Tobacco.org

• Nonsmokers Top Smokers in Well-Being Across All Incomes 

Smokers trail nonsmokers in well-being, regardless of income bracket, according to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data collected in 2008 and 2009. In every income group, smokers are less likely than nonsmokers to be "thriving" by at least 12 percentage points. . . .

In the case of emotional health, the connection between smoking and low well-being is especially pronounced for low-income respondents. While the emotional health gap between smokers and nonsmokers is 4 points for the highest income group, the gap for the lowest income group is 10 points.

The differences in the size of the smoking gap across income groups could mean that the emotional consequences of smoking are less pronounced for people in the higher income group. Another possibility is that people in different income groups smoke for different emotional reasons. . . .

Self-reported smoking status is, in fact, strongly linked to depression. . . .

Across all income groups, smokers also fare worse than nonsmokers in physical health as reflected in lower scores on the Physical Health Index. Consistent with medical research connecting smoking to premature mortality, people who are 85 years old or older are unlikely to be smokers.

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• Immigrants likelier to support smoking bans 

SMOKE-FREE ALLIES: The strongest American advocates for smoking bans in public venues are the newest Americans, one study said.

Immigrants and their children were most likely to approve of smoke-free spaces, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Census' Current Population Survey from 1995-2002.

Over those years, 75.7 percent of foreign-born U.S. residents supported a smoking ban in at least four different types of public space, while 59.1 percent of U.S.-born Americans with U.S.-born parents did so. Of the total population, 61.6 percent said they would support a ban in at least four of the six public venues listed, which included bars, restaurants, offices, hospitals, and indoors sports venues and shopping malls.

Americans overall have become increasingly likely to support smoking bans in public places.

"It is surprising that most of the immigrants had stronger attitudes,"

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• New Survey Finds One in Three Sports Fans Smoke, Five Out of Six Smoke While 

A new survey conducted by the American Legacy Foundation(R) (Legacy) finds that the majority (63 percent) of sports fans surveyed are current or former smokers and 76 percent of them have smoked while watching or attending sporting events. The study examines whether sports fans were exposed to secondhand smoke while watching sports; smoked while watching sports at certain venues; or whether those who quit smoking relapsed while watching a game. The survey also examined whether watching sports was a trigger for fans who smoke.

The survey also indicated that 60 percent of sports fans have been exposed to secondhand smoke in the past year while watching or attending sporting events and that 36 percent of sports fans who smoke or used to smoke are extremely or very tempted to smoke while viewing sporting events in their own homes. When the score of the game is close, nearly one third are extremely or very tempted to light up.

Starting this week and through the winter, many smokers will be exposed to new quit smoking messages through the EX(R) national smoking cessation campaign. Legacy, along with the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation (NATC), announced today that the next round of new ads in its two-year old EX campaign are now being featured during FOX Sports' broadcast of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series (ALCS) and World Series.

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• Electronic Cigarettes Find Fans, but Most Want Regulation  

A strong majority of Americans want to see electronic cigarettes regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (59%), but nearly half (47%) say the smokeless devices should be an option available to people trying to quit smoking, similar to patches, gum and lozenges currently on the market, and that number increases to 57% among those who have heard about ecigarettes prior to taking the poll.

The Zogby Interactive poll of 4,611adults was conducted August 28-31 and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.5 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub groups.

In the hunt for a safer cigarette, electronic cigarettes, often referred to as ecigarettes, are becoming a popular option among those either trying to quit or who are looking to replace standard tobacco smokes with an alternative that manufacturers claim to be safer. Ecigarettes vaporize a solution often containing nicotine, but there is no smoke, just odorless water vapor, and produce almost no dangerous carcinogens.

Almost half of all respondents (48%) say they have heard of electronic cigarettes. About a third of those polled (35%) say that because electronic cigarettes produce no smoke, they should be allowed in places where smoking is currently prohibited, while about half (46%) say they should not.

