California Raises Smoking Age To 21

Source: www.huffingtonpost.comAuthor: Huffington Post Staff  The law makes it the second state to raise the minimum age to 21, following Hawaii.   SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California will raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco products to 21 from 18 under a bill signed on Wednesday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, part of a package of anti-smoking measures that also regulates electronic cigarettes. Under five bills signed into law on Wednesday, California will ban the sale of vaping products or tobacco to anyone under the age of 21, imposing a fine of up to $5,000 against companies that violate the law. “It is long past due for California to update our approach to tobacco,” said Steven Larson, president of the California Medical Association. “There has been an alarming rise in the use of e-cigarettes by teens, putting them at risk for lifelong addiction.” Under the measures, electronic cigarettes will be regulated like traditional ones. That means that wherever cigarettes are banned, such as in restaurants, workplaces and public areas, use of e-cigarettes will also be prohibited. The state will also expand its funding for anti-smoking programs under the bills. Brown stopped short of allowing local counties to impose their own tobacco taxes, noting in his veto message that several proposed new taxes would be placed before voters on the November ballot. *This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.

2016-05-05T12:59:24-07:00May, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

Athletes drive increase in high schoolers’ use of smokless tobacco, CDC study shows

Source: www.kyforward.comAuthor: www.kyforward.com web staff High-school athletes are using more smokeless tobacco, even though overall tobacco use among high-school students has declined, according to a study published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We can do more to protect America’s youth from a lifetime of addiction,” Tom Frieden, CDC director, said in a press release. “The fact is, smokeless tobacco products, such as chewing tobacco, snuff or dip, can cause cancer of the mouth, esophagus and pancreas. And the nicotine in these products is harmful to the developing brain. Because we know tobacco-free policies in schools and other public recreational areas work, we must take action now so that our children are safe from these toxins.” Student responses to the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey from 2001 through 2013 show that the share reporting any tobacco use dropped to 22.4 percent from 33.9 percent, and the rate of those smoking combustible tobacco products dropped to 19.5 percent from 31.5 percent. However, those who reported using smokeless tobacco products increased to 8.8 percent from 8.2 percent. The increased use of smokeless tobacco was driven by athletes. The rate among non-athletes remained unchanged at 5.9 percent but has “increased significantly” to 11.1 percent from 10 percent in youth athletes. Researchers suggest that athletes are aware of the adverse consequences of smoking on athletic performance, but may view smokeless tobacco as “less harmful, socially acceptable, or even a way to enhance athletic performance.” The 2013 YRBS found that 26.3 percent [...]

2015-10-19T16:38:45-07:00October, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Teen E-Cig Users More Likely to Smoke

Source: www.newswise.com Newswise — As e-cigarette usage among high school students continues to climb, a recent study from The Journal of the American Medical Association reveals an unsettling trend: that adolescent e-cigarette users are more likely than their non-vaping peers to initiate use of combustible tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars and hookahs. The reason may lie in a common denominator between e-cigarettes and their combustible counterparts: nicotine. While the study hints that more research is needed to determine if this association is merely casual, it’s important to note that while e-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco, the battery-powered devices do deliver nicotine in aerosol form. “Nicotine’s addictive properties are a risk for any age group, but with adolescents, the stakes are even higher,” says Dr. K. Vendrell Rankin, director of Texas A&M University Baylor College of Dentistry’s Tobacco Treatment Services. For teens, mental health as well as key emotional and cognitive systems are at stake. “Major cognitive functions and attention performance are still in the process of developing during adolescence,” says Rankin, also a professor and associate chair in public health sciences at TAMBCD. “Nicotine increases the risk of developing psychiatric disorders and lasting cognitive impairment and is associated with disturbances in working memory and attention. Reliance on nicotine to manage negative emotions and situations impairs the development of coping skills.” In addition to affecting the emotional and cognitive development of teens, nicotine is highly addictive. In fact, the younger a person is when they begin using nicotine, the more likely they [...]

