Finland's Ovi

According to police statistics, young females have become increasingly violent in recent years. A growing number of under-21-year-old women and girls are being suspected of assaults in Finland.

Ten years ago the annual number of women charged with assault was 700, while the corresponding figure for 2006 was already as high as 1,300. Of all under-21-year-old suspects the proportion of girls is today 22 per cent.

Dr. Ghitta Weizmann-Henelius, a psychologist at the Vanha Vaasa state mental hospital, whose doctoral thesis in psychology dealt with violent female offenders in Finland, is predicting that the increase in the violent behaviour of girls will be seen in Finnish criminal statistics in the course of the next few years.

The use of intoxicants has also been found to increase violence among females, and today, women are frequently found guilty of similar types of aggressive behvious to those shown in men.

Currently, the proportion of violent incidents that involve a woman as the perpetrator is about 13 per cent, and similarly in homicides it is around 10 per cent of all cases. The number of women serving time in prison in Finland is roughly 250, while the total prison population in the country is around 3,500.

An increasing number of female prisoners have a history of violent criminality and personality disorders, including substance abuse, reported Weizmann-Henelius. She has examined the personality, background characteristics and life events of women guilty of violent offences, who are being kept either in prison or in a forensic psychiatric hospital.

Based on the follow-up made by Weizmann-Henelius, some 95 per cent of those offenders who had a record of previous crimes were also found guilty of further offences after the time of study. In other words, criminal acts apparently tend to accumulate on the same individuals.

The violent acts committed by women have also become more brutal, involving knives, bottles, or stones. Frequently incidents also involve more than just one perpetrator. Even motives appear to be similar to those of men, and offences are often linked with revenge and drug traffic.

Apart of substance abuse, many females guilty of violent crimes have a background of childhood problems, including the parents’ divorce or domestic violence, frequently even sexual abuse, the psychologist noted.

The study indicates further that violent female offenders are most often single or divorced and unemployed. Typically, violent female offenders often have a history of suicide attempts and psychiatric treatment.

“According to some studies, women’s violence against their live-in companions is as common as that inflicted by men on women. However, the violence used by men is often more severe”, Weizmann-Henelius concludes.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Sparkling wines, champagnes and rosé gaining in popularity
 
According to figures published on Wednesday by the National Product Control Agency for Welfare and Health (STTV), sales of alcohol grew in the months from January to July of this year by just over 4 per cent, or by 3.2% when measured in terms of 100% ethanol.

Aggregate sales in Finland via Alko off-licences, stores, and at licensed restaurants and bars came to more than 26 million litres of 100% alcohol. The actual figure was over 376 million litres by volume.
Sales have increased from one record to the next for some years now.

In fact the latest figures should be seen rather as a measure of the period from January to June, as the cooler weather in July of this year actually prompted sales for the month to fall slightly. Figures for August are not yet available.
Sales of wines, champagnes, and coolers showed the strongest growth, putting on 8%. Correspondingly, sales of fortified wines and vermouths were down by almost 7.5%.

The big favourites in the early part of the year were sparkling wines and champagnes, as well as rosé and blush wines.

The surge in sales of sparkling wines began at the beginning of last year, and is thought to have been fuelled in part by the spate of 60th birthday celebrations of people in the baby-boomer generation.

This explanation probably still holds, as only a few weeks back we witnessed the largest cluster of births that took place 60 years ago.
Sales of beers and distilled items (spirits) each grew by some 3 per cent in the opening seven months of the year.

Sales of ales (rather than lagers) were up by 13 per cent on the previous year, while on the spirits side it was liqueurs that showed the greatest growth, up by 8%.

The general trend leans towards greater sales of milder drinks, but with an overall increase of such dimensions, sales of spirits also rose.
At the same time, it is believed that the year-long decline in imports by passengers (particularly from Estonia) has stopped, and hence overall Finnish consumption of alcohol has continued to increase substantially.

