American Heart Association – Oral Cancer News

Scientists say that E-Cigarettes and Snuff are not harmless

Author: Eliza GraySource: time.com New research casts doubt on nicotine's safety—even if you aren't smoking New research from the American Heart Association journal Circulation shows that patients who stopped using smokeless tobacco after a heart attack had improved life expectancy—similar to that of people who quit smoking. The finding offers new information about the dangers of smokeless tobacco, the risks of which are not as well understood as cigarettes’. “That was a big surprise for us,” said Dr. Gabriel Arefalk, lead researcher and a cardiologist at Uppsala University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden. “For smoking, it has been known for decades now that people benefit from discontinuation, especially after having suffered a heart attack, but for snus we had no idea what to expect. ”The researchers reviewed data on 2,474 heart attack survivors under 75 in Sweden who used snus (oral snuff) from 2005 to 2009. About 675 quit. During the two years of follow-up, 69 of those who continued using snus died, compared with only 14 quitters. Based on this data, researchers determined that those who quit snus had almost half the mortality risk of those who didn’t quit, which is similar to the benefit of smoking cessation, according to a release from the American Heart Association. Dr. Arefalk, who is also a clinician, said the researchers wanted to study the problem because they didn’t know what to tell patients about the risks of using snus after a heart attack. He cautioned that the study was small and far from enough to [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-06-25T11:44:46-07:00June, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Big Tobacco Spending More Than a Super PAC to Defeat Cancer Research

Source: Livestrong.org My job requires me to be online all day keeping an ear to the ground on major issues related to cancer. I knew the Prop 29 fight in California was going to be fought against Big Tobacco, but I didn’t realize the scale of their funding machine. Why are LIVESTRONG, American Cancer Society, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and many other health organizations for this proposition? Because it keeps kids from smoking, funds much needed cancer research and prevention programs. So it won’t surprise you that Big Tobacco is the driving force against the cancer research prop. Although it is not surprising, the amount of money they are pumping into California is unreal. To date, Big Tobacco has funneled 40 million dollars into their anti cancer research initiative compared to Yes on 29 Coalition’s 8 million raised. What I find most telling is when it comes to where these funds are from. Check out this visualization from MapLight.org – a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that reveals money’s influence on politics. This news story was resourced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, and vetted for appropriateness and accuracy.

Charlotte Parker2012-05-17T09:52:34-07:00May, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

New Report: States Slash Tobacco Prevention Funding by 36%, Spend Less than 2 Cents of Every Tobacco Dollar to Fight Tobacco Use

Source: TobaccoFreeKids.org WASHINGTON, DC – States have slashed funding for programs to reduce tobacco use by 12 percent in the past year and by 36 percent over the past four years, threatening the nation’s progress against tobacco, according to a report released today by a coalition of public health organizations. The states this year (Fiscal Year 2012) will collect a near-record $25.6 billion in revenue from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it – $456.7 million – on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. This means the states are spending less than two cents of every dollar in tobacco revenue to fight tobacco use. Both the total amounts states are spending on tobacco prevention programs and the percentage of tobacco revenue spent on these programs are the lowest since 1999, when the states first received significant tobacco settlement funds. With nearly 20 percent of Americans still smoking, the report warns that continued progress against tobacco use – the nation’s number one cause of preventable death – is at risk unless states increase funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs. The report also calls on states to increase tobacco taxes and, for states that have yet to do so, to enact strong smoke-free laws that apply to all workplaces, restaurants and bars. The report further calls on the federal government to launch a national tobacco prevention and cessation campaign, including a mass-media campaign and support for telephone quitlines, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-12-01T12:15:26-07:00December, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

E-Cigarette Controversy

Source: The New York Times If you want a truly frustrating job in public health, try getting people to stop smoking. Even when researchers combine counseling and encouragement with nicotine patches and gum, few smokers quit. Recently, though, experimenters in Italy had more success by doing less. A team led by Riccardo Polosa of the University of Catania recruited 40 hard-core smokers — ones who had turned down a free spot in a smoking-cessation program — and simply gave them a gadget already available in stores for $50. This electronic cigarette, or e-cigarette, contains a small reservoir of liquid nicotine solution that is vaporized to form an aerosol mist. The user “vapes,” or puffs on the vapor, to get a hit of the addictive nicotine (and the familiar sensation of bringing a cigarette to one’s mouth) without the noxious substances found in cigarette smoke. After six months, more than half the subjects in Dr. Polosa’s experiment had cut their regular cigarette consumption by at least 50 percent. Nearly a quarter had stopped altogether. Though this was just a small pilot study, the results fit with other encouraging evidence and bolster hopes that these e-cigarettes could be the most effective tool yet for reducing the global death toll from smoking. But there’s a powerful group working against this innovation — and it’s not Big Tobacco. It’s a coalition of government officials and antismoking groups who have been warning about the dangers of e-cigarettes and trying to ban their sale. The controversy [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-11-08T13:22:07-07:00November, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

New Report: States Continue Drastic Cuts to Tobacco Prevention Programs

Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation This year (Fiscal Year 2011) states will collect $23.5 billion in revenue from the 1998 tobacco settlement funds and tobacco taxes. Alarmingly, though, the states will only spend two percent of that amount—$517.9 million—on programs to prevent smoking and help smokers quit. That’s the lowest amount of tobacco prevention program funding since 1999, when the states first received tobacco settlement funds, according to a report released today by a coalition of public health organizations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). U.S. adult smoking rates have stalled at 20.6 percent after decades of decline. Echoing the recommendations of major public health organizations such as the Institute of Medicine, the President’s Cancer Panel and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report recommends that states increase funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs, increase tobacco taxes and enact strong smoke-free laws that apply to all workplaces, restaurants and bars. In addition, the federal government should robustly fund and implement the national tobacco prevention strategy unveiled on November 10, 2010 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The report, titled “A Broken Promise to Our Children: The 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 12 Years Later,” was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association and RWJF. These organizations have issued yearly reports assessing whether the states have kept their promise to use funds from the tobacco settlements—estimated to total $246 billion over the first [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2010-11-17T12:20:18-07:00November, 2010|Oral Cancer News|

Deadly in pink: new report warns big tobacco has stepped up targeting of women and girls

Source: www.rwjf.org Author: staff The tobacco industry has unleashed its most aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at women and girls in over a decade, according to a report issued today by a coalition of public health organizations. The report warns that these new marketing campaigns are putting the health of women and girls at risk and urges Congress to regulate tobacco marketing by passing legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco products. The report, “Deadly in Pink: Big Tobacco Steps Up Its Targeting of Women and Girls,” was issued by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The report and images of the tobacco marketing campaigns can be found at www.tobaccofreekids.org/deadlyinpink In the last two years, the nation’s two largest tobacco companies—Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds—have launched new marketing campaigns that depict cigarette smoking as feminine and fashionable, rather than the harmful and deadly addiction it really is: In October 2008, Philip Morris USA announced a makeover of its Virginia Slims brand into “purse packs”—small, rectangular cigarette packs that contain “superslim” cigarettes. Available in mauve and teal and half the size of regular cigarette packs, the sleek “purse packs” resemble packages of cosmetics and fit easily in small purses. They come in “Superslims Lights” and “Superslims Ultra Lights” versions, continuing the tobacco industry’s history of associating smoking with weight control and of appealing to women’s health concerns with misleading claims [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-02-21T10:42:24-07:00February, 2009|Oral Cancer News|