Tobacco.org

Senators Urge Passage of Tobacco Regulation Bill 

Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Chris Dodd, Jack Reed and Frank Lautenberg joined Matt Myers, President of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, at a press conference this morning to discuss the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

The act, which was first introduced by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), would give the FDA authority to regulate the tobacco industry as well as place strict advertising restraints on tobacco companies.

"Every year, 15,000 Connecticut children try cigarettes for the first time," Dodd said. "Tobacco companies know that if they can't addict children, then they won't have any customers. It's time for the tobacco industry to come up with a new business model - and this bill will force them to."

Yesterday, the Senate voted 84-11 to invoke cloture to proceed with debate on the act. Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Kay Hagan (D-NC), who both have residence near the headquarters of tobacco company R.J. Reynolds, have vowed to fight the bill and have introduced their own legislation to create a new agency to regulate tobacco.

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Enforce Law On Public Smoking 

The Minister of Health, Dr George Sipa Yankey has directed the enforcement of regulations that prohibit the smoking of tobacco or cigarettes in public places.� He said this is because of the dangerous effect that tobacco smoking at such places has on the second hand smoker.

Speaking to the Times after the launch of the “World No Tobacco Day” in Accra, yesterday he said “law birth weights in babies, impairment in physical and intellectual development of children born to smokers, lung infections and other medical problems” are also proof of the effect second hand smoking brings. As such, it the unborn child is crucial to enforce to the last letter, the ‘No Tobacco Smoking at Public places regulation.

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• Saving tomorrow's patients 

What is the most effective way to discourage smoking? Chantix tablets? A support group? Nicotine patches? Or, how about sharply raising the price of cigarettes by jacking up the tax?

A new study compared the efficacy of the various methods in Israel for the first time, looking at medical efficacy and cost efficiency. The results are presented here in a ranked list. . . .

The team compiled two lists: One lists methods that save the state money. The other lists methods that may not achieve that end, but the methods in both lists have proved effective in helping people stop smoking.

The first contains methods that were found to be cost-effective, meaning they involve costs, but ultimately save the health system money.

These include raising the tax on cigarettes (which just happened, adding NIS 2 per pack of cigarettes), taking large doses of Champix tablets (2 milligrams a day), or drug therapy combined with a telephone hotline for quitters in crisis.

The second list includes methods that don't save the health establishment money. But they were found to be more cost-effective for the smoker: Each shekel invested in these methods had a considerable contribution to the health of both the actual smoker and his associates, who may suffer the effects of passive smoking. This list also contains Pfizer's Champix tablets, but at a lesser dosage of 1 milligram a day, as well as the drug Zyban. Nicotine patches also make this list, as did counseling.

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Senate Debate On Tobacco Bill Likely To Drag To Next Week 

While a bill tightening regulation of tobacco products appears to have strong support in the Senate, the chances of a quick final vote on the measure are bleak and only getting dimmer.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who opposes the measure, has signaled he will prolong debate on the measure using a number of procedural tactics. The Senate Wednesday is expected to vote in favor of proceeding to the bill -- a vote forced by Burr.

Burr plans to insist upon an official reading of the 218-page bill, according to a Senate staffer. That would extend debate on the bill for hours longer.

The stalling tactics will likely cause Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D- Nev., to file a motion to limit debate on the bill, and Burr appears poised to insist upon 60 hours of debate allowed under the motion. Aides say that would push debate on the bill until Tuesday or later.

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LETTER: Stop smokers from making us stupid 

MALAYSIANS continue to amaze me time and time again. We call ourselves civilised, hospitable and caring but we are no more than a bunch of hypocrites with our sweep-under-the-carpet attitude.

If we are indeed civilised, we should realise the dangers of smoking,

If we are indeed hospitable, we should realise that causing others to inhale second-hand smoke, knowing that it's slowly killing them, is not an act of kindness.

If we are indeed caring, we should realise the damage second hand smoke can do not only to other people but also our children.

Countless times I've been at a restaurant with my baby daughter . . .

They can enforce laws which make people unable to smoke in restaurants. Having no-smoking signs alone is not enough. Other members of the society should also act to stop smoking in restaurants. This should be done not only for us but also for our future generation.

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More than one drink daily increases bowel cancer risk 

A study has investigated the colorectal cancer risk attached to key parts of the Australian lifestyle.

Having more than one alcoholic drink a day is enough to dramatically increase your bowel cancer risk, Australian research shows.

Smoking, obesity, diabetes and eating large amounts of meat also push up the risk of developing the aggressive cancer, which claims 4,000 lives across the country every year.

Researchers analysed more than 100 international studies going back to the 1960s, to determine the colorectal cancer risk attached to key parts of the Australian lifestyle.

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U.S. Cancer Death Rates Continue to Fall  

Some 650,000 people are alive today who wouldn't be were it not for advances in cancer prevention, detection and treatment over the past 15 years, new statistics show.

The American Cancer Society's Cancer Statistics 2009 report finds an encouraging 19.2 percent drop in cancer death rates among men from 1990 to 2005, as well as an 11.4 percent drop in women's cancer death rates during the same time period.

Overall, cancer death rates fell 2 percent per year from 2001 to 2005 in men and 1.6 percent per year from 2002 to 2005 in women. By comparison, between 1993 and 2001, overall death rates in men declined 1.5 percent per year and, between 1994 and 2002, 0.8 percent in women.

