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Liangliang, a two-and-a-half-year-old, has been smoking for more than a year. His father gave him the cigarettes to relieve pain from a hernia. [Photo: Bohai Morning Post]
At only two-and-a-half years old, this toddler has been smoking for more than a year and says he enjoys the feeling of blowing smoke, the Bohai Morning Post reports.
Tong Liangliang, who is from Shandong Province and is now living with his parents in Tianjin, smokes at least a pack of cigarettes every day. . . .
With regret and anxiety, Liangliang's parents welcome any advice on a good method to quit smoking.
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Smokers and tobacco users will have to wait months, perhaps up to three years, to feel a substantial impact from federal oversight of the tobacco industry, analysts say. . . .
From the consumer end, the initial cost of FDA regulation is projected at 1 to 2 cents a pack, likely beginning in October. Even when the Center for Tobacco Products is fully operational by 2012-13, the cost is not projected to exceed 7 cents a pack, according to research by UBS Investment Research.
By comparison, smokers already have had to absorb a 62-cent increase in the federal excise tax this year.
However, FDA regulation is likely to spur consolidation by driving up compliance costs for smaller discount manufacturers.
“It will force them to register with the FDA and test their products,“ said Adam Spielman, an analyst with Citigroup Global Markets Inc. “It probably will make it impossible to launch new brands and lines without a series of tests that will be expensive for them.
“It probably will require them to use tobacco that has been treated in complicated ways to reduce certain constituents.“ . . .
Spielman said that despite stricter requirements for introducing tobacco products under the FDA, he believes regulation will not undercut R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.‘s smokeless innovation programs. The law requires premarket approval for new products, those introduced after Feb. 15, 2007.
“We disagree with the consensus view, which is that the legislation will harm Reynolds because it will make it harder (or nearly impossible) to introduce new products like Camel Crush,“ Spielman said.
“This is because the rules on new products do not require sign-off from the FDA if the product is substantially equivalent health-wise to existing products.“
Camel Snus were introduced before February 2007, said Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds. “There were also substantially equivalent snus products sold in the United States prior to Camel Snus.“
QINGDAO: After several bans on smoking in public places in most Chinese cities went up in smoke, Shanghai and Luoyang have expressed a desire to educate parents of the dangers of puffing away in front of their kids.
Shanghai and Luoyang are among six cities, including Wuxi (Jiangsu), Changsha (Hubei), Ningbo (Zhejiang) and Tangshan (Hebei), which joined Qingdao in a campaign called "Tobacco Free Cities" launched in the coastal capital of Shandong province yesterday.
The five-year program, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, will provide the cities with funds to implement anti-smoking policies. Most of the seven cities that have joined the campaign already have smoking bans in place, but "hope to tighten controls and raise awareness" about the harmful effects of smoking.
Li Aihong, an official with the Luoyang disease prevention and control center, said her research found that 80 percent of people in her city are "forced to inhale second-hand smoke in their own homes".
Six of the world's foremost health agencies, collectively managing an estimated 80% of all public health research funding, today announced formation of a landmark alliance to collaborate in the critical battle against chronic, non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), several cancers, chronic respiratory conditions, and type 2 diabetes.
The health impact and socio-economic cost of these largely-preventable diseases is enormous and rising, potentially derailing efforts at poverty reduction.
The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (Alliance) is being created to support clear priorities for a coordinated research effort . . .
The Alliance's charter members are:
* Australia National Health and Medical Research Council;
* Canadian Institutes of Health Research;
* Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences;
* The U.K. Medical Research Council; and
* The U.S. National Institutes of Health, specifically its National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), and the Fogarty International Center. . . .
The following research priorities have been proposed by some founding Alliance members, for discussion at their inaugural scientific meetings in November:
* Test ways to prevent cardiovascular diseases and complications of diabetes;
* Identify and promote public health measures for controlling obesity;
* Characterize and quantify the major risk factors for chronic obstructive airways disease (both tobacco and environmental pollution) and the development of control measures; and
* Advance research into the problem of tobacco consumption and its relationship to cancer, cardiovascular disease and other disorders;
* Develop interventions to address the above priorities.
Fifty-two percent of Americans disapprove of the new law that gives the federal government power to regulate the manufacturing and marketing of cigarettes and other tobacco products, while 46% approve.
So the St. Petersburg Times asked Pentagram partner DJ Stout to redesign the cigarette package, in light of these changes. What he produced is meant to appeal to smokers, while also turning off others.
Stout says that to pull that off, tobacco companies could embrace tobacco's deadly effects:
"Over the years there has been an onslaught of public awareness messaging about the evils of smoking. Unless you've been living in a cave for the last 50 years you are very aware that smoking is not only bad for you, it could very likely kill you. All smokers know this for sure but it doesn't deter them.
"Our marketing advice to cigarette companies in the new heavily regulated era is to fully accept the new aggressive anti-smoking restrictions and wallow in the government's apocalyptic health warnings. Don't make excuses or dance around the stepped-up marketing regulations, just transform the whole cigarette pack into a three dimensional warning label."
But is that even possible? Wouldn't these kind of amazing packages catch the eye of many more potential new users? . . .
What would the numbers really look like if tobacco companies went as cynical as Stout suggest? Wouldn't the approach just make cigarettes cooler?
