Tobacco.org

Smoking link to psoriasis confirmed 

Italian study findings have confirmed a link between smoking habits and the risk of developing psoriasis.

Previous research has indicated that smoking significantly increases the risk of developing psoriasis, explains Giampiero Favato, from Henley Management College in the UK. . . .

Favato notes in the American Journal of Medicine that the incidences of light, medium and heavy smoking were comparable in each of the two psoriasis cohorts studied, at about 16%, 20% and 5%, respectively.

He concludes: "Italian epidemiological data on adult psoriatic patients seem to confirm the correlation between smoking habits and the risk of developing the disease."

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Oddly Enough » Blog Archive » Is this a runway, or Tobacco Road? 

Haute couture is my life, but I must admit I’m baffled at times.

For instance, the photo caption calls this “a creation,” but to me, it just looks like some chick having a butt. Is smoking a cigarette with black gloves and red lipstick the creative part, or what?

Was this lady supposed to stop and light up on the runway, because I have to say that will make fashion shows pretty tedious. Perhaps the designer should have looked for a slightly less addicted model?

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• Study suggests smoking affects skin  

Women who smoke are more likely to have noninflammatory acne, especially blackheads and blocked pores, than nonsmokers are, according to the British Journal of Dermatology.

How much a woman smoked didn't seem to have an effect on the severity of breakouts. But those who had had acne as teens were four times more likely to have "smoker's acne" as an adult.

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Smoking, drinking imperil lymphoma survival 

Smoking and moderate-to-high alcohol consumption negatively affect the survival of people with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, dubbed NHL, a European study shows.

"Tobacco and alcohol habits are risk factors for a wide range of diseases," Dr. Renato Talamini said in an interview with Reuters Health. "NHL patients who smoked tobacco and/or drank alcoholic beverages could be more vulnerable to the complications and side effects of cancer treatments," he noted. . . .

Talamini, at the National Cancer Institute in Aviano, Italy, and colleagues evaluated the survival rates of 268 NHL patients seen there over a 20 year period and who were followed for an average of 5 years.

During follow-up, 158 patients died, the team reports in the International Journal of Cancer.

"Moreover," continued Talamini, who led the study, "concomitant diseases due to tobacco and alcohol consumption may increase the probability of treatment toxicity, and thus, may represent an obstacle to adequate chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy."

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• PM's testimony on smuggling and mafia links 'shameful' say opposition leaders 

The testimony by Montenegro's prime minister Milo Djukanovic (photo) on cigarette smuggling before Italian prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Bari was a shame for the country, opposition leaders said on Monday.

Djukanovic, who has been considered the absolute political leader of Montenegro for the past eighteen years, surprisingly appeared before Bari prosecutors last Friday, answering their questions for more than six hours. . . .

Djukanovic is being investigated for a multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling operation to Italy and for offering free access and shelter to Italian mafia members in Montenegro ports between 1994 and 2002.

He has repeatedly denied the charges and the rumours that he was being investigated. . . .

Nebojsa Medojevic, the leader of the main opposition party, the Movement for Changes, said Djukanovic had shamed Montenegro by refusing to answer all of the 80 questions put by Bari prosecutors, invoking diplomatic immunity.

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• Tobacco-free zone? Pope urged to stomp out butts in Vatican City 

Physicians and Nurses Against Tobacco, a Rhode Island-based organization, is asking Pope Benedict XVI to support its campaign for a tobacco-free society.

The group's petition, posted online, appeals to the pope not only to denounce the sale and use of tobacco during his April 15-20 visit to the United States, but also to declare Vatican City the world's first tobacco-free state.

"We hope to convince him to make this gesture as an example to other religious and political leaders and policymakers," the petition says.

Some might dismiss the initiative as a publicity grab, but there is no denying that tobacco is a serious health issue. . . .

Bishop Boccardo made waves a few years ago when, as a papal trip planner, he shut down smoking on the plane that took the pope on his foreign visits.

For years after Alitalia instituted a ban on in-flight smoking, members of the papal entourage and journalists continued to light up on the pope's chartered plane. They were encouraged by the fact that Alitalia gave every passenger a free carton of cigarettes. . . .

even though the Holy See has expressed support for a World Health Organization convention on tobacco control, the Vatican continues to sell tobacco products to its employees at a discount. . . .

On a moral level, the church has never defined smoking as a sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says the gift of physical health requires "reasonable care" of the body, and more specifically says: "The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco or medicine." . . .

The 19th-century Pope Pius IX, for example, built a tobacco factory for cigar rolling in Rome's Trastevere neighborhood. The Latin inscription boasts that the pope thus provided the city with "a factory for processing nicotine leaves."

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Fewer heart attacks since smoking ban  

New figures from France and Italy show reductions in heart attacks since the introduction of smoking bans.

The latest figures from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) showed a 15pc fall in emergency admissions of patients with heart attack and strokes in France.

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Positive effects from smoking bans 

The Irish Heart Foundation has welcomed new figures from France and Italy showing reductions in heart attacks since the introduction of smoking bans in these countries.

The latest figures from the European Society for Cardiology (ESC) show a 15% fall in emergency admissions for heart attacks and strokes in France, following the public smoking ban in 2007.

Italy has recorded a 11.2% reduction in the number of acute coronary events since the introduction of its smoking ban in January 2005.

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Acute Coronary Events Drop After Italy's Public Smoking Ban  

The number of acute coronary events dropped significantly among adults in Rome after Italy banned smoking in public places in 2005, a new report shows.

