5.     Encourage events that provide the opportunity to be physically active or start or support a club which does so
6.     Provide opportunities for recreation that do not revolve around sedentary, passive behaviour
7.     Community members or service providers can donate play equipment encouraging the development of motor skills, or help local schools (play schools through high schools) to improve sports facilities

It’s ALWAYS time to take stock of your health.
Invest in your health now by living a balanced lifestyle.

A balanced lifestyle today lowers your cancer risk for tomorrow – CANSA

It is almost mid-year already, and your New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 long forgotten, but it is never a bad thing or too late to take stock of where you are at, with regards to important life goals, possibly the most significant of these being your health goals. After all, the old saying is true, “Health is Wealth”.

CANSA agrees with the World Cancer Research Fund’s findings indicating that if you work towards the three goals below, you will reduce your cancer risk by a third:

  1. Eat Smart (a wholesome, balanced diet, including what you drink)
  2. Maintain a healthy body weight (SA has the highest occurrence of obesity in sub-Saharan Africa, including children and teens)
  3. Be physically active (World Health Organisation has determined that 47 % of SA adults have insufficient levels of physical activity)

Not only will you lower your risk for several cancers, but also your risk for other non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc. Read media release: English | Afrikaans

Exercise outdoors

April 2018: Lorraine Govender (CANSA’s National Advocacy Co-ordinator), was interviewed by Adri Kotze (Africa Editor Centre for Health Journalism – Mail & Guardian).

CANSA was asked to respond to the Cancer Research UK’s latest research, published earlier this year, regarding lifestyle factors which could contribute to an increased cancer risk, and comment on how this pertains to South Africans. Read more…

Balanced Lifestyle Slideshow

Slideshow – How to Live a Balanced Lifestyle

Lifestyle Infographic

Infographic – Tips to Reduce Your Cancer Risk

Smart Lunch
Active Kids

What YOU Can Do:

1.     Life is hectic – avoid making last minute trips to the local ‘fast food’ outlet, by preparing meals in advance where possible. Cook a double portion healthy, balanced meal, eat one and freeze the other.
2.     Reduce your portion sizes – eat three healthy meals a day – don’t starve yourself and wolf down an enormous portion later.
3.     If you didn’t prepare it right, salt will NOT make the meal taste better, only salty! Use alternate herbs to add flavour food, limiting salt to 1 tsp per day (per person…)
4.     Bring ingredients home that won’t tempt you to eat unhealthily. Choose healthy snack options instead, to still the hunger pangs. If you don’t put it in the shopping cart, you’re not likely to start…

Healthy options
 5.     Avoid food high in fat, sugar and low in fibre. Eat less red meat (beef, lamb, pork), replacing it with fish, poultry, beans, lentils and soya products, and avoid processed meats (ham, bacon, salami, etc).
Exercise

6.     Do aim to eat at least 2 ½ cups of veggies / fruit per day, adding wholegrains and pulses where possible
7.     Plan lunch boxes for school and work instead of buying meals at the tuckshop or canteen – find super lunch box tips here in our CANSA Smart Lunch Box Planner, which includes recipes…
8.     What you drink counts too – avoid sugary drinks such as fizzy sodas and alcohol. Drink unsweetened, pure fruit juice (diluted). Increased sugar intake is linked to obesity and alcohol consumption increases your cancer risk.
9.     Teach kids to prepare healthy, balanced meals from the start (instead of giving your toddler a sugary biscuit, opt for a carrot stick…)
10.     Encourage your children to play physical games: hop scotch; skipping; take them to the park, or play areas designed to get them moving and strengthening their muscles. Make exercise a family affair…

Healthy options
11.     Get up, choose to move, use the stairs, stretch, join neighbourhood sport groups or ones that encourage physical activity. You can also find out more about our CANSA Active programme – be active and healthy – having some Feel Good Fun, while raising awareness and funds for CANSA and the fight against cancer in SA.
12.     Limit your screen time, or time on digital devices which encourages less physical activity.
Smart Lunch
 What Your COMMUNITY Can Do:

Community efforts are essential in creating an environment that encourages healthy food choices and physical activity. Community members can make their voices heard in the following ways:

1.     Lobby for healthier food options offered at schools, educational institutions, or in the workplace

Healthy options
2.     Encourage and empower community members to grow their own fruit and vegetables
3.     Community members or service providers can donate healthier food options to organisations supporting poorer community members
4.     Lobby for safe places where community members can walk, run, ride their bicycle, etc
Take part in events

5.     Encourage events that provide the opportunity to be physically active or start or support a club which does so
6.     Provide opportunities for recreation that do not revolve around sedentary, passive behaviour
7.     Community members or service providers can donate play equipment encouraging the development of motor skills, or help local schools (play schools through high schools) to improve sports facilities

It’s ALWAYS time to take stock of your health.
Invest in your health now by living a balanced lifestyle.

World Asthma Day 2018 – GINA

May 1: Today is the 20th annual World Asthma Day, an event held each May to raise awareness of Asthma worldwide. World Asthma Day is organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma, or GINA (www.ginasthma.org), a World Health Organization collaborative and 501(c)3 organization founded in 1993.

