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A new report on substance abuse and mental health shows a small percentage of people are kicking smoking while alcohol and illicit drug-use levels remain steady. . . . the report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, out Thursday, also carries home the message that while all states have problems, there are big variations across the U.S. . . .
In states where people reported having a perception of great risk about substance abuse, the problem is more often reported at lower levels than in states where risk is not as great a concern, according to the study, based on the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. The 2006-2007 interview data is collected from 135,672 persons and is compared to the 2005-2006 data. Smoking declined from 24.96% to 24.63% with the greatest decrease among 12 to 25 year olds.
"Cigarette use continues to decline," says Hughes. "One statistic we use to try to gauge is the (perceived) risk of smoking cigarettes. If people think it's risky to use cigarettes, we tend to see an opposite effect happening."
For instance, California is among the states with highest percentage of people who regard smoking as a health hazard (77.35%) and had the second lowest smoking rate (19.79%) behind Utah (17.51%). Utah's perception of risk was slightly lower (76.93%) than California's. Nationwide, a slight drop was recorded compared to 2005-2006 (74.14% vs 73.86%). West Virginia, on the other hand, has the highest rate of cigarette users of all states (31.10%) for people aged 12 and older and has the lowest perception of risk level associated with smoking (67.88%). Oklahoma and Tennessee, which ranked No. 2 and 3 behind West Virginia for percentages of smokers, were also among states with lowest perception of risk.
"We're painfully aware of the problem," said Teresa Mace, media director of West Virginia's Office of Community Health Systems and Health Promotion. "We have a state tobacco quit line and other kinds of cessation programs that are offered to all West Virginians. We've gotten a lot better at getting our message to the people who need to know but it's hard to match the amounts spent by the tobacco industry."
Colorado is the only state showing an increase in tobacco use
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Canadian and U.S. health insurance companies – including Toronto's Sun Life Financial Inc. – have more than $3 billion (U.S.) invested in the tobacco industry, a letter published today in the New England Journal of Medicine charges.
By refusing to quit their addiction to cigarette profits, the insurers lose any moral right to help set health policy, the letter's Harvard University authors argue.
"Disgusting, depressing, I've heard a lot of words to describe the fact the insurance industry is invested in tobacco," says Dr. Wesley Boyd, the letter's lead author.
"By exposing their investments in tobacco, it pulls the rug out from under them in terms of saying they should be credible players (in health policy discussions)."
Boyd's research shows Sun Life, which markets life, health and disability insurance in Canada and the U.S., has more than $1 billion invested in tobacco firms, with nearly $890 million in Philip Morris USA, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes.
In an email response to the Star, a senior Sun Life official called the information cited in the journal "categorically incorrect" and said the company's "exposure to `tobacco' stocks" was less than 0.005 per cent of an investment portfolio worth "well over" $100 billion. "Notwithstanding the size, diversification and time horizon of our portfolio, Sun Life does not carry significant holdings in tobacco stocks," wrote Michel Leduc, vice-president of public and corporate affairs.
Federal regulators are cracking down on a cigarette substitute that uses technology similar to devices that Philip Morris USA researchers have focused on in recent years.
Meanwhile, Virginia Commonwealth University is studying how much nicotine -- the addictive compound in tobacco -- the "electronic cigarettes" deliver, under a grant from the National Cancer Institute to look at nicotine products.
Since the start of the year, the Food and Drug Administration has issued "Import Alerts" advising staff working alongside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that they can seize "electronic cigarettes" made by three Chinese companies, federal court records show.
The FDA has refused to let at least 17 shipments of electronic cigarettes into the country, saying they are unapproved drug-delivery devices, spokeswoman Karen Riley said. . . .
Jimi Jackson, owner of the No Smoke Virginia store on North Third Street in Richmond, thinks the agency is just trying to protect the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries, since it already allows other nicotine products and doesn't control tobacco.
"Of course it's safer," he said. "They're trying to ban it when we know tobacco kills people every day . . .
"I was a smoker, smoked from when I was 15'til I was 52. I found this product and I have not touched a tobacco product since" last November, he said. "I tried everything, the gum, the patches, the pills, but nothing worked. This does because it gives you that hand-to-mouth thing -- 90 percent of smoking is mental addiction."
A sign in his store window promises: "Add 13 to 15 years to the life of a smoker. Safe for the smoker and those around them." . . .
"We're not a smoking-cessation device, we're not marketing it as a healthy alternative . . . this is an alternative for addicted smokers," said Matt Salmon, president of the Electronic Cigarette Association, a trade group.
