The Conference - Tobacco and Alcohol: Learning from each other - will be held on the 12th and 13th October at the Parc Thistle Hotel in Cardiff.
Cigarette smoking is highly prevalent among people with alcohol use disorders. People who are dependent on alcohol are three times more likely than those in the general population to be smokers, and people who are dependent on tobacco are four times more likely than the general population to be dependent on alcohol. Alcohol use problems are associated with higher levels of nicotine dependence and a lower likelihood of smoking cessation. More alcoholics die of tobacco-related illness than die of alcohol-related problems.
The link between alcohol and tobacco has important implications for those in the alcohol and smoking cessation treatment and policy fields. The conference will enable alcohol and tobacco treatment providers and policy makers the opportunity to learn from each other. In addition to co-use issues, the conference will offer alcohol and tobacco specific sessions for practitioners.
The conference is an opportunity to learn from each other and to present new models and ways of working. As such it seeks to ask questions such as:
• What are effective prevention programmes for young people? What works and can we share lessons learned?
• What are the most effective smoking cessation and alcohol treatment models? Is there a place for concurrent treatment of both addictions or should treatment be sequential?
• How do brief intervention models work for young people and adults: Are they the same models and do they work for both alcohol and tobacco? What are the points of similarity and what are the differences?
• How do individuals become addicted to tobacco and/or alcohol? Are there genetic, behavioural, environmental and/or other factors that can be identified and can we use these factors for prevention and treatment factors. Are the same factors at play for both addictions?
• Are tobacco and alcohol socially “approved” addictions? If so, how do we combat acceptable but damaging addictions from a policy perspective? How do we shift public perceptions and norms?
• Can public health programmes address multiple health risk behaviours, or do they always need to be “silo” approaches
• What works in new media and health promotion – can we use new media to combat tobacco and alcohol use?
• What are the roles of legislation, regulation and education in combating tobacco and alcohol use
• Are there effective mechanisms for countering illicit, counterfeit and smuggled products? What is the impact of cross border shopping on consumption?
• Should we consider managing the retail environment and product marketing as ways of combating tobacco and/or alcohol use? What effect do restrictions on product displays, product content disclosure, or tighter packaging and labelling rules have on consumption?

This is a must attend conference for public health professionals, smoking cessation practitioners, alcohol treatment providers and academics and researchers working in alcohol, tobacco and public health.

Registrations forms can be downloaded at www.ashwales.co.uk. Early bird registration is open to the first 100 delegates or until the 29th April. As places are strictly limited, we urge to book your place quickly.

We also are keen to hear from practitioners through our current call for papers. We are particularly interested in receiving abstracts from the people and organisations who are prepared to share lessons learnt with colleagues? We will be seeking abstracts on any aspect of the conference themes and particularly from the following:
• Prevention programmes
• Youth programmes
• Providers of smoking cessation programmes, especially those targeting hard to reach groups
• Providers of alcohol treatment programmes, especially those providing innovative methods of engaging clients in treatment
• Providers of concurrent alcohol and tobacco treatment programmes
• Academics and researchers concerned with alcohol, tobacco and/or multiple health risk behaviours and addictions
• Tobacco control policy
• Alcohol policy
• Developers of public health programmes, including users of innovative new media for public health promotion
• Test purchasing programmes for alcohol and tobacco
• Programmes concerned with countering illicit product use

Abstracts need to be completed on the abstract submission form and received by ASH Wales no later than 1st May 2011. Abstract submission forms can be downloaded at www.ashwales.co.uk