Researchers in the Italian capital found an 11.2 percent reduction of acute coronary events in persons aged 35 to 64 years and a 7.9 percent reduction in those aged 65 to 74, according to the findings in the Feb. 12 issue of Circulation.

Cigarette sales and the frequency of people smoking also dropped.

"Since coronary heart disease is a leading cause of death in Italy, the reduction observed had enormous public health implications," study co-author Francesco Forastiere, head of the environmental and occupational epidemiology unit of the Rome E. Health Authority, said in a prepared statement. "It will be interesting to see if the effect of the ban is stable over time, and if similar positive health effects can be detected in other places."

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Public smoking ban decreases acute coronary events in Italy 

The number of acute coronary events such as heart attack in adults dropped significantly after a smoking ban in public places in Italy, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers in Rome compared acute coronary events in the city for five years preceding a public smoking ban with those occurring one year after the ban. They found an 11.2 percent reduction of acute coronary events in persons 35 to 64 years and a 7.9 percent reduction in those ages 65 to 74.

"Smoking bans in all public and workplaces result in an important reduction of acute coronary events," said Francesco Forastiere, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of the study and head of the Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Rome E. Health Authority, Italy. "The smoking ban in Italy is working and having a real protective effect on population health."

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Public Smoking Ban In Italy Results In Decrease In Acute Coronary Events 

The number of acute coronary events such as heart attack in adults dropped significantly after a smoking ban in public places in Italy, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers in Rome compared acute coronary events in the city for five years preceding a public smoking ban with those occurring one year after the ban. They found an 11.2 percent reduction of acute coronary events in persons 35 to 64 years and a 7.9 percent reduction in those ages 65 to 74.

"Smoking bans in all public and workplaces result in an important reduction of acute coronary events," said Francesco Forastiere, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of the study and head of the Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Rome E. Health Authority, Italy. "The smoking ban in Italy is working and having a real protective effect on population health."

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• Heart Attacks Decreased After Public Smoking Ban In Italy 

The number of acute coronary events such as heart attack in adults dropped significantly after a smoking ban in public places in Italy, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers in Rome compared acute coronary events in the city for five years preceding a public smoking ban with those occurring one year after the ban. They found an 11.2 percent reduction of acute coronary events in persons 35 to 64 years and a 7.9 percent reduction in those ages 65 to 74.

"Smoking bans in all public and workplaces result in an important reduction of acute coronary events," said Francesco Forastiere, M.D., Ph.D., co-author of the study and head of the Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Unit, Department of Epidemiology, Rome E. Health Authority, Italy. "The smoking ban in Italy is working and having a real protective effect on population health."

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• BAT May Have to Pay Italian Cartel Fine, Court Says (Update2) 

British American Tobacco Plc's Italian unit may have to pay all of an antitrust fine levied in a price-fixing case involving the company's predecessor, the European Union's highest court said.

Italian regulators fined BAT's Ente Tabacchi Italiani and Altria Group Inc.'s Philip Morris 70 million euros ($103 million) in 2003, the year BAT acquired ETI. The tobacco makers challenged the decision, arguing that part of the fine should be paid by ETI's predecessor, Italy's state-run tobacco agency.

``Responsibility for breach of the competition rules can be passed on from one economic entity to the one that succeeds it, if both answer to the same public authority,'' the European Court of Justice's highest chamber of 13 judges ruled in Luxembourg today. . . .

Philip Morris already paid its fine, Claudio Tesauro, a lawyer for the company, said in an interview yesterday. The company acted in support of BAT in the case, said Tesauro, a partner with Rome-based law firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo.

The case is C-280/06, Autorita Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato v. Ente Tabacchi Italiani.

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Naples bans some smoking in parks and during demonstrations 

The Italian city of Naples has taken its smoking ban outdoors, forbidding lighting up in public parks and during demonstrations and cultural events if children or pregnant women are nearby.

Violators risk fines from ¤27.50-¤500 (US$40-$730), according to a city ordinance that went into effect Sunday. . . .

Naples decided to expand its ban outside because health officials recently reported that the death rate of victims from respiratory illness and lung cancer was «significantly» higher in Naples than the rest of the country, according to the ordinance.

In addition, studies show an increase in smoking among the young and that children constitute one-third of the recipients of second-hand smoke, the text says.

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Outdoor smoking banned in Naples 

So there’s burning trash, and cars spewing too much carbon dioxide. But in an attempt to curtail the increased incidents of lung cancer in this southern Italian metropolis, Naples officials have banned smoking — outdoors.

Starting Sunday, the city has enacted an ordinance that bans lighting up in public parks or outdoor rallies and cultural events if children or pregnant woman are present.

“It’s funny that Naples would be the city to ban it. I mean, with all the burning garbage and all, that’s the problem?” asked an incredulous Hospitalman Dennis Lees, 23. “If they’re concerned about air quality, they should be concerned about the burning trash.

“I live in the barracks [at the Capodichino base,] and on any given day I can look out and see several smoke pillars, random fires happening.”

Naples isn’t really known for its stringent enforcement of laws. . . .

Carlo Schettini, commander of the municipal police, was quoted Monday in the Naples’ daily newspaper Il Napoli as saying enforcement of the ordinance would be very “soft,” though more police are expected to patrol parks now that the ban is in effect.

“First you can’t smoke in bars, and now you can’t smoke outside. Outside,” emphasized Petty Officer 1st Class Adam Matthews, 33, who has been smoking for about 17 years.

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