Tobacco.org

• Bill may ban addictive tobacco products 

Kadima MK Yoel Hasson tabled a private member’s bill on Monday that, if passed, would be the world’s first law barring the sale of tobacco products containing addictive substances such as nicotine, or other substances, such as menthol and ammonia, that make nicotine more addictive, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

If tobacco were not addictive, the smoking rate would quickly decline (from the present 23 percent). People already addicted to nicotine who felt the need for it would be able to get it through other “delivery systems,” such as nicotine chewing gum, skin patches and other forms, but not through tobacco, the bill states.

Hasson’s bill is due to go to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation to get the go-ahead. The Health Ministry has reportedly not yet discussed the issue and whether to endorse it.

The idea of tobacco without addictive or addiction-promoting substances was first proposed in 2000 by Amos Hausner

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• New cessation therapy more like smoking  

U.S. researchers suggest delivering nicotine to the lungs may give smokers a good way to kick the habit.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., have been developing a method to deliver nicotine to the lungs that recreates some of the familiar sensations pleasurable to smokers.

"We wanted to replicate the experience of smoking without incurring the dangers associated with cigarettes, and we wanted to do so more effectively than the nicotine replacement therapies currently on the market," Jed Rose, director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, says in a statement.

So far the new nicotine vapor delivery system has been more effective at delivering nicotine to the blood stream and providing immediate relief of withdrawal symptoms. Users of the system also report less of the throat irritation experienced with other types of inhalers. . . .

Rose presented the findings at the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research meeting in Baltimore.

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The Electronic Cigarette Company Challenges the Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP Ban all Tobacco products on 21st June 2010? 

Will The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP Ban all Tobacco products on 21st June 2010?

The MHRA, the nation's Health regulators, have created for Mr Burnham a golden opportunity to ban ALL tobacco products in the UK for good on the 21st June. . . .

There is no Tobacco law that states a cigarette or cigar cannot be classed as a Nicotine Containing Product. It is, and it can. So why is smoking tobacco being favoured over less harmful nicotine products?

Jason Cropper, Managing Director of “The Electronic Cigarette Company” challenges the nation’s Health Minister and heath regulators to explain to the public why they want to ban Electronic Cigarettes that harm no-one, yet sanction and protect in the same policy document Killer Tobacco Cigarettes. . . .

Electronic Cigarettes aren't the enemy - real cigarettes are..

Andy Burnham: you should STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND GET A BACKBONE by throwing MLX364 in the bin and saving smokers from being given only one deadly way of getting their recreational nicotine."

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Kinetics of brain nicotine accumulation in dependent and nondependent smokers assessed with PET and cigarettes containing 11C-nicotine  

The results of the study, performed in 13 dependent smokers (DS) and 10 nondependent smokers (NDS), suggest that puff-associated spikes in the brain nicotine concentration do not occur during habitual cigarette smoking. Despite the presence of a puff-associated oscillation in the rate of nicotine accumulation, brain nicotine concentration gradually increases during cigarette smoking. The results further suggest that DS have a slower process of brain nicotine accumulation than NDS because they have slower nicotine washout from the lungs and that DS have a tendency to compensate for their slower rate of brain nicotine accumulation compared with NDS by inhaling a larger volume of smoke. For these reasons, smokers’ dependence on cigarette smoking, or the resistance of NDS to becoming dependent, cannot be explained solely by a faster brain nicotine accumulation.

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New Insight on How Fast Nicotine Peaks in the Brain 

Nicotine takes much longer than previously thought to reach peak levels in the brains of cigarette smokers, according to new research conducted at Duke University Medical Center.

Traditionally, scientists thought nicotine inhaled in a puff of cigarette smoke took a mere seven seconds to be taken up by the brain, and that each puff produced a spike of nicotine. Using PET imaging, Duke investigators illustrate, for the first time, that cigarette smokers actually experience a steady rise of brain nicotine levels during the course of smoking a whole cigarette.

The findings, scheduled to appear online in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of March 8, could lead to more effective treatments for smoking addiction.

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• Reportlinker Adds World Smoking-Cessation Drug Market 2010-2025 

Our new report - World Smoking-Cessation Drug Market 2010-2025 - forecasts how the anti-smoking drug market will develop over the next 15 years. We predict that the launch of new smoking-cessation aids early this decade will answer some unmet needs currently limiting that pharma market segment. Besides extensive coverage of currently-marketed drugs, this report examines the most exciting products currently in development. We also include external opinions on the sector, gained thorough original unique surveys.

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• Nabi closes license deal with GlaxoSmithKline 

Nabi Pharmaceuticals said Monday it closed an option and license agreement for the smoking vaccine candidate NicVAx with GlaxoSmithKline.

The deal is potentially worth more than $500 million, including a $40 million upfront payment to Nabi and future milestone and royalty payments.

Nabi shareholders voted in favor of the deal on Tuesday. The companies announced it in November.