The Department of Health will this week launch a new proactive smoking cessation pilot scheme at 35 hospitals in England.
The aim is to increase the number of patients receiving ‘effective and timely stop smoking advice when in hospital’.
Hospitals in the pilot scheme will have to identify every smoker admitted and ensure they are offered support to quit, with care pathways for brief interventions and referrals to NHS Stop Smoking Services. A ‘hospital champion’ to act as a link person for all stop smoking activity must also be appointed.
If referrals to NHS Stop Smoking Services are successfully increased, the approach will be rolled out to further hospitals in November or December.�
The pilot builds on evidence, a Cochrane Review published in 2007, that stop smoking programmes that begin during a hospital stay and include follow-up support for at least one month after discharge are effective. . . .
If rolled out nationally, the scheme would be the world’s first national standardisation of stop smoking interventions in secondary care.
The pilot is due to be launched at the UK National Smoking Cessation Conference in London.
New research which suggests a direct link between smoking and brain damage will be published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry. Researchers, led by Debapriya Ghosh and Dr Anirban Basu from the Indian National Brain Research Center (NBRC), have found that a compound in tobacco provokes white blood cells in the central nervous system to attack healthy cells, leading to severe neurological damage.
The research centers on a compound known as NNK, which is common in tobacco. NNK is a procarinogen, a chemical substance which becomes carcinogenic when it is altered by the metabolic process of the body.
Unlike alcohol or drug abuse NNK does not appear to harm brain cells directly, however, the research team believe it may cause neuroinflamation, a condition which leads to disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis.
"Considering the extreme economical and disease burden of neuroinflammation related disorders, it is extremely important from a medical, social and economic point of view to discover if NNK in tobacco causes neuroinflammation" said Ghosh. . . .
This shows that NNK provokes an exaggerated response from the brain's immune cells, known as microglia. Microglia cells act as 'destroyers' for the brain by attacking damaged or unhealthy cells. However, when provoked by NNK these cells start to attack healthy brain cells rather than the unhealthy cells they are supposed to attack.
"Our findings prove that tobacco compound NNK can activate microglia significantly which subsequently harms the nerve cells," said Basu. . . .
The study also suggests that second hand smoking may lead to the same neuroinflamation conditions. Concentrations of NNK in tobacco can vary from 20-310 nanograms in cigarettes. However, NNK is also present in the smoke itself, smoke-filled air indoors may contain up to 26 nanograms of NNK. This means that both direct and second-hand smoking can lead to substantial measures of NNK intake.
A blood pressure pill might help people quit smoking.
Researchers believe that the beta blocker drug works on certain brain chemicals and effectively deletes some of the memories associated with the habit.
New wonder pill 'blocks or erases memory from smoking'
It is these memories which help drive the craving and lead to thousands of would-be quitters relapsing. . . .
The new treatment, known as memory reconsolidation blockade, targets this craving and could be used in conjunction with nicotine replacement therapy.
Smoking, along with many drug addictions, triggers an increased release of the brain chemical dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is involved in controlling movement, emotional response, the ability to experience pleasure and pain, and short-term memory. . . .
Previous studies on animals have shown that those given injections of a beta blocker were less likely to recall being afraid of certain things.
In the trial at Massachusetts General Hospital, smokers who have smoked at least ten cigarettes a day for the past three months are being given the beta blocker propranolol.
The study, which involves 50 smokers, includes a smoking cessation phase, where the men and women will be given nicotine patches, and a relapse prevention phase where they will be assigned to receive either propranolol or a placebo once a week for six weeks.
China has raised levies on cigarettes, according to the official Xinhua news agency, in a move touted by some state media as an effort to curb smoking. It's not clear how much of an impact the tax increases will have, however, in a country with more smokers -- roughly 350 million -- than the U.S. has citizens.
Beijing's tax agency divides cigarettes made by state-owned tobacco manufacturers into different classes, based on their price. The consumption tax on one class of higher-priced smokes is rising to 56% from 45% of the price cigarette factories charge distributors. The tax on a class of less-expensive cigarettes will increase to 36% from 30%, Xinhua said. A tax of 5%, which is assessed on the price of the cigarettes as they are sold by wholesalers to retailers, is also being imposed, Xinhua said. . . .
"Whether it will affect the retail price, we still need to wait and watch," said Jia Kang, director of the Institute for Fiscal Science Research, a think-tank affiliated with the Finance Ministry. He said he expects tax increases to be passed along to consumers, eventually. "If the tobacco companies don't transfer the tax to consumers, it will be meaningless" for public health, Mr. Jia said.
Greece, Europe's heaviest smoking nation, will try to kick the habit by banning tobacco in indoor public places beginning July 1, but many doubt the ban will work.
Greece breaks all European records with more than 40 percent of the population smoking and six out of 10 being exposed to smoking at work, according to a European Union poll.
"We can't take it anymore. Where I work there are so many smokers,'' said Elisavet Vasileiadou, 55, a shoe-store employee in central Athens. "I hope the ban will be implemented for the sake of our health, but I think it will be difficult. It's not easy to tame Greeks, they'll find a way out.''
Greece has tried to ban smoking in hospitals and offices and requires restaurant and bar owners to designate smoking areas, but the measures have so far been widely ignored.