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• Happy to Let the Feds Harass Big Tobacco 

NEW YORK With the feds taking fresh aim at tobacco marketing, the industry may hope for a public backlash against such governmental intrusion. But an AdweekMedia/Harris Poll, fielded in July, indicates such hope would be in vain.

Asked what the federal government should do about tobacco advertising, a plurality of respondents (31 percent) said it should ban such ads altogether. Another 14 percent said tobacco advertising should be regulated more strictly. Twenty-seven percent said they were satisfied with the current level of regulation, and 11 percent said tobacco advertising shouldn't be regulated at all. (The rest were unsure.)

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• Big Drop since Last Year in Reputation of Car Manufacturers, Investment and Brokerage Firms, and Banks (PDF) 

The most unpopular industries, using this measure, are tobacco, oil, managed care, and health insurance. These are the only industries on the list used in the survey where more than half of all adults believe they are doing a bad job: tobacco companies (63% doing a bad job), oil companies (60%), health insurance (58%) and managed care (54%). . . .

Tobacco (while still at the bottom of the list), life insurance, and computer hardware companies have also improved. . . .

tobacco companies are up 11 points, from minus 43 to minus 32. . . .

Why tobacco companies should have gained is more difficult to explain. Maybe they just haven’t been in the news much – and for them no news is almost always good news.

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• Britons divided on smoking issue  

While 93% agreed lighting up should not be allowed in restaurants, a smaller proportion of 75% believed it was right for cigarettes to be illegal in pubs.

Smoke-free legislation was enforced across the UK by July 2007.

A survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics since the ban showed the majority supported no smoking in the workplace (85%), indoor sports centres (94%), indoor shopping centres (91%) and railway and bus stations (85%).

Meanwhile, the proportion of smokers who said they would like to give up dropped to 67% in 2008-09 from 74% in 2007, although this was not significantly different to previous years, according to the ONS.

Half of smokers intended to quit within the next year, the study found.

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• Majority Favors Ban on Tobacco Ads 

Whatever qualms they may have about Big Government, people in business are more strongly averse to Big Tobacco. So we can infer, at any rate, from the results of a poll conducted for AdweekMedia among members of LinkedIn.

Participants were asked whether, when it comes to marketing tobacco, the government should ban advertising altogether, regulate it more strictly or leave the rules as is. A majority, 56 percent, said they'd favor an outright ban on tobacco advertising -- a step Congress has shown little if any sign of daring to take. Nineteen percent said they'd like the government to regulate it more strictly, while 23 percent favored leaving the rules as is. (To see the full results of this survey, click here. And to participate in another ad-related LinkedIn poll for AdweekMedia, click here.)

While the poll's younger respondents were less apt than their elders to favor a ban on tobacco advertising, that position still commanded a majority among the 18-24-year-olds (52 percent) and the 25-34-year-olds (53 percent). It also was backed by 61 percent of the 35-54s and the same proportion of those 55 and older. There was just a slight gender gap in the results, with 58 percent of women and 55 percent of men saying the government should ban tobacco advertising altogether.

Though they have their own problems with government regulation, business owners in the poll weren't cutting the tobacco industry any slack: 61 percent said they'd favor a ban on tobacco advertising, with another 13 percent saying the government should regulate it more strictly.

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• Employers, employees, all support smoking ban, poll shows 

A recent poll has indicated that employers, their employees and customers generally support the to-be-implemented smoking ban in cafes, bars and restaurants.

The survey, conducted by the Association of Public Health Experts (HASUDER) revealed widespread support for the new ban. The study showed that 89.9 percent of all employers and employees of establishments that will be smoke-free areas under the law are in favor of the ban. Their customers also showed strong approval of the law, which will come into effect on Sunday. A full 85.9 percent of respondent customers said they support the application of the ban.

With the amendment made to Law 4207 on Prevention of Tobacco's and Tobacco Products' Harms, smoking will not be permitted in indoor sections of cafes, bars, restaurants and the like.

