Tobacco.org

• Smoking How much will it end up costing you? 

Smokers aren't the only ones who feel the costs of smoking.

"Tobacco use and secondhand smoke exposure cost the state of Louisiana $3 billion per year in health care costs and lost productivity," says Carrie Broussard of the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living.

TFL estimated in 2005 that of the $1.47 billion in health care costs directly caused by smoking in Louisiana, $663 million was covered by the taxpayer-funded state Medicaid program. Louisiana residents' total state and federal tax burden used to address problems caused by smoking averaged out to $626 per household. And those numbers aren't including health-care costs caused by secondhand smoke, cigar and pipe smoking or chewing tobacco.

You probably don't even want to think about the non-health-related costs: not just lost productivity, but property losses in fires caused by smoking (over $500 million -- not to mention more than 1000 deaths -- across the country each year) and cleaning and maintenance costs made necessary by tobacco smoke and cigarette litter (around $4 billion nationwide just for commercial establishments). . . .

Occasional smokers are often college students -- a 2007 report by the American College Health Association found that while only 10 percent of students smoke regularly, 30 perent smoke intermittently. And with tobacco companies facing increasing criticism for aiming advertisements at children, they've started targeting the 18-to-24-year-old demographic -- partly by advertising aggressively in environments where college-age intermittent smokers are most likely to indulge, such as bars and nightclubs.

"Intermittent smokers usually believe that they can stop smoking at any time and often think that they will quit after college," says David, but they're usually wrong. . . .

Today, in her work as development director with the Acadiana Arts Council, Moss makes it a priority to work to promote smoke-free venues where Acadiana residents can go to hear musical performances without worrying about secondhand smoke exposure.

Interested in joining the fight? Consider getting involved with the American Cancer Society's Cancer Action Network (acscan.org) or the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living (tobaccofreeliving.org)

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• Health Disparities Among Adults with Hearing Impairment: United States, 2000-2006 

Figure 4 illustrates a sharp age difference in the disparities for smoking prevalence. Among adults aged 18-44 years, more than 40% of those who were deaf or had a lot of trouble hearing currently smoked cigarettes compared with 24% of those with good hearing. Disparities in smoking prevalence persisted among middle aged adults but were not found for adults aged 65 years and over, an age group for which hearing loss is more prevalent and smoking rates are generally low.

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• Sleep Duration as a Correlate of Smoking, Alcohol Use, Leisure-Time Physical Inactivity, and Obesity Among Adults: United States, 2004-2006 

Conclusions

The findings in this report, based on a survey of a representative sample of U.S. adults, offer a national perspective on the association between sleep practices and other health-related behaviors in the U.S. adult population. The findings presented here suggest that U.S. adults who usually slept less than 6 hours were more likely than adults who slept 7 to 8 hours to engage in certain health risk behaviors (i.e., cigarette smoking, having five or more drinks in a day, engaging in no leisure-time physical activity, and being obese). In many cases, adults who usually slept 9 hours or more were also at increased risk of engaging in these unhealthy behaviors. The associations between sleep and other behaviors are complex, and the directions of causality cannot be determined with the cross-sectional data used in this analysis. Additional analyses are needed to identify the causal directions of these relationships, as well as to identify factors, such as poverty or educational attainment, that may influence sleep and its associated factors. Despite these limitations, the findings presented here provide important information about the potential relevance of discussing health risk behaviors such as smoking, alcohol use, physical inactivity, and obesity with patients who seek medical advice for sleep concerns.

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• CDC study links poor sleep habits to obesity  

People who sleep fewer than six hours a night -- or more than nine -- are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies.

The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use. . . .

Such surveys can't prove cause-effect relationships, so -- for example -- it's not clear if smoking causes sleeplessness or if sleeplessness prompts smoking, said Charlotte Schoenborn, the study's lead author.

It also did not account for the influence of other factors, such as depression, which can contribute to heavy eating, smoking, sleeplessness and other problems.

Smoking was highest for people who got under six hours of sleep, with 31 percent saying they were current smokers. Those who got nine or more hours also were big puffers, with 26 percent smoking.

The overall U.S. smoking rate is about 21 percent. For those in the study who sleep seven to eight hours, the rate was lower, at 18 percent.

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Should non-smoking policy for psychiatric in-patients be more lenient? 

A survey at Mersey Care NHS Trust (a mental health trust) was published in the May 2008 issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin. It set out to explore the attitudes of in-patients across the General Adult and Old Age Directorates of the Trust towards hospital and government smoking policies, and towards the perceived effects of smoking on health and well-being. . . .

