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Tobacco ban praised at conference 

After months of intense debate, the moment has arrived. Thursday, the start of the campus-wide tobacco ban, coinciding with the 34th Great American Smokeout, is finally here.

At a news conference Thursday, members of the Tobacco-Free Campus Task Force highlighted some of the implementation and treatment plans, while encouraging tobacco users to quit.

Thursday is a historical day for UK, said UK President Lee Todd, and the plan puts students, staff and faculty first.

Co-chair of the task force Ellen Hahn said between Nov. 11 and Nov. 17, 1,282 UK employees were anonymously surveyed, in which 26 percent said they would be more likely to quit using tobacco because of this policy. In the same survey, 76 percent said the policy would reduce secondhand smoke, and more than 50 percent said the policy would help them quit using, Hahn said.

From Sept. 10 through Nov. 13, 667 students were surveyed. Around 34 percent said the policy would reduce their tobacco use, and 27 percent said they would quit in the next 30 days at that time.

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NGO holds forum on Tobacco Control Bill  

Government would ensure that tobacco control is included in the country's developmental agenda to free Ghanaians from tobacco addiction, disabilities and death.

Already the Ministry of Health has taken steps to ban smoking in health facilities and prohibited tobacco advertisement through various administrative directives.

Dr Benjamin Kumbour, Minister of Health-designate announced this in an address read on his behalf at a public forum on Ghana's Tobacco Control Bill in Accra on Thursday.

It was organised by Vision for Alternative Development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in collaboration with Coalition of NGOs in Tobacco Control and Media Alliance in Tobacco Control.

It was aimed at offering the participants the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the passage of the Tobacco Control Bill when presented to Parliament.

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ClearWay Minnesota Board Approves $1.8 Million for Research Grants 

At its Board Meeting on Nov. 18, the Board of Directors of ClearWay Minnesota approved five grants for new research on topics ranging from cigarette replacement products to commercial tobacco use in Minnesota's American Indian communities. ClearWay Minnesota will award more than $1.8 million to Minnesota researchers through these grants.

"These new grant awards show our continuing commitment to the innovative research that shapes our work to reduce tobacco's harm," said David Willoughby, Chief Executive Officer at ClearWay Minnesota. "This significant investment in research will pay healthy dividends for Minnesotans well into the future."

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First-Time Father-to-Be Quits Smoking, Wins $5,000 in The QuitCash Challenge(TM) 

2009 has been a monumental year for Doug Dawson. Motivation of first-time fatherhood paired with "moneyvation," from QUITPLAN Services' QuitCash Challenge, helped the 31-year-old Columbia Heights man quit a 17-year smoking habit and win The Challenge. Nearly 2,000 Minnesotans, including Doug, attempted to quit tobacco use during October for a chance to win the $5,000 grand prize.

On Thursday, November 19, the day of the 34th annual Great American Smokeout, QUITPLAN Services will celebrate Doug's success in quitting smoking with a celebration event at the Mall of America in Bloomington. In addition to Doug's $5,000 grand prize, another contest participant will receive a $2,000 Mall of America gift card and two others will receive $1,000 Gander Mountain gift cards. . . .

"We were delighted to learn that Doug had used The QuitCash Challenge and QUITPLAN Services to help him and his family stay tobacco-free," said David Willoughby, Chief Executive Officer at ClearWay Minnesota(SM), the nonprofit organization that administers QUITPLAN Services. "We encourage Minnesota tobacco users looking to quit to use QUITPLAN Services any time of the year to achieve success."

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EDITORIAL: Punitively taxing smokers  

The average rise of only 15 percent in excise taxes the government will slap on tobacco products starting next year takes into consideration only fiscal revenues and the old facts that the cigarette industry is a major employer, a big source of tax receipts and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of farmers.

The tobacco excise tax policy completely ignores the urgent need for tobacco control to minimize health hazards inflicted by smokers on themselves and the people around them.

Little wonder cigarette prices here remain the lowest in Asia. . . .

The government should ally with anti-tobacco NGOs to launch a nationwide antismoking campaign to make people understand the full extent of the grave health hazards caused by smoking and to create a conducive public-opinion environment against smoking.

Tobacco control is not discriminative treatment of a legal industrial product but is all about health protection.