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• Youthful smokers snuff out 

"I just don't want to get addicted and suffer when I'm old," Pacheco said. The Northrop High School student was one of a record majority of Indiana youths who - responding to a survey last year - said they didn't smoke.

According to the report released Thursday by Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, youth smoking rates in the state have dropped to the lowest levels on record.

The organization's executive director and a local health official said the main reasons for the decline were ordinances in the state banning smoking in public places, including Fort Wayne's comprehensive smoking ban; higher cigarette prices brought on by a 2007 state cigarette tax increase; and education.

Smoking rates among high school students dropped from 23.2 percent in 2006 to 18.3 percent in 2008, a decline of 21 percent. The totals come from a survey of about 3,700 students in the state.

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• Turks Support Smoking Ban, Doubt Its Enforcement, Poll Shows  

Ninety percent of Turks support a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants that will come into force this month, a poll showed.

More than half the respondents also said that they were concerned the July 19 ban won’t be properly enforced, according to the poll of 600 people by Istanbul-based Quirk Global Strategies published today.

About 35 percent of all adult Turks smoke, including more than half the men in the country of 72 million.

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• Public Backs New Plans To Protect Children From Tobacco 

New research shows that 70 per cent of adults in the UK back proposals to protect children from tobacco by putting it out of sight in shops and 76 per cent support abolishing cigarette vending machines according to Cancer Research UK today (Wednesday) - on the second anniversary of the smoking ban in England.

The survey* - carried out by YouGov - questioned more than 2000 people from across the UK and shows that nearly 80 per cent of people support the smoking ban in the UK's pubs, clubs and enclosed public places.

Those who had never smoked were most supportive of the ban and new proposals, with smokers showing the lowest levels of support. Women were also more likely than men to support the ban and new measures.

Other new results also show the 2007 smoking ban in England was followed by a rapid decline in smoking prevalence for about 9 months, amounting to 800,000 fewer smokers. The Smoking Toolkit Study ** tracks smoking on a monthly basis and follows progress from before the ban to the present. Comparing smoking trends before and after the ban researchers have been able to calculate the extra number of smokers who quit. . . .

Professor Robert West, Cancer Research UK's director of tobacco studies at the Health behaviour Research Centre at UCL and who leads the Smoking Toolkit Study, said: "The smoke-free law has been a huge boost to smokers trying to quit, but radical action is now needed to build on this success."

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• VIDEO: Majority Oppose New Law Regulating Tobacco 

Fifty-two percent of Americans disapprove of the new law that gives the federal government power to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products, while 46% approve.

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• Recession 'keeps smokers puffing' 

Many smokers are too stressed by the hard economic times to attempt to give up their habit, research suggests.

Almost a quarter (23%) of smokers quizzed by Ipsos Mori said they had put off plans to quit.

And 28% said they had simply been too stressed to make a successful attempt to quit in the last six months, blaming job and financial worries.

If reflected across the country it could mean more than two million people have delayed plans to quit.

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• Majority Disapproves of New Law Regulating Tobacco 

y 52% to 46%, more Americans disapprove than approve of the new law expanding the federal government's power to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products. Opposition is especially strong among smokers.

These results are based on a new Gallup Poll, conducted June 14-17. . . .

Even as fewer Americans are smoking today than in the past, and as those who do smoke report smoking fewer cigarettes, the public appears somewhat reluctant to back policies aimed at further reducing the prevalence of smoking. A slight majority disapproves of recent legislation that gives the federal government more power to regulate tobacco, and the vast majority opposes the most extreme anti-smoking policy of a total ban on smoking in the United States.

The precise reasons for Americans' lack of support for anti-smoking policies are unclear. However, it may be that Americans place a higher value on allowing people the freedom to choose to smoke over the public health benefits that would come from reducing smoking even further.

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The precise reasons for Americans' lack of support for anti-smoking policies are unclear. However, it may be that Americans place a higher value on allowing people the freedom to choose to smoke over the public health benefits that would come from reducing smoking even further.
Gallup seems to have fully absorbed the tobacco industry's 50-year "choice" mantra.