nicotine

Great American Spit Out warns of new tobacco lures

Source: www.orlandosentinel.com Author: Kate Santich, Orlando Sentinel As anti-tobacco advocates celebrate today's Great American Spit Out — the "chew" equivalent of the Great American Smoke Out — health officials warn that new dissolvable and flavored varieties of smokeless-tobacco products are targeting teens in a mission to get them hooked. Newly released data from state health researchers show that, while cigarette smoking among Florida youth has reached an all-time low, smokeless tobacco use has been virtually unchanged for the past decade: roughly 5.5 percent among high school students statewide. And it's nearly 9 percent in some counties, including Lake. "The tobacco industry is targeting us," said Magi Linscott, a Pensacola-area 18-year-old named National Youth Advocate for 2014 by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "They're trying to get a new generation of addicts." Recent product developments include colorfully packaged, kid-friendly flavors of tobacco-infused candy, mints, gum, breath strips and flavored toothpicks — all containing nicotine. Depending on the type, they are designed to be held in the mouth, chewed, or sucked until they dissolve and the juices swallowed. Along with more traditional chew, snuff and a teabag-like pouch of finely ground tobacco called snus ("snoose"), smokeless products may lure users with a false sense of safety. Shannon Hughes, Tobacco Free Florida bureau chief, said young people — and their parents — may not realize the dangers of the products, which increase the risk of oral cancer by 80 percent. "Adults think, 'Well, at least they're not smoking,'" Hughes said. "Yes, cigarettes do [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-02-21T08:34:54-07:00February, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Levels of cancer-causing chemicals in smokeless tobacco products influence carcinogen exposure

Source: www.healthcanal.com Author: staff Higher levels of cancer-causing chemicals called tobacco-specific nitrosamines in smokeless tobacco products led to greater exposure to these carcinogens even after taking into account how much or how long the product was used, according to a study published in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. “Our results show that although the pattern of tobacco use—for example, amount of dip and number of dips—can influence the level of smokeless tobacco users’ exposure to tobacco-specific nitrosamines, the actual amount of these chemicals in the products also makes a significant difference,” said Dorothy K. Hatsukami, PhD, the Forster Family professor in cancer prevention in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “The majority of smokeless tobacco users in the United States are not aware of the levels of cancer-causing chemicals in their smokeless tobacco products or of the tremendous variability in the levels of these chemicals across brands sold in this country,” continued Hatsukami. “At a minimum, the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] should provide smokeless tobacco consumers information about the different levels of cancer-causing chemicals in different brands of smokeless tobacco and, ideally, require levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines be substantially reduced, if not eliminated, in all products. Levels of these chemicals in smokeless tobacco products could be readily reduced by changing manufacturing practices.” Levels of exposure to tobacco-specific nitrosamines are associated with disease risk, according to Hatsukami. Prior studies have shown that smokeless tobacco users in the [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-12-25T12:37:53-07:00December, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

E-Cigarettes fail to help cancer patients quit smoking

Source: www.cancernetwork.com Author: Anna Azvolinsky, PhD Among cancer patients who smoke, electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users had greater nicotine dependence compared with traditional cigarette smokers, and e-cigarettes did not help patients quit smoking, according to the results of a study published in Cancer. E-cigarettes have been touted as possible tools for smoking cessation. According to the study authors, these are the first published results on e-cigarette use and smoking cessation among cancer patients and put into question the potential benefits of using e-cigarettes as part of a smoking cessation program for cancer patients. Those diagnosed with cancer who continue to smoke are advised to quit. The uptick in the use of e-cigarettes has raised the question of whether these newer types of cigarettes can facilitate or hamper the ability to quit smoking for good. In the new study, Jamie Ostroff, PhD, of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, examined 1,074 cancer patients who smoked and were enrolled in a tobacco treatment program between 2012 and 2013 at the cancer center. Using a complete case analysis, e-cigarette users were equally likely to still smoke as those who did not use e-cigarettes (odds ratio of 1). Using an intention-to-treat analysis, e-cigarette users were twice as likely to be smoking at the time of follow-up (odds ratio = 2, P < .01). The 7-day abstinence from smoking was 44.4% for e-cigarette users compared with 43.1% for non-users. Patients who were e-cigarette users at study enrollment were likely to be [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-09-24T07:08:11-07:00September, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Baseball, youth, and smokeless tobacco

Source: businesswest.com Authors: Richard Pieters, M.D. & Anthony Giambardino, D.M.D. The headlines first came with baseball Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. His all-too-early death at 54 was attributed to the long-term use of smokeless tobacco. Now it’s former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, who revealed on Aug. 20 that he was diagnosed in February with mouth cancer. “I do believe without a doubt, unquestionably,” said Schilling when making his condition public, “that chewing [tobacco] is what gave me cancer … I did it for 30 years. It was an addictive habit.” His physician agreed. Many of us who grew up with the game are used to seeing players chewing tobacco, but a new generation of children watching in the stands and on television may be seeing smokeless tobacco used for the first time. They are the ones most influenced by what baseball players do both on and off the field. And that behavior by professional athletes can be more powerful in shaping behavior than any advertising campaign by the tobacco industry. Although cigarette smoking in the U.S. continues to decline, a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that the use of smokeless tobacco has held steady over the past nine years. CDC says 14.7% of high-school boys, and 8.8% of all high-school students, reported using smokeless products in 2013. The CDC further states that smokeless tobacco contains 28 carcinogens, which can cause gum disease, stained teeth and tongue, a dulled sense of taste and [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2014-09-24T06:55:44-07:00September, 2014|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|

