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Cigarette smoking and chronic low back pain in the adult population 

Conclusion: Daily smoking increases the risk of LBP among young adults, and this effect seems to be dose-dependent. Back pain treatment programs may benefit from integrating smoking habit modification. Further research is required to develop effective prevention strategies.

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Smoking linked to chronic lower back pain 

Smokers can add another health concern to their list as research shows daily tobacco use can lead to a bad back.

A major Canadian study has identified a higher rate of chronic lower back pain among people who smoke every day, particularly the young.

Professor Michael Cousins said the research suggested their smoking was interfering with pain transmitters, causing osteoporosis or affecting their spine-related blood circulation.

The condition resulted in chronic lower back pain which could also trigger a "downward spiral" in a person's life, he warned.

"Chronic pain is now regarded as a disease in its own right," said Prof Cousins, who is director of the Pain Management Research Institute at Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital.

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Federal court lifts prison smoking ban 

Hard-core inmates, who were forced to quit smoking cold turkey since May 2008, will be able to calm their frayed nerves – at least outdoors.

A Federal Court judge ruled Friday that a sweeping ban on smoking inside and outside prison walls “simply goes too far.”

“In our democratic society, there has been no general ban on smoking or tobacco in order to protect the health of non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke,” Judge Luc Martineau wrote in his judgment released late Friday. “The necessary measures to protect non-smokers exposed to secondary smoke in penitentiaries should be the least restrictive possible.”

Even prisoners enjoy the rights and privileges of all citizens, except those rights that must be taken away as a necessary part of their punishment, he said.

The ruling applies to all federal penitentiaries in Canada. Smoking rules in provincial jails vary from province to province, but prisoners have always been able to smoke outside provincial prisons in Quebec.

Christa McGregor, a spokesperson for Correctional Service of Canada, said it was too early to comment on the ruling since the government has 30 days to appeal.

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LETTER: Rodeos likely to end tobacco sponsorships  

There is great news for families that enjoy the sport of Rodeo. We are one step closer to tobacco-free rodeo events.

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) announced last week that U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company (and their new parent company ALTRIA - AKA Philip Morris) will be ending their sponsorship agreement with the PRCA at the end of this year.

Hopefully this signals the start of a tobacco-free era for professional rodeo. Rodeo has been around since the 1800's. Tobacco sponsorship of rodeo began in 1986.

A number of organizations including, Buck Tobacco, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Oklahoma Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT), Montana REACT, and many others have been instrumental in sending out the message - Rodeos Are For Families - Not Big Tobacco.

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Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae Clearance by Alveolar Macrophages Is Impaired by Exposure to Cigarette Smoke  

We showed that alveolar macrophages clear NTHI infections by adhesion, phagocytosis, and phagolysosomal processing of the pathogen. Bacterial uptake requires host actin polymerization, the integrity of plasma membrane lipid rafts, and activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling cascade. Parallel to bacterial clearance, macrophages secrete tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-) upon NTHI infection. In contrast, exposure to cigarette smoke extract (CSE) impaired alveolar macrophage phagocytosis, although NTHI-induced TNF- secretion was not abrogated. Mechanistically, our data showed that CSE reduced PI3K signaling activation triggered by NTHI. Treatment of CSE-exposed cells with the glucocorticoid dexamethasone reduced the amount of TNF- secreted upon NTHI infection but did not compensate for CSE-dependent phagocytic impairment. The deleterious effect of cigarette smoke was observed in macrophage cell lines and in human alveolar macrophages obtained from smokers and from patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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• Ciggie smoke 'weakens lungs' natural defense against harmful pathogen 

Exposure to cigarette smoke might weaken immune cells' ability to remove bacterial infections from the lungs, specifically nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHI), a pathogen often associated with respiratory infections and the progression of respiratory disease, says a new study.

NTHI has been found to cause invasive diseases such as meningitis, sinusitis, pneumonia, and bronchitis.

