2nd Health Equity Week 29-31 May 2012,  Renaissance Hotel, Rue du Parnasse 19, 1050 Brussels

Join us at EuroHealthNet’s biggest events promoting health and social equity at the heart of Europe

Tuesday 29 May, Crossing Bridges Final Conference

How working with support from health experts can help meet national and local economic, education, transport and other policy priorities.

Thursday 31 May, The Road to 2020 and  Sustainable Health Systems – An EU challenge

Registration for either event …more

Communication and Autism Conference- Issues & Strategies, Sat May 19th, Dublin

The Autism Initiatives Group and Irish Autism Action present a One Day Conference at the Red Cow Moran Hotel, Naas Road, Dublin 12:

This event will address the issues raised when autistic and non-autistic minds attempt to share information. Communication is not only a key element of the Triad of Impairments but is, perhaps more practically, a key factor in the ability for any form of relationship to develop and flourish or otherwise….more

Promoting a Cervical Cancer Prevention Strategy for Europe, European Parliament, Brussels 6th June 2012.

In celebration of the European Week Against Cancer, are holding a Roundtable to discuss the need for a multi-pronged European cervical cancer prevention strategy.Worldwide, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women under the age of forty-four. Cervical cancer is highly preventable….more

While the negative health consequences are well known, many women and their family members, still smoke.

A 2006 European study showed  the risk of developing lung cancer was:

• 0.2% for men who never smoked (0.4% for women)
• 5.5% for male former smokers (2.6% in women)
• 15.9% for current male smokers (9.5% for women)
• 24.4% for male “heavy smokers” defined as smoking more than 5 cigarettes per day (18.5% for women)

Apart from a greatly increased risk of lung cancer, women smokers have a higher risk of heart attack, stroke, emphysema, bronchitis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, cataracts, infertility, early menopause, and more than 10 different cancers (including breast and cervical cancers) than nonsmokers.

Price

In the last number of years there has been a deliberate and widely supported move within public policy to control or try to curtail cigarette consumption with price increases through the taxation applied to tobacco.  This approach varies at each national level.  From the mid 1990s, cigarette smuggling has become more prolific, both inside and outside EU territory, indeed by 2000 the level of such smuggling into the EU had more than doubled since 1996. In 1996, 3.07 billion smuggled cigarettes were seized in the Union, by 2000 that had risen to 6.23 billion cigarettes, the equivalent of 600 forty-foot container loads.  the policy of increasing taxation on these produ7ct has undoubtably increased the level of rewards for those participating in this illegal activity.

Marketing

The latest move against the use of cigarretes is the removal of branding from the point of sale packaging – but will it lead to the desired results that are being sought from these initiatives by policymakers, the reduction of tobacco and in particular cigarette consumption by EU citizens?

Will the no brand approach work or will it simply reduce costs for those supplying illegal tobacco by reducing their costs in preparing a lower quality, non regulated product that more potentially damaging to health.

Some reports suggest that illegal tobacco can be up to 6 times more damaging to health than the government regulated products.  It must also be remembered that Illegal tobacco also goes hand in hand with the sale of drugs and illegal alcohol and is often linked with more serious crime.

In terms of revenue, cigarette smuggling ranks as the number one method of fraud perpetrated against the budget of the European Communities, with billions of Euros of revenue lost each year.

Maybe the question that should be raised is why do we allow the supply of any tobacco related products rather than seeking a percentage from the tax take to combat its well known and extremely negative effects!

The the 16th edition of the Eurostat yearbook, published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, shows that Malta still has the highest proportion of early school leavers in the EU at 37%.

The yearbook shows how key indicators have developed in the EU27, the euro area and the Member States. Data for the EFTA countries, the Candidate countries, the US and Japan are also included when available.

The 2012 yearbook has thirteen chapters on different statistical areas: economy and finance; population; health; education and training; labour market; living conditions and social protection; industry, trade and services; agriculture, forestry and fisheries; international trade; transport; environment; energy; and science and technology.

Highest proportion of early leavers were found in Malta, Portugal and Spain

Early leavers from education and training are persons aged 18 to 24 who have completed at most lower secondary education and not received education or training in the last four weeks.

The Europe 2020 strategy and the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training have set a target of 10% for 2020 for this indicator.

In 2010, the percentage was 14% on average in the EU27, and varied among the Member States, from 5% in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Poland to 37% in Malta, 29% in Portugal and 28% in Spain.

In the EU27, the proportion was 12% for women and 16% for men, with higher shares for men in all Member States, except Bulgaria and Slovakia.

