Tobacco.org

• Scientists want more safety studies on e-cigarettes  

Greek researchers called on Wednesday for more safety studies into electronic cigarettes, saying scientific knowledge of them was "very limited." . . .

But interpretations of the three reports vary, with the New Zealand study saying e-cigarettes should be recommended because they are safer than tobacco cigarettes, and the Greek study taking a broadly neutral stance.

"The limited information given in these three reports represents all the knowledge we currently have about e-cigarettes," Andreas Flouris and Dimitris Oikonomou, of the Institute of Human Performance and Rehabilitation in Greece, wrote in the British Medical Journal.

"This may be one reason why the battle...between the FDA and e-cigarette manufacturers has been so heated."

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LETTER: Bandito’s Owner Fires Back Against “Ghost Tribe” Leader 

The gist of “Slash” Coleman’s letter was that he is happy that a law was passed banning smoking in restaurants and that it upsets him that, as he put it, “ignorant restaurant and bar owners such as Sean McClain” (that’s me) are trying to sidestep the law out of some sort of fear (“Smoking Renegades: Meet the ‘Ghost Tribe,’” Letters, Jan. 6). Coleman pontificates on, using many insulting, self-righteous phrases to make his point that he and his “thousands of nonsmoking friends” would make much better clientele than the smokers that frequent our “nasty hovels,” and that we don’t seem to understand that with time, we’ll all make more money than we ever fathomed. . . .

Like it or not, people in bars often like to smoke. If they can, they will. Until this law is rectified, there will be unrest among some owners, and polarizing opinions by people who probably don’t know the whole story. We owners didn’t make this law, but we must do what we can individually to be competitive.

It’s easy to call out the restaurant owners for not catering to the self-righteous desires of one particular group, but this is business. My business is to create equal accommodations for as many kinds of people as I can within the parameters of the law. The “stupid wall” we built, as Coleman calls it, allows us to offer a smoke-free environment and a place for smokers as well. At least we put forth an effort. If Mr. Coleman and his “Ghost Tribe” (self-titled group of people that don’t smoke) want to begrudge a business for catering to everyone, so be it.

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Anti-Smoking Groups in Vt. Want Budget Preserved 

Vermont anti-smoking groups are trying to defend their programs' budget, but Douglas administration officials says those programs aren't being targeted for significant cuts.

Vermont chapters of the American Heart Association, American Lung Association and other groups held a news conference Wednesday to say the $4.8 million a year Vermont spends to get people to quit smoking or not to start saves the state much more money in the long run.

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BOWDEN: Now they want to stub out fake cigarettes 

Anti-tobacco campaigners want to make Britain 'smokefree' - so what have they got against smokeless e-cigarettes?

A common refrain from those in favour of various illiberal measures in the name of clamping down on tobacco is that it's up to smokers if they want to harm themselves but others shouldn't have to breathe in their fumes. . . .

Hot on the heels of the US verdict, the British Medical Journal yesterday weighed into the debate, publishing a report which states that e-cigarettes are largely untested and unregulated, even though it also concludes that the levels of toxic and carcinogenic compounds in e-cigarettes are 'in possibly much smaller concentrations than in traditional cigarettes'. The report cites three studies, including one by the FDA on the effects of inhaling propylene glycol (which is FDA-approved as a food additive).

It's reasonable to exercise some caution in offering new products for public consumption, but it's also worth remembering that the e-cigarettes are designed to look like cigarettes, are marketed as the closest thing you can get to the real deal and are subject to all the same scare warnings as tobacco products. The e-cigarette is cautiously marketed as slightly less damaging to health than traditional cigarettes and as far less socially stigmatising. It is this which really troubles the regulators: unlike those clinical-looking plastic inhalators used by smokers to wean themselves off the evil weed, the e-cigarette doesn't do enough to remind its users of the dangers of real smoking. . . .

Smoking bans have never been about protecting non-smokers; if they were, we might have had a sensible discussion on introducing non-smoking pubs while keeping some smoking pubs. Smokers used to be demonised as selfish polluters of others' air or were depicted as being deluded about the ill-effects of tobacco. But now smokers are increasingly portrayed as addicted nicotine slaves who must be prevented from harming themselves and, more importantly, from harming children and others around them. The anti-smoking lobby has even been willing to airbrush cigarettes out of pop culture iconography, lest they encourage teenagers to have sinful thoughts about self-abuse (7).

