Tobacco.org

Women and Smoking: An Interdisciplinary Examination of Socioeconomic Influences 

A prospective study of smoking, caffeine, and alcohol as risk factors for seizures or epilepsy in young adult women: Data from the Nurses' Health Study II  

Results: Compared with never smoking, current cigarette smoking was associated with an increased risk of seizure (RR 2.60, 95% CI 1.53–4.42), after adjustment for stroke and other potential confounding factors. Past smoking was not associated with risk of seizure, but was associated with modestly increased risk of epilepsy (RR 1.46, 95% CI 1.01–2.12). Long-term caffeine and moderate alcohol intake were not associated with seizure or epilepsy.

Discussion: Cigarette smoking may be associated with increased risk of seizure. More prospective studies are needed to investigate potential factors to ultimately prevent the development of seizures or epilepsy.

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• Seventy per cent of Bulgarian smokers wanted to quit, survey says  

More than 70 per cent of smokers in Bulgaria wanted to give up smoking, Yulia Medichkova of the Greenwild Foundation was quoted by Bulgarian news agency BTA as saying on November 19 2009.

Medichkova presented the results of a one-year campaign entitled The Culture of Breathing. Over 50 per cent of Bulgarians approved of increased restrictions on smoking that will be introduced by mid-2010. Bulgaria ranks third in the world in terms of number of smokers, after Japan and Greece, Medichkova said.

What was more worrying, according to another survey released by the Health Ministry on November 17 2009, was that every second pregnant woman in Bulgaria smoked during pregnancy.

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Sessions Stands Behind Remarks that Women are Like Smokers, Insurance Companies Should Charge More 

One week has passed since NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions (TX) made controversial remarks defending the insurance industry's practice of charging women more than men for health insurance by equating being a woman to being a smoker:

REP. PALLONE (D-NJ): Why should a woman pay more than a man?

REP. SESSIONS (R-TX): Well now. We're all different. Why should a smoker pay more than a non-smoker?

Yesterday his office provided their first public response to the controversy in a statement to the Dallas Morning News that stood by the comparison.

"We scoured the statement provided by Representative Sessions's office about his insulting remarks to look for the phrase 'I was wrong,' but found nothing," said Jesse Ferguson, Southern Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

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UPDATED: Sessions hammered for comment on women, health care  

Memo to Dallas Republican Rep. Pete Sessions: Think twice before making comparisons.

Sessions, who famously compared his own party to the Taliban, is taking heat from liberal groups and Democrats for a comment reportedly made last week in a debate over higher health insurance premiums that women pay.

Asked why that should be, Sessions replied: "Well, we're all different. Why should a smoker pay more?"

As with the Taliban comment, there's an argument buried in there somewhere, about whether, for instance, higher premiums are justified because of, for instance, childbirth costs. We'll leave that to the experts. But Sessions, as leader of the National Republican Congressional Committee, is a huge political target. And Democrats sense the GOP is exacerbating its problem with large numbers of women's voters. So you can bet this one will be echoed quite a bit throughout the health care debate.

UPDATE: Sessions spokeswoman Emily Davis has responded, accusing "liberal partisans" of offering "peddled fabrications." Davis writes:

At no time during the exchange did Mr. Sessions use the word "woman" or "women." In fact, only Democrats brought up gender in the discussion. Neither Mr. Sessions nor any Democrat made any connection between women and smokers.

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Burlington, Vermont Named #1 on Self Magazine’s 10th Annual Survey of America’s Healthiest Places for Women  

SELF, the national women's well-being magazine, announces Burlington, Vermont as the nation's healthiest city in its 10th annual Healthiest Places for Women survey. Analyzing 100 U.S. metropolitan areas, this examination is the most comprehensive of its kind. Using a broad scope of research criteria, SELF evaluated more than 8,000 bits of data to determine each city's level of healthy living.

SELF polled a panel of experts to find out which factors most affect a woman's ability to live her healthiest. Then compiled a list of 50 criteria, including rates of diseases such as cancer and depression; health care factors such as: the number of doctors per capita and the percentage of population with health insurance; environmental and community measures such as: air quality, crime rates and unemployment statistics; and habits such as exercise, diet and smoking. . . .

The results are in with the top five Best Places for Women (2009):

1. Burlington, VT

2. Bethesda, MD

3. Portland, ME

4. Cambridge, MA

5. San Francisco, CA

Unhealthiest Places for Women (2009):

1. Tulsa, OK

2. Detroit, MI

3. Oklahoma City, OK

4. Indianapolis, IN

5. Toledo, OH

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Smoking: The hook, the habit, the hope  

What was all the fuss about? Smoking was definitely the thing to do if you grew up in the '50s. My parents smoked. The movie stars wielded their cigarettes like weapons, providing an effect that was as glamorous as it was powerful.

