Finland's Ovi

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 public hospitals are making preparations for coping with the planned mass resignations of care personnel affiliated with the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy).

On Tuesday, Tehy announced that it was planning to have its members resign en masse as a way of promoting their pay demands.

Under the law, in the event of a strike, a certain number of nurses can be required to stay at work to maintain basic services. Under a mass resignation there would be no such obligation. However, the tactic is not without risks: the management side would be under no obligation to rehire those who had resigned.

Tehy is convinced that a combination of solidarity among union members and the shortage of nurses in Finland are a sufficient guarantee that those taking part in the mass resignation action will not end up unemployed.
The Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District (HUS) is planning to recruit substitutes and to hire private nursing services, but officials are admitting that such moves would not be enough.

“They would be marginal measures”, said Kari Nenonen, managing director of HUS on Wednesday.

MedOne, a temp agency for medical personnel, says that it would not force its nurses to work as strike breakers. According to MedOne CEO Pertti Karjalainen, his company “respects the industrial action”.

For instance, at the Kuopio University Central Hospital, Tehy has hinted at the possibility that about 200 nurses would quit their jobs. According to head physician Jorma Penttinen, about one third of the activities of the hospital would have to to shut down in such an event.
If the stoppage begins, non-urgent surgeries will be reduced and postponed, there will be more mobility within the hospitals among staff who still are at work, and doctors and practical nurses will be doing more work.

The most crucial sectors are emergency duty, paediatrics, oncology, and maternity.

“I hope that the action is over when I come to have my baby. There might be a bit of a panic if a midwife were running around in 15 delivery rooms”, says Terhi Mutka, who is in her 35th week of pregnancy, during a checkup at the Kätilöopistio Maternity Hospital in Helsinki.
Tehy has promised to limit the mass resignations to large university hospitals and central hospitals, and will not extend to municipal health centres.

Source : Helsingin Sanomat

Matti Vanhanen (centre), the Finnish prime minister, told MPs on Thursday that the government had no intention of intervening in the nurse pay row.

Speaking at question time, Mr Vanhanen added the dispute concerned the employees and the employers only and repeated that the government would not dispense extra money to help municipalities raise nurses’ pay.

The exasperated prime minister also hoped Parliament would stop fomenting expectations about a government intervention.

The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) is planning mass resignations in an effort to back its pay demands.

Source: STT

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)

“Laughter is the core of well-being”, says city’s personnel chief
 
By Irja Hyvärinen

Four red-nosed figures waddle into the personnel cafe of the City of Tampere. A performance of the city clowns is about to begin, and one of them is already praising a diner for his choice of the Tampere speciality, black pudding.

When the pot belly, the jacket suit lady, the dancer, and the bus driver start into their workplace well-being rap, even administrative chief Mauri Eskonen smiles behind his plate. “Process, report, delegate, visualise”: the list of words sounds so absurd (especially as in the original Finnish, as they all rhyme).

The idea for the city clowns came from comedian Mona Ratalahti, occupational well-being trainer Riitta Harilo, and its godmother was Kirsi Koski, head of the Mayor’s office.

Koski has worked as the city’s head of personnel for three years.

“I have thought about what would be the core of well-being. Yes, it is laughter”, Koski says. “It is all right to laugh at craziness - at what is not said out loud in business discussions.”

Ratalahti feels that a clown nose “changes us and the viewer in such a way that forces people to look at things differently”.

“When people enjoy their work, it is reflected directly on the bottom line.”
Tampere’s city clowns are the 41st idea that the “Creative Tampere” programme has decided to support. The programme has a budget of EUR 12 million to back corporate ideas worthy of development.

The EUR 25,000 earmarked for the clowns makes it possible for four artists, who have mostly worked alone, can concentrate on joint projects.

Some of the funding is used for the purchase of performances for training seminars, for instance.

Head of development Lasse Paananen says that the funding is not a question of moving money from one municipal pocket to another, but rather a startup for a new enterprise.

The city clowns have a number of established routines, from “The ABCs of Customer Service”, to “Lightening the Guilt Pack”. One planned sketch involves a training session for supervisors on how to effectively put subordinates in their place.
Each of the clowns have created their own characters. Ratalahti is a pot-bellied boss, Harilo is a jacket-suit lady. Tuula Linnusmäki is a dancer whose workplace calisthenics putts the meat on the move.

When tenor Jouko Uusipaasto taps into his 30 years of experience as a bus driver, the cobblestones of Tampere’s main thoroughfare, Hämeenkatu, become familiar to everyone. Greetings to all: there will be a moment of silence on behalf of silent knowledge.