For too long, smokers and opponents of the smoking ban have been guiltily accommodating to others, shifting further outside and becoming even more furtive in their habits. But now we can clearly see that air pollution and health risks were only ever convenient excuses for finger-wagging and for expressing distaste for dirty people and their dirty ways. It's time the idea of a 'smokefree' world went up in flames.

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No butts about it  

But on the list of most common resolutions, smoking is one of the top 10.

Brad Tribble works as the tobacco specialist at the Health Education Resource Center, and it's his job to help students kick their smoking addiction.

"One of the most important steps that anyone can take with any addiction is admitting that you need to change," Tribble said.

The HERC offers ongoing one-on-one counseling that follows a checklist, keeping a record of how a student is doing throughout the process of quitting. The checklist is then included in the student's medical file. . . .

Andy Cook, a junior kinesiology major, has tried to quit smoking three or four times.

"I have smoked since I was 17, and (currently) smoke three to four cigarettes a day," Cook said. "It's hard to quit because I wouldn't be willing to stop hanging out with the friends I hang out with."

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CIGOTINE Celebrates Federal Ruling Allowing Import and Distribution of E-Cigarettes 

Cigotine, LLC publicly supports the recent Federal ruling allowing the import and distribution of e-cigarettes, and is asking its valued customers to continue to support the rights of smokers everywhere, by making their voices heard and publicly supporting the use of alternative smoking devices.

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Mangia Italiano Pondering Its Smoking Status 

Over the weekend, Mangia Italiano's Twitter account tweeted a link to an interesting survey, which (among other things) asked patrons about the restaurant/venue and the smoking ban.

When Robin Wheeler recently talked to executive chef David Timney about the future growth of the restaurant, their conversation segued into the topic of smoking. Anyone who's been to the South Grand staple -- even casually, whether for a show or to eat - knows about Mangia's smoky reputation. According to Wheeler's interview, Timney said: . . .

With the smoking law that takes effect next January, we'll be able to go non-smoking and hopefully have an outdoor patio so the smokers will have their place to go. But we'll focus more on the dining part of the restaurant. There have always been issues with the smoke carrying over to the non-smoking -- you can have a non-smoking section in restaurants, but people are so sensitive to smoke that the slightest bit will turn them off. And I think there are people who don't come in here for that specific reason.

The idea of the venue going non-smoking early is likely going to polarize a lot of people. It'll be interesting to see how this develops.

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EDITORIAL: Make 2010 the year cigarette tax goes up 

increasing the cigarette tax is a hike many South Carolinians would support, and in a tough budget year, the money would be welcome.

Last year, lawmakers came tantalizingly close to raising the tax by 50 cents a pack, up from the shamefully low 7 cents a pack. But they couldn't agree on how to spend the estimated $147 million it would raise.

They can do it this session if they'll put their minds to it. . . .

Tobacco lobbyists say it's bad fiscal policy to rely on a tobacco tax to pay for health care costs. If the tax works to reduce smoking by raising the cost, then revenue from the tax goes down.

But so, too, would the incidence of tobacco-related illnesses. And that should be lawmakers' first concern.

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• Motivating, Not Judging, Might Help Smokers Quit 

Addressing tobacco use without judging the user appears to help people quit, especially if a primary care physician uses a form of supportive counseling called “motivational interviewing,” according to a new review of studies.

The review included data from 14 studies published between 1997 and 2008, with more than 10,000 smokers involved.

“While motivational interviewing has been widely used to help people stop smoking and is recommended in many international anti-smoking guidelines, it had not yet been substantiated by evidence,” said lead investigator Douglas Lai, a family medicine specialist in Hong Kong. “This is the first rigorous review of the best evidence available and the result is encouraging.”

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research.

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• Emotions keep women on cigs  

Women have more trouble quitting cigarettes because - more than men - they tend to take up smoking to relieve emotional problems, according to a leading medic.

The claim comes after a survey of women smokers by the University of Hong Kong's school of public health.

Since 2006, the school has offered gender- specific counseling under a "Smoking Cessation Service for Female Smokers."

