Tobacco.org

Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and early childhood more likely to smoke as adults 

ATS 2009, SAN DIEGO-- Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy and their early childhood years may be predisposed to take up smoking as teens and young adults, compounding the physical damage they sustained from the smoke exposure.

"It is well-known that maternal smoking influences a developing fetus in myriad ways, contributing to low birth weight, premature birth and a host of other health problems after birth," said Roni Grad, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. "Previous studies have suggested that maternal smoking during pregnancy may increase the risk of the offspring becoming regular smokers as adults, but the impact of postnatal cigarette smoke exposure was hard to differentiate from prenatal exposure."

The study results will be presented on Tuesday, May 19, at the American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference in San Diego.

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• Cigarette smuggling in RP more blatant now 

Tommy Chui, a former director of a Hong Kong cigarette distribution company, was set to testify against his former colleagues and implicate members of the infamous criminal group, the Triad, along with corrupt Customs officials.

That company, Giant Island Ltd. (GIL), was a major distributor of the British American Tobacco (BAT) in China and Taiwan, and was believed to have organized a smuggling network for BAT cigarettes. GIL was reported to have transported cigarettes from Singapore and Subic Bay in the Philippines from freighters to fishing boats in the South China Sea.

Documented by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the case “reveals the dark underbelly of a billion-dollar business fed by international corporations and operated by organized crime,” its report published in 2001 says.

Links to Manila

Though based in Hong Kong, the operations had links to Manila through a GIL official named Hung Wing-wah, the company’s founder and majority owner, whom Chui had a disagreement with. . . .

BOC officials say that most of those in the super green lane category are multinational companies or companies that belong to the Top 100 corporations of the country with outstanding records. They say that random checks are still made on these shipments if intelligence information directs them to do so.

Customs officials, however, say that because cigarettes are classified as “high risk commodities,” these are always channeled to the red lane, where inspections are mandatory. Likewise, whenever shipments come in from countries on the BOC watch list—China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam, among others—they are automatically assigned to the red lane.

Smugglers know this and find means of circumventing customs checks. They either take pains to hide cigarettes in their 20- or 40-footer container vans that may not be as thoroughly checked by customs inspectors or, as previously mentioned, resort to circumlocutory routes so that goods come from countries not on the BOC watch list. They also alter the documentation of their shipments while in transit, or they simply mis-declare contraband cigarettes or bribe customs officials.

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Legislation cracks down on tobacco marketing to kids 

The Conservative government introduced legislation Tuesday aimed at clamping down on the sale and marketing of tobacco products to youths by making it illegal to add flavours to cigarillos and cigarettes.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq introduced an amendment to the federal Tobacco Act she called the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act.

In addition to banning flavours -- such as chocolate and bubble gum -- for cigarillos, cigarettes and blunt wraps (sheets or tubes of tobacco), cigarillos and "blunts" must be sold in packages of 20.

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SIEGEL: Appeals Court Upholds Denial of Monetary Remedies in Department of Justice Tobacco Lawsuit 

I believe the most important aspect of the appellate court's decision was its upholding of the district court's denial of monetary remedies against the tobacco companies. . . .

What this decision demonstrates is that the anti-smoking groups were wrong in their attack on McCallum and their insistence that the reduction of the $130 billion smoking cessation remedy to $10 billion represented an undermining of the case designed to aid the tobacco companies. As it turns out, that change had no effect on the government's case because, as I argued, no smoking cessation remedy was allowable in the first place.

As I wrote on August 18, 2006: "McCallum's decision to substitute a $10 billion smoking cessation remedy for a $130 billion smoking cessation remedy had no impact whatsoever on the case, because as Judge Gladys Kessler ruled, $0 of smoking cessation remedy was allowable under the D.C. Appeals Court's interpretation of the RICO statute."

If anything, McCallum's insistence on changing the request for a massive $130 billion smoking cessation remedy helped the Department of Justice save face somewhat.

Now it will be interesting to see if the anti-smoking groups apologize to McCallum and retract their political accusations, which have now been shown to have had no reasonable basis or merit. Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights (ANR) went so far as calling McCallum a "cancer" in the Justice Department. Certainly, ANR owes Mr. McCallum an apology. It will be interesting to see if ANR retracts its attack and apologizes.

