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Last week Chris Downey, the regional director, of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, continued to press to get his pro-Bush propaganda out in defense of his boss vetoing the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
I would like for this highly paid bureaucrat Downey to publicly address ‘why’ this Bush Administration has been ‘silent’ against Big and Brutal Tobacco. . . .
Invite Downey to explain why the word ‘tobacco’ is not in any State of the Union addresses by GWB.
I would bet my life that President Bush vetoed SCHIP to block the tobacco tax increase.
Maybe one day when Downey’s fat and faithful retirement check is locked in he will write a book telling ‘all’ the truth for a profit.
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Dr. Edward N. Brandt Jr., the Oklahoma physician who oversaw the federal government's first response to the AIDS epidemic and who initiated requirements for tamper-proof drug packaging after a highly publicized Tylenol poisoning incident, died Aug. 26 at his home in Oklahoma City.
He was 74 and had been suffering from lung cancer. It was on Brandt's watch as the government's top physician that the United States issued its strongest reports that linked smoking to cancers of the lung and other organs. He was not a smoker, however.
This Administration supports reauthorization of State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). We do not support a massive expansion of government-run health care and higher taxes, as the Senate Finance Committee bill proposes.
[nb: Leavitt does not mention the tax is on tobacco products--gb.]
Today, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, sent the following letter to Secretary Michael Leavitt raising concerns over the conduct of political appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services.
Senator Kennedy said, "Dr. Carmona's strong testimony yesterday is yet another disturbing account of how the Bush Administration has put ideology ahead of the health needs of the American people - this time in the Office of the Surgeon General. Americans want their families to be safe and healthy. As we consider the President's nominee for Surgeon General tomorrow, we owe it to the American people to be sure that he will base his policies on sound science and best medical practices, and not the politics and ideology that have put our health care at risk." . . .
Dear Secretary Leavitt:
I am writing about information that has come to my attention which raises concerns about the conduct of political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services. Specifically, former United States Surgeon General Richard Carmona has indicated that political appointees at the Department inappropriately sought to censor his public comments and restrain his public advocacy for ideological reasons unrelated to the Surgeon General's public health mission. ...
Specifically, Dr. Carmona stated that administration officials blocked an important report on stem cell research, prevented him from discussing the effectiveness of comprehensive sex education, insisted that he mention the President’s name frequently in speeches, and sought to prevent him from testifying about the dangers of tobacco use in the government’s lawsuit against tobacco companies. Other information obtained by my office corroborates Dr. Carmona’s account, indicating that political appointees hampered the work of the Surgeon General for ideological reasons.
In light of these events, I ask that you provide to my office information and documents concerning certain political appointees’ interaction with the Office of the Surgeon General. Please see the attached Document Request for specifics. I ask that you coordinate the production of documents with Nicholas Bath or Sandra Gallardo, Counsel to the Committee, at (202) 224-3112.
Smokers and tobacco users trying to quit will soon have a potent ally - fellow smokers. On September 26, 2006, The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), both agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the "Quit Now" Challenge, a new initiative featuring the inspirational stories of people who want to quit smoking. Submissions were received from cigarette smokers and other tobacco users explaining, in their own words, why they want to "Quit Now!" Successful quitters whose stories were chosen will be announced on February 1, 2007 and are featured on the website, 1800quitnow.cancer.gov.
"Since 1-800-QUIT-NOW was launched in 2004
The Regulatory Right-to-Know Act calls for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to submit each year to Congress “an accounting statement and associated report” . . .
The correction requests received in FY 2006 were as diverse and interesting as those received in previous years. For instance, . . . . the Department of Health and Human Services received two requests from the National Legal and Policy Center regarding disseminations made by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) concerning the health effects of smokeless tobacco; . . .
As shown below, this year we are categorizing how agencies responded to requests in a more detailed manner. For instance, we are including the category of “other corrections.” This category is used when the agency response does not provide the specific changes that were requested, but instead makes other changes. For example, instead of modifying information on the webpage related to smokeless tobacco, SAMHSA chose to remove the information completely while the agency works on revisions. Because the requestor asked for revisions to the information rather than removal, this has been classified in the “other corrections” category.
This Surgeon General’s report returns to the topic of the health effects of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke. The last comprehensive review of this evidence by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was in the 1986 Surgeon General’s report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Smoking, published 20 years ago this year. This new report updates the evidence of the harmful effects of involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke. This large body of research findings is captured in an accompanying dynamic database that profiles key epidemiologic findings, and allows the evidence on health effects of exposure to tobacco smoke to be synthesized and updated (following the format of the 2004 report, The Health Consequences of Smoking). The database enables users to explore the data and studies supporting the conclusions in the report. The database is available on the Web site of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco. I am grateful to the leadership of the Surgeon General, CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, and all of the contributors for preparing this important report and bringing this topic to the forefront once again. . . .
