Allentown woman who lost jaw to cancer shares anti-smoking message

Source: LehighVallyLive.com People often stare at Christine Brader. Sometimes strangers ask the Allentown woman what happened to her. She tells them, "I used to smoke." Tobacco users flinch when they hear her response, Brader says. Smoking led to oral cancer, which eventually cost the 49-year-old all of her teeth and part of her lower jaw.Brader has had three bouts with the disease since her first diagnosis five years ago, but is now cancer free. "I have to go through life disfigured, all because I made a bad decision and smoked," she says. Brader doesn't want others to follow in her footsteps, so she is working with Tobacco Free Northeast Pennsylvania to spread the word about the dangers of smoking. The organization serves a 10-county area, including Lehigh and Northampton, spokeswoman Alice Dalla Palu said. Brader recently shared her story in a radio advertisement broadcast during the week of World No Tobacco Day, which was May 31. In the ad -- part of the Centers for Disease Control "Tips from Former Smokers" campaign -- she describes preparing liquid meals and consuming them through a feeding tube. Last year, Brader appeared in a TV commercial for Truth, a national smoking prevention campaign that targets youth. BREAK THE HABIT: Call 1-800-784-8669 or visit tobaccofreene.com to get help quitting smoking. She started smoking at 16 to fit in with her peers and continued for 28 years. Brader quit cold turkey at 44 after learning in June 2007 that the growth inside her cheek was cancer. [...]

2012-06-18T10:03:27-07:00June, 2012|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

CDC: Global tobacco marketing is reaching young women

Source: CDC Author: Staff As World Recognizes “World No Tobacco Day 2010” Although women account for only about 20 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion smokers, tobacco use among women is on the rise.  Particularly troubling is new data from three countries —Bangladesh,Thailand, and Uruguay—indicating greater exposure to cigarette marketing among young women (ages 15 to 24) than older women, according to a CDC study. In Bangladesh, exposure to bidi cigarettes (80.1 percent) and smokeless tobacco (69.9 percent) marketing was widespread among women and did not vary by age.  Bidi cigarettes are hand rolled cigarettes made of tobacco that are primarily used in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Launched in 2007, the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) is a nationally representative household survey of persons ages 15 years and older being implemented in 14 countries around the world.  Bangladesh, Thailand and Uruguay are the first three countries for which 2009 data is available.  Before GATS, no one standard global survey for adults has consistently tracked tobacco use and other tobacco control measures. “Tobacco kills more people each year than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined, and tobacco deaths are increasing steadily,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “The results of these surveys show one of the key reasons for the tobacco epidemic – marketing, including to women and girls. Countries around the world should establish and enforce comprehensive bans on advertising, sponsorship, and promotion of tobacco products,” he said. Other report highlights: In Bangladesh, 1.5 percent of women are current smokers, compared with 44.7 percent [...]

2010-06-14T19:58:02-07:00June, 2010|Oral Cancer News|
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