Tobacco.org

Are Smokers Now at Higher Risk of Bladder Cancer? Are Changes in Cigarettes To Blame? ($$) 

sed on a comparison of two very large cohorts, suggested just the opposite: Far from making the cigarettes safer, the design changes might have made them even more dangerous.

A debate over the consequences of the cigarette changes has continued . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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OfficialWire: Government Approved Lab Finds E Cigarettes Are Much Safer Than Tobacco Cigarettes 

LPD Services, a U.K. based lab that is fully accredited has submitted the results of its findings on the Gamucci line of e-cigarettes. As most have suspected, the lab indicated that the electronic cigarette is much safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

There have been several reports from highly credible labs around the world on the e cigarette. One from South Africa, New Zealand, the U.K. and several others that are high profile in nature and performed by stout anti-smoking advocates that believe in harm reduction. All of these labs came back with the same result: the e cigarette is many times safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

There seems to be an air of change on the horizon concerning the e cigarette with strong lab results supporting claims of a smarter and safer choice over the tobacco cigarette. Top anti-smoking advocates like Dr Murray Laugesen, who has been the recipient of top awards from the World Health Organization in his fight against the harm of tobacco, supports the e cigarette.

Professor Michael Siegel is a doctor also and another strong advocate for harm reduction

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ASH in UK Comes Clean on Electronic Cigarette Health Debate 

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) In their October briefing, ASH in the United Kingdom has released a favorable position on electronic cigarettes which is nearly 180 degrees to the position ASH in the United States has taken.

ASH's UK Position on E-cigarettes

"ASH supports a harm reduction approach to tobacco, that is, we recognize that whilst efforts to help people stop smoking should remain a priority, many people either do not wish to stop smoking or find it very hard to do so. For this group, we believe that products should be made available that deliver nicotine in a safe way, without the harmful components found in tobacco. Most of the diseases associated with smoking are caused by inhaling smoke which contains thousands of toxic chemicals. By contrast, nicotine is relatively safe. Therefore, e-cigarettes, which deliver nicotine without the harmful toxins found in tobacco smoke, are likely to be a safer alternative to smoking. In addition, e-cigarettes reduce secondhand smoke exposure since they do not produce smoke."

Kyle Newton of eCigarettesChoice.com is elated at the release. "This is the second piece of good news for the E cigarette industry this week. The first was Governor Schwarzenegger's refusal to ban E cigarettes in California. It is a David vs. Goliath battle for us against organizations that are well-funded by companies who stand to lose a huge market share to the E cigarette."

On the other side of the big pond, ASH, USA has hammered the electronic cigarette industry unmercifully in its public claims against the product. But throughout this entire finger pointing, they have failed to produce any scientific research which tested the electronic cigarette and could trump the positive data "real" tobacco researchers have published.

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Are Smokers Now at Higher Risk of Bladder Cancer? Are Changes in Cigarettes To Blame? ($$) 

Researchers were caught off guard in 1989, when the Surgeon General's report showed that the risk of lung cancer among smokers had increased substantially between the 1960s and the 1980s. Tobacco companies had been changing the design of cigarettes since the 1950s, first by adding a filter and then by reducing tar and nicotine, and the assumption had been that the changes would make cigarettes safer. The Surgeon General's report, which was based on a comparison of two very large cohorts, suggested just the opposite: Far from making the cigarettes safer, the design changes might have made them even more dangerous.

A debate over the consequences of the cigarette changes has continued . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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As Smoking Rates Rise, Electronic Cigarettes Offer Viable Alternative to Harmful Combustible Tobacco 

The Electronic Cigarette Association (ECA) today urged decision-makers to seek alternatives to combustible tobacco that reduce Americans' exposure to the multitude of harmful chemicals and toxins found in cigarettes. His remarks came in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released last week showing that smoking rates among U.S. adults have risen for the first time since 1994.

"We applaud the valiant campaigns designed to encourage people to quit smoking and urge that federal, state, and local governments continue to warn people about this unhealthy and deadly habit," said ECA President Matt Salmon. "However, we also believe, given the CDC data, that harm-reduction strategies are desperately needed to reduce smokers' exposure to the thousands of harmful chemicals and toxins that are delivered through combustible cigarettes."

Salmon said that electronic cigarettes, battery-operated products that deliver an inhalable nicotine vapor

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• Physicians Urge FDA to Justify Condemnation of E-Cigarettes 

"We urge FDA to make public the laboratory data behind the July 22 condemnation of electronic cigarettes, along with comparable data on pharmaceutical nicotine products and conventional cigarettes. Then, on the basis of these data, either fully justify or retract the July 22 condemnation of electronic cigarettes," says Joel L. Nitzkin, Chair of the American Association of Public Health Physicians Tobacco Control Task Force in a letter to the FDA.