"We continue to see a decrease in death rates from cancer in both men and women and this is mainly because of prevention - mostly a reduction in smoking rates; detection which includes screening for colorectal cancer, for breast cancer and for cervical cancer; and also improved treatment," said report author Ahmedin Jemal, strategic director for cancer surveillance at the American Cancer Society. . . .

* Lung cancer shows the greatest regional variation in cancer incidence, ranging from a low of 39.6 cases per 100,000 in men and 22.4 per 100,000 in women in Utah to 136.2 in men and 76.2 in women in Kentucky. These statistics correlate directly to smoking rates in the two states, with Utah having the lowest prevalence in adult smoking in the country, and Kentucky the highest.

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HRT Ups Death Risk for Women With Lung Cancer  

The current use of combined hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is associated with a higher risk of dying for women diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, a new study shows.

The risk was highest in current smokers, less high in former smokers and least high in women who never smoked, say researchers reporting Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), in Orlando, Fla.

"This is a major concern," said study lead author Dr. Rowan Chlebowski, a medical oncologist with the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. "In current smokers, one in 100 experience avoidable death from non-small cell lung cancer. Women almost certainly shouldn't be using both combined hormone replacement therapy and tobacco at the same time," he said at a Saturday ASCO news briefing.

"We want to do everything we can to prevent lung cancer," added Dr. Jeffrey Crawford, chief of medical oncology at Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center in Durham, N.C. "But if you're a current or former smoker, in particular, this is another reason not to consider hormone replacement therapy."

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Alcohol, Cigarettes and Diabetes Up Colorectal Cancer Risk  

Drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and having diabetes also play a major role in determining who is going to develop colorectal cancer, study findings show.

And although exercise seemed to help ward off colorectal cancer, eating lots of fruits and vegetables didn't, according to researchers at The George Institute for International Health in Australia.

"Most people probably know that being overweight and having poor dietary habits are risk factors for the disease," said study author Rachel Huxley, an associate professor at The George Institute. "But most are probably unaware that other lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and diabetes are also important culprits," she said in a news release from the institute.

Not counting skin cancers, colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer among U.S. adults

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To Quit Smoking, Try Logging On  

Internet- and computer-based smoking cessation programs are a cost-effective alternative to more expensive telephone hotlines or counseling services for smokers who are trying to quit, according to a new study.

"With the rising cost of health care, there is a need to look for less expensive health programs that are effective," study co-author Joel Moskowitz, director of the Center for Family and Community Health at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, said in a university news release. "What we found in our meta-analysis was that Web- and computer-based programs, once they're up and running, are a worthy alternative."

The researchers analyzed the findings of 22 trials, involving almost 30,000 participants, that compared smokers who used Web- or computer-based smoking cessation programs with those who tried to quit on their own.

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Alcohol and smoking the culprits in bowel cancer 

Each year, worldwide around one million new cases of bowel (colorectal) cancer are diagnosed and more than half a million people die from the disease.

In Australia it is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and there are more than 12,000 new cases each year and according to scientists at Sydney's George Institute for International Health, the main culprits in bowel cancer are alcohol and tobacco.

The new research reviewed more than 100 international published studies on the link between major and modifiable risk factors for colorectal cancer including alcohol, smoking, diabetes, physical activity and various dietary components and it has revealed that lifestyle risk factors such as alcohol consumption and cigarette smoking are important risk factors for bowel cancer.

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Lawsuit filed against newspaper 

A Northumberland police officer who lives in Danville has filed a lawsuit against The Daily Item and one of its reporters.

Edward J. Cope alleges that the newspaper and its reporter, Karen Blackledge, erroneously stated in a Feb. 6 issue of The Danville News, a publication of The Daily Item, that he was cited for allowing a middle school student to have tobacco in a classroom and show it to fellow students.

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EDITORIAL: What are the courts thinking? 

America never ceases to amaze us.

A man smokes cigarettes. He dies at 66 years of age after being deemed a "long-time smoker."

The death is from lung cancer.

The man chose to smoke all those years despite warnings. . . .

What about those who suffer hemorrhoids?

Products like Preparation H are available. They include warnings against taking the product orally. . . .

There are tons of research showing tobacco is unhealthy, however there are always those people (alive at 95) who note they've smoked 4 packs a day for 70 years and never got cancer.

We make this point only to say, in the end, one can never absolutely prove a cancer victim ended up that way from smoking. . . .

When arguments such as these are placed before us, we see the ridiculous nature of it all. Yet, we fail to see it when it appears before us -- or before a court.

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控烟协会致函中央部委 中纪委将监管机关公款买烟 

本报讯　(驻京记者 彭美)南方都市报记者昨日获悉，中纪委将加强党政机关公款买烟的监管，并于今年10月份会同有关部门对各地区、各部门的党政机关经费支出情况进行专项检查。中国控烟协会会长助理张静认为，中纪委的这一表态非常重要，至少说明中央已经重视这个问题。

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各级政府带头控烟 中纪委10月检查公款买烟 

中国控制吸烟协会昨日称，中纪委近日回应该协会此前一封公开信称，将开展禁止公款买烟的相关活动。5月19日，中国控烟协会以“关于呼吁全面禁止公款消费烟草制品的一封公开信”的形式致函中纪委，建议全面禁止公款消费烟草制品。

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