Tackling the global tobacco epidemic with geochemistry

One in two smokers will succumb to a smoking-related disease and one billion deaths in the 21st century will be attributable to smoking. The World Health Organisation (WHO) is responding to this global epidemic with a variety of strategies within the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which 176 countries are signatories. Geochemical research at the University of St Andrews has contributed to FCTC policies and supports their implementation by chemically characterising and monitoring potentially toxic environmental metals such as arsenic and cadmium in tobacco. The group’s research has been helping to combat the global trade in illicit tobacco and its major consequences for health and for government revenues through taxation and criminal activity.

The science 

Approximately 5% of tobacco (dry weight) is inorganic with its origins in soils, atmospheric particles (natural and anthropogenic pollutants) and agrochemicals. Some of this is taken up through the plant roots while particles tend to adhere to the sticky and hairy surface of the leaf. Among this diversity of material are several “heavy metals”. Fundamental to determining whether these metals or metalloids might be toxic to humans is their chemical form (valence and molecular speciation). The contribution each metal makes to the harmful effects of tobacco smoke is determined by a combination of concentration and speciation. As a result of research conducted in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (e.g. Analysis of non-organic elements in plant foliage using polarised X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2004.08.015 and Source and health implications of high toxic metal concentrations in illicit tobacco products, DOI: 10.1021/es049038s), it became clear that toxic metal concentrations, determined primarily by geographical location and legal status, varied by an order of magnitude. The speciation of arsenic in tobacco has now been determined and combustion (i.e. smoking) has been shown to generate the most toxic form (inorganic trivalent arsenic) in respirable smoke (e.g. Controls on the Valence Species of Arsenic in Tobacco Smoke: XANES Investigation with Implications for Health and Regulation, DOI: 10.1021/es4039243).

Principal components analysis of inorganic elements in tobacco
from global sources demonstrating provincial variability.

Using an archive of tobaccos collected over more than a decade from most parts of the world, it proved possible for the first time to identify provinciality among tobaccos products. The figure illustrates that significant differences exist at the continental scale at least. This feature can be used to constrain the geographical origins of illicit products. The same dataset helps to identify regions on a global scale where tobacco smoking represents a major source of exposure to toxic metals.

Health and economic benefits 
Since 2004 FCTC has been the main driver of national and global policy on tobacco control. It is predicted that full implementation of FCTC will prevent over seven million premature deaths by 2050. The unexpected discovery by the University of St Andrews group of high toxic metal concentrations, including carcinogens such as cadmium and arsenic, in most counterfeit tobacco products prompted HMCE (now HMRC) to run a nationwide information campaign in 2004 ("Counterfeit Cigarettes") sponsored by HM Treasury. The illicit share of the UK cigarette market at that time was 18% but was halved to 9% by 2012-13. Evidence presented in Treasury revenue reports indicates that revenues recovered due to the range of UK policies for reducing the supply and demand for illicit tobacco since 2006 may exceed £1 billion. Evidence of the harmful nature of illicit products from the St Andrews laboratories was used to support this effort. Globally over $31 billion is lost in tax revenue. It has been suggested that 164,000 premature deaths might be avoided annually if illicit tobacco was eliminated.

The University of St Andrews research into toxic metals in commercial cigarettes also highlighted legal Chinese tobacco products as among the most heavily contaminated so far analysed (Cigarettes sold in China: design, emissions and metals, DOI: 10.1136/tc.2009.030163). China is the world’s largest tobacco-growing nation with the largest number of smokers. The adverse impact on health of habitual use of contaminated products by the Chinese population is not yet quantifiable but could be considerable. Currently, it accounts for one million deaths annually from tobacco use.

The Fair Intellectual Club

Research by the School of English’s Professor Robert Crawford into the first of the great city rivalries of the English-speaking world – that of Edinburgh and Glasgow – has inspired a play by the comedian Lucy Porter.

The Fair Intellectual Club produced by Stellar Quines and directed by Marilyn Imrie, was received to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival 2014, is currently touring the UK and will play at the Women of the World Festival at the Southbank Centre.

Lucy Porter began reading Professor Crawford’s On Glasgow and Edinburgh with the intention of getting some insights into the rivalry between the two cities but ended up being inspired to write her play on reading about The Fair Intellectual Club, founded in 1718. Porter was alerted to the significance of events of the 18th century’s intellectual revolution for women, and began imagining in detail what contemporary women would have made of the philosophical innovations of their time.

Professor Crawford’s book revises familiar histories of the Scottish Enlightenment that are exclusively about men, exploring women’s stories such as those represented in the records of the Fair Intellectual Club, and it is this aspect of the history of Edinburgh and Glasgow’s famous standoff that inspired Lucy Porter to write her play.