In the wake of the government’s decision to cut alcohol taxes - particularly on spirits - some years ago, imports declined measurably. With plans on the table for increases in alcohol duty in 2008, it remains to be seen whether imports for personal use will once again rise.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat

Finnish restaurant life changed once and for all at midnight, when the last cigarettes had to be stubbed out in most bars and restaurants, as the amendment to the law on smoking in public areas came into effect. Moreover, part of the restaurants voluntarily embarked on their smoke-free era already on Thursday afternoon.
However, not every establishment gave up smoking as willingly. Around 90 restaurants in Helsinki have applied for a two-year transition period from the City of Helsinki Environment Centre.

Eight restaurants filed their applications at the last moment on Thursday. Part of the permits cannot be granted until next week, while around 20 restaurants were granted their permits already on Thursday, reports Antti Pönkä, the Chief of the Environmental Health Unit of the City of Helsinki Environment Centre.

Those restaurants whose permit applications had not been handled yet had to forbid smoking as well. However, no officials turned up to inspect whether or not the cigarettes were extinguished at 00:00 sharp as the law requires.
A precondition for permission for a grace period is that the bar or restaurant concerned is able to guarantee that no smoke will spread from its smoking area to other parts of the establishment.

According to the Environment Centre, on Thursday a transition period was granted to a number of restaurants, including Grand Casino, Suomalainen Klubi, Sir Eino, Michelle, and König.
Restaurant Toveri was one of those who did not want to give up smoking that easily. On Thursday, they distributed leaflets headed “The fight goes on”, saying that the restaurant will turn smoke-free only temporarily.

The officials had not made any decision on the restaurant’s potential grace period as yet.

At five minutes to midnight, the personnel distributed cigarettes to all those who were willing to enjoy their last gasper, while non-smokers were advised to leave for a while and come back at midnight into a new and cleaner era.

Mixed feelings among users, but most anticipate it will not affect their restaurant visits
 
Cigarettes will be stubbed out once and for all in nearly all Finnish restaurants and bars at midnight when the amendment to the law on smoking in public areas comes into effect.

Only a few Helsinki restaurants have applied for a two-year transition period over smoking or for a permit to construct a designated smoking booth. In the entire country, only around 100 restaurants have applied for a transition period.

In restaurant Toscanini in downtown Helsinki, the ban does not seem to have any effect whatsoever on customers - nor on the management.

Clients Anna-Kaisa Tuomi and Marjut Ruokonen are satisfied with the amendment to the law, as all their friends are non-smokers and they always choose the smoke-free zone anyway.

“Considering the health of the restaurant workers, it is fair and just that the law was amended”, Tuomi and Ruokonen conclude.
Marc Skvorc, the General Manager of Klaus K Hotel and its three restaurants, is actually in favour of the amendment to the law on smoking. He sees here another opportunity to improve business.

“In New York, a similar amendment increased business, as for example ladies were happy about not smelling of smoke any more when leaving a restaurant”, noted Skvorc whose previous experience includes successful hotels with restaurants in his native country, the USA.
Even though Klaus K’s restaurants are almost entirely smokeless, the establishment has applied for a two-year transition period over smoking.

“If the permit is not granted, it will be no major problem. We will simply forbid smoking, and our customers will move to the terrace”, Skvorc adds.
Lensu bar in the municipality of Lemi in Southern Karelia will turn completely smoke-free. On Friday, waitress Tuula Hyöppinen will be pleased to collect the ashtrays, take them away, and see to it that nobody lights up any more.
The majority of the bar’s loyal customers smoke on a regular basis, and they are less enthusiastic about the non-smoking policy. One of the regulars, Jari Parkkola, predicts that his visits to the bar could be less frequent after the smoking ban has come into force.

The proprietor of the bar Ossi Lensu believes that the non-smoking policy will not have a great effect on customers in the summer, as smoking will be allowed on the terrace. However, in the winter when it is freezing cold, the situation could be different.
Smoking in restaurants and bars is banned in Ireland, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, New York City, and California, among others. On the whole, the restaurants there have been satisfied with the amendments to the law on smoking.

