New, more graphic cigarette warnings unveiled
http://oralcancernews.org/wp/?attachment_id=9810
Smoking cessation funding slashed
Source: Atlantic Drugs By: Susan Ray Smoking cessation funding has been cut to its lowest level since 1999. Despite 20% of the population smoking, the same percentage that were in 2006, the current economic climate and other factors have caused states to reduce funding for stop smoking initiatives. Around $517 million has been allocated in the fiscal year 2011, which is down 9.2% from the previous year, and 28% less than in 2009. Alarm Public health groups are alarmed that people who are looking to quit smoking may now not get the help that they need. There are around 46 million smokers across America, all at an increased risk of developing serious health problems like lung and mouth cancer, and heart disease. Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable death in the US and is responsible for one in five deaths. About 8.6 million people suffer from smoking-related lung and heart disease. Smokers are twice as likely to die from heart attacks in comparison with non-smokers. Most important step The US Surgeon General has said, "Smoking cessation (stopping smoking) represents the single most important step that smokers can take to enhance the length and quality of their lives." Quitting smoking can be difficult. Some smokers find that the nicotine addictions make it too hard to give up. For others, the mental cravings to smoke are a greater problem. Research has shown that quitting smoking is more ‘mind over matter’ for many people, and that overcoming psychological desires to smoke cigarettes [...]
Where do Americans go to smoke?
Source: http://labs.slate.com/articles/cigarette-map/ Author: Chris Wilson Fewer than 13 percent of Americans now smoke cigarettes every day. While this represents a dramatic decline from the Mad Men-era of ubiquitous ash trays, the drop in smokers isn't happening everywhere at the same rate, and it isn't necessarily happening among the people you'd expect. Slate decided to map the latest data about cigarette smoking by state and county, and the trends it reveals are fascinating. In most of the counties around the border of Kentucky and West Virginia, for example, as much as 40 percent of the population regularly lights up. This map shows data from both counties and states, using figures from an annual nationwide survey of more than 400,000 people. The state-by-state map also breaks out the numbers by age group, and by whether people smoke regularly or occasionally. Click the tabs in the upper right corner to toggle between the two different maps. You can access the interactive map here.
Congressman wants chewing tobacco thrown out of World Series
Source: The Hill, The Washington Scene By: Jordan Fabian With the World Series set to begin Wednesday night, a New Jersey congressman wants the participating teams to give chewing tobacco the boot from their dugouts. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D) called on the Texas Rangers and San Francisco Giants to eschew their use of smokeless tobacco during the Fall Classic, saying it sets a bad example for kids. "Asking @MLB World Series teams to ban chewing tobacco. It hurts more than players when so many young ppl watch & are influenced by players," the congressman said on Twitter. Pallone has long been an opponent of the use of chewing tobacco in the sport, citing its negative health effects and poor example for children. The 11-term congressman held a hearing on the issue in April, at which House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) called on Major League Baseball to ban the use of smokeless tobacco. A representative from the baseball players union opposed the move, drawing a contrast between cigarettes and chewing tobacco. Scrutiny of players' use of the tobacco products, however, re-emerged this month after Hall of Fame right fielder Tony Gwynn was diagnosed with a form of mouth cancer. Gwynn, who spent his entire 20-year career with the San Diego Padres, openly speculated that it resulted from his use of chewing tobacco.
Smokeless products face FDA test. Tobacco maker first in line for regulatory review
Source: Boston.com By: Michael Felberbaum RICHMOND- Tobacco maker Star Scientific Inc. hopes there's fire where there's no smoke. The small Virginia company has made itself the test case for a big issue: whether the Food and Drug Administration will allow certain tobacco products — particularly the company’s tobacco lozenges — to be marketed as less harmful than cigarettes. The application to market the product as safer also highlights a philosophical debate over how best to control tobacco. One camp says there’s no safe way to use tobacco and pushes for people to quit above all else. Others embrace the idea that lower-risk alternatives like smokeless tobacco or electronic cigarettes can improve public health, if they mean fewer people smoke. How the FDA handles the products is being closely watched by both the public health community and bigger tobacco companies, which are looking for new products to sell as they face declining cigarette demand due to tax increases, health concerns, smoking bans, and social stigma. A law enacted last year gives the FDA authority to evaluate tobacco products for their health risks and lets the agency approve ones that could be marketed as safer than what’s currently sold. So far only Star Scientific has applied for approval to market what the agency calls “modified-risk’’ products. The company says the small tablets that dissolve in the user’s mouth contain “below detectable levels’’ of certain cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco and its smoke. It wants to sell them to smokers as “a useful [...]
U.S. smoking rate hasn’t changed, CDC says
Source: www.latimes.com Author: Thomas H. Maugh II One in five Americans lights up regularly. If all states had prevention programs like those in California and Utah, 5 million fewer people would be smoking, the agency says. After 40 years of continual declines, the smoking rate in the United States has stabilized for the last five years, with one in every five Americans still lighting up regularly, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. Moreover, more than half of all children are exposed to toxic, secondhand smoke and 98% of those who live with a smoker have measurable levels of toxic chemicals in their blood stream, setting them up for future harm from cancer, heart disease and a variety of other ailments. "If you smoke and have children, don't kid yourself. Your smoke is harming your children," CDC Director Dr. Thomas R. Frieden said in a news conference. Using products marketed as being less harmful is no panacea, he added. "All cigarettes kill equally, and we know that light and low-tar cigarettes are no less likely to kill you." Despite the reduction in smoking over the last four decades, Frieden said, smoking remains the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in the United States. Every year, an estimated 446,000 Americans die from smoking-related diseases. The good news is that some states are making progress in combating smoking. Utah has the lowest smoking rate at 10%, and California is second with a rate just below 13%, according to CDC figures. [...]
