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Background: Previous research showed childhood obesity to be more strongly associated with maternal weight than with paternal weight. However, confidence in this finding is limited by the lack of objectively measured data from both parents. Objective: We quantified the individual and combined effects of maternal and paternal overweight/obesity on obesity risk in children. Design: Data were pooled from the annual Health Surveys for England carried out between 2001 and 2006. Families with [less than or equal to]2 children aged 2-15 y with anthropometric data available for both parents and children were included (n = 4432 families, n = 7078 children). Weights and heights were measured by a trained nurse. Results: Having 2 overweight parents was associated with an increased risk of child obesity [odds ratio (OR): 2.2; 95% CI: 1.3, 3.7; P < 0.001] compared with having 2 normal-weight parents. Having 2 obese (including severely obese) parents was associated with a higher risk of child obesity (OR: 12.0; 95% CI: 7.2, 20.1; P < 0.01), and having 2 severely obese parents was associated with an even higher risk of child obesity (OR: 22.3; 95% CI: 10.3, 48.4; P < 0.01) independent of age, sex, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Mother-child associations (r = 0.27) for body mass index were significantly stronger than father-child associations (r = 0.23), even after adjustment for plausible levels ([less than or equal to]4%) of undisclosed nonpaternity. Associations were the same for sons and daughters but increased with age. Conclusions: There is a strong and graded association between parental weight status and risk of childhood obesity, which is significantly stronger for maternal weight. Parental obesity could be used to target preventive interventions in the preschool years to avoid serious adverse effects on the future health of children. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28838.

Abstract Background--Risks of lung cancer and of heart disease attributable to passive smoking have been evaluated mainly in non-smokers married to smokers, but there has been little quantitative assessment of [...]

Cotinine levels in pregnant smokers may be lower than levels in nonpregnant smokers, even when cigarette consumption is the same. Researchers measured cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, in the saliva of 40 women during and after pregnancy. During pregnancy, the average cotinine level was 3.5 nanograms (ng) per cigarette smoked. After pregnancy, cotinine levels averaged 9.9 ng per cigarette. Standard formulas equating cotinine levels with cigarette consumption may not be accurate when used during pregnancy.

Abstract Objective--To examine the importance of parental smoking on passive exposure to tobacco smoke in children and the social and geographical patterns of exposure. Design--Cross sectional study. Setting--Schools in 10 [...]

For much of the 20th century, smoking was regarded as a socially learned habit and as a personal choice. It is only in the past decade or so that the [...]

Abstract Objective To quantify the prevalence and characteristics of hardcore smokers in England. Design Cross sectional survey. Setting Interview in respondents' household. Participants 7766 adult cigarette smokers. Main outcome measures [...]

In terms of brand shares, the cigarette trade in the United Kingdom is dominated by the multinational tobacco companies, whose brands together hold over 90% of the market But the [...]

Background: The relevance of nicotine yields from machine-smoked cigarettes for quantifying smokers' nicotine intakes and exposure to cigarette toxins has been called into question. However, most studies of the relationship between nicotine yield and nicotine intake have been on relatively small and unrepresentative samples and have included few smokers of 'ultra-low' brands (i.e., those yielding around 1 mg of tar and 0.1 mg of nicotine). Methods: We examined the relationship between salivary cotinine (a major metabolite of nicotine) concentrations and nicotine yields of machine-smoked cigarettes in a nationally representative sample of 2031 adult smokers of manufactured cigarettes surveyed in the 1998 Health Survey for England. We used standard linear regression techniques to examine associations and two-sided tests of statistical significance. Results: Cotinine concentrations varied widely between smokers at any level of nominal brand nicotine yield. On average, cotinine levels were slightly lower in smokers of lower nicotine-yielding brands, but these smokers differed in terms of sex, socioeconomic profile, and cigarette consumption. After we controlled for potential confounders, nicotine yield from the brand smoked accounted for only 0.79% of the variation in saliva cotinine concentrations. Nicotine intake per cigarette smoked, as estimated from salivary cotinine level, did not correspond with machine-smoked yields at any level of nicotine yield. Nicotine intake per cigarette was about eight times greater than machine-smoked yields at the lowest deliveries (1.17 mg estimated nicotine intake per cigarette from brands averaging 0.14-mg delivery from machine smoking) and 1.4 times greater for the highest yield cigarettes (1.31-mg estimated nicotine intake per cigarette from brands averaging 0.91 mg from machine smoking). Conclusions: Smokers' tendency to regulate nicotine intake vitiates potential health gains from lower tar and nicotine cigarettes. Current approaches to characterizing tar and nicotine yields of cigarettes provide a simplistic guide to smokers' exposure that is misleading to consumers and regulators alike and should be abandoned. [J Natl Cancer Inst 2001;93: 134-8]

Abstract Objective To determine whether children's exposure to passive smoking has changed since the late 1980s. Design Cross sectional surveys of nationally representative samples of secondary school children carried out [...]