As of the year 2000, more than 126 million residents of the United States aged 3 or older still are estimated to be exposed to secondhand smoke. Smoke-free environments are the most effective method for reducing exposures. Healthy People 2010 objectives address this issue and seek optimal protection of nonsmokers through policies, regulations, and laws requiring smoke-free environments in all schools, workplaces, and public places.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services (hereinafter in this section referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall establish and carry out a program to inform the public of any dangers to human health presented by cigarette smoking. In carrying out such program, the Secretary shall--
(1) conduct and support research on the effect of cigarette smoking on human health and develop materials for informing the public of such effect;
(2) coordinate all research and educational programs and other activities within the Department of Health and Human Services (hereinafter in this section referred to as the ``Department'') which relate to the effect of cigarette smoking on human health and coordinate, through the Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health (established under subsection (b) of this section), such activities with similar activities of other Federal agencies and of private agencies;
This manuscript examines the public policy importance of 1993, United States Department of Health and Human Services actions to require doctors and hospitals to report a new external cause of injury code or E-code for environmental tobacco smoke related to causes of death such as lung cancer and severe heart disease. . . . The E-code has continued to the present because of scientific and administrative recognition that environmental tobacco smoke is conclusively linked to illness and death. The industry argued that the E-code was unnecessary because of costs to business and no conclusive scientific evidence linking environmental tobacco smoke with pulmonary and cardiovascular deaths. This regulatory action based on current scientific evidence and medical decision-making contradicts the industry's claim that no deaths are conclusively associated with environmental tobacco smoke.
ormer U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary and four-term Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson has his eyes on a higher prize.
That's the clear impression left by his keynote speech at a Sept. 16 Urban Health Care conference sponsored by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, along with Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Healthcare West, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and California Pacific Medical Center.
Thompson, who left his HHS post in January to turn to consulting and legal work, gave an impassioned talk on ways to improve the U.S. and California health-care systems, including some that sounded a bit strange coming from a former senior member of the Bush administration. For example, the self-described conservative told of making his HHS employees go on diets and forcing them to go not just outside the building but across the street to take a smoking break. "I wouldn't let them smoke on our property," he said. "I made them go over and smoke on the property of the EPA."
Thompson advocated having tobacco regulated by the Food & Drug Administration, putting a dollar-a-pack tax on cigarettes to fund smoking cessation programs,
I wouldn't let them [smokers at the DHHS] smoke on our property. I made them go over and smoke on the property of the EPA.Former U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary and four-term Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, in his keynote speech at a Sept. 16 Urban Health Care conference in San Francisco. Thompson advocated having tobacco regulated by the Food & Drug Administration and putting a dollar-a-pack tax on cigarettes to fund smoking cessation programs.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently launched a toll-free hot line and Web site aimed at helping people quit smoking.
People interested in quitting can get access to a smoking cessation specialist through either the hot line or Web site. Call 1-800-784-8669 or visit www.smokefree.gov.
I applaud the decision by the Pizza Hut and KFC restaurant chains to ban smoking nationally in all their restaurants. We've known for decades that smoking is bad for your health and is the leading preventable cause of death and disease. What starts as a single puff can become a death sentence for millions of Americans. In fact, the most recent Surgeon General's report* on tobacco confirms that smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the body.
Furthermore, second-hand smoke is also harmful and hazardous to the health of the general public and is particularly dangerous to children. If we are going to be serious about improving health and preventing disease, we must continue to drive down tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke in this country. Efforts such as these are vital to our success.
But if you smoke, it is never too late to stop. And HHS can help.
In recognition of National Nurses Week, May 6 - 12, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today is releasing a new tool that will give nurses evidence-based information that they can use to help their patients quit smoking. The pocket guide, Helping Smokers Quit: A Guide for Nurses, was developed by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in collaboration with Tobacco Free Nurses, a national initiative funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to increase nurses' participation in tobacco control.
The free pocket guide gives nurses easy access to information based on the "5 As" approach to cessation intervention: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange. It also includes a current listing of smoking cessation medications approved by HHS' Food and Drug Administration and a referral to HHS' National Quitline, 1-800-QUIT NOW.
Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange "5 As" approach to cessation intervention, according to the new DHHS release, "Helping Smokers Quit: A Guide for Nurses."
Evidence-based information on first-line pharmacologic therapies and counseling that help patients quit using tobacco is in Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, a Public Health Service clinical practice guideline issued in June 2000.
The PHS guideline was developed by a private-sector panel of experts convened by a consortium of Federal and non-Federal partners. The guideline builds on a smoking cessation guideline first issued by the Federal Government in 1996.
The partners that convened the experts included the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the University of Wisconsin Medical School's Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
This pocket guide gives nurses easy access to information to help their patients quit smoking. The tool is based on the "5 A's" approach to cessation intervention: Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, and Arrange, and offers other helpful resources.
Helping Smokers Quit: A Guide for Nurses (PDF File, 109 KB)