This study reinforces previous findings that smoking is more prevalent among psychiatric patients than in the general population. As the majority of in-patients, both smokers and non-smokers, felt that there should be smoking areas within psychiatric units, can any appropriate compromise be reached in view of the current legislation, ask the researchers?

It would be interesting to know, they say, whether these results are mirrored elsewhere in the country, and whether patients' views are changing following implementation of tighter smoking policies within NHS trusts. It would also be worth evaluating the level of compliance with such policies.

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• Cigarette prices set to soar  

o cut the number of people lighting up. (Getty Images)

Smokers in the UAE could see the cost of cigarettes soar under a government initiative to reduce the number of people lighting up, an official has warned.

Wedad Al Maidoor, head of the Ministry of Health Tobacco Control Team, said the price hike has been included in a new smoking law that is expected to come into force across the Emirates at the end of May, UAE daily the National reported on Sunday.

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Fortune 500 2008: Industry: Tobacco 

1 Altria Group 6.0 13.9 21.4 84,000 -52.0

2 Reynolds American

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Tobacco In India Report Identifies The Leading Companies, The Leading Brands And Offers Strategic Analysis Of Key Factors Influencing The Market 

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c90656) has announced the addition of "Tobacco in India" to their offering.

Euromonitor's Tobacco in India report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2001-2006), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be they new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2011 illustrate how the market is set to change.

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Offshoring Lung Cancer? 

With continuing strong demand for cigarettes around the world, especially in poor countries, the W.H.O., in conjunction with Michael Bloomberg's personal foundation, is proposing a huge global anti-smoking project. The W.H.O.'s report on the subject calls for "raising cigarette taxes, banning smoking in public places, enforcing laws against giving or advertising tobacco to children, monitoring tobacco use, warning people about the dangers and offering free or inexpensive help to smokers trying to quit."

Bloomberg's foundation contributed $2 million to the report. While a great deal has been made of Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton spending their own money on political campaigns, I have heard little talk (and none of it negative) about Bloomberg's use of personal money for such causes. It is hard to argue against anti-smoking measures, of course -- unless you are Philip Morris.

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颓废或有异味 民调显示烟民给人负面印象 

即将到来的“五一”，对北京人来说不仅仅是一个假日，还是公共场所禁止吸烟的政令实施日。但是本报社调中心的最新公众调查发现，只有一半北京人知道这项政府令的实施，只有21.8％的人对禁烟令有效实施抱有信心。

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Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand: Tobacco policy and public opinion in the UK (PDF) 

What people want

Smokefree legislation is popular an successful Measures now in the pipeline such as RIP, counter smuggling and picture warnings are supported by three out four adults The tobacco control community must work hard to keep up with the demand for further reform

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• Survey shows smoking rate up since 2002 

Smoking rates have increased since 2002 despite the introduction of the smoking ban in public places, according to a study published today.

The number of people who said they were smokers fell from 33 per cent in 1998 to 27 per cent in 2002 but increased to 29 per cent last year, according to the Survey of Lifestyle, Attitudes and Nutrition (SLÁN) in Ireland, published by the Department of Health.

Younger people were more likely to smoke (35 per cent of those aged 18-29 years), as were those in lower social class groups and almost one in 10 smokers were actively trying to quit. Some 41 per cent were not planning to quit, according to the survey.

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Australia's cocaine use up, smoking down  

AUSTRALIANS are smoking fewer cigarettes and less cannabis but using more cocaine, a report shows.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare survey found that from 2004 to 2007, the proportion of people aged 14 and more who smoked daily fell from 17.4 to 16.6 per cent. . . .

The report also raised concerns about girls' smoking habits - 16 to 17-year-old females were "almost twice as likely to be daily smokers (7.4 per cent) as their male counterparts (4.1 per cent), although both of these figures dropped by about half from the previous survey".

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Media release: Overall declines seen in tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use, but some teen behaviours still risky 

A new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) shows that tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug use all fell between 2004 and 2007, but some results are still concerning, especially for teenagers and young people.

The 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey: first results report shows that the proportion of the population aged 14 years or older who smoked daily declined from 17.4% to 16.6% between 2004 and 2007.

'This is one of the lowest daily smoking rates in the world,' said AIHW spokesperson Mark Cooper-Stanbury.

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• Saudi father pays son $267,000 as reward for quitting smoking 

A successful Saudi businessman from Taif, a city in the Mecca Province, paid his son a $267,000 reward for quitting smoking, the Lebanese As-Safir newspaper said on Thursday.

The son learned of the gift when he asked bank officials why such a large sum had appeared on his account.

"I'm glad that after nine years of smoking my son finally managed to get rid of this bad habit," said the father, whose name was not disclosed.

Saudi Arabia, the 23d largest consumer of cigarettes, has witnessed a major anti-smoking campaign in recent years.

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