Richard A. Daynard, a law professor and tobacco control expert at Northeastern University in Boston, said the devices "encourage people to keep smoking. . . . They reduce the incentive to quit."
Daynard is also concerned that electronic cigarettes, which often use sweet flavorings in their cartridges, will encourage nonsmokers, particularly young people, to experiment. . . .
At VCU's Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Thomas Eissenberg is leading a study that began in 2004 of "potential reduced exposure products" for tobacco users. The study includes the electronic cigarette, nicotine tablets and snus
An anti-tobacco group, the National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE), has taken strong objection to union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's recent statement that there was nothing wrong in showing smoking scenes in movies.
Speaking to IANS Saturday, NOTE general secretary Subhash Salkar said the organisation has appealed to Azad to 'change his views', as cigarettes smoking by film stars on celluloid encouraged their fans to take up smoking in real life.
'It is well known that our film stars have a large number of fans among youths who would copy and imitate the actions of their heroes without giving a thought to the consequences of their actions. This fact is established through surveys of tobacco use and contradicts the view expressed by the minister,' Salkar said.
Speaking at a function in New Delhi on May 31 Azad had said restrictions on showing smoking on screen were not practical.
'It is just entertainment. There are so many objectionable things which are shown on screen like murder, arson and so on... such things should be banned first. I think we should try to implement whatever we can. We cannot do anything which is not practical. Such things (banning of smoking and drinking on screen) are very difficult. Cinema is just to enjoy,' Azad said.
While tobacco use is an ongoing health hazard for the entire population, its consequences for people with developmental or intellectual disabilities can be especially severe. And the medical community often tends to overlook the tobacco-related burdens these people face. An extensive review of published research on this topic appears in the June edition of the journal Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
“This is too important an issue to ignore,” said Dr. Marc L. Steinberg, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and the article’s lead author. “Health care professionals often do not ask these individuals about tobacco use or exposure.”
Steinberg and his co-authors report that they were able to identify several negative implications of tobacco use that are unique to this population group: . . .
• People with developmental or intellectual disabilities are three times more likely to live in poverty, making them more susceptible to financial distress from tobacco use.
• Tobacco use may decrease the effectiveness of some medications commonly prescribed to this population group.
• Ironically, many of these individuals became addicted to tobacco at the hands of the very institutions that are meant to help them. In the past, hospitals and facilities treating vulnerable populations have even given cigarettes as good behavior ‘rewards’ to mentally ill patients and to those with developmental or intellectual disabilities.
• On the rare occasions when individuals in this population gain access to tobacco treatment programs, they still may “fall through the cracks” because they have difficulty understanding the health information presented to them.
“Like any other patients, this population should be offered resources for quitting if they smoke and offered protection from environmental tobacco smoke if they do not,” said Steinberg.
The Indian Dental Association (IDA) today announced that it will be launching 5,000 Tobacco Intervention Initiative Centres (TIICs) across India during the next two years. The first phase of the launch kicked off early this week as 56 TIICs were set up across Maharashtra. To further reinforce its commitment to create a tobacco free India, IDA also joined WHO this year in observing 'World No Tobacco Day'. Dentists who volunteer to serve in these centres will receive orientation at NIMHANS, Bangalore and at centres in Delhi.
In Maharashtra, IDA had set up more than 20 one-day information and counselling booths in locations like railway stations, hospitals, malls and airports. Doctors screened patients at these centres all day and distributed information booklets to create awareness and appealed to users to quit tobacco.
Smoking is one of the vital aspects and you can say that for many it is an indispensable part. You smoke and enjoy to the core and on the other hand you also aware that it is harmful but than that magic in it make you mesmerized with its smoke and nicotine's in it. . . .
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BAHRAIN is stepping up its ban on smoking in public places, with restaurants first in the firing line.
Restaurants which have failed to designate separate, sealed-off areas for smokers are being served final warnings, it was revealed yesterday.
Action is also underway to extend the ban soon to all workplaces (including ministries) as wells as hotels, said primary care and public health assistant under-secretary Dr Mariam Al Jalahma.
Thousands of people caught smoking in closed public places have already been warned and in future offenders may be fined, she said.
Major cigarette manufacturers and exporters located in the earlier 15 European Union countries had expected to find new customers among smokers in the newer East European members as they entered the common market in 2004. In early 2009, the EU market was more competitive than some had earlier imagined. The rise of Poland as a major cigarette exporter in the last several years has been a kind of surprise to some analysts. Another country with a very different agenda since joining the EU is Romania. A shift from large imports to much smaller imports, and even rising exports were reported for Romania after joining the EU on January 1, 2007 further added to the competitive setting.