The median age in tertiary education was 22.1 in the EU27 in 2009, with the highest median ages observed in Sweden (25.3), Denmark (25.2), Finland (24.5) and Austria (23.8), and the lowest in Ireland (20.2), France (20.5), Belgium and Malta (both 20.7).

• Visit a health care professional to receive regular checkups and preventive screenings.
• Get active.
• Eat healthy.
• Pay attention to mental health, get enough sleep, and manage stress.
• Avoid unhealthy behavior, e.g. smoking, not wearing seatbelt etc.

Women often serve as care-givers for their families and put the needs of spouses, children, and parents ahead of their own needs. As a result, women’s health and well-being becomes secondary.

Women can now more easily take charge of their own health than ever before.  Due to the Affordable Care Act, a landmark health care reform law enacted in 2010, Americans have greater choice and more control over their health care. Changes are included that are especially important to women and their families. New plans now cover preventive services, including mammograms, colon cancer screening and well-woman visits with no out-of-pocket expenses.

To learn more about US law and their health options…more

480th plenary session of the EESC, 25 April, civil society representatives examined the Commission proposals on cohesion policy for 2014-2020.

The background to the debate was a cohesion policy package consisting of 5 opinions, setting out the Committee’s position on the European Commission’s October legislative proposal.  Cohesion policy has a direct impact on citizens’ daily lives, yet still it is also one of the least talked-about policy areas.  The EESC is bringing the debate and implementation of policies closer to citizens.

“Citizens’ needs and interests must be at the heart of all Community policies, so it is essential to apply the partnership principle in the EU’s cohesion policy in a way that enables all stakeholders to play a full part.”

The core message of the EESC package is that success of cohesion policy depends on effective partnerships with civil society and grassroots initiatives – i.e applying the partnership principle.

The Commission’s efforts to simplify procedures are not ambitious enough.

The EESC’s opinions are available at…more

For more information:

karin.fussl@eesc.europa.eu
Karin Füssl, Head of the Press Unit
Tel.: +32 2 546 8722

In this issue:

Influence the European agenda – Tackling chronic disease – Cancer

Active and healthy ageing - Gender – European Medicines Agency

 Please download here:

British Gynaecological Cancer Society Annual Meeting, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London: 5th – 6th July 2012.

BGCS 2012 is being held in London in conjunction with the National Cancer Research Institute Gynaecological Cancer Clinical Studies Group and takes place in London on the 5th and 6th of July, 2012….more

Women face discrimination in heart health.

Three separate studies – one from India and others from China and West Asia – presented at the World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai said  women don’t receive the same treatment as men for heart disease across the world.

Women with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) receive inferior or less aggressive treatment compared to men.  The CREATE registry study of 20,468 patients in India revealed that relatively fewer women are admitted with ACS.  Moreover, these women are older, reach hospital later, more prone to risk, receive inferior treatments and have worse outcomes.

“These three studies paint a consistent picture around the world and all serve to demonstrate that women with ACS are unfortunately not receiving the same treatment as men,” said Professor Sidney C Smith, president of World Heart Federation.

“This is something that has to be addressed as a matter of urgency,” Smith said.

Dr Ramakant Panda, chief of Asian Heart Institute, who is attending the Dubai conference agreed to the studies’ findings.  “India is worst when it comes to taking care of its women. Women’s health is of low priority in the household. Instead, it is the woman who looks after family and ensures that good health of others. There is also a common misconception that women don’t get heart diseases,” Dr Panda said.

He added, “Most of the women who come to us with heart diseases come late and often when complications have taken place. This is why outcomes are poor and the complications related to CVDs are higher. Heart attack mortality among women is also higher due to smaller heart vessels. Awareness needs to increase on women’s health.”

CVD, which includes heart disease and stroke, is the biggest killer of women globally causing 8.6 million deaths annually. Women in low and middle-income countries who develop CVD are more likely to die from it than comparable women in industrialized nations.  However, women do not perceive CVD as the greatest threat to their health they still feel more threatened by cancer than they do by CVD.

“The good news is that there are steps women can take to protect their hearts. These include stopping smoking, engaging in physical exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and ensuring a healthy food intake,” said Smith.

The BRIG project study of 3,168 patients in China concluded that a substantial portion of women with ACS did not receive proper treatment during hospitalization compared with men.  Similarly, a study of 4,229 ACS patients in the West Asia found that women tended to be admitted to hospital later than men and had more comorbid disease. These women received commonly used treatments less frequently than men, although in the case of the West Asia study this did not appear to impact in-patient mortality.

A study conducted by doctors at the AIIMS had earlier found that among children who require heart surgery, boys have a much better chance of undergoing the procedure than girls….more