Nicotine replacement therapy is not only distributed free on prescription in Scotland, but in areas that have taken up the 'give it up for baby' programme pregnant women are paid to use it.
A report from the University of Nottingham now 'discovers' that NRT doesn't work for pregnant women, concluding that changes in the mother's metabolism resulting from pregnancy suggest that patches with a stronger dose of nicotine could be the answer. Now they will need to find an optimum level of nicotine that is strong enough to 'work' but not strong enough to harm the foetus.
Tim Coleman, author of the study, is a leading figure in UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, with acknowledged personal interests in the development of smoking cessation drugs. True to form he has identified a research opportunity in the unreliability of the nicotine replacement cessation regime. That's his living I suppose but these days it's not hard to think of many better ways to use resources.
1 comment:
Why not legalise snus, the Swedish oral tobacco product? Only 15% of Swedish males smoke - the lowest in the developed world. Sadly the Tobacco Control fanatics are against it. See
http://snusify.com/docs/tobacconazi.pdf
As a result, some suppliers have stopped shipments to the UK.
I'm not accusing these people of mass murder, but legalising the sale of snus in the EU would prevent tens of thousands of lung cancer deaths and would enable a sigificant proportion of pregnant women to quit during pregnancy..
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