Nabi is developing NicVAx, which is intended to train the immune system to make antibodies that will attach themselves to nicotine.

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• Puff, puff, puff, nicotine rises gradually 

Nicotine builds up gradually in smokers' brains rather than spiking after each puff, according to a study that might help point to new ways to help people quit smoking.

Dr. Jed E. Rose of Duke University reports in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that nicotine buildup in the brain was gradual over several minutes.

Scientists have theorized that there is a spike of nicotine in the brain about seven seconds after each puff, but almost no measurements had been taken until now, Rose said in a telephone interview.

"We were surprised to find that the rate of uptake was much different from what one commonly hears," said Rose, who directs the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, a part of the university's School of Medicine.

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Debate continues over e-cigarettes 

As the debate over the electronic cigarette continues , the device has found at least three true believers in Jackson County.

Mildred “Mikay” Barrentine, 30, along with Pat Manning, 37, and 45-year-old Linda Lockwood, the latter two of Altha, are enthusiastic about the e-cigarette. All three are long-time heavy smokers who have given up traditional cigarettes in favor of “vaping,” users’ common term for this alternative to smoking.

Although e-cigarettes are not marketed or proven in studies as a smoke cessation device, all three say it has worked for them.

They breathe better and cough less. They also food tastes better, and they can smell it better, too, because they are no longer using tobacco with tar and the hundreds of chemicals contained in regular cigarettes. . . .

As for the chemicals found in the FDA’s limited testing, the women say traditional cigarettes have those chemicals and a host more. E-cigarettes, they say, are infinitely safer than regular cigarettes, and should be left available for those who want a less dangerous puff.

All three said they’d most likely go back to regular cigarettes if e-cigarettes are pulled from the market.

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LETTER: BASHAM: Tobacco substitute  

Sir, President Obama's long-term failure to quit smoking ("Smoking gun shows Obama has failed to kick habit", Mar 2) is a timely reminder that, as smoking isn't going to vanish, the development of less hazardous products is an imperative. Yet, the Government appears to favour nicotine replacement products over cigarettes, with a preference heavily advocated by the pharmaceutical industry. Given how unattractive these are to smokers, as well as their high failure rate, it's not clear that promoting such alternatives is in either smokers' interests or the public interest. Further, the Government's bias against safer cigarettes may not serve the public's interest either.

There are still several million British adults who continue to smoke and it's to this group that harm-reduction products should be directed. Such reduction is, therefore, a legitimate extension of earlier initiatives to reduce the health burden of smoking.

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• Nicotine Tob Res -- Table of Contents (March 2010, 12 [3]) 

Effectiveness of Extended-Duration Transdermal Nicotine Therapy: A Randomized Trial  

Conclusion: Transdermal nicotine for 24 weeks increased biochemically confirmed point-prevalence abstinence and continuous abstinence at week 24, reduced the risk for smoking lapses, and increased the likelihood of recovery to abstinence after a lapse compared with 8 weeks of transdermal nicotine therapy.

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Smoking cessation: New nicotine lung delivery technology promising 

When compared to the nicotine vapor delivery system used in the Nicotrol/Nicorette inhaler, the new technology proved more effective at delivering nicotine to the blood stream. As a result, it provides immediate relief of withdrawal symptoms, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers. Users also reported the new nicotine delivery method was more tolerable than the current inhaler because it caused less throat irritation.

"We wanted to replicate the experience of smoking without incurring the dangers associated with cigarettes, and we wanted to do so more effectively than the nicotine replacement therapies currently on the market," said Jed Rose, Ph.D., director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research where the technology is being developed. He presented the data today at the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research (SRNT) in Baltimore, MD.

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• FDA Tobacco Panel Includes Members With Quit-Smoking Ties 

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday named at least two scientists with ties to pharmaceutical companies that market stop-smoking medicine to a scientific panel that will help it regulate the tobacco industry.

Jack Henningfield, a vice president of research and health policy with Pinney Associates, a consulting firm whose clients include GlaxoSmithKline PLC, will be part of a committee of 12 people that will provide advice, information and recommendations to the FDA on a wide range of tobacco issues. Mr. Henningfield will be one of nine voting members. The three nonvoting members, which will come from the tobacco industry, haven't been named.

At least one other member of the panel has had ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Neal L. Benowitz, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, has served as a consultant to GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer Inc. He also will be a voting member of the panel.

The selections raise questions about whether the members would have a conflict of interest on topics such as whether to approve a low-carcinogen smokeless tobacco product as a safer alternative to cigarettes. Such products compete for smokers' dollars against smoking-cessation aids such as the Nicorette gum marketed in the U.S. by GlaxoSmithKline. . . .

Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds American Inc., the second-largest cigarette maker in the U.S., said it looks forward to working with the new panel "to help set a scientifically based regulatory structure for the tobacco industry."

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Dispatch: PLoS and NYT vs. Money; FDA vs. Flavor; Hype(r)tension