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Utah Legislature: House votes to raise cigarette tax by $1; Senate leaders waffle 

Utah House members voted Tuesday to raise the state tobacco tax by $1 a pack, the estimated $43 million going to offset budget cuts that GOP leaders say few want.

"If we pass this, it will likely pass the Senate, too," House Majority Leader Kevin Garn, R-Layton, told his 53-member GOP caucus earlier in the afternoon.

GOP Senate leaders, however, disagreed over whether a tobacco tax increase was backed during Tuesday's closed-door caucus, an indication of just how split they are on the issue.

Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, said the caucus agreed to pass an increase. Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, said they didn't.

"We're not there yet," Waddoups said.

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Menlo bans smoking in public places 

Menlo Park's City Council at its March 2 meeting agreed on revisions that would strengthen the city's smoking ordinance.

The revised ordinance will prohibit smoking in public parks, parking lots open to the public, places of congregation such as ATM machines and bus stops, and in common areas within multi-unit residences.

Perhaps most significantly, the ordinance declares second-hand smoke a nuisance -- enabling people to take legal action against others who smoke in their vicinity, in an adjoining apartment unit, for instance.

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PITCHER: The sad, early death of a smoker, aged 85 

I doubt there's an emphysema sufferer anywhere who says that it's worth it for all those lovely cigarettes they've enjoyed over the years.

But Mr Whittamore died aged 85. Wouldn't his warning from beyond the grave have carried a bit more weight if his death was a premature one? Had he not smoked, what age did he expect to live to? Do we not all wish that we might live to such a grand old age, enjoying life's pleasures in defiance of busybody health dictators wagging their fingers in our faces?

With respect, Mr Whittamore's notices are inaccurate. Smoking didn't kill him. Living did.

-- George Pitcher is Religion Editor of Telegraph Media. He is an Anglican priest

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Mourners given dead smokers' graveside message 

A Kent smoker's dying wish to have a sign warning mourners at his funeral about the dangers of the habit has been carried out.

'Smoking Killed Me' signs were placed in the hearse carrying the body of Albert Whittamore, 85, who died of lung disease emphysema in February.

Mr Whittamore, known as Dick, blamed smoking on his condition and said he wanted to encourage people to give up. . . .

Paul Sullivan, from Sullivan and Sons Funeral Directors, said: "Although he had reached the age of 85, he had been suffering for a while and wanted to do his bit to warn others about smoking.

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'Smoking killed me' sign placed on hearse, grave  

LONDON -- A smoker who died after battling emphysema has had his dying wish granted with the placement of a "Smoking killed me" sign on his hearse and his grave.

Albert Whittamore blamed his youthful smoking habit for the lung disease.

He said before he died at age 85 in February that he wanted the sign to serve as a warning to young people about the dangers of tobacco smoking.

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America's Prostate Cancer Organizations Offer Pointers to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform  

America's Prostate Cancer Organizations today released the full text of written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The Committee will be holding a hearing on "Prostate Cancer: New Questions About Screening and Treatment" on March 4, 2010.

"Eleven different US-based, patient-focused, prostate cancer education and advocacy organizations came together to offer Congressman Ed Towns and the committee our shared perspective on the critical priorities that will change the impact of prostate cancer on the lives of Americans and their families," stated Scott Williams of the Men's Health Network on behalf of America's Prostate Cancer Organizations.

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Historic Committee Hearing Announced to Address Prostate Cancer Issues  

The following is being released by Men's Health Network:

WHAT: The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Congressman Edolphus Towns, will hold a hearing entitled: "Prostate Cancer: New Questions About Screening and Treatment."

This is the first Congressional prostate cancer hearing in 11 years and, in the midst of debate on a health reform bill that will eliminate prostate cancer screenings currently available to millions of men in 37 states, this hearing is desperately needed.

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Smoking as a Risk Factor for Prostate Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of 24 Prospective Cohort Studies 

Objectives. We evaluated the relationship between smoking and adenocarcinoma of the prostate.

Methods. We pooled data from 24 cohort studies enrolling 21579 prostate cancer case participants for a general variance-based meta-analysis. . . .

Conclusions. Observational cohort studies show an association of smoking with prostate cancer incidence and mortality. Ill-defined exposure categories in many cohort studies suggest that pooled data underestimate risk.

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Individual, Social-Normative, and Policy Predictors of Smoking Cessation: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis  

Objectives. We assessed the prospective impact of individual, social-normative, and policy predictors of quit attempts and smoking cessation among Massachusetts adults. . . .