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.

by Juhani Artto

Job cuts have a greater impact on the mental health of men than women. This is one of the main conclusions in a recent study made by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, in cooperation with the University of London.

The sample covers over 26,500 public sector employees. More than 4,000 of them lost or left their jobs during the economic recession in the early 1990s. Almost 5,000 remained at work places where large-scale jobs cuts had been carried out. The rest, 17,600 employees, worked at work places where only small or modest job cuts had been made.

The researchers discovered that men who had lost their jobs used (1994 to 2000) about 64 per cent more central nervous system drugs than men at work places where job cuts had been small or moderate.

This came as no surprise to the researchers but they were surprised to find that mental health problems significantly increased also among men who had remained at work places where large or significant job cuts had occurred. In this group usage of central nervous system drugs was almost 50 per cent higher than among men at work places where only small or moderate job cuts had taken place.

Among female employees, at work places where large job cuts had been carried out, usage of central nervous system drugs increased by 12 per cent, compared with women at work places where small or moderate job cuts had resulted.

As indicators of drug usage the researchers availed of the Social Insurance Institute of Finland registry for purchases of depression, anxiety and sleeplessness drugs.

The increased use of psychic drugs associated with large-scale job cuts, reflects the damage to individuals in regard to stressful changes in working life, researcher Jussi Vahtera asserts in his assessment of the results of the study. He warns that the increased usage of psychic drugs may also have a deeper impact on the whole society.

In promotion of mental health it is important to pay attention to working conditions, Vahtera emphasises.

Jouko Huttunen, a paternity expert at the University of Jyväskylä, feels that fathers and mothers in Finland continue to live in the stone age as far as certain attitudes are concerned.

“If there were just a little bit of paternal thinking at workplaces, or if more services were directed toward fathers alongside issues related to mothers, or if the post-natal child clinic system directed more services clearly toward fathers, the attitudes could change”, Huttunen says.

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health now plans to start encouraging fathers to take parental leave. Stefan Wallin, the Minister responsible for Equality Affairs, is set to launch a project in Helsinki on Friday, aimed at encouraging fathers to take parental leave.

The objective is to promote gender equality at work and in education by increasing the role of fathers in the care of children.

The most frequent users of long parental leaves are mothers who do not have a steady job, or who have little training.

Child care leave is seen as one reason for the weaker position that young women have on the labour market. Employers are afraid to hire women of childbearing age for fear of the absences.

The aim of Wallin’s project is to promote awareness of parental benefits that already exist. This would mean that fathers would also be allowed to use them more.

Mere campaigning and manipulation of attitudes are not enough in the opinion of Jenni Kellokumpu. Legislative changes is also needed, which would eventually filter down to attitudes.

This is suggested by the fact that fathers are using the days off that they are legally entitled to.

“The problem with today’s system is that parents agree between themselves on parental leaves”, Kellokumpu says. “If we could concretely show people we could say ‘Hey Father, these are for you’, men would more consistently avail themselves of the entitlement.”

By Miranda Hitti

Test Using a Tracer Chemical May Show Which People With Memory Loss Will Get the Disease

A brain scan test may help predict which people with memory loss will develop Alzheimer’s disease, a preliminary study shows.

Memory loss is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. But most people with memory problems don’t develop Alzheimer’s.

Another hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease is the buildup of plaque in the brain. That plaque, made of amyloid protein, has been found in brain autopsies of Alzheimer’s patients.

The new study, published in Neurology, focuses on people with mild cognitive impairment, defined as memory loss that doesn’t impair daily life and doesn’t qualify for dementia diagnosis.

The study included 13 people in Finland with mild cognitive impairment. They were 70 years old, on average.

For comparison, the study also included 14 older Finnish adults (average age: 65) without memory problems.

Participants got an infusion of a tracer chemical called PIB, which binds to amyloid protein.

The researchers — who included Juha Rinne, MD, PhD, of Finland’s University of Turku — used positron emission tomography (PET) brain scans to watch participants’ brains absorb PIB.

Brain Scan Test
The brains of the patient group with memory loss tended to absorb more PIB than the comparison group without memory loss.

“This pattern of increased PIB in patients with [mild cognitive impairment] resembles what’s seen in Alzheimer’s disease and is suggestive of an early Alzheimer’s disease process,” Rinne says in an American Academy of Neurology news release.

But Rinne’s team didn’t follow the participants over time, so it’s not clear if any of them developed Alzheimer’s disease.

Larger, longer studies are needed to learn whether the PIB test predicts Alzheimer’s disease in people with mild cognitive impairment, note the researchers.

The journal notes that Rinne has a consultancy agreement with a branch of GE Health Care, which makes PIB.

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more about mild cognitive impairment