The letter specifically targets the new tobacco legislation that passed through Congress this summer which gives the FDA power to regulate tobacco products in the United States and notes that the success rate of current smokers who attempt to quit by using pharmaceutical aids is as low as 5%. Making smokers more aware of less harmful alternatives, snus and e-cigarettes included, could significantly reduce the amount of smokers who die due to tobacco-related illnesses.

"Contrary to prevailing conventional wisdom, virtually all the heart and lung disease from conventional cigarettes, and an estimated 98% of the cancer mortality, are due to direct inhalation of fresh products of combustion deep into the lung. Our best estimate (based on the work of Pankow et al and others) is that only about 2% of the cancer mortality from cigarettes is from the named carcinogens commonly found in tobacco products," says the letter. The FDA's study in July found miniscule amounts of carcinogens in a few e-cigarette cartridges, but failed to provide any data on the amount of those same carcinogens in pharmaceutical nicotine products.

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Thais battle ties to tobacco industry  

A “smoking gun” used to mean some kind of lurking, underlying proof behind an evil deed. Oddly, now it has come to show how much influence the tobacco industry has over government, mainstream media, the entertainment industry and individual economies, when a simple novel about the evils of smoking is turned into one about gun control.

If the tobacco industry is powerful enough to impose its will on Hollywood, it certainly won’t have much trouble in Thailand. It is trying to do just that through a gathering of industry players, including its “thought leaders,” at a three-day forum in Bangkok called Tabinfo Asia 2009, which runs from Nov. 11-13. It boasts the biggest tobacco exhibition in Asia and business and networking opportunities for regional players.

Despite the industry’s influence, however, a coalition of protesters gathered to confront it at the Impact Exhibition and Conference Center where the forum is being held. One of the protest leaders, Prakit Vathesatogkit, executive secretary of Action on Smoking and Health Foundation (ASH Thailand), said at Wednesday’s protest, "Tabinfo Asia 2009 is a signal for the international community to understand that the tobacco industry will not stop brainstorming new strategies to lure new smokers, particularly youths and women."

Almost as if to underscore Prakit’s words, Tabinfo posted four main issues to be discussed by the tobacco industry’s “thought-leaders” in a global environment of changing regulations and negative public perceptions. The last of the four – which should have appeared first, if only for diplomatic purposes – was “harm and risk reduction.” . . .

The fact that the state’s Thailand Tobacco Monopoly is heading up the three-day conference/exhibition/game plan meeting is not a good sign. Local influence and vested commercial interests with Thai tobacco are rife. As far back as 1950, the Thai government’s Excise Department bought 256 acres of land from the Crown Property bureau to increase tobacco production for domestic and export use. Four years later responsibility for the industry was transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

Given such grassroots beginnings and ties, it’s an uphill battle for anti-smoking advocates

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Star Scientific, Inc. Reports NASDAQ Notification Regarding Minimum Bid Price, Files Third Quarter Report with SEC  

Star Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq: STSI) reported today that on November 5, 2009 it received a deficiency letter from NASDAQ staff indicating that the company is not in compliance with the NASDAQ minimum bid rule. The letter noted that for the previous thirty consecutive trading days the company's minimum closing bid price per share had been below the $1.00 minimum bid price requirement set forth in NASDAQ Rule 5450(a)(1). In accordance with Marketplace Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), Star has 180 days, or until May 4, 2010, to regain compliance. In its notice NASDAQ indicated that if at any time during this period the minimum closing bid price is $1.00 or more per share for at least ten consecutive trading days, NASDAQ will provide confirmation that the company has regained compliance and the matter will be closed. The deficiency letter has no effect on the current listing or trading of Star Scientific shares.

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Electronic Cigarettes Do What Tobacco Companies Have Refused To Do For The Past 38 Years 

At the time it was believed that the tobacco companies did not want to market the improvements and make cigarettes safer as it would force them to acknowledge that normal cigarettes are unsafe. This was a time when there were a lot of legal cases from cancer sufferers who were blaming the tobacco companies for their bad health and it would prove very difficult to fight against them.

The patents which date back to 1971 range from reducing tar through removing carbon monoxide and polonium (A radioactive compound used to assassinate an ex KGB agent a few years ago in London).

It is widely believed that if the Tobacco companies had acted responsibly over the past 38 years of these patents then we would all be living in a society where Electronic Cigarettes may not even be needed but instead they protected their income and left users to die.

