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Passive smoking test case wins in Australia
POLICY AND PEOPLE
Passive smoking test case wins in Australia nised by lawyers from the UK and n a landmark decision on USA because there have been no May 3 in the New South similar cases of successWales Supreme Court in ful litigation in these Australia, a jury awarRights were countries. For example, ded Aus$450 000 to a not granted to in April a jury in Miami, former bar attendant, Florida, USA, refused Marlene Sharp, after include this to award damages to a finding that she had image in former Trans World developed throat cancer electronic Airlines flight attendant as a result of her media. Please for injuries allegedly employment. Sharp, a refer to the caused by passive smok62-year-old non-smoker, ing. However, other had worked for 11 years printed journal. passive smoking cases in the Port Kembla related to illnesses such Returned Services Leaas asthma or bronchitis gue Club and had been Protect your employees where the causal relacontinually exposed to tionship is easier to prove have been cigarette smoke. successful. Passive smoking cases This case has been closely scruti-
where the litigant has developed cancer have previously been settled out of court. This case went to court and was defended by a workers’ compensation scheme in New South Wales as a test case. Andrew Penman, chief executive officer of the Cancer Council, New South Wales, stated that this was a very important precedent for common law jurisdictions because a jury has found an employer guilty for failure to exercise a duty of care to employees in a case involving cancer. However the case is likely to be appealed.
South Asia fails to reduce malnutrition burden
Drink in moderation, says consensus panel
Photofusion
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M
Panos Pictures
ore than 217 million people in access to food, says the report. south Asia will be chronically WFP published a map that undernourished by 2015, according illustrates the extent of malto a report published by the UN nutrition around the world World Food Programme (WFP) at (www.wfp.org/newsroom) and in a Consultation on Hunger meeting South Asia, for example, the on April 25, which was map shows that the jointly organised by famine “hotspots” are the Indian governin regions, including Rights were ment and the WFP. mountainous areas not granted to The report notes that of Nepal, the state include this politicians will fail to of Bihar in India, meet the target of 150 and most areas of image in million malnourished Bangladesh. electronic people, which leaders The availability agreed at the World of food is not the media. Please Food Summit in key problem for refer to the Rome, Italy, in 1996. these regions, which In south Asia 294 are actually self-suffiprinted million people have cient for cereal promalnutrition and they duction—the most comprise one third of More aid is needed important staple food. the global total of In many areas hungry malnourished people. The families can be found next to overEnabling Development: Food flowing food warehouses. “Here Assistance in South Asia report the problem is not a lack of food warns that “the goal [of reducing but the inability to buy or access the number of malnourished peothe food”, says the report. ple to 150 million] cannot be met The report blames poor food diswithout substantial new momentribution as a main contributory tum and initiative”. factor to child malnutrition and Pregnant and nursing mothers, micronutrient deficiencies in south unborn babies, and children less Asia. Gender discrimination is also than 5-years-old are most vulneraan extreme problem in South Asia ble to hunger and malnutrition, even by developing country stanaccording to the report. For examdards. “Where access to resources ple, about 30 million pregnant is more equally shared across the women in South Asia are anaemic sexes—as in Sri Lanka, Maldives, as a result of malnutrition. and Bhutan—health and nutrition 99 million children less than are significantly better”, says the 5-years-old are underweight. report. 63 million victims of recurrent natSanjay Kumar ural disasters have inadequate
THE LANCET • Vol 357 • May 12, 2001
Bebe Loff, Stephen Cordner
f you drink, do so with moderation. But if you do not drink, ask your doctor. Moderate alcohol consumption at meals may be advisable. This consensus statement was made at the Alcohol and Wine in Health and Disease conference organised by the New York Academy of Science and held on April 26-29 at Palo Alto, California, USA. Official organisations have been reluctant to recommend moderate alcohol use, says Meir Stampfer (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA) partly because of concerns about alcohol abuse. If you don’t drink, don’t start, was hitherto recommended. While efforts to prevent abuse are important, they shouldn’t induce moderate drinkers to quit, said participants. Curtis Ellison (Boston University, MA, USA), noted that even if 5% of current abstainers became abusers, there would still be a net public health benefit from alcohol consumption. Mechanisms have been proposed to explain the protective effect of wine against coronary disease. However, prospective studies favouring wine drinking compared with other alcoholic beverages may have confounding factors such as age, gender, drinking pattern, and vascular risk, warned Morten Gronbaek (Danish Epidemiology Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark). Possibly the beverage best fit to protect a given population is the one that population already drinks, in a moderate amount, concluded the panel.
I
Giovanni de Gaetano, Bruno Simini
1511
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.