A survey of 332 women smokers, with an average age of 35, over six months until October 31 last year found that 26.5 percent quit after going through the program. The figure was slightly higher than previous studies, in which 21.9 percent of females said they had quit smoking after non-gender-specific counseling.

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EDITORIAL: Expansion of county smoking ban more symbolic than effective 

Smokers would do well to get in the habit of extinguishing their cigarettes before stepping out of their cars at the Cowlitz County Health Department. County commissioners have decided to build on the state law prohibiting smoking in public buildings. Shortly before the new year, they signed off on a plan to make the entire health department campus smoke-free. County health officials hope to eventually see the smoking ban extended to property surrounding all county buildings, according to Daily News reporter Barbara LaBoe.

While The Daily News editorial board has long been supportive of actions aimed at discouraging tobacco use and protecting non-smokers from the well-documented health hazards of secondhand smoke, an open-air smoking ban that would encompass even a parking lot strikes us as more symbolic than useful. And the symbolism speaks of the heavy hand of government . . .

The best hope for making progress in cutting tobacco use here and throughout the state are Washington's smoking-prevention efforts. Notwithstanding Cowlitz County's disappointing smoking rates, the state has made good progress in combating tobacco use in recent years, thanks largely to smoking cessation programs funded by settlement money awarded the state from the 1999 lawsuit against tobacco companies.

But the state could do more with the some $4.5 billion it stands to collect from the settlement over the next 18 years. Washington currently is spending less than half the level recommended by the federal Centers for Disease Control for tobacco prevention.

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FINKELSTEIN: Are 'smoking kills' warnings prompting people to smoke more?  

The British Psychological Society’s blog has this astonishing report:

Researchers have found that death-related health warnings on cigarette packs are likely to encourage some people to smoke.

Jochim Hansen and his team took a group of student smokers and asked them to fill in a questionnaire to assess how much their self-esteem was linked to their cigarette habit. . . .

In other words, for smokers who derive a self-esteem boost from smoking - perhaps they see it as a key part of their identity or they think it makes them look cool - a death-related cigarette packet warning can have the ironic effect of making them want to smoke more, so as to buffer themselves against the depressing reminder of their own mortality.

The findings suggest that for these kinds of smokers, packet warnings that target positive beliefs about smoking (e.g. 'Smoking makes you look unattractive') could well be more effective.

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Health Unit offers smokers help to butt out for Weedless Wednesday  

This week is national Non-Smoking week, which is coordinated by the Canadian Council for Tobacco Control.

For more than 30 years this week has been observed. The goals are to educate Canadians about the dangers of smoking, preventing non-smokers from starting, helping current smokers to quit and denormalizing the tobacco industry, tobacco industry marketing practices, tobacco products and tobacco use.

This year's theme is "Quitting is contagious, pass it on!" Research has shown it is easier to quit when others in your social circle stop smoking.

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China to expand smoking bans as health awareness rises in world's largest tobacco consumer 

China is tightening smoking regulations to ban lighting up in any indoor public spaces in seven provincial capitals, the latest sign of rising health awareness in the world's largest tobacco-consuming nation.

The success of the effort may provide the best indicator yet as to whether broad efforts to restrict tobacco use can overcome stiff resistance from retailers and some local governments, which profit significantly from tobacco taxes.

Smoking is a huge business in China: 2 trillion cigarettes are sold in the country every year. The country accounts for more than one-quarter of the world's 1.3 billion smokers, with about 60 per cent of Chinese men and 3 per cent of women indulging in the habit.

China pledged to ban indoor smoking in public places four years ago under a U.N. treaty, but local laws and regulations have not been changed sufficiently for the measure to be properly enforced.

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New funding aims to help moms, addicts quit smoking  

WINNIPEG - The province announced new funding today to help smokers in certain target groups kick the habit.

The funding, which comes during National Non-Smoking Week (Jan. 18-24), is directed at expectant and new mothers as well as people living in poverty, participating in addictions treatment or struggling with mental illness.

Over the next two years, the government will spend $280,000 to assist programs operated by Healthy Child Manitoba, the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba, the Canadian Mental Health Association and the North End Wellness Centre.

The government said far fewer young people are smoking than a decade ago. In 1999, 29 per cent of Manitobans aged 15 to 19 smoked, compared with 17 per cent in 2008.

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