"I honestly find it shocking that the research and development has been available to some of the biggest financial budgets in the world and they refused to act on them purely out of self protection of their cigarette sales."

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Star Scientific plans to introduce a new product 

Star Scientific Inc. plans to introduce a nutraceutical in 2010 that would help adult smokers maintain a nicotine-free metabolism.

The Petersburg-based company announced today that CigRx, developed by its subsidiary Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals, will be marketed and sold in partnership with inVentiv Health, Inc. . . .

The product, a dietary supplement, does not contain nicotine. It would be taken orally like a throat lozenge, dissolved and swallowed, according to Sara Machir, Star's vice president of communications and investor relations. CigRX would be directed at people who are trying to quit or who already are abstaining from smoking, she said.

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Star Scientific Plans Worldwide Marketing and Sales of CigRx(TM) Nutraceutical 

Star Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq: STSI) announced today that the company plans to introduce the CigRx(TM) nutraceutical product developed by its subsidiary, Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals, for worldwide marketing and sales in partnership with inVentiv Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: VTIV). inVentiv Health offers a complete range of commercialization solutions for every stage of the product lifecycle, in a range of healthcare categories that includes nutraceutical products. The company has marketing and sales capabilities in 40 countries around the globe. Jonnie R. Williams, Star's CEO, stated, "Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the world. However, the global cigarette business, which now exceeds $300 billion, continues to grow. Our goal is to make CigRx(TM) available to adult smokers worldwide who wish to maintain a nicotine-free metabolism." Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals will be responsible for the manufacturing of CigRx(TM), and the company anticipates that inVentiv Health will be involved in the product marketing and sales, with a focus on product education for physicians and health care professionals, as well as consumers.

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Wellstone Filter Sciences, Inc. Assigned New Trading Symbol  

Wellstone Filters Sciences, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: WFSN), the leading modified risk cigarette filter company, is pleased to announce that it has changed its trading symbol to WFSN.OB due to a name change from Wellstone Filters, Inc. to Wellstone Filter Sciences, Inc.

Wellstone changed its name to more accurately reflect the company's focus on Reduced Exposure Products (REPs). REPs are referred to in the recently enacted Family Tobacco Act of 2009 as Modified Risk Tobacco Products.

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The truth about electronic cigarettes  

The country that gave us killer dog food, corrosive drywall, lead-based toys, and poisonous toothpaste. Now has a new surprise for you. It's a mystery chemical...completely unregulated. You buy it, vaporize it, and suck it into your lungs.

And it's right here in Tucson where some fear your kids could get hold of it. Nine on your side investigator Dan Spindle takes a look.

Smokers, lighting up in the middle of the Foothills Mall, it raises more than a few eyebrows...... But what looks like smoke, is actually a vapor ... Like the kind you might see coming out of a fog machine.

This vapor is from the latest electronic cigarette to hit the market which has the green light to be sold at malls all over Arizona. These e-cigarettes save smokers the smell and high prices of traditional smokes.

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MOHEN: Renewing an old addiction 

Envision five years from now teachers telling students not to vaporize tobacco.

However unlikely this scenario may seem now, vaporized cigarettes will become a well-known and warned-against product in the near future. . . .

Hardly any tests or evidence have been conducted on the smokeless cigarettes, establishing a strong caution amongst health officials of the product, but no regulation from the FDA.

With its increasing popularity, the FDA holds a responsibility to the American people to conduct greater research into the E-Cigarette and the true effects it has on users.

Strict regulations must be imposed on the device to prevent its trendy appeal from influencing the young and old alike who do not need to become hooked on such an equally, if not more, addictive version of the common cigarette.

According to a representative from ECigarettesChoice.com, Electronic Cigarettes are unavailable to minors across the country as they contain nicotine.

However, this does not mean kids and teens are unable to get their hands on the tobacco gadget.

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• New Study Reveals Quitting Smoking is Good but Switching to Low-risk Nicotine Products is Usually Better 

Prof. Carl V. Phillips, just published in Harm Reduction Journal, shows that for most smokers, immediately switching to a low-risk alternative will lower their risk of dying from their habit more than quitting eventually, even if they use the smoke-free product for the rest of their lives. . . .

Professor Phillips is an epidemiologist and health policy researcher, journal editor, popular educator, and consultant. He and his work group are leading advocates of tobacco harm reduction, and he advises and works with many other organizations who are trying to promote it, some of which are companies that hope to profit from selling low-risk nicotine products. The www.TobaccoHarmReduction.org research group at the University of Alberta School of Public Health is partially supported by an unrestricted (completely hands-off) grant from U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company. No funder, company, or other organization played any role in initiating, designing, or conducting this research.

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