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• Los Angeles DUI Attorney: Smoking Raises Breathalyzer Results 

Los Angeles DUI attorney Lawrence Taylor, author of the legal textbook Drunk Driving Defense, claims that smokers arrested for DUI may have false high results from breathalyzer tests.

Breath machines don't actually measure alcohol, Taylor says. They are actually designed to detect any compound containing the methyl group in its molecular structure and to assume that it is alcohol. They cannot distinguish the difference between alcohol and, among many other compounds, acetaldehyde.

Acetaldehyde is produced in the liver in small amounts as a by-product in the metabolism of alcohol. Unfortunately, the DUI lawyer says, alcohol moving from the blood into the lungs has been found to metabolize there as well. And scientists have found that acetaldehyde concentrations in the lungs of smokers are greater than for non-smokers - far greater. Translated: smokers arrested for DUI are more likely to have falsely high readings on a breathalyzer. "Origin of Breath Acetaldehyde During Ethanol Oxidation: Effect of Long-Term Cigarette Smoking", 100 Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine 908.

The Los Angeles DUI lawyer points to another scientific study that found cigarette smoking can influence absorption by the body of alcohol -- and thus attempts to estimate earlier blood alcohol levels when driving based upon levels when tested. Johnson et al., "Cigarette Smoking and Rate of Gastric Emptying: Effect on Alcohol Absorption", 302 British Medical Journal 20. . . .

With a national reputation and the highest professional ratings, The Law Offices of Lawrence Taylor has specialized in DUI defense exclusively for 29 years.

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• Second Breast Cancer: 3 Lifestyle Risks 

The study, published in the advance online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, focused on women with estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer. Most breast cancers are ER-positive, which means the tumors grow when exposed to the hormone estrogen.

Data came from more than 1,000 Seattle-area breast cancer patients, including 365 women who developed a second breast cancer in their opposite breast.

The women were interviewed about their smoking and drinking; their BMI (body mass index) was noted in their medical records.

The odds of developing a second breast cancer in the opposite breast were greater for obese women, for women who drank at least seven alcoholic beverages per week, and current smokers.

"We found that obese women had a 50% increased risk, women who consumed at least one alcoholic drink per day had a 90% increased risk, and women who were current smokers had a 120% increased risk of developing a second breast cancer," researcher Christopher Li, MD, PhD, says in a news release.

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• Address smoking, drinking as one health risk  

A new study conducted by Temple researchers has shown that children who engage in heavy drinking will more than likely also engage in heavy smoking, suggesting that health teachers can help combat the trend by addressing both topics as one health risk.

"These are important findings because they emphasize the need for education and intervention programs that target the co-occurrence of these two health risks," said Brian Daly, assistant professor of public health in the College of Health Professions and Social Work.

The researchers determined rates of smoking and binge drinking through the collection of anonymous survey data from 2,450 African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian students in grades 9-12 at Philadelphia public high schools.

They compiled the students’ responses from the 2007 Philadelphia Youth Behavioral Risk Survey (YRBS).

In their study report, they have revealed that the students were asked how many cigarettes they''d had per day over 30 days, and how many days over a 30 day period they''d had 5 or more drinks in a row. . . .

It was found that while Caucasian adolescents were more likely than African-Americans to engage in either binge drinking or smoking, both groups were equally likely to engage in both at the same time.

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• 1 in 25 deaths worldwide linked to alcohol consumption, study finds 

One in every 25 deaths worldwide can be linked to diseases or injuries related to alcohol consumption, concludes a Canadian-led study, which equates the libation's burden of harm to that of smoking almost a decade ago.

In 2004, the most recent year for which global statistics are available, 3.8 per cent of all deaths were attributable to alcohol (6.3 per cent for men and 1.8 per cent for women), the study found.

Most of the deaths blamed on booze result from injuries, cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver disorders like cirrhosis and violence, say the authors, whose study is one in a series of papers on the global impact of alcohol published in The Lancet this week. . . .

"Worldwide, more people abstain than drink," principal researcher Jurgen Rehm, a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, said Thursday. . . .

Rehm said the global burden of disease from drinking is about the same size as that of smoking in 2000 (tobacco use rates have been steadily dropping in some countries due to public health measures), but is sure to get worse as more people add wine, beer and spirits to their list of libations. "The big message is treat alcohol like tobacco," not as a substance that is relatively benign except for "those bad alcoholics," he said. "That is not true, neither for Canada nor globally."

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• Binge Drinking Increases Risk Of Lung Cancer In Smokers 

The risk of lung cancer increases for those smokers who have a tendency to binge drinking. This was found by the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD), conducted at the University of Kuopio in Finland.

The KIHD study has followed up a cohort of men from eastern Finland for about 17 years. Binge drinking was found be associated with an increased risk of lung cancer among those who had smoked between 1 and 30 years regardless of how many cigarrettes a day they smoked. Meanwhile, binge drinking was not associated with any increased risk of lung cancer among non-smokers.