2015-08-21T11:16:40-07:00August, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Rodeo Competitor Speaks to Youth to Spread Anti-Tobacco Message

  Source: www.prnewswire.comAuthor: Oral Cancer Foundation  Cody Kiser prepares for competition while sporting the Oral Cancer Foundation's message - Be Smart. Don't Start.   NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Aug. 14, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The traditional image of the American cowboy is one of strength, rugged determination and courage. In the world of professional rodeo competition, that image is no different. Cowboys—and increasingly so cowgirls—are held in esteem and looked at as heroes by young and old alike. The power of the cowboy as a compelling figure has not gone unnoticed by the tobacco industry, whose marketing campaigns have sought to tie the ideals of the cowboy with the use of their products. The western/rodeo environment in the US has had a long-term relationship with tobacco, and until 2009 The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the rodeos that they sanctioned had a lengthy history of tobacco money funding the sport. While that has ended at PRCA events, tobacco use and smokeless/spit tobaccos are still popular within the sport. The Oral Cancer Foundation (OCF) believes that in order to solve problems you must engage the problem at the source. As a small and growing non-profit, OCF is not afforded the luxury of relying on conventional methods of outreach utilized by larger, more established charities. To enact meaningful change and bring awareness to the public, OCF must employ ingenuity and creativity to address the problems at hand. Within the world of professional rodeo, that problem remains to be the glorification and pervasive use [...]

2015-08-14T10:51:59-07:00August, 2015|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

The Debate Over E-Cigarettes Begins

Source: TIME.comAuthor: Mandy Oaklander The debate over the safety of e-cigarettes, and whether they will help smokers to quit, or simply make it easier for them to start or continue lighting up, heated up this week. On one side of the disagreement are those pushing for regulation. In 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) began a review of data on e-cigarettes and based on studies conducted so far, last month recommended tighter regulation of the devices to protect consumers’ health. But in a new article published in the journal Addiction, other scientists argue that the WHO misinterpreted the data in a “misleading” way and that the group’s advice for more stringent oversight is problematic. In the Addiction paper, the authors take issue with nine of WHO’s conclusions, some of which surround the safety of e-cigarettes, their toxin levels, and how likely younger people are to adopt them. They cite some of the same data as the original WHO review did, but interpret it differently, arguing that the benefits of e-cigarettes, especially as an effective tool in helping some smokers to quit, outweigh potential risks from the chemicals and nicotine used in the devices. Therefore, they say, e-cigarettes should be more accessible than the WHO recommendations would allow. “…The WHO’s approach will make it harder to bring these products to market than tobacco products, inhibit innovation and put off smokers from using e-cigarettes, putting us in danger of foregoing the public health benefits these products could have,” said Ann McNeill, lead author [...]

2014-09-10T09:57:34-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Fifteen Years after Tobacco Settlement, States Falling Short in Funding Tobacco Prevention: Q&A with Danny McGoldrick

Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Published: December 10, 2013By: Danny McGoldrick  On November 23, 1998, 46 states settled their lawsuits against the nation’s major tobacco companies to recover tobacco-related health care costs, joining four states—Mississippi, Texas, Florida and Minnesota—that had reached earlier, individual settlements. These settlements require the tobacco companies to make annual payments to the states in perpetuity, with total payments estimated at $246 billion over the first 25 years. Yesterday a coalition of health advocacy groups released the latest edition of A Broken Promise to Our Kids, an annual report on state use of tobacco funds for tobacco prevention and cessation efforts. As in years past, the report finds that most states fall short in the amount of money they allocate to prevent kids from smoking and to help current smokers quit. The groups that jointly issued the report include the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, the American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights. Key findings of the 2013 report include: • Over the past 15 years, states have spent just 2.3 percent of their total tobacco-generated revenue on tobacco preventionand cessation programs. • The states this year will collect $25 billion from the tobacco settlement  and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 1.9 percent of it—$481.2 million—on tobacco prevention programs. This means the states are spending less than two cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use. • States are [...]

2013-12-11T15:05:35-07:00December, 2013|Oral Cancer News|

Gruesome images on cigarette packs seem to be working

Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Sometimes it takes a good swift kick to open a person's eyes. That's the federal government's strategy in its "scared straight" campaign urging Canadians to butt out by forcing tobacco companies to adorn their addictive products with gruesome images showing the consequences of smoking. The graphic pictures include that of a human tongue rotting in the mouth of a person inflicted with mouth cancer. Other images portray cancer victims, literally human skeletons, at various stages of cancer with the Grim Reaper knocking at their back door. Another shows a man with a hole in his neck -- a victim of throat cancer -- through which he now breathes. His message on the smoke pack: "I wish I had never started smoking." It's a frank message that had to be brought home, and it's apparently working. Statistics Canada reported this week smoking rates have dropped dramatically in the last 10 years, with steep declines in the number of teen smokers. Ottawa credits, in part, its mandatory, graphic anti-smoking packaging for tobacco products. The new rules became official Tuesday. Tobacco companies must now label three-quarters of a cigarette package with grisly pictures showing the horrific consequences of smoking. The image of an emaciated, cancer-stricken Barb Tarbox, curled up in a fetal position in a hospital bed not long before her death, takes up three-quarters of some of the packages. Tarbox became well-known as a powerful anti-smoking activist who, while inflicted with brain and lung cancers, gave numerous public [...]

