Warning that UK NHS Privatisation increases Risk of Cot deaths (SID)

Scottish Sudden Infant death charity for information and support on SIDS.

The number of babies dying from cot death will increase as austerity cuts force vulnerable families into unsuitable living conditions, the head of a Sudden Infant Death (SIDs) charity has warned.

The UK Government's healthcare privatisation will also put babies' lives at risk and vital services will be lost as the NHS is forced to restructure and make cost efficiency savings, according to Francine Bates, chief executive of the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths (FSID).

She also described the cynical axing of a UK Department of Health leaflet, "Reduce the Risk of Cot death" that was previously sent to every new parent as "very disappointing". The leaflet set out the risks to babies and advised parents on how to minimise the dangers of cot deaths.

Ms Bates said: "If the socio-economic conditions worsen for these vulnerable families then more babies will be at risk. London's Metropolitan Police working in this area [sudden infant death] are saying that the housing conditions some people are living in with their very small babies is atrocious."

The "Back to Sleep" campaign launched in 1991 urged parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs, overturning previous advice from childcare experts. Within five years of the launch of the campaign, unexplained sudden infant deaths had dropped by 70 per cent.

Smoking is now the biggest risk for cot death so Ms Bates has organised the first seminar for researchers and smoking-cessation experts who will meet on Thursday, chaired by Anne Milton, the UK Public Health minister.

Ms Bates said: "Smoking has a massive impact on the health of an unborn baby. If all smokers stopped immediately it would reduce the number of cot deaths by up to 50 per cent."

Shaken-Baby Cases Rising During the Recession

Shaken-Baby Cases Rising During the Recession - TIME

The stressful effects of a faltering economy, skyrocketing unemployment and precarious personal finances can be dire. People take up smoking or use alcohol to cope, they become depressed or suicidal, and they develop stress-related illnesses like heart disease.

Now researchers report that the harm may be spreading to children too, when parents' stress leads them to injure their children, inadvertently.

Presenting May 1 at the Paediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in Vancouver, a team of researchers led by child-abuse expert Dr. Rachel Berger at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh reported a significant increase in cases of shaken-baby syndrome, in which youngsters are shaken violently by an adult, since the start of the current recession.

Researchers analysed data on 512 cases of head trauma in the children's centers of four hospitals (in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; and Seattle) and found that the number of cases had increased to 9.3 per month as of Dec. 1, 2007, compared with 6 per month prior to that date — a rate that had held steady since 2004.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/health/

Effects of Cigarette Smoking and Family History Of Alcoholism Linked To Love Of Sweets Among Women

Effects of Cigarette Smoking and Family History Of Alcoholism Linked To Love Of Sweets Among Women

Despite the greater health risks, women derive more pleasure than men from the smell and taste of cigarettes, are more likely to smoke as a way to reduce stress and feelings of depression, and use smoking as a diet tool. In fact, many women who try to quit smoking often relapse because of concerns about gaining weight.

"Cigarette smoking and having a family history of alcoholism had different effects on sweet-taste perception and food cravings," said Julie A. Mennella, a senior researcher at Monell and coauthor of the study. "Women who smoked cigarettes were less sensitive to sweet taste than women who never smoked.

This means that women who smoke required higher concentrations of a sweet solution in order to detect sweet taste; we also found that the more years a woman has smoked cigarettes, the less sensitive she will be to sweet taste." Whether the reduced sensitivity for sweet tastes helps smokers control their weight is an important question that needs further study, she added.

"Distortions of perception of sweet taste and craving for sweets have been reported in patients with various psychiatric conditions -- depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, premenstrual syndrome, several forms of obesity etc.

Further Evidence that Parents' smoke damages children

Children who are around smokers face a higher risk of early emphysema when they become nonsmoking adults, perhaps because their lungs never totally recovered from secondhand smoke exposure, new research suggests.

Researchers reached their conclusions after conducting CT scans on 1,781 non-smokers from six communities in the United States. About half of them grew up in homes with at least one smoker.

"We were able to detect a difference on CT scans between the lungs of participants who lived with a smoker as a child and those who did not," Gina Lovasi, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, said in a university news release. "Some known harmful effects of tobacco smoke are short-term, and this new research suggests that effects of tobacco smoke on the lungs may also persist for decades."

The researchers didn't find a link between childhood exposure to tobacco smoke and lung function. "However, emphysema may be a more sensitive measure of damage compared with lung function in this relatively healthy cohort," Lovasi noted.

The findings are published in the December 2009 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.