It is also the pathogen most frequently isolated in the respiratory tract of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic bronchitis.

Alveolar macrophages are part of the lungs'' innate defense system and they play an essential role in the clearance of bacterial infections.

The research team has found that cigarette smoke may disrupt the capability of alveolar macrophages to clear NTHI from the lungs. . . .

The study appears in journal Infection and Immunity.

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• Where smokers are a menace 

MAZENGO Madanga, a 55-year-old peasant from Chilonwa Village in Dodoma Rural District, who came into the municipality to beg recently, says he took up tobacco smoking nearly 20 years ago. He admits with resentment that tobacco is so addictive that abusers fail to kick the habit.

He says a friend with who he tended cattle introduced him to tobacco smoking. Initially, he says, he found it difficult to inhale the smoke that appeared to assail not only his chest and lungs but his nostrils too. What he was smoking was crushed, sun-dried tobacco leaves rolled in paper.

Twenty years down the road, today, Madanga can no longer kick the habit. In fact, apart from smoking raw tobacco, he sniffs snuff as well. He tucks some of it inside his lower lip, a practice that increased the foul smell that invariably emanates from his mouth.

A medical doctor with the municipality's Regional Hospital, who prefers anonymity, says that health complications, especially respiratory impairments, take many lives in Dodoma Region. . . .

. But the government has a good rule of thumb that requires warning signs posted on each cigarette advertisement saying it has been determined that "cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health."

The same advert is displayed on cigarrete packs and is designed to warn smokers and potential smokers against the habit. But the advert does not seem to have much impact on the fraternity of smokers. One reason is that smoking takes its tall after twenty or more years.

So, the law makes it imperative for tobacco companies to warn consumers of their products on underlying dangers of smoking. A former Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Health, Mr Hussein Mwinyi, told the National Assembly last June, 2006 that smoking in public places is a crime.

He says smokers sometimes pass problems to non-smokers around them through what is known as passive smoking and that parents who smoke near infants unwittingly put the child's health at risk. He also says a spouse who smokes endangers his or her non-smoking partner.

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Gutman: That Devil Tobacco: smokers should fume with anger  

I was 12 when I smoked my first cigarette. . . .

Thirty years (and 500,000 cigarettes) later, coughing and wheezing, unable to climb a flight of stairs without panting, diagnosed with heart disease and other smoking-related disorders, I decided to quit. Cold turkey. . . .

I am now violently allergic to smoke. Smokers are not welcome in my home unless they abstain. I consciously avoid any venue that might expose me to someone's foul exhalations.

Now comes word that the nicotine levels that smokers typically absorb per cigarette rose dramatically in the past 10 years, perpetuating what a Harvard University study funded by the National Cancer Institute describes as a "tobacco pandemic" that makes it even harder for smokers to quit. . . .

Next time you light up, look at yourself in the mirror and ponder this. You are consuming a product manufactured by a gang of criminals dedicated to killing you --- at your own expense. If this ghoulish revelation is not enough to make you mad and encourage you to quit forthwith, you risk joining the 450,000 people who die each year from lung cancer and other diseases related to tobacco use.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

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• Swedish Match under fire in secret snus substance investigation  

Tobacco company Swedish Match has been accused of adding a substance to moist snuff or 'snus' to purposely increase user dependency and, in turn, boosts sales of their products.

Since 2005, the company has introduced eight new snus products with higher than average nicotine levels.

The usual level for snus is eight milligrams per gram. In one product, levels have almost doubled that figure.

”Certain consumer groups have shown demand for a high nicotine content,” the company’s production director Torbjörn Åkeson explains.

Allegations that the company adds a substance, known as E500, to purposely increase the amount of so-called ‘free’ nicotine – which increases dependency – are presented in a new report by investigative news programme Kalla Fakta. . . .

Yet, Professor Greg Connolly at the Harvard School of Public Health believes that Swedish Match is consciously using the substance to increase addiction and their profits.