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• Smoking ban, crisis hit French beer consumption  

The French, already more wine lovers than beer drinkers, cut consumption of ale by 5 percent last year due mainly to a smoking ban in public places and economic gloom, brewers said on Wednesday.

That follows a drop of 3.3 percent in 2007 when France prohibited smoking in restaurants, bars and pubs.

"We are in a severely falling market and this trend is strengthening," said Gerard Laloi, head of a group gathering some 70 breweries which make 99 percent of the French output. The French drank 18.6 million hectoliters of beer in 2008, which puts them in the next-to-last seat in the European Union with an average of 30 liters per year, far behind the Czechs with 160 liters or the English with 110 liters. . . .

ne and wine (OIV).

France's beer habits are also changing, Laloi said.

Consumers are increasingly choosing specialized beers -- Abbaye , amber or white -- or high quality beers.

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• Alcohol, cigarettes cause bowel cancer  

A new global study has shown that people who consume large quantities of alcohol (seven drinks per week) have a 60 per cent greater risk of developing the cancer, compared to others.

Rachel Huxley, professor at The George Institute, who led the study, said the most startling finding was "the strong, and largely, unknown association between high intakes of alcoholic beverages with risk of colorectal (bowel) cancer."

"Most people probably know that being overweight and having poor dietary habits are risk factors for the disease, but most are probably unaware that other lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and diabetes are also important culprits," she added.

Smoking, obesity and diabetes were also associated with a 20 per cent greater risk of developing bowel cancer - the same risk linked with consuming high intake of red and processed meat.

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• Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State and Local Budgets 

NEW CASA REPORT FINDS FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS SPEND ALMOST HALF A TRILLION DOLLARS A YEAR ON SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ADDICTION OF EVERY FEDERAL AND STATE DOLLAR SPENT, 96 CENTS GOES TO SHOVEL UP WRECKAGE OF ILLNESS, CRIME, SOCIAL ILLS; ONLY 2 CENTS GOES TO PREVENTION AND TREATMENT . . .

Substance abuse and addiction cost federal, state and local governments at least $467.7 billion in 2005, according to Shoveling Up II: The Impact of Substance Abuse on Federal, State and Local Budgets, a new 287-page report released today by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

The CASA report found that of $373.9 billion in federal and state spending, 95.6 percent ($357.4 billion) went to shovel up the consequences and human wreckage of substance abuse and addiction; only 1.9 percent went to prevention and treatment, 0.4 percent to research, 1.4 percent to taxation and regulation, and 0.7 percent to interdiction.

The report, based on three years of research and analysis, is the first ever to assess the costs of tobacco, alcohol and illegal and prescription drug abuse to all levels of government. Using the most conservative assumptions, the study concluded that the federal government spent $238.2 billion; states, $135.8 billion; and local governments, $93.8 billion, in 2005

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• Drug Abuse-Related Government Spending Hit $468 Billion, Report Says 

Government spending related to smoking and the abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs reached $468 billion in 2005, accounting for more than one-tenth of combined federal, state and local expenditures for all purposes, according to a new study.

Most abuse-related spending went toward direct health care costs for lung disease, cirrhosis and overdoses, for example, or for law enforcement expenses including incarceration, according to the report released Thursday by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse . . .

The study is the first to calculate abuse-related spending by all three levels of government.

"This is such a stunning misallocation of resources," said Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman of the center, referring to the lack of preventive measures. "It's a commentary on the stigma attached to addictions and the failure of governments to make investments in the short run that would pay enormous dividends to taxpayers over time."

Beyond resulting in poor health and crime, addictions and substance abuse -- especially alcohol -- are major underlying factors in other costly social problems like homelessness, domestic violence and child abuse. . . .

The new report cites the antismoking campaigns of the last several decades as a promising model: education, higher taxes and restrictions on smoking zones have cut the incidence of smoking by close to half, saving billions in costs. It called for similar efforts to curb under-age drinking and excess alcohol consumption by adults, using higher taxes on beer, for example.

Even with tobacco, far more could be done, according to the report, which noted that only a small fraction of the more than $200 billion the states have received since 1998 under the Multi-State Tobacco Settlement had gone to prevention of smoking.

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• Smoking Interferes With Recovery From Alcohol-related Brain Damage 

Alcohol-use disorders (AUDs) can damage the brain, particularly the frontal and parietal cortices, although this damage is at least partially reversible with sustained abstinence from alcohol. Chronic smoking is extremely common among individuals with AUDs. A new study has used longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain blood flow to show that smoking makes it harder for brain blood flow to recover from long-term heavy drinking. "The brain's frontal lobes are involved in higher-order cognitive function, such as learning, short-term memory, reasoning, planning, problem solving, and emotional control," explained Anderson Mon, senior research fellow in the department of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco and corresponding author for the study. "The parietal lobes are involved in aspects of attentional regulation and visuospatial processing. Chronic and excessive drinking is associated with neurobiological abnormalities in these regions, which contribute to the cognitive dysfunction frequently observed in those with AUDs after detoxification."

