The Global Fight Against Cancer

Luther Terry Award winner proposes smoking ban in Thailand

Bungon Ritthiphakdee

Bangkok Post- Thailand  April 27, 2006
 
Bungon Ritthiphakdee, the Association's of Southeast Nations' tobacco consumption control coordinator and recipient of the Luther Terry Award has proposed a ban on smoking at nightspots in Thailand. Ms Bungon believes that this ban would bring a wide range of benefits to the Thai society.  Ms Bungon has campaigned for the control of tobacco use by pushing for the enactment of laws regulating cigarette advertisements and the introduction of gruesome pictures showing the effects of smoking on cigarette packets. The first Thai receive the Luther Terry Award was Dr. Prakit Vateesatokit in 2000, the Bangkok senator-elect and secretary-general of the Action on Smoking and Health Foundation.

Training Held for Launch of French Relay For Life® ‘Relais Pour La Vie’

A French Relay Team Sells Flowers on Motorcycles for a Fundraising Event

Support is growing for the June 2006 Relay For Life launch in France (Relais Pour La Vie), with 3,000 people expected to attend the event in Diemeringen, a city about an hour north of Strasbourg. Relais Pour La Vie staff and 13 community members attended the training. The Relay event is being supported by community and many regional associations. During the training, volunteers and staff discussed logistics and plans for this event, and it was announced that the second Relay will be held in Toulouse, France, in the summer of 2007.

Brazil Holds Kick-off Event to Launch Relay For Life "Revezando Pela Vida"

Brazil Prepares for First Relay For Life Scheduled for June 2006

The Brazilian Cancer League (Associação Brasileira do Câncer) recently conducted an enthusiastic and well-attended kick-off event for their Relay For Life launch, scheduled for September 2006. One-hundred participants including team captains, current partners, sponsors, and potential volunteers and sponsors gathered to discuss logistics and share event updates. The volunteers participated in a seminar about their duties, and a well-known Brazilian Actress spoke passionately about the Relay For Life, or "Revezando Pela Vida" launch. The group conducted a small luminaria ceremony while a musician played a guitar, and everyone joined hands and stamped a white canvas in a culturally symbolic gesture to demonstrate their commitment and dedication to

cancer control and this event.

2006 Luther Terry Tobacco Control Awards Announced

Witold Zatonski, M.D., Sc.D., of Poland Wins Distinguished Career Award

The American Cancer Society is pleased to announce the winners of the 2006 Luther L. Terry Awards for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control. The awards are named for the late United States Surgeon General Luther L. Terry, M.D., who authored the landmark 1964 Surgeon General’s Report which connected tobacco use to lung cancer and other illnesses. These awards recognize outstanding worldwide achievement in the field of tobacco control and will be presented during a special ceremony on  July 14 in Washington, DC, as part of the 13th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. The winners include Witold Zatonski, M.D., Sc.D., of Poland, and Margaretha Haglund of Sweden, who will both receive the Distinguished Career Award. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and the Department of Health and Children, Republic of Ireland, will be given the award for Exemplary Leadership by a Government Ministry. Belgium’s Luk Joossens and Thailand’s Bungon Ritthiphakdee will receive the award for Outstanding Individual Leadership. The United States’ Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Switzerland’s Framework Convention Alliance will be awarded in the Outstanding Organization category. Sir Richard Peto, M.Sc., M.A., of the United Kingdom will receive the award for Outstanding Research Contribution.

Street Smoking Ban Gains Momentum in South Korea

People walk on a non-smoking street in Tonam-dong
Korea Times April 14, 2006

In 2003 the street around Sungshin Women's University in South Korea was designated as a non-smoking zone in an effort to reduce the soaring rate of smoking among teenagers and women.  To further the efforts the district near Sungshin Women's University has now been designated as a smoke-free zone. It is the first of its kind to adopt such an ordinance in the nation and other district offices are following suit. According to the office's health department, the smoking rate fell from 56.4 percent in the district in 2001 to 42 percent in 2004. The female smoking rate also declined from 3.2 percent to 2.3 percent over the last three years. ``We're holding various events to encourage many residents to participate in the anti-smoking campaign. We also celebrate the World No Tobacco Day every year in that area. Many housewives and residents are serving as volunteers to promote the campaign in the zone." 'Kim Wang-dae, an official of the district office's health department, said.

Society Conducts Evaluation of Historic Breast Cancer Screening Project in China

Million Women Breast Cancer Screening Project Study Site

As part of the American Cancer Society's China Initiative, and in continuation of the Society’s collaboration with the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (CACA) on the One Million Women Breast Cancer Screening Project, a team of medical physicists and epidemiologists visited three sites in China during the week of April 10, 2006.  Society volunteers included Dr. Edward Hendrick of Northwestern University in Chicago, Dr. Martin Yaffe of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center in Toronto, Canada, Dr. Stephen Duffy from Cancer Research UK in London, England, and Dr. Tony Chen of National Taiwan University in Taipei. Dr. Robert Smith, Director of Cancer Screening at the Society, led the delegation. Hospitals in Guangzhou in the Guangdong Province, Taiyuan in the Shanxi Province, and the capital city of Beijing were on the tour, and a thorough quality assurance consultation was conducted on the state-of-the-art computed radiology (CR) mammography equipment used at all three of these study sites. These sites represent a sample of the 17 study sites in China. Another 20 sites are being prepared for inclusion in the study, and more than 100 breast cancer screening sites are expected to eventually join the project. American Cancer Society medical physicists conducted tests on the CR equipment, and Society epidemiologists consulted with colleagues on study design, data collection techniques, and analytic methodology. The Society is consulting with CACA in an ongoing collaboration to ensure the best quality breast cancer screening and medical care for Chinese women. Results of the project are expected to establish China's national breast cancer screening guidelines.

2006 International Cancer & Tobacco Control Conferences

For the first time in history, two of the world's preeminent conferences, the UICC World Cancer Congress and the 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health, will converge in Washington, D.C., in July 2006. This unprecedented event, hosted by the American Cancer Society, will unite the cancer and tobacco control communities in a global campaign against tobacco-related cancer, which threatens to kill more than half a billion people living today. An estimated 10,000 people from more than 120 countries are expected to attend these conferences. World leaders such as former US President George Bush and Uruguay President Tabare Vazquez will attend, as well as top health care, cancer, and tobacco control leaders from around the world. Special program activities will include an International Relay For Life® demonstration and the third presentation of the Luther Terry Awards, created to honor exemplary individual and organizational achievements in the field of tobacco control. For more information on these conferences, please visit www.2006conferences.org.

Bidding bye to tobacco farming in Bangladesh

Daily Star- Bangladesh April 3, 2006

Farmers in a remote village in Jaldhaka Upazila have replaced the harmful farming of tobacco with cucumber, and they have doubled their income while protecting public health and the environment. Alumuddin of Balapara village said his children usually suffered from cough, fever and other diseases during tobacco harvesting season. Tobacco's irritating smell caused loss of appetite, headache and even respiratory problems. But those complaints are gone after he stopped tobacco cultivation. The credit for this goes to Plan International, an international NGO, which launched a Participatory Agriculture Products Diversification Project to keep farmers away from tobacco cultivation and diversify crops. It is implementing the project with the help a local farmers organization named Bangladesh Rural Improvement Foundation (BRIF).

http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/04/03/d60403070288.htm