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EDITORIAL: Better weapons in war on smoking 

It should have been a relatively simple piece of legislation-ban smoking in public places. But the Tobacco Bill, which was passed in the Senate on Tuesday night, became embroiled in heated debate, largely because the Government included provisions which were excessively punitive or which would have transgressed on the privacy of citizens.

But the way this debate was framed highlights a wider problem in respect to government's approach to health policy-to wit, the assumption that punishment is more effective than persuasion when it comes to combating lifestyle diseases.

Additionally, there is a predilection for using scare tactics which are not based on sound data. For example, claims were made that most smokers start smoking between the ages of 13 to 15-in fact, this is only the age when an individual might try his first cigarette, but experimentation does not in most cases lead to habit.

The public was also told that Trinidad and Tobago has 21 per cent of the region's smokers but, since we also have 21 per cent of the Anglophone Caribbean's population, all this figure means is that our smoking rate is the same as that of the other islands. . . .

Instead, policy messages which portray smoking as 'uncool' or as a profitable ploy by 'big business' tend to be more effective. Taxes which raise cigarette prices are also a good measure for reducing teenage smoking.

If, therefore, the Government really wants to improve the health of the populace, these are the kinds of strategies they should be using.

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• Turkey to add visual health warnings to cigarette packages 

Turkey will add visual health warning messages to cigarette packages produced as of Jan. 1, 2010, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Sunday.

Chairman Mehmet Kucuk of the Turkish Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulation Board (TAPDK) told the agency that cigarette packages produced before Dec. 31, 2009 which only have written warning signs can be sold till June 30, 2010.

There will be no cigarette packages without visual warning messages in Turkey as of Jan. 1, 2011, Kucuk said.

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Editorial - Roll Your Own Tax Rate  

There are no records kept on how fast loopholes can be uncovered in new federal law, but the roll-your-own tobacco industry is making a breathtaking run for this year's shabby laurels. No sooner had President Obama signed the new children's health insurance law last spring than the industry pried open a lucrative escape from the 20-fold tax increase levied on roll-your-own cigarettes to help support the program. . . .

Obviously the new law is in urgent need of a no- nonsense amendment to bring roll-your-own under proper federal controls and full taxation. The companies plead they merely found a way to save their industry from taxes so prohibitive as to force them to close. That's not a bad idea, given the public health findings about lethal smoking. But the companies' gambit -- the pretense of marketing pipe tobacco -- is an outright deception.

Retailers are winking as they peddle pipe tobacco along with cigarette papers. This is not what President Obama and Congress had in mind in acting to bolster the health of young people. What's the record for shutting a loophole?

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Man U Football Rival Fans In UK Give Smoking The Red Card 

Chelsea fans may be currently celebrating being top of the Premier League, but there is room for improvement off the pitch as they struggle to kick the habit and give smoking the red card.

Today, as the latest standings in the Smokefree United League are announced, it's revealed that only 77 Blues fans have signed for Smokefree United to quit smoking - leaving them trailing behind their Man U rivals who top the table with 274, more than treble the number of Chelsea fans pledging to quit.

Smokefree United is a virtual club of quitters that provides coaching and support to help football fans and players to stop smoking, www.nhs.uk/smokefreeunited. Launched in October by the NHS and supported by the Premier League and football legends Ian Wright, Gianfranco Zola, John Barnes and Andy Townsend, more than 1,500 fans have already signed up. In addition to quitting advice and entry into competitions to win money can't buy prizes, footballers and fans that sign up boost their team's position in the Smokefree United League.

Other winners in the Smokefree United League are Liverpool, who despite lagging six places behind Chelsea in the Premier League, have raced ahead in the quitting stakes and come in second with 182 quitters. Arsenal are in third with 138 fans followed by Tottenham and Chelsea who with 84 and 77 fans respectively are battling it out for the fourth spot.

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Recent Decline in U.S. Smoking Prevalence Stalls  

The United States likely will fall well short of the Healthy People 2010 objective of reducing to less than 12 percent the prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults.

According to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, or MMWR, article released Nov. 13, the proportion of U.S. adults who were cigarette smokers declined from 24.1 percent in 1998 to 19.8 percent in 2007. However, the figure increased to 20.6 percent in 2008.