”In a study in 2008 he concluded that we are manipulating the pH value, something that we consider hugely speculative,” Brehmer adds.

”It never led to demands from any authority that we need to change something.”

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Tobacco Law delayed again 

Caymanian smokers can rest easy. The anti tobacco law is going to miss yet another deadline.

Required regulations will not be ready to meet the 30 October deadline to fully implement the Tobacco Law, making it the second delay since the law was passed one year ago.

Government missed a deadline of 31 May, which was set by the previous government, to coincide with World No Tobacco Day.

Just 11 days prior to the 31 May deadline a new Government was voted in and Mark Scotland took the helm as Health Minister.

Despite the fact that there was a 60day consultation period, a Chamber of Commerce luncheon and other forums seeking input on the Tobacco Law, Mr. Scotland said the regulations just aren't ready. . . .

Once the regulations are in effect, the law will ban smoking in bars, restaurants and places of collective use.

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• Avoidable global cancer deaths and total deaths from smoking  

On the basis of current consumption patterns, approximately 450 million adults will be killed by smoking between 2000 and 2050. At least half of these adults will die between 30 and 69 years of age, losing decades of productive life. Cancer and the total deaths due to smoking have fallen sharply in men in high-income countries but will rise globally unless current smokers, most of whom live in low- and middle-income countries, stop smoking before or during middle age. Tripling the taxes on tobacco could rapidly raise cessation rates and deter the initiation of smoking. Higher taxes, regulations on smoking and information for consumers could avoid at least 115 million smoking-associated deaths in the next few decades, including around 25 million cancer deaths.

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Smokers flout anti-smoking bylaw  

Many local residents were still seen puffing away on their favorite cigarettes in malls and other public areas as the Surabaya municipal administration started enforcing the bylaw against smoking in public places on Thursday.

Budi, a shopper at a mall, said Thursday he was unaware such an ordinance had been enacted last year in Surabaya.

Nor did he know that Thursday was the first day city residents would be prohibited from smoking in public places.

However, passive smokers and other residents hailed the enforcement of the no-smoking area and limited smoking-area bylaw.

They said they were "very happy" to have such a bylaw and hoped people would obey it to increase everyone's quality of life.

To promote and raise awareness about the bylaw's enforcement, a number of students gathered at several public places on Thursday in Surabaya, giving visitors candies in lieu of their cigarettes.

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Anti-smoking law major accomplishment of Youth Congress  

One of the major accomplishments of the 11th Youth Congress is the recent enactment of the anti-smoking law in the Commonwealth, according to Speaker Alana May Leon Guerrero.

The measure was adopted by the Youth Congress and was recognized by the House members and eventually was crafted into legislation.

During Leon Guerrero's term, Saipan Tribune learned that a total of 17 resolutions and four bills were passed by members.

Their bills and resolutions serve as strong suggestion for the island's lawmakers.

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Scruggs case goes to Texas judge  

A federal judge in Texas has been assigned to preside over an Alabama attorney's lawsuit that alleges imprisoned attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs and several others conspired to defraud him of millions in legal fees.

On Friday, 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Edith H. Jones ordered William Roberts Wilson Jr.'s case reassigned to U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston, Texas. . . .

Wilson claimed Scruggs cheated him out of money and used it to fund a batch of landmark anti-tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s

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Reduced Monoamine Oxidase A Activity in Pregnant Smokers and in Their Newborns 

Background

Tobacco smoking is associated with reduced monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) activity. Smoking-associated low MAOA activities in pregnancy and in newborns may have negative perinatal and postnatal consequences. We aimed to compare, in everyday clinical conditions, biomarkers of MAOA activity in smoking (SPW) and lifetime nonsmoking pregnant women (NSPW) and in cord blood and to assess the newborns' behavior during the first 48 hours of life. . . .

Conclusions

Smoking is associated with MAOA inhibition in pregnant women and in their newborns at birth. Further studies are needed to estimate the behavioral significance of these findings.

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