Passive smoking test case wins in Australia nised by lawyers from the UK and n a landmark decision on USA because there have been no May 3 in the New South similar cases of successWales Supreme Court in ful litigation in these Australia, a jury awarRights were countries. For example, ded Aus$450 000 to a not granted to in April a jury in Miami, former bar attendant, Florida, USA, refused Marlene Sharp, after include this to award damages to a finding that she had image in former Trans World developed throat cancer electronic Airlines flight attendant as a result of her media. Please for injuries allegedly employment. Sharp, a refer to the caused by passive smok62-year-old non-smoker, ing. However, other had worked for 11 years printed journal. passive smoking cases in the Port Kembla related to illnesses such Returned Services Leaas asthma or bronchitis gue Club and had been Protect your employees where the causal relacontinually exposed to tionship is easier to prove have been cigarette smoke. successful. Passive smoking cases This case has been closely scruti-
where the litigant has developed cancer have previously been settled out of court. This case went to court and was defended by a workers’ compensation scheme in New South Wales as a test case. Andrew Penman, chief executive officer of the Cancer Council, New South Wales, stated that this was a very important precedent for common law jurisdictions because a jury has found an employer guilty for failure to exercise a duty of care to employees in a case involving cancer. However the case is likely to be appealed.
South Asia fails to reduce malnutrition burden
Drink in moderation, says consensus panel
Photofusion
I
M
Panos Pictures
ore than 217 million people in access to food, says the report. south Asia will be chronically WFP published a map that undernourished by 2015, according illustrates the extent of malto a report published by the UN nutrition around the world World Food Programme (WFP) at (www.wfp.org/newsroom) and in a Consultation on Hunger meeting South Asia, for example, the on April 25, which was map shows that the jointly organised by famine “hotspots” are the Indian governin regions, including Rights were ment and the WFP. mountainous areas not granted to The report notes that of Nepal, the state include this politicians will fail to of Bihar in India, meet the target of 150 and most areas of image in million malnourished Bangladesh. electronic people, which leaders The availability agreed at the World of food is not the media. Please Food Summit in key problem for refer to the Rome, Italy, in 1996. these regions, which In south Asia 294 are actually self-suffiprinted million people have cient for cereal promalnutrition and they duction—the most comprise one third of More aid is needed important staple food. the global total of In many areas hungry malnourished people. The families can be found next to overEnabling Development: Food flowing food warehouses. “Here Assistance in South Asia report the problem is not a lack of food warns that “the goal [of reducing but the inability to buy or access the number of malnourished peothe food”, says the report. ple to 150 million] cannot be met The report blames poor food diswithout substantial new momentribution as a main contributory tum and initiative”. factor to child malnutrition and Pregnant and nursing mothers, micronutrient deficiencies in south unborn babies, and children less Asia. Gender discrimination is also than 5-years-old are most vulneraan extreme problem in South Asia ble to hunger and malnutrition, even by developing country stanaccording to the report. For examdards. “Where access to resources ple, about 30 million pregnant is more equally shared across the women in South Asia are anaemic sexes—as in Sri Lanka, Maldives, as a result of malnutrition. and Bhutan—health and nutrition 99 million children less than are significantly better”, says the 5-years-old are underweight. report. 63 million victims of recurrent natSanjay Kumar ural disasters have inadequate
THE LANCET • Vol 357 • May 12, 2001
Bebe Loff, Stephen Cordner
f you drink, do so with moderation. But if you do not drink, ask your doctor. Moderate alcohol consumption at meals may be advisable. This consensus statement was made at the Alcohol and Wine in Health and Disease conference organised by the New York Academy of Science and held on April 26-29 at Palo Alto, California, USA. Official organisations have been reluctant to recommend moderate alcohol use, says Meir Stampfer (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, USA) partly because of concerns about alcohol abuse. If you don’t drink, don’t start, was hitherto recommended. While efforts to prevent abuse are important, they shouldn’t induce moderate drinkers to quit, said participants. Curtis Ellison (Boston University, MA, USA), noted that even if 5% of current abstainers became abusers, there would still be a net public health benefit from alcohol consumption. Mechanisms have been proposed to explain the protective effect of wine against coronary disease. However, prospective studies favouring wine drinking compared with other alcoholic beverages may have confounding factors such as age, gender, drinking pattern, and vascular risk, warned Morten Gronbaek (Danish Epidemiology Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark). Possibly the beverage best fit to protect a given population is the one that population already drinks, in a moderate amount, concluded the panel.
I
Giovanni de Gaetano, Bruno Simini
1511
For personal use. Only reproduce with permission from The Lancet Publishing Group.