Other groups which had attacked McCallum, accusing him of political interference, and which therefore need to retract their attacks and apologize, include the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Stan Glantz Announcement List-Serve.

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• Tobacco Policy Research 

Produced by: University of Kentucky 04/01/2009

Description: Ellen Hahn, professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Kentucky, and her team are conducting tobacco policy research that’s truly having an impact. Hahn’s efforts resulted in the passage of a smoke-free ordinance in all public buildings within Lexington, Kentucky, one of the first cities to do so. Learn about the importance of such policies and the effects they have on the community. . . .

Runtime:00:28:30 . . .

This program will air on ResearchChannel at the following times (GMT-08:00) –

* Wednesday, May 27 1:30 p.m. PT 7:30 p.m. PT

* Thursday, May 28 4:30 a.m. PT 10:30 a.m. PT 4:30 p.m. PT 10:30 p.m. PT

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Tobacco Policy Research to Air on Research Channel 

Tobacco Policy research conducted by Ellen Hahn, professor in the University of Kentucky College of Nursing, and colleagues will be featured on the Research Channel May 27 and 28. The community engagement and research efforts of Hahn and her team resulted in the passage of a smoke-free ordinance in Lexington, Ky., in 2003, one of the first cities in Kentucky to do so. Since that time, 20 additional Kentucky communities have enacted smoke-free laws or regulations.

Studies conducted by Hahn's group of researchers have provided information used by policymakers and community advocates as they debate the smoke-free issue at the local level. Hahn's studies have shown that indoor air quality improved dramatically, workers reported immediate positive health effects, public opinion was favorable, fewer adults smoked, and emergency department visits for asthma declined after smoke-free laws were put in place.

Hahn and colleagues in economics have documented that smoke-free laws do not harm business even in tobacco country. In Lexington-Fayette County, there was a 32% drop in adult smoking, resulting in a health care cost savings of $21 million per year.

"Findings from our multiple studies reveal that smoke-free laws clear the air, promote health and save money," Hahn said. "Smoke-free is a good business decision." . . .

The program will also be aired on channel 9400 on the Dish Network, and is available online.

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No cigarettes in Sukhothai 

In a move to mark the World No Tobacco Day on May 31, Sukhothai was yesterday declared as the country's first anti-smoking historic city.

Provincial health official Dr Boonterm Tansurat said the project, sponsored by Thai Health Foundation, aimed to promote a culture of not smoking in public places. A memorandum of understanding will also be signed by some 30 public and private agencies to make their offices smoke-free zones.

Citing a National Statistics Office survey in 2007, Sukhothai has 93,709 smokers, of which 88,088 are men, Boonterm said an anti-smoking campaign was sorely needed to protect the health of non-smokers.

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The Fix - What's the Best Way to Clean the Air in a House?  

A. Air researchers talk about the Rule of 1,000: anything released indoors is about 1,000 times more likely to be breathed in than something released outdoors.

"It doesn't take a lot of something released indoors to cause exposure," said Dr. Kirk Smith, a professor of global environmental health at the University of California, Berkeley. "Even in California, which has among the strictest controls on smoking and among the lowest smoking rates in an industrial country, a significant fraction of total pollution exposure is from smoking."

Indoor pollution is, in a word, potent. And our attempts to combat it often make it worse.

"People think incense or candles are beneficial, but of course they're not," Dr. Smith said. "It's just combustion, and the smoke has the same health effects as cigarette smoke . . .

But filter-based cleaners can be effective at removing pollen, dust or smoke, which have larger particles. Dr. Shelly Miller, an air-quality researcher at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said she bought a HEPA (or high-efficiency particulate air) filter-and-fan-based cleaner that helped combat forest-fire smoke at her parents' home in San Bernardino Valley, Calif.

Before buying the unit, which cost about $80, she said, she made sure it had a clean-air delivery rating (or CADR) certification from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, which measures the amounts of pollen, dust or smoke the model can remove. . . .

In general, Dr. Miller said, she doesn't advocate the use of air cleaners, which she considers the equivalent of using a broom to clean up M & M's spilled on the floor. Or, as Dr. Smith put it: "The best way to not have polluted air is to not have sources of pollution in the house."

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Days Like Those - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex Recalls Lennon in New York  

And look at this, here and here," Ms. Ono added, pointing to a series of cigarette burns on the edges of the flat top and the wood at each side of the keyboard. "He was a chain smoker, and he would leave a cigarette on the edge of the piano when he was writing."