Cerebral perfusion is a measure of the amount of blood flow to brain tissue per unit time. . . .

Mon added that these findings are consistent with their earlier neuroimaging studies which found chronic smoking in ALC patients was associated with significantly diminished recovery of markers of neuronal, or nerve cell, and cell membrane integrity in multiple brain regions over the same period as this present study.

"These results suggest that patients who want to stop drinking should be offered an option to stop smoking," said Graeme Mason, associate professor of diagnostic radiology and psychiatry at Yale University. "However, any combined cessation has to be designed carefully."

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• Smoking, alcohol complicate PTSD treatment 

Reaching for a cigarette to cope with a flashback is all too common among sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder. The nicotine hit may feel good, but scientists say its brain action probably makes their PTSD worse in the long run.

Here's the rub: At least half of PTSD sufferers smoke, and others wind up dependent on alcohol, anti-anxiety pills and sometimes even illegal drugs. Yet too few clinics treat both PTSD and addictions at the same time, despite evidence they should.

Now studies are recruiting PTSD patients - from New England drug-treatment centers to veterans clinics in North Carolina and Washington - to determine what combination care works.

"It's kind of a clinical myth that you can only do one at a time or should only do one at a time," says Duke University PTSD specialist Dr. Jean Beckham, a psychologist at the Durham, N.C., Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Her research on how to break the nicotine-and-PTSD cycle raises a provocative question for a tobacco-prone military: Are people at higher risk of developing PTSD if they smoke before they experience the violent event or episode?

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• THOMAS A. BRIANT: Lay off smokes, hit beer instead 

New Jersey's experience with a $2.57-per-pack cigarette tax should be a reality check for all Wisconsin legislators.

Based on the New Jersey outcome, Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to raise the state cigarette tax by an additional 75 cents to $2.52 per pack -- plus enact higher tax rates on other tobacco products -- means Wisconsin will collect less in excise tax revenue than before the increase. Wisconsin just increased its cigarette tax $1 per pack last year.

It's time for state lawmakers to stop increasing taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products and instead raise taxes on beer, wine and liquor. . . .

-- Briant, Eden Prairie, Minn., is executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets.

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• One Drug May Help People Both Lay Down The Drink And Put Out The Cigarette 

A popular smoking cessation drug dramatically reduced the amount a heavy drinker will consume, a new Yale School of Medicine study has found. Heavy-drinking smokers in a laboratory setting were much less likely to drink after taking the drug varenicline compared to those taking a placebo, according to a study published online in the journal Biological Psychiatry.

The group taking varenicline, sold as a stop-smoking aid under the name Chantix, reported feeling fewer cravings for alcohol and less intoxicated when they did drink. They were also much more likely to remain abstinent after being offered drinks than those who received a placebo, the study found.

Additionally, there were no adverse effects associated with combining varenicline with alcohol in the doses studied. When combined with low doses of alcohol, varenicline did not change blood pressure or heart rate, nor did it seem to induce nausea or dizziness.

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• Drinking, smoking making Delhi school children obese 

A study conducted by the National Institute for Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) has revealed that school children in Delhi are becoming increasingly prone to obesity and hypertension due to regularly smoking and consuming alcohol.

The study was conducted on more than 15,000 children, in the age group of 5-18 years, studying in various schools of Delhi. The analysis of different studies on health of the children in the last three years formed the basis of the study.

The study revealed that about 30 percent of the boys and 26 percent girls regularly consume alcohol. More than 60 percent of these children were found to be suffering from obesity and hypertension.

The children contributed the habit of regularly drinking to 'easy availability', 'peer pressure' and 'watching elders drinking at home'. . . .

1.5 percent of these children were found to be regularly consuming alcohol, 10.2 percent consumed betel leaf and 1.9 percent consumed tobacco regularly.

The consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other addictive substances amongst school children continues to occupy a premier position among health concerns of the Education Department.

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• Struggling With Alcohol? Better Quit Smoking, Too  

Overcoming alcoholism is tough enough. That's one reason many alcoholics who smoke continue to light up even while they're in recovery from alcohol dependency.

But new research suggests that tackling both addictions simultaneously may offer the best chance of success.

Recovering alcoholics often admit they're using nicotine as a drug, said Dr. Michael M. Miller, president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

"They can tell you, 'I don't want to quit [smoking], because it changes the way I feel. I use it to deal with stress,' " added Miller, who's also director of NewStart, a chemical dependency rehabilitation program at Meriter Hospital in Madison, Wis.

A study of alcoholics in treatment for their alcohol problems used brain scans to examine how performance on cognitive tests changes with abstinence from alcohol. Twenty-five alcoholics stopped drinking for six to nine months, but the 12 who smoked continued to smoke.

"We found that the smoking alcoholics over six to nine months of abstinence did not recover certain types of brain function as the non-smoking alcoholics did," said study author Dieter J. Meyerhoff, a professor of radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Decision-making skills, thinking speed, 3-D visualization and short-term memory were affected, calling into question the prospects of long-term sobriety, he noted.

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