Tobacco.org

Industry Documents Expose Nordic Tobacco Companies' Conspiratorial Behavior  

In the 1970s, Nordic countries were among the first to adopt policies against tobacco, like bans on cigarette advertising, health warning labels and smoke-free laws, but U.S.-owned tobacco companies, and particularly Philip Morris, makers of Marlboro, became concerned such polices could spread to America and other developed countries where they sold cigarettes. Also, Europe's first product liability case against the tobacco industry occurred in Finland in 1988, when a smoker sued several companies claiming their products caused his illness, causing even more concern for global tobacco companies. To help escape product liability claims, Nordic tobacco companies -- like Amer Tobacco and Rettig, which distributed Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds brands, respectively -- long claimed to be ignorant of, and denied participation in the multinational tobacco companies' global strategies to undermine anti-tobacco policies, but industry documents reveal the truth -- that smaller Nordic tobacco companies did, in fact, participate in the multinational companies’ long-time conspiracy to deny the health dangers of smoking and undermine anti-tobacco policies, helping delay key effective tobacco control measures, and particularly smoke-free laws, for years.

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Lead, Calcium Uptake, and Related Genetic Variants in Association with Renal Cell Carcinoma Risk in a Cohort of Male Finnish Smokers 

Conclusions: Higher blood lead concentrations, below the 10 μg/dL level of concern, were associated with RCC, independent from serum calcium and CALB1 promoter polymorphism.

Impact: Increased risk of RCC is associated with lower serum calcium and higher whole blood lead in smokers. The clinical prognostic value of serum calcium and vitamin D in RCC should be further investigated.

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Effect of smoking on use of antibacterials: a 9-year follow-up study of 24 000 working-aged Finns. 

Background

Previous studies indicate an association between tobacco smoking and infectious diseases. However, large population-based follow-up studies including both accurate measurements of smoking behaviour and confounders and a reliable register-based follow-up of infections are lacking. . . .

Conclusions

Smoking is associated with increased use of antibacterials. Infectious periods experienced by patients should be used as an opportunity to encourage smoking cessation.

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Philip Morris fights bill for new Finnish tobacco law 

The American tobacco products manufacturer Philip Morris is taking extraordinary measures to prevent the passage of a bill for a new law on tobacco. In November 2009 the company filed a complaint with the Finnish Chancellor of Justice over procedures taken by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in preparations for a new tobacco law. In its complaint, the tobacco giant asked the Chancellor of Justice to propose that the President not sign the bill into law if Parliament passes it.

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MARTELIUS: How did smoking become so BAD?  

When I had my first cigarette at the end of the 1980s, smoking was a vice. But it was a vice with style. . . .

It is well-known that the behavioural model of cigarette smoking is easily learned and inherited. I do not remember the hour and day when I decided to start smoking. I know I was 14 at the time. But it is clear to me that my decision had nothing to do with my parents' smoking.

We rationalised it, me and my friend M, that smoking was a social grace . . .

It all started in California in 1989. The creative local health officials sussed the big one: that you will never ever put a stop to smoking without first tearing down its sexy image. For the past twenty years or so, you have never seen a cigarette smoked on television in the sultry manner of, say, Lauren Bacall in Howard Hawks' To Have and to Have Not. If a character in the drama does smoke, he or she is almost without exception a marginalised loser, and probably a criminal to boot. . . .

The current target in the anti-smoking campaign is for the last cigarette to be stubbed out in finland by the year 2040. This may well come to pass, since these days only 22% of men smoke any longer.

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Smoking affects the entire body 

If you haven't done it already, now might be an opportune time to quit the habit, either cold turkey or with the aid of gum, pastilles, or nicotine patches. From the turn of the year, cigarettes ceased to be visible in shops in Finland. With the tightening of the Tobacco Act, tobacco products or their brand labels can no longer be displayed in stores and kiosks, but the buyer has to request the product. Outlets of the R-Kiosk chain were already installing the cabinets a few weeks in advance of the deadline, with sliding doors that had to be opened in order to see the products.

Behind the tighter regulations lies strong scientific evidence: smoking is the most important preventable cause of death in the western world.

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• VALVIRA: Tightened Tobacco Act does not prevent customer service  

The ban on having tobacco products visible in shops and kiosks does not prevent the sales people from offering good customer service to individuals who want to buy cigarettes, states the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (VALVIRA).

According to VALVIRA, needlessly strict interpretations have been presented in the media of the tightened Tobacco Act, which came into effect at the turn of the year, making it illegal to display tobacco products or their brand labels in Finnish stores.

A sales person can still answer customers’ queries with regard to the availability of tobacco products.

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• Tobacco goes into hiding  

With the start of a new year, tobacco products will no longer been seen in Finnish shops. Tougher anti-smoking legislation means tobacco products may not be displayed and must be kept out of sight.

Most shops and supermarkets that sell tobacco products have already prepared for the change in regulations. Retailers have had to rearrange sales points so that, for example, cigarette packages cannot be seen by customers. Pictures of brands on automated dispensers are being replaced by numbers.