Nicotine replacement treatment should also be available on the NHS Bupropion was licensed in June by the Medicines Control Agency for use in the United Kingdom to help patients stop [...]

Despite the high global burden of diseases caused by tobacco, valid and comparable prevalence data for patterns of adult tobacco use and factors influencing use are absent for many low-income and middle-income countries. We assess these patterns through analysis of data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS).

OBJECTIVES To examine intergenerational associations for thinness and to compare maternal and paternal effects. DESIGN Population-based, cross-sectional design using data from the Health Survey for England from January 1, 2001, through December 31, 2006. SETTING The Health Survey for England, an annual, national survey representative of the population living in private households in England. PARTICIPANTS Families with children and adolescents aged 2 to 15 years with anthropometric data available for children and adolescents and 2 parents (N = 4423 families, N = 7078 children and adolescents). MAIN EXPOSURE Trained interviewers collected height and weight measurements. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Child/adolescent thinness, categorized using International Obesity Task Force criteria. RESULTS Of 7078 children and adolescents, 402 (5.7%) were categorized as being thin. Thinness was more common in 2- to 5-year-olds (odds ratio, 1.61; 95% confidence interval, 1.22-2.13) than in 11- to 15-year-olds and in children and adolescents from ethnic minority (black: 2.28; 1.22-4.26; and Asian: 3.65; 2.76-4.83) than white backgrounds, but no differences were observed by sex or socioeconomic status. The strongest predictor of child/adolescent thinness was parental weight status. The prevalence of thinness was highest (16.2%) when both parents were thinner and progressively lower when both parents were in the upper half of the healthy-weight range (7.8%) or were overweight (5.3%) or obese (2.5%), with no differences in the magnitude of maternal and paternal influences. CONCLUSIONS These results are consistent with the idea that many cases of thinness are likely to represent the low end of the healthy distribution of weight and, as such, are likely to have a primarily genetic origin.

Smoking is a major cause of death and often initiates in adolescence. Mutations in CYP2A6slow metabolism of nicotine to cotinine. Haploinsufficiency in adults is associated with lower cigarette consumption, lower cotinine level and higher quit rates. Other genes are also implicated in smoking behaviour. We explored smoking behaviour and cotinine levels in relation to genotypes in adolescents.

Mesospheric winds are derived from HF radar observations of meteor echoes at Halley (76°S, 27°W), Antarctica. These meteor echoes are observed within the first range gates of the radar (less than 500 km) and are characterised by lower spectral widths than echoes backscattered from plasma irregularities in the Eregion of the ionosphere. The derived winds show first order agreement with mesospheric winds measured independently over Halley. Gravity wave signatures (e.g. <2-h period) and smaller-scale structure in the winds are revealed within the spatiotemporal data formed by the 16 beams. A data base of such observations is being built up from existing radar data extending over nearly a full solar cycle from 1988 to the present day.

In a double-blind randomised trial, 40 cigarette smokers used either nicotine-containing or placebo smoke-free cigarettes during 24 h abstinence from smoking. Subjects in the nicotine group experienced smaller increases in irritability and difficulty concentrating and fewer urges to smoke than those who received placebo. Nicotine smoke-free cigarettes were rated as more satisfying, more helpful and more effective in relieving craving than placebo. After 24 h use nicotine smoke-free cigarettes provided average blood nicotine levels of 6.3 ng/ml, i.e., 29.2% of smoking levels. The most frequent side effects were irritation of the throat and coughing. Overall, side effects were rated as not serious. Although the smoke-free cigarette in its present form is not very efficient in delivering nicotine, it was effective in alleviating initial tobacco withdrawal. It is possible that by providing both nicotine and “behavioural” replacement it may be particularly useful in the first stages of stopping smoking. The product is worth further investigation.

Nicotine replacement is a promising new approach to aid smoking cessation, and various methods of delivery are being developed. One new device is a smoke-free cigarette (Favor) that has been test-marketed in several US states. Without lighting up, it delivers nicotine vapor and is free of other harmful products of tobacco smoke. To examine its therapeutic potential, we measured plasma nicotine concentrations before, during, and after its use in eight male subjects. Very little nicotine was absorbed when it was puffed like a conventional cigarette. However, with an intensive schedule of puffing at four further smoke-free cigarettes over a 20-minute period, plasma nicotine concentrations were increased by an average of 17.3 ng/mL (107.3 nmol/L) (range, 10.9 to 30.4 ng/mL [67.6 to 188.5 nmol/L]). Heart rate and blood pressure also increased significantly. The rate of nicotine absorption was slow and resembled that obtained from nicotine chewing gum, suggesting that most of the nicotine was deposited in the mouth, throat, and large airways and did not reach the lung alveoli. Despite the slow absorption, the plasma nicotine levels produced could be of therapeutic value as an aid to smoking cessation.(JAMA 1987;257:3262-3265)