Professor Crawford said, ‘whereas clubs such as the Cape Club or the Select Society where philosophers including Adam Smith and David Hume met Edinburgh lawyers, poets and thinkers - were men-only adult drinking clubs, the Fair Intellectual Club was determinedly different. In Edinburgh and the rest of Scotland university students were teenagers of the same age as the Fair Intellectuals — but they were all male. The Fair Intellectuals would have known local students, but couldn’t have joined their university classes. It’s tempting to hear the word ‘Fair’ in the title of The Fair Intellectual Club not just as a reference to the ‘fair’ sex, but also as a reproach to the unfairness of intellectual life in Edinburgh and elsewhere. [Stellar Quines Theatre Company]

The Fair Intellectual Club has further inspired researchers, artists, comedians and thinkers to reflect on their work and performances in light of Lucy Porter’s play (see: the Stellar Quines' blog post from 17 Feb. 2015 and from 18 Feb. 2015) as the place of plays by women themselves continues to be debated in 2015, 303 years after the Fair Intellectual Club was founded. [A stage of their own: why female playwrights are still marginalised]

Porous material use in the delivery of biologically active gases

Nitric oxide (NO) is an extremely toxic gas at high levels which is extremely beneficial for healthcare at the right doses. The trick is delivering it safely to the treatment site. Professor Russell Morris and his research team in the School of Chemistry have successfully solved the major problem of how to safely retain, transport and deliver NO and other medically active gases to offer novel and effective solutions for a variety of healthcare markets, including the treatment of chronic wounds, and related therapeutic and biomedical applications where eradication of bacterial biofilms is required.

Clinical studies on human skin show that zeolite-NO
technology is non-inflammatory compared with
a major competitor (acidified nitrite).

The zeolites and metal-organic framework (MOF) materials that Morris’ research group have developed store the gas in a stable form that can be delivered in a customised manner, in terms of dosage and rate of delivery, to the specific biomedical application.
The unique combination of highly porous materials and economically attractive, scalable chemistry offers cost-effective solutions to problems in industries as diverse as textiles, chemical consumer and water treatment. The research has resulted in seven patents and has led to the formation of two spin out companies: MOFgen Ltd, a spin out from the University of St Andrews: and Zeomedix LLC, a spin out in the US. Further interactions with ~70 companies internationally have resulted in 14 of the companies benefiting directly from the research, enabling entirely new products, entry to new markets and commercial opportunities.
Pre-startup funded by EPSRC and Scottish Enterprise.

Fostering Local Film Heritage

Filming of Chariots of Fire on the West Sands of St Andrews, April 1980
Image is courtesy of the St Andrews Preservation Trust Museum

The historical research of Dr David Martin-Jones, Dr Tom Rice and Dr Joshua Yumibe as part of Cinema and Cultural Studies (Department of Film Studies), as exemplified by Dr Martin-Jones book, “Scotland: Global Cinema” (University of Edinburgh Press, 2009), has been supporting and fostering a thriving community-based film culture in St Andrews by calling attention to the historical, cultural, and economic value of film within the St Andrews community. Dr Rice and Dr Yumibe have been innovating archival, digital humanities projects in film studies utilising detailed local and national histories as a means of studying global history. This serves, in part, to examine the ways in which digital access is affecting the archival circulation of film culture and capital on a global scale. The research findings have spawned an open access website, Cinema St Andrews, which uncovers and examines local cinema history and curates and contextualises digitised holdings, such as photographs, architectural plans, local interviews, and newspaper clippings, in partnership with St Andrews Museum (2011), British Film Institute (2012) and the Media History Digital Library (2013).
The project has also been used to develop teaching programmes, which have been successfully incorporated across the curriculum in a local secondary school as part of their International Baccalaureate in English Language and Literature.
In addition, the project cultivates local film culture, working with local partners. Such initiatives have resulted in exhibitions and a series of screenings in local venues, which make use of extensive local footage. As a recent example, in 2013 the project ran a film season that celebrated the town’s rich cinematic heritage by curating free film shows in historically significant local sites, helping to build a collaborative network with which to sustain a thriving film culture in St Andrews.

Changing the governance of the credit union sector in Ireland

Conceptual Impact 

Professor John Wilson’s (School of Management) research has increased understanding of how credit unions have developed in different countries. Such work is especially important in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008, as many countries seek to strengthen their retail financial sectors. The research has had wide-ranging impact internationally on the ways in which policy makers, regulators and practitioners view the sector. Specifically, as part of the Irish Commission on Credit Unions, Wilson’s work was taken up in reports which made a raft of recommendations that were later adopted to form the basis for new legislation (Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act 2012). This new legislation in turn has affected the governance, regulation, stabilisation policy and structure of the credit union sector in Ireland.