According to a recent questionnaire conducted by TNA Gallup and commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, a total of 77 per cent of all Finns are in favour of the smoking ban.

While regular smokers have the most negative attitude towards the ban, as many as 39 per cent of them are also in favour of a smoking ban in restaurants. Moreover, as many as 69 per cent of those who smoke only occasionally are supporters of the amendment to the law on smoking.

The majority of respondents believed that the ban would have no effect on the number of their restaurant visits, while 15 per cent regarded it as possible that the number of their visits would increase in the future. Only seven per cent of respondents thought that they would visit restaurants less frequently than before.

(HS)

Based on a Finnish study, persistent smokers may have higher risk to become depressed in comparison to never smokers. Also those smokers who quit have an elevated risk of depressive symptoms in short run. However, in long run this risk declines to the level of never smokers.

In other words, both completely smoke-free life style and successful smoking cessation in long run seem to protect from depressive symptoms.

It is known that depression is associated with cigarette smoking, but the nature of this association is discussed under various hypotheses. First, according to the so called self-medication hypothesis, those who suffer from depressive symptoms smoke cigarettes in order to alleviate their symptoms.

According to the second assumption, chronic persistent smoking may have a role in the etiology of depression. The third hypothesis suggests that there is a reciprocal mechanism between smoking and depression. The fourth hypothesis says that there are shared underlying genetic factors explaining this co-morbidity.

This study conducted in the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki explored, which of those assumptions would be supported by the data, when smoking behavior and changes in it is considered as a predictor of depressive symptoms. The researchers had access to the data collected within the Finnish Adult Twin Cohort Project. There were about four thousand male and five thousand female twins, whose health and health behavior were followed-up through 15 years.

Data on smoking behavior and changes in it between 1975 and 1981 were analyzed as a predictor of depressive symptoms measured in 1990. The analyses were adjusted for other factors known to predict depression.

Because the data consisted of twins it was possible to test the causality between smoking and depression by using twin pairs discordant for depression, where the twin without depression served as a matched control for his/her co-twin with depression. Additionally, it was possible to explore potential shared genetic influences underlying the association.

The results suggest that first, persistent chronic cigarette smoking predicts depressive symptoms. However, when adjusted for other factors associated with depression, the elevated risk of persistent smoking remained significant among men only. “The result that chronic smoking may actually have a role in the etiology of depression, may be surprising, as nicotine as such – in short term – is assumed to have some positive effects on mood”, says Dr. Tellervo Korhonen from the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki, and continues: “We should look for explanation to our result from long term effects of cigarette smoking, from addiction mechanisms and from other substances than nicotine within tobacco smoke.”

Secondly, there was evidence suggesting that those smokers who had quit had elevated depression risk in relatively short term. The association of quitting smoking and depressive symptoms gives us indirect evidence on the self-medication hypothesis. Dr. Korhonen emphasizes, however, the further evidence within the same study showing that those smokers who had quit successfully and remained abstinent through the follow-up did not have elevated depression risk compared to the never smokers.

“This may reflect a relatively long recovery process from the adverse effects of cigarette smoking” Dr. Korhonen continues.

“The mechanisms underlying the association between smoking and depression are very complicated. Although nicotine as such may have short term positive effects on concentration and possibly on mood, long term exposure to tobacco smoke may be one risk factor in development of depression.

However, this mechanism is still relatively unknown. Thus, there is need for further research and evidence in order to make an unambiguous statement that ‘smoking cigarettes cause depression’. Examination of potential shared genetic vulnerability for both tobacco dependence and depression is among the further challenges”, Dr. Korhonen is discussing the evidence so far.

According to Korhonen, one can already say that – as in prevention of many other diseases – also in prevention of depression - smoke-free life and successful smoking cessation seem to have a positive impact.