"No tobacco products are visible at the checkout, and staff has been trained. We'll see how our customers take the change. At the start, it's sure to cause lines at checkout while people ask about the numbers. This is something new for both the customers and for the cashiers," says Jyrki Kiviniemi of the Muurame S-Market.

Under the new law, retailers may not market tobacco products, so customers will have to request them from a numbered list. Self-service automats and shelves will disappear and sales personnel will have to physically hand over any tobacco products.

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• Lighting up less often—except for cigars 

Smoking in general is in decline in Finland within all age groups. However, according to the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), smoking is still common among 16 year-olds, while cigar smoking is showing a steady upward trend.

THL figures for 2010 show that 23 percent of males between the ages of 15 to 64 smoke daily. For 16 year-old boys, the figure is close to the overall average, standing at 21percent.

Sixteen year-old girls puff slightly more frequently. Daily smoking is a habit with 22 percent of them. But the average for females between the ages of 15 to 64 is considerably lower at 16 percent. . . .

Statistics on tobacco consumption meanwhile show that cigars have grown in popularity among Finns. The consumption of cigars rose last year by about 9 percent. Altogether, 123 million cigars bought and paid for in the country went up in smoke.

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Moms' smoking tied to psychiatric meds in kids  

Children whose mothers smoked while pregnant were more likely to end up on medications such as antidepressants, stimulants and drugs for addiction, according to a study from Finland that hints at smoking's affect on a baby's developing brain.

While the findings don't prove that cigarette smoking during pregnancy causes changes in children's brains or behavior, they offer one more piece of evidence that should encourage women not to smoke while pregnant, the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

"The exposure was significantly associated with the risk for all medication use and for both single- and multiple-drug consumption even after adjustment (e.g. mothers' severe psychiatric illnesses," wrote lead researcher Mikael Ekblad, at the Department of Pediatrics at Turku University Hospital.

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Healthy lifestyle habits lower heart failure risk 

If you don't smoke, aren't overweight, get regular physical activity and eat vegetables, you can significantly reduce your risk for heart failure, according to research reported in Circulation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association journal.

In a new study, people who had one healthy lifestyle behavior decreased their heart failure risk, and each additional healthy behavior further decreased their risk.

Heart failure affects about 5.7 million Americans. At age 40, a person's lifetime risk of developing heart failure is one in five.

"Any steps you take to stay healthy can reduce your risk of heart failure," said Gang Hu, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and director of the Chronic Disease Epidemiology Laboratory at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La.

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Healthy Choices Cut Back on Risk of Heart Failure 

Action Points

* Explain that a healthy lifestyle, including more vegetables and no smoking, was linked with a lower risk of developing heart failure.

* Point out that the strongest predictor of developing heart failure was currently smoking.

A healthy lifestyle, including more veggies and no smoking, was linked with a lower risk of developing heart failure, researchers found.

Not smoking, having a normal weight, getting at least a moderate amount of exercise, and eating vegetables at least three times a week were all significantly associated with a lower risk of developing the condition, according to Gang Hu, MD, PhD, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., and colleagues.

The risk decreased significantly for men and women with each additional risk factor (P<0.001 for trend), they reported online in Circulation: Heart Failure.

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Lifestyle Factors in Relation to Heart Failure among Finnish Men and Women 

Methods and Results—The national population-based study included 18,346 Finnish men and 19,729 women who were 25 to 74 years of age and free of HF at baseline. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models was used to examine the association between lifestyle factors (smoking, body mass index [BMI], physical activity, vegetable consumption, fruit consumption and alcohol consumption) and HF risk. During a median follow-up of 14.1 years (interquartile range 5.9-20.9 years), 638 men and 445 women developed HF. . . . Conclusions—The present study demonstrates an inverse association between healthy lifestyle patterns and the risk of HF in both Finnish men and women.

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Smoking May Increase Bladder Symptoms in Women 

to the results of a questionnaire survey in a population-based cohort reported in the September issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

"Although smoking increases illness burden for many conditions, the relation between smoking and lower urinary tract symptoms remains unclear," Riikka M. Tähtinen, MD, from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Kanta-Häme Central Hospital, Hämeenlinna, and Tampere University Hospital, Finland, and colleagues. "Earlier studies have been inconsistent, perhaps as a result of failing to distinguish among [urinary incontinence (UI)] types or by analyzing all urinary symptoms as a single cluster. Because various bladder symptoms probably have different etiologies, combining them may have obscured important associations."

The study goal was to evaluate the association of smoking status and intensity on frequency, nocturia, stress UI (SUI), urgency, and urgency UI.

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Smoking and Bladder Symptoms in Women 

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the relation of smoking status and smoking intensity with bladder symptoms.

METHODS: Questionnaires were mailed to 3,000 women (aged 18–79 years) . . .

CONCLUSION: Urgency and frequency are approximately three times more common among current than never smokers. Parallel associations for urgency and frequency with smoking intensity suggest a dose–response relationship. Nocturia and SUI are not associated with smoking. These results suggest an additional rationale for smoking cessation in women seeking medical attention for bladder symptoms and highlight the diversity between such symptoms.

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