I was 9 when my father gave me the responsibility of buying his cigarettes. . . .

I wish I could say that watching my mother die was the catalyst that caused me to quit smoking. I wish I could say that I quit for my children. I wish I could say it was for my health, or at the very least, to save money.

It was none of those reasons. I quit smoking because I was ashamed!

It was April 15, 1971. I belonged to a women's club, and that night, we were seeing a spring fashion show. As I excitedly joined the others at the large table, I lit a cigarette, unaware of the persistent cough that usually accompanied my chronic bronchitis. The lights dimmed and the fashion parade began. As I relaxed with a cigarette, I exchanged eye contact with some women nearby -- and suddenly began to feel ill at ease. I continued to see glances my way. With pursed lips and furrowed brows, the looks increased, occurring with each cough, and amplified as the glow of my match signaled yet another cigarette.

Was I imagining this? My heart pounded and I took a closer look. At a table of 14, I was the only smoker. I inhaled and coughed and realized that my coarse, hollow cough was annoying those around me. I sat shrouded in a blanket of shame that assaulted both my ego and my self-worth. I knew I would never be the same again -- and I never was.

I am ashamed to admit these events that finally caused me to quit, but it's a shame I can live with.

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• Smoking: why women are at great risk 

Recently, further scientific evidence has emerged to suggest that women may be at particular risk from smoking.

This year, a Norwegian study of almost 2000 women showed that women were at a higher risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) at a younger age, and after smoking less heavily, than men.

COPD is an umbrella term that incorporates emphysema and chronic bronchitis. There are four stages of the condition, which are ranked in terms of their severity.

"We estimate that 2.1 million people in Australia have some form of COPD, and half of them don't know it," says Heather Allan, director of the COPD National Program at the Australian Lung Foundation. . . .

This isn't the first study that suggests that women may be more at risk from smoking than men. A 2005 Monash University found that women were more susceptible to exposure to smoke than men. Allan says researchers believe this could be because women have narrower and more sensitive airways than men.

A report by the British Lung Foundation in 2005 suggested it may be because women's lung capacity is smaller, and population studies have also suggested that there may be a genetic element involved.

This is why health campaigners are so concerned that more young women in their teens and 20s are starting and continuing to smoke than men. . . .

The reasons for women's increased risk of lung disease have not yet been fully researched. According to NHS Direct in the UK, a gene that speeds up the growth of lung tumours is known to be more active in women.

The female hormone oestrogen is also known to affect the development of such tumours. . . .

For the cost of a local call from anywhere in Australia, the Quitline provides advice and assistance to smokers who want to quit.

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• Mumbai's women face secondhand smoke risks: Smokefree Mumbai  

Not unlike their contemporaries in other Asian cities, woman in metroes of India, including those in Mumbai run a significant risk of developing peripheral arterial disease (PAD) from secondhand smoke (SHS), an NGO Smokefree Mumbai has said in its report.

Presenting the report on Chinese women and SHS, published in the American Heart Association's Circulation (AHAC), today Smokefree Mumbai said the report found that SHS had a significant, negative impact on the health of Chinese women, who had never smoked, the risk which would, without doubt, equate to Indian women too.

The first of its kind report by the AHAC had revealed a link between exposure to SHS and an increased chance of suffering from coronary heart disease, stroke, and peripheral arterial disease (PAD). . . .

''While 97 per cent Mumbaites have voted in favour of smoke-free environment, the ramification of the ban on smoking in public on the women population, largely non-smokers, may be found as reason for contemplation,'' observed the report.

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Lung cancer leading cause of cancer death in women 

Blount Memorial Cancer Center Director Carmen McCloud says the Cancer Center had 86 female patients who suffered from lung cancer in the last two years. She said smoking caused 90 percent of those lung cancer cases. Thursday is Great American Smokeout Day, which is a good time to think about giving up tobacco products, she says.

"The Great American Smokeout is a day to stop smoking and change your life. On Thursday, free information on how to quit smoking will be available in the hospital's outpatient lobby between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.," McCloud adds.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), within 20 minutes of quitting smoking, blood pressure drops to normal, pulse slows to normal and the temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal.

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‘Baby and Me’ program provides incentives for mothers to quit smoking 

This fall, six women graduated from “Baby and Me —�Tobacco Free,” a program to keep women from smoking during and after pregnancy.

Funded by a grant and led locally by Hope Cook, the prenatal coordinator for the North�west Colorado Visiting Nurse Association, the program gives expecting and new moms incentive and motivation to quit smoking and stay smoke-free.