Tobacco signs still target city’s poorer areas
Source: www.boston.com Author: Stephen Smith The signs, wrought in soothing italics, beckon with promises of tobacco “pleasure!’’ at low, low prices. Across Dorchester, Mattapan, and other city neighborhoods, big signs and little signs, vertical signs and horizontal signs trumpet the availability of cigarettes at corner stores and gas stations. They are plastered on façades and propped against windows, affixed to light poles and gas pumps. A dozen years after Massachusetts attempted to ban storefront tobacco ads within 1,000 feet of schools and playgrounds, a prohibition thwarted by a tobacco company’s legal challenge, the signs remain prolific and prominent in Boston’s lower-income neighborhoods, especially those with substantial African-American and Hispanic populations. But now, empowered by Congress to regulate tobacco companies, the Food and Drug Administration is taking steps that could rein in the pastel-hued signs that industry foes say entice young customers to start smoking. With cigarette advertising banished from the airwaves and largely absent from billboards, storefronts are some of the last bastions of tobacco marketing. The continued presence of the ads is a testament, researchers said, to the deep reach of cigarette makers in poorer communities, where merchants said company representatives sometimes personally attach ads to store exteriors. “Tobacco advertising is still alive and well,’’ said Dr. Michael Siegel, a tobacco control specialist at the Boston University School of Public Health. “There’s a widespread perception that somehow the tobacco advertising has gone away, that it’s been taken care of, that we don’t have to worry about this anymore. But [...]
How secondhand cigarette smoke changes your genes
Source: Time Magazine Author: Alice Park As if the growing number of smoking bans in restaurants, airplanes and other public places isn't sending a strong enough message, researchers now have the first biological data confirming the health hazards of secondhand smoke. Scientists led by Dr. Ronald Crystal at Weill Cornell Medical College documented changes in genetic activity among nonsmokers triggered by exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke. Public-health bans on smoking have been fueled by strong population-based data that links exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke and a higher incidence of lung diseases such as emphysema and even lung cancer, but do not establish a biological cause for the correlation. Now, for the first time, researchers can point to one possible cause: the passive recipient's genes are actually being affected. Crystal's team devised a study in which 121 volunteers — some of whom smoked and some of whom had never smoked — agreed to have samples of their airway cells studied for genetic activity. The subjects also provided urine so the researchers could measure the amount of nicotine and its metabolites, like cotinine, for an objective record of their exposure to cigarette smoke. Airway cells that line the bronchus, from the trachea all the way to the tiny alveoli deep in the lungs, are the first cells that confront cigarette smoke, whether it is inhaled directly from a cigarette or secondhand from the environment. Crystal's group hypothesized that any deterioration in lung function associated with cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including [...]
New tobacco policy likely to help check smoking among teenagers
Source: topnews.net.nz Author: Ketan Mukherjee In England, the legal age limit for purchasing cigarettes has been increased from 16 to 18 years. Because of this, the number of youngsters who start smoking at a very early age has decreased significantly. Researchers at University College London interviewed as many as 1,000 people aged 16-17 before and after the age limit was changed in the month of October in 2007. It was found that previous to October 2007, 24% of teenagers said that they smoked regularly. After the implementation of the new policy, the number reduced to 17%. The percentage of those above 18 years of age remained the same. It is worth mentioning that 8 out of every 10 smokers acquired this habit before they reached 19 years of age and diseases like mouth cancer and other problems related to tobacco are increasing rapidly. Researchers believe that the new tobacco law will certainly bring down the number of teenagers who want to go for smoking. According to Jenny Fidler, one of the researchers of the study, "The new law looks to have helped reduce smoking prevalence among younger age groups". He further added that the new law is for the betterment of the young generation of the country. He also said that new law will certainly clamp down on those teenagers who start smoking before 19 years.
New types of smokeless tobacco present growing risks for youth: products mistaken for candy
Source: thenationshealth.aphapublications.org Author: Kim Krisberg The decline in the U.S. smoking rate is arguably one of the biggest achievements in the nation’s public health history. But as public health makes inroads, the tobacco industry is pushing back, offering new ways to deliver nicotine and hook lifelong customers. As nonsmoking ordinances sweep across the country, tobacco manufacturers are marketing new smokeless and spitless tobacco products, often selling them as complementary products to cigarettes — pushing the message that such “novel” tobacco products can deliver a nicotine fix whether smoking is allowed or not. Going by brand names such as Orbs, Snus and Taboka, the products are smokeless and spitless, often dissolving in a user’s mouth. For example, Marlboro Snus comes in a teabag-like pouch that a user puts between the cheek and gum and then discards after about 30 minutes. Camel Orbs look similar to small pieces of candy — almost like a Tic Tac — come in flavors such as “fresh” and “mellow,” and dissolve in a user’s mouth. Camel Sticks and Camel Strips also dissolve in a user’s mouth. A recent Camel Snus ad reads “Boldly Go Everywhere” and “Break Free.” While such products have yet to catch on in a significant way in the United States, public health advocates warn not to underestimate the influence of tobacco marketing, especially in regard to young people. They also warn that tobacco companies seem to be portraying the novel products as a “healthier” alternative to cigarettes or as a quitting aid. [...]