Conclusions. Although previous research showed a strong relation between local policy and norms, we found no observable, prospective impact of local policy on smoking cessation over 2 years. Our findings provide clear support for the importance of strong antismoking social norms as a facilitator of smoking cessation.

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Gender Differences in the Association Between Perceived Discrimination and Adolescent Smoking  

Objectives. We examined associations between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, gender, and cigarette smoking among adolescents.

Methods. We examined data on Black and Latino adolescents aged 12 to 19 years who participated in the Moving to Opportunity study (N = 2561). . . .

Conclusions. Associations between discrimination and smoking differ by gender. Girls' decreased smoking in higher-discrimination settings may be a result of protective factors associated with where they spend time. Boys' increased smoking in higher-discrimination settings may reflect increased stress from gender-specific targeting by police and businesses.

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• Cigarette smoking may raise prostate cancer risk  

Cigarette smoking may increase a man's risk for developing and dying from prostate cancer, pooled data from 24 studies involving 21,600 men with the disease indicates.

This study "provides good evidence that prostate cancer is likely a smoking-related tumor," Dr. Michael Huncharek, at Meta-Analysis Research Group in Columbia, South Carolina, wrote in an email to Reuters Health.

Prostate cancer is the most common of all cancers striking U.S. men. Estimates from 2008 show 186,000 new prostate cancer cases and 28,000 deaths, yet the cause remains elusive.

In the American Journal of Public Health, Huncharek and colleagues report results of their "meta-analysis" . . .

They found "surprisingly consistent evidence," Huncharek said, that both the chance of developing prostate cancer and dying from prostate cancer increases with smoking, even though many of the studies analyzed used crude smoking classifications.

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Nine makes ash of itself  

An anti-smoking group that monitors the use of cigarettes in movies has given its annual Thumbs Down award to Nine, the musical about an Italian film director that the organization called "basically two hours of tobacco use."

"Direction of the star-studded PG-13 musical soared far above the wildest expectations of any cigarette marketer and totally beyond anything resembling historical context," said the group, called Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails. "There were so many smoking scenes packed into its nearly two-hour running time that reviewers had trouble keeping count." . . .

Other Thumbs Down nominees were Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, I Can Do Bad All By Myself and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, a stop-action animation movie that featured animals that smoked. . . .

Joining Day Lewis in the actor category was Sigourney Weaver, who won a Thumbs Down Actress Award for her role in Avatar.

"As scientist Dr. Grace Augustine, she demands a cigarette after making the switch from avatar back to human," the group says. "It's 154 years later, on an alien planet, in a movie that has redrawn the boundaries of cinematic technology through groundbreaking 3-D exactitude. So why the hackneyed prop, an echo from the days of Big Tobacco product placement?"

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Web Letters: Big Tobacco and the Historians 

The dangers of smoking, including brain damage and criminal behavior, were well known in the nineteenth century. Ninety percent of convicts are smokers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, all mention of smoking hazards vanished from the press. After all, the tobacco industry was their biggest source of advertising revenue. Even in 2010, smoking-related brain damage, mental illness, Alzheimer's Disease, depression, suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse and criminal and psychopathic behavior are unmentionable. See "Prevent Tobacco-Caused Brain Damage."

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• Nicotine Tob Res -- Table of Contents (March 2010, 12 [3]) 

Cough Please: Japan Tobacco's 'Smoking Manners for Adults' Ads, Part 7 

The success of Japan Tobacco's Smoking Manners for Adults campaign is debatable, though the Tokyo Subway authority's series of monthly Subway Manners posters proves imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. For JT, however, everything must come to an end - much like lit cigarettes - so let's enjoy ads 61 through 73!

61) "The trash was dumped in the bicycle basket. It was turned into a garbage basket"

A somewhat confusing ad that reminds smokers to use the surprisingly rare Japanese urban trash baskets instead of their bicycle's basket. I guess if it was other people's bike baskets I'd see their point but the distinction isn't made clear in the artwork. Besides, when have you ever seen a bike-riding smoker deposit a spent butt in their basket - the mobile butt flick is way more common.

62) "It only takes fingers to throw it away. It takes the whole body to clean it up" . . .

65) "Spring in Japan. Cigarette smoke joins the pollen assault" . . .

71) "A cigarette butt tossed away on dead leaves on the pavement. That's all you need to start a bonfire" . . .

The 73rd and final ad isn't an ad at all; rather, it's an online teaser that invites browsers to come check out the Japan Tobacco website. It also mentions a Smoking Manners For Adults screensaver that features horizontal scrolling action starring many of the characters that appeared in the preceding 72 graphic ads. I really, REALLY want this screensaver; in fact, I crave it. Damn you Japan Tobacco!!

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