The CDC said in the MMWR article that none of the states are funding tobacco control programs at levels the agency has recommended. CDC officials said funding at recommended levels is needed to continue and improve tobacco control programs, especially to reach populations that have disproportionately high rates of smoking. . . .

The AAFP's tobacco cessation program, Ask and Act, encourages members to ask their patients about tobacco use and to then act to help them quit. Through the Ask and Act program, AAFP members have access to a variety of resources to help patients quit using tobacco,

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SUNY Cortland says no thanks to big tobacco 

Studies show 18 to 25-year olds have the highest rate of tobacco use at 18 percent nationwide, and it's the only group whose numbers are not going down. SUNY Cortland has partnered with the Onondaga County Health department to address the issue, and educators told Tamara Lindstrom that means saying no thanks to big tobacco. . . .

Concerns like these are driving SUNY Cortland to take a closer look at smoking policies.

"Our buildings are tobacco-free. Our entire campus is not tobacco free. So we want to look at the outdoors because secondhand smoke certainly is a concern," said health educator Catherine Smith.

That's just one of the initiatives included in the Colleges for Change program. The program aims to reduce smoking among students through education and tougher tobacco policies. About 14 percent of SUNY Cortland students smoke, lower than the national average. But educators want to see that number go down.

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Fewer Ohioans lighting up; funding woes cause future worry 

Confronted with a public smoking ban, higher sin taxes and more anti-smoking efforts, fewer Ohioans are lighting up.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 20.2 percent of Ohioans smoked in 2008, a 7.5 percent decline from 2001, when Ohio ranked fourth in the country for smokers. The CDC data goes back to 1998, when the smoking rate was 26.2.

Ohio now has the 17th-highest rate of smokers, according to the study. The CDC reports 21.5 percent of men in Ohio smoked and 19 percent of women.

But there are fears those numbers could rise again.

In 2008, the state cut funding for the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation, which funded community anti-smoking initiatives after the state received its share of a settlement with tobacco companies. The foundation began in 2000 with a $40 million budget.

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• Edinburgh University students stub out plan to ban cigarettes sales on campus 

STUDENTS at Edinburgh University have voted to keep cigarettes on sale on campus.

A motion was put before the annual general meeting of Edinburgh University Students Association which would have stopped EUSA shops from selling cigarettes and remove all cigarette machines on campus.

The motion, put forward by a fourth year medical student, argued that EUSA should not profit from, promote or help facilitate smoking. It would also have required the students association to promote services which provide support and advice to students who wished to give up smoking.

More than 700 students turned out for the AGM – the largest number for several years – filling the university's George Square lecture theatre and forcing organisers to set up a video link to another venue.

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Great American Smokeout '09: Time to Quit 

The less you smoke, the more birthdays you'll have, says the American Cancer Society as it encourages smokers to quit on Thursday, the day of the 34th Great American Smokeout.

Research shows that smokers who quit at age 35 gain an average of eight years of life expectancy, and those who quit at 55 gain about five years. Even long-time smokers who quit at age 65 gain three years.

Smokers who quit before age 50 cut their risk of death within the next 15 years in half compared to people who continue to smoke. In addition, a former smoker's lung cancer risk 10 years after quitting smoking is about half that of someone who still smokes, the society said.

There are immediate health benefits, too. Heart rate and blood pressure decrease 20 minutes after people have their last cigarette.

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Report claims fewer Ohioans are lighting up  

Confronted with a public smoking ban, higher sin taxes and more anti-smoking efforts, fewer Ohioans are lighting up.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports 20.2 percent of Ohioans smoked in 2008, a 7.5 percent decline from 2001, when Ohio ranked fourth in the country for smokers. The CDC data goes back to 1998, when the smoking rate was 26.2.

Ohio now has the 17th-highest rate of smokers, according to the study. The CDC reports that 21.5 percent of men in Ohio smoked and 19 percent of women.

But some fear those numbers could rise again.

In 2008, the state cut funding for the Ohio Tobacco Prevention Foundation, which funded community anti-smoking initiatives after the state received its share of a settlement with tobacco companies. The foundation began in 2000 with a $40 million budget.

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