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Audrey Hepburn Stamp Fetches Euro67, 000 in Germany  

A rare stamp portraying movie star Audrey Hepburn smoking sold for euro67,000 ($93,800) at an auction in Germany on Tuesday.

The Schlegel auction house declined to identify the buyer, who was represented by an agent.

A minimum bid of euro30,000 was set for the stamp, of which only five copies are known to exist. . . .

The print run was destroyed after Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer, objected to the cigarette holder dangling from the actress' mouth and refused to grant copyright.

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• US cancer death rate drops again in 2006 

The U.S. cancer death rate fell again in 2006, a new analysis shows, continuing a slow downward trend that experts attribute to declines in smoking, earlier detection and better treatment.

About 560,000 people died of cancer that year, according to an American Cancer Society report released Wednesday. The new numbers show the death rate fell by less than 2 percent, but since that decline was better than the previous year, the cancer society applauded the progress.

Others said the change was not a big deal.

"The improvement was modest," said Dr. Michael Goodman, an Emory University researcher who specializes in cancer statistics. . .

It takes a rate decline of at least 2 percent to offset population growth and cause a drop in the actual number of cancer deaths. That happened in 2002 and 2003 for the first time since 1930. But it hasn't happened since.

The explanation for why the death rate has fallen depends on the type of cancer. For example, better screening has improved deaths from colon cancer. Treatment advances are more of a factor in leukemia death rates. And smoking cessation is the main reason behind improvements in male lung cancer deaths.

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Fire Victim Was Retired Naval Officer 

A St. Mary's County man killed in a house fire last week was a retired chief petty officer in the Navy who was known for cooking homemade vegetable soup at the Patuxent Moose Lodge, his wife said.

Paul T. Penrod, 68, died Wednesday after a fire ripped through his family's home on Pinto Drive in Hollywood. Investigators said they think the fire started after Penrod fell asleep while smoking.

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Tobacco speaker not blowing smoke  

Next time you warn kids to not smoke, try holding a frozen human brain in your hand.

That's what Victor DeNoble did Tuesday while speaking to Granger Middle School students about the dangers of smoking. In fact, with a mad-scientist grin, the former researcher for the Philip Morris Tobacco Co., brought out three brains -- one from a rat, one from a chimpanzee and one from a person -- as he described the addictive properties of cigarette nicotine.

The brains got the attention of the 344 students between grades 6-8, who went from quiet listening to excited applause with each new sample.

DeNoble, 59, considered the first "whistleblower" on the U.S. tobacco industry's infamous attempts to cover up nicotine addiction, talked about what it's like to work inside the industry during his visits to four schools in the Yakima Valley.

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• Strapped states cut smoking-prevention funds 

But smokers who want to kick the habit may soon be on their own.

Cash-strapped state governments are slashing funding for tobacco prevention and cessation programs in a move anti-tobacco groups say could backfire, costing taxpayers later for treatment of tobacco-related illnesses among people who might've quit.

"We understand the economic times and the pressure that budget makers are under, but right now, this is a penny-wise, pound-foolish approach," said Peter Fisher, vice president of state issues for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, a Washington-based advocacy group.

In Vermont, a recently adopted state budget reduced funding for anti-tobacco efforts by $1.9 million from the previous year, which critics say will force cutbacks in youth smoking-prevention activities and at hospitals that offer in-person smoking-cessation counseling and nicotine-replacement therapy.

Other states have made similar cuts, or are contemplating them:

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CLARKE: Tobacco tax proposal deserves support  

In his response to the budget Malcolm Turnbull proposed a 3 cents per stick tax on cigarettes. This was proposed to fund a gap in the budget that arose through Turnbull's opposition to abolishing Medicare tax concessions for certain high income citizens. Here I ignore this latter issue (it is discussed here) and concentrate on the isolated case for the tax increase. . . .

All-in-all the entire proposal by Malcolm Turnbull seems to deserve bipartisan political support independent of arguments on the health insurance issue. It has been several years since cigarette excises were increased and the evidence suggests that tax hikes help to eliminate the tobacco smoking pandemic. These tax moves must be supplemented by bans, quit campaigns and negative advertising - and targeted measures to reduce high rates of smoking among indigenous Australians - but there is no question that tax increases effectively reduce smoking.

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