Antarctica is probably the least known of the world's regions. Intensive research by over 20 nations during the past 30 years has demonstrated increasingly the integral and often critical role of Antarctica in the natural systems of planet Earth. The Antarctic is fundamental in driving the global atmospheric regime owing to its strong negative radiation budget, and the Southern Ocean, linking the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, plays an influential, but not well understood role as a major sink for carbon dioxide. Man induced increases in ‘greenhouse’ gases are likely to have profound effects on the lower atmosphere of the South Polar regions where general circulation modelling predicts a strong temperature change response. The reaction of the ice sheet to warming is complex and includes ice shelf–sheet destruction as well as increased snow accumulation, both of which affect world sea level. Antarctica also forms an ideal observatory for studying the processes whereby solar radiation and particle outflow directly influence the Earth's environment through energy transfer to the upper atmosphere. The presence of chlorafluorocarbons in the stratosphere has resulted in the depletion of ozone in the austral spring, a discovery by the British Antarctic Survey that above all others has given a place to Antarctica on the world environmental stage.

Climatological change in the tides in the lower thermosphere has been estimated at five different latitudes using wavelet analysis of geomagnetic data series extending back to the beginning of the 20th century. The tidal signature present in the geomagnetic data is a consequence of atmospheric tides in the dynamo region between approximately 120 and 140 km altitude. The diurnal and semidiurnal spectral power have been accumulated through each year. The effect of solar and geomagnetic drivers has been minimized through use of proxy indices (aa index, sunspot number, F10.7 solar flux) to leave a residual which shows ∼20% reduction in both diurnal and semidiurnal amplitudes at midlatitudes since the middle of the century. This midlatitude reduction is qualitatively similar to the decrease observed using wind data from 1964 onward at approximately 90 km altitude over a range of latitudes by Bremer et al. (1997), but quantitatively it is about half the magnitude. At high latitude a similar decrease would be a statistically insignificant measurement because the estimation becomes sensitive to errors in the aa index. At low latitude there is no significant change throughout the century. The observed decrease at midlatitudes appears consistent with that predicted by Ross and Walterscheid (1991) for the dynamo region current as a consequence of global ozone depletion. Reduced tidal heating of the stratosphere during the latter half of the 20th century and the consequent reduction in tidal power propagating up to the lower thermosphere is implicated.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the prevalence and characteristics of hardcore smokers in England. DESIGN: Cross sectional survey. SETTING: Interview in respondents' household. PARTICIPANTS: 7766 adult cigarette smokers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Hardcore smoking defined by four criteria (less than a day without cigarettes in the past five years; no attempt to quit in the past year; no desire to quit; no intention to quit), all of which had to be satisfied. RESULTS: Some 16% of all smokers were categorised as hardcore. Hardcore smoking was associated with nicotine dependence, socioeconomic deprivation, and age, rising from 5% in young adults aged 16-24 to 30% in those aged >or= 65 years. Hardcore smokers displayed distinctive attitudes towards and beliefs about smoking. In particular they were likely to deny that smoking affected their health or would do so in the future. Prevalence of hardcore smoking was almost four times higher than in California. CONCLUSION: Hardcore smoking presents a serious challenge to public health efforts to reduce the prevalence of smoking, but the proportion of hardcore smokers does not necessarily increase as overall prevalence in a population declines. More hardcore smokers could be persuaded to quit, but this will require interventions that are targeted to the particular needs and perceptions of both socially disadvantaged and older smokers.

Saliva cotinine concentrations were used to examine determinants of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in 393 non-smoking students (age range 16–19 years) attending a sixth form college and living at home. Average concentrations were low (median 0.60 ng/ml), reflecting partly the warm weather at the time of the survey and partly the predominantly middle class sample. Despite this, cotinine levels were strongly related to the extent of self-reported passive smoking in the past three days (medians 0.30, 0.60, 0.90 and 1.35 ng/ml in those reporting ‘None at all’, ‘A little’, ‘Some’ and ‘A lot’ respectively, p<0.0001). Individual sources of environmental tobacco smoke identified were smoking by mothers (p<0.0001), by fathers (p<0.01), and exposure at college (p<0.001) and when out in the evenings (p<0.001). The results indicate that exposure outside the home may become of equal or greater importance than family smoking in determining the overall passive smoking dose received by this age group.