Liquid nicotine for E-cigarettes found to be extremely toxic

Source: nytimes.comAuthor: Matt Richtel A dangerous new form of a powerful stimulant is hitting markets nationwide, for sale by the vial, the gallon and even the barrel. The drug is nicotine, in its potent, liquid form — extracted from tobacco and tinctured with a cocktail of flavorings, colorings and assorted chemicals to feed the fast-growing electronic cigarette industry. These “e-liquids,” the key ingredients in e-cigarettes, are powerful neurotoxins. Tiny amounts, whether ingested or absorbed through the skin, can cause vomiting and seizures and even be lethal. A teaspoon of even highly diluted e-liquid can kill a small child. But, like e-cigarettes, e-liquids are not regulated by federal authorities. They are mixed on factory floors and in the back rooms of shops, and sold legally in stores and online in small bottles that are kept casually around the house for regular refilling of e-cigarettes. Evidence of the potential dangers is already emerging. Toxicologists warn that e-liquids pose a significant risk to public health, particularly to children, who may be drawn to their bright colors and fragrant flavorings like cherry, chocolate and bubble gum. “It’s not a matter of if a child will be seriously poisoned or killed,” said Lee Cantrell, director of the San Diego division of the California Poison Control System and a professor of pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco. “It’s a matter of when.” Reports of accidental poisonings, notably among children, are soaring. Since 2011, there appears to have been one death in the United States, a [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-04-07T12:06:53-07:00April, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

New study shows a rise in smokeless tobacco sales, especially among youth

Source: UMass Medical School Communications (http://www.umassmed.edu/news)Author: Sandra Gray The number of smokeless tobacco products sold in Massachusetts is soaring, as are the levels of nicotine packed into many of them, according to a new analysis from UMass Medical School and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH). “Nationwide, cigarette smoking control has been very successful and we have experienced a steady decline, but that success is being offset by the increased use of smokeless tobacco products, especially by youth,” said UMMS statistical scientist Wenjun Li, PhD. Dr. Li, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, co-authored the paper with colleagues from the DPH. Published in the journal Tobacco Control, the study examines ten years of product data (from 2003 to 2012) that Massachusetts law requires tobacco manufacturers provide to the DPH. Notable findings include a nearly 30 percent increase in the number of moist snuff products and a nearly sixfold increase in the number of snus products sold in Massachusetts; these increases correlate with rising use among high school students. Nationwide, more than one in eight males in the 12th grade uses smokeless tobacco. In Massachusetts, use among high school students has more than doubled since 2001. A wide variety of smokeless tobacco products on the market include newer inventions like dissolvable lozenges, snus and moist snuff, many of them flavored and colorfully packaged to appeal to youth, along with more traditional forms used by adults including chewing tobacco and dry snuff. Researchers were particularly interested in unionized, or [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-03-24T14:56:03-07:00March, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

Cigarettes, More Addictive than Ever Before

Source: The New York TimesPublished: January 23, 2014By: The Editorial Board It was a shock to learn from the latest surgeon general’s report that, because of changes in the design and composition of cigarettes, smokers today face a higher risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease than smokers in 1964, despite smoking fewer cigarettes. It is equally shocking to learn now that some of today’s cigarettes may be more addictive than those smoked in past years, most likely because the manufacturers are designing them to deliver more nicotine to the lungs to induce and sustain addiction. That devious tactic requires a strong response by regulators. A report published last week in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research found that while the nicotine content of cigarettes has remained relatively stable for more than a decade, the amount of that nicotine delivered to the machines researchers use as surrogates for smokers has been rising. The researchers, from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, analyzed data from four manufacturers as required by state law. The findings varied among the companies and brands, but the overall trend led the researchers to conclude that changes in cigarette design have increased the efficiency of delivering nicotine to a smoker’s lungs. Young people who experiment with smoking may thus become addicted more easily and existing smokers may find it harder to quit. Those provocative findings will need to be verified by other experts but are consistent with the surgeon [...]

Charlotte Parker2014-01-30T16:54:23-07:00January, 2014|Oral Cancer News|

The danger in smokeless tobacco products

Source: www.observer.ug (Uganda, Africa) Author: Racheal Ninsiima Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death among adults and is a significant factor for several mouth, throat, lung and heart diseases. It is also a major contributor to morbidity. Globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that tobacco causes about 71% of lung cancer, 42% of chronic respiratory diseases, 20% of global tuberculosis incidence and nearly 10% of cardiovascular diseases. But the issue of smokeless products that contain tobacco has for long been ignored. According to Dr Sheila Ndyanabangi, the tobacco control focal point person at the ministry of Health, schoolchildren are also consuming the products. This is because sometimes the ingredients are written in foreign languages which may not be understood by the consumers. What is smokeless tobacco? There are two basic forms of smokeless tobacco: snuff and chewing tobacco. An article ‘smokeless tobacco and how to quit’ on the website www.cancer.org, says snuff is finely ground tobacco packaged in cans and is sold either dry or moist. The nicotine in the snuff is absorbed through the tissues of the mouth as it is placed between the cheek and gum. Snuff is designed to be both “Smoke-free” and “spit-free” and is marketed as a discreet way to use tobacco. Chewed tobacco comes along as long strands of tobacco leaves that are chewed by the user who thereafter spits out the brown liquid (saliva mixed with tobacco). Types of smokeless tobacco Mouth fresheners: The commonest is Kuber. It is [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-07-04T10:33:00-07:00July, 2012|Oral Cancer News|

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 [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2012-06-04T20:47:24-07:00June, 2012|Oral Cancer News|