{"id":570,"date":"2019-09-27T10:24:50","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T09:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/medicallyspeaking\/?p=570"},"modified":"2019-09-27T10:24:54","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T09:24:54","slug":"its-all-about-the-impact-by-professor-john-holloway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/medicallyspeaking\/2019\/09\/27\/its-all-about-the-impact-by-professor-john-holloway\/","title":{"rendered":"“It\u2019s all about the impact” by Professor John Holloway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I am writing this blog in Washington DC where I\nwas invited to speak at the 50th<\/sup> Meeting of the Environmental Mutagenesis\nand Genomics Society. I was speaking in a workshop on the Heritable Hazards of\nSmoking. This session focussed on the evidence for potential intergenerational\neffects of tobacco smoke, whereby exposure in one generation can lead to\ngermline mutations or epigenetic changes that can be passed onto subsequent\ngenerations. I have recently had the privilege of working with collaborators in\nNorway on a study that has shown that fathers’ smoking during early adolescence\nand grandmothers’ and mothers’ smoking during pregnancy may independently\nincrease asthma risk in offspring (1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The White House<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The finding that paternal smoking before 15 years\nof age was associated with asthma in their offspring is of particular concern,\nas smoking in 11-15-year-old boys has increased in Europe over recent decades (2).\n At present, public health strategies do\nnot focus on teenage boys with regard to the health of their future offspring,\nand to do so would represent a paradigm shift in preventive policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also talking in the session was Professor Ilona\nJaspers from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill talking about the Toxicology\nof E-cigarettes. This was highly topical given the outbreak of lung injury in\nthe US in individuals who vape. There have been 530* cases of lung injury recorded\nby the Centre for Disease Control and seven deaths have been confirmed in 6\nstates (3),\nShe shared alarming figures that suggested >20% of 15-16 year olds in the\nUnited States used e-cigarettes in the past week (4),\nnot only potentially affecting their own health, but if our own research is\ncorrect, the health of their future offspring. In the UK the 2019 ASH Smokefree\nGB Youth Survey indicated that 15.4% of 11-18 year olds have tried vaping (5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the plenary talks in the workshop, we had\nsome interesting discussions about how we communicate science to the public,\nparticularly children and adolescents. Apparently, the rising epidemic of\ne-cigarette use amongst adolescents went unrecognised at first because if you\nask if they used e-cigarettes the answer is no, however if you ask them if they\nvape or \u201cJuul\u201d (a brand of e-cigarette), the answer is yes, with many seeing\nvaping as safe or harmless with use driven by social media posts such as\nInstagram feeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how as scientists do we convey our knowledge to\nthe public to make them aware of risks? Many scientists while being extremely\ncomfortable giving a highly technical presentation to fellow scientists, find\nit difficult to convey a message to a lay audience. Public communication of\nscience is a skill that not all of us have. However as I outlined in a previous\nblog<\/a> there are an increasing range of resources to help. These include the National Co-ordinating Centre for\nPublic Engagement<\/a>  and the Universities\nown Public Engagement\nwith Research Unit (PERu)<\/a>. A really good thing to sign up for is a Lifelab<\/a>\nmeet the scientist training day. Meanwhile we should celebrate the talents of\nthose in the faculty who have a gift for public engagement such as Dr Lucy\nGreen who won the Establish Researcher Outreach and Engagement Award from the\nRoyal Society of Biology this year. I look forward to seeing many of you at a\npublic engagement event soon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research on an issue such as smoking or\ne-cigarette use also highlights that doing great science is often not enough in\nitself. What can really matter is the impact our research has outside of\nacademia. One way to achieve this, especially for issues such as vaping where\nthe evidence is changing rapidly, is to engage with policy makers to help them\nunderstand the evidence and make informed decisions.  A good way to do this is by working with Public\nPolicy|Southampton<\/a> who have an impact training programme, a tailored impact\ntoolkit and guidance for ways to engage. If you think your research has\nimplications for public policy, get in touch with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile I will go back to thinking about how we really need a \u201cDumb ways to die<\/a>\u201d video to highlight the dangers of vaping to teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong>
1.         Accordini S, Calciano L, Johannessen A, Portas L, Benediktsdottir B, Bertelsen RJ, et al. A three-generation study on the association of tobacco smoking with asthma. Int J Epidemiol. 2018.
2.         Marcon A, Pesce G, Calciano L, Bellisario V, Dharmage SC, Garcia-Aymerich J, et al. Trends in smoking initiation in Europe over 40 years: A retrospective cohort study. PLoS One. 2018;13(8):e0201881.
3.         Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outbreak of Lung Injury Associated with E-Cigarette Use, or Vaping 2019 [Available from: https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/tobacco\/basic_information\/e-cigarettes\/severe-lung-disease.html<\/a>.
4.         Miech R, Johnston L, O’Malley PM, Bachman JG, Patrick ME. Trends in Adolescent Vaping, 2017-2019. N Engl J Med. 2019.
5.         Action on Smoking and Health. Fact sheet: Use of e-cigarettes among young people in Great Britain. 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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