 

Instrumental Impact 

The non-academic reach of Wilson’s research is demonstrated by commissioned reports for the Scottish and Irish Governments and invited talks at the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in Washington and at Westminster Briefing Events in London (amongst others). The clearest and most significant impact of this research has been its influence on the credit union sector in Ireland where credit unions are central to the financial services sector (with 70% of the adult population members of credit unions). In 2011, following an IMF and EU bailout, the Irish government established the Credit Union Commission to investigate and make recommendations about their future role and operation. Due to his previous research on credit unions, Wilson was one of two academics appointed by the Irish government to the Credit Union Commission. His previous research and expertise were integral to the production of a report (2012) that formed the basis for legislative change. This led to structural change in the industry. The Minister for Finance for the Irish Government asserted that ‘the work of the Commission will inform Government policy on credit unions for the foreseeable future’; and the head of credit union policy at the Central Bank of Ireland noted that ‘the Commission considered and discussed many issues in relation to credit unions and these discussions were informed by John Wilson’s knowledge of, and research on, credit union movements around the world’. Wilson fed the results of his research into the Commission’s deliberations, and many of his findings and insights were subsequently reflected in the Commission’s interim and final reports:

• Interim Report of the Commission on Credit Unions. Dublin: Ministry of Finance, April 2012.  
• Final Report of the Commission on Credit Unions. Dublin: Ministry of Finance, April 2012.  

 

Capacity Building Impact 

The final report contained over 60 recommendations, which covered corporate governance, prudential regulation, stabilisation policy and sector re-structuring via the establishment of a credit union restructuring board.

The CEO of the Irish League of Credit Unions concluded that ‘Professor Wilson’s interventions went a long way to ensuring that the recommendations, and by extension the legislative provisions based on those recommendations, benefited from his suggestions regarding the workability of various options based on his experience of other jurisdictions’.

The Commission’s recommendations were endorsed by the Irish Ministry of Finance and approved by the troika of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission. They were used directly to inform legislation in the shape of the Credit Union and Co-operation with Overseas Regulators Act 2012. The Commission’s report and its underpinning research have also received widespread media coverage in Ireland. In short, Wilson’s research informed much of the Commission’s deliberations and recommendations, which were subsequently adopted by the Irish Government and ratified in parliament via the production of new legislation. This new legislation in turn has been instrumental in affecting the corporate governance, prudential regulation, stabilisation policy and structure of the credit union sector in Ireland (much of which is contained in a new Credit Union Handbook published by the Central Bank of Ireland in September 2013). The Credit Union Restructuring Board in Ireland is currently engaged in facilitating the restructuring of the sector.

Promoting Christian pilgrimage in Scotland

The research of Dr Ian Bradley, of the School of Divinityinto the history of Christian pilgrimage and its recent revival, specifically in Scotland but also across Europe, has fed directly into the activities of churches, heritage bodies and specialist travel companies. Dr Bradley’s research has focused on the importance of the practice and theme of pilgrimage in Ireland and Scotland in the so called ‘golden age of Celtic Christianity’ in the sixth and seventh centuries, explored in his books Columba: Pilgrim and Penitent (Wild Goose Publications, 2000) and Colonies of Heaven (Darton, Longman & Todd, 2006). His important study Pilgrimage: A Spiritual and Cultural Journey (Lion Books, 2010), so far translated into Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese and Arabic, demonstrates the extent and nature of the revival of interest in Christian pilgrimage across Europe over the last 40 years. Dr Bradley’s research on the history of pilgrimage has led him to be invited to speak to the Scottish Parliament on the potential for pilgrimage related tourism in Scotland and to numerous radio and television appearances, most recently speaking to Neil Oliver about Iona on the 2014 BBC2 Series ‘The Sacred Wonders of Britain’.
His research into initiatives and practices for pilgrimage is being applied by churches, contemporary Christian communities, including the Iona Community, and heritage bodies, such as Historic Scotland, both to stimulate pilgrimages to significant historic and spiritual sites and as a basis for developing new pilgrim routes. For the last 10 years, Dr Bradley has been devising and leading pilgrimages around St Andrews, including the St Andrew’s Day and Good Friday pilgrimages. In 2010, at the invitation of Pax Travel, the leading pilgrimage operators in the UK, he led a pilgrimage across Scotland from Iona to St Andrews. He is closely involved with the Scottish Pilgrim Routes Forum in the current research and development of long distance pilgrim ways across Scotland from Iona to St Andrews and across Fife from St Andrews to Edinburgh via Dunfermline. His involvement is bringing about the development of pilgrim routes across Scotland.