Tobacco use and baseball

Source: www.quitsmokingforyou.com Like cigarettes, smokeless tobacco (snuff and chewing tobacco), cause mouth cancer, gum disease, and heart disease. Yet many think that chewing tobacco is safe or less so than smoking. This is not true! In 1986, the Surgeon normal closed that the use of smokeless tobacco “is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes. It can cause cancer and a whole of noncancerous conditions and can lead to nicotine addiction and dependence.” Since 1991, the National Cancer institute (Nci) has officially recommended that the group avoid and desist the use of all tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco. Nci also recognizes that nitrosamines, found in tobacco products, are not safe at any level. Chewing tobacco and baseball have a long tight affiliation, rooted in the cultural confidence among players and fans that baseball players chew tobacco and it is just part of the grand old game. This mystique is slowing changing with campaigns by ballplayers who have had or have seen friends with mouth cancer caused by chewing tobacco use. Jeff Bagwell Jeff Bagwell, retired first baseman with the Houston Astros and Joe Garagiola, a previous baseball player and commentator, campaign against tobacco use among children and addicted adults. In 1993, when Bagwell was 25-years-old, his dentist discovered leukoplakia, a whitish pre-cancerous sore in his mouth where he continually located chewing tobacco. About 5% of leukoplakias institute into cancer. Fortunately this did not happen to Jeff Bagwell due to the early detection by his dentist. Rick Bender, The Man Without [...]

Dentists key to quitting ‘smokeless tobacco’

Source: http://www.dentistry.co.uk/ The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is recommending a key role for dental professionals in their public health intervention proposals to help stop the use of smokeless tobacco by people of South Asian Origin. Dentists, dental nurses and dental hygienists may be asked to play a leading role as part of new proposals to stop the use of smokeless tobacco in the UK. NICE has published a consultation on their proposals, which recommends a key intervention and education role for dental professionals. It is also recommending more training for dental professionals to help them gain a greater understanding of smokeless tobacco including terminology, symptoms and approaches to successful intervention. Smokeless tobacco is associated with a number of health problems including nicotine addiction, mouth and oral cancer, periodontal disease, heart attacks and strokes, problems in pregnancy and following childbirth and late diagnosis of dental problems as smokeless tobacco products can often mask pain. Smokeless tobacco is mainly used by 'people of South Asian origin', which includes people with ancestral links to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan or Sri Lanka. The draft guidance recommends that dental professionals take specific actions including: • Asking patients about their smokeless tobacco use and record the outcome in their patient notes • Making users aware of the potential health risks and advise them to stop, using a brief intervention • Referring users who want to quit the habit to tobacco cessation services that use counsellors trained in behavioural support • Recording the [...]

Kids get graphic anti-tobacco message

Source: www.chroniclejournal.com Author: staff Though it’s hard to understand Gruen Von Behrens’ speech, his message could not be clearer. The cancer survivor, who lost much of his neck, chin and tongue to the disease, is on a Northern Ontario high school tour to tell the story of how his chewing tobacco addiction impacted his life. Von Behrens, who started chewing tobacco (also known as dipping) at the age of 13 and was diagnosed with cancer at 17, spoke to hundreds of students in the cafeteria at Thunder Bay’s Superior Collegiate and Vocational Institute on Wednesday morning. He said that many young people start smoking or chewing tobacco to look cool. Addressing the crowd, he asked, “How cool will you look? “I want everyone in here to take a good long look at my face,” he added, pointing to his disfigured features. “I was very naive about what tobacco could do to me.” The Thunder Bay District Health Unit sponsored Von Behrens’ speaking engagements in partnership with the Northwest Tobacco Control Area Network and Regional Cancer Care. Steve Tomé, youth engagement facilitator with the health unit, said that the use of chewing tobacco is 10 per cent higher in Northern Ontario than the rest of the province, so the unit wanted to send a message to students that dipping is no safer than smoking cigarettes. “(Von Behrens) has got a great story that high school students can relate to,” Tomé said. Von Behrens, now 34, has undergone 30 surgeries with at [...]

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