According to WHO estimates, 235 million people suffer from asthma, which can cause wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing. Although asthma cannot be cured, it is possible to control asthma to reduce and prevent asthma attacks, also called episodes.1 In the United States, approximately half of people with asthma had at least one asthma attack in 2012. More children (55%) than adults (49%) had an attack.

Asthma is the most common chronic disease among children. Asthma is not just a public health problem for high income countries: it occurs in all countries regardless of level of development. Over 80% of asthma deaths occurs in low and lower-middle income countries. Asthma is under-diagnosed and under-treated, creating a substantial burden to individuals and families and possibly restricting individuals’ activities for a lifetime.

Asthma attacks cause adults to miss work and children to miss school. These dangerous and sometimes life-threatening episodes reduce the quality of life for people with asthma. The good news is that we can raise awareness about asthma and how it can be controlled. People with asthma can prevent asthma attacks if they learn how to avoid asthma triggers like tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution, and colds and flu. Asthma episodes can also be prevented by using inhaled corticosteroids and other prescribed daily long-term control medicines correctly.

This year’s World Asthma Day theme is “NEVER TOO EARLY, NEVER TOO LATE. It’s always the right time to address airways disease.”” The theme provides a call to action for both patients and healthcare providers worldwide to evaluate symptoms regardless of the timepoint in one’s life they may occur and take actions to ensure that the asthma is controlled.

World Asthma Day was first held in 1998, and has grown each year to become one of the most important Asthma events globally. On World Asthma Day, hundreds of awareness-raising activities will take place in countries all over the world. Further information about GINA and World Asthma Day can be found at GINA’s website: www.ginasthma.org. Documents detailing GINA’s global strategy for diagnosis, management, and prevention of COPD are also available at www.ginasthma.org.

CANSA: Newsletter March 2018

Available for download:

Balance your Lifestyle Today for a Lower Cancer Risk Tomorrow

The Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA), says leading a balanced lifestyle (http://www.cansa.org.za/adopt-a-balanced-lifestyle/) can help lower the cancer risk and agrees with the World Cancer Research Fund –  people can reduce their cancer risk in one third of cancer cases, by simply combining a wholesome eating programmemaintaining a healthy body weight and remaining physically active.

According to Elize Joubert, CANSA CEO, “Being overweight or obese is linked to a higher risk of several cancers. Many people in South Africa are overweight, including children and teens. In fact, we have the highest occurrence of obesity in sub-Saharan Africa, with 42% women and 13% men carrying this label, while 7% of boys and 9.6% girls present as obese. So our message is to eat smart to lessen the cancer risk.” *

CANSA recommends the following smart nutrition tips:

  • Have less high sugar content food and beverages on an ongoing basis.
  • Eat little, if any, processed meat such as ham and bacon and eat no more than 500g (cooked weight) red meat (beef, pork, lamb) per week.  Instead, consume other protein sources such as fish, poultry or beans.
  • On a daily basis eat a minimum of 2.5 cups of vegetables and fruit.  These are complex foods that contain beneficial vitamins, minerals, fibre, carotenoids, and other bioactive substances, that may help avert cancer.
  • Choose whole grains instead of refined grain products.
  • Eat less salt and limit salt intake to below 6g (2.4g sodium) a day.
CANSA Balanced Lifestyle

Combined with eating smart, CANSA further endorses limiting inactive behaviours such as sitting, lying down, watching television, or other forms of screen-based entertainment, and rather get physically active to help maintain a healthy body weight. Instead of using the escalator or lifts, climb the stairs; whenever possible walk or bike to your destination; exercise at lunch with your co-workers, family or friends; take an exercise break at work to stretch or take a quick walk; walk to visit co-workers instead of sending an email; go dancing with your spouse or friends; go for walks in your neighbourhood or form a walking group.

Join our CANSA Active programme (http://cansa-active.org.za/) to learn about leading a balanced lifestyle, playing sport safely in the sun as well as being cancer-aware by encouraging smart choices regarding diet and lifestyle. It also gives the opportunity for sports people to participate in their favourite sporting activity or race, while raising funds online to support CANSA’s care and support  (http://www.cansa.org.za/cansas-care-support/)to those affected by cancer, ” adds Joubert.

Visit www.cansa.org.za or www.cansa-active.org.za, or contact the nearest CANSA Care Centre, call CANSA toll-free 0800 22 66 22 or email: [email protected].  CANSA offers multi-lingual support on WhatsApp: 0721979305 for English and Afrikaans and 0718673530 for Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho and Siswati.  Follow CANSA on Twitter: @CANSA(http://www.twitter.com/CANSA), join CANSA on Facebook: CANSA The Cancer Association of South Africa and follow CANSA on Instagram: @cancerassociationofsouthafrica

* Ng M, Fleming T, Robinson M, Thomson B, Graetz N, Margono C, Mullany EC, Biryukov S, Abbafati C, Abera SF, Abraham JP. Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. The Lancet. 2014 Sep 5;384(9945):766-81