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Receipt from Cadet West stating Alden Partridge gave him money to travel home from the Academy.

Has heard from his son, R. H. West, that he had better leave the Academy before he is dismissed; is astonished and grief-stricken; please send particulars. ; Letter written from Woodyard, MD.

Background This study aimed to determine the level of support for a sales ban on tobacco in England to provide a benchmark against which any changes over time can be assessed.Methods 8735 people from England who participated in one of five monthly cross-sectional household surveys in 2008 were asked to indicate whether they would support the statement that 'the government should work towards banning the sale of tobacco completely within the next 10 years'. In addition, sociodemographic and smoking characteristics were assessed.Results A substantial proportion of the total sample (44.5%; 95% CI 43.5% to 45.6%) would support a move towards a complete ban. While never smokers (OR 2.02; 95% CI 1.82 to 2.25) and ex-smokers (OR 1.41; 95% CI 1.21 to 1.65) were more likely to support this idea, even among current smokers, a third would favour moving towards a sales ban of tobacco products. Adjusting for other background characteristics, younger, female participants, those living in London and those from lower socioeconomic groups were most likely to support a ban. Among smokers, a higher cigarette consumption, smoking enjoyment and contentment with being a smoker were associated with opposition to a ban, while feeling uncomfortable being a smoker, wanting to be a non-smoker and being worried about future health consequences of smoking were associated with support for a ban.Conclusion Support for movement towards a ban on the sale of tobacco is higher than might be imagined. It is conceivable that as smoking prevalence falls further and smoking becomes more socially unacceptable, support might grow to a point where such a policy could become feasible.

Objectives: To assess GPs? views on recently published national smoking cessation guidelines that form the foundation of the government?s smoking cessation strategy.Design: Postal survey of a random sample of GPs. GPs were asked to judge the appropriateness, effectiveness and practicability of key recommendations for primary care in recent national smoking cessation guidelines.Setting: General practice, England and Wales.Subjects: 236 GPs, effective response rate: 62%.Results: Only 16% of GPs accepted that all the recommendations in the guidelines were appropriate; 43% accepted that it was appropriate to check the smoking status of known smokers when they visit the surgery and only 30% thought it was practicable to advise smokers to stop at every opportunity. However, 77% of GPs thought that they should provide assistance for smokers wanting to stop; 74% believed that they should refer smokers to specialist services if appropriate and a similar proportion (77%) believed that it was appropriate to recommend nicotine replacement. Conclusions: Recommendations that involved the GP being proactive in monitoring smoking status and advising smokers to stop were not widely supported. There was greater acceptance that GPs should assist smokers wanting to stop, either by recommending NRT or providing counselling or referral. It appears that GPs do not widely support those recommendations that would produce the greatest public health gains.

The energy landscape is changing rapidly with far-reaching implications for global energy industries and actors, including oil companies and oil-exporting countries. These rapid changes introduce uncertainty in multiple dimensions, the most important of which is the speed of transition. While the transformation of energy systems is rapid in certain regions of the world, such as Europe, the speed of global energy transition remains uncertain. It is also difficult to define the end game (which technology will win and what the final energy mix will be), as the outcome of transition will vary across regions. A key issue facing oil companies and oil-exporting countries is how they should now position themselves and how best to be part of the renewables 'revolution'. For oil companies, moving beyond their core business is risky, but a 'wait-and-see' strategy could be costly, therefore oil companies need to gradually 'extend' their business model and rather than a complete shift from hydrocarbons to renewables, they should aim to build an integrated portfolio which includes both hydrocarbon and low-carbon assets. The strategies designed to make this happen need to be flexible and able to evolve quickly in response to anticipated changes in the market. For oil-exporting countries, with subsidized prices and rising domestic energy consumption, there is no conflict between investing in renewables and in hydrocarbons as these countries can liberate oil and gas for export markets, improving the economics of renewables projects. In the long run, however, the main challenge for many oil exporting countries is economic diversification as it is the ultimate safeguard against the energy transition. Whether or not these countries succeed in their goal of achieving a diversified economy has implications for global energy markets and the speed of global energy transformations. In other words, the global energy transition will not only shape political and economic outcomes in oil-exporting countries, but the transformations in these ...

We discuss the issue of using benchmark doses for quantifying (excess) risk associated with exposure to environmental hazards. The paradigm of low‐dose risk estimation in dose‐response modeling is used as the primary application scenario. Emphasis is placed on making simultaneous inferences on benchmark doses when data are in the form of proportions, although the concepts translate easily to other forms of outcome data.

Methods of quantitative risk assessment for toxic responses that are measured on a continuous scale are not well established. Although risk‐assessment procedures that attempt to utilize the quantitative information in such data have been proposed, there is no general agreement that these procedures are appreciably more efficient than common quantal dose‐response procedures that operate on dichotomized continuous data. This paper points out an equivalence between the dose‐response models of the nonquantal approach of Kodell and West(1)) and a quantal probit procedure, and provides results from a Monte Carlo simulation study to compare coverage probabilities of statistical lower confidence limits on dose corresponding to specified additional risk based on applying the two procedures to continuous data from a dose‐response experiment. The nonquantal approach is shown to be superior, in terms of both statistical validity and statistical efficiency.

Foreword: The Department of Health (DH) asked the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE or the Institute) to produce guidance on brief interventions and referrals to specialist services to help people who smoke to stop, in particular, pregnant women and people from disadvantaged groups. It asked the Institute to look at the most effective ways that professionals, both within and outside the NHS in England, can achieve this. The Public Health Interventions Advisory Committee (PHIAC) considered both a review of the evidence and an economic appraisal before developing these recommendations. This guidance only examines brief smoking cessation interventions. Although important, these must be seen in the context of a rapidly changing environment. Publication of the tobacco white paper 'Smoking kills[1]' set out a comprehensive tobacco control policy for the UK that has seen increased spending on mass media anti-smoking campaigns, a ban on tobacco advertising and promotion, more prominent health warnings and wider access to stop smoking services and treatments. In addition, the public health white paper, 'Choosing health[2]' confirmed that all NHS premises and government departments would be smoke-free from the end of 2006. It also paved the way for legislation for a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces in England by summer 2007. In light of these changes, the effectiveness of brief interventions should be revisited. In addition, it will be crucial to monitor the impact of this guidance to determine if it is likely to narrow health inequalities or, at least, to ensure that it does not widen them. The impact of wider policy and practice on smoking cessation is already being examined by the Smoking Cessation Programme Development Group at NICE. Coupled with this guidance on brief interventions, it will provide both practitioners and policy makers with a comprehensive evidence-based approach to delivering smoking cessation services in England.

Context: Increasing the use of effective smoking cessation aids could in principle have a substantial public health impact. The UK government has undertaken several major policy initiatives to try to increase usage of smoking cessation medicines. It is important to evaluate what effect, if any, these have had to inform future policy in the UK and internationally.