Some of the major trade flows for cigarettes among the intra-EU trade remained strong during 2004 - 08.
Dr. Thomas Frieden has swung a big stick as New York City's top health official, pushing through bans on smoking and artery-clogging trans fats.
The New York Post called him "Dr. Buttinsky." Others attacked him as a wrong-headed crusader. But smoking plummeted and the city made admired inroads against cancer and other chronic diseases.
On Sunday, he heads to Atlanta. And on Monday he takes over the federal government's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - where he's going to have to try a different approach.
At the CDC, the 48-year-old physician will command a larger agency, but one with few regulatory powers and more political headaches. Any campaigns against smoking, obesity and other health dangers will have to be won more with carrots than sticks, public health experts say. . . .
In an interview this week with The Associated Press, Frieden acknowledged the challenge and said partnering with other agencies will be more crucial than it was in New York.
"It's really very different," he said of his new job.
He listed smoking as the nation's No. 1 health issue, and stressed the importance of fighting preventable illnesses. But in carefully worded responses, he did not reveal plans for any new campaigns, saying his initial goal is to work with CDC staff to build future plans.
Like smoking, defending tobacco just isn't cool anymore.
Just ask GOP Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, home to tobacco giants RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co., and thousands of their employees. Last year, North Carolina farmers produced $686 million worth of tobacco, nearly half the value of the entire U.S. output.
Burr, who is running for re-election next year, spent much of the past week arguing in the Senate against a popular bill that would regulate tobacco for the first time.
Most of the time, he was alone. . . .
For most of the nation's history, tobacco has held a special place on Capitol Hill. Early lawmakers were farmers and many of them grew the plant. Tobacco leaves are carved into the speaker's rostrum in the House chamber and adorn the capitals of columns inside the building.
"The debate in both the House and Senate reflects a very new day," said Matthew Myers, the president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids who has been fighting for regulation for more than 15 years.
Even Burr's own state has accepted the inevitable. North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue signed a bill last month that will ban smoking in the state's restaurants and bars.
CNN's Carol Costello reported on tobacco company R.J. Reynolds new dissolvable "smokeless products." Noting that critics call them "tobacco lollipops" that are aimed at getting "kids hooked on nicotine," Costello reported that "R.J. Reynolds will soon test three new products -- Camel sticks that dissolve as you suck them, minty tobacco strips that look like breath strips, and orbs -- flavored, dissolvable tablets that some say look and taste exactly like candy."
On the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) came to the tobacco company's defense, claiming that it wasn't trying to deceive anyone; it's CNN's fault for labeling Camel Orbs as candy. Burr charged that CNN "mischaracterized the product" because "it's not candy flavored": . . .
While Burr might claim that the Orbs aren't "candy-flavored," the fact is that they come in "mint and cinnamon flavors" known as "fresh" and "mellow." Additionally, the tobacco industry has a well-documented history of using flavored tobacco to market their products to children:
Documents from the tobacco industry also contradict these claims. A report from R.J. Reynolds in 1985 stated: “Sweetness can impart a different delivery taste dimension, which younger adult smokers may be receptive to, as evidenced by their taste wants in other product areas.” . . .
Burr, whose hometown Winston-Salem is also the home of R.J. Reynolds, is the second-highest recipient of campaign contributions from Big Tobacco.
Richard M. Burr, the Republican tobacco-state senator who tried a filibuster this week against a bill that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the cigarette industry, flew home to North Carolina for the weekend, conceding that the landmark legislation was likely to pass next week.
Although a Senate filibuster killed a similar measure in 1998, times have apparently changed. Mr. Burr acknowledged Thursday that his effort would probably be blocked by a cloture vote that the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, has scheduled for Monday evening. "Clearly the cloture motion will pass," Mr. Burr said in an interview.
"Probably with flying colors," David Ward, his press secretary, added.
After that, a final vote on the tobacco control measure could come Wednesday, Senate staff members said. . . .
But it was a Republican, John McCain of Arizona, who first brought comprehensive tobacco legislation to the Senate floor 11 years ago. Philip Morris, then and now the nation's dominant cigarette maker with the Marlboro brand, initially supported it. But after Mr. McCain toughened the proposal, raising the financial liability for cigarette makers, Philip Morris led a $40 million industry lobbying and public relations campaign against the bill. It fell three votes short in a Senate filibuster.
This year, Philip Morris has steadfastly endorsed the legislation, parts of which the company helped write. More than 1,000 health, medical and religious groups have endorsed it as the best chance to regulate tobacco.