Missy Chotvacs was one of Cook’s fall graduates. She learned about the program through other VNA services. Chotvacs, 21, quit her 1 1/2-year smoking habit when she learned she was pregnant and has been smoke-free since. Her daughter, Mya Chotvacs Chase, is 13 months old.

Potential hazards to child development, keeping second-hand smoke away from her daughter and cutting the expense of cigarettes from a single parent’s budget were among Chotvacs’ reasons for entering and completing the program, she said.

During the program, participants get a monthly carbon dioxide screening,

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• Industry dodges ad bans by pushing smokes online 

The tobacco industry is using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to promote its products and persuade people to become smokers, a study revealed yesterday.

"The ban on advertising does not mean the tobacco industry has stopped advertising its products," said Becky Freeman of Australia's University of Sydney, who conducted the study.

She presented her findings in Bangkok at a threeday regional training workshop held by Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA).

Freeman said most tobacco companies were interested in viral marketing (using preexisting social networks to increase brand recognition) to persuade or influence audiences to pass products on to others.

A million people had visited video clips on YouTube reviewing cigarettes, she said, and thousands more had become fans of the products on Facebook. "The Internet has made it easier to engage consumers by allowing them to contribute directly to marketing campaigns and brand development," she said.

The use of social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, podcasts and RSS would be one of the main topics up for discussion at Tabinfo Asia 2009 . . .

Another marketing device was the use of product and pack designs - such as colourful and glowinthe dark packs - to entice specific groups.

"For example, we found cigarette packs designed like lipsticks or wallets - a new way to lure more and more women to become smokers," she said. . . .

A group of 650 people, including teenagers, led by Action on Smoking and its alliances, will today demonstrate against the Tabinfo Asia 2009 at Impact Arena.

"This is a nightmare for our people," SEATCA's director Bungon Ritthiphakdee said

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'Smoke Free for Baby and Me' campaign to raise awareness of health benefits of quitting smoking 

November is "The Great American Smokeout Month" and the Macon County Public Health Center is supporting a campaign to raise awareness of the immediate health benefits of quitting smoking with pregnant women and mothers with young children.

Stopping smoking is probably the single most effective step a pregnant woman can take to improve her own health and that of her baby, according to the Centers for Disease Control director. If you are pregnant and smoke:

-- You double the chances that your child will be born with a low birth weight.

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Ingrid Newkirk: Using Dollar Bills to Light Cigarettes 

With the national debt in the trillions, the U.S. government is still letting money go up in smoke.

For decades now, we’ve known that those men in the white coats who were employed by tobacco companies to appear on TV and tell us that smoking soothed a scratchy throat were not telling us the whole truth. In the 1970s, epidemiology conclusively linked smoking in pregnant women to fetal harm. Since then, every medical organization, the U.S. Surgeon General, and even tobacco companies themselves have advised us to stay away from the smokes, and most strongly warned that women should not smoke during pregnancy.

The federal government, meanwhile, is still funding studies in which stressed monkeys are locked inside metal cages, impregnated, and injected with nicotine; have their babies taken away from them after birth; have lung function tests performed on them; and are then killed. And should you think this is the government foolishly trying to prove for the umpteenth time what we already know - in this case about tobacco and nicotine - it is not. It is to see if women can keep on smoking and have babies too! . . .

The money is considerable. Spindel’s recent NIH grants include $1.3 million to test fetal nicotine exposure in rhesus monkeys, $1.8 million to study the mechanisms that nicotine uses to harm the fetuses of mutant mice, and his share of the $11 million annual support grant for the primate center. Meanwhile, only three states—Maine, Delaware, and Mississippi—fund tobacco prevention programs at the minimum levels recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia fund such programs at less than half the CDC minimum or provide no state funding at all.

The expense is not only borne by us taxpayers and the animals who pay with their lives in such disgusting tests, but by the women and children who are ill served by foolish funding priorities.

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• Women smokers unaware of smoking impact  

Most women smokers know smoking can lead to cancer, heart disease and premature death but they are unaware of other health effects, a Canadian survey indicates.

The survey, conducted by Angus Reid on behalf of nicotine replacement therapy brands Nicoderm and Nicoette, reveals the majority of Canadian women who smoke are not necessarily aware of the host of other effects smoking can have on their immediate and longer-term health.

Eighty-three percent of female smokers say lung cancer was most strongly attributed to smoking, 62 percent say premature aging of skin, 61 percent say dental problems such as yellowing of teeth or tooth loss and 60 percent say heart disease.

Fewer than two in 10 female smokers surveyed were aware of the link between lighting up and increased risks of developing health issues such as infertility, early onset of menopause, menstrual irregularities, osteoporosis, baldness, premature grey hair, weight gain, hearing loss and incontinence.

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